After the World's End

Max was determined not to let Arden have a peaceful night. Whenever he saw that Arden was falling asleep he'd yank on the leash, as he'd come to call the piece of rope, and glare at Arden. Finally, at about two in the morning, Arden crawled over and whispered, "I will hogtie you, if you do that one more time."

Max wasn't sure whether Arden was kidding or not, but hoping it was the latter, Max smiled at him, innocently. "Then, let me go. I'm not a dog and it's wrong for you to tie me up like one," he murmured back, all the while keeping a calm, innocent expression like this wasn't really a big deal to him at all. "I haven't done anything wrong."

"I don't know that," Arden whispered back. "I don't know you, or what you've done, or even if you're dangerous. Even if I did want to let you go, it's not my decision. There are five of us. We all have to agree. Get some sleep now. I'll talk to my friends in the morning."

Max nodded. "Don't let them hurt me," he murmured. He didn't really sound like he'd meant to say that out loud. Max rolled over so that he wasn't looking at Arden anymore.

Arden looked at the boy in front of him and felt a stab of pity. He couldn't help worry that maybe- Just maybe they were making a mistake. Maybe this boy was innocent and didn't deserve to be treated like this…But Arden was scared. He couldn't, in good conscience, risk his and his friend's safety for this stranger. He felt horrible for it, but he didn't know how he could fix it.

Arden sighed and lay down next to the boy again, wondering why things couldn't just be easy for once. When he thought Max was finally asleep, he whispered, "I won't let anyone hurt you."

When Max woke up the next morning, it was bright and sunny outside, which was more of a shock than anything to him. Before last week, Max had never slept outside. He'd always slept in the most hidden, cramped spot he could find when he was in the city. When he'd left, there was nowhere to hide anymore. Max had spent his nights in a restless sleep, lucky to get an hour of sleep at a time, and always awake before dawn. Max couldn't help wondering how he'd ended up getting the best sleep he'd had in the last week, in arguably the most dangerous situation he'd been in his life.

Sitting up and blinking groggily, Max decided to worry about that later. He looked around to see that Cohen was the only person up and Max instantly regretted making it obvious that he was awake. Cohen glared at him and got up to storm over to him. Max shuddered and seemed to shrink into himself as Cohen rushed toward him. He didn't want Cohen to know that he was frightened of him, even though he knew, although he wasn't willing to admit it, that that ship had already sailed.

Cohen loomed over him and Max saw him reach into his pocket for something. He pulled out the long, jagged piece of glass he'd threatened Max with before, pressing it against Max's throat. "I decided to keep this. I figure it'll come in handy. You try to run and I'll kill you," he snarled. " Arden and Caroline already believe your bullshit. They're not watching you like they should. I won't let you escape and bring those filthy looters back to hurt Car- us."

Max hardly dared to breathe. He felt the blade press against his throat even harder, like it was taking all of Cohen's strength not to kill Max where he knelt The terror Max felt had wiped his mind blank. He felt like anything he said or did would only make things worse.

"Say something!" Cohen snarled.

"I haven't done anything wrong-"

"You disgusting, little liar!" he snarled, pressing the blade so hard against Max's skin that a line of blood slid down into the hollow of his throat.

Max whimpered quietly, even though it didn't really hurt that bad. It was more the knowledge of what Cohen could do to him that scared him more than anything. Nothing stopped Cohen from killing him. Would anyone even care if they woke up and saw that Max was dead? Would they just leave his body there? "What do you want me to say? How can I prove to you that I won't do anything?" he whispered, trying not to move even as he spoke.

"You can't," Cohen said coldly. "They won't be very happy if I killed you. Caroline would say that you were defenseless or something." He snorted to show what he thought about that.

Max didn't say anything. He still wasn't sure where this was going and didn't want to risk ruining any chance he had of getting out of this unharmed.

Cohen moved the knife from Max's throat to wipe the blood on its blade onto the side of Max's face. "One day you won't be so lucky. We'll be alone and all I'll have to do is tell them you tried to attack me."

Max stared beseechingly into Cohen's eyes. "Please tell me. Why do you hate me so much? I haven't done anything."

"You're one of the looters, or something even worse. You're only out to hurt us. Don't you dare lie to me! You're not one of us!" Cohen snarled, much louder than he had probably intended.

Arden stirred not ten feet from Max and Cohen turned away like nothing had happened, slipping the glass back into his pocket. Max hurriedly wiped the blood off of his face and throat, hoping that Arden wouldn't notice it. The young man felt oddly ashamed of what had just happened and was afraid to see what Arden would say if he knew. Max didn't know what he'd do if the one person who had been even a little bit nice to him, had yelled at him or told him that he'd deserved that.

