Chapter 10: The Plan
Max had been very uneasy these last couple of days. He slept for about an hour a night. He would always have nightmares. Max wrote a speech for the Mayor. It read, “Mayor George I don’t expect you to understand why I left, but there is one thing you must know. I need you to warn you about the Red Death.” Max wanted to keep it short and to the point, so that’s what he did.
He spent some time making his decision to go back. Once he decided he’d return, he had to prepare for his journey, and realized he would have to find his way back to the town. During the battle with the Red Death outside of the barn, they destroyed his car, and he had driven randomly through the forest not knowing how he found the way to Rich’s farm.
Max buried Rich, and he had been depressed ever since. He made a shrine for him and put a picture of Rich’s wife next to it. Max also put a little white fence around the shrine and on a tombstone he wrote, “Here rests Rich Gordon, a good and honest man. May he rest in peace.”
Every day, Max would bring a container of fresh milk to Rich’s grave. He felt bad having to leave the cows alone, so he set them free and directed them to fresh grass. Max practiced shooting with his plasma ray gun every chance he had. He would set up tin cans from fifty yards out, and over time he developed such an amazing shot he could nail the target perfectly every time. In his free time Max started a journal. He decided to write about Rich, the Red Death, and about whether the town and his family would accept him. Max imagined everyone he knew liking him again, and his family being proud. Those questions usually popped into his head every night, when he lay on the ground looking up at the stars. He also thought about what would happen if the town didn't accept him, and this worried him constantly. Max decided to draw pictures of the stars, he noticed some formations looked like animals and one even looked like a ladle. He finally stopped worrying and Max put down his drawings. He dozed off on the warm soil, and fell into a very deep sleep.
Max woke up the next morning refreshed for the first time in a long while. He slowly jogged up to Rich's house from the barn. Max went into the house and looked for as much stuff as he could to put into his backpack. He grabbed as much dry food as he could carry, ten bottles of water, Rich's cowboy hat, and most importantly his plasma ray gun. After leaving the house, Max walked over to Rich's grave. A single tear fell from Max's face as he remembered all the help and advice Rich had given him. He whispered, “I'm going to bring the world back Rich, thanks for all you've done. I can promise you one thing, I'm going to kill as many of
those Red Death as possible. I won't let you down." He picked up his backpack, tightened Rich's hat, and started walking back into the forest.
Max was very determined that morning. He wanted to cover a lot of ground on the first day of his travels. But he had no real idea where he was heading off to, and the last thing he wanted was to go in the wrong direction. He decided that every couple of minutes he would shoot through a tree. He did this so he wouldn't lose his trail or follow his footsteps. After about an hour of this, Max sat down by some small bushes and took a long swig of water. The cold liquid felt good on his tongue, and just as Max had started to let his guard down he heard a couple of sticks break. He leaped up and yelled, ”Who the hell is that? Are you following me? I will shoot you." He saw something move in the trees up ahead and immediately pulled out his plasma ray gun. He held his gun gripping it very tightly ready to fire at any moment.
“Zoom!” Something sprinted next to Max knocking him over, and it stopped about ten feet away from him. The thing was small, had gold fur, and four legs. It also seemed to have a collar on him, and it read, “Sparky, The Golden Retriever."
"What the hell is a golden retriever? Does it find gold or something?" Max thought to himself. He looked at the animal for a while and decided he had to just keep going, but Sparky followed Max.
"Stop!" he yelled to the animal, and Sparky stopped. Max decided to ask it, “Where's the town?" The dog bolted ahead, not waiting a moment, and was already out of Max's line of vision. "Well isn't that just great. Nothing good ever happens to me!" Max shouted aloud. He decided to keep going and eventually reached a small lagoon surrounded by trees with branches that seemed to be hanging toward the ground. He saw a sign that read "Weeping Willows".
