Chapter 34: BOOM
The road continued in a sea of darkness. No familiarity for Max. Her heart thumping in her chest loud enough to drown the engine. Her knuckles white as she pressed into the steering wheel. Her patience wearing thin with every mile.
It's not fast enough.
She sped up to over 100 miles per hour, flying past the shadowed green. Not even indulging she could hit wild life. She could lose control. All she needed was a sign she was going in the right direction. No phone, no map, no clue – she was lost in the rural outside Gotham. Places she had never drove herself, and no sign of life. At least a fucking gas station, there has to be something! I need a goddamn phone!
Gotham city could be under the Atlantic sea, and she didn't know it. Edward's meticulous plan killing thousands of faces she once abhorred. Blamed for the death of Joon. Blamed for Gotham's decay. The failings of the city's moral collective soon doomed to a fate ruthless. None of them deserved to die. Despite the past, or the future, the city deserved a present. A chance. He doesn't get to decide who lives or dies.
Going far beyond the speed limit, she pressed the acceleration a little more. As she came over a hill, she could see the glimmer of city lights hitting the clouds. Everything an orange hue that spread over night sky. Before she knew it, she saw Wayne Tower's peak. Yes!
Max sped up even more, knowing it was at least twenty miles away before she was even at the bridge. Then all her hopes crashing at the sight of red and blue in her rear view mirror. The sirens screamed in a chase after her red sedan. Max cursed, "Fuck!"
Just drive. Keep driving. It's just him and you're almost to Gotham. As soon as you get there you can explain. Max immediately fret from the idea. You'd be slammed to the ground and arrested, genius! Then Max sparked with a realization. You've been looking for a source of life to report what you know, and the spirits finally gave you one! You're running out of time. Pull over!
Max slowed and pulled to the shoulder, placing her hazards on. She stopped and parked, hearing the police car come in and turn off their lights – stopping behind her. Max pushed out her vehicle and raised her hands in relief. Like a rescue boat had finally spotted her in a sea of darkness.
"Help!" Max yelled, "Please help!"
As soon as the cruiser parked, it did not adhere how she hoped. The police officer flourished from his vehicle in a strike of anger. His hand pressed against the taser still in the holder of his belt.
"Back in your car! Now!"
Max wilted but persisted, "No, please! You have to listen to me! I was kidnapped! Please!"
"I said now or I will tase you! Now!!"
Max raised her hands and hissed under her breath, "You fucking kidding me…"
She retreated back into the sedan, slamming the door behind her. What part of 'I was kidnapped' does he not understand?!
The police officer stomped up to the window, an authoritative threat in his jaunt. As soon as he did his voice clapped, "License and registration."
"I don't have it!" Max cried, imploring through the window. "I don't have anything on me! I was kidnapped by some guy who was drugging me and drove me all the fuck out here. I fought him off, that's why my face is like this!" She referred to the dried, bloody streak down her cheek. A fresh and shiny contusion on her cheek bone. "Please you have to listen to me! Gotham is in danger!"
The police officer scrutinized, "Your driving under the influence?"
"I had no choice!" Max raged.
"Ma'am, control your tone now, or pay for it later. Do you understand me?"
Max forced herself to calm and finally explained, "Look, I think you're not registering the urgency of the matter. My name is Maxine Atkins. I live 51120 Archbold Ave Unit 2 in 454, Westinsons Apartments. I'm twenty six years old and I would show you all of this on paper. Including the license and my registration, but I don't have it! I don't have any of it because it was left in my purse at my place because I was abducted by my ex-boyfriend, Edward Nashton, the serial killer! Yes, you heard that right! He's about to explode the fucking – "
The police officer hotly cut her off, "Stop! Enough. Whatever hole you're digging yourself right now, just stop. You were driving fifty over the speed limit. You've admitted you have drugs in your system and you're speaking complete nonsense. It's safe to say I'm glad I pulled you over tonight."
"What?!" Max wailed, "Are you fucking kidding me?! I'm telling you the truth!"
The police officer grumbled, "Edward Nashton was arrested three hours ago in Gotham city, there's no possible way what you're telling me is truth. I'm sorry. Step out of the vehicle, please!"
"No!" Max winced to herself, falling more frustrated. She smacked the steering wheel, "He orchestrated it, for fuck sakes! He got one of his fanboys to drive me out to butt-fuck nowhere. But it was Edward who drugged me, and Edward who made the decision to abduct me!"
"Out of the car!"
