"You're going to break my wrist," the soldier gasped from the ground.
"I did warn you, didn't I?" Max asked. The man nodded quickly, ready to agree to anything before Max did serious damage. She stood over the man and kept her gun pointed at the soldiers that were now pointing their automatic rifles at her.
"Max? Max Duncan?" A voice came from behind her. Max froze in place. She didn't drop the gun or release the man's wrist. Slowly she turned her head and looked over her shoulder.
"Yeah, hi, Griffin. Surprise," Max said lamely.
CHAPTER TWELVE
He looked the same. Max couldn't understand how that was possible. His dark hair was cropped closer to his head than when they were in high school. She guessed that was a habit he had from being in the military. He had the hint of facial hair, a face that hadn't found time for shaving since the world fell apart. His hazel eyes bore into her with shock and humor.
"Well you haven't changed a bit, have you?" He asked. He crossed his arms over his chest and stood with his feet planted apart.
"Wells? You know this woman?" The soldier on the ground choked out.
"Oh yeah, I know her. I assume you touched her?" Griffin asked, a hint of a smile showing on his face.
"She wouldn't give up her weapons."
"Yeah, she wouldn't," Griffin replied.
"Still standing here, hurting a man," Max called out.
"Could you let him go, Max?" Griffin asked.
"Depends. Do I keep my weapons?"
"What do you say, Stevenson?" Griffin asked, directing the question to the soldier on the ground. He didn't answer, just nodded his head quickly. Max shrugged her shoulders and released his wrist. The man gasped and cradled the arm against him.
"Oh, stop it," Max said, feeling her face heat with embarrassment. She wanted to slap herself for feeling that way. "You're fine. I didn't break it," she finished in a mumble.
"Jesus, Max, do you have to make an entrance? You couldn't have walked in nicely?" Griffin asked.
"I guess not," Max said, suddenly feeling uncomfortable and vulnerable.
Griffin walked further into the shelter. The place was much less chaotic than Max would have guessed. People were quiet and withdrawn, walking between tents, scurrying from place to place. They struck Max as people trying to look as small as possible, to not be noticed. They've been through a lot, Max thought to herself. Moving from shelter to shelter as each fell must have been horrific to see.
Griffin led them into a quiet tent, with few people in it. Looking around, he pulled Max into the corner.
"What in the hell are you doing here, Max?" He demanded.
"Jeez, what is with being manhandled today?" Max said, pulling out of his grasp. He looked at her exasperated, waiting for her to answer the question. Max just looked up at him uncomfortably. He towered over her on his 6'2" frame. She had forgotten the presence he could have when he was really close to you.
"Momma?" Jack's voice broke into the moment.
"Momma?" Griffin echoed, shock flashing across his face. Shit. Max turned around to face Jack and Blair.
"So, yeah, this is Griffin. The guy we were looking for," Max said quickly.
"You were looking for me?" Griffin asked. Max closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, and trying to steel herself for the explanation she would have to give Griffin. She immediately decided she wasn't telling him everything, not telling him about Jack now. She needed to convince him to come with her first, without using his daughter as a guilt trip.
"Yes," Max replied turning back to him. "Yes, I, well we, came here to find you. This is Blair, a girl we picked up in Charleston. And this is my daughter Jack." Max motioned behind her. Griffin awkwardly waved at them and Max almost laughed out loud at the hilarity of the situation.
"You have a daughter?" Griffin hissed at Max.
"Ummm, yes?" Max replied casually, shrugging her shoulders and not meeting his eye. He would read her mind, Max was sure of it.
"Ok, that's a conversation for another time. Why did you come to look for me, Max?" Griffin sighed, clearly irritated with her.
"I thought, well you know about the compound in Montana," Max started.
"Your family’s home? Yeah? What about it?" Griffin replied. Max shot him a look.
"Don't be dense, Griffin. You know it's a fortress. It was when we were kids and Dad didn't stop there. I came to get you, to bring you there, to be safe," Max explained.