"Crazy animals, trees with strange names, I just can't wait to see what happens next, “ he thought. He was curious as always and decided to try to climb one of the trees. Once he made it to the top, he looked around hoping to see a glimpse of the gigantic town wall. He didn't see anything in the distance, so he turned around and looked back to see if he could find Rich's barn. He thought he could faintly see the barn and the fences surrounding the place. While he was staring at the place he’d just left, he thought he saw small little red dots moving very fast.
"Oh shit," Max thought to himself. He noticed the dots formed into one group on the left and another on the right. He climbed down the tree quickly knowing he had to warn the town as soon as possible. "Hopefully I can get home before the Red Death gets there," he whispered to himself. Max started jogging and was keeping a good pace. But unfortunately night was approaching and Max had no intentions of stopping. He turned on the flashlight on his Plasma Ray gun and kept moving forward.
After about an hour or so of running in the dark, Max became scared and incredibly hungry. He pulled out a can of beans he had grabbed and sat down on the ground. He opened the can and ate furiously, eating every bean in a matter of minutes. He pulled out his journal after he had eaten and wrote, “Well, first signs of Red Death came today. Hopefully I can find the town before they do, but I'm nervous for mainly one reason. I have to let Betty know I would never have hurt her. Maybe she'll forgive me and hopefully one day we can be brother and sister again."
Max laid perfectly still, thinking about how the mayor would react after he ran over an officer. He opened his journal again, “If that crazy officer didn't try to kill me, I wouldn't have killed him and for that reason I don't feel any guilt." Max smiled to himself after writing this and started to doze off. He fell into a deep sleep.
"Oahhhh!" Max yawned as he woke up. "Hopefully I'll find the town today, and make everything right!" He got back to his plan of finding the town and started jogging again. Max's conscience kept reminding him of his sister as he trudged on. After an hour or so of running Max stopped to drink some water, and he heard some loud voices up ahead. "Maybe they know where the town is," he thought. He saw three old men sitting around a large bonfire. "Hello!" Max called out to them. "Well what we got here? A young boy wandering round a dangerous forest," one of the old men smirked.
"Well sir I'm actually looking for the town, I can't exactly remember where it is,” Max replied. The second man stared at Max and announced, “Well alright then boy, but what you got in that damn bag?" Max started to sweat, and felt very nervous. He looked down at the ground, then looked back up and yelled, “It's none of your damn business."
"We got a problem boy?" the third man asked. "Not unless any of you want one!" Max snapped back. He took out his gun and pointed it at the man in the middle. "Now I don't want any trouble, just tell me where The Town is."
The men looked at each other and started to laugh hysterically. "You think you can threaten us boy? Do you know who we are? What we've done?"
Max took a shot at the man's hat knocking it right off of his head. "I don't give two shits what you've done. Now I'll ask one more time, where the hell is the town?"
Still laughing, the man picked up his hat and stared at Max. "You know boy, I like your attitude. You remind me of myself and I'm in a good mood. So walk three miles east and then seven north. There will be a canyon and it'll look like it's easy to get through. But don't, keep going across the plains and go around the canyon. Then you'll see your town, I repeat do not go through that canyon boy. Unless you want to die young."
Max listened and then, without a word, started heading in the direction t
hey told him to go, recalling everything he was told. “Go three miles east and then seven north.” Max had gotten very good with directions ever since living with Rich. Rich told him the sun always set in the east, and west goes towards the mountains. He set off towards the sunset, but there wasn't much daylight left. Still, he was determined to get home that night, so he ran three miles to the east and started heading due north.
"Okay, I've run three miles in about thirty minutes, so seven miles will be around an hour and a half," Max assured himself. After a long run he finally approached the canyon entrance. It was almost dusk, and he didn't want to venture all the way around the canyon. Max wanted to get to the town that very night. He remembered what the old man said, but he thought he could make it through regardless. Max re-tied his shoes, tightened up his cowboy hat, and entered the opening of the lonely canyon.