Chapter eleven – the reward part two
What if, in the escape of '09, Max hadn't escaped with the others? What if Jondy had tried to save her when she fell in the ice, but in the end they both got caught?
…
'10
"What was that for?" Alec asked weakly.
"For scaring me." Max replied.
"I didn't know you cared."
"I don't."
Alec paused for a moment, before answering. "Then why'd you rescue me?"
"Because I don't want any more of my brothers and sisters to die!"
"So I'm considered a brother now?"
"Of course you are. Now, why'd you stay under for that long? You could've died!"
"I don't know Maxie...I just didn't feel like going up."
"Why not?"
"I don't know! Would you quit questioning me?"
"Ok. No need to yell at me Alec."
"I'm sorry Maxie. I'm just...scared."
"About what?"
"Nothing Max. Nothing."
Max was about to question him more when she realized that Blak, Cyan, Sam, Toni and Jondy had waded through the stream over to the bank that Max and Alec were on. Knowing she wouldn't get anything out of Alec now, she bit her tongue to stop herself from yelling at him.
"What happened?" Cyan asked.
"Alec decided to try and be dead for a change. I had to save him."
"Oh. You alright Alec?" Blak asked.
"I'm always alright."
…
(Around noon)
"What are we going to do for food?" Cyan asked.
Max laughed, "Is that all you ever think about Cyan? Food?"
"Yeah, pretty much Maxie. And I don't know about you guys but I'm pretty hungry, and we've only had one meal in more than two days."
"So?" Max asked. "We can go for five or six days without food. And besides, where would we get anything to eat? You know that each section has midday meals at a different time, and place."
"Yeah, but still...I'm hungry. Anyone else hungry?"
"Nope." Replied the four girls.
Blak smiled. "Just a little. I will live if we don't get food though."
"I could use something to eat." Alec commented.
"You know Maxie, seeing as how Alec just had a near death experience, we should get some food for him. Wouldn't want him to starve to death would you?" Cyan asked.
"If you can find some food to eat, fine. But if you can't, don't complain."
"Fine Maxie. Are you girls going to come with us? We'll only be about an hour or so."
"Nope." The four answered.
"Wait a sec," Max called as Blak, Alec and Cyan began to walk away, "You could bring us back some food if you want. Please?"
"Of course we will Maxie." Alec replied, not being able to resist Max's pouting look.
With that the boys left, heading toward the barracks. The girls watched them for a minute, before turning back to face each other.
"Well girls, what are we going to do?" Jondy asked.
"I kind of want to practice breathing some more." Toni commented. "Does anyone else want to join me?"
"I will." Sam stated.
Jondy shot Max a quick look, before replying. "No, I think I might take a walk."
"Yeah, I might join you Jondy. We'll see you back here in an hour say?"
"Ok."
Max and Jondy set off, in the opposite direction to the barracks, walking slowly. After a while, Max got bored and asked Jondy what was up.
"Why'd you want me to come with you?" Max asked.
"What's up with you and Alec?"
"Me and Alec? What do you mean?"
"I mean, two days ago you hated him, and know you act like he's your favourite person in the world."
"Oh. He's not."
"Not what?"
"My favourite person in the world. You still occupy that post." Max reassured her sister, giving her a big hug.
"Still, what..."
"Me and Alec are friends is all. I kind of got to know him a bit better during the mission yesterday, and while he's still a pain in the butt, he's not that bad for a brother."
"So he's a brother?"
"All of the Beta's are our brothers and sisters, except 598."
"Eww. Never 598."
"What else did you want to know? Surely you didn't want me to come for a walk just to talk about Alec?"
"Well..."
"Please tell me that you have something else you wanted to talk about."
"Do you know what happened to Lea and Isis? They didn't turn up for mission yesterday, and nobody's seen them. You were in the front row yesterday, right in front of the Colonel. Did you hear anything?"
"Yeah. The guard that was waking them up took them to the infirmary. Isis had concussion, and Lea has a broken bone. I don't know how, but that's what the guard said."
"Wow. I wonder what happened?"
"Who knows. Anyway, what was it like being partnered with 598? What did you do while me and Alec were mapping?"
"It wasn't too bad being partnered with 598. He wouldn't let me do much, but there wasn't really much to do anyway. We just followed the criminal all day. Then when he got to the perimeter fence, 598 went and terminated him. He wouldn't let any of us even near the criminal, just said to stay where we were. Then we went back to that clearing. What did you and Alec do? Was he as annoying as he seemed the night that we named him? Did you have to kick his ass?"
"He was annoying. At the start, when we were waiting for the signal, I was thinking and he came up and flicked my nose. So I got him in a headlock. We started fighting, but he grabbed my foot when I kicked him, and dumped me. I made him fall, but he fell on me, pinning me down. Then the signal went."
"What else?"
"We fought like that a couple of times. Then while we were mapping I got a seizure. It was scary Jondy...I've never had one during the day. Do you think the Colonel will find out?"
"I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you Maxie, I really am. I don't know if the Colonel is going to find out. I don't know what he'd do either. I don't plan to find out." Jondy gave Max a hug, noting that Max was shaking slightly. Probably from remembering what happened, she thought.
"Come on Maxie, let's go back. We don't want to leave Toni and Sam on their own in 598 decides to check up on us."
"I wonder what he's doing?"
"Probably stalking the Colonel."
Max laughed with Jondy, and they began walking back to the clearing. When they got back, there was no sign of Toni or Sam, until they looked in the river, and saw them there, under the water.