Max sighed in a wavy breath, desperately fighting the urge to cry. She said as she stepped out of the car, "I have no reason to lie about this. Why would I lie about this?"
"Maybe because you're on drugs, driving like a devil, and need an out. Radio has been going all night about Nashton. Is it so strange for me to think you heard it, too? Hands on the car."
As soon as Max stepped out, the police officer noticed her lack of footwear. Her in pyjamas and a long tee only in the dead of November. However, he chalked it up to his initial suspicion.
"Look, you're missing the worst of it. You need to get on the phone with whoever is the boss, or the National Guard, or whatever because…" Max continued to rant as the officer patted her down. "He's going to flood the city! Please! He's got seven vans parked all over the city sea wall full of bombs. We're only wasting time sitting here, you need to call it in!"
"Yeah, sure, lady," the officer patronized. "Turn around and face me."
Max begrudgingly did so and squinted at his flashlight in her face. "Eyes are pretty red. What you take tonight?"
"I don't fucking know! I didn't take it!"
"You were roofied, you're saying?"
"Basically!"
"And where's your attacker? He… materialize into thin air after you fought him off?"
Max explained, "I pushed him out of my car. I used whatever drug he gave me on him. Go down the road a few miles, I'm sure you'll see him."
The police officer exasperated a sigh before his flashlight caught the backseat. He opened the back door, seeing the syringes scattered over the seat and floor, the IV bag and tube, the contents an unknown substance. It leaked over Max's upholstery. Max stayed hopeful he'd see the evidence of the drug and finally believe her.
He stood out of the car with the syringe and asked, "What is this? What did you take, I want a real answer now."
"I don't know! That's my answer. It's real as it can be! Look!" She showed the officer the point of access inside her elbow. The needle puncture with her skin marked by the tape. "Like I said, I was drugged! It knocked me out fast, made me feel really out of it. Almost paralysis. It's definitely some kind of opioid. Condensed drops or something! That's all I know besides the flooding. Which is definitely real, too, and will happen if you don't call it in! I'm begging you, here."
"Okay, hands behind your back," the officer demanded.
"What!?"
"Now!"
Max released a sharp exhale of disbelief, turning back to her car with her hands back for cuffing. As she was shackled she continued to implore and beg, but was slowly starting to realize the officer wasn't capable of listening. "When that flood starts you're only going to have yourself to blame for this. I told you and instead of taking a chance to protect and serve, you're arresting a victim!"
"That's what they all say, let's go."
Max was pulled to the cruiser with little care. Her bare feet scratched on the gravel roads. She was pushed in to the backseat, listening to the officer speak on the radio. "Yeah, I got what appears as a drophead, here. Definitely under the influence driving and may even be distributing. Found a quantity of an unknown substance in her vehicle. Yeah, she's speaking in tongues. Convinced she was kidnapped by the Riddler. Yeah, tell me about it. I'll bring her down to Gotham precinct and get her processed. Someone needs to come deal with the car and the substances."
As soon as another police officer arrived to the scene, minutes upon minutes wasted, broiling Max more, they were off to Gotham. Max continued to implore and reason on their way back, but it all landed on deaf ears. Ears that hadn't seen what she seen, or could even imagine what she knew. The very evidence Edward's way of thought was so irrevocably terrible that the common good wouldn't even entertain it. His whimsical and even theatrical plan of flooding Gotham a parody, making Max seem compromised and weak.
"Which precinct are we heading to?" She asked.
"That shouldn't concern you."
"It does! I was just kidnapped without the knowledge of where I was going. I should be allowed some transparency by law enforcement, at least!"
"Give it a rest, please."
Max hissed to herself, "So much for a new era, huh."
They made it into Tricorner, and it was a seldom relief that the bombs had not gone off. People were still roaming the streets in droves. Celebrating the election and their new mayor. Yet, for Max, a new panic was taking drive.
"The Tricorner Precinct?! Are you fucking kidding me?" She battled, "No! Take me to upper west! This is where it will happen!"
The officer said drolly behind the wheel, "And you're about to get a reality check."
Max was brought inside the police station, admitted and processed as if she was the criminal. Line up shot, finger prints, and even a blood test was all taken. She tried and pled for someone to listen to her, but her voice was equivalent to the sound behind glass. No one wanted to listen, or cared to listen. She was alone in the knowledge – knowing full well she wasn't wrong. A fear so powerful it was taking the feeling from her skin. Now she was thrown amongst it, soon to be a victim of the disaster like everyone else. The only salvation was someone – anyone – to listen to her. The police officers were jaded and comfortable. Years of corruption and deceit had taken the spark of intuition and drive. None were equipped for the knowledge. The walls slowly started to close in around her as she sat in the cell, watching them all pass her by and talk as if she was invisible.
