Chapter Text
Christmas Eve, 2021 was not a day anyone liked to remember. It was a day that brought about—finally—the humans accepting the transgenics and their muddled genetics But Christmas Eve had been the cosmic joke ending nobody had been waiting for. It was the day the Cult of Familiars were supposed to perform their little doomsday ritual and bring about some comet that heralded the plague that would leave only Familiars alive if they had their inbred, psychotic way.
Apparently, their gods were out of town celebrating, because the plague was a bust. On top of it all, the Cult in their infinite wisdom had decided to stage their highly disturbing ritual in the center of town. Instead of dancing among dying human corpses, most of the practicing Cult members were arrested for indecent exposure, mass assembly without permit, suspicion of cult activities, and carrying around giant fucking snakes. Sounding awesome, right?
Wrong. Maybe the Cult’s prophets and numbers were on to something, because that very same day, a supposedly abandoned research facility in Pennsylvania lost containment of another unknown pathogen. The reports to make it out of the area claimed something about it killing people in droves. And then it started spreading…with only ten percent of humanity having a natural immunity.
By New Years, the federal government was desperate for relief, for someone who was able to combat the new sickness, to help them police the afflicted areas, aiding survivors and keeping quarantine. Their caged Familiars couldn’t boast immunity, and their attempts to prove otherwise had only resulted in death. Thus Max Guevara, X5-452, found herself signing an agreement for full citizenship for the transgenics, human-like and non (provided they lived in pre-approved areas and, of course, applied for inter-species marriage licenses on a case-by-case basis). Max herself hadn’t added the last addendum, but the way Logan had given her the news, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who still had hopes.
But she didn’t even have time to worry about what Logan thought; she had been trying to find ways around the government’s so carefully hidden ‘strings’. More accurately, she was trying to convince most of the transgenics not to buy into the ‘housing, pay, and the work you were designed to do!’ propaganda. Her own Second in Command had rushed out after those words. And after some of the words she had hurled at him rather publicly, (Killer! Murderer! Twisted Animal!), more had followed.
It was April now, four months since Alec left, and a little over that for the initial outbreak, and Max had only heard from the major west coast media hubs; the entire east coast was dark and that scared her. That was where Alec was deployed.
Every day the cocky X5 male was gone, Max felt like a gaping wound was widening to life-threatening proportions. She hadn’t realized how much she cared about the damned loveable vagrant till he had left (blank faced, but she had been afraid to meet his eyes, afraid of what she might see), but wasn’t there that damned cliché, ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’ or whatever?
Aside from missing him, it seemed that a majority of Terminal City had seen Alec as head of the fledgling nation; it was through sheer will power and some crash courses in military protocol with Mole (a necessary evil, she convinced herself, hating Project Manticore for making it even harder to be normal) that maintained her control. Perhaps even scored some points too, as Mole didn’t grumble ‘niner’ around her anymore.
Which brought everything back to Max, at her desk in Terminal City, staring at the calendar that would forever be stuck on December; it’s not like anyone was making calendars a top priority. It made her lonely, somehow, thinking that this ridiculously campy calendar (bedecked with rather adorable kittens, Alec’s idea of a joke considering they were more feline then human) was the last of an era; it didn’t matter that people were complaining about how everything was better before the Pulse. There was a ninety percent survival rate then. Since Christmas Eve, the expected survival rate in America had dropped to forty and many suspected the true count was lower where the infection was rampant. The whole situation was so tense, and with the government pressuring her people into that hell hole, all she wanted was some sign that everything would be all right.
There was a dark shadow in her doorway, and Max started, eyes snapping up from her calendar to the door.
There, leaning against the door frame, was Alec. Max couldn’t help but stare, taking him in from his worn combat boots, to his faded black fatigue pants, past his many belts loaded with gear, his scuffed and well cared for weapons, up to dirty blonde hair sun-bleached nearly white, to skin freckled and darkly tanned from being outside too much, but setting off those cat-green eyes that she had been so afraid to look at, four months ago—
“You have some nerve!” Her tone was harsh, voice high and strained from lack of use. For his part, Alec just cocked an eyebrow, not looking the least put off by her tone. “It’s been months!”
To her surprise, he broke into a full, genuine grin. “Aren’t you a breath of fresh air, Maxie. Nice to see you too. Glad to hear none of the humans you know are infected.” He took a moment, eyes taking her in with a suggestive sweep that left her shivering. “Damn, you’re a sight for sore eyes. The girls in the unit just don’t have any ass.”
