Z is for Zoo, 4B
Jeez, this bad boy just keeps getting longer and longer. Is it still a one-shot if it's pushing past 82 pages? Probably not. Here's another 9 or so pages for ya. <3
- C
The day finally came in flashes of fire, as they all knew it would. The Familiars were sick of waiting. They didn’t want a Zoo, a contained nation of freaks, and a society willing to let them be. Their hatred of 452 and her supposed prophetic skin was only second to their hatred of 494, the man mercilessly hunting them all down. Their numbers were dwindling and taking pop-shots at the transgenics in Seattle wasn’t producing results; it was hard enough to breed children into their ranks, now they were losing full-fledged adults as well? Something had to be done. For months they’d slowly been getting into position and finally the order came from the shadows: Shut down the filth for good.
It wasn't long after that an explosion rocked the northern perimeter, sending concrete and rebar flying into the training yards, sending transgenics sprawling. Some got up, dazed and bloody, some did not. Even underground, the reverberations made Alec’s desk rattle on the polished floor. He’d glanced up, looked at the dust flowing white and chalk-like from the ceiling. Without making a noise, he’d calmly looked back down and pulled a handgun from his desk, checking the clip before standing, shrugging on his leather jacket, and leaving his office.
He’d been waiting for this day for a month. He only hoped that the Familiars’ had brought most of their army of freaks here, because that meant Seattle would be able to hold out longer. Mole was at the end of the hallway, loading shells into a sawed off shotgun. He glanced up as Alec approached and they shared a grim nod.
“You think they left the cars alone?” Alec asked.
Mole shrugged. “If not, steal one of theirs. I’m sure they parked some Snake Mobiles at the edge of the woods, thinking there would be some runners.” More fools them.
Another explosion rocked the subterranean bunker and they both glanced up.
“Still on the north side.” He sounded calm, but Mole knew Alec’s thoughts must be racing. It would be hard to be a leader of soldiers and not want to rush into the action himself, but…
“Drive like hell.” Mole clapped the other man on the shoulder. “I’ll stay here and rally the troops.” When Alec didn’t move, Mole shook his head. “We’ve been preparing for this, Alec. T.C. needs you more.”
Alec swore softly.
“If you stop at all the checkpoints on old I-90 and go the speed limit, you’d be lucky to make it in 20 hours.” Mole pointed out.
“Right.” Alec nodded because they both knew he wouldn't stop, and he sure as hell wouldn't go the unenforceable speed limit. He spared his Second one last glance, hesitating for one more moment. “…Be careful, man.”
“I should be saying that to you, you’re the one without any back-up.” Mole swung up the barrel of the shotgun and cocked it easily. “Now get.”
Alec took off out of a fire door and down a long corridor that would eventually dump him on the eastern side of the compound, near vehicle maintenance. It had probably been the ole’ Manticore leadership get-away-quick exit. Mole turned and went back the way he came, towards the sound of gunfire and chaos. He n’ Alec, they’d always known it would come to this; that the Familiars would try and get their one good day. Well, let them try. He’d be waitin’, him and his shotgun.
A thousand miles away, there were no explosions. The night seemed almost peaceful. It was the dead of winter, and snow blanketed the filth of the city, making it seem almost livable. And in its heart, far from the sleep of an oblivious populace, a well-aimed shot had a young transgenic falling from a rooftop, dead long before his body slammed into the unyielding concrete beneath the powdery snow. Guards were thin, but it wouldn’t be long before the boy would be missed. So the Familiars wasted no time in jumping the low fence that was built more as an ideal than an actual wall. On the other side of the small inner city it was rinse and repeat as a transhuman was killed and another group of twenty or so slithered their way inside the wire.
All along the perimeter, sentries fell and the Familiars poured in. It wasn’t long before skirmishes erupted, with groups of two or three transgenics harassing the Familiars before disappearing into shadow. Despite the asymmetric tactics, there was no denying it; transgenics were being pushed deeper and deeper into the heart of T.C. as the Familiars pressed ever inward.
It wasn’t long after the perimeter had been breached that the call came in. Up to that point it had been a slow night at Command and the radio crackled to life almost the same time that the door crashed upon, Dix stood in surprise, and a bullet slammed into his shoulder sending him to the ground. Josh didn’t spare any time, seizing the chair near the computer and flinging it at the door, causing the Familiar’s next shot to go high, sending sparks into the air as the bullet ricocheted off a light. And then, chaos.
Joshua dove towards Dix as more Familiars burst through the doorway. More shots rang out and the large man winced… but they didn’t come from the front, and they weren’t aimed at him. Near the back entrance transhumans were pulling guns off a wall. Small band they may be, they certainly weren’t going down with a fight.
They’d all known the policy of “No-Kill” couldn’t last forever.
A low-whine escaped his throat as he used his palm to staunch the blood seeping from Dix’s shoulder. He couldn’t stay here for long. Little fella would be at home, he had to get to Max, had to keep her safe. The kittens would be here soon, they needed their Godfather there for him.
A bullet whizzed by his ear and he winced. He just had to get there, first.
The ring and the car keys still lay on the stand in her bedroom. She couldn't exactly give them back to him. Max hadn't seen Logan in a month, since he’d walked out on her, but ring notwithstanding that was probably for the best.
She hadn't seen Alec, either, and the absence was beginning to gnaw at her. Her back hurt, her neck hurt, she always felt so damn tired. She felt caged in. She couldn't leave T.C., too dangerous now. Familiars were crawling the streets of Seattle, just waiting for a suspected transgenic to cross their path. The few her scouts had caught probing the fenced perimeter got summarily dumped back on the other side, only slightly worse for wear and usually lacking clothing. It was only a small victory: With snake freaks pressing in a little bit more every day, the small city center felt even smaller. She felt like a tiger in a cage, pacing the rooms of her small refurbished apartment.
Still, no Alec. You'd think a guy could pop in once in a while: It was his kids she was carrying all over T.C. after all. The most frustrating part was that she knew as soon as she went into labor, he'd been on her doorstep in the matter of a few hours. A little visit in the interim wouldn’t be too much to ask though, would it?
