After Life -- Chapter 5: Nobody Wins

[parallax23]

Chapter 5: Nobody Wins

The U.N. deliberations took another long four months.  It seemed like the world was standing still until then.  Secret supply runs, internal unrest and the occasional rescue missions all seemed like a hazy dream-like events for the residents of Terminal City.  White was lying low for the time being as well.  It was no time to draw attention to himself.  That gave the transgenics time to plan what to do if their case had failed.  Strategic escape plans had been formulated as well as places for them to hideout if the tide was not in their favor.  If it was in their favor… well, they weren’t holding their breath on that one.

Then the day came when the doors finally opened with a verdict.

The transgenics had proven themselves to be intellectual beings, and to deny them their rights even in such times of economic crisis.  Also it meant not having to deal with property laws when other countries tried to acquire transgenics.

But only the X5, X6, X7 and X8 series were given ‘human’ status.  Many sympathizers had found their sentiment was mostly with them was due to their outward appearance, superior bodies and immense intellect.  They had the appearance of puppies that could be taken home.  It wasn’t like the bias wasn’t unforeseen.  The transhumans would have to be dealt with separately, sorted on a case by case basis.

Until it was decided how the transgenics would be introduced to society, they were all to remain in Terminal City.  The police blockade was to be lifted.  Government agents were still allowed to capture transgenics outside of Terminal City and promptly assist them to their residence.  Charitable donations would be left for them by whoever wanted to give, along with a few government leftovers.

Mole wasn’t too happy about the way things had gone down, but it was satisfied to know he wasn’t officially wearing a bull’s eye anymore.  And Terminal City was officially theirs.  That would have to do for now.  She had been so angry with the verdict that she had taken it out on Logan, so the air between them was far from clear.

She wasn’t going to let go of the issue until it had an actual resolution.  Standing on the roof of the tallest building in TC, Max watched as the majority of the police vacated the perimeter.  There were still some guards left, of course there would be.  The TV crews stayed in full, if not growing, force.  This was good news and no one would be losing interest soon.

When would the X series come out?  Would they assimilate into the population?  Could they breed their extraordinary qualities into the rest of humanity?

The reporters didn’t know that the transgenics, human-looking or not were wary of permanently leaving their sanctuary now that everyone on the planet knew who they were.  Foreign agents, religious fanatics, a distrusting public, and mad scientists of all shapes and sizes were waiting for their chance to snatch one of them and have their wicked way.  It wasn’t that the transgenics wouldn’t ever leave Terminal City but they would have to be careful.  Too many people still wanted them, and not in a good way.

______________________________________________________________________________

Seven months later…

It was the day they had all been waiting for.  The day that they would all be registered as U.S. citizens and the government would have to take responsibility.  Even though the transhumans had been given a subhuman “hybrid” status that prevented them from having full rights and they wouldn’t be allowed out of Terminal City without supervision by local authorities.  It wasn’t like anyone would roll out the welcome wagon for the X series either.  Still there was something to celebrate.

Max thought about going to see Logan.  They hadn’t really seen much of each other during the whole ordeal.  And she was supposed to be with Alec…  She’d almost forgotten about that since they didn’t need to pretend for the residents of Terminal City.  Even though she wanted to leave, her face was everywhere and she was forced to stay in during supply runs.  Now she could go out there.  With Original Cindy, Sketchy, even Normal were out there waiting for her.  She would be fooling herself if she thought this would be the same as before.  Then she thought about Alec.  Why had she kissed him?  She still loved Logan.

It was a quick peck.  She had almost forgotten all about it until now.  Max’s imagination replayed the scene in her head quite slowly as she prepared to go to the party in the apartment she had to herself.  She wondered if she should have let him go farther that day.  She was sure she would’ve forgotten everything about the outside world if she just –

“Oh no,” Max choked out as she looked at her flushed complexion in the mirror.

