Here's the next quick installment. Things are crazy hectic in RL right now. Forgot to thank Griever for all her help last go 'round and this time too. I love getting reviews of any kind, so toss some thoughts my way when you get a chance.
Max looked around. A grey fog hung so thickly over the lake that she could hardly tell that the sun had risen. Straightening her shoulders, she ran a shaking hand across her face. She picked up a stone and hurled it as hard as she could at a boulder jutting out of the water, shattering it.
Slowly, Max picked her way up the rocky embankment. Climbing over a shallow concrete lip, she found herself in the parking lot of a small diner, one that sat in a narrow strip of land between the road and the water. It was the busiest time of day for the little truck stop with long lines of vehicles pulling out of the parking lot, both north and southbound. Max trained eyes over the trucks, not quite sure what to look for.
Then, she heard it again. Just before she had gotten into the fight with Alec, she had heard that same sound. It seemed strangely out of place. Laughter. It wasn't loud. Only her X5 ears could hear it above the rumble of car engines, but it was there. Max scanned the cars again. Maybe it was coming from one of the trucks swinging out of the parking lot.
Max started to run. She was finished thinking and planning. Her ears still rang with Alec's angry words, but she pushed those thoughts away. She hated the fact that she had automatically pushed aside her fight with Alec. Her Manticore-trained mind brain was still trained only on the task of tracking Logan. Her mind refused to be distracted. She refused to think that he might be dead.
Max feet flew over the ground as she ran to catch up with the fleet of trucks leaving the lot.
She was no good at staying behind. Four months ago, she had left Logan with the job of watching and waiting.
Max caught up to the last truck in the line, its rear cargo hold locked tight. There was no place to hide there. She ran alongside it to catch up with the next to last truck
She had lashed out at Alec because she couldn't acknowledge that she was terrified.
The next truck was a tanker. Max swung herself up onto the ladder at the rear of the truck. She inched her way up the ladder and climbed along the top of the tank until she had a good view of the next truck ahead.
Her own brain was cold and calculating, planning her next move, too afraid to let her heart feel anything real.
Just in front of the tanker, a truck full of old cars slowly pulled into traffic. The old carcasses, bound for some salvage yard sat stacked in orderly fashion.
Anger and hate was forcing its way around her strongest defenses. She knew too many ways to inflict pain, to injure and to kill. What was she capable of doing to anyone who had hurt Logan?
Max had reached the front of the tanker and was peering down at a car salvage truck. But something peeked out from under the rear wheel of the last car stacked on the truck, something out of place. It was the edge of something soft. It looked like a coat, or a jacket. The fog swirled thickly around the vehicles, hiding it from a clear view.
Max took a few steps back along the top of the tanker. Before the driver had a chance to realize what was happening, Max took a running leap off the top of the cab of the truck. She took two steps on the hood of the truck and was in the air. Her fingertips barely snagged the rear edge of the upper level of the salvage truck. She grabbed it and held on as her legs slammed against the car below. She swung crazily for a moment, then landed with a thud on the lower level. The driver of the tanker truck following behind blinked and rubbed his eyes as the trucks parted ways and his road branched off to the right.
"I have really got to stop drinking those double espressos."
Max crouched down on the lower platform to keep her balance. Most of the lower platform was cast in shadow and fog, but she could still make out the bit of cloth under the left back tire. She crept up to the car and touched what looked like a brown coat.
A shot exploded next to her ear, just as the truck swerved. She spun away and tried to knock the gun loose as it swung towards her for a second shot at point blank range. Her ears were still ringing from the first shot as she grabbed the hand that had held the gun and pulled it towards her. Wide, green eyes in wire-rimmed glasses, spotted with raindrops, stared back into hers.
"Logan."
His eyes widened in recognition.
"Max."
She tried to step back, to take in his face, his hair, to confirm for herself that it really was Logan, but she couldn't back away from the fierce green eyes. They drew her in. They refused to let her go.
"Max." Logan voice said her name again, sounding as if it refused to believe it was her.
Max swallowed, her heart pounding fiercely against her chest.
Logan's hand still held fast to the gun as Max slowly forced it down.
"It's okay, Logan," she said, as she started to pry the gun from Logan's hand
Max tried to say something else, but her words got caught in the wind. Now she could see that the fluttering brown cloth was only a piece of a coat, caught on the bumper. She leaned down further to see that Logan had wedged himself deep underneath the car, prepared to make a last stand there in the shadows. Still gripping the gun, she tried to pull Logan towards her, to pull him out from under the car.
"I didn't want to fall off the truck," Logan whispered, his voice hoarse. "I tied myself in…I was getting really tired, Max." His eyes were wide, as if he believed she might disappear if he blinked.
"It's okay, Logan. I'm here now." Taking a knife from her bag, she cut through the coat which Logan had looped around his hips and tied to the truck frame. Max slowly forced the gun from Logan's hand, letting it clatter onto the highway below. Gently, she pried his other hand off the frame of the truck. With a strength that surprised her, Logan grabbed Max's hand and heaved himself out from under the car in one final effort.
Finally, his eyes closed. She leaned over and pressed her warm cheek against his cold one.
"It's okay, Logan," she repeated. "We're in this together now."
The truck continued its southward journey away from the waterfront, the fog all but hiding the two figures clinging to its back.