Saving You, Losing Me.

By

EMI

Chapter 1:

Missing

Dense jungle life surrounded her, making her nostrils twitch at the earthy scent of nature; and her ears prick to the sound of rushing water coming from near by. Moving silently in the direction of the noise, she could feel her adrenaline rise and her heartbeat quicken, as she pushed her way through the foliage; noiselessly moving branches and vegetation out of her path.

As she neared her destination, the sound of the water grew louder; almost becoming a roar to her too sensitive ears; but underneath the whooshing of the water another sound could be heard. At first she couldn’t quite make out this new noise, as it was far to indistinct; but as she gradually neared an opening in the dense jungle, she was able to identify it as the sound of something lapping at the waters edge.

Soundlessly she edged her way closer to the opening, before stepping through…

The largest, sleekest, blackest panther she had ever seen, was perched at the side of the waterfall, drinking deeply from the river. As if sensing her presence it suddenly raised its head, sniffed the air and slowly turned in her direction…

For the first time in her life, she felt a fission of awareness surge through her tense body, physically immobilizing her for a fraction of second. But during that second the powerful predator in front of her locked it’s gaze with hers and she found herself mesmerized by a pair of green eyes that seemed all to hauntingly familiar.

For what seemed like an eternity they stayed there simply staring at each other as if neither of them were quite ready to break the hypnotic spell of the moment.

However of in the distance could be heard a buzzing sound, as the noise of the surrounding rain forest intruded upon the moment, gradually the buzzing got louder as it neared the clearing where the two individuals stood watching each other…

Reaching out with a groan Max turned the alarm clock of, and rolled over, hoping to get another ten minutes of blessed sleep, before dragging herself out of bed, and into work for the day. On one of the rare occasions in her life Max had actually been able to sleep for more than an hour a night, without the interruption of the usual nightmare visages of Manticore punishments, and the brutal deaths of lost siblings jerking her awake; and so obviously she wanted to bask in the peacefully, relaxing moment for just a little longer.

However she was fully aware that if she was late to work again this morning, then with all likely hood by this evening she’d be looking for a new place of employment - Which in Max’s book wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; however that would mean she’d have to break in a new boss, which after some deep consideration would just be too much of a hassle.

Besides she’d just got Normal broken in.- So with a very heavy sigh; and a general threat of bodily harm to whom-so-ever invented the idea of work, Max reluctantly left the warm comfort of her bed; and set about the preparations of getting ready for another day of work induced coma.

~*~

Even though she’d eventually given in and made her way to work, Max found herself, for once actually feeling happy and she had an almost imperceptible bounce in her step; both of which she noted had been missing from her life for nearly year now. Humming quietly to herself, Max stepped through the doorway of Jampony and sauntered towards her locker.

Unfortunately before she was able to reach it she was accosted by a grim faced Normal, who was looking as though the stick that everybody knew he had stuck up his ass, had moved higher up his body than was usual.

“Well, well good morning missy miss, or should we be saying good afternoon”, he snarked at her.

Max felt her good humour of the moment evaporate into thin air.

“Hey, and what bug crawled up your ass and died today Normal”, Max said as she smiled sweetly.

Normal just glared at her, “Do you know where Golden boy is; he hasn’t come into work yet. And unlike you and the rest of your degenerate friends, the ‘Rock Star’, is always at work on time”.

Max stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out how he managed to spit out that entire sentence without pausing for breath. Shaking it off, all she could say was, “And why the hell, would I know where you’re walking wet dream is; it’s not like I have him on a leash y’know. Anyway he’s probably overslept at one of those skank’s that he lovingly refers to as dates.” Max paused for moment when a thought suddenly occurred to her, “And why don’t you ask some of the others, for a change. I mean how come when you want to know where Alec is you automatically ask me. Why not Biggs, or Sketchy or any of the others huh!” with her little rant fest finished and her last piece of good humour riding out the door with the other messengers, Max waited for Normal to answer.

Normal just stood there looking at her for a long moment; pursing his lips and looking for all the world as though he’d just sucked the universe’s most sour lemon, before replying to her question. “Good God, girly girl; I’m not blind. You and Golden boy have been practically joined at the hip since the moment he started working here. Although only God himself knows why that fine specimen of the male physique hangs around with a harridan like you, I’ll simply never understand”.

“You know what Normal; Bite Me!”, Max hissed at him, at the same time as she snatched the package he’d been holding from his hands and declaring she was going on a ‘hot run’. Spinning on heel she stalked her way out of the building; she was practically out of the door when she heard Normal yell, “While your out, go check on my ‘Rock Star’”.

~*~

By mid afternoon and several packages later; Alec still hadn’t shown up at work, and Normal was practically catatonic from not having had his daily dose of Alec. And admittedly by this time Max herself was starting to get slightly worried.

She’d spoken to Biggs, Cece and a few of the other transgenics that over the past month or so had started working at Jampony, but none of them had seen sight nor sound of him since Saturday evening. She’d stopped by his apartment on the morning while making her deliveries but as she’d expected it was empty; she’d rung his cell phone a dozen or so times throughout the day, but had only managed to get his voiemail; so by now Max was definitely concerned as to where the asshole might be, and what dumbass thing he’d gotten himself into this time.

~*~

Having delivered her final package of the day, Max turned her bike around and made her way to Terminal City, in the hopes that Joshua might know where Alec was.