Chapter ten – the reward part one
What if, in the escape of '09, Max hadn't escaped with the others? What if Jondy had tried to save her when she fell in the ice, but in the end they both got caught?
…
'10
Just after dawn, Jondy woke Max up, while in the opposite bed, Sam woke Toni up. It was nearly time for wake up, and Sam and Toni needed to be in their own rooms, and Max in her own bed. After Sam and Toni had left, Max slid under her thin blanket, and pretended to be asleep.
Fourty minutes later, all of the X-5's were standing outside the meals room, being addressed by the Colonel.
"In regard to your assignment yesterday, as you would know, only 598 and his team managed to track and map the prisoner and return on time. The other three teams arrived at the following times: 001's team at 1940, 002's team at 2010 and 601's team at 2130. For this, each member of the three late teams will be punished. For now, 598 and his team are to proceed to the meals room, and then you have the day to yourself, which you will have to spend outdoors in the forest. You must come back in in time for evening meals, and then go straight back to the barracks. Dismissed, 598 and team."
Max and Jondy smiled at each other, and went into the meals room with the other six. They each collected a tray of food, and looked around for seats. They found a table for eight, and went over to it. Only once they had sat down did they realize that 598 hadn't come over with them. Instead he had taken a seat by himself on the other side of the room. As they ate, they talked.
"What are we going to do for a whole day by ourselves?" Cyan asked.
"We could go back to that clearing we were in last night. You know, the one with the stream?" Max replied.
"Yeah, we could go for a swim." Toni suggested.
"Sounds like fun. I wonder if 598 will join us, or if he'll go off by himself again?" Blak asked.
Max smiled. "Why do we care?"
The others laughed quietly. "We don't. But if he does decide to come with us, it'll ruin the whole day." Blak commented.
"Yeah, I forgot about that." Max stated, making the others smile again.
Once they had finished, they handed their trays back, and walked out to the training yards. 598 meet them there.
"Where are you going soldiers?" he asked.
"Into the forest, like we were told to 598." Cyan stated.
"Ok then, proceed. If you need me, I will be on the edge of the forest next to the first training yard."
"As if we'd want him!" Max whispered once they had gotten far enough away from him. "He's horrid."
Sam winced. "You should have seen him back at the old place. He was worse there."
"How?" Max asked.
"Well, he used to be the CO, and no one could stop him from doing anything. If we so much as sneezed during class, he'd punish us. Our director, Renfro, said that it did us good to be punished by our CO, and gave him the ability to do anything to us. If we failed a mission, he would put us in solitary, or on guard duty for weeks at a time."
Max was astounded. "Really? Zack never did that to us. In fact, Zack would rather himself take the punishment than any one of us."
"Who's Zack?" Toni asked.
"He was our CO. X-5 599, 598's clone. They might look alike, but they act totally different."
"He sounds so much nicer than 598. Where is he now though?" Toni asked.
"He escaped with ten others, about six months before you came here."
"Escaped?" Sam asked. By now the seven of them had arrived at the clearing from the day before, and each found a seat on the rocks beside the stream.
"Yeah. In May I think it was. You see, our brother Jack got the shakes one day during drill..."
Toni was puzzled. "Wait a minute. Shakes? Like last night when you fell out of line?"
"Yeah. The shakes. Your body starts to shake; usually the first thing is your hand. Then the shakes move, so that not only are your hands shaking, but your arms and your legs. Then your whole body starts to convulse. There's no way to stop it, and sometimes you keep shaking for ages and ages. Anyway, Jack used to get the shakes the worst. Normally at night, but then he got them during the day. The TAC leader took him away. I went looking for him that night, and what I found was awful."
"What did you find?" Sam asked gently, when Max stopped.
"He was in one of the surgery rooms, being cut up by a team of doctors. And the Colonel was there, just watching him being cut up, and die."
"That is awful." Sam murmured.
"What happened then?" Toni asked.
"Well, a while later, maybe two weeks or so, I started to get the shakes. We were in our barracks, which held everyone, not like the two people per room we have now. We thought it would be ok, you know. I'd had the shakes before at night, and they'd come and go and nothing would happen. But this night, a guard walked in and saw me. He turned, to go get the Colonel, but Zack and Eva attacked him. Eva grabbed his gun, and led the way out into the corridor. This was what we had been waiting for, a chance to escape, to get out of here. But the Colonel came around the corner. And we paused, for a moment too long, and he shot Eva. He killed Eva.