When Arden turned to Max, Max fixed a calm smile on his face. "Morning," he said, softly.

Arden looked at him doubtfully. "You seem friendlier this morning. What's going on?…Is that blood on your face?"

"Um…Yeah. Well, you see, I must have cut myself on a stick while I was sleeping," Max murmured, internally shaking his head because he knew how ridiculous his story sounded even to his own ears.

Arden rolled his eyes, but decided not to question the story that Max was obviously determined not to tell. "Whatever. I've got a promise to keep. You stay here," Arden said, like Max had a choice, all the while untying the other end of the rope from him to a tree. He walked over to the blanketed pile on the other side of the fire, which Max assumed was the leader he'd seen earlier, and knelt next to him, shaking the man awake. The man sat up, instantly alert, and looked questioningly at Arden. Max only realized then that the person he'd assumed was their leader was only five or six years older than him at the most. Arden and the other boy talked for a minute and then the two gathered up the other three of their friends. They all gathered in a circle, whispering and occasionally glancing back at Max.

Max was listening as hard as he could, but he still only managed to catch a few words; his name from Arden and a few random words from the others. Max's only choice to figure out more was to watch their faces. The oldest boy, who Max thought of as the leader, looked completely calm and attentive. Another girl, who Max didn't know and had never even heard her speak, was sitting next to him. She wasn't interested in the conversation as far as Max could tell; choosing intstead to watch the leader of the group carefully. Then, there was Cohen who looked furious. Max smiled, figuring that whatever Cohen considered to be a bad thing could only be good for him. Caroline was arguing with Cohen, even as she still managed to look mostly good natured and friendly. Max could tell that she usually wasn't someone who would fight. Last, there was Arden. He looked happy and was nodding at something the leader had said. Then, just as quickly as the group had gotten together they broke apart and went about daily things, like setting out food for breakfast and gathering more firewood.

Arden ran back over to Max, his face split into a wide grin. "We figured out what we are going to do with you for now," he said happily. "You can be untied as long as at least one of us is with you and you'll only have to be tied up at night. We want to make everything as easy for you as possible. I don’t want you to be treated badly in case you're really innocent. Everyone else agreed," I said.

"Except Cohen," Max whispered under his breath, not really thinking that Arden would hear him.

"Except Cohen," Arden agreed quietly. "He agreed eventually though, so that's all that matters. Maybe try to be nicer and he'll be nice too?"

Max looked like he was trying to resist the urge to make a nasty comment, but decided not to since Arden had just done so much for him. Instead he just thanked Arden and held up his wrists, silently asking to be untied.

He didn't even notice the hate-filled look Cohen was sending him, but Arden did. "On second thought, maybe just stay away from Cohen," Arden said, reaching down to untie Max's wrists.

"No problem," Max agreed, beaming with joy at his newfound freedom. "What's his problem anyway?"

Arden looked at Max and then at his feet. "Cohen is…Well, he's got the same problems as everyone else…except you, I guess. He's protective of us. We're all protective of each other; only we show it in different ways," Arden said.

"You know, I wasn't always alone," Max said, feeling slightly offended.

Arden looked at him, his eyes flashing with anger. "Please tell me you're not threatening me-"

"No," Max said, confused. He couldn't understand what he'd done to make Arden think that.

"Then what was that 'I haven't always been alone' stuff about?" Arden said, angrily and more than a little relieved at the same time. "It sounded like you were threatening to send some looters after us to me."

"For the last time, I have never stayed with any looters! You said I wouldn't understand that people can be protective of each other. I know they can because I wasn't always alone," Max said, looking away. "I know you don't trust me, but could you at least stop acting like I'm going to attack you. You're at least six inches taller than me, have probably 50 more pounds of muscle, and you are definitely healthier too. I can't do anything to you."

"I'm not afraid of you," Arden argued, looking outraged. He wasn't the only one who had noticed the difference in stature between himself and Max. "You're a child." He turned away from Max, like he had given up on the conversation.

Max jumped in front of him and wouldn't let Arden pass, no matter how much Arden tried to get around him. It wasn't like Arden tried to hard though. He could have picked Max up and moved him, but he decided not to. I guess he decided it was more funny this way. "I am not," Max snapped. "I'm probably only a coulple of years younger than you. Anyways, I'm the one who flinches every time I move."

Arden rolled his eyes, but Max could see that he was concealing a smile. "Feel free to keep thinking that…kid. You're way younger than me by the way."

"You jerk!" Max said, outraged.

Arden started laughing at the furious boy in front of him. Max reminded him of little birds that got puffed up when they were angry. "How old are you then, kid- Max?"

Max suddenly blushed, realizing that he was at least a couple years younger than everyone else there and that they might very well consider him a kid. "Fourteen."

