Welcome to Gaia! ::

Everything was cold.

It could have been due to the fact that Max had been using her coat for a pillow and the window was open. But Madison could feel nothing but frigid air hit every one of her bones. Her grip tightly wrapped onto the large dog as her tears fell harder. Each of the tears almost felt as though they were icicles as they ran down her face.

And then it happened.

Something lightly placed their weight on her black hair; the light feeling of his gentle palm sent a warm sensation down her spine as though it were an instant reaction. A small part of her filled with fear, perhaps Maximos had also contained the disease as well. And that would have been one monster that she wasn’t willing to face.



Quickly, without any hesitation she turned her head to look down on the ground. The great amount of sorrow that she had been experiencing prior seemed to fade into a large smile. He had no pain on his face, but his lips were a frightful blue. She may have saved his wounds, but Madison didn’t keep in mind about the hypothermia that he may have been gaining. Actually the only thing that was running through her mind was how happy she was to see that he was kinda okay.



“Yeah...” Joining with his chuckle, she let out a small laugh before grabbing a hold of his hand that was holding to her head she held it tightly. Her grasp was ever so gentle against his, and yet she didn’t want to let go. Madison was truly happy, and yet... there was still an inch of sadness. The woman was not a mage, she wasn’t a healer, nor was she was a doctor. She was still very much aware that there was a bullet somewhere within his chest, and if she couldn’t get it out...

After a moment of silent, the rabbit leaned over with her left hand and grabbed what was once Max’s shredded jacket. With that in hand, she let go of his hand for a moment to allow her to drape it over his naked chest. She was doing her best to try and keep him warm, after all he was losing blood which also helped drop the core heating system. Yes, she too was feeling cold with only having a tank top on, but her needs weren’t as important as his at the moment.

“You are rather silly you know... You are so busy making sure everyone else is safe...that you forget about yourself a lot.” With her words, the rabbit slowly adjusted Max’s position to allow him to be far more comfy as well as conserving body heat. “And people take that for granted.” Her face filled with a larger frown before she dug into the side of her boot and pull out what appeared to be a rather interestingly scrunched up item.

Pop.

With a quick wave of her hand the black item gained it’s full form. It was the top hat that he had given her prior! It seemed that Madison had learned a few tricks with the shadow item that she had gained from him quite some time ago. It was clear it had seen quite a bit of damage as it was covered with a few stains and scuffs. But that was to expected from a prize possession like that. Madison had been clinging onto it since she came in and she wasn’t willing to let it go until now. Since the head was known to be the one spot on the body to lose the most amount of heat from the head it was best for her to remedy that.

“It’ll have to do for now.” Madison smiled and peered over her shoulder slightly towards the doorway leading downstairs. The rabbit was well aware what the scent of blood did to the undead, so she had to be on her guard, especially when her comrade was down like this. It was her turn to take care of him.

“We got to get you out of here and see a...d-d-..d-d-doctor. I think the closest one is in that place I was at earlier.” Madison stumbled a little bit as she even thought of the men in the white coats. But she knew that she needed to get Max to one. The rabbit gave a small nod to herself as she thought out loud. She knew what she had to do, and even though she was so close to finding her answers it was time for her to set them aside for the moment.

There was something more important for her to deal with.

And that was Maximos.

Madison was practically in awe as she witnessed the man practically rising up from the ground as though he were coming alive once more. His movements were slow and steady, but he was making it up and with the support of the rabbit, there was no telling what he couldn’t do. She didn’t stop him, she knew better than that, but it was still rather worrisome to see him move right after his own injuries.

Once he found himself in the proper sitting position, the rabbit handed off the jacket to witness the sadness that filled his face. Her heart only sank at the sight of his curved lips. Her face almost looked as though as she was going to apologize, however his focus soon fell onto his bandages. It was clear that Madison had put quite a bit of effort into her work, as each of the folds within the fabric had been ever so carefully. She may have not been good at a great deal of things, but this seemed to be an element where she had some expertise in.




There was no answer.

She didn’t even reply.

There was no need too.

But what she did do was watch the bag mysteriously slid across the floor towards the shadowy man in awe. With curious eyes, she slowly leaned in as though to examine the contents, however before she was even able to get a peek inside, her head shot back at him to see the wincing pain that filled his face. He was doing his best to try and take care of his injury, but movement wasn’t his best friend at the moment.

