So White showed up at the worst possible time…

Chapter Ten

Everyone inside the transport truck froze at the sight of Ames White and his goons, who were in full tactical gear. There were a dozen of his cult buddies with him, which was more than enough to get the job done. Max was well aware of how much damage Familiars were capable of, and that was before she and her people were half-starved. They were also unarmed, while White's people were carrying automatic weapons. The situation had just gone from terrible to potentially catastrophic.

"White," Max said through gritted teeth. "Should've known you'd show up. Bottom feeders like you always show up when the real work's already been done by someone else."

The colonel approached from one of the vehicles that had been following. He had a dozen men with him, all with weapons aimed at White's men. Apparently, they hadn't been informed of the change in plans.

"Hands in the air and move away from the truck!" Glaze commanded.

The Familiars halfheartedly complied with the exception of White, who turned toward Glaze and eyed him a bit like one would look at an annoying bug buzzing nearby. "Easy," White said. "We have every right to be here."

"What is the meaning of this?" Colonel Glaze demanded. "Who are you and how dare you force my men to stop while performing their duty."

"If you'll give me a second, I'll show you the paperwork." White, who was the only one of the Familiars dressed normally, made a show of straightening his wool coat, brushed a bit of lint off his sleeve, then gave Glaze a self-satisfied smirk. The colonel glared when he saw it and Max was secretly pleased that she wasn't the only one who wanted to punch the expression off White's face.

While their attention was on each other, Max eased Alec down onto one of the metal benches in the truck. He was still unconscious, but he was breathing, so she had to focus on the bigger threat at the moment.

"I have orders to relieve you of your prisoners," White said. "I'd suggest you get back in your vehicles and leave us to our work."

Max noticed that White had forced the personnel carrier to stop in an area surrounded by vacant warehouses. There were no reporters following the convoy and she wondered how White's people had managed to head them off so there wouldn't be any witnesses to this. She looked up and noted he'd also made sure there were no drones to get video of the incident. It didn't bode well for any of them getting out alive.

"You can't let him take us," Max said loudly. "He's not who he says he is. He'll kill us all."

White pointed at her and shouted, "Shut it, 452! You'll get what's coming to you soon enough."

"My name is MAX," she said. If she was going to die, she was not going to go quietly, or cowering in the back of a truck.

"These are my prisoners," the colonel said, undeterred by their exchange. "I have orders to deliver them safely and unless my superiors tell me otherwise, you are interfering with government business. Leave now."

"You have new orders." White pulled a folded piece of paper from his breast coat pocket and sauntered toward the colonel, Glaze's men keeping their guns trained on him the entire time. White held out the paper. "There. Now stay out of our way." He turned toward Max. "Out of the truck, 452."

Max, for once, was happy to do as White asked. She wanted out of the truck where she had more room to maneuver. Several of the others clearly thought the same thing because they, too, jumped down, still pretending their hands were cuffed behind them.

"Don't move!" The colonel pointed at her. "Myers, your team has eyes on the prisoners," he said to one of his men. "Harper, eyes on our uninvited guests."

White waggled the paper he was still holding out. The colonel refused to even acknowledge it. "If my orders had changed I would be contacted directly," Glaze said. "You're not taking my prisoners anywhere."

White let the paper fall to the ground. He sighed and looked like he was some sort of put upon office worker who'd had a rough day. "I was really hoping we could do this the easy way," he said, retracing his path to once again stand in front of his fellow cult members.

"Step back from the truck," Glaze ordered, "or my men will be forced to fire. You people have no business here."

"I have more business here than you do," White said, his temper showing, making his expression turn ugly, well… uglier. "I, at least, know how to handle these freaks."

"Shoot them if they move again," Glaze directed his men. They were looking back and forth between their commanding officer, their prisoners, and the newcomers, who seemed unfazed by the guns pointed at them.

"Maybe I haven't made myself clear," White sneered. "We're going to take your prisoners one way or another. The only question is whether we have to go through you to do it. There's no reason any of you have to get hurt. Certainly not for the likes of these… things."

"They are in my custody," Glaze said firmly. "They are my responsibility."

"Call your superiors. They'll tell you to hand them over. It's just taking a little time for the orders to filter down to your level."

Max nearly rolled her eyes. White really was an idiot. He managed to insult everyone and took such pride in doing it.

"Colonel, you're going to have to let us help you," Max said. She had edged closer to the soldiers' side of the battle lines, mindful of the guns pointed at her.

"What?" he asked, completely taken aback.

"These people," Max explained, "aren't normal humans."

White narrowed his eyes. "We're very human," he snapped.

"They're a cult dedicated to eradicating us," she said. "They're special though."

"Special? Like you?" Glaze asked, a hint of worry in his tone. The soldiers also began to re-examine White and his men nervously. They shifted on their feet, resetting their stances and aim.

"Close enough to make them almost impossible to kill."

Once again White bristled at being compared to the Transgenics, but Max didn't care. Glaze needed to know he was badly out-classed.

"You and your men are going to need us if you want to stay alive," Max warned. She also knew that she needed the soldiers' help if she wanted to stay out of White's hands. Her people were in no shape to take on the Familiars alone.

