After the World's End

Chapter Seven

They'd backed up camp a couple of days later, just like Arden had said. It was quick, easy, and unsentimental to all of them except for Max. As the newest addition to their group, he couldn't help feeling nervous about leaving the place where he'd found friends and a place to belong.

Cohen had seemingly given up on hoping that his friends would "snap out of it" as he said, and kick Max out of their group. He'd had to settle with whispered cruel things to Max whenever they were alone. Max made a point of limiting his alone time with Cohen, which meant that he spent most of the day with Arden who was also having problems with Cohen. Max felt bad because he knew he was the cause of the strain in Arden and Cohen's friendship. Max had only made the mistake of saying that to Arden once. Arden had angrily told Max not to worry about it and that it was up to Cohen to apologize for his actions to repair their friendship.

The group had spent most of the time walking down the highway, under the direction of Alexander. It made all of them except Max feel extremely uncomfortable to be so out in the open. They spent every night and whenever Alexander just couldn't take being out in the open anymore in the forest by the highway. Max had suggested the first night that they sleep in cars, so that they would be warmer. He'd been shot down immediately by everyone else who told him that a car would be the first place looters look for them. Cohen had muttered that Max was an idiot for suggesting it and why would he think that they would listen to him for advice on hiding when he had gotten caught by them.

Max and Arden had also gotten to be even closer friends. They were pretty much inseparable. Max and Arden walked down the highway behind everyone else, whispering and laughing. "You know, I've never really had anyone to talk to like you before," Arden said. "Alexander's too mature, really. He can't ever take a joke and relax for awhile. I understand why; it's just annoying sometimes. Cohen's actually really nice-" Catching Max's amused snort, Arden laughed and said, "No, he really is. It's just that he's so protective over Caroline that it's ridiculous. I think he's in love with her, but she doesn't even notice. Then, there's Stasia, who's so quiet I hardly even notice she's there. She spends a lot of time with Alexander and I think she's a little bit scared of everyone except him. The soldiers who found us beat up all of us before they took our parents and told us that they'd be back for us in a few years. It bothered us all, but Stasia completely changed after that. Caroline's really nice, but I don’t know. It's kind of strange to be around someone who's so cheerful all the time every day," Arden was with a wink at Max.

Caroline who had snuck up behind them, smacked Arden on the back of the head. "I'm not strange," she said loudly in mock annoyance. She didn't notice that Cohen had turned around and glared at Max and Arden, leaving Max to wonder if Arden was right about Cohen and Caroline. "Don't listen to anything he says, Max. Arden is a pathological liar."

Max laughed at the two of them. He really was enjoying his time with them and this was the happiest he'd ever been in his life. Max constantly had Caroline and Arden to keep him company and the others with the exception of Cohen were nice.

Max and Arden were constantly running around and pushing each other and generally being loud, which annoyed the others to no end. They were worried about being caught and Alexander, who Max suspected was only half teasing, had threatened to put the gag back on Max.

That's not to say that they weren't helpful. Max and Arden helped collect supplies from the cars on the road and they were both carrying a pile on firewood on their backs, just like everyone else. Unlike everyone else though, Arden and Max never seemed to run out of energy. They were always doing something and Max finally felt how he thought a teenager should feel. He'd had spent a lot of time reading books from the past when he was alone and according to them teenagers all had these "problems" that Max couldn't even see as that big a deal and overall had lives full of happiness.

Max felt so happy around all of them, but more than anyone else he felt happy around Arden who was the only real friend he'd ever had. Caroline was great too, but Max didn't like how Cohen always glared at him whenever he was around Caroline, so he kind of avoided her.

Take now for instance. Arden and Caroline had finally stopped there mock battle and were walking along together, calm for once. Max was in the middle and lost in thought.

Caroline couldn't resist ruining the happy silence. "What're you thinking about, Max?" she said, waggling her eyebrows at Max and glancing in Arden's direction.

