Backslide

They struggled together for some distance before Zack stopped walking totally. "What's wrong?" Max asked.

"Where do you plan to go?" he breathed. Stumbling on one good leg and trying to support the other was becoming exhausting-even for him.

"Back to Seattle. To a hospital, actually."

Zack winced as the pain shot through him again. "We can head that way," he told her, pointing off to the left. "Which'll take us into Canada, I believe. Or if we go opposite, we'll go into Seattle."

"How do you know this?" Max questioned.

"Training. Running through the forests in the middle of the night." He shrugged. "Y'know what they say, 'practice makes perfect'."

"We're going to Seattle."

"You sure?" he asked, hoping that she would change her mind and go into Canada. Of course, Zack would've left by himself, but since he was unable to walk very far, he couldn't. He relied on Max for nearly everything.

"Yes. You, most definitely, need to get to a hospital. You'll die if you don't."

"I won't die. Quit exaggerating."

"You will if infection sets in."

"Oh. Seattle it is, then," he agreed sullenly.

Finally, after much stumbling, they reached a paved road that spliced the forest in two. An old, rusty sign marked Seattle as being a couple miles away. Not a single car was heard or seen. "We should get back in the woods in case anybody sees us," Zack said.

Max nodded and turned around into the thick green foliage. Overhead, the sun was beaming brightly, causing droplets of sweat to cling to their skin and dampen their clothes. Noisy insects would buzz about, pestering both of them and distracting them as well.

Suddenly, Zack stopped and collapsed, barely holding himself up on a nearby tree. His face twisted in pain, and he bent stiffly down to look at his leg. "Zack! What's wrong?" Max asked, worried that something truly awful had happened.

He shook his head with his jaw clenched firmly. The pain was so excruciating, yet he couldn't give up now. Biting the bottom of his lip, he rose slowly to his two feet. Immediately, new waves of pain covered the previous burning sensation.

Max hurried over to him and let him drape an arm about her shoulders. "Just a little bit more," Max assured. She wasn't sure how much more he could take. Although he would certainly never admit it out loud, the pain was nearly killing him.

It has to be bad, Max thought to herself as she nearly dragged Zack. If he's hurting that much, it has to be bad.

They stumbled over the pebbly dirt scattered with tufts of grass for a little bit more before reaching what appeared to be the end of the forest. Max let Zack rest against a tree and hurried up the side of a steep ditch.

A fairly busy road prevented them from going any farther. A few buildings were placed on the opposite side of the road, leading into a city. Seattle, perhaps. Neither one of them was sure. "Wait here," Max told Zack and scurried closer to the road.

"Max-" he began, but stopped as he saw that his attempt to communicate with her had failed. He watched as she hurried across the road and walked casually into a building. What was she doing now?

Zack tried to rise to his feet to see what she was doing. Unfortunately, he fell back down, his body riveted with pain.

Meanwhile, inside the small gas station, Max punched numbers into the pay phone at a blinding speed. After grabbing some change from the owner who appeared to be pleased by what he saw, she shoved the coins into the slot.

The phone rang, once, twice…four times before someone finally answered. "Hello?" the person on the other end said. They sounded tired and drugged, as if they had spent the whole night awake by using caffeine.

"It's me, Max," she said, her voice quivering. "I need some help, Logan."