After the World's End

Chapter Twelve

Max guessed that about a week had passed since he had woken up after passing out. If Max was questioned about what had happened since waking up, he wouldn't have told them much. He boy barely knew what was happening around him as the events of the pass days had mostly been a blur of incomprehensible events and agony. One moment he would be watching the sun rise and the next he would be lying next to Arden around the fire with no memory of what had happened between. All Max could be sure of was that Arden would wake him up every morning, would try not to let him sleep the day away, but there were still times that he was only technically awake. Arden would try to get Max to eat all the time, but Max was never hungry and eating him just made him feel sick.

He knew that the others walked about fourteen hours a day with each of the guys carrying him in three hour shifts. He'd tried to apologize during one of the times when he had been lucid, but they had all brushed it off, telling him that it wasn't his fault he was sick.

One night, when they had stopped to refill their water bottles and eat dinner, Max was propped against the tree and Max became wholly uninterested in what the others were doing. He was busy cataloging what he was able to do as he had done so many times when he was in the city. It had always been of absolute importance for Max to know what he was capable of and he was delighted with any microscopic improvement that he would fool himself into seeing. Max's every conscious moment was dedicated to getting better. He wanted whatever was going on with him to leave him alone, but wanting something doesn't always mean that it's going to happen.

Max bit his lip to avoid cursing in frustration when he realized that his limbs weren't moving the way they ought to. His every movement was jerky and clumsy. Max wasn't even sure anymore what came directly from this and what came from how little he could eat.

"Max, pay attention!" Cohen snapped.

Max raised his eyes to look at Max. "I'm sorry, what?" he asked quietly.

"If we're going to be lugging you around all day, the least you can do is listen," Cohen said. "Come over here and help Stasia pack everything up."

"Okay," Max said. Somehow he stumbled over to where Stasia was and helped her put things away, making small talk with her.

As usual, Stasia didn't really say that much back. She was always very quiet until there was something she really wanted to say. Cohen muttered to himself the entire time. He was never one to let things go once he was angry. It was just another of the hundred of things Max was getting used to. He wouldn't have traded it for the world. He loved being around other people. In time, they were back to walking and nothing more was said.

As Max got even sicker, he knew that they talked to him even though there were times where he could barely understand what they were saying. He suspected that they didn't really care if he answered them or not. It was boring, for lack of a better word, to walk all day and it helped to pass the time by talking. Arden always had something to tell Max and he always kept it cheerful.

One day, they stopped by the stream for a little while. Everyone wanted to fill their thermoses and have a hot meal before starting to walk into the night. The first night Max had been awake had been unusual in that they didn't start walking again after their evening meal. Usually, they only spent between one and two hours at the campsite for dinner. They'd gather only the bare minimum of firewood needed to cook their dinner, eat, and then leave.

That day didn't start out to be any different. Cain and Audrey left to get firewood while Cohen filled the thermoses and the others either started to prepare dinner or talk to Max.

Cain and Audrey didn't come back as early as they usually did, but it wasn’t a big worry at first. They didn't think that there was any danger. After all there were eight of them and there was strength in numbers. No sane person would attack a group as big as theirs and, besides, they hadn't seen any footprints.

As time passed, they did start to get worried, but no one said anything. They told themselves that they had been delayed because of the rainstorm the night before and weren't able to find as much dry firewood. They thought that Cain and Audrey would surely be back in a few minutes.

Finally, they could no longer pretend that Cain and Audrey's' absence wasn't odd. "Something's happened," Max whispered to Arden.

"We don't know that," Arden responded, but he didn't sound very sure.

"Cohen and I will go look for them," Alexander said. "The rest of you stay here and protect the camp." Everyone knew that they meant for Arden to protect the camp, but for once the girls didn't protest about how sexist Alexander was being.

At that moment, they all heard something crashing through the bushes. Everyone was on edge as they heard the crashing get closer. They knew that they couldn't clear up camp and hide before the person found them, so they decided to wait and see who it was. After all, they were reasonably sure that it was only one person.

The anticipation was terrible. When the boy finally burst out of the bushes, stumbling and blood soaking through his shirt, they all gasped. It was Cain. Caroline was the first to reach him, catching him as he fell, but she was so small that she only managed to slow his fall to the ground. "Oh my god!" she screamed in an absolute panic. "Cain! Cain, what happened?"

"Looters," he gasped, obviously in gut-wrenching pain. "Audrey's dead. They stabbed me. They're coming. You have to get to the sanctuary. Follow the river until it splits off into two and then follow the smaller until it turns into rapids. It'll be hard to follow the river then, so you might have to stray away for awhile, but stay near it. It's open up to the ocean. The camp is within ten miles of where the river opens up into the ocean." Cain stopped talking then and everyone could see the blood gurgling out of his mouth.

Alexander tried to pull Cain up to bring him with us, but he coughed, "No, I'm dying. Just a few minutes left. Run."

They didn't want to leave Cain to die, but they knew that what he said was true. Arden gathered Max up into his arms, ignoring Max's protests to leave him too. "Max, I'm sorry, but I need you to shut up. I'm taking you no matter what you say. You're not a problem to carry. I doubt you're even a hundred pounds."