It's not that she was lonely, no. She had a steady stream of visitors checking up on her. Came with being the very, very pregnant leader of Terminal City. Whenever she went to answer the door though, she couldn't help that small part of her that hoped for flashing green eyes tinged with gold and a small upturned smirk... It never was him though.
Which is maybe why she heard footsteps in her hallway, she wasn’t overly concerned. Male, probably, average height, not overweight. Not the mayor of Seattle then, that man got a little more rotund every time she saw him. Not Josh, his familiar clunking steps were usually enough to bring a small smile to her face even on her hormonal days. Usually.
She obstinately waited for the knock from the couch. She’d already told herself that morning that she wasn’t in the mood for visitors today. The twins had been sitting low for weeks, and good lord, were they having a wrestling match in there? Another pang twisted her guts, and she bore down, forcing herself to ignore it. The knock would come, she told herself, and she would ignore that too, right before she went to the bathroom for what was probably the sixteenth time. She was sure one of the twins was sitting on her bladder just to be spiteful.
Whoever it was, they didn’t knock so much as they kicked. The door crashed open, the door frame splintering by the sheer force, and he stepped in. He, in this case, being Ames fricking White.
Time crawled to a halt as their eyes connected and he smiled soooo slowly.
There was a gun next to her bed. She knew, because Alec had left it there for her a long time ago. The gun seemed like a world away from her now. Seven months ago, she would have dove over the back of the couch and been in the bedroom before he could even get one word out of his evil, smug mouth.
This was obviously not seven months ago.
Time resumed.
“452…”
He always did that. Whenever he caught up with her, her designation rolled off his tongue in that slow, superior way. She really fucking hated it. So, lacking a gun, she did what any other sane, cornered pregnant woman would do when faced with their arch-nemesis.
He easily avoided the lamp that she threw at him. He even had the gall to turn and watch it crash into the hallway in amusement, his trench coat swinging around his legs, as she shoved herself off the couch.
He thought she was an easy target, the pig.
From its place on the kitchen counter, she heard her pager start to vibrate. A warning come too late, undoubtedly.
“Oh come on, 452.” White let out a short bark of laughter as she trotted to the bedroom. “Where do you think you’re going to go? Let’s just have a nice little chat, hmmm?”
She slammed the door behind her, her eyes zeroing quickly on the bed stand: the ring, the keys, and underneath the stack of magazines, the gun.
She heard his footsteps, the slow saunter as he made his way across her living room. Her hand glided protectively across her abdomen, her eyes steeling, and she wasted no more time, crossing the carpeted floor quickly.
“This is kind of ironic, wouldn’t you say 452?” His voice echoed in her living room, his eyes glanced around in cool disinterest. His ears traced the source of vibration to the kitchen, where her pager sat, buzzing. A hard smack from the butt of his gun cracked the thin screen of her overused pager, silenced its vibration. His stare went back to the bedroom door, the only thing that kept him from his vengeance. “You took my son from me, maybe I’ll let you live a few more weeks… long enough to watch me take yours from you.”
She released the clip easily, looked at the bullets pre-loaded for her. An easy slap sent the magazine back into the Beretta. Her eyes closed, her stomach rolled. Take her children? Over her dead body. Her eyes were still closed as she released the safety.
“Why wait, even? Maybe I’ll just cut them out of you and save ourselves the time.” He was right outside the door now, his hand on the knob, the muzzle of his gun sliding against the doorframe.
Moron.
She aimed dead center at the door.
She didn’t need to.
An unfamiliar voice from her living room, “God, do you always talk this much? No wonder your side is always losing.”
White’s head snapped to the right, towards the woman standing in the doorway.
Golden eyes flashed. “Put down the gun before I put you down.”
“And then what?” He asked, his arms going up, letting the firearm swing from his trigger finger as he stepped away from the bedroom door. “Then you shoot your way out of your little zoo, transgenic? My Familiars are all over this city.”
Max swallowed her fear. They would have hit Command too. Josh was working today. No, it was too soon. Alec had warned her they were coming. She’d thought she would have time, that the twins would be here already, that they’d have organized… It was all too soon.
But through the thoughts and another pain, slicing through her belly, Max realized the unfamiliar voice in her living room was not so unfamiliar after all. She crept back towards the door, carefully, quietly.
She didn’t know what Casey was doing here, but she was no friend of Max’s, and Max wasn’t about to let down her guard.
“I’ll do what’s necessary, ” Casey’s voice was as steady as her aim. “And that includes shooting you if you don’t put down that gun.”
White sighed, as if he’d only encountered a minor inconvenience and not a well-trained soldier. The gun in his hand dropped and hit the floor with a loud enough ‘thunk’ to draw Casey’s eyes, if only momentarily. His left hand used the momentary distraction to slide behind his waist, reaching for the other firearm he carried with him…
The shot following the momentary silence made Max jump, only slightly, and yank open the door, gun already trained on where White should be standing… He was not there, he was crumpled on the ground. Max’s stomach turned, she didn’t bother scanning his body for the bloom of blood that would show her where the kill shot was. She instead turned to Casey, her hands tightening around the grip of Alec’s gun.
“I was wondering where that got to…” Casey frowned at the piece on Max’s hands, before lowering her own.
“What are you doing here, Casey?” Max ground out, stepping carefully over White’s body, not looking at him or the blood beginning to seep around him. Her heart was still beating wildly in her chest. Everything within her told her she needed to get out of here, but she squashed that. This was her home; she wasn't going anywhere.
“Saving your primadonna butt, from the looks of it,” Casey sniffed. Charming… she was not. Max wanted to punt the girl out the window, regardless of the fact that she’d just been saved by her… not that Max had needed saving. “Now, are you going to lower that gun or what?”
“Funny, isn’t it?” Max frowned as way of an answer, still keeping her gun carefully trained on the blonde. She circled the couch slowly. “White shows up on my doorstep the same day you do. Nice coincidence, don’t you think?” Part of her still couldn't really believe the man that had been hounding her for so long was so suddenly dead. It was surreal, her brain almost expected him to jump off the floor at any moment.
