Backslide

Zack stared at her blankly through swollen eyes. It was obvious he was in pain, but he would never fully admit it. One of his eyes was fully shut and a nasty shade of purple. The other eye was bloodshot and just staring at Max. The upper half of his top lip was torn and mangled, like hamburger almost. Favoring his right leg, he stood at a slight angle, for his left jean leg was torn, exposing his lower shin. The shin was bleeding and blackened itself, and the pant leg looked like it had been shoved through a campfire. His left wrist hung at such an odd angle that Max believed that it had to be twisted, if not, broken. Due to the angle his wrist was at, Max could see the blistered skin of his palm. All in all, it was obvious he had barely survived.

Still, the fact that he had been weakened did not convince Max to let her guard down. He was still dangerous and could kill her if he wanted. She did though, lower her poised leg and stood with her arms bent into iron bars at her side.

"You survived," she bit wryly.

He nodded, agreeing with the obvious fact. "Yes, and you did too."

"Yeah, well, we're just both too damn lucky." Zack looked away and at something in the forest that Max couldn't see. He was thinking about something, and Max wondered if he was going to snap into a flying rage as he had before. Perhaps he still believed that their fight wasn't finished. She was unable to read him.

"Max, I-" he began.

"What? You ready to continue the stupid fight that Lydecker set us up into? Hmm? What is it that you want?" She knew that she was probably being crueler than necessary, but some unseen devil in her was pushing her along.

Zack sighed and stiffly crossed his arms. "I'm sorry," he told her, looking her straight in the eye.

"Are you really? Or is Lydecker still pushing your buttons?"

Shaking his head, he replied, "No…look…after I escaped from the fire, I realized what I had done. I mean, y'know that they say disasters can have traumatic effects on people." He paused and licked his bleeding lip. "You see things like that," he said, referring to "that" as the fire, "it touches something inside a person that nothing else can. Let's just say that in most cases like this, it would screw a person up. In my case, it 'unscrewed' me," he said with a tiny laugh.

Tentatively, Max walked closer to him. "So, you're not going to kill me? Or even try to?"

"No. I'm sorry for that. Lydecker, he-"

"Yeah, he's done it to us all. Not your fault. Really, it isn't."

"Look, I know that coming back was stupid. But I just couldn't let the others die!" he protested.

"That's why I came back."

"Really?" he asked, raising a singed eyebrow.

She smiled. "And you. I couldn't believe you went back."

He shrugged. "Consider it a moment of weakness."

Max stepped closer to him and smelled the smoke that had diffused into his skin. "You're truly back, then? It's the old Zack-right?"

"Nobody else."

She wanted to embrace him and pour out her feelings for him. But, there was another matter of greater importance. "The others," she stated. "What happened?"

Zack looked away from her, trying to swallow something that couldn't be. "What? What is it?!" Max nearly screeched, all of a sudden panicky and jumpy.

"I tried-" he began.

"What?" she repeated, her voice raspy with fear.

He bit his lip and turned to look at her. "Max," he said softly, "Max, they're dead."