forest
trees, plants, and underbrush covering a large area

outfit of the chapter
Maxine Forest

Max, Jack and Alex sat in the waiting room at the hospital. They had just checked up on Jack’s nose and it was not broken. A bit swollen, but not broken.
"Thank God" he said and let out a sigh of relief.
"And you two didn’t breath in any smoke?" the doctor asked, and both Alex and Max shook their heads.
"Then you’re free to go if you want to" he said and gave them a smile.
"Brianna… How is she?" Alex asked.
"She’s geting oxygen, but it seems like she’s okay" he said.
"Can I… see her?" Alex asked, and the doctor nodded. He followed him down the corridor and disappeared around a corner.
"Can you drive me back to Alex place?" Max asked and looked at Jack.
"What? you want to go back there?" Jack asked, a bit surprised. Max looked down on her bare legs and pajamas.
"Alex bedroom didn’t burn, so I thought I might go and take all the clothes and then go to a hotel or something" she said and sighed. Everything was getting a bit complicated right now.
"You’re not going to a hotel, you’re coming to my place. But first… We’ll get your clothes" he said and smiled. He helped her up on her feet and they walked out from the hospital, and just before they walked out she turned around and looked down the corridor and hoped Alex would come. But he didn’t. So she left with Jack.

She was sleeping on Jack’s bed when she woke up to the sound of him talking.
"No, she’s asleep" he said and glanced inside his bedroom.
"Alex for fuck sake, do you really think I would let her go and sleep at a hotel? You disappeared to Bri and Max had nowhere to go" Jack snapped, and Max wondered why Alex was mad. So she ket on listening and it seemed like he calmed down after that.
"No we got all your clothes, they’re here as well. No it was her idea" he said.
"Yeah just come, I have more than one bed you know" he said and Max could hear him smile. Then he hung up and walked inside and stroked back some of her hair.
"You heard that, didn’t you?" he asked and she turned around and looked at him.
"A little, but not much" she said and yawned.
"Alex is coming over, and I was just bout to make breakfast… Want anything special?" he asked.
"anything is fine" she said and smiled a little. He smiled back and got up, and walked out from the room. She looked at him and wondered why he was so nice to her.

A few days later it was finally time for the tour and everyone was packed and ready. Max had packed as much as she thought she would need and her camera, and her laptop. She was not leaving without it. And when she got onto the bus she was directed to go and get one of the free bunks.
"I would recommend you to take the one on the top, to the right, in the back" Flyzik said. Max nodded and put some of her stuff in it and looked at the thin blanket and single pillow that was there. She would have to buy new ones when she had the chance.
"Something wrong?" Jack asked when he saw her frowning face.
"I might have to buy a new blanket and a pillow, I will not be able to sleep on this" she said and got down. He chuckled an agreed. The "starter kits" in the bunks happened to be bad, but it worked.
"ALL HANDS ON DECK, WE’RE LEAVING PORT" the bus driver called and laughed. The bus started to move and some of them sat down in the front lounge and talked, and some of them moved to the back to play some video games. Max took out her laptop and sat down to edit a few pictures she hadn’t been able to edit yet.

Hours later the bus driver finally stopped and said he was going to have a nap time, so they could all go and do whatever they wanted to for about two hours. Max put on her pink jumper, took her sunglasses since the sun was still pretty strong and then she walked out from the bus. They were pretty much in the middle of nowhere and she hesitated for a moment. But she decided to go for a walk, and after a few minutes she found a small path leading into a forest.
"Don’t go too far" Alex called. She rolled her eyes and continued down the path and it was nothing special. Then the path started to go upwards and she wondered where it was taking her. After walking for almost 20 minutes she finally reached a place that took her breath away. She stopped and just stared. The trees was forming a perfect circle and inside the circle tons of red roses grew. Wild roses. Big, wild roses.
"Beautiful" she sad and crouched before them. then she remembered she didn’t have her camera with her and she turned around and ran down the path, out on the small road and ran for the bus. Everyone looked up when she ran inside the bus, breathing heavy and headed for her bunker. She picked out her Nikon D3200, took the memory card from the computer and hurried outside again.
"Where are you going?" Alex yelled, and looked out from the bus.
"Come see for yourself" she called back and the last thing he saw before she disappeared inside the forest was her smile.

Alex, Jack and Rian all came after her. Not running, but still fast enough to see where she was heading. When the circle opened up before them they just stared. Amazed and mesmerized by the beauty.
"You found this place?" Alex asked.
"Isn’t it beautiful?" she said and snapped pictures of it. They all nodded and crouched before al the roses.
"I’ve never seen roses this big before" Rian said.
"Me neither" Jack said. Max took pictures of the roses, of the forest and she took some pictures of the boys with amazed smiles on their faces.
"How could you just find this?" Alex asked.
"That is the thing about me, I love just taking walks and see the nature" she said and smiled. He nodded and looked at her instead of the roses. Never had he seen her smile so wide before. Seen her so happy. This was exactly the thing she liked to do. Photography in the nature.
"Beautiful" Jack said and Alex agreed. But he wasn’t talking about the roses. He was talking about her.