She wasn’t entirely sure if she was supposed to help him; after all, he was trying to play the independent at the moment. Instead, she only frowned and spoke to him. She was being whole heartedly serious with each and every word. But he only smiled and smirked at her with his response.




Madison could only allow a small sigh to leave her lips. There was no sense arguing with him about this, after all this was his decision and not hers. She was simply worried now for if he wasn’t careful, he would wind up hurting himself while doing something reckless for another. And that would be the day that she wouldn’t be around to help tend to his injuries. But there was no sense about worrying about that, it was time to live in the here and now. And right now, Max was still looking rather blue. With Max’s sharp movement to her own set of ruby eyes she than placed the cap on top of his dark hair as though she was knighting him. It was time that she returned it back to its rightful owner. It had been quite some time since the rabbit had ever seen him wear a top hat but it still suited him.

As she was admiring his work, Max had moved into digging into the bag once more. With a swift movement the man than swamped her with the two small boxes filled with goodies. The vibrant colors brightly reflected off of her glasses and gave her face a slight healthier tone other than her dull snow white flesh.

If Madison had a weakness, this would indeed be one of them. Candies! Madison had eaten plenty whenever she spent time with Shin, but they were only a rare treat. With a quite movement, her hand grabbed a handful of the varying shapes and held them in her stained hand. Now, as for the cookies, she looked at them curiously. They almost seemed alien to her...but at the same time they were almost familiar.

Her attention only drew away from the boxes as she heard what sounded almost like blood curdling pain. Shooting her head up, she looked over to Max and set the boxes to the side before dashing back to his aid. He was keeled over and clenching his left shoulder again. Did she do it wrong? Did she mess up?




Madison practically jumped as his voice raised at her, even Jabberwocky shot up at attention from his resting place on the ground. Max was definitely stubborn perhaps even more stubborn than she was when it came to the trained professionals.

The pain slowly disappeared from his voice and he shortly began to smile. Before she could even say anything, the man had removed the bandages to reveal his now closed wound. There was a few drops of blood, but it was nothing like she had witnessed before. Almost sounding exhausted, the man let out a sigh and pulled something from inside him.


"


Madison sat in awe as she watched the small silver bullet move from HIS shoulder and flip inside his pocket. She couldn’t believe what she had just witnessed, but it had happened! And even The Shadow was looking better as the blue tinge had disappeared. And then he stared at her as though they were darts. She almost wanted to look away, but no matter what she wanted to do his pale mismatched eyes wouldn’t break contact.





“You don’t owe me anything Max.” She almost looked embarrassed now, in comparison to the act that he had just performed on his shoulder, she had done nothing. Her cheeks almost gained some color to them as she suddenly seemed a lot more bashful than normal. Praise was something Madison wasn’t accustomed too, so the appropriate response was hard to find.

“Besides, it’s what friends do.” She gave him a smile in return. She may have not have been strong or fierce or even scary like him, but if there was an area that she could help him in, than she was going too. He had done so much for her; it would only make sense that she would return the favour.

Before allowing the situation to get too mushy, the Shadow stood to his feet and began to prepare himself before placing a small candy in his mouth. Now blushing, the rabbit quickly turned her head away to allow him the privacy to get dressed. Yes, she may have just witnessed him shirtless and partially naked, but this was different matters all together! He wasn’t dying right now!



“I guess I can allow that.” Madison nodded and giggled in agreement as she continued to stare at her dog like companion in front of her. She didn’t witness the magic that his attire may have offered, but she did take notice of the various plants that were living on other tables around the room. On the far wall, it seemed that there was a table were various seeds were sitting as well as stickers of some sort. On the left, there was a box while on the right there were piles of small baggies filled with the kernels that belonged to the fauna around them.

“Hey Max...” Quickly, she turned her head around to look at him, however she only stopped in midsentence as she saw a rather shocking seen. No, he wasn’t completely naked at this point, but instead it was a fully dressed Max. Even the buttons that she had popped off of his vest seemed to have returned humbly and were fitted nicely around his body. At this point, he was merely tucking in his shirt and adjusting Sha’yd in her sheath.