Max shifted uncomfortably, sputtering “Wha-I’m yelling at you!” She resisted the urge to punch him, even though he was already shrugging her off, eyes sweeping around the office.
The moment he asserted it was clear, he short her a look, dumping a rucksack that looked less like ‘Alec’ and more like ‘494’ on her desk, his booted feet following as soon as he slumped into her guest chair. “And I’ve been getting yelled at when the stakes are much higher and by people who are a lot scarier then you. You…you’re cute. Sorry.” He added, catching her face, “Besides, it’s not like I don’t know what’s been goin’ on here. Mole’s been keepin’ me updated, and—”
“Mole could get a hold of you?” Oh, she was so killing that dinosaur when she saw him. “And I’m not cute.” She added as an after thought.
Alec shrugged. “Figured you’d be preoccupied with Wheels.” Logan's insulting nickname cut her deeply, and Max stumbled to her feet, desperate for some sort of space, but Alec scoffed at her, saying “Come on. The guy’s in a wheel chair and you used me to make him let go. I’m allowed to feel bitter about both of you.” There was no mistaking the chill in his voice. What was worse was that Max couldn’t even argue his logic; he had a right to be pissed after how she had used him. But he was also still speaking, and her brain fought to catch up, “—and he hasn’t always been the nicest to me, but if you need me to, I do promise to be a good boy ‘round ole’ ‘Eyes’.”
“What?”
Alec rolled his eyes. “Look, I’ve been behind enemy lines, pulling out civies for months. I’m bristling, and I’m sorry.” He offered her a sheepish smile. “It’s not like we have to watch our language out there.”
Max felt every defense she had set up against Alec in his long absence shatter. “So the rumors are true.” It was a gasp, a last hope that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t.
Alec’s face shut down. “And you’ve been campaigning to keep the only people immune out of the fight. I thought you wanted humanity to survive, Max, not exterminate it.” Before she could respond, Alec had already shifted his expression to something much more like himself, and his posture relaxed again. “To be honest, I’m here for recruits. The infection’s spreading, despite what the media is claiming. I need boots on the ground, pulling survivors out, containing the infection—” He stopped himself, biting his lip. “I just stopped by to say ‘hi’.” He managed that boyish grin of his. The sheer audacity of what he was suggesting really raised questions on exactly who he thought was in charge of TC, but Max felt herself bristling for a completely different reason.
“You’re leaving again?” Her voice betrayed her, keeping barely a hint of her ire and pushing a wealth of sorrow that she had been adamantly denying to the forefront.
Alec nodded, his expression carefully neutral, “I’m their CO, Max; I can’t abandon them. You have no idea the amount of collateral damage we’ll get billed for if I’m not there to police their asses.” He tossed her an easy smile, his green eyes bright in his darkly tanned skin. “You might like the thrill of it, Maxie. You should give it a tour.”
She balked, she couldn’t help it. “I can’t do four months—I’ve got a nation to—”
The look he gave her was clearly annoyed; “Might have to question who’s running this nation as it is; Right now it seems to be an ideal, not so much a person.” His tone was even, but there was no mistaking his meaning. “And besides, a tour is six months.”
The change in him was drastic, and Max was more than a little disappointed that he wasn’t the ideal she had come up with while he had been gone. Not to mention, she was more than a little irked that he was so blatantly questioning her authority here—despite the fact she had faced those questions herself, and found that she had to hustle and struggle to keep power. “I…” frustration spoke for her, and she burst out, “I have no idea what you want from me.”
Alec actually snorted, shaking his head as he picked up his rucksack, hiking it back over one shoulder. “I want you to own up to what you are, Max. Be a soldier.”
“You mean a killer.” She couldn’t help it; the words slipped out.
Alec didn’t wince this time, not like he had before (not that she would think about it…) he just looked away, taking a deep breath. “You know what we’re actually doing out there is classified.” He said, glancing back at her. “But you can’t be a killer if what you’re putting down is already dead.”
After that, he slipped out with barely a nod; she heard him call a passing ‘hey’ to someone in TC, who chirped back excitedly, but Max understood none of it. She was lost in her head, trying to wrap her head around the one tip Alec had let slip. Only after a second, did she realize he was heading away, she bolted from her desk, following him in haste down the hall.
Her head was buzzing, and when she caught up with him, she half resented the fact he was surrounded by well-wishers and friends—transhuman and X-series—and she could only half hear the words he was saying to them.