Manticore had taken care of her heat problem.  If she had been there from childhood, it would have been completely regulated by now and after the heart surgery her body could only take so much more.  But they had just put her on some drug that had kept it at bay Alec later told her.  Renfro wasn’t hung up on whether or not Max got pregnant, she needed Eyes Only which was why she didn’t even put Max through full re-indoctrination. Max had thought that the drug was a permanent fix since she didn’t suffer from the cycles anymore.  The current situation was proving otherwise though.  It was just her luck that it would decide to rear its ugly head out at a time like this.

Sleeping pills.  Hadn’t she used them to get some rest when nightmares haunted her during the siege?  There had to be some leftover in the bathroom.  It took more than the average dose to put her under, but she’d have to do it to keep herself out of trouble.  She was starting to feel restless.  There was only enough to put a regular human under and she just felt drowsy enough not to go out looking for trouble, but was unable to actually sleep.  The heat usually gave her more energy.

There came a knock on the door a few hours later.  She should have known that someone would come looking for her.  And right when the sleeping pills were starting to wear off.  She pleaded with some divine force of the universe to let it be Syl or Jondy.

“Max?” called the voice from the other side of the door.  “Max, are you in there?”

It was Alec.  Of course it was Alec.  Things had been going too well in her life at this point for anyone else to have been there.

She was so tempted to open the door for him.  He had such a pretty face.  And the rest of him wasn’t so bad either.  She pinched herself.  The last thing she needed was to ruin a perfectly good fake relationship.  There had to be something to turn her off.  Ben.  If she slept with him it would be like sleeping with her brother.  And not just any brother, Ben, the brother that she had killed to save.

“Fine, be like that,” Alec said.  “No cake for you.”

“I’m not feeling well,” Max choked out.

Wrong choice of words.  Way to make him suspicious.  Maybe she should’ve called OC and have her talk her out of the million stupid ideas going through her head at the moment.

“Look, I know you’re upset that this only worked halfway.  But it’s better than nothing.  So, I suggest you haul your ass out here and show them some freaking support,” Alec said.

“Go away!”

Max got off the couch and moved closer to the door.  She could hear him pacing in front of it.  She tried to relive those final moments with Ben.  The light leaving him.  She did that.

It wasn’t working though.  She remembered how comforting Alec had been about it all.  How it was their secret that no one else knew.

What was one more secret anyway?

“You know I’m here if you need me,” he told her as the door flew open.

“I need you,” she said, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling his head to hers.

“What the—?”  He grabbed her by both hands.  Then he felt it.  Her skin was burning up and now his was too as he remembered the part of him that was very feline.  “Oh no.  No.  Not now?”

He pushed her back into the apartment and shut the door.

She didn’t have to do this.  She had fought it off before.  But god, it had been too long since she’d last been touched, really touched since they’d been caged in.  And it wasn’t like she and Logan could touch any time soon either.  Nothing was holding her back.

“Zack is going to love this,” Alec declared.

“Zack?” questioned Max.

What was with her and brooding blonds?  Hot, brooding blonds.  But Zack was her big brother.  She couldn’t look at him like that.

“Yes, Zack.  Your overprotective cyborg brother with the hots for you,” Alec said.

“Right,” she said and pushed closer to him.  “Can you do me a favor and shut up?  Kind of killing the moment by mentioning him.”

“Whoa there,” he said, dropping her hands.  He willed himself to pull away though found himself planted in the spot.  He had forgotten what this was like.  He hadn’t felt this way since he was twelve.  Damn hormones, he thought he’d outgrown this.  There were plenty of times he’d been uninterested in Max.  Until she got angry and he just wanted to… “Your head’s not in its right place right now…  Hell Max, you can guess what this is doing to my head and I don’t want you to beat my ass when it is.”

“Well, we’ll deal with that later,” she informed him, gracefully inching closer.

“Oh what the hell, you’d beat my ass either way,” Alec sighed.  “Might as well actually do something to deserve it this time.  It’s been too freaking long locked up in here.”

