Max Arena (51 page)

Abdullah did
not speak, but silently nodded. Max held his gaze on Abdullah for a
few moments and then flicked his gaze across to Kris who looked
back between him and Abdullah. The silence held, the baking heat
intensifying the quiet as the sounds of construction and the
multitude of workers’ voices murmured in the background.

Elsa came up
behind Max and clasped his hand as she stood next to him. Joe and
Peter also came to stand silently with the group. Now everyone
stood together, looking around the gathering, connecting with each
other. No words sullied the moment. All thoughts alternated between
reaching out to others and then turning inwards to self
reflect.

Abdullah broke
first, turning and serenely crossing the space in the middle to
approach Kris. She watched him come close and then when he reached
her, he raised his right forearm and bowed slightly. Kris paused
and just looked at him. Not awkwardly. Not in confusion, but
acceptingly. She then placed her left hand on Abdullah’s forearm
and together they turned for the arena exit and walked away.

Elsa squeezed
Max’s hand. Max turned to look at Joe and found him smiling gently,
watching the couple move away. He then looked down and nodded
before ambling behind them with Peter in tow.

Elsa leaned
into Max’s ear and gleefully whispered one word. ‘Yes!’

9pm, 17
^th
December (later that night).
Crumbling

‘We have to
make one last trip to the United Nations,’ Joe said, ‘and we need
to leave within the hour.’

The rest of the
group had gathered in the living room and right now had their eyes
fixed on Prime Minister Tollsen as he stood pensively by the cold,
bare fireplace, his pipe in the corner of his mouth and his hands
in his pockets. He did not face them, but rather stared into the
empty hearth, almost as though he were talking to himself. Joe
continued.

‘All of our
efforts to hold the global community together are rapidly
unravelling,’ Joe said. Abruptly, he turned to face the group. ‘It
was to be expected. As doom looms ever higher, so will our fears
begin to take over.’

Elsa spoke next
from the couch where she sat with Max by her side. ‘Is there
anything we can do? Can we up the ante on Team Max and get even
more footage of him out there? Swamp the whole world with him?’

Joe shook his
head. ‘We have done what we can, but this is not the time for
despair. Despite the downward spiral beginning to accelerate once
again, the majority of our fellow world leaders are still in fact
united and doing all they can to maintain as much control as
possible. At present, the majority of the unrest is spreading
throughout the Third World as provisions of essentials from the
First World begin to dissipate. In these last few days, the
developed nations have become more and more self-serving and less
and less caring of their foreign brothers and sisters. It is a
shame, but as I said, it was not unforseen.’

‘Wars?’ Kris
asked from the other end of the same couch.

‘Civil
and
cross border,’ Joe replied, taking his pipe out of his
mouth to inspect the wood grain. ‘Africa is overrun with strife and
even if we are successful in the arena, it will take many years to
restore the continent to its previous state. Civil war grips India,
while Muslim fundamentalists storm across the border from Pakistan.
Central America is rife with rebel uprisings and Mexico has
imploded as the general population finally strikes back at the
corruption in the government and the rampant drug cartels. However,
if you are looking for a saving Grace, all of the G20 leaders are
aligned, including Australia. There are even plans being made to
potentially ally together to fight off any form of Nar’gellan
invasion, as futile as it might be.’

‘What will
you
do, Joe,’ Elsa asked, ‘if Max falls in the arena? What
will you do right at that moment if it happens?’

Joe looked up
at Elsa and then flicked his gaze to Kris and Peter in turn. ‘The
first thing I shall do is make sure all of you are as safe as
possible. There will be space on my helicopter for all of you and
it will not be lifting off without any of you. Let me be
crystal
clear on that.’

‘Thank you,
‘Joe,’ Elsa said. ‘I never doubted you would live up to your word
and on the night, if the worst happens, I don’t doubt you will
still live up to it.’

Joe nodded then
said, ‘As for what we do next, I will pass that to Abdullah.’