Sitting on a rock together, Max and Jondy waited for Sam and Toni to come up for breath once more. When they did, Max and Jondy laughed at the sight of them. Toni had a couple of leaves off a water plant stuck on her head, and Sam had some kind of weed on top of her ear.
"What's so funny Max? Jondy?" Sam asked.
"You should have a look at yourselves. You look like some kind of Martian, what with the blue lips and plant life growing on you."
Sam and Toni looked at each other, and began laughing too. They pulled the plants off each other, before getting out of the water. Soaking wet, they launched themselves at Max and Jondy, making them fall off their rock. The four girls landed in a wet heap on the ground, laughing their heads off. This was how the boys found them two minutes later.
"What is going on here?" Blak tried to maintain a stern face, but gave in to laughter after a moment. He Alec and Cyan stood together laughing at the girls, until four wet bodies attacked them, making them fall to the ground in a heap, the boys on the bottom, and the girls on top. Sam pinned Cyan, Jondy and Toni pinned Blak, and Max pinned Alec.
"Now what do we have here girls?" Max asked.
"It looks like we have some prisoners." Jondy stated.
"And what are we going to do with these prisoners?"
"You wouldn't do anything to us...would you Maxie?" Alec asked, horrified.
"Well, what do you think girls? Should we punish these prisoners?"
"Come on Max. Do we deserve to be punished?" Blak asked.
The girls laughed. "Hell yeah!" they cried, before picking their prisoners up and dumping them in the stream.
Alec was the first to come up. "What was that for?" he asked, indignant.
"For living." Max replied, face straight.
Alec stared her in the eye for a moment, before she started laughing again. Once started, she couldn't stop, and couldn't defend herself when Alec waded over to her, and pulled her in. As soon as she hit the water, she stopped laughing, and attacked Alec. She punched him once in the stomach, and once in the face, before diving under the water and pulling his legs out from underneath him.
Swimming back to the surface with Alec's legs in her arms, Max saw that Sam and Cyan were having a similar fight in the river, while Toni and Jondy were having a tag team fight on land against Blak. Looking back down at Alec, she could tell that he hadn't thought to breathe before he went under, because he was turning blue again. She let go of his legs, allowing him to swim to the surface once more. While he got his breath back, Max assumed a fight stance, and waited for him to recover.
Once he was breathing properly, he looked up and saw Max in her fighting stance, and assumed one himself. Not waiting for her to lead, he sent a punch toward her face, which she ducked, coming in close and punching him in the stomach. Curling over, he gave the impression that he was injured, and Max backed off. Quickly, he leapt forward, and tackled her, sending them both under the water.
She struggled against him, but he wrapped his hands around her arms, and curled his legs around hers, stopping her from moving. She looked him in the eyes, before letting her head fall back. He made the mistake of leaning toward her, and she sent her head into his with a loud crack. Dizzy, Alec let go of her, and tried to swim to the surface. He found that he couldn't do it, but after ten seconds of trying, he felt Max's arms wrap around his torso and bring him back into the air.
"Stupid."
Alec didn't comprehend. "Huh?"
"Never give your opponent an opportunity to strike harder than normal."
Alec still didn't understand. "What are you talking about?"
"You, idiot."
"Thanks. If you don't mind I think I'll go to sleep now."
"No you don't. Not here. ALEC!"
Max grabbed Alec around the waist, and pulled him toward the bank. He was much heavier now that he was unconscious, and Max had difficulty lifting him, so that she could lay him underneath a tree not far away. Once there, however, she laid him down on the ground, with a patch of grass to act as a pillow. Looking up, she saw that the others had gathered around her.
"What happened Max?" Toni asked. "Is he...is he dead?"
"No, he's not dead. He's unconscious."
"What happened?" Blak asked.
"He tried to be dead again, except this time it nearly worked."
"Oh. What did he do this time?"
"We were fighting in the river. I'd punched him in the stomach so he curled up. I moved back, he tackled me, we both went under. He pinned me, so that I was facing him. I let my head fall back, so that I could hit him with it, but he brought his head too close to mine, and I couldn't stop. I hit him pretty hard. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to do it."
Jondy gave her sister a hug. "It's ok Maxie. He'll be okay too. Don't worry about it."
"But what if I did kill him?"
"You didn't."
"Yeah, but what if I had of?"
"Stop worrying about what might have happened Max. Jondy's right, he'll be ok." Blak reassured Max.
"Yeah Max," Cyan put in, "Alec'll be alright, you wait and see. In the meantime, do you girls want something to eat? We found some apples and pears; you can have some if you want. And we also found some really nice brown stuff, but there isn't much of it. Come and have a look, it's just over there in the shade."
The others began to move off, but Max stayed behind with Alec. When Jondy noticed that Max wasn't coming, she turned around.
"Maxie? You coming baby sister?"
"No. I'll stay here with Alec. I think I could use some sleep too. Just promise you'll wake me before we go back in, if I do fall asleep."
"Are you okay Maxie?"
"Yeah, just a little tired."
"Why are you tired? We don't get tired."
"I think I'm still tired from the seizure, and then knocking Alec has made it worse."
"Ok then baby sister. Sleep well. We'll let you two sleep in peace until it's time to go in."
With that, Jondy walked back over to the others, leaving Max alone with the unconscious Alec. Max rubbed her sore head, before lying down next to Alec, and curling up against him, using his chest as a pillow. Before long, she fell asleep.