It was early in the morning but Max was still wide awake in the Command Center, watching the news. Joshua was napping at a desk while Alec and Mole were playing poker. That was how Zack entered to find them, and walked over to his little sister. They hadn’t spoken much since the others were tired and needed to rest before they could all tell their stories.
“How’s it going, leader of all transgenic-kind?” he asked as he sat down beside her.
“Don’t call me that,” Max growled.
“They’re still out there. How much longer do you think we’ll last in here?”
“I’m working on it.”
“Do you think tomorrow they’ll pack up and go and let us into their neighborhoods?”
“No one’s stopping you from abandoning this ship,” Max replied and stood up.
“I’m not abandoning anything. Or anyone. I was thinking that we leave Seattle,” Zack said. “I’d say we’re risking tactical exposure but it’s too late for that. We can get out if we plan it right.”
“That’s your answer to everything.”
“It’s the one option you refuse to listen to. You can’t be with him. Your trading in everything by never leaving this place, that’s what started it all. Now we’re going to die here – if we don’t leave,” said Zack.
“And go where? On the lam to Canada? I think someone would notice a couple hundred transgenics crossing the border, wouldn’t you?”
“We need a plan. This is just like you, Max. You just do whatever and hope it works out for the best. That was fine when it was just you, but not when you have everyone else’s neck on the line.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Max demanded so loudly that Joshua woke up and sat up straight. Alec and Mole had been pretending not to listen, but now turned to look at them.
“So listen to me. We can still sneak everybody out of here—”
“That is not an option,” Max said firmly, standing up.
“Don’t make me break out the hose on you kitties,” Mole warned, but his tone wasn’t harsh or angry. It was casual. “But I agree with your boy. It’s just a countdown to when they’ll take us out.”
“Look, let’s just calm down,” Alec said. “Chill.”
“Yeah, let’s chill,” said Joshua. “Joshua believes in Max. We all believe in Max.”
“Yeah, sure,” said Mole. “I need a cigar.”
He walked out of the Command Center. The screen showing the police blockade hadn’t changed. It was almost as if time had stopped out there. The screen beside it began to blink. Logan was trying to start a video session. Max opened the line.
“Hey stranger,” Logan greeted her.
“Hey yourself,” Max smiled.
“Not looking better out there?”
Max shook her head. She missed him more as she watched him. “Not much worse either… What part of ‘We come in peace,’ don’t these people understand?”
“We could do a broadcast. Try to shed some wisdom on them?”
“I don’t know how much good that’ll do, but we can try. Right now, we can only weather this out,” Max said. “It’s like sitting on a crate of dynamite.”
“We have dynamite?” asked Joshua curiously.
“Depends. Planning on using it?” Alec replied.
“Is that Alec?” asked Logan.
“He’s been here all night,” Max said.
“Not that he’s done much of anything,” Zack snickered.
“Hey, I resent that remark. I’ve been very helpful,” Alec chimed in.
“Yeah,” said Mole. “To my wallet.”
He had come back in without the others noticing. Gem came rushing in after him.
“Turn on the news! Quick!” she commanded, then switched the TV channel herself.
“… the U.N. is convening under emergency status about the problem in Seattle… Are transgenics to be given the right to be considered human and thereby protected by the rights of the Geneva Convention? If so, then the systematic elimination of them must be stopped.”
An news anchor in a suit grabbed the senator from New York’s attention. “Do you have a statement for us at this time?”
“We make agreements to limit fuel emissions to save polar bears. Then we make some super-powered kids and line them up for murder? Yes, that makes a lot of sense in this day and age. These are people, some children no less! Haven’t you seen the reports? The situation in Seattle is senseless.”
“They don’t look any weirder than the folks from the East Village!” someone cried out in the background.
But the senator continued. “It’s time to take responsibility. It’s easy to demonize them. Then you remember that they were created to serve and protect us. It doesn’t matter how you came into the world, it’s what you do in it that does.”
“What’s the Geneva Convention?” Max asked Logan.
“You mean no one at Manticore ever told you about the Geneva Conventions? You’re kidding,” said Logan. Then he explained, “It’s a series of documents passed after World War II guaranteeing human rights to every person on earth, especially during war time. No genocide, no torturing POWS and the like. Of course, it’s great in theory. Or when you need a random excuse to invade another country when it’s got supplies you want.”