The Sheikh
nodded his head once and rose from his seat at the far end of the
coffee table. Max watched him rise and noted his movements were no
longer truly languid. The man had slowed. He was tired. Max was not
sure if Abdullah or Joe really slept most nights, knowing they were
never far from a telephone, talking to someone somewhere in the
world about who knew what, but it undoubtedly had to do with world
politics, security or leading their own respective nations.

Abdullah walked
across to stand next to Joe and then turned to face everyone.
‘Thank you, Joe,’ he started. ‘Yes, we do have a contingency plan
if God’s design is for Max to fall in the arena. I cannot give you
the exact details of that plan yet, but let me just say that we do
have a secure facility under construction and nearing completion,
which is deeply hidden in case the world is conquered by Macktidas’
army. A select few other dignitaries and world leaders have been
invited to enter with us, but only a few. It is not an open
invitation, but I imagine many of our peers will have their own
such facilities ready to enter if the need arises. Our facility is
not far from here and will only take us a matter of hours to reach.
There we will either ride out the storm or we will pass from this
world into Allah’s hands.’

‘When will you
be back from New York?’ Kris asked, not looking at Abdullah, but
instead keeping her gaze downcast into her lap.

‘Three days,’
Abdullah replied, bowing his own head. ‘We will be on the ground
for one day only. There is only so much we can do now, so we will
both be returning as quickly as we can.’

Joe nodded next
to him and replaced the pipe in his mouth, putting both hands in
his pockets.

Max cast a
sideways glance to Kris to find her still downcast. He then nudged
an elbow into Elsa’s side and flicked his head towards Kris. Elsa
looked, took the cue and moved across to lead Kris out onto the
balcony. Meanwhile, Max stood up and stepped across to Joe and
Abdullah.

‘That pipe’s
getting a good work out,’ he said to Joe.

‘This pipe is
my oldest friend and at times like these, you need your friends
around you,’ Joe replied.

‘Well, make
sure you hurry back from New York then.
We
need you here
too,’ Max added and he looked sideways to Abdullah. ‘Some of us
need you more than others.’ Abdullah nodded silently without
returning the look. ‘So, what’s your plan with the UN?’ Max asked.
‘How much more can you
really
do to keep things
together?’

Joe sighed and
looked away. ‘Not much I’m afraid,’ he said. ‘Apart from increased
military intervention, we’re at the limit of peaceful control. Max,
you haven’t directly noticed any local deterioration because you
are largely hidden away here on the island, but even here in
Australia, our streets are filling up with more and more soldiers.
Unfortunately, desertions from our military ranks are also
increasing. Order is eroding faster than we can bolster it. Plain
and simple, the end of the world is coming and it is no longer
possible to maintain structure. As I said, this was predicted, but
now that we are at this point, it makes it no less
dispiriting.’

‘I’m surprised
we all kept it together for as long as we have.’

‘Do not
underestimate the calibre of positive impact that Team Max has
had,’ Joe replied as he snuck a sideways glance at Abdullah, who
had turned to look out onto the balcony where Elsa and Kris stood
together. ‘We took a gamble on our little publicity stunt, but it
paid off handsomely. It is fair to say, the world took heed of your
mantra that “together we win” even if winning means staving off
anarchy for as long as possible before we are all annihilated.’

Max nodded.
‘There is an obvious question in all this that no one has really
asked yet because we’re all so focused on getting to the arena and
giving it our best shot on the night. Even if we win, will the
world ever be the same?’

Joe looked
directly into Max’s eyes. ‘That, my friend,’ Joe started, ‘is what
really keeps me awake at night. I have for some time, stopped
concerning myself with your perils in the arena as I know you will
perform to the best of your ability and the outcome will be what it
will be. I cannot control that. However, the question you ask holds
far greater peril than the outcome of your exploits in the duels.
We all wish for victory, but the old saying is true in this case.
Be careful what you wish for because you may actually receive
it.’

‘You mean
victory brings its own risks? If I lose, we all die, but if I win,
who knows what state the world will be in because of all the
carnage we’ll have self-inflicted leading up the arena? Extinction
might be a less painful way to go out than slowly killing ourselves
in a world gone medieval?’