Max felt his face get hot and he knew that he was blushing. He wanted to tell her that he hadn't even been thinking about Arden, but he didn't know how to say that without Arden knowing what he was thinking and thinking that he was weird and not wanting to be friends with him. She had started being really embarrassing recently, ever since Max had asked her if she liked Cohen, not knowing that Caroline would make it her personal mission to annoy him after that. She'd decided that if Max thought she liked Cohen because she spent time with him, then the same must be true for him and Arden. His blushes had only added to her amusement. 'I don't even like Arden like that,' he thought to himself, furiously. 'Caroline doesn't know what she's talking about. She might not mean to, but she's just making trouble.'

"I know it's not, but maybe you should tell us anyway," Caroline laughed, grating on Max's nerves.

"Caroline, shut up," Max snapped, venomously.

Arden looked between the two, confused. "What are you two talking about?" he asked in wonder. "If Max's thoughts are so deep and complex that he doesn't want to share them with us, then maybe you should leave him alone. What he says might make your head explode."

Max rolled his eyes and laughed making Arden's serious expression disappear as he snickered. "Thanks," Max said sarcastically, but inside he was grateful that he didn't have to say anything that Arden would misunderstand and embarrass Max.

"Don't worry about it," Arden said. "Caroline annoys me, too," he added loudly in Caroline's direction.

"Fine," Caroline said, haughtily. "I'll go where I'm wanted." She flounced off to stand next to Cohen, turning back and smiling teasingly at Arden and Max.

Just as Max was starting to be sure that Caroline wasn't going to be coming back and the subject was closed, Arden said, "What was that all about?" Arden asked, laughing. At the dirty look Max was giving him, Arden raised his hands in surrender and said, "Fine. If that's the way you want it. You don't have to tell me."

"Caroline's just being stupid. Don't worry about it," Max said, his voice coming off harsher than he meant it too. He wasn't really mad at Caroline, he supposed. He knew she wasn't really trying to hurt him. 'But that still doesn't mean she should meddle in this. It's my business and I'm the one who'll lose Arden's friendship if she blurts something out. She doesn't even know what she's talking about' Max thought, but he had to push those thoughts away, finding that they were making him angry all over again.

Max could tell that Arden didn't believe him, but Arden didn't push the issue and for that Max was thankful. Max didn't know what to say after that, so they lapsed into an awkward silence.

Later Max realized that it was lucky that their group was being silent for once. If they hadn't, they wouldn't have heard the raucous laughter that was slowly approaching them from behind. Alexander was the first to hear it, even though he was at the head of the group. He stopped suddenly, Stasia nearly running into him. "Do the rest of you hear that?" he asked, his posture stiff and immediately he went into a fight of flight response.

The rest of the group, even Max who barely knew Alexander, knew that Alexander wasn't one for making jokes or raising false alarms and therefore knew that it must be serious. The stood silently, listening for what Max heard and soon heard the same drunken laughter that Alexander had heard.

Max felt panicked and he was sure that the rest of the group felt the same way. There was no way they could outrun the people behind them without being seen or head. It would figure that the first time Alexander had dared let them stray more that 25 yards from the forest that a possible enemy would show up. The people were out of sight behind them, but not far enough for them to make it all the way to the forest. The only other place was…the cars!

Max grabbed Arden's arm and pulled him to the ground so that they could slide under the nearest car. Max's presence of mind seemed to jolt all of the others out of their panic as they did the same thing: Cohen and Caroline under a small sedan to the left of Max and Arden, and Alexander and Stasia underneath the battered pickup truck in front of them.

Max and Arden were curled up against each other, trying to make themselves as small as possible so as to minimize the chance of being seen. They were both terrified as they heard the voices getting closer and knowing that the people were probably going to walk right by them. As the strangers got closer, the group realized that there was no way that this was just a random collection or travelers like them; No, this was a group of looters.