“Oh yes, because Manticore was real big on the humane treatment of people, they would find that gem of information noteworthy. How does that apply to us?”
“From what I hear from my contacts, if they figure you’re ‘human’ then they have to remove the barricades and not aim to kill. You’d be free,” Logan told her.
“Hmm… well I’m still holding out hope that PETA will take up our case and have some hot naked model sporting a barcode,” Alec whispered to Joshua.
“Then we need to show them just how ‘human’ we are,” Max declared, ignoring Alec’s comment only because Logan hadn’t heard it.
“Human? This is not what I signed up for,” Mole said.
“You need to speak your mind,” Logan suggested. “People think. People feel. They have to see that you do too.”
Max thought about what he said. “We need to show them who we are. We need to give them a reason to believe in us. See that we’re really just like them. Logan, can you get a broadcast sent to the U.N.?”
“Don’t tell me that we’re turning our battle for survival into a YouTube montage for Eyes Only,” Alec pleaded.
Logan ignored Alec’s comment and nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Max gave a quick nod and the transmission ended.
“Hey Josh, check it out,” Alec exclaimed. “It’s our friend from the art gallery. With your paintings!”
“Joshua work on TV?” asked the dog-man with a smile. “Joshua famous?”
Max couldn’t help smiling and hugged him. For so long he and his work had been hidden by darkness. Locked away. Now he was free.
“These paintings were done by a transgenic to rave reviews. How can you say that they don’t have souls? Does this look like it could be done by someone without a soul?”
Max wondered if maybe they had more people on their side than they imagined. Not that she was giving the American public the benefit of the doubt, but it gave her some hope about tomorrow. Things would be at a stand still until the U.N. resolved the issue. No one in, no one out. Max never imagined that she would be grateful for bureaucracy. None of them did.
“So we’re getting some extra time?” Zack said. “And we’re wasting the little we have now. Don’t you get it? The U.N. just wants to stick it to the U.S. They won’t give us human rights! Because then their own toy super soldiers would have to get rights. There’s no way they’d do that.”
“Why don’t we see what they do?” Max asked.
“All right, you’re the leader here,” Zack retorted.
“I need some air,” said Max. “Coming big fella?”
“Want to watch paintings on TV,” said Joshua.
“I’ll go with you,” Alec volunteered.
“Why am I not surprised?” Zack muttered.
Alec glared at him. “What did you just say?”
Max rolled her eyes and decided to let them settle their own issues. She started walking and Alec decided to follow her instead of wasting his time on Zack. He could only imagine how happy Zack must have been to know Logan was out of the picture, at least for the time being. Alec could tell that the whole situation was getting to her. She had saved his ass so many times, he figured that he might as well be of some use to her. Plus he had helped break Logan’s heart, it was the least he could do for the guy since he couldn’t be there. And as much as he didn’t want to admit it, Alec had grown attached to Max, so he knew it was at a moment like this that she could use a friend.
______________________________________________________________________________
“Don’t let him get to you,” Alec said as they walked down one of the abandoned streets. “You’re the one who freed us, not him.”
“What kind of freedom is this? We’ve been locked in here for what a week? Maybe Zack’s right. I’m not fit to lead anyone,” she said.
“What part of ‘Don’t let him get to you,’ didn’t you understand?”
“Fine. I’ll let the police and mobs at the gate get to me.”
“And you really think that’s going to help anybody? You’re the girl who burned Manticore to the ground! If anyone’s up for the job it’s you. Besides, you’ve burned down an entire covert government facility all on your own, a siege in the middle of a crowded city should be a piece of cake. God, what I wouldn’t give for cake right now,” Alec teased.
He grinned. Max took another swipe at him and smiled.
“You’re an idiot, you know that?” she told him.
“Look, I’m not Psy-ops or can tell the future and all that. But we just have to hang in there,” Alec said. “Manticore trained us to hold out against everything. I’m sure they’d be glad to see it in action.”