‘Correct,’ Joe
said, his eyes glittering as he peered out from beneath his brow.
‘We might find ourselves scurrying off to that bunker straight
after the duels even if you do win. There might not be a world
worth living in for some time, if ever again.’

‘Is it really
that bad out there?’ Max asked.

‘I did not lie
in my description just now, but what I did not describe is my
prediction of what happens from here. Yes, the Third World is in
turmoil, but the First World is teetering. We have two weeks left
and I foretell by the end of this week, much of Europe, the United
States and Asia will also have descended into significant chaos.
World banks are shutting down, locking up global funds.
International airlines are no longer running, fragmenting the world
population. Economies are dissolving as trade ceases and political
systems are almost meaningless, allowing anarchy to overrun any
form of attempt at administration of society. Even here in
Australia we are plunging ourselves into madness. I already have
plans in place to retract the military to key strongholds around
the country to merely protect themselves rather than maintain law
and order. This strategy is to preserve some semblance of military
assets that can be used post the arena, whatever situation we find
ourselves in. Make no mistake, Max, come New Year’s Eve, some of us
will be watching your efforts on a live broadcast, if there is any
network still capable of broadcasting, but the vast majority of the
human race will likely be tearing itself apart or just plain
hiding. Ugly is a woefully inadequate adjective. Abominable is
getting closer, but honestly, I think the horror will be
unimaginable and thank God for that because I do not want to even
try to visualize what our world will have become in only two weeks
time.’

Max held Joe’s
eye contact through his Prime Minister’s entire monologue. At the
end, he lowered his gaze to the empty fireplace and absently
nodded. Max searched his feelings for how he felt about this stark
portrayal of reality and found that it did not affect him. Yes, he
wanted to win to save the lives of those he cared for and the lives
of all the good people in the world, but he now acknowledged for
the first time, that in saving their lives, he would likely be
condemning them to live in a world of horrors. The truth is, he
could not control any of that. All he could do was fight as hard as
he could and make sure his family was protected one way or another,
regardless of if he lived or died and he had already put those
measures in place. It seemed that destiny had locked him in now and
he was just there for the ride.

‘Excuse me,’
Abdullah said quietly, bowing slightly and in a swirl of his robes
turned and stepped away.

Max looked up
and around and found Abdullah moving out onto the balcony as Elsa
was coming in. Outside, Kris still stood by the railing by herself.
As Max watched, Abdullah slid up next to her, placing a hand over
Kris’ on top of the stone barrier.

Elsa came over
to stand next to Max and close to Joe. ‘She’ll be alright,’ Elsa
whispered coarsely. ‘She just didn’t know about the trip. Came as a
bit of a shock.’

Joe sighed. ‘It
is a last minute decision and unfortunately, unavoidable.’

Elsa shrugged.
‘She knows that. It’s just...well, you know what it is. Time’s
short.’

Joe looked down
and then sideways out to the balcony where his friend’s swirling
robes virtually enveloped both he and Kris together. ‘Yes it is,’
he said softly. ‘Yes, it is.’

5pm, 29
^th
December (12 days later). It
Makes You...Human

Looking down
the length of the lawn, Max’s inverted perspective from his
handstand position, did not impede his view of what he had to do
next. Thirty metres away stood two medicine ball canons, an
assistant behind each one, slightly angling the barrels upwards and
inwards to aim at him. A short corridor of five javelins on each
side was also laid out just in front of his position and behind
each canon, there stood two very tall targets. All Max had to do,
was on Kris’ command, drop back to the turf and fire all ten
javelins into the targets, while dodging a flurry of body bruising
medicine balls raining down on him.

A single drop
of sweat beaded on the tip of Max’s nose as he waited, his gaze
fixed along the length of space between himself and the canons. His
hand stand position held rock steady. A gentle sea breeze floated
across his wet skin. The bead of sweat swelled and then
dropped.