***Please note that all characters in this story are over 18. Also, I'm trying to up my game so if you like this story please comment! This is intended to be a TEN part series of which this is the SEVENTH part, so please read the others!
Even in sleep Rose felt her whole body ache from the night before. She dreamt Max cradled her in his arms while he lent his leather jacket to her as a pillow. White light enveloped them and looking up at Max he looked like everything Rose had ever wanted. Max would wipe her forehead, tuck her long black hair behind her ears and his finger would trail down her cheeks. She could feel tears running down her face. It wasn't fair. Why couldn't she hide in these dreams forever? Darkness took her.
"Rose? Are you awake? You've been unconscious for almost 24 hours!"
Rose's eyes snapped open. Max was holding her arm. She felt behind her head and her hand touched the hard leather of Max's jacket. Confused, she looked up at Max.
"The map Rose," Max said.
It dawned on her now. Tina had said she was going to take some of her people, as well as Max and Rose. Well, as Tina had proven last night, Rose was one of her people too, but Rose didn't want to think like that.
"We've covered a lot of ground already and it seems like the map is drawn to a much smaller scale than Tina implied. We aren't more than four days from the place the map marks as being the most fertile," Max said.
"Trucks the whole way?" Rose asked.
"Don't be silly Rose. We brought horses and wagons too. Even Tina didn't want to risk running out of gas," Rachel snapped.
Rose watched Max shoot Rachel a glance. His back was to her and she wasn't sure what the look meant. She knew Rachel wanted him. And by now she knew that SHE wanted Max too. But she wasn't sure what Max wanted. Rose watched Rachel's face. Rachel looked past Max at Rose and realized what Rose was doing. She smiled sweetly at Rose in a way that reminded Rose of Tina.
"Alrrriiight!" Tina yelled.
Rose propped herself up and saw Tina yelling at all of the trucks to pull over.
"Looks like we'll make camp here tonight," Max said.
***
Rose hadn't looked good and Max wasn't sure exactly what Tina had been doing to her. He was a little surprised when Rachel had come to his room after the fight, especially when Tina had told him Rose had been given the night off. But when Candy had warned him he needed to carry Rose to the caravan that morning or leave her behind, Max had started to doubt what Tina had said.
Max popped his own tent, dropped his bag of supplies he'd taken from Tina's stock in his tent, and looked to the horizon. It was almost pitch black but he could hear Carl driving the livestock into the paddock Max and Big Mo had built on the fly and decided to walk over and check it out.
Big Mo didn't say much but out here, Max decided Big Mo was probably all right. When it came down to it, he seemed like a loyal hard working guy. The only problem was that he was loyal to the person that seemed intent on destroying the lives of the people Max cared about and his work included beating the be-Jesus out of Max on a few occasions. But Big Mo didn't seem to bear any ill will toward Max after the fight nor for that matter did Big Mo seem to be afraid of Max. But Big Mo did seem to respect Max, and Max thought that might come in handy later.