As she listened, the rabbit placed a star shaped candy in her mouth and watched the man explain her jacket. It was rather interesting to see the blood fling off as though it were beads of rain resting on her new item of clothing. It was practically seconds till it was completely clean and to its original state. But, despite how nice her coat was looking, Madison seemed to fall into a similar state of damage as before. Since her head was turned to face him, he had a clear view of her back where small black spots only indicated where shards of glass had entered her black top and flesh. If that wasn’t it, there was a rather huge hunk of flesh missing from her left shoulder where it looked as though one of the hounds that had been chewing on her. Even her arms had a few of the bite marks still on it, but she only seemed to be smiling back at him and ignoring it.




Taking her jacket in hand, the rabbit stood to her feet and came to attention. Blood slowly trickled down her arm in beads as she gave him a quick nod! There was no time to keep fate waiting now; the two of them were stalling for time already. Without any hesitation, the rabbit slid her jacket on and winced for a moment, afterall, she was going with untreated injuries. After allowing the moment of pain to pass, she began shoving the various candies and different shaped cookies into her pockets as though they were the last ones she was ever going to have, the rabbit smile widely. They were so close that she could taste it, or that was the lemony taste from the yellow candy she had in her mouth.

“Let’s go!” And thus Madison began to move towards the doorway which there attacker had came from, after all that only seemed to be the only way out of this place. Before turning the corner to make her way through the door, she stopped and turned to face the large table that she was eyeing at earlier.

There seemed to be a thick layer of dust lingering on the items that rested on the table, but it was quite clear to see that each of the bags contained something or other. Slowly picking it up, the rabbit began to investigate the contents. Each of them had a large collection of various shapes that were no bigger than a finger nail.

“I think I found those seeds you were looking for!” Madison sounded ever so cheerful as she could hear them rattle. Now, these didn’t guarantee that they were in fact the right seeds. But they were seeds nonetheless, and this only meant one thing.

They were close to their desired destination.

As Maximos spoke the rabbit continued to stare at the bullet as though it were a mysterious artefact that he had found at the bottom of the sea. It was very clean for something that had come out of his body, almost too clean. It must have been some of that magic business that he was speaking about. In fact, she didn’t even know that he wasn’t human! He looked like an average person; he had a head, hands, eyes, nose, skin, and even sharp yet pearly teeth!

However she only nodded with every word as she tried to comprehend it. However, since he couldn’t see through her scalp, he probably couldn’t see the dull expression that was on her face as he tried to explain the science of his people. This conversation was definitely waaaaaaaaay over her head in content.

There was only one thing that she understood.

Candies + People = Healthy People!

And Max had sweets, which only meant that he was doing great. It made perfect sense.



“It’s hard to be stuck with someone when you want them around.” Her tone was very serious when she spoke those words. Perhaps it was inappropriate of a tone, but she meant every word. Madison was slow and was viewed by many to be in the way most of the time. Thus for her, many of her friendships were very short lived and difficult. And yet, she cherished every one of them deeply, no matter how much pain they seemed to cause her when they ended.

With a quick nod to Jabberwocky the woman had initiated the movement to carry on with destiny. Max was right; there was no time to wait! It was time to move! The time was now. Madison quickly slid her one arm into the coat. However, before she was even ready to move to the other arm she was interrupted.



The rabbit could feel her coat being tugged at which almost caused her to tumble backwards into Max slightly with the sound of the thud. The movement of air across her gaping wound only caused her face to wince quite a bit. She had totally forgotten about her wound, afterall Madison was very much a person who lived in the present most of the time, and that wound had passed quite some time ago.



“But I have Candy! I’ll be okay!’ She had a very large grin on her face as she gave a quick look towards him. It seemed that Madison didn’t quite understand the conversation that they were having earlier about the use of the sweets. Unlike Max, magic was not on her side. The only thing she really had was natural healing and sweets.

As soon as their faces made contact with one another she filled with sadness and her grin only disappeared from her face. It seemed that their adventure was destined to go on another break. The rabbit didn’t argue over this, after all her wounds were feeling rather tender.


With a nod the rabbit made her way over to his desired location. It seemed that their journey was meant to come to a pause yet again as it was now her turn to be taken care of. Max quickly began to dig into his own pockets in search of something of the sort before she could even catch a glimpse of whatever it was she had managed to fill his face with pure utter joy.

Seeds.