“Not a coincidence,” Casey frowned, turning her body to follow the track of Max’s. “I followed White here after he jumped the fence.”
“You what?!”
“Don’t get the wrong idea,” Casey held up her hands, glaring. “Let’s get something straight right now. I hate your guts. Passionately. But I’m not about to watch you die.”
“Gee, thanks,” Max replied in heavy sarcasm. Her fake smile dropped off her face, “Now get out.”
“No-can-do, sister.” She shook her head in an annoyingly reminiscent way of Alec. “There’s about a hundred Familiars running around your little urban paradise, we’re getting the hell out of dodge.”
Max laughed in disbelief. “You’d have to be crazy to think I’d go anywhere with you!” Josh was still out there somewhere. And Dix, and Gem, and little Eva with the sunny smile… she couldn’t leave them. Wouldn’t leave them. Her jaw set stubbornly.
“You’d have to be crazy to stay here,” Casey pointed out.
“Not much of a choice,” Max’s eyes shut as another ghost of pain trickled around her senses. She finally lowered the gun, sagging against the kitchen bar. “This is my home.”
“That’s so stup-“
“Also, I think my water just broke.”
Max’s eyes opened in time to watch Casey’s widen to the size of saucers. “What?! Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure,” Max replied, only slightly sardonic. Really it was only the pain that kept her voice from being scathing.
Casey still looked flabbergasted, glancing down at Max’s stomach. “Well… stop it.”
“Not the way it works, Casey.”
The woman swore, muttering under her breath, “I knew I should have brought more guns.” She glanced at a full duffel next to her feet. Max wondered how on earth that couldn't be enough.
In the end, Casey was the one to get rid of the body, dragging it off to who knows where. When that was done, she set about barricading the door with almost every scrap of furniture Max owned. Max paced, trying to remember to breathe every time a contraction twisted up her insides. She tried to avoid talking to Casey too but as the hour slowly dragged by, the woman finally seemed to have enough of the awkward silence.
“Don’t you need to lie down or something?” The blond asked from her seated place on the floor, below the bar.
Max shook a sweaty head. Needed to keep walking. She didn’t say anything, forcing out another slow breath. Shankar had said with her first it could take hours, and she was on track for that prediction if the length of time between each contraction was any indication. She spared one glance at Casey, her eyes narrowing only slightly. She wished it was the woman’s brother that was here. Or Josh. Or Gem, or any number of people. Hell, she’d even take Normal over Casey. At least Normal would have been some help in this situation. “Gotta keep walking till I can’t anymore,” Max huffed, and resumed her pacing.
Casey sighed, her head thunking back into the bar. “You picked a fine day to go into labor.”
Max didn’t look at her, just snapped back, “Remind me again what you’re doing here?”
“I thought I was saving you,” Casey scowled. “Apparently I’m just here to baby-catch while the Familiars burn the rest of the city to the ground.”
Max paused in her pacing. She glanced at the woman on the ground. “Did Alec send you?”
Sharp pain flitted through golden cat eyes, if only for a moment. No, then.
“He kicked you out, didn’t he?” Max said it matter-of-factly. She didn’t feel much sympathy for the girl, how could she?
“He made it pretty clear I was no longer needed.” Casey glanced away. Then let out a soft whuff, “When I first left the compound, I kinda longed for this day, kinda wanted you to be the first to die. Considered going to the Familiars myself and offering to help ‘em.”
Max’s hackles rose. Her eyes darted towards the gun she’d left on the bar. Casey's neck craned as she looked straight up towards the gun sitting, undoubtedly, above her head.
“Well, obviously I didn’t,” She scoffed, looking back at Max. “That would be suicide.”
Max looked back down and snorted in disgust. “So what, you came to Seattle to hang out for funsies?”
“No,” Casey replied blandly. “I came to keep an eye on you.”
“Please-“
Casey spoke right over Max’s eye roll. “At first, I thought maybe I would confront you and we’d have it out. But, I mean, look at you,” Casey gestured in disdain. “You look like you’re about to pop, I couldn’t exactly fight you. You’re practically disabled.”
Wow, Max didn’t know it was possible to dislike someone this much. Apparently Alec was right; his sister had a knack for pissing people off.
“What the hell is your problem with me?” Max hissed.
Casey pointed at her head. If she was about to say she was crazy, Max was all onboard. But she didn’t. “I was trained to, remember? You’re an 09’er. A Rat-Traitor that deserted your comrades. Everyone was put into indoctrination classes for weeks after your little unit decided they couldn’t hack it and ran off…” She trailed off, her almost conversational tone turning moody.
“Alec and I were in the same unit before that night.” She looked up at Max. “After that, well, all the twins had it pretty bad. No more units for them, they might be ‘bad seeds.’ I didn’t see him again until after he got out of ReDoc.”
Max walked towards the window, immediately thought better of it (she wasn't suicidal, after all), and paced back towards the kitchen. She might not like the woman, but Max couldn’t deny that this was a rare opportunity to gain insight into Alec’s pre-Manticore-release life. “Alec said he used to look after you.” She said it grudgingly as she stepped around the corner, into the kitchen.
Casey finally stood, turning and leaning over the bar, glancing down at her hands. “When we were kids, we always kind of knew we were similar. When we were older it was easy enough to figure out we shared a donor, even if I hadn’t broken into the files and read it for myself.”
“Funny that he never mentioned you.” Max leaned by the fridge, glaring over the countertop. At the edge of her vision her disabled pager, cracked and unusable, still sat forlornly by the sink. Had it been Alec paging, warning her? Or had it been Command?
“Is it?” Casey shot back. “From what I heard, you weren’t exactly his best friend and confidante after you forced everyone into the outside.”
It hadn’t actually been Max’s doing, which she was only too happy to remind the blond. “Manticore was the one that decided to set fire to their own people, not me. Excuse me for opening the doors so you wouldn’t burn to death.”
