Standing alone while Furiosa and one of the others - he didn't know their names yet, but they'd called the driver both Imperator and Furiosa and he liked the latter better - took a look at the damaged vehicle, Max swayed where he stood. His vision began to white out around the edges and his head filled with noise, too thick for even his ghosts to penetrate. Grabbing at something to steady him but finding only air, he abruptly sat, going down hard. His damaged knee hurt like hell, but what else was new? He fought himself to at least remain seated rather than dropping the rest of the way to the ground as his vision returned.
A light touch on his shoulder made him flinch. There might also have been a growl, low and guttural in the back of his throat. A warning to stay away. The dark-haired, dark-eyed girl jumped back, but she didn't run. After a moment, each warily watching the other, she came toward him once more with determination and something else in her expression that Max couldn't immediately identify. It was only then that he realized she held something in her hand. He smelled the water before he saw it, and his gaze darted from her face to the cup and back again, but he made no move to take it.
"I saw the tube." She nodded her head toward his arm and his fingers clenched into a fist as though they had minds of their own as the boy's voice echoed in his head. We'll take the blood bag with us. "Water helps." She offered him the cup. "Sometimes." He looked down at the cup again but didn't take it.
The girl sat beside him, gingerly, as though if he moved too fast, moved at all, she might bolt, but still she sat. She set the water in front of him and scooted back a few centimeters. Wrapping her arms around her knees, she said nothing more, but she watched him and she watched her sisters.
After a time, Max drank. The tepid water slid down his parched throat like silk and it tasted like kindness.