It seemed that their detour wasn’t as useless as they thought! One of their quests was complete, as the rabbit had agreed to help the shadow as best as she could, and it seemed that’s what she had managed to do.



With Max’s excitement, Jabberwocky began yelping loudly and run around in circles with his tag fully wagging and panting. Madison only clapped with excitement to see how much joy they brought to his face. They were beacons of hope to the two of them as they worked so hard to get where they were now.

“You are very welcome! And guess what? That means that the station is across the street!” Madison was so excited that she almost made her way down the stairs again! Everything was happening so fast that she couldn’t wait to get going again.



In midstep, the rabbit froze.

“Oh yeah.” Placing her grinning boot back down, she than turned on the spot and made she comfortable on the floor. Now, she wasn’t looking as cheerful as she was beforehand. Her snow white ears bent over her head and rested softly against her black hair.

“You promise you won’t be a doctor...” Her voice was rather timid over this. Her right arm lightly braced her left elbow. Now it was starting to hurt as she could feel the muscle pulse slightly underneath it in a throbbing motion.

“I don’t like doctors...” Her voice was practically a whisper as they left her lips. But despite the rather large mood swing, the rabbit didn’t move or fuss. She trusted Max whole heartedly, but doctors always gave her the willies.

But swallowing her pride, the woman held her shoulder towards him with her eyes tightly closed. She was waiting for the instant pain of something, perhaps anaesthetic or even rubbing alcohol. He hadn’t even touched her yet, but she was expecting it was going hurt. Alot.

The smell of mint was all really Madison could smell. Whatever he was using, it was making both her nose and back tingle and become rather cool. It was a very nice feeling considering that her entire back had that very interesting warm feeling that came with freshly made wounds. However, it wasn’t long till the temperature changed to a warm sensation, and then it went back to cool. It was rather weird, but there was one thing she did notice was the fact that the pain was gone.

Now, Max didn’t move positions at first. He was facing her to begin with as he was fiddling with the jars and began with her shoulders. As he was facing her, the rabbit was still looking at his sling. Now she knew what she saw, and all she knew was the wound was all better. And yet, he wasn’t using it still. For someone who really didn’t understand the order of the world, this was practically a mystery. As he moved around her to get at the rest of her back the rabbit sat thinking about it for a moment and than turned her head slightly to try and talk to him.

“I don’t get it....if you fixed your arm than why can’t you use it? You got the thinger out, didn’t you?” She was very confused now. It really didn’t make sense. And even those types of questions were going to lead to a whole new can of worms. People were often found that they feared what they did not understand, but it seemed with Madison that she was more intrigued by it than anything else.



The rabbit didn’t have eyes behind her head as he sat behind her with...something. But before she could even continue her train of thought, the smell of pepper filled her nostrils. This however seemed to leave an imprint on her spine for sure. For the pain she felt was more than an understatement, this was equivalent to the fires of hell sort of pain. With a loud yelp she clenched her eyes shut tightly and clenched her fists in unison.

He wasn’t kidding.

However the burning seemed to have disappeared in a matter of seconds to become more of a throbbing pain like her shoulder. If Max hadn`t put that salve on, there was no telling how much longer the burn would have lasted. And that was definitely a thought that she didn`t want to know the answer too.



Now, this was something that the rabbit wasn’t going to disregard. Just by the use of his tone, the woman tried her best to make herself comfortable. With a deep breath, she decided perhaps this was the best time to try and be quiet. For only a second she could feel something small like all small p***k similar to one from a needle enter her skin. Before she was even able to react it was quickly replaced with the same numb feeling had returned. She was doing rather well with being silent, even with his words of encouragement.

Each of the dings from the glass that hit the ground caused her ears to twitch slightly. Even Jabberwocky seemed to take notice of the small sounds, as his head perked towards the sounds. Madison could only smile at him since giving him a pet would probably count as some sort of movement. And Max said that there was going to be none of that!



As Max spoke his words, this was a perfect opportunity to allow her to relax a bit and have some movement. With a small shake of her body, she allowed herself to move. This was practically relaxing as she spent the past half an hour trying not to even breathe let alone having any sort of body movement. With the sticky substance being placed on her flesh the rabbit looked around the room slowly and quickly took notice to the table on which she had taken cover earlier. Now there was dirt all over the floor and nothing but a mess.

However, the mere sight only caused her to think about earlier.

