Together -- Chapter 11b

Disclaimer: All of the characters that appeared in the TV show Dark Angel (Max, Zack, Logan, etc.) 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.).

"Why the fuck won't this thing open?!" Becky yelled. She tried desperately to calm down. The fire was coming closer to her with each passing second. Stay calm, Becky, stay calm. You can and will get out of here. As long as you are breathing, you have a chance to get out of this mess. I'm sure as hell going to take this chance!

"Easier said than done," she mumbled.  Becky took a deep breath and resumed kicking the door with the same results. She was on the verge of screaming in frustration again when she saw someone blur past her door. She grinned, checked the clips in her guns to make sure they were full, and waited.

Come on, Max, hurry...

Max reached the control room after what seemed like forever and flung the door open. The two techs inside, who were about to leave themselves, just stared at her with their eyes and jaws wide open.

"Change in plans," Max informed them, flinging the techs out of the room. She quickly scanned the buttons and slammed several. Max looked up at the monitors, a few of them in particular, grinned, and ran like hell out of the room.

Zack bolted the millisecond his cell door opened. He'd memorized the map of the facility that Becky had shown him and knew exactly where he was going.  Becky or Max. It had to have been one of them who sprung us. He slammed a door open and started to race down a staircase.  He'd made it halfway up when there was another explosion close by, followed by some rumbling that threw Zack to his feet. He heard screams and the sickening sound of bodies being crushed under debris.

"No!" an X6 a few years younger than Becky wailed. She ran past Zack and started to desperately toss aside pieces of the ceiling. Four others joined her.

"It's too late for them," Zack said. "There's no way that they survived and if you guys don't get moving, you'll be dead, too."

"Half of my unit's in there," the X6 pointed out. "Our C.O. and second-in-command are underneath those rocks!"

They all ducked as another explosion somewhere in the building shook the stairway. "They wouldn't want you to die," Zack pointed out. "I know how hard it is to leave you unit mates, your family, behind. But they would want you to go on, so let's move! Now!"

The five X6s looked at Zack for a moment. He was an '09er and they had been taught for years that all of the '09ers were traitors, but they had also been taught that the X5s were their superior officers and to obey them when they gave them an order, but Manticore had also betrayed them when they locked them in their cells to die. The teenagers looked at him and nodded before following him the rest of the way down the stairs.

"Yes!" Becky yelled triumphantly when her cell door opened. She flew out of it and waited for the rest of her unit as they left their cells. She gestured for them to follow her as she raced down the hallway to the nearest staircase.

"What the hell's going on?" 392 demanded.

"Why are they trying to kill us?" 029 asked.

"And who was that that ran down the hall a minute before the doors opened?" 570 wondered.

"That bitch Renfro apparently wanted us toast, they're sadistic bastards, and the person who probably just saved all our asses by opening the doors was 452," Becky replied.

"452? The 09er?" 115 said.

"Yeah," Becky confirmed.

"Why would an '09er save all of us? I thought they hated everything that had to do with Manticore," 887 said.

"Not everything," Becky told him. "They're not the bad guys. They never were the bad guys."

"Yeah," 773 said. "We did just almost get fried by Renfro. Maybe the '09ers had the right idea way back when."

Becky nodded as they reached the bottom of the staircase and followed other transgenics out of the door. "Let's get out of here."

"When we get outside," Zack yelled over the noise as he flung open the door at the top of the staircase. "Just go straight for the fence and get over and head to ground. Don't stop and don't let anybody stop you."

"Yes, sir!" the X6s following Zack chorused as they followed another group of transgenics towards a larger door a few feet down the hallway.

"Good luck," Zack said as they headed out the door.

Max kicked open a side door and burst outside and started running. She looked over to her left, looking at the fleeing transgenics for any sign of Zack and Becky or even Brin. She headed in that direction but hit the ground as bullets flew overhead.

"Son of a bitch!" Becky screamed as she and her unit hit the ground.

"Who the hell is shooting at us?" 115 asked.

Becky looked up and zoomed in. "It's those little bastard X7s. They don't have a clue that Renfro and everyone stabbed us in the back. They must think that we're escaping just like 599 and 452 and their unit did back in '09."

"We can't stay pinned down like this," 691 pointed out. "We're too damn close to the building."

