Thank you very kindly to each and every one of you for reading and for the reviews. So… Terminal City is under siege. Let's see what our favorite people get up to when they're trapped.

The Siege: Day Three

Max left Command with her head held high. She couldn't let any of them see the full weight of the burden she was carrying on her shoulders. She couldn't let them see the worry, the fear, the guilt. She'd asked them to stay in Terminal City. She'd convinced them to stay.

The military had set up camp and from the looks of it, they weren't leaving any time soon. They'd done their damage and hadn't made a move since. And why should they? They had supplies to spare: Food, water, camp stoves, nice warm cots inside their tents, and enough hardware to blow every Transgenic off the planet ten times over. Why risk getting killed or poisoned in Terminal City when all they had to do was wait?

Alec fell into step beside her. "You can unclench now, Max. No one's looking anymore."

"Whatever," Max said. Nevertheless, she felt herself relax slightly at the knowledge. That was why she left Command. She wasn't anybody's favorite person right now and she'd needed a break.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

Max rolled her eyes. It was just like Alec to follow her around even though he had no idea what she was up to. "It ever occur to you maybe I want to be alone?" she asked.

He just shrugged. "Nah. I'm bored."

She supposed for Alec that was enough. Since the siege started, everyone was of course on lockdown. Alec had never really been one to sit quietly. Even back at Manticore, he'd been running any number of schemes, all of which could have gotten him executed if one of the higher-ups had found out.

"Go bug Joshua," she suggested.

"Josh is stress painting. He told me to go away."

"Wow. You managed to annoy the most patient person I've ever met. That really is impressive."

Alec smirked. "I've always been an overachiever."

"Always? How many times did I practically have to drag you into helping me?"

Alec smiled, but it was brittle. "Maybe I want to be an overachiever someplace they're not trying to kill us all the time. Seattle was a glorified cage long before we got stuck in this one."

There was no real answer to that. After all, Max was feeling the walls closing in on her just like everybody else. She'd been free a long time and this was exactly what she hadn't wanted. She'd just wanted a place for her people to be safe, a sanctuary, a stronghold for them to come home to where the Ordinaries had to stay out.

"So," Alec let out a puff of air to signal a change in subject, "we're going to run out of water before we run out of food."

Max momentarily clamped her eyes shut at the news. Now she knew the real reason Alec had followed her. There were some topics that didn't need to be discussed in front of the whole group. "Great. How long?"

As soon as the tunnels had been blown she'd given the order to fill every bucket, bottle, bathtub, anything that would hold water. It was a good thing too, because the water lines had been the next thing to go. They'd tried to cut the power, too, but thankfully they'd managed to miss one of the buried lines.

"Depends," Alec said. "We've set up makeshift rain barrels. The dew off the rooftops will give us some each morning, but that won't be enough. We'll need a significant rain every few days." He looked up at the sky as if it were a traitor to the cause. It might be Seattle, but it had been unusually dry lately. "We'll have to see."

"Anyone giving you grief about the rationing?"

"No more than expected," he replied with a shrug. "It might become a problem though. Some of the Xs require more food than others. They just run hotter and need the fuel." He ran a hand over his face in frustration. "I'm already hearing grumbling about playing favorites."

"I'll add that to our list of problems. It's as long as my arm."

"Then you can add this, too. We've got a few people with serious dietary requirements and in a day or two they're gonna be completely out."

"Like what?"

"Like the crew with horse DNA."

Max stopped walking and turned to look at him. "Are you serious?"

Alec stopped too. "Oh, trust me. I couldn't make this up if I tried. Apparently, Manticore had to give them selenium supplements to keep them going."

"Selenium… They need a mineral supplement?"

"Yup."

"Or… what?"

Alec's face was grim. "Or they die, Max."

Max felt her stomach drop. What was she supposed to do about that? She had no clue and they had no way to get out except to fight their way out.

"Wilbur says his crew can hold out by eating dirt, but-"

"Dirt?" Max couldn't believe her ears.

"There's selenium in the soil apparently. Not much, but some."

"I…" Max trailed off, at a loss. She'd reduced her own people to eating dirt to survive. Finally, she shook her head to clear it. It wasn't the first and it wouldn't be the last time they'd been forced to do ugly things to survive. "Anybody else need something weird?"

Alec pulled a list from his pocket. "Where do you want me to start?"

"Start at the beginning," she suggested tiredly and began walking again.

Alec fell into step beside her. "Ok… We've got a couple of herbivores who aren't getting enough roughage, whatever that is. The carnivores aren't going to do well once the food stores run out. We've got a bear about to go into hibernation, and get this, there's a guy with flamingo DNA. I don't even want to know what Manticore had in mind for that one. He says…"

Max listened and nodded along, mentally cataloguing all the problems and adding them to the others.

Day Seven

Max leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes for a moment, anything to block out the sight in front of her.

Logan was dying. So were Cindy and Sketch. They'd been given a transfusion a week earlier, but the effects were wearing off and they didn't have the supplies for another.