“God, don’t you ever shut–” she started to say but his mouth enveloped hers and sucked out the rest of the sentence.

He definitely didn’t want to hear anymore fully composed sentences from her.  He’d get enough of those once the night was over.  Right now, there were better things he could do with her.

______________________________________________________________________________

 
“Has anybody seen Max?” Zack demanded in the Command Center.

It was late in the morning, but everyone was still tired from last night’s celebrations.  So they were taking things easily.  Well, as easily as anyone who was raised by a Black Ops military agency could be. 

A supply run had been scheduled before the news broke.  Max had planned it out, and decided she would be the one to lead it on the outside for once when she found out she could leave TC.  It was an hour before she was supposed to leave.  Where was she?

Zack hadn’t seen her last night either, but he had opted to stay in the Command Center and watch the security cameras instead of joining in the festivities.  He wasn’t in the mood to party.  He’d done it before when he was younger, but he’d felt obligated to watch over everyone.  Dix had been so excited to go, so Zack insisted on taking his place.  So he was completely aware of Max’s lack of presence there for the longest time.

“You’re free and all you Xs do is bitch and whine about everything not being exactly the way you want it.  She’ll turn up,” said Mole in an exasperated tone of voice.  “Maybe she overslept?”

“Max doesn’t sleep in,” Zack snapped.  “I’m going to see if she’s all right.”

“Knock yourself out,” Mole said.

Zack rolled his eyes and left the Command Center.  That slacker with Ben’s face wasn’t around either.  He could imagine a guy like Alec high-tailing it out of Terminal City once the coast was clear without so much as a peep.  If he was gone, Zack couldn’t care less.  All for the better.  With him out of his hair, Zack was sure things would be better.  Max would listen to reason.  To him.

He wasn’t sure if Max had gone off on the run by herself after being restless last night.  She would do something like that.  And she hadn’t even dropped by the Command Center to see him.  Syl and Jondy hadn’t seen her that night either and knew better than to chase after her when she didn’t want to be found.  Still Zack wanted to check in on her to make sure everything was all right.

When he knocked on her door, there was no answer.  He was starting to get worried.  He needed to know if she’d gotten herself into trouble…  If he had to get to her before it was too late.  His hand turned the doorknob and entered the tiny apartment.

Stepping in and seeing no one, he called out, “Max?”

______________________________________________________________________________

 
Max shifted uneasily on her bed.  Something was off.  Her head was cloudy and tired, but she could swear she heard someone call her name her clearly.

Something groaned beside her.  No, it was someone.  She quickly sat up. 

Alec.

She had slept with Alec.

She was going to kill him.

He was sleeping soundly on his stomach when she smacked him across the back of the head.

He groaned and looked up at her glare with an annoyed yet curious look that Max swore reminded her of a housecat.  Damn feline DNA.

“So this is where you’ve been?” Zack demanded as he stood in the doorway.  “But I really should’ve guessed.”

Max turned away from Alec and pulled the bed sheet closer to cover herself more.  Great.  Just great.  Could this morning get any worse?

“Get out!  Both of you get out!” Max shouted angrily as she tried to push Alec out of bed, but he was tangled in the sheet she clung to.  As he landed on the floor, she ended up pulled down with him by the sheet and fell on top of him.

“With pleasure,” Zack said.  “We have a supply run in an hour, if you didn’t get all your brains screwed out last night.”

“Out!”

He had already turned away from the two of them trying to disentangle themselves.  That was a visual he could live without.

It took two kicks and several choice words before they were free of each other.  Alec silently picked his clothes off the floor and put them back on.  Max turned her back to him and said nothing as well.  Clothed in the bed sheet, she stalked off to the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

______________________________________________________________________________

 
At the Command Center, the recreational television set was on the fritz.  Again.  It had been some act of divine mercy when the transgenics discovered that the old cable TV lines were still operational in the abandoned sector.  According to Alec, it was the only thing that kept him from going on an insane killing spree after being cooped up with them for so long.  Mole, Joshua, Dix and Luke had a feeling that he wasn’t the only one.