What she did know was that there was a definite look of surprise and something that could have passed for hope when she dared catch his eyes; it seemed desperately important that this time, she meet his eyes. “I’m going.” The buzzing finally lifted, and she could hear, but she was shocked to realize that no one was saying a thing. “With you.” She clarified, shifting uncomfortably under the weight of Alec’s full gaze. “Out there.”
It had to have been temporary insanity, that had to be it. Especially when she saw him grin in that ‘oh, you’ve got to be kidding me’ grin, and felt her resolve flicker.
“Nice to have you on board, Max.”
***
Three days later, Max found herself geared up and sitting in the front of a military jeep knowing exactly how Alec got so tan. The terrain as they left Seattle was normal (though the Sector Police treating them with respect was something new), but the second they passed into Wyoming, they hit a dry chill. Crops that had just sprouted were already wilting, and trees were dropping their leaves in a parody of autumn. It was like nature was sick…
The sun beat down on the jeep relentlessly, and Max shied away from the glare coming from one window, only to be put off by the multiple layers of clothing that made her so very uncomfortably hot. “You get used to it.” Alec said, startling her. He offered her a small smile, glancing over the rims of his sunglasses as he risked his eyes from the road. “I mean, you can talk to some of the chicks at base, see how they cope, but trust me, you’re gonna want that protection.” His eyes shifted to her feet, and she instinctively shied her feet away.
“It’s bad enough you made me shoot the thing.” She nudged the .45 with her boot, causing Alec to make a scathing noise.
“Jesus, Max, it’s your weapon. You’re supposed to treat it with respect, not…well, you didn’t throw it out the window, so I guess that's progress.” He glanced at her again, “But immunity or no, you do not want to get in hand to hand with these fucks. They feel pain…they just don’t care. And I think it’s worse.”
Begrudgingly, Max leaned forward to pick her pistol off the floor, holding it as lightly as she could. “Through that entire briefing, all I heard was a lot of government X-Files cover-up talk. All you said was that, once infected, the population became vicious, deranged and cannibalistic. You said in my office you can’t kill something that’s already dead. What the hell is actually going on?”
He stared straight ahead for a long time, watching the road that was remarkably (and freakishly) clear of traffic. They were heading to a hot zone, but the complete lack of civilians… “I’m not supposed to tell you till we reach base, Maxie.” There was a slightly teasing tone to his voice, but his entire body had tensed up.
“Then why are we riding by ourselves?” She had wondered at the breaking up of troops on the second day (after remedial military procedure and briefings), and why they were spread so thin, and to so many places.
Alec held his tongue for a long time, seemingly looking for a way to word it. “I wasn’t lying when I said I came here for recruits. We’re thin. I’m only taking you to my unit because I’m afraid we’re gonna lose our leader because you’re too afraid or stubborn—I’m not sure which yet—to use the gun issued to you. Honestly, we could use you at one of the other sites…I’m a little nervous having you work ground zero.”
Max felt her mouth go dry. “You’re still pulling survivors out of ground zero?”
“Not all humans are as stupid as we thought, apparently.” He ignored her glare, chuckling at some inside joke that she didn’t and probably would never know. “Plenty saw enough horror movies to know how to survive for a time, and now we’re getting them to safety. Next step is caravanning them back to civilization—”
“Back?”
Alec’s face deadened. “Think dust and sand. This virus wipes out everything.”
She took a moment to process that, and sighed, not liking the possibility. “And what we’re fighting?”
He tensed again. She could see his fingers whiten on the jeep’s steering wheel. “It’s down to virology, genetics and mutations. This virus was liquid in it’s original form, only infectious by injection. But the funny thing is, being designed as a possible bio-weapon, the virus is protean; it changes depending on it’s environment. Lost containment in a lab, it became airborne and infected the facility. What it does then is kills you—may seem anti-climatic, but trust me, it gets better. You got to think of a virus as a living, thriving organism that has wants. It killed them to move on to it’s fastest and longest running contagion: saliva and blood. Now we get some science in the monster virus.” He chuckled, “It reanimates dead tissue, to put it bluntly. The recently dead have a measurable electrical charge. This thing manages to jump start the body and brain, but only to the base needs. They attack anything. The infection spreads so fast…” He shook his head. “We have a ‘No Mercy’ policy, too, Max, I best tell you now. Once a civie is bit, no matter how ‘ok’ or ‘healthy’ they look, it’s a shot between the eyes and a burned corpse. This virus turns them into them in forty-eight hours. We don’t play around when we’re losing people.”