Cindy was in the best shape, but she was lying on a cot, sleeping listlessly. Sketch was in a second cot, definitely worse off. He was sweating and unconscious. If they didn't get him out of here, he might never wake up.

Logan was in the cot closest to her and even with her eyes closed she couldn't seem to stop seeing the sickly yellow color of his skin. His liver was failing and there wasn't a single thing she could do about it. She couldn't even touch him or hold his hand to try to soothe some of his discomfort.

Max looked up as Alec walked into the makeshift sickroom. He nodded in her direction and then strode directly toward Sketchy. He dropped to one knee beside his friend and gave him a cursory examination, checking his fever and his pulse. He frowned, then sat back on his heels. Alec's head dropped and he ran his hand through his hair in frustration. He was doing that a lot lately, Max thought.

Alec rose and walked toward OC. He took her pulse as well, and Max knew from her own check that it was slower than normal. Alec continued to Logan and he glanced at her as if for permission to examine him.

Max wanted to shout at him to get away. She didn't want Alec touching him, but her more rational mind forced her to give the barest of nods. Alec bent over and gave Logan a more thorough exam, checking his eyes and even from where she was sitting Max could see how jaundiced they looked. Alec felt his neck and under his jaw, then pressed fingers into his abdomen. Logan groaned in discomfort and Alec pursed his lips.

"What did you expect?" Max said dully. "A miraculous recovery?"

Alec raised an eyebrow. "I was hoping he could hold his own for a little longer."

"Well, he can't." She knew she sounded hostile, but she couldn't help it. "He's getting worse by the minute."

Alec ignored her tone and just nodded. He walked toward where she was sitting on the floor and slid down the wall to join her. He kept his knees raised and rested his elbows on them.

They'd made a couple of attempts to contact the authorities about letting Logan and the others leave before the toxins killed them. They were civilians after all who'd gotten trapped along with the rest of them. Their attempts, however, had been rebuffed. Rebuffed wasn't exactly right. They'd been completely ignored.

"We could take them to the walls and throw them over," Alec suggested, less than helpfully.

Max crossed her arms, hugging them close. "They'd pick off the people trying to lower them over and they'd let them fall for good measure. That's a great way to get everybody dead."

"We could throw a mattress over first and hope Logan bounces when he hits it."

Max turned her head to look at him and saw that Alec was grinning. He bumped his shoulder into hers.

"Come on, Max. We gotta laugh. It's all we have left to do."

"You laugh," she replied. "Not really feelin' it, myself."

"It'll be ok," he said more seriously. "We'll figure something out."

Max shook her head. She couldn't answer. She didn't know if there was an answer. She'd helped free her people only to lock them up again. To make it even worse, Logan, OC and Sketch were going to pay for her mistakes as well.

"It's just us, Max," he said quietly. "You can say whatever you need to say."

She must have made some sort of noise because Alec shifted toward her. "Max?"

"I killed them," she whispered, and Alec followed her line of sight to Logan and their friends. "I asked them to stay and I killed them. I may have killed us all."

"No, Max." He shook his head. "They're not dead yet. We're not dead yet."

Max waved toward Logan, then Cindy and Sketch. "Look at them!"

"Whoa. I'm supposed to be the cynical naysayer around here. You're our cheerleader. Don't give up on us now."

"But I don't know what to do." She felt a tear slide down her cheek and angrily brushed it away. "We're all trapped. We're running out of supplies. He's dying and I can't get him out of here. I can't even touch him."

Alec put his arm around her. She wanted to shrug it off, but to be honest she kind of appreciated the gesture. Over the past few days, half of the residents of Terminal City had avoided her and the other half had either glared or yelled at her. Alec seemed to be the only one who was the same old annoying Alec, hanging around, talking to her whether she liked it or not. It was reassuring, in a way.

Max was reminded of the last time Alec had tried to comfort her. They'd been talking about Ben's death and he'd done the same thing then, simply moved closer and put his arm around her as if it was the most natural thing in the world. She'd allowed it then and she allowed it now. Maybe it was because they were alone and there was no one there to see or to read into it or to think less of her for having a moment of weakness.

Alec's arm tightened around her briefly. "Just hang in there, Max. We'll figure it out even if I have to talk Mole into digging us a new tunnel."

He smiled and Max had to smile in return, even if she knew it was closer to a grimace. "Might want to get him on that."

Alec nodded. "Already did actually. He said I was profiling."

Max snorted. "He's just mad that we put him in charge of digging the latrines."

"I'm not above using psychological warfare. I'm thinking of setting up a loud speaker and aiming it at the head military guy's tent. I'll give Mole the mic and just let him gripe about everything. I figure the army types will either go nuts or they'll retreat."

"It's a solid plan."

"I'll hold onto it in case the tunnel thing doesn't pan out."

Logan moved slightly and groaned in his sleep, clearly in pain, and Max felt guilty for feeling even a moment of levity given their current situation. She shrugged Alec's arm off and he removed it without comment.

They remained side by side in silence watching over their friends. The sight was so painful, Max wanted to look away, but she wouldn't allow herself the luxury. This was her penance. The problem was, she didn't know if there was any way to atone for what she'd brought on her people.

More soon...