The friends had taken to watching daytime soap operas to pass the time when they weren’t waiting for the other foot (or bomb) to drop and being hungry.  But the set that they had to watch was one of the more decrepit ones since the best were used for surveillance.  The picture was a bit fuzzy even for HD.

“Dix, check the wires,” Luke said.

“No, you go check the wires!  This is the good part!”  Dix replied.

“Don’t make me shoot you idiots for not shutting up.  Fix the damn thing already!” Mole chimed in.

There was funny buzzing noise that kept getting louder and louder until suddenly a few sparks stared popping out and the picture went with them.

“No!” they all cried out at once.

“Will Angelo find out that Maria slept with Dax?”  Mole demanded.

The door to the Command Center slammed open and in walked Alec.  Zack was hot on his heels, yelling about something or the other.  It wasn’t unusual.

“I didn’t realize that Second in Command literally involved getting under the CO,” Zack shouted and suddenly everyone was looking at them.

That was unexpected.  Okay, not really.  But that didn’t make it any less fun to watch.

Alec turned to face him.  “Maybe if you’d stuck around Manticore long enough, you’d know a helluva lot more.”

“No fighting,” Joshua intervened, stepping between them.  “Where’s Max?”

“This is better than TV,” whispered the transgenic with the monocle.

“Ssshhh,” hissed Mole.  “I don’t wanna miss this.”

“Why don’t you ask Romeo over here?” was Zack’s retort.

Joshua sniffed Alec.  “Who is Romeo?  And why does Alec smell like Max?”

Then a knowing look crossed his face.

Alec stepped away from him.  “That’s it.  I’m out of here.  I don’t need this.  Tell Max to take you on the supply run.”

“Shirking your duties?  Just go.  She and I can do this without your help.  Nice to see you give up your position so easily,” Zack spat at him.

A wicked grin crossed Alec’s face.  “I can hold my position just fine.  Maybe you should worry about your own.  I have some business to take care of.”

The computer screen in the corner started blinking as Alec turned to exit the Command Center.

Logan was trying to get a line through, but no one was picking up.  Where were they?

Finally, Joshua’s confused face appeared on the screen.

“Hey there Josh, how’s it going?”

“Not so good.  Alec smells like Max.  Zack and Alec fighting,” said the dog-man.

The smile faded from Logan’s face but he regained his composure.  Why did he seem surprised to hear that?  She was with Alec.  The fact that Zack had a problem with it – equally unsurprising.  The more Logan thought about it, the more amused he was by it.  Zack and Alec were rivals.  Then he remembered what they were rivals for and he almost cringed.

They were hyped up X5s and he was just some guy.  How could he ever stand a chance against them for Max’s attention?

By the time Max arrived, Logan had hung up with Joshua.  Both of them didn’t want to talk much about the awkward situation they had stumbled upon.  She had been glad she missed having to see Logan after the night she had.  Not that she owed him any explanations.  They weren’t like that.  But she did feel guilty that he had to hear about it.  That all of TC had to hear about it.

Relieved as Max was about not having to go with Alec on the supply run, she was just as pissed at Zack for having made the scene Joshua had informed her of.  She told him that he wasn’t allowed to go with her before she ended up saying or doing something they’d both regret.

Something told her things in her life just got way more complicated.

Transgenics get rights, but only the X series is considered human and are granted the ones that matter.

The one night she was supposed to spend celebrating that lame ass success, her heat decided to make its return.

After two years of not getting any, she finally got some only to have her big brother walk in on the morning after.

What would have happened with Alec if Zack didn’t come in?  She didn’t want to think about that because she didn’t have a clue.

What was she going to do now?

Didn’t she ever win?