After the World's End

Chapter Thirteen

Max sighed at the awkward silence that had pervaded the group ever since Caroline and Cohen's…disagreement. It seemed like everyone was afraid that if they said more than what was absolutely crucial, then it would result in a massive, apocalyptic fight. In the last week, Max had only spoken to tell Arden that he was to nauseous to eat and to grumble at Arden for waking him up.

They had continued to walk all day long without fail, just as they always had. The only real difference other than the atmosphere was that max refused to have anything to do with Max anymore. The two hadn't gotten into any more altercations, but Cohen had by no means warmed up to Max. It was like he thought that if he just left Max alone then Caroline would forgive him. He was proven wrong over and over again as every time he approached Caroline, he was rebuffed, but he was refused to stop trying. Cohen hadn't so much as looked at his companions, people Max had believed were his lifelong friends, and it was like he was didn't care about the loss of their friendships.

Max coughed, his shoulders shaking with the force of the fit. It hurt his muscles to cough and he was glad when the fit finally passed. He collapsed against Arden's shoulder, but each breath he took made a small wheezing sound. Max's head felt like it was full of cotton balls and it was hard to focus on any one thing. Max gave up soon on trying to stay conscious. The moment he did, Max drifted off to sleep.

"Max, wake up," Arden ordered.

Max groaned and wanted to complain, but when he saw that Arden was only concerned about him, he pushed those thoughts away. Max reached up to push his hair out of his face, but because of the lethargy in his body, Max could barely move and he wasn't able to fine tune his movement like he ought to be able to.

"Are you okay? You feel like you're burning up again," Arden said. "Do you want to get some water out of my bag? Hopefully, it'll cool you down."

"No," Max argued. "I'm freezing."

Looking down at Max's hands, Arden could see that what Max said was true, but he still thought the fever was the more pressing concern. "I'm sorry, Max," Arden said. "You shouldn't be sleeping with a fever like that and I think you should drink the water anyway."

Max whined, but did as he was told. As soon as he had put the water back, he lay his head on Arden's should again and wrapped his arms around himself. Max really wished that he would feel okay again. Max had started wondering if maybe he should just go into hibernation.

"We're going to stop in about an hour. You need to stay awake and eat before you can go to sleep again. No complaints," he said.

Max rolled his eyes at his friend's overprotectiveness. "Whatever you say, Arden," he said, sarcastically. He didn't say that his stomach both rumbled at the thought and made him nauseous. "I wonder when we'll get to the coast," Max said a while later.

"Me too," Arden agreed.

"Have you ever seen the ocean?" Max asked, realizing that he knew almost nothing about Arden's and his other companion's life before he had met. He'd heard vague references to their village and to people Max had never heard of before, so he was very curious.

"No. Our people moved camp sometimes, but it is difficult to move so many people. We never moved very far and there was always a good reason, although I wasn't told the reason because I was only a child. I don't remember being worried about it because I was certain the adults would know what to do," Arden explained.

Max nodded, but he was unable to comprehend what his life would be like if he hadn't had to worry about everything and could depend on others to do things for him. Max had that now, but he wasn't used to it, so it just made him more uncomfortable than anything. Maybe that would be different if he had grown up like his friends had.

"Our families took very good care of us. We didn’t know much about the reality of our situation until we were nearing adulthood," he said. "If I hadn't know Alexander, I would probably be dead now. Myself and the others were too young to know much about what was going on. Alexander taught us what we needed to know to survive."

Max repressed a smirk at how naïve his friend had been; at the same time he gained a whole new respect for Alexander. Max thought for a moment how lucky Arden was to have parents, friends, and even a whole village of people who cared about him, but then it occurred to him to question what it would be like to lose them. Maybe Max was the lucky one. Max hadn't had anyone he could consider family in about ten years. Max had only a faint memory of his parents, but even then they hadn't really acted like parents.

He remembered the last time he saw them. It had been the night before their eighteenth birthday and Max had wanted to sit with them. He had been so hungry that it he couldn't even sleep. Instead he had stumbled over to them, only to realize that they had all their things together.

Max, with a sense of sinking dread that he couldn't fully explain even to this day, had whispered, "Mommy, Daddy, where are you going?"

His mother, with the decency to look a bit guilty, said, "Your daddy and I have to go."

"Can I come too?" Max had asked.

With only a quick glance at her boyfriend, his mother had said, "No. I'm sorry, sweetie. You're going to have to be strong and take care of the others until we come back, okay?"

Max didn't say anything then, but he knew they weren't going to come back. They had left him alone with nine other children, all under the age of five.

The next morning, Max had heard their screams and knew that his parents had been caught trying to escape "their duty to their country." Max heard them being shot and had to forcibly shut off every emotion, something no child should ever have to do. He only had time to hide the rest of the children before the soldiers had burst into their house. They'd searched all through the house, looking for anyone else. Max remembered the jolt he'd felt when he'd learned that many of the other children only thought of this as one of the games of hide and seek.

When the soldiers left, they were carrying out three of the people he considered to be his siblings. Max had wondered every now and then were they were now; if they were okay or even still alive. Over the next few years, two of his brothers in all but blood had died in accidents. There were so many ways to die in the city that it was a miracle that more of them hadn't died. One of his little sisters, his only biological sibling, had died one morning. Max never knew what had happened to her, whether it was the cold, an illness, or if she had starved to death. They were all so emaciated that it wouldn’t have been any surprise if they had died that way.

Finally, when Max was nine, they'd decided to split up. The raids were getting so bad that it was no long safe for them to be in such a big group. They knew it and with a composure their age shouldn't have known, they were alone.

Surviving five years on his own, made Max smile at how naïve his friend was. The idea that he could just rely on other people without any concern for his well-being was comical. 'Arden was lucky to have so many people around him,' Max thought. He didn't understand what that loss would be like. The part of him that had shut off after the death of his parents had never really come back and consequently whenever he thought of them he was only angry and disgusted that they would leave him. That was what a parent was to him and there was nothing that could change his mind.

Max did, however, have the good sense not to say that to Arden. Instead, he murmured, "Maybe it'll be fun to see the ocean. I read once when I was little that it looks like it goes on forever. I can imagine how big that must be."

Max's attempt to change the subject only partially worked as Arden smiled at the boy in a melancholy sort of way. "It will be interesting," he agreed, quietly.

"Do you know how to swim?" Max asked, determined not to let Arden brood about his lost life.

"Yes. Of course I do," Arden replied, sounding a bit surprised at the question. "Don’t you?"

"No. It sounds frightening, but kind of fun at the same time. Do you think you could teach me someday?"

"Sure," Arden agreed. "Someday soon."

"Absolutely," Caroline piped up. "As soon as we get to the ocean, I'm going to dump you in it with a great big bucket of soap. You'll either have to swim or drown."

Max looked at her with large, mournful eyes.

"Don't look at me like that," she told him. "You're more mud that human right now."

Arden looked as if he were struggling to keep from laughing at the look on Max's face. "She won't drop you in the ocean…or give you a bath, piglet."

"I am not a piglet," Max insisted. He giggled at the playful look on Arden face. For a moment, he was so in the moment with his friends, he was almost able to take his mind off his illness…almost.