Once home, Richard questioned Max's unnatural behavior. Max pointed to herself, "Bad."
Darlene gasped, "No, Max, you're-"
Max interrupted, gazing steadfast at Darlene, "Evil!" She turned and
bolted towards the living room, screeching to a halt
in front of the couch. That's when she realized her hands shaking.
The seizure overcame her and she collapsed to the
ground as Darlene, Richard and Stephanie entered the room. Max hit
a rough patch and the seizures grew worse.
"OH MY GOD!" Darlene screamed and panicked.
Richard scrambled over to Max and held her shaking body to stop Max
from banging her head onto the floor. "Call 911!"
He yelled to Stephanie.
Stephanie dashed to the phone in the kitchen. She dialed the number
and reported the incident. Stephanie gave her
house address and hung up the phone. Soon after an ambulance arrived.
Richard chose to accompany Max for the ride,
with Darlene and Stephanie following behind in the family van.
If Max had been well enough, she would have easily prevented the creation
of her public hospital record. It would had
also prevented Lydeckers' hacker/squealer from intruding on her file.
"Sir?" The hacker turned from his laptop to face Lydecker.
Lydecker turned his gaze to the hacker and said nothing. The hacker
knew to continue, "A hospital record was just
created for 332960073452."
"Where?" Came the impatient reply.
"526 Pony Lane....in Billings, sir."
"How long until we get there?"
"Twenty hours, sir."
"Get me Rawson."
Rawson was just leaving for the day, when a secretary came in his office, "You have a call on 2." She replied.
Rawson dismissed her, then picked up line 2, "Hello?"
"Put some of your men on watch at 526 Pony Lane."
Rawson spat out, "Uh, yes sir, Mr. Lydecker, sir." He then hung up and
paged two of his finest men, "SAM! PHIL! Get in
here!"
Sam and Phil entered the office, Phil spoke, "Yes, chief?"
"I want you, Sam and Casey at 526 Pony Lane, NOW!!" He commands Phil.
Phil nods. They find Casey and leave.
Richard was denied access to escort Max to ICU, and was forced to remain
in the waiting room. He had been pacing for
what seemed like hours, but was only minutes when Darlene and Stephanie
showed up.
"How is she?" Darlene spoke rushing to Richard.
"I don't know." He replied.
"Is she gonna die?"
Darlene and Richard looked down at their daughter. Richard shook his head and knelt, "No, honey. Max will be fine."
Just then the doctor came out. Richard stood and before any questions
were asked, the doctor spoke, "Max is ok. We've
nuetralized the seizure and she is stable. But I wish to keep her here
overnight and execute some tests in the morning."
"I want to take her home." Darlene became slightly angered.
"Look, I said she was stable, but she could have a relapse."
"Maybe we should let her stay." Richard pleaded with his wife.
The family reluctantly leaves, though they will return in the morning.
Max awoke hours later. She could feel the sedation wearing off and the
seizure creeping up on her. She climbed out of
the hospital bed and left the room.
Max could remember this same scenario. One of the various tests that
Manticore required them to do was a "Search &
Obtain" Mission. That meant being sent to a 'faux' business building
to retrieve what Lydecker stated was valuable
merchandise. She knew it was only a test. Though, at that time, her
siblings accompanied her. This time, it was just her.
Max quickly went into stealth mode and made her way in search of the
medicine room. Upon escaping from Manticore,
she learned that tryptophan helped her seizures in a big way. She turned
the corner and froze.
An orderly walked out of a room, chatting with another orderly. Luckily
they were headed the other way. Max overheard
on mention tryptophan while pointing to a small bottle. Max adjusted
her eyesight and zoomed in to read the label on
the bottle: Tryptophan.
Relief struck Max and as she crept closer to the room, her seizure began
to return. She reached the door and found it
locked, but Max was able to undo that.
Max entered and scanned the shelves while her body entered a slight
spasm. She spotted the bottle and dashed over
to it. Time was running out, the seizure was gaining intensity. She
grabbed the bottle and ripped off the lid, gobbling up
a few of the pills inside.
The intensity of the seizure weakened. Max stood up and stuffed the
bottle into her underwear, creating a place to hold
and hide the bottle. She exited the room and headed back to the one
she came from. She made it safely back to the
room and decided to rest up and heal.
The hacker then found another place where Max stayed. He left his seat
to report to Lydecker. "Sir, 332960073452 has
been staying with a family."
"What's the address?"
The hacker scuffled through some pages, "Uh, 629 Guevara."
"Let's pay a visit to them as well." Lydecker exited the truck and climbed
back into the hummer and was soon just hours
from Billings.
~~**++**~~
to be continued