"This is a little much. How did you even know how to find me?"
"Rafe. He heard in town where you were living. Since I wasn't far, I thought I should take the chance. Maybe I made a mistake," Max said defensively. She started to turn back toward Jack and walk away. He got to walk away the first time, it was her turn she decided. She was angry. He just seemed annoyed she was even there. And all she had done was think of him and his safety. This is what I get for caring about other people, Max decided.
"Max, wait. Stop being all....Max-like," Griffin said, grabbing her arm lightly to stop her from turning away. This time Max did grunt out a laugh.
"Max-like? How else should I be, Griffin? I'm sorry to have upset you by my showing up. I can't imagine why it would. But I was thinking of your safety. I think, no I know, the safest place for us is my family's place."
"I have obligations here, people to take care of," he responded quietly.
"I understand, but you aren't in the military anymore, right? You can leave. The government should handle everything else," she replied.
"In times of war, the government has the right to recall any military members in the reserves, that's what I am for now."
"Did they recall you? Did you get official directives?" She demanded. She wasn't sure why, but the idea of the government trying to take Griffin and put him into harm’s way with this plague enraged her.
"Not officially," Griffin trailed off, looking over her shoulder to the outside of the tent.
"Then you don't have to stay. Come with us. It's safer." Max said. She lowered her voice so only he could hear her. "You are seeing the same thing I am. It's collapsing. The government isn't going to fix this, Griffin. We should go."
"You sound like Mitch," Griffin said, with a smile. "How is the old man?"
"He's dead. Turns out a heart attack was the only thing he couldn't be prepared for." Max said briskly.
"Oh, Max, I'm..."Griffin started.
"Yeah sorry. Everyone is always sorry when someone dies. It's not something I can dwell on," she said, looking away from him again. It hurt to be near him. He looked so much the same, but age had changed some things. He was more broad, stronger. His eyes seemed aged, he had seen things.
Jack came to Max's side and took her hand. Max looked down at her daughter, Jack's eyes, the eyes of her father looking back at her. She had sensed that her mother felt nervous and came to her side to comfort. That was what her daughter did. She was comfort to Max, even when Max didn't know she needed it. Or wanted it. Jack smiled up at her and squeezed her hand at the same time.
Griffin watched the two and when Max looked back at him she saw disbelief on his face. She wondered if he suspected anything. Without knowing Jack's exact age, he could make any assumptions he wanted. When they were together as kids, they never breached the subject of having children. They were young, of course, it wasn't a thought at the time. Now that Max looked back she wondered if she hadn't accidentally gotten pregnant, would she have willingly done it?
"How about you guys stay for a while. I can set you up with cots in one of the tents. You can leave at any time of course. Let me think about this offer of yours. I'm helping here and I can't just leave without knowing things will be ok," Griffin explained softly.
Max thought about the option. It couldn't hurt to wait a day for Griffin to make his decision. Max wasn't completely opposed to being around living people for a bit before they closed themselves off in the compound. Max nodded her agreement and Griffin led them out of the tent, back into the sunlight of the da
y.
On their walk through the shelter, Griffin pointed out the mess tent, the medical tent, the military barracks and the communications hub. He told the story quietly of how he had been moved to two different shelters since the outbreak. Each shelter falling to the infected. Each time they moved, they had less living people to take to the next location. They had been at this shelter for two days and so far things had been quiet.
Things were quiet for two days, which gave Max a feeling of foreboding. In this environment, the likelihood of having no problems for more than a few days was extremely rare. In her mind, she considered her theory and decided that an attack of living or infected was imminent. She decided to not point that out to Griffin, who already thought she was behaving too much like her paranoid father. It wasn't paranoia that fueled Max, it was statistics.
"You guys can bunk in here." Griffin led them into a tent with cots lining both sides and one middle walkway for the occupants to make their way through. There were women in the tent, no men except young children that Max could see. Griffin didn't walk further into the tent, respecting the women's boundaries.
