Lost in a Graveyard

"Max..? Zoe? Where are you..?" the blond child was about to burst into tears, he's been all by himself for what, twenty minutes? Though it feels more like hours to him. Well…you can't exactly blame Rex for being scared; after all…he's only nine years old. And being in a really large area all alone…yeah that's pretty frightening don't you think?

If you guessed Max had something to do with this…then you're right. But first, we have to go back in time and get a better picture of what's happening…

It was a bright and sunny morning when Max groggily sat up from his bed. He was tempted to lie back down and sleep again, but something was nagging him to stay awake. The brown haired boy looked around for anything to remind him of something important, until he saw his calendar. It was hanging there because his mom gave it to him so that he won't keep on forgetting everything, and with the new kid around…he has to make it look like at least he knows what he's doing. Max checked today's date, which was November 8, and to his dismay there was something scrawled there as well.

'Grandpa's Death Anniversary'

That immediately changed his mind about going somewhere for the day. How could he have overlooked it? Grandpa was somebody Max loved a lot before he passed away…after he died two years ago, he and his parents decided to visit him every year on this day, and last year's was really enjoyable. The boy sighed at the fun memories…

Max quickly found a new batch of clothes and went straight to the bathroom. After the shower, he felt even more energetic than before; the only thing he's missing now's his meal. He was about to run downstairs when he realized that the other kid hadn't woken up yet. What was his name again..? Rey?

Max chose to try to wake him up and see what happens. The other kid just moved to their home a few days ago, and he doesn't really talk with him much. It was more of like Rey was just too shy to say anything.

"Hey…um…Rey? Are you awake?" he called in front of his door while giving small knocks. There was no response, so Max tried to turn the knob. It wasn't locked, so he was able to step inside the boy's room.

The whole place was quite different from his. It was still new so most of the furniture seemed clean and no wear at all. There was a desk further inside, with the bed at the left and a blue carpet on the floor. The walls were painted sky blue, which he thought was Rey's favorite color.

To a slight surprise he found his new housemate sleeping peacefully on his own bed. Max made a devious smirk to himself…

"WAKE UP!" he screamed at the kid's ear. At that moment, it was almost like he jumped in shock and fear from Max's shout. Now fully alert and sitting on his bed, he turned to see his supposed 'friend' standing right beside him, with that same smile on his face.

"Wh-what did you do that for..?" he asked weakly, staring at Max with his azure eyes. His head was still pounding from the other boy's shriek and the sudden jolt. As soon as Max realized he hurt him he quickly made an apology.

"Sorry. I thought waking you up will be funny." he replied.

"I-it's okay…" Max didn't want him to play shy anymore, so he decided to tell him what he just found out a few moments ago. "We're going out somewhere special today!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! We're going to visit Grandpa!" Max squealed in excitement at the idea. "So you better hurry up and get dressed Rey!"

"Huh? Who's Rey?"

"Um…you?" Max said sheepishly.

"My name's Rex, not Rey!" he shouted back, slightly annoyed and embarrassed.

"Oh. Sorry 'bout that Rex." The blond just sighed loudly. "I'll get ready, but can you please get out of my room first?" he responded.

"Fine…" Max pouted. The brown haired boy walked out of the room and shut the door. Rex sighed again; his other home is way better than this place…

-o-

"Took 'ya long enough." Max called out to Rex as soon as he stepped downstairs. The blond saw that everyone was up and awake already, even Zoe was downstairs with them, dressed and ready to go. Rex decided to wear the new clothes Mrs. Taylor bought for him which includes a light and dark blue sweatshirt, a white undershirt and ecru pants. Around his neck was a claw-shaped fossil; it was the only reminder he had of his real parents…or whoever gave it to him before he met Da—Dr. Owen.

Max wore the same clothes he saw when he first got here, a red short-sleeve jacket with a yellow hood and orange shorts. He had spiked-up brown hair and purple eyes, and this time he had a visor with two horns around his forehead. It kind of resembled a Triceratops…"Maybe it's his favorite dinosaur." Rex thought. Living with an archaeologist for nearly his whole life, it shouldn't be strange that he knows quite a lot about history, and since his foster father loved the large reptiles, Rex started to take a big interest in them as well.

Beside Max were his two parents, Spike and Aki Taylor, with Zoe not far from them. The girl had pink colored hair which was tied to pig tails. Her clothes were a black shirt under a yellow and red vest with matching shorts. Zoe's purple eyes seem to dart around the room, like she's really bored just standing there...or maybe she's avoiding eye contact?

"Mom..! Can we eat breakfast now?" Max whined. Aki simply nodded, which caused Max to rush into the kitchen and be the first to sit on the chair. With plate and everything.

"Is he always this hungry?" Rex asked. He still couldn't grasp the fact on how big Max's appetite was.

"Yeah...you'll get used to it." Zoe replied as she walked closer to him. "He'll eat all our food too if he's given the chance."

Rex sweat dropped, then all of them sat on their chairs and began their meal. After they were done eating, they stayed in the house for a couple of minutes to prepare and check if they had everything then they went inside their car and headed out.