“You know Max... I saw something when you got hurt...” Madison was doing so well so far, that she figured it was okay now that she could talk. She still didn’t move as she was beginning to revisit the moment that had passed recently. The thought of the tape being stretched allowed her an opportunity to sort the series of events in her head. The woman was trying her best to make the story make sense. “But when I went under the table...everything changed again. Like I wasn’t here, I was in this house...and it smelt wonderful. I saw this lady there, and she was absolutely beautiful. I could only see her lips, but they were so bright. She made me feel so happy. She had the most beautiful smile...But...she still looked so sad. And....than something happened to her. Something bad. And everything went cold. And....I than I was back here. Does that make sense?”

Madison frowned a little as she thought about it. Whatever she had witnessed before her eyes was almost real, and yet there were so many loop holes in it. This was slowly starting to make her head hurt; either that or it was because of the strong scent from the mysterious substance.



Madison raised eyebrow slightly as she turned her head to look at him.

What did he mean by tha-

Flop.

Suddenly her shoulder felt quite a bit heavier as a dark black square was placed on her shoulder. She stared at it for a moment as he began to tape each of the corners down. Why on Gaia didn’t she check his bag when it came to finding bandages?



Maximos looked rather proud of himself as he placed the last piece of tape on her flesh. And he had every right to be! He did such a wonderful job too, especially with one hand. He practically almost matched her in skill. With her right hand, the rabbit lightly touched the top of the bandage that was resting on her shoulder.

Looking over back towards him in order to give him praise for his good work, she quickly saw her in her face. It seemed that she was instantly presented with her own coat. He had done well, and he was ready to venture forwards. With a bit of ease, she managed to get her right arm in her sleeve. However, it seemed that there was a bit more difficulty with the left. Now that it was resting in the safety of a bandage, it was hard for her to move it. For medical usage, this was a good thing. However, this was proving to be difficult practically. With a flail of her arm and tugging of the fabric, finally it seemed that she had movment! With both arms within the coat she stood and went to do up the zipper. With her head aimed downwards, she was able to see where the dings where coming from earlier. It seemed that the glass she had in her back had made a rather interesting mess of the floor as both the shards of glass wither her blood and Max’s dark liquids were both staining the floor.



Madison popped her head up and had what appeared to be his own infectious smile grinning on her face.

“You did absolutely amazing! I feel wonderful. Thank you so m-“ She stopped in midsentence again as she took notice of his jacket he was wearing. She recognized it almost immediately as it rested rather nicely against his body. Stepping closely to him she began to look it over as though it was a treasure almost.

“Hey didn’t I cut this? I am sure I did...cause it made that sling. But it’s fixed now! Does your coat have that stitch thing too?” Madison tug on the bottom of his coat slightly in order to be absolutely sure it was the same coat she had earlier. But nevertheless, it felt exactly the same as beforehand. It even had the same stain from the zombies they slaughtered on breast pocket. This jacket was tricky; after all she just shredded it an hour prior.

“It must be...it even has that stain. Than...why were you so sad about it earlier? Cause it’s back to normal!” The rabbit was now even more confused, if the jacket was now fine, than why was he so sad about it earlier? Her eyebrow was cocked up slightly as she looked at his pale face. With her right hand she lightly scratched her head.

This puzzle kept getting slightly bigger with every moment.

Now Madison was really confused.

She was quite aware that Max had described that magic wasn’t like in the story books and were able to fix all of the world’s issues, for example his well broken shoulder. Now, it was obvious to see that whatever had happened inside of the bag he was carrying had fixed whatever damage she had done to his jacket with the help of Sha’yd.

“So... you cannot fix your shoulder...but you can fix your jacket? Because it was your favourite?” With the tone of her voice it sounded more like she was posing the question for herself rather than for him. Magic wasn’t something foreign in the land of Gaia, but she had a much understanding about it as she did with the rest of the world around her. It wasn’t till now that she actually spent some time with someone who used the mysterious source of power and was even able to ask questions. ‘That’s really weird....maybe you should be a tailor instead. ”

She crinkled her nose slightly as her hands fell on her hips. They were still very tender to even move and with the bandages, they were practically restricted to no movement whatsoever. Her statement was very similar to a child’s, and it contained a great deal of its innocence with it. But at least he was sure that she was genuine and not hiding her opinions directly. One who was normally in her situation would be terrified with Max’s gifts as people often fear what they do not understand. However, Madison almost seemed amazed, especially since her movements had gone to the back of his jacket now and grabbing onto the tails to have a closer look.