The group had never gotten ready so quickly. In less than two minutes, everything was packed up and they were sprinting away, knowing that their lives depended on getting away from the looters.

Max was infinitely grateful to Arden for wanting to take him with them, but he told himself that if Arden slowed down even a little bit he would force Arden to leave him. He knew he wasn't worth putting the others in danger, but he wasn't sure how he could force Arden to leave him.

They didn't stop running for hours, running just as much from the pain and grief at the loss of their new friends as from the looters. In fact, they ran all through the night and through most of the next day.

Max passed in and out of consciousness as he had nothing to keep him awake like the others did. The running jolted his sore body and it was extremely unsafe for him to be skipping meals like he was, but Max didn't dare say a word. The last thing he wanted was to be ungrateful towards them for allowing him to stay with them.

It was during one of the times when Max was conscious and wondering if his friends would ever get too tired to run anymore, when Alexander finally called for them to stop. Everyone immediately collapsed to the ground gasping for air. Max slid out of Arden's arms and brought him some water from his thermos.

Arden thanked him and drank everything that was in the thermos before going to sleep like the others had. Max was shaking, tired, and wheezing, but that had become the norm for Max now, so he disregarded it and decided that it was time to be useful. He crawled over to Arden's bag, pulling out some matches and gathering together a small pile of sticks and dried grass, so that he could start a fire. He lit the twigs and blew softly on the embers. It took only a few minutes before the grass started smoking and Max smiled delightedly. Max knew that he would need to get some firewood to keep the fire going, but he wasn't too worried. Alexander hadn't been too picky about the place they stopped so there was a lot of firewood lying around. Alexander would probably want them to clear it up later, if they stayed here, to make it more comfortable to sleep on, but until then Max thought he could keep the fire going for awhile.

Max's entire attention was focused on nurturing the tiny fire. He hoped that he'd have a nice-sized fire would be going and maybe the fire would even be hot enough for him to start dinner by then.

When Max judged that he could add some more firewood to the fire without smothering it, he struggled to his feet and went about collecting sticks. At first he was surprised at how weak he was, but he soon realized that he shouldn't have been surprised. After all, he hadn't even walked in over a week. When he finally had an arm full of sticks, he stumbled back to the camp and laid the firewood down next to his small fire. Even that small effort, had made his wheezing worse and he felt faint, but he was determined to do everything he could to help the others. He worked for a couple of hours in silence.

Awhile later, Alexander rolled to his feet and looked around assessing the situation. He was visibly surprised to see that Max was the only person up and about. "Hello, Max," he said.

Max only smiled at him tiredly, just glad that Alexander had started being so kind to him after he had gotten sick. Sometimes, Max kind of wished that he had told the others earlier, but he also knew that they wouldn't have believed him unless they had seen him pass out like they had.

"Are you feeling all right?" Alexander asked.

"To be honest, no. I'm managing though," Max replied. "And yourself?"

"I could probably sleep for three days straight and still be tired, but I'm fine for the most part." Alexander looked at the fire for a moment before saying, "It looks like there's not much firewood left, so I'll go get some more. Will you be okay here while I'm gone?"

"Yes, I'll be fine," Max said. He watched the fire and his companions while Alexander was gone, not having anything better to do. His friends were all sleeping like the dead and Max didn't expect them to wake up soon, if at all that night.

Alexander came back in no time dropping a large armful of firewood near the fire. He sat up against a tree and it took almost no time before he was drifting off to sleep.

Max laughed to himself. He'd had a suspicion that Alexander wouldn't stay awake for much longer. He told himself that if they didn't wake up by the time he'd finished making dinner, which he doubted that they would, then he would wake them up. They badly needed a warm meal and Max was determined that they would eat even if they didn't like having to wake up. With Alexander's firewood, Max was sure he'd have enough firewood for the fire to get hot enough to start dinner. It was a couple hours later before Max judged that the fire was hot enough to begin cooking and the sun was starting to set.

Max decided that everyone would have stew for dinner, since he wasn't sure that anyone could stomach a heavy meal that night after not eating for two days.

When dinner was finally done, He poured soup into the six bowls and set them on the ground while he went to wake everyone else up. Alexander woke up first, looking a little bit embarrassed about having fallen asleep again. Stasia started to her feet the moment Max touched her like she was ready to fight. She blushed and relaxed when she realized that it was only Max. Caroline was next and she just bounced to her feet sunnily hiding how tired she must be, in sharp contrast to the way Cohen swore at Max and rolled over when Max tried to wake him up. Max left him alone, knowing that the smell of the food would rouse him in a few minutes. Lastly, he woke up Arden.

Arden jolted straight up when Max touched his shoulder, crashing their heads together. "Ow! Oh. Max, I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Max said, fighting both the urge to laugh and blush. "What about you?"

"I'm fine. You couldn't hurt me if you tried, weakling," Arden teased.

Max frowned. "I don't know. I'm actually pretty badass." At Arden's dubious look, Max started laughing. "I am!" Changing the subject, Max informed Arden, "Dinner's ready. We're having soup."