Finally, a female officer came around to her cell, "One phone call, Atkins."
Would there be enough time now? Even if she managed to convince anyone of what was going to happen, would an evacuation even be a solution? Would she waste her phone call before the inevitable collapse on wasting her own breath?
Max followed the officer to the phones, a harbouring sadness waiting to be dialled. She would not waste her final moments on the phone with an authority failing to do their job. She was soon to speak to her mother at least one last time. Max started to cry as she got to the phones. She imagined the conversation they would have. The truth relayed may even be more than her mother could absorb. She didn't believe there would be crying in what she would say. She knew wholeheartedly her mother would only say the good things. Always the good things. Not to worry and keep optimistic. A kindness in her doubt always weaving Max in a safety blanket. Yet, this time it wouldn't. Because even though her comfort with her mother's ignorance was sometimes security, tonight she knew without a shadow of a doubt what would happen.
Spend the last of Gotham in a lie.
Max stopped at the area code before she dialled her mother's cell phone. Still an overwhelming voice cried to be heard. There was still fight, even in the face of so many lies. No more lies.
Max had wished the entire drive she knew at least one officer she trusted. One that would listen to her and have the power to take her concerns and fight with them. She didn't have her phone, so she racked her brain on the cellphone number. She used to have it memorized before Celeste's case was reopened. Fuck, what was it?!
Without an assurance, she dialled a number that kept popping in her head. The phone dialled. Please tell me I didn't just waste my phone call on a misdial. Then it picked up with the gratification in a familiar voice.
"Lieutenant?! Lieutenant Jim Gordon! It's Max!"
"Ms. Atkins?"
Max breathed in relief, getting some confused and unsettled glares from the officers listening. His name carried clout.
"Oh, thank God!" She felt as if she could cry. "I need your help!"
"You're calling from the Tricorner precinct? What did you do?"
"Look. I need you to talk to whoever is in control of these things, because Edward Nashton is going to flood the city."
Gordon went quiet on the other end, as if he was trying to find a place more private. "What? Maxine, what did you say?"
"Edward! He's got bombs along the city wall and they're going to detonate soon, you need to get everyone out! Call an evacuation!"
"Maxine, what the hell are you talking about? How do you know the Riddler?! How do you know this?"
Max gasped in regret, hating herself more as the words came from her mouth. "He told me! I'm… I'm his girlfriend. I was. Not since I found out what he really is. I was going to report it but he stopped me. Drugged and stole me. I got arrested because the goon he had taking me out of the city, I stopped him, and drove myself back. Clearly speeding, but obviously I would in this case."
Gordon strained his voice, "You got arrested?"
"None of that matters! All that matters is you need to issue an evacuation as soon as possible!"
Suddenly, the female officer stomped to the phone and clicked it down. Max gasped then, feeling the phone slip from her hand.
"That's enough bullshit from you! I don't know what game you're playing or how you know Gordon, but it ends now! Back in your cell, let's go!"
Max hawed and whimpered, slamming the palms of her hands to her forehead. The officer pulled her by the arm to the holding cells. Then a phone rang on one of the officer's belts. He picked it up and went still.
"Officer Fordyce. Stop."
The cop taking Max ceased and asked her colleague, "What?"
"It's for Atkins. Lieutenant Gordon. He wants to speak to her."
The officer flecked a glare of surprise to Max, then to the officer before releasing her arm. Max gently reached for the phone.
"Maxine?"
"Yeah."
"I need you to tell me everything. Start from the top. How do you know the Riddler?"
Max exasperated and asked, "Remember at Fehler's diner a long time ago? Remember when I asked you about Celeste's case for the first time? I was waiting for someone, you saw him. That was Edward."
Gordon was left quiet, trying to remember. "Jesus Christ, that was him. Yeah, I remember that. You had a relationship?"
"Yes! He did a good job keeping most of his crimes from me, but I eventually figured it out after the Colson murder. I promise, I had no idea he was killing people until then. If I had known, I would have come to you sooner. None of this would be happening."
Max wilted in guilt. Remembering all the red flags and daunting signs she willfully ignored for the trivial concept of love. To know she could have reported the stalking, the breaking and entering into Gotham Mountain Security, all the things she knew wrong and immoral.