Arden was completely surprised. "I wouldn't have guessed that you were that old."

It was a testament of how terrible Max's life had been that he looked so bad. In the state Max was in, no one could consider him handsome. He was small and unbearably thin, even with the small amount of weight he'd gained in the week he'd been free of the city. His hair was so matted and covered in dirt and debries from the city that Arden couldn't even tell what color it was, while the rest of his body was just as dirty and covered in bruises. Max's clothes were worn thin and too big on his small frame and he didn't even have any shoes. Arden made a mental note to dump Max in the nearest stream with about a gallon of soap, if he…No, he wouldn't think about that.

Max swatted at Arden, but he didn't really look that annoyed. He leaped away from Arden's retaliatory swat. Neither of them noticed that the other four people were looking at the two as if they thought Arden and Max had just lost their minds, until they had finished their little play fight. Max had quieted down as soon as he saw that they were being watched, but Arden, still grinning, asked, "What are you looking at?"

The boy and the girl who Max didn't know the name of, turned away without answering and looked unimpressed with the both of them. Caroline laughed and Cohen, as usual, just glared before turning to engage Caroline in conversation.

"Come on, Max," Arden said, picking up a backpack and handing Max his own. "We're going to find more supplies."

Max took his and realized with surprise that his backpack wasn't empty even though Arden's clearly was. He started to ask why, but from the look Arden gave him he realized that wasn't a good idea and just followed Arden out of the clearing.

Max couldn't help being impressed by their campsite. It was barely twenty yards from the road, so they could have close access to supplies in cars. That might not sound like much, but Max had never failed to be amazed by the kind of things people left in their cars: canned food, can openers, water bottles, clothes, and so much more. Arden, trying to make conversation Max supposed, told him that this stuff probably came from people who had been trying to go into hiding from the war and had been caught between five and ten years ago.

"What's in my bag?" Max asked, interrupting Arden who was probably going to start rambling on about the weather before he got to the point.

Arden sighed. "Your things. I added some warmed clothes and some better food too, so that's why it's probably a little heavier than you remember."

"Why?" Max asked, even though he had a feeling he already knew.

"So you can leave. I know you don't want to stay here and I don't know whether to believe you or not, so I'm giving you the chance to leave," Arden said, refusing to look at Max.

That's why he didn't see what Max was about to do until he did it. Max hugged Arden and buried his face into his shoulder. "Thank you," Max whispered. "I-I don't know if I want to go though."

"What?" Arden couldn't believe that he'd heard Max right. He'd been saying that he had wanted to be let go ever since they got him. Why's he changing his mind now? He'd kind of wanted Max to stay, but why would Max want to stay?

Max was thinking the same thing. 'What am I thinking?! This is my chance to leave!' No matter what he thought, he couldn't leave.

To be honest, Max was afraid. Thinking back, the last week when he'd been alone, didn't seem happy at all anymore. It was lonely and Max couldn't go back to being alone again. He wanted some place to belong and someone to care about what happened to him.

Sure, his five kidnappers weren't the most caring people he'd ever met, but only one of them had tried to kill him. In these times, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. They were right. He couldn't survive alone. If anything happened to him, he'd die just like everyone else he knew. Even if that didn't happen, he'd starve, freeze to death, or maybe some real looters would find him and actually kill him. "I don't want to leave," Max repeated.

"Why?"

"I don't want to be alone anymore," Max whispered, blushing as he pulled away from Arden.

Both Arden and Max blushed at the hug, neither of them knowing where that had come from. Hugs weren't exactly abundant here and especially not by someone who had been kidnapped until the last couple of minutes.

"Okay," Arden said, before looking and like he was trying to find something else to talk about. "Um, we actually do need to find some supplies then. Winter will be here soon and this will be the worst winter so far. The looters will be even more active because there aren't that many groups of people-"

"Families," Max interrupted.

"The seventeen year olds taking care of fifteen little kids from their neighborhood aren't families. I don't know what they are, but there aren't many of those left who can stop the looters from bothering them and it's going to be really cold this year, judging on how cold it is already. In the next couple of months, we're going to need somewhere to stay for the winter and we're going to need enough supplies to last through it," Arden said, giving Max the impression that he and the others had gone through this before, prompting Max to wonder how long they had been together. He'd never heard of any group of more than a couple of people staying together for any period of time. Max had grown up thinking that he couldn't trust anyone, even the other kids in his "family", so he was amazed.

They gathered together everything that looked useful until Arden said that it was time to go. He didn't say anything, but Max could see Arden watching him, questioningly. "I'm glad you're going to stay," Arden said, with a smile.

Max couldn't help blushing and smiled back, shyly. "Me too, Arden."