"There are open cots in the back, I think, but ask the ladies in here. They are in charge of this tent."
"Ok. Where do you bunk?" Max asked. Then realizing how strange the question seemed she added, "In case I need to find you." Griffin grinned at her. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of that grin, so similar to the boy she knew.
"I'm two tents down on the left. Next to the military barracks."
With that, he left Max, Jack, and Blair alone in the tent. Blair instantly started talking to some younger women nearby. Max wondered if she should feel insulted that Blair never tried to talk to her. However, Max never made a real effort to converse with the girl, so she was probably feeling lonely. A middle-aged woman approached Max with a soft smile.
"Hello, are you new here?" The woman asked.
"Yes. We were told we could get some cots here? Where can we sleep?" Max asked. She was all about efficiency. But the woman didn't immediately respond. She smiled at Max and then focused that smile on Jack.
"Well welcome. My name is Dolores. I've somehow become the den mother for the woman's tent. What's your name?" The question was directed at Jack, not Max. Max tried again to not feel annoyed. People loved kids and Jack was a sweet child that seemed to attract everyone.
"I'm Jack. This is my momma, Max," Jack said, holding Max's hand. Max smiled at her, wondering if the kid could read her mind.
"Nice to meet you, Jack. Well, we have two cots this way that would be perfect for you," Dolores started to move down the walkway. Max hesitated, looking back at Blair.
"Blair? Do you want to sleep near us?" Max asked. The girl looked up as if she had forgotten Max and Jack were there.
"What? Oh, no. There's a cot available right here and these girls said I could sleep here," Blair responded. Max just nodded and followed Dolores. Blair was going to make her own choices. Max wasn't her mother, nor the responsible party for her.
Jack and Max were given cots that were pushed together to make room for as many beds as possible. They both had sleeping bags on them that looked to be from military stock. Max was uncomfortable leaving her bag under the cot, worried if she needed to leave fast she would have to come back there. She refused to take off her weapons unless sleeping and even then she would keep them under her pillow.
Once they had their items settled, Max decided to get the lay of the land. Jack asked to stay behind to play with some kids that were in the tent. Dolores assured Max that there were always mothers watching the children in the tent because they didn't want the kids to be underfoot with the military men. Though Max still had her reservations, she allowed Jack to stay. She gave Jack the normal instructions for finding her should anything go wrong.
Outside, Max wandered from tent to tent, seeing what kept people so busy. She saw civilians preparing food and cleaning in the mess tent. She passed by a few more sleeping tents and saw people huddled on cots, reading or talking in low tones. The sense was fear throughout the entire camp and Max didn't blame them. She supposed many of them had nowhere else to go, which astounded Max. Her entire life she had been prepared for something to happen to the world and was given the steps to complete should that happen. She struggled to understand those that didn't.
Coming upon the medical tent, Max decided to see if they had sick people inside. She would rather know ahead of time that there was a risk of an attack from within. Before entering she heard a lot of talking and yelling inside. Steeling herself for what she might find, she ducked into the large tent. There was no one wearing the white coats of doctors or the scrubs of nurses. There were people rushing from place to place. Some seemed to be in charge and knew what they were doing. Max stood watching the pandemonium from the doorway until a man across the tent saw her.
"You! You have nothing to do?" The man yelled at her. Max just shrugged.
"Do you know anything about first aid?" The man called as he began moving toward her. Max wanted to recoil. The man was covered with blood down the front of his clothes. No lab coat, no smock, just blood.
"I mean I know enough to get by, why?" Max asked warily.
"We need help and you aren't busy. Go over to that table and help," the man pointed toward a table with a woman sitting, looking dazed.
"Is she bit?" Max asked without moving.
"Bit? No. No one is bit here. Why?" The man asked.
"Are you a doctor?"