Casey didn’t argue the point, just continued to glare. Finally, she let it go, pushing away from the bar, standing on her own. “Anyway, it was never quite the same after 2009. There was always a little more distance there, there had to be. Any type of relationship, friends, lovers, siblings, they were all squashed remorselessly after that night.” She paused, and that’s when the crux of the matter came out.
“I thought when we were all out, when Manticore was behind us…” She trailed off, glancing away.
“You thought you’d be a family again.” Max said, realization dawning.
“But there you were,” Casey scowled, seemingly remembering that she was a huge un-sensitive bitch. “And he wouldn’t leave you. After everything you’ve done to him. He told me he owed it to you.”
“After everything I’ve done to him?” Max demanded. “Alec isn’t exactly a saint, you know.”
But her words seemed to fall on deaf ears. Casey shook her head. “You don’t get it. I finally had my brother back, and he was going to get himself bombed to smithereens for a woman that was marrying another man. I hated you.”
“And what,” Max deadpanned. “You thought the best way to improve familial relations was, I dunno, hide the fact that he was about to be a father from him?”
“You could have told him yourself in the hallway,” Casey shot back. “You only proved what I already know, you’re just going to keep hurting him.”
“Yeah, because you’re doing so much better right now.” Max rolled her eyes. “Tell me again why he kicked you out? Oh, that’s right, because you’re a huge fucking bitch.”
“Compared to you, I’m a regular fucking saint!” Casey shouted.
Then from behind the door, a soft muffled. “Max, are you in there? It’s Gem…”
Oh thank god. Someone she didn’t want to kill. She and Casey shared a quick annoyed glance at one another before making their way to the stacked barricade against the door. But in the back of her mind, as she watched the taller woman slide the couch away from the door, Max wondered.. is there anything she wouldn’t do for her own family? How far would she have gone for her unit? For Josh, or Cindy, or the twins? …How far wouldn’t she go for Alec? Her mouth set in a grim line, Max knew there really was no room for forgiveness inside of her… but maybe there was a smidge of understanding. As annoying as that was.
Gem had her toddler in one arm and an automatic weapon in the other. She’d taken one look at Max and handed off the weapon to Casey, but not before frowning in surprise at the blonde’s presence. She set Max back to pacing in the kitchen as she boiled some water. Casey seemed only too happy to be out of that situation, and knelt by the windows, checking for movement in the streets below, occasionally peeking out after sporadic bursts of gunfire a few buildings away. Max was mostly just glad that she had someone else to talk to.
“I never thought I’d be in another siege situation with a baby on the way,” Gem shook her head.
“No kidding,” Max exhaled slowly, taking careful steps around the redhead. To the sink, then to the fridge aaaand slowly turn around… back to the sink.
It wasn’t long after that that Josh made it to her place, a wounded Dix in tow. She fell into the big lug’s arms fighting back tears she was so happy and grateful to see him. Josh didn’t seem as surprised to see Casey as Gem had. Maybe he’d caught sight of the woman in the last month when she’d been lurking around. He could be pretty omniscient for a man that so many people mistook for slow.
He’d taken one look at Max’s damp face and soiled clothing and his eyes had filled up his head. “Babies… come now?” He looked panicked.
“Sorry, Big Fella.” She wasn’t sure what else to say. This wasn’t exactly her ideal situation, either.
“Can’t stay here, Max.” He whined at her.
“Well, how exactly do you think we’re going to sneak a pregnant lady out of T.C.?” Gem asked, her arms crossed across her chest.
“It’s not going to be any easier to sneak her out with two newborns,” Casey pointed out, still hunkered by the window. “Better to go now and hope for the best.” Her sentence was finished off by a shot ricocheting off a nearby building and she winced. She glanced again out the window, but there was no way of telling if the stray bullet had come from Familiar gun or transgenic.
In fact, nobody in the room had any idea who was winning. Gem had gunned down a hulking woman who’d barged into her home, and then took off for Max’s.A long time ago, Max had been there for her; Gem wasn't about to turn her back on the other woman. Still, the toddler in her arms had made it imperative that she avoid the skirmishes that were breaking out all across T.C., so she wasn't sure at how many Familiars there were, or if they were even being held off effectively. Josh, for his part, had watched the transgenics at Command fight off at least ten Familiars before he’d snuck out the back, desperate to get to Little Fella. There’d been more fighting their way in when he’d left.
There was no denying that Max did not want her children born here, in the heart of a warzone. But a part of her balked; hadn't she sworn to defend her home? Then, there was also that small part of her that knew without any uncertainty that Alec would be coming for her. How would he find her if she wasn’t here? Her eyes snapped to Dix, because she’d always kind of known he’d been the most likely to be the insider, a fact that Alec had confirmed last time he’d been here.
“Did you call Wyoming?”
He had the decency to appear sheepish, at least. “There’s no answer.” She would have snorted, figures, but he continued. “There’s no answer on any of the lines, not even Mole’s cellphone.”
A dual front? Oh God, it must have started for them too. What if the page that White had squashed out, what if it had been him? Defending home suddenly became seconday; she had to get out of here- As if sensing her thoughts, a contraction helpfully reminded her that she wasn't going anywhere and her eyes squeezed shut at the pain of it.
“Max,” Gem’s fingers closed around her shoulder. “You are not going to run off and try and save Alec. I think you have enough on your plate right now.”
“Plus, Alec doesn’t need saving.” Casey pointed out helpfully. Max ignored her, her blood rushing in her ears. Alec always needed saving, if not from the outside, then at least from himself. It wasn’t only evident in the time she’d spent with him in the preceding years, it was clear in the way that his life so mirrored her own.
And of course that’s when a bullet actually made it through the window, shattering glass, sending a blast of chill air into the room, before embedding itself in the wall near the kitchen.
“Everybody down,” Max shouted, pushing away pain, grabbing at Gem’s and tugging the other woman to the floor with her. The Familiars may have found White’s body, they may have just sensed movement in the building… Either way, Max’s little party was no longer uncontested. Josh crawled towards the opposite side of the window from Casey, his rifle dragging along the floor with him. Casey was already firing at the street.