She fell into a long silence, half contemplating his words (distastefully), and half wondering how he still managed to not explain—exactly—what they were dealing with. What he was suggesting…well, that was just impossible…
It was another half a day before Max heard Alec speak again, saying “If you scope your eyes, you can just make out the barricade.” His voice was tense, and he had his sunglasses on again, but she leaned forward in her seat, telescoping her vision—
“Oh fuck!” Before she had time to register movement beyond the yellow police barricades, Alec was swerving, pulling the jeep straight across the road, ninety degrees from the way they had been facing. Max whipped her head around, struggling to look past Alec’s head when she caught the flash of what looked like a smaller version of Alec’s uniform and then heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire. Alec was already half way out of the truck, his bandana pulled over his nose and mouth and held his assault rifle in both hands before shouldering the door shut with a barely understandable “Stay put!”.
There was significantly more gunfire, and then an eerie quiet that scared her more then all the noise. The sudden bang of Alec’s fist against her window caused her to jump more then a little. “Damn, Max…it’s all clear…And you’re jumpy.”
She glared at him, when as second thud on the car caused her to actually screech. Alec raised his eyebrows, and shared a look with the shadowy figure perched on the hood. “After that introduction to this place, who wouldn’t be?” Max was shocked to hear the voice was female. “Sorry for that; we had a runner. Attracted some dogs and who knows what else.” The woman moved closer to the windshield, and Max was finally able to get a good look at her; she was slightly paler then Max naturally, but tanned and freckled from the sun, with jet black, straight hair and shockingly amber eyes. Her uniform seemed to be lacking several key garments that Alec had insisted Max herself wore, but from the frustrated sigh and eye roll he had given the other, Max figured he had just as much success controlling her.
“We should get out of here.” Alec said, his eyes scanning the horizon. Max felt like the very air was watching them. “I’m surprised; honestly? A runner?”
“The ‘doting father’ that Felix pulled off his daughter the other day. Took a look in the mirror this morning and bolted.” The girl flashed a feral grin, revealing canines just a little too sharp. “I took care of the body.”
Alec must have caught the look on Max's face, because the next thing he was saying was, “Keegan, jeez, you sound like a maniac. At least introduce yourself before you start making outrageous claims and freak out the rookie.”
Keegan—with a roll of her bright eyes—hopped off the jeep and extended a hand, using her hip to knock Alec out of the way; amusing, especially since she was nearly a foot shorter than his six foot frame. “X5-105R: Keegan. I’m the resident sniper out here.” She flashed another grin. Max felt strange shaking her hand, but did, surprised at the grip, and how warm her palm was. When Max glanced down, Keegan hastily jerked her hand back, tugging her fingerless gloves awkwardly, and playing with the cloth wraps that she had up her forearms.
Alec cleared his throat. “You need to get back up on point; I hear mooing.” The two of them snickered to themselves, and Alec tapped the door twice, indicating he was shutting it on her. Max tried not to feel left out of the joke; she had only just gotten here anyway.
Keegan disappeared into the perpetual dust and gloom almost instantaneously, and Max gave up trying to follow her route back to the top of what looked to be a handmade tower erected just inside the barricade. Alec didn’t seem to worry for her, and just slid into the driver’s side, and locked the doors after he was in.
As soon as they were past the barricade, Max heard gunfire explode behind them. Alec reached out, placing a hand on her thigh and giving her a small, lip quirk that she thought was meant to be a smile. It was oddly reassuring. “She’s damn good, Max, don’t worry about her.” He gave her another small smile, and then glanced back at the road—only to slam on the brakes.
Max swallowed a scream when she saw what hit the windshield—it couldn’t have been alive to walk into the road into the first place! There was no flesh for it’s nose, no eye on one side and no jaw on the other. Alec made a face, as the thing impossibly started to beat on the glass, still attempting to gain access to the car it had so stupidly walked in front of. “Fuckin’ zombies.” He shifted into reverse and slammed on the gas, throwing it off the hood, before carefully aiming the tires and slamming the car into second, forcing it to leap forward.
Max winced at the crunch as the skull was crushed under the jeep’s tires. “That was disgusting!”
“You destroy the head.” He said, keeping his tone just barely controlled; it sounded like he was excited for actually getting to run over a…dead body. “If you don’t…well…they’re more trouble later. Trust me, Maxie, you’ll get used to it.” He flashed her that damned boyish grin, and Max was starting to wonder if she was ever going to be immune to it; one of these days she was going to get herself into serious shit with her little ‘Alec Crush’, and that day was looking a hell of a lot closer.