"We looked at each other, and Zack gave the signal to move out. We jumped out the window, Jondy helping me because I was still weak from the seizure. We meet up, and then Zack split us up into pairs, and we went. Jondy and I went together, but I fell through some ice, and Jondy tried to save me. I pulled her in, because there were soldiers coming onto the ice. Once they had left, though, we got out and ran. We didn't make it because we had seven soldiers on our tail, and two stepped in front of us, tasered Jondy, and then tried to taser me. I tried to fight, but the other seven came up behind me, and tasered me too."
"Wow. How many got out?" Sam asked.
"Eleven. Zack, Syl, Krit, Ben, Zane, Tinga, Brin, Cass, Star, Micah and Cali. Four were killed, Tim, Jed, Skye and Lyn. We'd already lost Eva, Jack and Cora. That left the twelve of us. Six who had been captured trying to escape, six who hadn't made it out at all."
"Who didn't make it out?"
"Sef, Trix, Jace, Jam, Elia and Gem. It was me, Jondy, Cyan, Blak, Scout and Ty who got caught."
Sam sighed. "Wow. I wish we had thought of escaping."
"How many of your unit aren't here?" Max asked.
"What?" Sam questioned.
"How many of your unit aren't here. You know, dead or at another facility or somewhere else?"
"Oh. Um, Eight I guess. Like you, we had thirty to start with. But three died in the first year, we don't know what from, three more died in the second year, one died in the sixth year from a bullet on a mission, and another died last year, from lack of air in the tank."
"You guys have the tank as well? How long can you stay under?" Cyan asked.
"Well, most of us could only stay under for about four minutes. Some could stay longer, but no one got more than five minutes. How long can you stay under?" Toni asked.
"Everyone here can stay under for six minutes at least, and the best is ten minutes, which is Max and Jondy. But the Colonel is always trying to get us to stay under longer."
"Ten minutes? Wow. That's a long time. I don't think I could ever stay under for that long." Toni exclaimed.
"We could teach you how if you like. I mean we could help you learn to hold your breath for longer than four minutes." Max suggested.
Toni smiled. "You could?"
"Sure we could. We can use the river now to practice if you want."
"Please?"
"Any one want to join me and Toni in some breathing lessons?" Max asked.
"I will." Sam and Jondy said simultaneously.
"I'll help teach if you want," Blak suggested.
Cyan shook his head. "I'll keep time for you. There's no way you're getting me in water unless I have to."
"What about you Alec?" Max asked.
"I guess."
"How long can you hold your breath for anyway Alec?"
"Five minutes."
The six stripped off their outer clothes, leaving just their underwear on. They hopped into the stream, and walked out into the centre. There, it reached up to Max's throat, her being the smallest, and reached up to Blak's chest, him being the tallest.
Max looked around, satisfied that everyone was ready, and began instructing them. "Now, the first thing is to take a very deep breath. Start at the bottom of your lungs, and fill them up. Once you have taken in as much air as possible, I will give the signal to start. Then, go under the water, and hold your breath for as long as you can, ok? Ready?"
"Yes."
They each drew in a large breath, and, once everyone was finished, Max motioned to them to go under the water. Once under, Max turned so that she could face all of them, and watch how they were doing. After about four and a half minutes, Toni went up, after nearly five, Sam went up. Max and Jondy had no problem, and neither did Blak, but Alec was starting to look blue.
Max motioned to Jondy and Blak, telling them that they could go up, or swim somewhere. Max then thought that she felt something behind her, and turned, to see a large fish. Turning around again, she saw that Blak and Jondy had swum off, leaving a very blue Alec watching her with eyes that were starting to close.
Quickly, Max pulled Alec up out of the water, so that he could breathe. To her horror, he didn't draw in a breath, but just lay in the water, supported by her arms. She dragged him to the bank, and started giving him CPR. After two minutes, he opened his eyes, and started coughing. Relieved, Max slapped him gently across the face.
"What was that for?" he asked weakly.
"For scaring me."
"I didn't know you cared."
"I don't."