It was going to be a long night.
- C
The day finally came in flashes of fire, as they all knew it would. The Familiars were sick of waiting. They didn’t want a Zoo, a contained nation of freaks, and a society willing to let them be. Their hatred of 452 and her supposed prophetic skin was only second to their hatred of 494, the man mercilessly hunting them all down. Their numbers were dwindling and taking pop-shots at the transgenics in Seattle wasn’t producing results; it was hard enough to breed children into their ranks, now they were losing full-fledged adults as well? Something had to be done. For months they’d slowly been getting into position and finally the order came from the shadows: Shut down the filth for good.
It wasn't long after that an explosion rocked the northern perimeter, sending concrete and rebar flying into the training yards, sending transgenics sprawling. Some got up, dazed and bloody, some did not. Even underground, the reverberations made Alec’s desk rattle on the polished floor. He’d glanced up, looked at the dust flowing white and chalk-like from the ceiling. Without making a noise, he’d calmly looked back down and pulled a handgun from his desk, checking the clip before standing, shrugging on his leather jacket, and leaving his office.
He’d been waiting for this day for a month. He only hoped that the Familiars’ had brought most of their army of freaks here, because that meant Seattle would be able to hold out longer. Mole was at the end of the hallway, loading shells into a sawed off shotgun. He glanced up as Alec approached and they shared a grim nod.
“You think they left the cars alone?” Alec asked.
Mole shrugged. “If not, steal one of theirs. I’m sure they parked some Snake Mobiles at the edge of the woods, thinking there would be some runners.” More fools them.
Another explosion rocked the subterranean bunker and they both glanced up.
“Still on the north side.” He sounded calm, but Mole knew Alec’s thoughts must be racing. It would be hard to be a leader of soldiers and not want to rush into the action himself, but…
“Drive like hell.” Mole clapped the other man on the shoulder. “I’ll stay here and rally the troops.” When Alec didn’t move, Mole shook his head. “We’ve been preparing for this, Alec. T.C. needs you more.”
Alec swore softly.
“If you stop at all the checkpoints on old I-90 and go the speed limit, you’d be lucky to make it in 20 hours.” Mole pointed out.
“Right.” Alec nodded because they both knew he wouldn't stop, and he sure as hell wouldn't go the unenforceable speed limit. He spared his Second one last glance, hesitating for one more moment. “…Be careful, man.”
“I should be saying that to you, you’re the one without any back-up.” Mole swung up the barrel of the shotgun and cocked it easily. “Now get.”
Alec took off out of a fire door and down a long corridor that would eventually dump him on the eastern side of the compound, near vehicle maintenance. It had probably been the ole’ Manticore leadership get-away-quick exit. Mole turned and went back the way he came, towards the sound of gunfire and chaos. He n’ Alec, they’d always known it would come to this; that the Familiars would try and get their one good day. Well, let them try. He’d be waitin’, him and his shotgun.
A thousand miles away, there were no explosions. The night seemed almost peaceful. It was the dead of winter, and snow blanketed the filth of the city, making it seem almost livable. And in its heart, far from the sleep of an oblivious populace, a well-aimed shot had a young transgenic falling from a rooftop, dead long before his body slammed into the unyielding concrete beneath the powdery snow. Guards were thin, but it wouldn’t be long before the boy would be missed. So the Familiars wasted no time in jumping the low fence that was built more as an ideal than an actual wall. On the other side of the small inner city it was rinse and repeat as a transhuman was killed and another group of twenty or so slithered their way inside the wire.
All along the perimeter, sentries fell and the Familiars poured in. It wasn’t long before skirmishes erupted, with groups of two or three transgenics harassing the Familiars before disappearing into shadow. Despite the asymmetric tactics, there was no denying it; transgenics were being pushed deeper and deeper into the heart of T.C. as the Familiars pressed ever inward.
It wasn’t long after the perimeter had been breached that the call came in. Up to that point it had been a slow night at Command and the radio crackled to life almost the same time that the door crashed upon, Dix stood in surprise, and a bullet slammed into his shoulder sending him to the ground. Josh didn’t spare any time, seizing the chair near the computer and flinging it at the door, causing the Familiar’s next shot to go high, sending sparks into the air as the bullet ricocheted off a light. And then, chaos.
Joshua dove towards Dix as more Familiars burst through the doorway. More shots rang out and the large man winced… but they didn’t come from the front, and they weren’t aimed at him. Near the back entrance transhumans were pulling guns off a wall. Small band they may be, they certainly weren’t going down with a fight.
They’d all known the policy of “No-Kill” couldn’t last forever.
A low-whine escaped his throat as he used his palm to staunch the blood seeping from Dix’s shoulder. He couldn’t stay here for long. Little fella would be at home, he had to get to Max, had to keep her safe. The kittens would be here soon, they needed their Godfather there for him.
A bullet whizzed by his ear and he winced. He just had to get there, first.
The ring and the car keys still lay on the stand in her bedroom. She couldn't exactly give them back to him. Max hadn't seen Logan in a month, since he’d walked out on her, but ring notwithstanding that was probably for the best.
She hadn't seen Alec, either, and the absence was beginning to gnaw at her. Her back hurt, her neck hurt, she always felt so damn tired. She felt caged in. She couldn't leave T.C., too dangerous now. Familiars were crawling the streets of Seattle, just waiting for a suspected transgenic to cross their path. The few her scouts had caught probing the fenced perimeter got summarily dumped back on the other side, only slightly worse for wear and usually lacking clothing. It was only a small victory: With snake freaks pressing in a little bit more every day, the small city center felt even smaller. She felt like a tiger in a cage, pacing the rooms of her small refurbished apartment.
Still, no Alec. You'd think a guy could pop in once in a while: It was his kids she was carrying all over T.C. after all. The most frustrating part was that she knew as soon as she went into labor, he'd been on her doorstep in the matter of a few hours. A little visit in the interim wouldn’t be too much to ask though, would it?
