All of Us -- Chapter 40

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Alec, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Becky/X6-405, etc.).

Notes: Spoiler-ish stuff for various season 2 episodes (like I’ve said before, I haven’t watched too much of season 2).

“Hey, buddy, how’s it going?” Stephen asked White cheerfully the next day as he walked into the building where White was holding Jeff.

“The usual,” White replied. “Where’s Carrie? Did you bring her into town with you?”

“No,” Stephen said. “As a matter of fact, your wife is watching her while I’m visiting you here.” He looked over at Jeff, who was chained up and unconscious. “I like the medieval dungeon prisoner chains set up you’ve got going with 941.”

“I was in the mood for something classical,” White agreed.

Stephen nodded. “Golden oldies indeed. How’s the little bastard doing?”

“He’s unconscious right now,” White said. “I’d let you take a turn practicing your right hook on him, but I just finished practicing mine only about an hour ago and I want him to rest. I’m not planning on killing him quite yet. He will die, but he’ll die when I’m planning on him dying.”

Stephen looked at Jeff and smiled. Jeff’s shirt had been ripped off and his skin, or at least what skin was visible and that wasn’t bruised or had dried blood on it was so pale he was nearly as white as a sheet. His right eye was black as midnight and swollen shut and his brown hair was disheveled and some of it also had dried blood in it. “You do some nice work, buddy.”

“Thank you,” White said.

“It’s sad,” Stephen commented. “If it wasn’t black-and-blue all over and bloody, it would look like it should be playing touch football with his friends on its summer vacation from college. It’s amazing how something so hideous can be hidden under something so good-looking and innocent-looking.” He looked serious. “Have you tested the virus on him?”

White shook his head. “No. When I let the Conclave know that I had 941 in my possession, I asked if I should test him and they said that since we’ve already tested a freak of his generation, testing 941 wouldn’t be necessary.”

“Okay,” Stephen said. “Speaking of the testing, how did it turn out with the freaks?”

“They all survived,” White said. “The two anomalies we tested recovered within thirty-six hours. The X3 recovered within twenty-four hours, and the X5, X6, and X9 all recovered within twelve hours. It would be interesting to test 405 or even 452. I’d love to see how their perfect DNA would react, especially 405’s.”

“That would be interesting,” Stephen agreed. “Did you run an analysis on 941’s DNA?”

“I had an analysis run,” White confirmed. “941 does have junk DNA. His genetic sequence is as good as a transgenic’s can get with the exception of 405 and 452, but he does have junk DNA.

“I’m not sure if I should be relieved or disappointed,” Stephen said. “Have you heard about the status of the virus?”

“It’s nearing perfection,” White informed him. “According to the Conclave, everything is right on schedule. It should be perfected within a month or two and then it won’t be too much longer until we’ll release it to the humans. As for the transgenics, we’ll kill them. We greatly outnumber them and if we make sure that they’re contained in Terminal City or that they don’t scatter too far after the dispersion of the virus, we shouldn’t have too hard of a time rounding them up and killing all of them.”

“405 will be tricky, though,” Stephen observed. “The prophecy does say that the sickness will cover the Earth and only leave us behind, but it does say that she’ll deliver the helpless. I believe that the prophecy is right and we’ll prevail, but she could still pose a problem.”

“All that we have to do is to keep her at bay long enough for the virus to be distributed among the humans,” White said. “When we do that, it’ll be too late for 405 to save them. We win. End of story.”

“Now that is a bedtime story that I look forward to reading to Carrie,” Stephen said, smiling.

“And one that I look forward to reading to my son after he’s born in two months,” White agreed. He looked at his watch. “It’s time for lunch. There’s a great Thai place in town. Do you want to go there for food?”

“Sure. That sounds pretty good,” Stephen said. “Are you sure that I can’t get one good hit in on 941 before we leave?”

“I wish, but I want to make sure that he stays alive for the time being,” White said. “You can have a turn on the transgenic punching bag later tonight.”

