Mad Max: Redemption Man
This has been in my head every time I watch Thunderdome, it's not a romantic story per se but it's obvious in the film that Max and Savannah give something to each other. They both bring each other back from the brink, I made Savannah a little older than whatever she's supposed to be, like I said it's not essentially about love just a teensy-wincy innocent liitle bit maybe - This is more about Max and how helearns to care about life again. I have no idea of the kids' nnames so I made them up! Read enjoy, review!
"This you knows. The years travel far and time after time I've done the But this ain't one body's Tell. It's the Tell of us all and you got to listen it and 'member. 'Cause what you hears today, you got to tell the newborn tomorrow. I's looking behind us now, into history back. I sees those of us that got the luck and started the haul for home."
It lead us here and we was heartful 'cause we seen what there once was. One look, and we knewed we'd got it straight. Those what had gone before had knowing of things beyond our reckoning. ... Even beyond our dreaming. Time counts and keeps counting. And we knows now... finding the trick of what's been and lost ain't no easy ride. But that's our track.
We got to travel it. And there ain't nobody knows where it's gonna lead. Still and all, every night we does the .so that we 'member who we was and where we came from. - But most of all we 'members the man who finded us...him that came the salvage.
Many nights Savannah Nix done the tell, other times it were told by Tyke or Den as they remembered the mad racers following them on an iron float that ran so very fast. Savannah always remembered him, him that came the salvage. Him that weren't Captain Walker but a captain none the less, for they followed him and would have gone on following him if it were not for his sacrifice.
From what she recalled from the life before the 'Poc' she was raised to be helpful to others, she regretted helping him the moment he took the fire rod and shot it at her. While boasting he had Mister Death in his pocket when it was her that fought him off! Savannah had never been hit before, screamed at to stay calm while the sky raft nosedived but she was never hit. She wasn't afraid either instead she was struck at how blue and glazed his eyes were before everything went Black. She remember not waking up in the shack but bound with rope and propped up against a beam.
"Set me loose, you mad hatter can set off someplace else you're no captain Walker and you're not wanted!" Savannah spat as she came to and spied him by the fire. Slake walked up cautiously towards her.
"You're being tricksy aren't ya? Siding with him as he Mick-takes out tales, we have a lot straight slake he don't. His world is head over foot let me loose slake" Savannah demanded as she rocked up and down.
"He's bitter and old, he talks right Savannah he knows stuff we don't, he has the knowing more than us!" Slake pointed, still quietly disappointed as were the rest of the tribe.
"He talks bull, what does he know about us? Nothing! What clout has he to say there's no tomorrow-morrow land?"
"Plenty and for good reason, Bartertown will swallow you as sure as all that nothing out there" The man grimaced
"My kids had all that hoping and dreaming about it all and here you come bold as brass and stomp it all out of them. You had no right to do that at all!" Savannah yelled, her voice echoed around the creek the kids crowded around each other for comfort.
Max faltered for a moment, he frowned somewhat regretful and looked around as the children were still hanging on to his every word, more fool them. Max walked over to the young woman and kneeled in front of her.
"..Just as well" Max answered coldly, the girl shirked away and Max went back to where he was.
Savannah fell asleep only to be woken up by footsteps; she saw legs dressed in leather and looked up to see the man sitting beside her.
"How old are you?"
"One and twenty, what's it to you?" She croaked
"How did you all get here, you and slake are the oldest? You know the Old Way?" Max said sternly, Savannah hated to remember because it was all a blur.
They set out from Perth it one of the last few airports open, a curfew was temporarily lifted and a young girl travelling with her parents along with other young infants and teens that would form her tribe. Her mother was jumped by Mister Death in the crash; her father was part of the group that went for rescue along with Captain Walker. She hadn't noticed she was crying until the man handed her a piece of cloth.
"What a crock, we were left here to rot! They coulda been lost in the nothing taken by Mister Death, or became like you. Someone who doesn't give a flying fuck what happens to us" She sniffled.
"They thought they were doing the right thing" Max said softly, a strange emotion had crept over him that he struggled to reconcile with for many years…Empathy.