There were at least ten men and two women, all slurring their words drunkenly and laughing at a crude joke one of the men had told. Max could see their feet as they walked past until finally at the end of the line they stopped right in front of Max and Arden's hiding place.

Max's breath caught as he saw that at the end of the line there was a person being dragged between two others: a captive. He was terrified that they would be caught just the same as the person who was being dragged. 'What other reason could they have for stopping?' he asked himself.

Max's question was answered a moment later when the captive was slammed against their car, drawing a small whimper from the captive. "I'm sick of carrying him along. One of ya'll should do it instead of drinking that tequila while I do all the hard work," one of the men who had been inc charge of keeping the captive said. The other one agreed loudly.

There was a chorus of the others all giving lame excuses on why they wouldn't be the ones to drag the captive along next to the loudly and rudely expressed annoyance of the two who were tired of watching their captive. "Why don't we just kill him then? He won't tell us anything and he's no use to us. I'm sick of him."

There was general approval from the rest until one said to the captive, "We'll let you go if you tell us where your friends are hiding. We know there are a lot of you rebuilding. We just want to go too," the man said, oily. Max could hear the lie in his voice. "We don't have to hurt you. You're the one who is making things diffilcult."

"You're lying," the captive, a boy, said, weakly. "You just want to destroy what everyone has gathered. I bet you were crazy even before the war. How can you like the world like this?! You're going to kill me no matter what I say, so why don't you just do it!" The boy's bleak voice broke at the end and he started sobbing pitifully.

"You little shit!" one of the looters snarled. "We're the ones in charge. We're the ones who'll rule after this. Do you think a couple hundred pathetic, starving rebels in the forest can take care of themselves? They need to be taught a lesson! We had nothing before the war and now this is our chance and you will NOT take that away from us!"

"We lost everything in the war," the captive said, his voice filled with pain. "We don't need people like you to rule us. We don't need a ruler at all right now. It's the leaders who wouldn't back down, that caused this mess. We just want to rebuild in peace, not with murderers like you. You were nothing before the war and you're nothing now. Kill me! There's nothing you haven't done already that can hurt me now."

The captive's words enraged the looters, as Max supposed he intended to. The car they were under rocked again under the force of the boy being slammed against the car again. A moment later, Max and Arden heard the sound of many fists making contact with the defenseless boy's body. During a lull in their attack, the looter's victim slid to the ground where he was whimpering pathetically. He'd never once asked them to stop because even Arden and Max knew that the looters would have no pity for the boy. Max gasped as the boy turned his head in their direction.

Where they had expected to see normal eyes, just like any other, they say that the captive's eyes had been gouged out. All that was left was the bloody trails running down his face; a grotesque parody of tears. It was the most sickening thing Max had ever seen and it was all he could do not to vomit right there. Max sobbed at the sight, wishing more than anything to be far away from this violence. What the looters had done was inhuman and sadistic.

Even without his sight, it was like the boy knew exactly where they were. He smiled weakly, showing broken teeth, as if to reassure them that he wouldn't tell the looters that they were hiding. The boy's entire body was utterly destroyed and Max knew suddenly that it was the reason he'd asked the looters to kill him. He was already dying slowly from his older injuries that the looters had given him. That knowledge did nothing to make Max feel bettter about watching the boy be killed.

The boy's blood was soaking the ground and finally it seemed that the boy couldn't hold back his screams any longer. Each scream was like driving a nail into Max's head. Every cell in his body screamed to help the boy and he pushed himself forward.

Arden stared at Max in disbelief that he would do something so reckless, before grabbing him around the arms and dragging him back. "Max, no!" Arden hissed. "I know how you feel, but you'll die if you go. You can't save him!" Arden had no fear of being heard over the shouted curses and delighted laughter of the looters as they slowly drove the life out of their victim.

He held Max to the ground and slowly Max stopped struggling. He only buried his head against Arden's chest, praying for it all to be over even though he knew that the end of the screams would mean that the boy had died.