“Sounds like fun,” Stephen commented. “Speaking of which, how are you planning on finally killing the freak?”

“I thought that I would let the public do the job for me,” White said. “His barcode isn’t lasered off or otherwise covered. All I have to do is to dump him somewhere while he’s still in no condition to defend himself or at least defend himself in a crowd of humans, and they’ll see the barcode and do the rest. I was thinking about dropping him off somewhere near Terminal City, but that would be too close for comfort for me. If they spotted us, they could mount a rescue attempt. We’ll drop him somewhere else in the state.”

“405 will go crazy.” Stephen laughed. “It’s brilliant. When do you want to do this?”

“Tomorrow afternoon after lunch,” White said. “So you can get your hits on 941 later tonight and maybe a few tomorrow morning, but after that, no more. I want him to be aware enough to know what’s going on. It’s more fun for us that way to know that he knew how much he was suffering before he died.”

“You are a genius,” Stephen said. They left the building.

Jeff opened his good eye and glared at them after they had left. Those bastards. They want to make sure that I’m aware when they leave me out there to die? Bullshit. Here’s a newsflash for them: aware for me and aware for a normal human are two different things. As long as I am halfway conscious, you bet your ass that I’ll find a way out of the situation. I’ve been trained for that. Did you know that on more than one occasion, the trainers would have other transgenics beat the crap out of me and then send me out on a training mission just to make sure that I could ‘persevere under adverse conditions?’ Something in the window caught his eye and he grinned briefly. I might not have to do that after all.

Biggs and Zane ducked into a bush and watched White and Stephen leave the building. Biggs motioned for Zane to be quiet and looked into the window and grinned when Jeff saw him and began to hum quietly. Zane looked at him as if Biggs had gone crazy, but Biggs just gestured for him to trust him and a moment later, the two of them heard Jeff humming faintly from inside the building. Biggs and Jeff continued this for a few more minutes before Biggs finally motioned for him and Zane to fall back, which they did.

“What was that humming deal?” Zane asked.

“It was a code that Jeff and Alec and I worked out when we did that mission in Alaska together,” Biggs replied. “Only the three of us know it.”

“So what’s going on?” Zane asked. “Is Jeff okay?”

“He’s getting the shit beaten out of him on a regular basis, but he’s otherwise okay for the moment,” Biggs said. He filled Zane in on the rest of it and Zane shook his head.

“This isn’t good,” he said. “I’m calling Max.” He took out his cell phone and speed dialed Max’s number. “Max, it’s Zane. We’ve found him. He’s alive.”

“Thank goodness,” Max said. “Where?”

“Just outside of Walla Walla, at least three hours away from Seattle,” Zane answered. He gave Max the address of the building. “We’re running out of time. We need to get Jeff out of here by early tomorrow afternoon at the absolute latest. White’s going to beat the hell out of Jeff some more and then throw him to the wolves sometime tomorrow after lunch. He didn’t mention exactly where. I guess he hasn’t figured out that detail yet. Biggs managed to communicate with Jeff and Jeff said that White’s got some of his freaky friends stationed in the building, plus White’s best buddy is here visiting White. Biggs and I can’t pull it off right now with just the two of us.”

“We’ll meet here right now to plan the rescue,” Max promised. “We’ll call you back as soon as we’ve gotten together so you can be in on the meeting.”

“Got it,” Zane said. “According to Biggs, Jeff overheard some weird stuff that has to do with the prophecy.”

“I’ll call you again tonight and you can tell me it then,” Max informed him. “Zane, Biggs, thank you so much.”

“It was no problem,” Biggs said. “I’d do anything for the little buddy.”

“Alec and Riley both say that Jeff will kill you if he knows that you still refer to him as ‘little buddy,’” Max told Biggs after pausing for a few seconds.

“Hell, Zane and I are out of Jeff’s hearing range,” Biggs said with a grin.

“We’ll get back to you later, Maxie,” Zane said.

“Same here,” Max agreed. “Continue to keep an eye on Jeff.”

“We will,” Zane promised.

TBC