"Like hell, they could have called out using the sonic, I heard a voice on it once then it faded away"
"All I'm sayin' is you're not gonna like what's out there" Max chastised as he passed her a water jug.
"Like you care, tell true Captain you'll be gone by sun-up, you're no better than the rest of them" Savannah guffawed. The sat there without another word before Max got up and went to sleep in the corner. His humanity was as dead as the world outside the strangely beautiful creek but something was stirring inside. Something deep, it almost felt like guilt then something else came and it shocked him.
Sitting up he stared at the tribal leader as she slept, slumber taking her to some rare peace of mind, she was quite beautiful despite being so emotionally distant but Max could relate to that great distance. For he had travelled it for so long without company, not enough contact with other survivors to be meaningful. He remembered those at the depot, remembered the boy but they came and went like all things. There were so many ways to die in this wasteland, Max almost found his and for a moment was relieved for his was ready to go to his lost family but that was until she came…
Max Kowalski had no faith left in humanity never mind all the rest of the trappings; trust, respect, love, they were just words long past talking. For those words were silent and dead as the cities that succumbed to destruction. He looked at the children that dotted the campsite wondering how many knew their real names, remembered their families or even what Australia once was. He lay back and looked up at the stars before he drifted off to sleep.
A rabbit woke him up talking a mile a minutes she had no idea of what her name was but in his mind christened her with the name rabbit.
"They're gone, you gotta help me, you gotta get 'em back" The girl jabbered, Max couldn't make out the rest she was panicking so much, words mashed so much so quickly that it soon became incoherent.
Max glanced down at the torn bonds of the tribal leader, he sighed heavily before stomping the ground. The feeling of guilt overwhelmed him he had dishonoured himself for he denounced the debt he owed her for saving his life. Determined to right the wrong, the road warrior climbed hurriedly out of the creek and walked towards the bewildered children left behind again. Slake stood alone utterly furious, utterly helpless – there was no mistake, Savannah really was their chief. Her obsession over getting home took over everything else.
"….How long?"
"Half a night's travel maybe more" Slake said gravely as he leaned upon his fire stick, thinking over and over again.
'It should have been me'
The children howled out a eulogy, they knew no prayers for all that knowing was taken from them at infancy as the poccy clypse took all they had. So they howled, cried and feared the nothing more than ever.
"Stop the noise will ya stop the noise!" Max yelled, the shell of a man recalled the shred of the father that he once was.
"I need as much water as I can carry" Max demanded, Slake simply pointed and every child offered their water jugs, sixteen in all.
"We need the hunters" Said Rabbit, Tyke gallantly stepped beside Max, the one known as Baz was slightly more reluctant.
In the end they took twelve bottles of water, poor Tyke took his spear as much water as he could carry. Unfortunately it compromised his speed terribly.
The group walked in silence for an hour then out of the blue Rabbit started yelling at Max, even pushing him away.
"You know something; you're not Captain Walker, you're worse! You're so ungrate bout how Savannah saved your life and cut that mop off. She didn't have to, you know? So ungrate you are!"
"Listen girlie, I know what I've done and I know what I'm doing, I'm gonna get your savannah back, we're gonna try and find an outpost and then we are really going to be thankful, alright!" Max bent down and grimaced, he really had no idea how to engage with anyone anymore.
Rabbit looked at him, still frowning, still very much suspicious.
"I think you're still ungr-" Rabbit was cut off by a wail that was carried along in the gale, they walked a while before hearing it again, Max started to run but then realized the noise was coming from behind. Sure enough there ran tyke from behind a dune dragging his spear and water and screaming from the top of his voice.
"Everyone carries their own, right?" Max ordered gruffly, he waited for tyke to race down the hill. Without a word Max picked Tyke up and hoisted him on his shoulders, the boy was awkward at first, he had nowhere to cling to. But Max gently took one hand in his and with the other held his leg. Tyke experienced the strangest déjà vu he remembered his Dad and his wooly jumpers, without anyone noticing the boy began to cry quietly.
They walked and walked their skin aglow with the bright orange of the setting sun, up in the sky Tyke spotted Sully's paper bird and it flew. Then they heard a cry and this one was for real, Max slipped the boy off his shoulders and ran blindly towards the wail. As he ran up a steep dune he could see Sully's shaven head looking down upon a human chain screaming in terror.
