AFTER (Book #3)

Chapter Six

Max strode across the rickety planks with newfound poise, as if having his friends back beside him acted as an impenetrable safety net. With the smiling George bobbing up and down on Lizzie's shoulders in front, his eyes no longer lingered on the far away ground.

Suddenly the breeze wasn't there to knock him off balance, it was there to rustle pleasantly though his messy hair. The sun was no longer there to blind him and betray his footing, but to lick his skin with its warm rays. His mind didn't feel like an enemy anymore, but a palace for memories such as these.

He could only wish that Karl were there to live them too.

"I can't believe this place is real!" Rodney exclaimed for the sixth or seventh time.

"You better believe it, Rodders," Max smiled, shaking his head wryly at the grown man's sheer excitement.

"With walls!"

"Yes, walls."

"And guns!"

"Yep."

"And food...and water!"

"And smouldering Italians," GiGi purred, nudging Dawson who stared back at him with all the interest of a blind goldfish.

"Yes, Rodney, it's a certified five-star resort!" Max chuckled.

"I can't wait to see JJ's face!" Rodney beamed. "Imagine when he sees that the little one is all safe and sound! And we'll find Karl too, you mark my words!"

Max ground to a halt, his thick boots crunching against the gravelled roof. He sighed heavily, finally dropping his head once more. He and Lizzie had wanted to get them back to Novus before having this talk, but there was no avoiding it now.

"JJ...isn't there," Max strained.

"Not there?" Rodney queried. "They haven't put him to work already have they?"

"No, Rodney," Max stumbled. "I mean he didn't arrive with us at all."

Rodney's teeth vanished behind a new look of fear and confusion, as if a stormy, black cloud had rolled over and eclipsed all the light from his face.

Dawson's eyes turned to stone, she had already worked it out, the rest was for Rodney's benefit.

"But...you didn't call out his name," Rodney whimpered. "Dawson, Rodney, Karl! Dawson, Rodney, Karl! You didn't call out his name, Max."

"I know Rodney, I know," Max wept, pulling his friend into a much-needed embrace. "I know."

"B-but you said that Karl might still be out there! Maybe JJ made it out too..." Rodney suggested.

"We saw it happen," Lizzie interjected, tears streaming down her face. "He didn't make it ou-"

Her voice trembled, before fading away, as she instead finished her sentence with a solemn shake of the head.  

Dawson's sadness quickly turned to anger, as she roared and planted her fist powerfully against a nearby fire exit door. The metal clanged against the weight of her bone as she pummelled the door again and again and again, before landing on final vicious boot.

"I was meant to protect them!" she growled, averting her face to cry in private. "That was my one job!"

"Hey!" Max cried, marching over to Dawson. "Don't you do that; don't you dare do that!"

"Do what, say the truth?" Dawson spat, desperately wiping her eyes.

"You would have put your life on the line for those boys, hell you did! Time and time again! You are not to blame for what happened to them!" Max urged. "There was nothing that anyone could have done," he said more softly.

"But if I'd have just-"

"Don't."

"But, what if I'd-"

"Just don't," Max ordered. "I blamed myself at first too, I saw the whole God damn thing unfurl before my eyes and there was nothing I could do...but that's exactly it...there was nothing I could do."

Dawson looked up at Max, her sore, watery eyes meeting his through shared pain, and somewhere in all that mutual agony, she finally let go. Max pulled her tightly into his body, as Dawson sobbed into his chest.

"Oh God," she eventually cried. "Lizzie...I'm so sorry! I'm so so sorry!"

For the next ten minutes or so, the group traded what felt like a bottomless pit of tears, hugs and emotion, as the realisation of what they had lost hit home. GiGi plucked up the lost George and spoke to him softly, telling him that everything would be okay, and that JJ had gone to a more peaceful place. The four-year-old didn't entirely understand the situation, but it was impossible not to choke on the thick smog of sadness enveloping the group.

"We have to go find Karl," Rodney adamantly declared. "He's out there all on his own, we have to go now!"

"I agree," Dawson added. "Every second we waste is another he has to survive alone...out there!"

"Listen, listen, listen," Max insisted, waving his hands to halt their outcry. "I know this is raw, but we have to think about it rationally. We need to get you three back to Novus, get you fed, get some water down you, some sleep even. If we head out there now, we're just going to wind up losing more friends."

As much as it pained her to do so, Lizzie chimed in to support Max, "He's right, an extra few hours, or a day even, isn't going to make a difference for Karl. If he's found someplace safe and secure, then he'll be able to hold out. But if we head out there unprepared...we're not going to stand a f*****g chance."

After a brief pause, Rodney, and Dawson both nodded in agreement, as if wise words from someone less mature in years had helped hammer home the point.

"Plus, we need to get little Georgie home safe, don't we?" Lizzie said, smiling away her sorrow and hoisting the young child from GiGi's arms. "Thank you," she mouthed to him as she did so.

The rest of the walk back to Novus was done in outward silence, while within the privacy of their own heads, each of their minds was running wild.

Max tip-toed across the last wooden plank, as it now seemed to sink that little bit lower with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The wind whistled past him, knocking him slightly off balance. The sun shone brightly into his eyes, blinding him from the way forward, but nothing could blind him from the things he had already seen.

GiGi led them down the stairs on the final building, insisting that Val demanded all newcomers be seen at the gate first before they entered the Novus grounds. Max nodded, barely listening to what the man had to say, instead he just kept his head down, and followed the set of heels in front.

"Gates!" GiGi shouted simply as the approached the compound.

After a brief look at the group, and a slight deliberation, the guards eased open the heavy doors.

"You three, in you go," one of them called out, ushering Max, Lizzie and GiGi inside. "The rest of you, we need to conduct a few quick checks before you come in, then you will be escorted downstairs for some more detailed examinations."

"What kind of checks?" Dawson asked.

"Roll your sleeves and trouser legs up please guys, just need to check for any signs of bites or infection real quick," the guard continued.

"But, look at us," Dawson argued. "We're not like those crazy bastards out there are we?"

"I'm sure you're not, but these are checks we just have to do, bosses orders I'm afraid."

Rodney and George began rolling up their clothes to expose their unpunctured skin, before the guards quickly examined their eyes with a small, bright torch.

"Take these two down to the lab," he called out to no one in particular. "You're up," he said to Dawson.

She opened her mouth to argue, but she didn't have the energy to lie, not after everything that had happened.

"C'mon Daws, don't leave us waiting all day," Max jabbed.

Dawson shifted awkwardly, before taking one deep breath, and looking Max directly in the eye.

"I'm infected."