Chapter twelve – the reward part three
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
With that, Jondy walked back over to the others, leaving Max alone with the unconscious Alec. Max rubbed her sore head, before lying down next to Alec, and curling up against him, using his chest as a pillow. Before long, she fell asleep.
When Max opened her eyes, she was in a white room, and could hear soft, gentle music playing in the background. Looking around, she saw a man sitting on a chair nearby, wearing a black suit, looking at her. She imagined that she looked a sight, what with being a ten-year-old wearing military fatigues, and having a buzz cut. But, when she looked down, she realised that that wasn't the case. She was wearing a gorgeous, long, white gown, and, reaching her hand up to her hair, found that it was in tight ringlets that reached her shoulders. She was, however, still a ten-year-old.
The man got up and began walking over to her. He looked to be about 22 or 23, with short brown hair, and blue eyes. He stopped in front of her, and Max looked at him for a moment, before taking two steps back.
"Who are you?" Max asked, curious.
"I was about to ask you the same thing."
"Who are you and what are you doing in my dream?"
"Is this your dream or is it mine?"
"I do believe that it is mine, sir."
"Oh."
"Would you please tell me who you are?"
"My name's Logan. Logan Cale. What's your name?"
"Max."
"Max..."
"Just Max."
"Oh."
"What's this music? It's kind of...sad."
"Yeah. It's Sibelius 'Valse Triste'."
"Oh."
"Dance with me?"
"I can't."
"Sure you can."
"You see, my problem is that I don't know how to dance. We haven't been taught that."
"Well, let me show you how. Come here."
Logan began to show Max how to dance, and soon they were waltzing around, in time to the music. After a while, however, the music stopped, but Max and Logan kept waltzing slowly, until they heard a voice behind them.
"I'll have to ask you to unhand her, sir."
"Alec!" Max cried, and rushed over to him and gave him a hug. Alec paused for a moment, before putting his arms around Max and hugging her back.
"Are you alright?" Max whispered into his ear.
"Me? I should be the one asking if you're alright. Did he hurt you in any way Maxie?"
"No. We were dancing Alec. Logan taught me how to dance."
"Oh. But...it looked like he was trying to hurt you. I'm just looking out for you Maxie, you know that right?"
"Yeah, I know Alec."
Behind them, Logan cleared his throat loudly. At that sound, Max and Alec let go of each other and turned around.
"Would you care to explain what's happening here Max?" Logan asked.
"This is Alec. He's my brother. He just thought that you were hurting me."
"Oh."
"Yeah. But I told him that you were teaching me how to dance."
"Oh."
Alec smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr..."
"Logan Cale."
"Well, it's been a pleasure meeting you Mr. Cale."
"The same here Alec..."
"It's just Alec."
"Oh. Why don't you or Max have a last name, might I ask?"
"None of our family have last names. We just have our own name. We named each other."
"We? How many brothers and sisters do you have?"
Before Max or Alec could answer, Logan disappeared. Or, more correctly, Max and Alec disappeared and found themselves in another place. Their formal clothes were gone, replaced by simple black clothes, and they could see nothing in the pitch black area, not even with their night vision.
An unknown voice reached their ears, male and strong. "They're around here somewhere Colonel."
"Well find them. NOW!" This voice they knew. It was the Colonel.
"Maxie..." Alec whispered, as he drew close to Max, and placed an arm around her shoulder.
"Alec?" Max asked, scared and confused.
"I think we should get out of here. No, I know that we should get out of here, and right now."
Gently, Alec began to lead Max away from where the voice had come from. As they moved further away from where they had begun, they could see more and more. They were in a large building, most likely a warehouse. They reached a door, and, once they had opened it, walked through. They found themselves in a dark forest, surrounded by tall thick trees. They could hear more voices now, coming from all angles. There were many of them, and they seemed to be drawing closer.
Alec began to run, dragging Max behind him. Whenever they thought a voice was too close, they turned and ran in another direction. Soon, they found themselves in a small clearing that was ringed with boulders. They had just stepped into the middle of it, when the found that they were surrounded.
"Well, lookie here, what have we found?" One of the men asked sarcastically.
"You've found them?" The Colonel asked from somewhere unseen.
"Yep. Sure have Colonel."
"Then let out the nomalies."
Max screamed, and Alec looked around terrified. From behind the soldiers came a group of nomalies. They were horribly deformed, and most carried knives of some sort, which they pointed at Max and Alec.
Alec looked around for an escape route, but found none. Instead, all that he could see were the nomalies, so he prepared himself to fight.
A blink later, Max and Alec were on the ground, being held hostage by the remaining nomalies. He and Max had managed to kill about fifteen of them, but there were still at least ten left, plus the normal soldiers.
They could see the Colonel now, walking over to them. Alec placed a protective arm around Max, and stared at the Colonel. He stared back for a minute, before turning back to the leader of the normal soldiers.
"Terminate them."