"Right," Becky agreed. "Let's move." They got up and started running again, only to hit the ground again as the X7s fired in their direction again.

"Are we ever going to get out of here?" 029 shrieked.

Oh God, this must have been what it was like for Zack and Max and their family back in '09, Becky thought, her mind reeling. Except they don't want to recapture us, they just want us dead! She mentally shook her head. Keep it together, Becky. If Zack could get his family out when he was thirteen, you can damn well do it at seventeen! "Let's go," she said out loud. She whipped out her two guns from her pockets. "We're going to ground. Split up when you get past the fence, no more than three per group. Don't look back, no matter what. I'll cover for you."

"Do you sleep with those things underneath your pillow?" 773 joked.

Becky had to smile. Leave it to 773 to crack a joke at a time like this. "That's right. I would have taken the bazooka under my mattress, but I only have two hands. Move!"

They got up and the rest of the unit raced for the fence. Becky lagged behind, shooting towards the source of the bullets and seeing a few of the X7s go down. Once she saw the last of them clear the fence, she grinned and looked around. "Max? Zack?"

"Shit, I wish I had a gun," Zack muttered to himself as he got up and headed towards the fence.

"Me too, sir," one of the X6s agreed. "Who's shooting at us?"

"The X7s," Zack said. "We outnumber them by a fairly significant number. They can't take everyone out. We've got to make a break for it. Wait until the fire eases up...now!"

The X6s took off running, blurred past the X7s firing at them, and cleared the fence. Zack nodded and glanced back behind him. The fire was getting worse and he knew that if he didn't head for the fence soon, he might get caught in an explosion, but he knew that he couldn't leave without Max and Becky. "Max? Becky?"

"Zack!"

Zack tuned around and saw Becky racing towards him. "You're okay."

Becky nodded. "My unit made it over the fence. All of them."

"Good," Zack said. "We've got to find Max."

"The control room was in D Wing, one floor up from where Max was being held," Becky told the older transgenic. "Let's head across—" A nearby explosion cut her off, the shockwave enough to lift both Zack and Becky up and fling them several feet forward.

"Becky, are you all right?" Zack asked, picking himself off the ground.

"Yeah," Becky answered. "We can't stick around. We've got to get out."

"I know," Zack agreed. "We'll cut across on a diagonal in the direction of D Wing so we'll be farther out from the building."

"Got it," Becky acknowledged. She handed Zack a gun and a fresh clip. "Ready when you are."

"Let's go," Zack said. They ran across the field. "Max? Max, where are you?"

"Zack? Becky?"

"Over there!" Becky yelled. She pointed to Max and she and Zack blurred the final yards over to where Max was.

"Ready to get out of here?" Max asked.

"You know I am," Zack replied immediately. "Come on."

"Your first time out," Max said, gesturing to Becky. "Go first."

Becky grinned and blurred towards the fence. She could hear the fire behind her, as well as the sounds of Zack exchanging shots with the X7s that were still sticking around, but she didn't care. She was finally getting out of Manticore. She laughed out loud as she cleared the fence, easily landing on the other side. "Come on!"

"Take two," Max remarked to Zack. He nodded and they blurred to the fence, clearing it and landing next to Becky. The three of them continued to run until they felt they were safely away from the site and the X7s. They stood there, catching their breath until Max turned to Zack. "I can't believe you're alive."

"You too, Maxie," Zack said. "I can't believe..." The hugged each other fiercely, tears streaming down their faces. "I thought you were gone. They told me you had died, that I had failed you, everybody..."

"They told me you killed yourself to save me," Max sobbed. "They said that after Renfro said that I needed an X5 donor, you shot yourself in the head so you could save my life. I believed them. I knew you'd go that far to save me."

"I almost did," Zack confirmed, not relinquishing his grip on Max. "I was going to shoot myself, but someone shot me from behind before I could and then I remember someone injecting me with something and then I woke up from surgery and they told me you were gone. Maxie..."

"Shhh," Max assured him softly. "I'm here. I'm fine. We're all out of that place." She looked up at Zack and smirked. "And I killed the bitch."

"Sweet!" Becky exclaimed happily.

Max laughed. "Yeah, thought that would make you guys happy."

"I should get back in touch with the others," Zack said, wiping the tears from his face.

Max nodded. "Let's get out of here."

TBC