thearena | jack the lion is roaring his last

Who| max and open
What| zombies, supplies, and sadness
Where| all around the town
When| zombie time
Warnings/Notes| death of friends and other creatures

She didn't want to go back. Going back meant looking at the others and having them know that she failed to protect Courfeyrac. Having them all know that she was the reason he was dead. Instead of returning, Max remained a shadow around the Arena, never staying too long in one place, never stopping to help. Manticore had taught them well on how to remain in the soldier's mindset.

Max didn't think of Courfeyrac just like she didn't think of Sandy. Poor Sandy who had been so very brave. Max knew the girl would have fit in well with her unit. Then she would have had Max's knowledge and maybe these Arenas wouldn't seem so large and frightening. No, it was no use thinking on those who were de-

A sound. A shadow and a familiar figure slowly walking out of the fog. She moved from the trees and towards the seemingly dazed man. Max didn't want to believe that they would bring him back so soon, but here he was...almost. She wanted to reach out and touch him, to make sure he was real, but the blank look in his eyes held her back. He was wrong. Her face hardened as her small hand reached for her equally small knife. No, the Capitol was not so kind as to give him back.

Max was slow to enter the shop. She was covered with the blood of friends and not!friends. She was tired in a way that was so very unusual for the small soldier. She was...shaking. As soon as she was safely inside, Max reached into the pocket of her jacket and extracted her precious bottle of pills that the Capitol supplied. She had no idea if the Capitol did this out of kindness or because they simply did not want a broken Tribute. She really didn't care.

Squeezing herself in a corner, she waited to see if the others would arrive or if she and the not!Courfeyrac had been the last. Perhaps she should have kept him around if for no other reason than she didn't want to be alone.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Marius had, shamefully, fallen into a shallow, fitful sleep.

He twisted and turned in the small corner of the shop, his dreams troubled with visions of attacks and blood splattering onto the ground and dark, terrifying shapes behind thick fog. He stirred at the sound of footsteps and pried his eyes open. In his unfocused vision he could decipher the familiar outline of Max.

He muttered an apology as he forced himself up, followed by, "Where is Courfeyrac?"

It was only then that his sight cleared and he could see the red stains all over her. His eyes widened in alarm, and he scurried towards her to check for any sign of wounds or infection. "Are you hurt?!"

Max seemed to draw into herself the closer Marius came. How was she to say that the small wounds were nothing, that all this blood and horror was the result of her killing their friend. Her brother.

Her mouth opened but nothing came out. She took off her jacket and used it to wipe away some of the blood, although most of it had dried by the time she reached their little hideaway. "It's not mine." Max studied Marius as she put her jacket back on. "Have you had anymore confrontations?"

"It's not..." Marius shook his head and the disturbing, disgusting thought that the Capitol allowed children to fight, before he let out some words that could be cause for harm to fall upon Cosette. Instead, he stepped aside to allow her to pass.

He had been obedient and receptive enough to insistences that he stay here, where he could be safe. (Where he could not get in the way, like what Signless had informed him in the harshest manner possible.) But even if he believed them right it still managed to hurt his pride, so it was with difficulty that he managed a, "I have not."

Max wanted to rest, to take a moment and forget they were fighting for their lives, but to do something so simple was to invite death, so instead she remained on her feet covered in the blood of her friends.

"It's best you don't leave. They have...I saw Courfeyrac, only it was not him. I don't think. He was wrong and blank." And a security risk to both herself and Marius. "I had to kill him."

Marius was eyeing her with concern, nodding until she uttered her last sentence, and he froze abruptly. He stared at her, his tongue seemingly gone limp in his mouth for a second or so before he sputtered. "Y-You..." His brow creased. "Why?"

He took a step back, shaking his head in disbelief. He didn't understand. Courfeyrac was their friend and he had done his best to protect them. "Had you brought him here we might have discovered a way to fix him!"

Because Courfeyrac had always found a way to fix everything for Marius. He could have at least attempted to do the same, but all was too late now.

She tried not to be too upset at Marius. He didn't understand what war was, not really. His days were spent wooing his wife and believing everything will get better. Max knew that was all a lie; sometimes things just became worse. She tried not to be too upset, but it was hard.

Raising up from her spot, she pushed away from the wall and dug into what was left of their meager supplies. "Next time you can go out there." It was wrong for her to be so willing to toss him into the Arena like that given they were all that was left, but she had killed two friends, two things that wore the faces of her friends and then tried to kill her. It was not her job to coddle the older man.

A frown crossed Marius's face. Truthfully, he had remained where he was because he disliked being thought of as an aggravation out there. But it appeared as if all his friends were doomed whether he was with them or not.

He watched her for a brief while before uttering, quite stubbornly, "Perhaps I should."

He wouldn't last the day and it would be Max's fault for not stopping him. Still, she didn't say anything against him. If she could not keep her brother alive then what was the point in trying to keep Marius alive? At least if he died he could get back to the Capitol and back to his love.

Max suddenly felt sick to her stomach.

She pulled out a tin that had long since lost its label and used her knife to open the lid. Beans. Stale, but filling for two. She stared at the tin for a long moment before shoving at Marius. "Here. It's the last can."

Marius blinked and took the can in his hands. He stared at it for a moment, almost as if he was puzzling over its contents, or perhaps the fact that she had still handed it to him despite his outburst.

It made the guilt tug at him, so he shook his head. "You must eat." He handed it back to Max, his lips pressed into an obstinate line. "I cannot take this."

Max didn't take the tin. "I've been trained to go through prolonged periods without food; you haven't." She was still protecting him. As upset as she was over his accusation of failure, as ready as she was to be rid of him, Max was still looking out for him simply because that's what the others would want.

She moved to the barricaded door. "I'm going out again. Do what you want. I'll return again later."

jack the lion is roaring his last

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