They found themselves transported once more, this time to an infirmary, where they found the rest of their unit, all thirty-two of them. Each looked as though they were sleeping, but on closer inspection, Max and Alec found that they each had a bullet hole in the middle of their foreheads.
Max, looking at Jondy, whimpered, and felt wetness on her cheeks. Alec came over and wrapped his arms around her, holding her, comforting her, while trying to quell his fear. Max buried her head in his chest, and cried her eyes out.
Underneath the tree, Alec wrapped his arms around Max, holding her tight. Jondy, looking on, felt a surge of terror run through her as she watched the tears stream down Max's face. She could do nothing though, because she had promised Max that she wouldn't wake her until it was time to go in, and Jondy would never break a promise to Max.
Max and Alec stood in the middle of the infirmary for a long time, comforting each other. It was only when they heard a door being opened that they began to move again. Quickly and silently, they ran to the opposite end of the room than where the noise was coming from. They just managed to slip into a storage room before some one walked in the room.
The person walked down the row of beds, occasionally stopping, until they reached the end of the room. They stopped at the wall, standing in front of the window. Looking through the slats in the door's window, Max could see that there were three of them, but couldn't tell who they were.
The first to speak was a loud female voice, one that Max and Alec hadn't heard before. "They've all been taken care of?"
"All except the two rogues. No one knows where they are." This one was male and strong, the man from the warehouse earlier.
"What is the Colonel going to do about those two?"
"Find them somehow. But apparently, the last time they found them, they just disappeared."
"Disappeared?"
"Yep."
The third voice spoke up for the first time, a weak high-pitched female, "I still don't understand why they had to terminate thirty-two of them, just because two of them got away. I mean, eleven of them got away the time before, and no one was terminated then."
"It wasn't because two got out that these ones were terminated. There's something wrong with this group; some kind of seizure thing, and the scientists can't find a way to cure it. So Lyedecker, not wanting his kids to be imperfect, ordered them all to be terminated."
Alec pulled Max back from the door, a look of horror in his eyes. He dragged her to the furthermost corner of the closet, before whispering in her ear.
"They're going to kill us, because of the seizures?"
"I don't know Alec! This is just a dream, isn't it? And besides, nobody knows about our seizures yet, do they?"
"What about last night? That TAC leader that tried to take you away?"
"Jondy said that Sef took care of him. So that means that nobody knows. And besides, it's just a dream."
"I guess that you're right this time Maxie."
"I told you that we can't tell anybody about our seizures, didn't I. This just proves what I said, we can't say a thing."
"Ok. I get what you're saying Max. Let's get out of here as soon as it's safe ok? It's kind of creepy."
Once more, Max and Alec were transported, and found themselves in one of the training yards, watching a group of four-year-olds training in combat. They were all in perfect synchronization, and the Colonel walked in front of them, a pleased look on his face.
Max and Alec looked at each other, and then climbed up a nearby tree, to watch over the training session. After a few minutes of watching, a TAC leader walked over to talk to the Colonel. He and the Colonel walked away from the soldiers, and stood near the tree that Alec and Max were in.
"These your X-7's Colonel?" The TAC leader asked.
"Sure are. They're wonderful aren't they? They are so much more advanced than any of the other groups. Well, except for the X-5's. It's such a pity."
"Excuse my asking, but what's a pity sir?"
"The X-5's were the best, the strongest, fastest X-series that we had. I guess it's kind of ironic that the best group had the worst of malfunctions."
"Malfunctions?"
"Seizures. Unstoppable. Had to terminate all of them. Except for the ones who got out. Those were the lucky ones."
"Lucky ones? But sir..."
"They were lucky because none of them had the seizures. Otherwise we would have found them dead already, from the seizures."
"Oh. I get it sir."
"I'm sure you do. Now, Smyth, what did you want?" The Colonel asked, leading the TAC leader away, out of hearing range.
"Am I going to die Alec?"
"What?"
"Am I going to die?"
"Everyone dies."
"I mean am I going to die soon, because of my seizures?"
"No Maxie. I won't let that happen to you."
"Good."
Alec gave Max a hug, before they began to climb down the tree once more. Once on the ground, they looked around, unsure of what to do. Instead of going anywhere, Max pulled Alec around to the other side of the tree, where they sat down. Max rested her head against Alec's shoulder, and Alec gently placed his arm around her shoulder. They sat there for more than an hour, just thinking their own thoughts.
Suddenly, two X-7's leapt out of the bushes in front them, pointing guns at their chests.
Startled, Max woke up, panting slightly. Next to her, she felt Alec wake up too.
"Alec?" Max whispered.
"Yeah Maxie?"
"I'm scared."
"Don't worry Maxie. I'll look after you." Alec replied, beginning to get up.
"Please don't move Alec. I'm comfortable here."
"Ok. But only for you Max."
Alec settled down once more, with his arms around Max, content to lie in the cool shade. Max laid her head down on Alec's chest once more, and fell into a deep dream-less sleep. That was how Jondy found them two hours later, when it was time to go in.