“Alec,” Max said softly. “If we ever go back out there, it won’t be the same. I want to go back out there and pretend this never happened. But what I really, really want is everyone in here to be able to go out there too. See the world.”
He nodded. “I’m imagining what the world will do when it sees Mole.”
Max laughed. “Thanks. I needed that.”
“I know I’m not him. I mean I can imagine, every time you touch me I keel over too,” Alec told her, but regretted it when he saw the look on her face. Then he put his arm around her. “Time to show the world what we’re made of.”
“I think that’s what National Geographic is for. But at least White is off our backs for now,” Max said. “Something tells me not for long though. No rest for the wicked.”
“Now you think of that? Never stopped you before.”
Max couldn’t help thinking about how nice it felt to be under his arm. To have someone comforting her. It had been a long time. But it was Alec. Alec, who never shut up and always thought he was funny instead of annoying. He wasn’t Logan. No one could be Logan.
Maybe she didn’t want him to be Logan.
She wasn’t sure how it happened, she had been lulled into a safe place with Alec close to her. She was the kind of person to take care of herself, but every now and again it was nice to have the burden lifted. Suddenly, she found her face moving closer and closer to his. When his lips collided with hers, he made no retreating motions. Was it out of shock or desire? Or some twisted combination of both?
He had to know. There was no way Max just kissed him. He kissed her in all of his dreams, not the other way around. Had he gotten caught up in the moment and forgotten reality?
“Max, I’m sorry,” he said and jumped away. “Don’t hit me.”
“That was weird,” Max said. “Anyway, I need to go think about the message to send to Eyes Only.”
“Right,” Alec said.
He watched her walk away. What was that all about? The stress. The stress had gotten to him, because he knew Max didn’t just kiss him. Maybe he had finally lost it. He chalked it up to the lack of sleep and not getting laid in too long.
______________________________________________________________________________
I’m X5-452. I was made in a government facility. So was the rest of my family.
We were created to be the ultimate military weapons for the U.S. government. My siblings and I ran away when we were children, deciding that wasn’t the life we wanted. But others weren’t so lucky…
They wanted soldiers, not people. They tried to stifle out of us any notion of humanity that we could have possibly contained. Too bad the human spirit in us isn’t so easily murdered.
When Eyes Only revealed the location of the facility, the committee decided to lock the doors and burn everything and everyone to the ground. I couldn’t let that happen, and opened up the doors.
Did you know that most of those they tried to kill were people under the age of twenty-five? Who had never known anything but military tactics and rigorous training exercises?
Then once we got out, we thought we were free. But no.
We escaped from being tortured and killed by our superiors to being butchered by the American public.
Pictures of the bodies of transgenic children White had taken out were shown. There were also some anomalies that had been cut up by forensics. It was difficult to watch the photos Logan had dug up. They looked so innocent, almost as if they were sleeping. But it was permanent.
What did we do to deserve this? We didn’t ask to be born, but we aren’t going to stand around and let you murder us anymore. You made us. We gave you everything, and this is how you repay us?
You say we’re monsters… Maybe that’s true. But you made us. And you’re the ones slaughtering us like rabid animals now while we run for our lives. How many of us have begged for our lives before one of yours pulled the trigger or beat us to death? How many of ours have done the same to you? Answer me that.
Animals don’t beg. They don’t converse over what’s for dinner or how their days went or argue over who ate the last Little Debbie when there’s a siege.
We are not animals. So we’re asking for our chance.
Will you be human enough to give it to us?
______________________________________________________________________________
“How do you think that went?” Asha asked Logan.
“Only time will tell. The X series is an easier sell than the others. I have a feeling that they’re the main concern. Xs can blend into the population and breed. We’re going to have to play on that,” Logan said.
Asha could tell that he was still thinking about Max from the distracted look on his face. She could’ve reminded him about Alec being there to look after Max, yet she chose not to. Things were better this way. It was time for them to move on, to be with people they belonged with. Asha had poorly tried to hide her joy when she first heard that Max and Alec had finally hooked up. It had only been a matter of time in her head. They belonged together.
Finally, she and Logan would have their chance. They couldn’t rush into anything yet, he was still reeling from the loss. That was one of the things Asha loved about him, how deeply he felt things. It would have to be slow. She could live with that.
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