It's not that she was lonely, no. She had a steady stream of visitors checking up on her. Came with being the very, very pregnant leader of Terminal City. Whenever she went to answer the door though, she couldn't help that small part of her that hoped for flashing green eyes tinged with gold and a small upturned smirk... It never was him though.
Which is maybe why she heard footsteps in her hallway, she wasn’t overly concerned. Male, probably, average height, not overweight. Not the mayor of Seattle then, that man got a little more rotund every time she saw him. Not Josh, his familiar clunking steps were usually enough to bring a small smile to her face even on her hormonal days. Usually.
She obstinately waited for the knock from the couch. She’d already told herself that morning that she wasn’t in the mood for visitors today. The twins had been sitting low for weeks, and good lord, were they having a wrestling match in there? Another pang twisted her guts, and she bore down, forcing herself to ignore it. The knock would come, she told herself, and she would ignore that too, right before she went to the bathroom for what was probably the sixteenth time. She was sure one of the twins was sitting on her bladder just to be spiteful.
Whoever it was, they didn’t knock so much as they kicked. The door crashed open, the door frame splintering by the sheer force, and he stepped in. He, in this case, being Ames fricking White.
Time crawled to a halt as their eyes connected and he smiled soooo slowly.
There was a gun next to her bed. She knew, because Alec had left it there for her a long time ago. The gun seemed like a world away from her now. Seven months ago, she would have dove over the back of the couch and been in the bedroom before he could even get one word out of his evil, smug mouth.
This was obviously not seven months ago.
Time resumed.
“452…”
He always did that. Whenever he caught up with her, her designation rolled off his tongue in that slow, superior way. She really fucking hated it. So, lacking a gun, she did what any other sane, cornered pregnant woman would do when faced with their arch-nemesis.
He easily avoided the lamp that she threw at him. He even had the gall to turn and watch it crash into the hallway in amusement, his trench coat swinging around his legs, as she shoved herself off the couch.
He thought she was an easy target, the pig.
From its place on the kitchen counter, she heard her pager start to vibrate. A warning come too late, undoubtedly.
“Oh come on, 452.” White let out a short bark of laughter as she trotted to the bedroom. “Where do you think you’re going to go? Let’s just have a nice little chat, hmmm?”
She slammed the door behind her, her eyes zeroing quickly on the bed stand: the ring, the keys, and underneath the stack of magazines, the gun.
She heard his footsteps, the slow saunter as he made his way across her living room. Her hand glided protectively across her abdomen, her eyes steeling, and she wasted no more time, crossing the carpeted floor quickly.
“This is kind of ironic, wouldn’t you say 452?” His voice echoed in her living room, his eyes glanced around in cool disinterest. His ears traced the source of vibration to the kitchen, where her pager sat, buzzing. A hard smack from the butt of his gun cracked the thin screen of her overused pager, silenced its vibration. His stare went back to the bedroom door, the only thing that kept him from his vengeance. “You took my son from me, maybe I’ll let you live a few more weeks… long enough to watch me take yours from you.”
She released the clip easily, looked at the bullets pre-loaded for her. An easy slap sent the magazine back into the Beretta. Her eyes closed, her stomach rolled. Take her children? Over her dead body. Her eyes were still closed as she released the safety.
“Why wait, even? Maybe I’ll just cut them out of you and save ourselves the time.” He was right outside the door now, his hand on the knob, the muzzle of his gun sliding against the doorframe.
Moron.
She aimed dead center at the door.
She didn’t need to.
An unfamiliar voice from her living room, “God, do you always talk this much? No wonder your side is always losing.”
White’s head snapped to the right, towards the woman standing in the doorway.
Golden eyes flashed. “Put down the gun before I put you down.”
“And then what?” He asked, his arms going up, letting the firearm swing from his trigger finger as he stepped away from the bedroom door. “Then you shoot your way out of your little zoo, transgenic? My Familiars are all over this city.”
Max swallowed her fear. They would have hit Command too. Josh was working today. No, it was too soon. Alec had warned her they were coming. She’d thought she would have time, that the twins would be here already, that they’d have organized… It was all too soon.
But through the thoughts and another pain, slicing through her belly, Max realized the unfamiliar voice in her living room was not so unfamiliar after all. She crept back towards the door, carefully, quietly.
She didn’t know what Casey was doing here, but she was no friend of Max’s, and Max wasn’t about to let down her guard.
“I’ll do what’s necessary, ” Casey’s voice was as steady as her aim. “And that includes shooting you if you don’t put down that gun.”
White sighed, as if he’d only encountered a minor inconvenience and not a well-trained soldier. The gun in his hand dropped and hit the floor with a loud enough ‘thunk’ to draw Casey’s eyes, if only momentarily. His left hand used the momentary distraction to slide behind his waist, reaching for the other firearm he carried with him…
The shot following the momentary silence made Max jump, only slightly, and yank open the door, gun already trained on where White should be standing… He was not there, he was crumpled on the ground. Max’s stomach turned, she didn’t bother scanning his body for the bloom of blood that would show her where the kill shot was. She instead turned to Casey, her hands tightening around the grip of Alec’s gun.
“I was wondering where that got to…” Casey frowned at the piece on Max’s hands, before lowering her own.
“What are you doing here, Casey?” Max ground out, stepping carefully over White’s body, not looking at him or the blood beginning to seep around him. Her heart was still beating wildly in her chest. Everything within her told her she needed to get out of here, but she squashed that. This was her home; she wasn't going anywhere.
“Saving your primadonna butt, from the looks of it,” Casey sniffed. Charming… she was not. Max wanted to punt the girl out the window, regardless of the fact that she’d just been saved by her… not that Max had needed saving. “Now, are you going to lower that gun or what?”
“Funny, isn’t it?” Max frowned as way of an answer, still keeping her gun carefully trained on the blonde. She circled the couch slowly. “White shows up on my doorstep the same day you do. Nice coincidence, don’t you think?” Part of her still couldn't really believe the man that had been hounding her for so long was so suddenly dead. It was surreal, her brain almost expected him to jump off the floor at any moment.