"Thanks for telling me," Arden replied, leading Max to the fire. That was the type of thing Max liked about Arden. He would know that Max needed his help and would help him without saying a word or ever thinking less of him.

Max sat with Arden while they ate their soup, an unremarkable vegetable broth, but it was warm and that was enough to make it fantastic for them.

Cohen had dragged himself over to the fire as well and had even managed a half smile toward Caroline, but he still yawned tiredly every couple of minutes.

When Max looked around the fire, he realized that they were all in pairs. Cohen was sitting next to Caroline, who although clearly exhausted, still had her habitual smile on his face and was talking a mile a minute.

Alexander and Stasia were across from them. As usual, neither of them were speaking and both were perfectly content with the silence as far as Max could tell. Arden and Max had often speculated on whether they ever spoke, or if they just read each other's minds. (After looking at Alexander for a moment, Arden said that he had no doubt that Alexander could read minds.)

Lastly there were Max and Arden, who were an odd pair if Max had ever seen them. Max thought that he looked like a filthy, starving bag of bones, while Arden…Well, Max was certain that they looked nothing alike. Max shook his head, determined to stop thinking like that.

Shortly after dinner, everyone was laying out their sleeping bags to go to sleep again. "I'll take first watch if you want," Max offered, despite being tired and achy.

Cohen nodded, but Caroline immediately exclaimed, "No! You've already been up for so long and you're sick. I'll take first watch."

Cohen was undoubtedly exasperated by Caroline's offer, but all he said was, "No, Caroline. If Max wants to stay up, just let him." Seeing that Caroline was going to argue, he said, "If it really bothers you that bad, I'll take the first watch." He flashed an annoyed look at Max as if he had planned the whole thing.

Arden noticed the looked, frowned, and said, "I wouldn't mind taking the first watch." He had only mean to diffuse the situation, but it had backfired.

Cohen had glanced at Caroline and had seen that she was smiling at how Arden hadn't shied away from helping Max like he had. Cohen, in a flare of jealousy, snapped, "If you're looking for someone who is lazy around here, then you should look at Max, not me!"

There was no denying how furious Arden was. "Cohen, shut the hell up," Arden said, his jaw clenched so tightly like he was physically forcing back a wave of insults that had sprung to his mind at Cohen's words. His bright blue eyes had darken until they were almost black and he looked so absolutely murderous that even Max was a bit frightened of him.

If Max had been asked how long they stood illuminated only by the waning fire, he would have said it felt like an eternity, but in reality it had been no more than a couple seconds.

In that time, no one dared to move except for Cohen who glared at Arden defiantly.

Suddenly, Arden's control snapped like a rubber band. In a flash of movement, Arden had Cohen by the throat. "Apologize," he hissed, his features contorted in fury.

Cohen glowered at both Arden and Max, but made no move to take back his words.

"Arden, let go of him," Max demanded, fight the nearly overpowering desire to run away when he saw the enraged countenance of his friend. "You're being an ass."

Arden's anger had by no means diminished at Max's words, but he released Cohen. The newly freed boy stumbled backward

"Anyone's nerves would be stretched thin after everything we've been through recently," Max uttered timidly, still uncertain because of the anger in Arden's eyes.

Arden, realizing that he was the one responsible for Max's fear, forced himself to calm down. "Max, stop letting people take advantage of you," he said, pausing to send a dirty look Cohen's way with Cohen, never one to back down from a fight, returning an equally dirty look.

Caroline stood halfway between the three boys, considering which of the two needed her attention the most. She could see Max was having trouble convincing Arden to stop fighting with Arden, but at the same time she didn't think it would do much good if Cohen wouldn't stop baiting the two whenever he got the excuse.

Hoping that Max could end Arden's part in the fighting, Caroline stormed over to Cohen and slapped him hard across the face. Admittedly, fighting with someone may not be the best way to end fighting, but she really thought it was time for Cohen to learn what she thought of his actions. "Leave him alone," she said in a tone that allowed no argument. "I can't believe you're treating someone like this, especially somebody who's weaker than you. You're right that Max isn't a little kid anymore. You're right that he can defend himself normally, but how dare you make him feel even worse about being sick! Do you think you can make Max hate this situation more than he does already?" She was appalled at how little Cohen cared about anyone, but himself.

"Caroline, I-" Cohen started, but Caroline refused to listen to anymore of his excuses.

"No, I'm tired of it. I refuse to have anything to do with you until you treat Max better," she finished, turning away from him.

Everyone else had fallen silent during Caroline's outburst. She avoided looking anyone in the eye, upset about the way things had turned out. Caroline hadn't wanted to fight with Cohen, but she knew that it was for the best.

Max had walked over to her, looking so cautious about it that she almost wanted to laugh. Knowing that it wouldn't make her feel any better if he told her that she didn't need to do that, he only said, "Thank you," he rasped.

Caroline only nodded.

"You should get some sleep." Max's eyes were so understanding that Caroline had a problem looking at him. It was like he knew that she'd actually kind of- No, she couldn't think about that right now. Cohen had to change the way he treated people if he ever wanted to be friends with her again.