“...Did you make Wocky with magic too?” There was another burning question for him. She had no idea where the animal had come from, she just knew that he came out of nowhere as though he were nothing. The beast yawned slightly and looked up with his one good eye as he rested on the floor. He was truly a magnificent beast, and she nothing more about him other than his name was Jabberwocky and Max had created him. Lightly with the movement of her hands she managed to cause the tails of his coat to move slightly, she was still very gentle as if she moved it the wrong way he would probably experience another unpleasant visit from his shoulder.

However, despite her curious nature she was quite aware of one thing. Even if her head managed to have more questions about the things she was asking, there was a small chance that he was actually going to answer. She knew that most of his answers were often just another source for more questions because his answers really only lead to bigger questions. And this was slowly turning into a game of jeopardy.

However....

Eventually all games had to come to an end.

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

A loud blood curdling scream echoed into the building they were standing in and almost caused Madison to jump out of her skin. Even Jabberwocky shot to his feet from his resting spot. Madison sighed slightly as she looked at both her arm and then back at Max’s sling which only caused her smile to fade off of her face. The two of them were both injured now, and defending themselves was going to be nothing short of difficult. There were more of them. Even though they may have slaughtered a group of them, it was hard to say how many undead were there left. With the amount of blood the two of them had shed and were continuing to shed it was most likely attracting them like a pack of wolves.

They were so close to their location, and yet it was so dangerous. Max had stated earlier that their desired location was simply across the street. Madison could easily make it across even in her weakened state if she ran. However, Max would prove to be more difficult as well as Jabberwocky. She wasn’t strong enough to carry him as he could carry her, and with the additional weight of Wocky and his pack that was practically impossible. The rabbit did have the option of meeting him over there, but Max was just as damaged as she was, and that would only leave the room to be prey.

“We’re stuck here...aren’t we?”

Madison’s ears perked up as she listened to Max’s explanation. It seemed to make some sense now that he went in to some detail about both his own abilities that he had performed on himself. In fact, he was even laughing at her questions. Normal this would cause someone to be more hesitant when it came to asking questions because it would only sound like he was mocking her. But for some reason, it fuelled her mind with thought.

“So, if we put your shoulder in a dark place it will heal?” For all she knew, maybe he could have put the same enchantment on his shoulder as he did on his jacket. Than everything would be okay at that rate. Because he was “attached” to his shoulder, so this would have been an easy fix!

But it seemed she was mistaken.



“Oh.” Finally, sense seemed to have hit the young woman as the explanation made some sense. But this didn’t change that fact that he probably would have made a better tailor than anything else because really, he seemed to be pretty good at this mending of clothing thing rather than mending his own broken bones. However, he did do a good job on her own injuries. As she thought for a moment, she place a cookie in her mouth that she had hording in her pocket and munched down on it. She had a bunch more of them, but they were going to be saved for later.



Max had a shop?

But it seemed to be true, within moments a small card was handed to her and she looked at it just as closely as she examined the coat. She honestly could not make out what the card said, but judging from how she held the card, not many would. She was holding it upside down with her examinations. With a shrug, the woman placed the card within the inside pocket of her jacket as best as she could.

After the large growl blasted there seemed to be more noise coming from the outside. Banging from garbage cans being knocked over in the alleyway and even loud snarls from their lips, which only caused Madison to feel slightly sick as she could imagine how their breath smelt. But it was a smell she was used too in the apartment.



“I guess that depends on how you view it.” Madison still felt slightly uneasy about the whole thing. They were both pretty battered up. But with she didn’t say a word as it looked like Max was trying to think. This was something that she didn’t want to interrupt. Slowly, her eyes looked around the room as she herself tried to find a way out for them. However, the room only seemed to contain plenty of tables, broken pots, and dirt. That was definitely not a combination that was fitting for their current situation.




It seemed that Max had an idea. Her head quickly turned back to him to find that the top hat was back on her head while a small package sat in her hands. Looking down she examined to see the individual seeds fall into the creases in her hands. It felt like Max was passing a torch onto her almost.

She knew these were important to him. This was his entire quest. But why was he giving them to her?