“Not a coincidence,” Casey frowned, turning her body to follow the track of Max’s. “I followed White here after he jumped the fence.”
“You what?!”
“Don’t get the wrong idea,” Casey held up her hands, glaring. “Let’s get something straight right now. I hate your guts. Passionately. But I’m not about to watch you die.”
“Gee, thanks,” Max replied in heavy sarcasm. Her fake smile dropped off her face, “Now get out.”
“No-can-do, sister.” She shook her head in an annoyingly reminiscent way of Alec. “There’s about a hundred Familiars running around your little urban paradise, we’re getting the hell out of dodge.”
Max laughed in disbelief. “You’d have to be crazy to think I’d go anywhere with you!” Josh was still out there somewhere. And Dix, and Gem, and little Eva with the sunny smile… she couldn’t leave them. Wouldn’t leave them. Her jaw set stubbornly.
“You’d have to be crazy to stay here,” Casey pointed out.
“Not much of a choice,” Max’s eyes shut as another ghost of pain trickled around her senses. She finally lowered the gun, sagging against the kitchen bar. “This is my home.”
“That’s so stup-“
“Also, I think my water just broke.”
Max’s eyes opened in time to watch Casey’s widen to the size of saucers. “What?! Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure,” Max replied, only slightly sardonic. Really it was only the pain that kept her voice from being scathing.
Casey still looked flabbergasted, glancing down at Max’s stomach. “Well… stop it.”
“Not the way it works, Casey.”
The woman swore, muttering under her breath, “I knew I should have brought more guns.” She glanced at a full duffel next to her feet. Max wondered how on earth that couldn't be enough.
In the end, Casey was the one to get rid of the body, dragging it off to who knows where. When that was done, she set about barricading the door with almost every scrap of furniture Max owned. Max paced, trying to remember to breathe every time a contraction twisted up her insides. She tried to avoid talking to Casey too but as the hour slowly dragged by, the woman finally seemed to have enough of the awkward silence.
“Don’t you need to lie down or something?” The blond asked from her seated place on the floor, below the bar.
Max shook a sweaty head. Needed to keep walking. She didn’t say anything, forcing out another slow breath. Shankar had said with her first it could take hours, and she was on track for that prediction if the length of time between each contraction was any indication. She spared one glance at Casey, her eyes narrowing only slightly. She wished it was the woman’s brother that was here. Or Josh. Or Gem, or any number of people. Hell, she’d even take Normal over Casey. At least Normal would have been some help in this situation. “Gotta keep walking till I can’t anymore,” Max huffed, and resumed her pacing.
Casey sighed, her head thunking back into the bar. “You picked a fine day to go into labor.”
Max didn’t look at her, just snapped back, “Remind me again what you’re doing here?”
“I thought I was saving you,” Casey scowled. “Apparently I’m just here to baby-catch while the Familiars burn the rest of the city to the ground.”
Max paused in her pacing. She glanced at the woman on the ground. “Did Alec send you?”
Sharp pain flitted through golden cat eyes, if only for a moment. No, then.
“He kicked you out, didn’t he?” Max said it matter-of-factly. She didn’t feel much sympathy for the girl, how could she?
“He made it pretty clear I was no longer needed.” Casey glanced away. Then let out a soft whuff, “When I first left the compound, I kinda longed for this day, kinda wanted you to be the first to die. Considered going to the Familiars myself and offering to help ‘em.”
Max’s hackles rose. Her eyes darted towards the gun she’d left on the bar. Casey's neck craned as she looked straight up towards the gun sitting, undoubtedly, above her head.
“Well, obviously I didn’t,” She scoffed, looking back at Max. “That would be suicide.”
Max looked back down and snorted in disgust. “So what, you came to Seattle to hang out for funsies?”
“No,” Casey replied blandly. “I came to keep an eye on you.”
“Please-“
Casey spoke right over Max’s eye roll. “At first, I thought maybe I would confront you and we’d have it out. But, I mean, look at you,” Casey gestured in disdain. “You look like you’re about to pop, I couldn’t exactly fight you. You’re practically disabled.”
Wow, Max didn’t know it was possible to dislike someone this much. Apparently Alec was right; his sister had a knack for pissing people off.
“What the hell is your problem with me?” Max hissed.
Casey pointed at her head. If she was about to say she was crazy, Max was all onboard. But she didn’t. “I was trained to, remember? You’re an 09’er. A Rat-Traitor that deserted your comrades. Everyone was put into indoctrination classes for weeks after your little unit decided they couldn’t hack it and ran off…” She trailed off, her almost conversational tone turning moody.
“Alec and I were in the same unit before that night.” She looked up at Max. “After that, well, all the twins had it pretty bad. No more units for them, they might be ‘bad seeds.’ I didn’t see him again until after he got out of ReDoc.”
Max walked towards the window, immediately thought better of it (she wasn't suicidal, after all), and paced back towards the kitchen. She might not like the woman, but Max couldn’t deny that this was a rare opportunity to gain insight into Alec’s pre-Manticore-release life. “Alec said he used to look after you.” She said it grudgingly as she stepped around the corner, into the kitchen.
Casey finally stood, turning and leaning over the bar, glancing down at her hands. “When we were kids, we always kind of knew we were similar. When we were older it was easy enough to figure out we shared a donor, even if I hadn’t broken into the files and read it for myself.”
“Funny that he never mentioned you.” Max leaned by the fridge, glaring over the countertop. At the edge of her vision her disabled pager, cracked and unusable, still sat forlornly by the sink. Had it been Alec paging, warning her? Or had it been Command?
“Is it?” Casey shot back. “From what I heard, you weren’t exactly his best friend and confidante after you forced everyone into the outside.”
It hadn’t actually been Max’s doing, which she was only too happy to remind the blond. “Manticore was the one that decided to set fire to their own people, not me. Excuse me for opening the doors so you wouldn’t burn to death.”
