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Everything was Green. It pierced his arms, his legs, wove its way into his nose, eyes, and mouth. He should have been afraid, struggling and suffocated. Instead, he was calm, heart slow, lungs barely working. This was what he had chosen. He was happy here, a part of—

A part of...

Nothing.

He had been confused and tired when they pulled him away from his existence. He had agreed to something else, a different life, but couldn't remember what he had promised, or who to. The Green was gone, replaced by darkness, then the brightness of the outside world as he opened his eyes. There was a hiss, cool air, and a smattering of statistics on a screen nearby.


It was still him, something he would recognize even when everything else was hazy.

He pushed the door open and leaned forward a little, looking around.

"Hello?" So low. No one would hear. "Hello?"

Max turned in the direction of the voice, unable to see who had spoken from where he stood. To either side of his bizarre glass-fronted relaxation elevator was a row of ten or more of the same, each home to a sleeping person. Cautiously, he stepped out onto the chilly floor, only just then realizing that he wasn't wearing anything on his feet.

"Little early for Halloween," he said, bracing his hand on Tall White Guy #14's elevator as he rounded the corner. "Did Monica put you up to this, or...?" He didn't actually think anyone he was friends with had the money to fill a room full of rubber dummies in tubes, but his brain wasn't allowing him to consider this was anything but an extremely elaborate practical joke at the moment. Nevermind the fact that they would have had to have kidnapped and drugged him to get him here, or that his thoughts were still mostly green. A practical joke was the only thing that made sense and obviously his ex was to blame.

November 17th. Two months from now. From...

Max reached out slowly and brushed his fingers against another elevator...cryosleep pod?... leaning into it when he was sure it would hold his weight.

He heard a woman wailing about the infection, saw a man with one eye left in his head beaten repeatedly with a shovel, smelled the metallic tinge of blood on the breeze. Day Zero. That's what they had called it when they'd slapped him awake and asked if he wanted to come with them. If he wanted to live.

He found his eyes had shut against the truth reflected on the man's phone, but he opened them again as memory faded a short time later. Still unsure as to exactly what had happened, at least he was now certain it would all come back to him eventually.

"Monica's nobody. She's not here. On... November 17th. Today. Sorry." He lifted his hand away from the side of the pod, holding it out even though he was sure this guy wouldn't shake. "Call me Porter." He cleared his throat. "Please."

If he had thought losing two months and the entirety of his former life in a matter of moments was a shock, he'd been mistaken. The stoic young man's next bit of news proved to be completely mind blowing when taken at face value, so Max decided to process the words in chunks instead. Maybe if he got through each handful of syllables without his brain dribbling out of his ears, he would eventually make it to the end of the sentence alive.

First up, the Bermuda Triangle. Deus ex Machina. The name sparked a memory that the place did not, more of that agreement he had reached while he had been nearly unconscious. The people in the white coats would keep him alive in exchange for his service. His service... which apparently included seeing monsters and being bonded to one, like Pern or How to Train Your Dragon. He refrained from asking if he was meant to ride his bond around or communicate telepathically with it or some s**t, though the thought did make him smile faintly in the midst of his confusion. He might have had more questions about the whole thing had he not spent the last stretch of time he could recall running from creatures that acted a hell of a lot like zombies from the movies. If they were real, other sorts of monsters probably were as well.

He didn't like the part about dying. Max had a feeling he might have already tried that once.

"Okay," he said slowly, scratching at the back of his head and finding no suspicious holes where he might have lost his mind. "That's, um, life now, I guess?" He inhaled slowly, sighing it out as he nodded. "I see you've got uniforms." He glanced at the man's familiar coat. "And shoes, presumably." His toes briefly curled as they were mentioned. "And this monster." Max swallowed. "Where do I meet it?" He wondered how he had partnered with it while he had been asleep and what they were meant to do that involved so much death, but the answer was probably rather long and he no longer felt like standing still.

All right. Heading to the cove to meet his monster. Again, had he not spent the past few weeks dodging and/or fighting the zombie horde, he probably would have had more questions, but instead he nodded and straightened, the movement sparking a proper full-body stretch. He might have just spent two months asleep, but he sure could use a nap.

"I will... um... meet my monster then. Sounds... exciting." Actually it sounded terrifying. Like a job interview for a position with one of your in-laws. Max glanced between the indicated letters and the map, storing away the fact that this place looked much larger than this single room. A secret operation with monsters and an island in the Bermuda Triangle. Cody and Dana would have loved this. Something told him—another memory, perhaps—that they would never know a thing about it.

But there was someone who might, someone who had been there when he had decided the people in his old life would be better off without him. Someone who he hoped that if given this choice, would make the same one.

"Before I do that though... do you know if there's a Diana Vyn around here? In a pod... thing or with a monster?" It was worth a shot, even if this guy seemed even less likely to have a lengthy social roster than he did.

Expecting him to access some sort of fancy computer system with his mind... maybe... Max was only slightly disappointed when the man took a tour of the room on foot. He could have done that himself. Not that he would have without permission, he supposed, so it was probably good that he had asked anyway. Max told himself that this was for the best a number of times as he followed, eyes on that fancy coat. He told himself that when they couldn't find her that he wouldn't be disappointed. They'd healed her up and sent her on her way back in Delta. They'd granted her a pardon and—

And there she was.

Max stopped a couple of pods away. "Oh." He was surprised to find he couldn't move. It seemed wrong to just stride over and look at her like this, or maybe it was more that he didn't want to see her again with someone else around. "That's good then. Thanks." He backed away a step, then another. "I'll just be on my way to... the cove, you said? Yes."