“Are you kidding? No! You are more hurt than I am! Maybe we can do something different!” Madison voice cracked as it filled with worry. He was in no position to be defending him, if anything she should be protecting him. As she stood before him she shook her head quickly back and forth. She didn’t like this plan...

She didn’t like it at all.



The rabbit stopped.

She may have not liked the idea, but it was something she had to do. She took a deep breath in and fixed her hat slightly. She did very much trust the man, but the situation was not something she dreaded. Without a word leaving her lips the woman nodded very slowly to give him some sign to let him know she understood everything that he was saying.



Jabberwocky almost growled in response to Max. It seemed he was very overprotective about that eye patch of his. His growls quickly faded as Madison patted the back of his head lightly. Her hands were a little shaky, but they were still firm and gentle as beforehand.

“You better be right behind me.” Her head slowly shot up and she flashed him a smile, but due to the brim of the hat the most the Shadow would see would be her teeth. She may have been scared, but every once in awhile a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

With a quickened pace, the rabbit moved towards the window that she originally jumped from and looked down at the ground. To her surprise there wasn’t as many as she had thought... but there were roughly around fifteen of them wondering around aimlessly like the lost souls that they were. But nevertheless, as aimless as they seemed they were still very dangerous. Slowly turning her head back, she looked over to where Max was standing and....

SHOVE.

It seemed that Jabberwocky was one step ahead of her and gave her a little push out the window. Tumbling slightly and not as gracefully as she originally intended. With a quick twist of her body, the woman managed to hit the ground on her feet rather than her face. The instant sound of her feet smacking the pavement instantly grabbed the horde’s attention.

Madison had no time to hesitate. As soon as she had regained her balance she was off. But this was much more difficult than running in a straight line to the other side of the street, since there were various groups of them it was required of her to move between them in a weaving manner only causing her to slow down in the process. In order to make her way through she was required to actually RUN through the horde, as she did this she could feel their cold clammy hands attempting to grab on to her to make her their next meal. Luckily, thanks to her black dog, their hands were only met with an unpleasant surprise of being bitten by a set of unfriendly teeth.

She was running.

And there was no time to even seen if Max was close behind her.

After passing multiple rounds of what looked like a similar game to Zombie pinball, the rabbit managed to slam herself to what appeared to be a door. It resembled very much what once belonged to a busy city building. At this point, she wasn’t even sure if the horde was on her tail, all she could hear was the loud growls that Jabberwocky was making behind her. After a few attempts on opening the door, she finally managed to shove her way into the building.

“Come on boy!” She whispered rather intensely while she attempted to keep quiet. With the sound of her voice, the dog quickly made his way into the building where she only did what she was told, get inside and be quiet. With the door firmly closed behind her and locked, the woman leaned up against the door in almost a relief. The room was very dark now, and the only thing she could hear was the sound of her own breath trying to catch up with her adrenaline rush.

And waiting to see when the coast was clear.

Beside her, Jabberwocky growled as they faced the darkness. It was very hard to really see anything other than blobs of darker colors. But it was clear that there was something else within the room. Whatever it was, the dog could smell it, and this made room for a very unhappy pup.

“Down Wocky...we need to be quiet now.” Madison’s voice was a faint whisper as she held onto her shoulder. It was starting to throb now, especially since that she had been doing far more moving than she intended. But that wasn’t her main concern at the moment, what she needed to do was to get him to try and stay calm. Kneeling down, she lightly came up beside him and gave him a light stroke against his rough fur. “What do you see boy?”

However despite her attempts of being calm and tender to put him at ease seemed to have failed. Whatever was inside, it was not sitting well with Jabberwocky. His growls continued to grow loudly as they sat in shadow.

And then suddenly everything came to life...

Literally.

A selection of different shades of blues and purples filled the room from the outside window. Something had happened, and it had provided the room quite a bit more light on the subject. Instantly the room filled with color and light for a moment. There were old desks and filing cabinets that were simply covered with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. It seemed to be once filled with life...and now only abandoned by time. As the rabbit’s eyes examined the room till she met another set for herself. They were practically lifeless and glazed over. Before seeing exactly what she was starring at the light had faded and the rabbit was on her feet. There was no telling if whatever she looked at was looking back at her in return. Slowly, the woman began to make her way backwards in attempts to try and not make any subtle movements.