"When I found out, I needed more evidence. I didn't want him hunting me down and killing me, too. I found that apartment you guys seized. I found a video. He wants to flood the city. His last hurrah of retribution that he thinks will wash Gotham of all corruption. There are seven vans parked along the city sea wall and they're going to detonate."
Gordon panicked, "When?!"
"I don't know! Tonight is Election Day, so it's going to be tonight. It has to be! Please, you have to believe me. I've only lied to you once, Lieutenant. When all I wanted was a shitty crime story about drops and pretended to be a dental hygienist. That is the only time I've ever lied to you. I will not lie again. Now it's time for me to tell you the biggest story Gotham will ever know, because it could be the last! You need to evacuate the city, please! So many people will die from this. I'm not lying. I wouldn't lie about this."
Lieutenant Gordon's breath was heavy and unequal on the other end. There was a sense of unease as Max couldn't anticipate if he was in doubt or contemplating. The lives of many hanging in the balance. She tried not to chew his ear off in the heat of panic, but let the information fester, trying to maintain in herself she had now done everything she can.
Then his voice blared on the other end, "Henricks! Radio the Chief! We got a serious act of terrorism encroaching – we need the entirety of Tricorner to evacuate immediately! We need the Mayor airlifted out of here! Jefferson, get a hold of the Bomb Squad!" Then he spoke directly to Max, "Maxine, where are these vans? I need avenues and streets. Exact locations!"
Max was soon to answer, knowing one in the immediate vicinity of the precinct she was at. Almost down the street three blocks. Then the ground shook. Her feet taken from ground. The lights flashed as everyone in the station were shaken to their knees. Bearings of the building wafting in clouds of dust, spidering cracks through the foundation. The layers of Max's foundation crumbling, as well. That underneath it all, Edward had the capacity to enact the plan. Mortifyingly confirmed before her very eyes, and she was in the fire path. Under the foundation she built with him, lay a monster far exceeding all her expectations.
"Gordon!? Jim?!"
The phone hummed and he was gone. Police officers fled from the precinct. Panic built to magnitudes where the very air tasted off. Max screamed finally, a scream that hadn't reacted immediately when the bomb set off. As she fled outside with the sea of Gotham's people, they witnessed another explosion. Then another. Sending cries through the crowd – scrambling through the streets in primal terror that reminisced the end of times. Not running from the cloud of fire, but the crumbles of stone and mortar. The barrier between them and the frigid Atlantic sea. The rip of mass water sprayed into Gotham's street, creating such a harrowing roar like a behemoth victimizing the city. The bones of buildings would shatter from the ground at the impact, sending piercing rubble through the waves. Glass ruptured, vehicles alarmed, the very ground unsteadily rumbling like the world was splitting in two.
Max tried to run with the crowd, she tried. But her height and weight compared to the others slowed her down like the runt of the litter. She was pushed into, shoved, then tripped. No one cared to wait or pull her from the cement as her body was nearly crushed by the panic of scrambling heels. She lost her breath a few times in any attempt to get back up. The pain of being trampled dwindling any immediate effort to escape the waves. Max wailed and pled, eventually thrusting herself back to her limping gait. The waves encroached like a maw soon to swallow them whole. The closer it got, the higher the screams rose. Max ran to the nearest alley. A ladder like the one she and Edward had climbed as they tracked Joon. Even the rats swarmed for safety as if they knew instantly what was happening. But there was nowhere to go. Nowhere to flee. The people of Gotham in a bowl being submerged in deep, freezing water.
Max climbed up the ladder with all her strength, the joints of the ladder rattled and shook her to and fro, but she persisted. Streams of water came first in the alley below her, washing away the filth. Then the wave grew bigger and higher. Stronger in its lashing of urban ground. Max was in the midst of the maw now. The water rushed up to her knees as she desperately tried to climb. Another wave came, not even soothed by the closure of the alley. It nearly threw her off the ladder. She held on with one hand as the water only equivalent to a thousand pins and needles chilled her to the bone. It immediately froze and stalled her movements. Like an insect in winter, her joints did not obey. She wailed and screamed, but who could help? Anyone and everyone in Gotham facing the same peril. Everyone needed help. Each was a man for themselves. Just as Gotham couldn't get anymore chaotic, the world shatters around them, bringing in oblivion.
Max climbed, looking out the open road to the alley. A sea of people washed away in screams snuffed out by water. Vehicles and buildings rooted – crushing them under the tumultuous waves. She fought her horrified eyes away in horror, gawking only to the summit of the building. Trying to outrun the rise of water like Lazarus. Unlike the bible, there was no ark saving them. Just as he planned.