Children waiting for the day they feel good

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It's not often that Max is quiet. He has his moments when he's sad, or he's thinking or when he's absolutely so happy he can't stand it but those times are few and far between.

But then Jason crawled out of his grave and Max pretty much shut up.  He still doesn't really understand. Why he was in there and why that gravestone says he was dead. All he

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[jdick]

For a few minutes, Joe just watched. Ozzy was wandering around somewhere nearby and he was alone in watching Max throw rocks at the tree, wondering what had caused the mood, if anything at all. Finally, he came forward, hands in his pockets.

"I hear that tree can be a real dick," he said, standing a few feet behind Max.

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Max can't help but gasp a little; he didn't even hear Joe come up. He whirls around, eyes wide before looking away. "I hate this place," he mutters quietly, quickly swiping at his face. "We shouldn't be here."

[jdick]

"How do you figure?" Joe asked. He could understand all the reasons to hate the place, especially for a kid who'd been taken away from his family, but Joe felt like he belonged there. Being dead back home made it sort of hard to belong anywhere else, he figured.

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"It's bad Joe. It does bad things," he sniffs, picking up another rock and throwing it as hard as he can. "It kills people."

[jdick]

"It's not the only place that does that," Joe answered. The home they'd all come from killed people, too. People died. All over the place, they died, and that was just part of being alive. "What happened?"

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"There was a big headstone and Jason was dead," he starts, staring down at the ground. "And he crawled out and I tried to help but he was dead and I couldn't help him."

[jdick]

Joe didn't know Jason, but that didn't make it any less fucked up and he'd heard about the headstone. That kinda thing didn't exactly stay a secret on the island.

"He's not dead here," Joe said, because that had to count for something.

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"But he's dead back home," Max cries, mouth screwed up as he looks at Joe. "Someone killed him and he got put back in his grave and it's like a zombie and I was scared of him and didn't even help."

[jdick]

"A lot of people here are dead back home," Joe said. "And, fuck, I'd be scared, too, if someone started coming out of the ground like that. That's fucking scary, man, no matter what anyone tries to tell you."

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"But..." he splutters, stomping his foot. "People shouldn't be dead. It's not okay to just be dead and walking around and that means they got hurt really badly or killed or something. And if they go home they're just dead again!"

[jdick]

"Yeah," Joe agreed. "It means all that. It also means that this place is their only home now and their second chance to try and do things different. Maybe stop what happened back home from happening here. And it's fucked, but that's the way it is."

He frowned and said, "I know it was scary, Max. That's okay. You know that, right?"

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"Not okay," he mumbles, wiping at his face. "He needed help and I think I made it worse because I didn't help pull him out. And I don't want him to be dead. It's sad."

[jdick]

"Yeah, it's sad," Joe agreed, coming closer to where Max was standing. "It's sad and it sucks a lot, but you didn't make it worse, Max. He knows that." He didn't know Jason, of course, but he was pretty sure no one was gonna blame a kid for not being able to dig them out. "You didn't make it worse."

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"So you don't think it means he's a zombie?" he asks, trying to be calm because Joe's being calm. He doesn't want him to know how much it scared him.

"Like a monster?"

[jdick]

"No, Max, I don't think it makes him a zombie," Joe answered, reaching out long enough to squeeze Max's shoulder. "I think it means that something really fucked up and sad happened to him back home and now it happened to him here. And that fucking sucks. But I don't think it makes him a monster."

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"Okay," Max sighs, going a little limp with relief as she wraps his arms around Joe, pushing his damp face against his belly.

"I think he thinks that I think he's a monster. I think it mad him upset."