Her hand was lightly placed on the doorknob as she attempted to fiddle with the handle again. Before even able to have a firm grip on the metal it swung open and the rabbit turned quickly to see that her dear friend was pushing her back into the room that she was trying to run from. Her face instantly filled with fear as the beams of light from outside softly landed onto her face.

There before her, Maximos quickly grabbed her within her embrace with a rather happy expression on his face. He was battered and damaged, but she only seemed to have horror on hers as he moved her closer into the death trap that she was trying to escape from.



“Max! Max! MAX!” Her voice was still very low as he continued to make quite a bit of noise within the building. Every word she made only seemed to be muffled by the sound of his joy. But he only continued to ramble. “Max I need you to listen to m-“

BANG.

The horror that had rested on her pale features had now moved onto his as a gunshot was fired from behind her. Instantly, the rabbit’s ears became deafened as the sound echoed in her head. As she slammed her own hands over her ears she could feel her entire body be forced down to the ground and being moved farther away from where they were standing. Everything was moving in slow motion as the movement was done it wasn’t till her body hit the cement till everything seemed to come together. The instant sensation of pain filled her spine as back wounds hit the ground.

And yet...

She didn’t scream in agony as it seemed like there really wasn’t time for it.



She could barely hear the sound of his voice over the sound of rapid fire being repelled off of the steel table top. But once peeling her body off of the cement the rabbit looked around their new found area. Behind them was what appeared to be an office chair with a cabinet to the other side of with three large grey walls around them to create almost a box like shape.

“Um...Remember my last good idea I had?” Madison was looking around on the floor as she made this point. Last time that Madison ended up with a good idea she almost ended up six feet under. And yet, he was still asking. Her head was still very much focused on the floor at the moment as she was looking for anything really that she could use against the deadly pellets that were coming their way. Her movements were slow as her body ached, but she ended up crawling right up behind him to get to the other side. There really didn’t seem to be anything there, but then she ventured to the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet with her head ducked low to avoid being shot.

With a loud creak, the drawer opened and surprisingly enough, Madison face was filled with a slight bit of amusement as it seemed she herself had found something. And judging by her look, it definitely wasn’t paperwork.

“Hey Max. Do you have your boom stick?” She didn’t really know what else to call it, but as she turned back with a slight smile on her face and with something silver and shiny in her hand. It seemed that whatever cop was using this desk before she had left their weaponry behind.


“Cause I think that maybe we need to play things their way...” It may have not been a good idea, but it was still not that bad. Handguns were really not that complicated of a science to follow, one end fired and the other was for holding. It was pretty straight forward. Slowly she crawled back over to her side and looked over to him with a bit of a smile on her face.

The game was on.

Gripping the item closely the rabbit held her breath. This wasn’t going to be easy; she had only seen them be used on television really. And they were quite a bit heavier than they appeared. She was ready... she was very ready till...

“Max.... Where’s Wocky?” Her voice filled with horror as she began to look to where he was. And it was true, it appeared that the dog had not followed them. Instead, he was still growling in his spot as the zombies were all now too distracted with both Madison and Max. It was clear, that Jabberwocky was doing as he was told. He was protecting the rabbit as best as he could as it was obvious that he was rather found of the eyepatch.

And now was his chance, within moments the dog ran off of his spot and dashed towards one of the zombies. He began to bark rather viciously as his body launched in the air and went for the neck of the armed corpse. The valiant beast did manage to get him down, and was able to attack him. However, one against many was never good odds.

Slowly, one of the ex-police officers aimed his weapon at the beast and was ready to fire. Once hearing the clicking of the hammer, the lupus stopped and looked up at him. He almost seemed fearful of the weapon before him. And yet, he did not back down. The beast continued to growl and bark viciously with the barrel that was aimed at his other exposed eye.

BANG.

BANG.

BANGBANG.

Instantly, the corpse was too now onto the ground and Wocky went from there. Quickly the rabbit ducked down to the ground at the same time to gain some cover once more. It was clear that she wasn’t a good shot, but she did manage to provide the beast cover only however to the cost of her shoulder. Thanks to the recoil of her blazing barrel, the woman sat wincing as the hot pain was searing through her body.

But this was no time to quit.

Jabberwocky was still out there, and this was no place for a dog to be running around loose.