"No. I'm a mortician. Closest thing right now to a doctor I guess," the man replied ruefully.
"Ok. Well, don't treat people with bites. I mean if you do, wait for them to die, and then end them easily with a blade to the brain," Max said simply. As she spoke she saw the man's face drain of blood slightly.
"What? Why would you say that?" The man demanded.
"Haven't you seen it yet? A bite. That's all it takes. It will eventually kill the person and then they will turn. How did you not know this? Didn't the military tell you?" Max said. Her mind was whirling. Why didn't the people working in the medical tent know the risks of the plague? How had they not seen it in the previous shelters they had been in. She wanted to ask more questions, but the man just shook his head. He was about to answer but someone called his attention away and he had to deal with another situation in the tent.
Max went to the woman that was dazed. She looked her over slowly, not seeing a massive amount of blood or wounds anywhere. She didn't look up as Max stood there. Max wondered if the woman was just in some sort of shock. If that was the case there wasn't much to do for her, except cover her with a blanket and keep an eye on her.
"Hi," Max said. When the woman didn't reply, Max snapped her fingers in front of her face. The woman blinked and focused on Max, a light coming into her eyes finally.
"Hello," the woman replied.
That night Max laid with Jack and they talked in soft whispers. Jack was excited to have seen other kids and got to play all day. It was unlike her to have an entire day of play. Max expected more responsibility from the eight-year-old than other people expected from their children. Jack babbled about the other kids and the toys they had with them. The wistfulness in Jack's voice made Max feel guilty for never thinking about the girl's entertainment. Jack was always happy with a book. But it seemed that regular kid toys appealed to her too.
The conversation reminded Max of a time when all Alex could talk about was a doll that you could feed and then would poop in a diaper. They were young, maybe five and nine, but even at that young of an age Max didn't understand the need for toys. Alex was much more interested in toys and kid things. Where all Max wanted was to do what her Daddy did, which usually included camping gear or learning to garden.
By the second day of staying in the emergency shelter, Max was ready to go. Every day she went to the medical tent to help. The same man would boss her around. She could only provide the most basic of first aid to injuries. They handled contusion
s, cuts, skinned knees, and regular aches and pains. Though there was no doctor, the military had provided ample medical stores to handle the illnesses that might come up.
Griffin made himself scarce most of the time. They ran into each other at dinner but they both avoided any sort of complicated conversations. They had a lot of history between them and Max knew that would have to be dealt with if they would find any sort of calm existence. The uncomfortable feeling made Max sad. Life used to be so easy between the two of them. But they were children then. Adulthood changed a person.
Walking into the tent for dinner on the second night, Jack immediately saw Griffin and skipped over to his table. He smiled at her as she rambled about her day. Max was suspicious about when Jack decided they were going to be friends. Calling her daughter over the two went through the line and got their dinner trays. Jack insisted on sitting with Griffin and Max did everything possible to not groan out loud.
"Hey, Max," Griffin said as she settled across from him.
"Hi," she replied without looking up. She worked to eat quickly, but without looking like a pig at the trough. She couldn't handle idle chit-chat.
"I've been thinking about what you said, why you came here," Griffin started to say. He was rudely interrupted as a blonde woman plopped down next to him huffing as she sat down.
"Hiya, Griff," the blonde cooed. The use of his nickname gritted on Max's nerves. She'd seen the woman around the shelter but hadn't realized she and Griffin knew each other.
"Hi, Sarah," Griffin responded, flashing her one of his sparkly smiles. Yup, Max thought, she's on my nerves. The flare of jealousy in her gut surprised her. This blonde seemed to blossom in Griffin's attention. Max couldn't figure out why she even cared. It had been eight years since Griffin had left her alone in Montana, without a word like he'd promised.
"Griff, where were you today? I was looking for you. I needed help with some of the jars. They were too hard to open on my own," Sarah said. Her voice seemed to be a constant whine. The exchange made Max want to eat faster.
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