Max jumped as wide as he could and grabbed Sully's wrist, his heart stopped as he saw Savannah begin to slip under the sand. He struggled to gain his feet as he hauled them out from the danger but alas one was taken anyway. Savannah wailed in mourning her friend, Max beat the earth for not being there any sooner.
Baz, Tyke and Rabbit helped pull their friends towards the peak of the dune before falling down in shock; one by one they fell asleep exhausted. AS night fell Max stirred to the sound of shuffling beside him as Savannah crawled to where he lay.
"I'm not sorry for up and leavin', I'm so very sorry for Mattie though" She sobbed, Max patted her wrist to comfort her before he quickly took it back.
"I should be sorry, little rabbit over there says I was ungrate to you fighting off Mister Death for me, didn't mean it" Max whispered
"Little rabbit, oh you mean Ruthie, ah no harm does she mean" Savannah smiled
"Neither do I" Max replied matter-of-factly
"I should ruddy hope not!" Savannah smirked; a curiosity was awakening in Max, a curiosity and a will to help the children and her. He was slowly warming to her live-wired company and was beginning to like it, the shell of a man was feeling renewed for making their quest his also. He was grateful to be in the land of the living again.
It was then that Baz saw the light in the distance, excitedly he stood up and stood further up the peak, his brethren followed suit.
"Is that tomorrow-morrow land
"No, Bartertown…it's our only chance" He growled and hoped God would forgive him for bringing them to such a place.
"Hold your horses captain, you say we'll be swallowed up by that place, you said it's worse than the nothing. Why are so hot for it now?" Savannah challenged him again; she had no fear of him. She felt curious and something else, you couldn't place was it was it was just….something.
"Frying pan of fires my girl that's your choice for tonight, I know it's crazy but there are people in there that have the knowing and the doing of where you want to go….I don't" Max admitted his faults, the first time in a long time and he felt sad but not ashamed.
"But everyone here wants to see tomorrow-morrow land; we want to go home, all of us – Don't you?" Baz asked rather abruptly
Only Slake and Savannah knew where they once came from, Perth – a city once so busy and bright now stood in ruins, the tribe all had tribes of their own back then. Something called 'families'….One half would die and the other half would live. Something Savannah recalled simply as 'heads or tails' She was fourteen then. The typical raging teen with punk hair and listening to The Clash while swooning after David Soul. But time was a trickster that could not be punished, seven years after the apocalypse she had barely remembered that world, it's language and her part in it. She once was Savannah Nicole Dickenson in the wasteland she was just Savannah Nix.
The children swarmed around her like they usually did in a crisis, only this time they knew what they wanted, they wanted to follow Max.
"I don't have a home kid; I haven't for many, many years" Max lamented before getting misty-eyed, he coughed it away then led the children towards the hellhole he hoped never to return to.
Savannah stood where she was along with Ruthie, Kayla, Finn and Roxy. Little Tyke was already quite taken with the captain as a father-figure so ran up beside him. He walked further along then walked back, he had to win her over.
"Where you want to be will be a lot better trek when the man with the knowing goes with you" Max pleaded,
"You'll be leaving us after right? You better hope this guy is a mega brain box if you do" Savannah seethed out her warning, pointing her index finger in his face. Max grabbed her hands and pressed them hard in his.
"Don't be daft, we don't know that yet but he will help us if we help him get out of there. Trust me Savannah, we have to try" Max's voice was quiet and in that moment his façade slipped and he remembered the people person he once was: The kindness and the consideration, his duties as a cop.
Savannah was startled, the tribe had idolized Captain Walker but he was firm and panic-stricken in those first few days but it was he who had the idea of leaving without them. Max was walking every treacherous step with them and it floored her.
She nodded and the children crowded around her for a hug, she giggled at the blissful ignorance of being a child but she was glad for them to not know better yet. Max smirked and nodded in satisfaction before walking off alone, Tyke swiftly followed along with the rest of the tribe.
Once again she felt the curiosity growing in her about this stranger who chose to help, she couldn't put her finger on it but it was…something