"I think we can manage," Glaze said firmly. "Now don't take another step!"

She shook her head. "They'll kill you all and I can't let that happen if I can help it. He'll kill every last one of your men just because you were here today and saw them take us. They won't allow any witnesses. Colonel," she waited for him to make eye contact, "they're better than your men and you'll all die."

White let out a little puff of a laugh. "She's actually not wrong." He gestured to his people who began to fan out. Wisely, most of the soldiers who'd been aiming at Max changed their aim to the Familiars, sensing where the more present danger was.

"You're insane," Glaze said furiously. "You're all insane." His men were shifting uneasily, this entire situation out of their normal sphere of experience. They weren't sure who were the good guys and who were the bad guys, or they probably thought they were all bad guys. It didn't matter. Max was beyond tired of watching people die, any people, and she couldn't let this happen.

"Colonel?" Max said to get his attention again. "I give you my word that my people won't hurt yours. We're just trying to survive and right now? White and his men are the bigger threat."

Glaze kept his eyes on White. "The enemy of my enemy, etc."

"Yup."

"Enough of this," White snapped. "Take them."

Max and the others took that as their cue to quit pretending they were still handcuffed. Max was closest to White and she launched herself at him, purposely using the shoulder opposite the one that had been injured. She knew from experience that hitting White was almost like hitting a brick wall. Their breeding program had certainly done the job.

She heard gunfire, but kept her attention centered on White. If she could take him out, then the others would fall back. He wasn't armed at least. She supposed he was too vain to think he needed it.

Max could hear the bullets flying. Between Transgenics and soldiers, White's men were outnumbered, but she had no doubt their aim was as deadly as their fighting skills. She could only hope that Glaze's soldiers were at least able to hold their own. They had managed to quell two escape attempts from Terminal City after all.

White sent a furious punch to her ribs and it forced the air from her lungs. Thankfully, Max had been trained to fight without the luxury of breathing. She sent answering blows, fighting with everything she had to give the others time to do the same. She was tiring quickly, though. No matter how finely tuned a machine her body was, it still required fuel to run and she hadn't eaten in far too long.

A quick glance told her there were already casualties on all sides. There were simply too many guns in play for that not to happen. This wasn't some pre-Pulse action flick where everyone had automatic weapons, sprayed bullets indiscriminately, and yet somehow no one managed to get shot. Guns were made to do damage and that's what they did, especially when being handled by those who meant to do harm. The thought of losing even one more Transgenic was devastating. There were so few of them left.

Max sent a crushing blow toward White's jaw and felt the satisfying sensation of teeth giving way. White spat them to the side and braced for another run at her.

"Freeze." Glaze had approached, sneaking in from the side, and had his .45 pointed at White's head. "Order your men to stand down."

White squared off against him and Glaze didn't even give him a chance. He put a bullet through his shoulder. White stumbled back, but seemed undeterred, so Glaze put a bullet through White's knee and he finally fell to the ground. "Tell them," Glaze commanded. "Do it now, or the next one goes through your eye."

White dragged his sleeve across his mouth, bloody from his lost teeth, then let out a sharp whistle. It took a few seconds, but the sounds of fighting slowed to a halt.

"Tell them to drop their guns." When White hesitated, Glaze stepped closer, aiming at his left eye.

White's face was blotchy with anger, but he called, "Do as he says."

"Corporal," Glaze said to the soldier closest to him. "Search them and lock them in the truck the prisoners were in."

"Sir?"

"Now, Corporal! We'll deal with the prisoners in a moment."

Max saw Fido pull Alec out of the truck and lay him on the ground. It made her breath catch seeing him laid out so close to other bodies on the ground, other definitely dead bodies. Two of the Familiars were down, several of the soldiers, and close to Alec, Max could see Bark laid out. Half of her head was missing and there was no chance she was alive.

The Familiars were hustled into the back of the truck. White struggled to his feet, shifting all his weight onto his uninjured leg. He looked ready to burn her to death with his gaze, but thankfully even their magnificent human breeding program hadn't managed a working death stare.

"This isn't over, 452," he bit out.

Max gave him a nasty smile in return. "It is for today."

"Shut him up and put him in the truck," the colonel ordered. His men were quick to obey and White was unceremoniously dragged and thrown into the back of the truck which was then locked.

"Thank you, Colonel," Max said sincerely.

He scratched his hand through his hair and let out a shaky breath. "Oddly enough, I think I should be thanking you." He looked around at the dead and wounded. "They'd have killed us all."

Max nodded. "But they wouldn't have been here if it weren't for us. Their cult will do anything to get rid of us."

"Why?" he asked.

Max shrugged, thinking the answer was fairly obvious. She didn't really feel like explaining viruses and tattoos and Sandeman, though. "Same reason you've been keeping us corralled in Terminal City. We're freaks and a danger to normal people."

The colonel nodded in understanding. "Regardless of how grateful I am, you know I still can't let you go," he said.

Max smiled bitterly. "Yeah, I figured."

"Max!" Fido shouted.

She turned toward the others and saw Fido was kneeling over Alec's prone form. "What?"

"I don't think he's breathing!"

More soon…