Casey didn’t argue the point, just continued to glare. Finally, she let it go, pushing away from the bar, standing on her own. “Anyway, it was never quite the same after 2009. There was always a little more distance there, there had to be. Any type of relationship, friends, lovers, siblings, they were all squashed remorselessly after that night.” She paused, and that’s when the crux of the matter came out.
“I thought when we were all out, when Manticore was behind us…” She trailed off, glancing away.
“You thought you’d be a family again.” Max said, realization dawning.
“But there you were,” Casey scowled, seemingly remembering that she was a huge un-sensitive bitch. “And he wouldn’t leave you. After everything you’ve done to him. He told me he owed it to you.”
“After everything I’ve done to him?” Max demanded. “Alec isn’t exactly a saint, you know.”
But her words seemed to fall on deaf ears. Casey shook her head. “You don’t get it. I finally had my brother back, and he was going to get himself bombed to smithereens for a woman that was marrying another man. I hated you.”
“And what,” Max deadpanned. “You thought the best way to improve familial relations was, I dunno, hide the fact that he was about to be a father from him?”
“You could have told him yourself in the hallway,” Casey shot back. “You only proved what I already know, you’re just going to keep hurting him.”
“Yeah, because you’re doing so much better right now.” Max rolled her eyes. “Tell me again why he kicked you out? Oh, that’s right, because you’re a huge fucking bitch.”
“Compared to you, I’m a regular fucking saint!” Casey shouted.
Then from behind the door, a soft muffled. “Max, are you in there? It’s Gem…”
Oh thank god. Someone she didn’t want to kill. She and Casey shared a quick annoyed glance at one another before making their way to the stacked barricade against the door. But in the back of her mind, as she watched the taller woman slide the couch away from the door, Max wondered.. is there anything she wouldn’t do for her own family? How far would she have gone for her unit? For Josh, or Cindy, or the twins? …How far wouldn’t she go for Alec? Her mouth set in a grim line, Max knew there really was no room for forgiveness inside of her… but maybe there was a smidge of understanding. As annoying as that was.
Gem had her toddler in one arm and an automatic weapon in the other. She’d taken one look at Max and handed off the weapon to Casey, but not before frowning in surprise at the blonde’s presence. She set Max back to pacing in the kitchen as she boiled some water. Casey seemed only too happy to be out of that situation, and knelt by the windows, checking for movement in the streets below, occasionally peeking out after sporadic bursts of gunfire a few buildings away. Max was mostly just glad that she had someone else to talk to.
“I never thought I’d be in another siege situation with a baby on the way,” Gem shook her head.
“No kidding,” Max exhaled slowly, taking careful steps around the redhead. To the sink, then to the fridge aaaand slowly turn around… back to the sink.
It wasn’t long after that that Josh made it to her place, a wounded Dix in tow. She fell into the big lug’s arms fighting back tears she was so happy and grateful to see him. Josh didn’t seem as surprised to see Casey as Gem had. Maybe he’d caught sight of the woman in the last month when she’d been lurking around. He could be pretty omniscient for a man that so many people mistook for slow.
He’d taken one look at Max’s damp face and soiled clothing and his eyes had filled up his head. “Babies… come now?” He looked panicked.
“Sorry, Big Fella.” She wasn’t sure what else to say. This wasn’t exactly her ideal situation, either.
“Can’t stay here, Max.” He whined at her.
“Well, how exactly do you think we’re going to sneak a pregnant lady out of T.C.?” Gem asked, her arms crossed across her chest.
“It’s not going to be any easier to sneak her out with two newborns,” Casey pointed out, still hunkered by the window. “Better to go now and hope for the best.” Her sentence was finished off by a shot ricocheting off a nearby building and she winced. She glanced again out the window, but there was no way of telling if the stray bullet had come from Familiar gun or transgenic.
In fact, nobody in the room had any idea who was winning. Gem had gunned down a hulking woman who’d barged into her home, and then took off for Max’s.A long time ago, Max had been there for her; Gem wasn't about to turn her back on the other woman. Still, the toddler in her arms had made it imperative that she avoid the skirmishes that were breaking out all across T.C., so she wasn't sure at how many Familiars there were, or if they were even being held off effectively. Josh, for his part, had watched the transgenics at Command fight off at least ten Familiars before he’d snuck out the back, desperate to get to Little Fella. There’d been more fighting their way in when he’d left.
There was no denying that Max did not want her children born here, in the heart of a warzone. But a part of her balked; hadn't she sworn to defend her home? Then, there was also that small part of her that knew without any uncertainty that Alec would be coming for her. How would he find her if she wasn’t here? Her eyes snapped to Dix, because she’d always kind of known he’d been the most likely to be the insider, a fact that Alec had confirmed last time he’d been here.
“Did you call Wyoming?”
He had the decency to appear sheepish, at least. “There’s no answer.” She would have snorted, figures, but he continued. “There’s no answer on any of the lines, not even Mole’s cellphone.”
A dual front? Oh God, it must have started for them too. What if the page that White had squashed out, what if it had been him? Defending home suddenly became seconday; she had to get out of here- As if sensing her thoughts, a contraction helpfully reminded her that she wasn't going anywhere and her eyes squeezed shut at the pain of it.
“Max,” Gem’s fingers closed around her shoulder. “You are not going to run off and try and save Alec. I think you have enough on your plate right now.”
“Plus, Alec doesn’t need saving.” Casey pointed out helpfully. Max ignored her, her blood rushing in her ears. Alec always needed saving, if not from the outside, then at least from himself. It wasn’t only evident in the time she’d spent with him in the preceding years, it was clear in the way that his life so mirrored her own.
And of course that’s when a bullet actually made it through the window, shattering glass, sending a blast of chill air into the room, before embedding itself in the wall near the kitchen.
“Everybody down,” Max shouted, pushing away pain, grabbing at Gem’s and tugging the other woman to the floor with her. The Familiars may have found White’s body, they may have just sensed movement in the building… Either way, Max’s little party was no longer uncontested. Josh crawled towards the opposite side of the window from Casey, his rifle dragging along the floor with him. Casey was already firing at the street.
It was going to be a long night.