After (#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.