-o-

"So where exactly are we going Mrs. Taylor?" the blond asked. Max, Rex, and Zoe were sitting at the back while Spike and Aki were sitting at the front, with Spike driving. "We're going to a cemetery to visit grandpa." Max answered. "I told you that awhile ago remember?"

"You never said going to a cemetery Max." he answered back. The brown haired boy merely pouted.

"Max...you don't need to act like that around the new kid." Zoe whispered to him. She was at the middle of the two boys so she made sure that her voice was really quiet but enough for her childhood friend to hear.

The boy simply stayed silent, while Rex was staring out from the window, wondering when they'll finally get there...

...And as these stories normally go, they soon arrived there in an hour or so. (Why I skipped it, the usual 'laziness' reason applies alright?...don't mind me, just continue.)

"We're here everyone!" Spike parked the car right beside the sidewalk. They finally arrived at the huge cemetery, and not like all other graveyards, the place had a calming feeling...like when you step out and smell the fresh air...or something of the sort. The whole area was basically like one large plain, with grass everywhere and a few trees. There was even a mini river that circled around an island, which even though looked quite dirty, was filled with lots of fish. Most of them known as Tilapia...at least that's what Spike said. Aki told Rex that they'll go fishing there later.

Max and Zoe decided to show Rex where grandpa was buried, though the boy was a bit reluctant to do so.

"Come on Rex..!" the two were pulling Rex by his arm while the other tried to stand his ground and wanted to go the other way. "Stop pulling my arm..!" he shouted back at them as he continued to wriggle his arm so he'll be free.

"Now kids..." Aki started as she carried some sort of pot while wearing those kinds of mittens you use in the kitchen to hold things too hot to handle. By the way, hers were red and yellow. Now you can see where Max gets his favorite colors from.

"You shouldn't do that to Rex, if he wants to explore then let him. After all isn't that what you did the first time you came here Maximus?"

"Don't call me that!" he yelled back as he let go of the boy, making him nearly fall on the ground. "My name's Max! MAX!" Zoe tried her best to cool him down, at the same time Rex sighed in relief. "A few more seconds and my arm would have been torn off..!" he thought.

"Explore later and let's have lunch first! I'm starving!" Spike called from the car. All of them decided to help him out unload all their stuff before doing anything else.

At last, after making several trips back and forth, the five of them were able to unpack one foldable table, five chairs, three mats for picnics, a bunch of food and snacks enough for all of 'em, and a lot of others things they wanted to bring.

"You brought a book?" Max said in slight disgust. He was walking beside Rex as he carried a book between his arm. Even though the brown haired boy loved dinosaurs as well, books were just something he would prefer not to ever pick up, especially Math related ones.

"So? It's not like you hate dinosaurs." he replied. Max couldn't think of a comeback so the two were quiet until they were in front of the grave of Max's grandpa. They began to set up their stuff from there, and soon, they were ready to eat lunch. Or at least, Spike was.

"Dad...can we eat later?" the brown haired boy asked. That single question pretty much shocked everybody.

"Do you have a fever Max?" Zoe was about to touch his forehead when he swatted it away. "No I don't! No need to push it!" he answered irritatingly. Rex made a small chuckle along with Max's parents, while Zoe, yet slightly surprised, had a smile on her face.

"H-hey! Stop laughing!" he blushed a bit from embarrassment. "I'm being serious..!"

"Of course we know that Max." Aki hugged her son tightly. "Zoe was just teasing you that's all." the boy simply pouted.

Rex knew Max's intention, thus he chose to ask it for him. "Are we allowed to venture around then?"

The two adults were silent for a while, until Aki spoke up. "Sure, why not." she flashed a big smile on the three.

"Well...I guess we can wait, but don't leave us starving okay?" Spike grinned. Max and Rex both beamed, while Zoe had an annoyed expression. "I have to go too don't I?"

"If you want." Rex responded. The girl was still for awhile until she nodded. "Someone has to watch you two right?" she said like she was the boss, which made Max laugh. The result was that the three started walking away from the grave, with Max having a large bump on his head.

"You don't have to hit me so hard..." he whined. Zoe just turned her head and scoffed. "Yeah...you didn't need to be that harsh on him Zoe." Rex said a bit defensively. The girl quickly made an intimidating glare at the blond, and that sent a chill across his spine...not good.

They went down the small hill and crossed the road to show Rex the area they were going to fish later. "It's one of the fishing spots actually. We can always head to a different place, but this one's the closest." Max added. There was a stump nearby them, or so Rex thought. When he got a closer look, he found out it was a trash can. The boy flinched away in shock as the two other kids laughed.

Max stepped on the stones as they made their way to the stairs. As they were about to go down to the floating...thingy... (Okay I can't pass off 'thingy' to be a word so I'll describe it then. There's some kind of metal...cardboard thing that people step on, though it's mostly made of wood. It's durable enough for about...I guess ten people to stand on at a time. Under it is like some kind of material that keeps it afloat on the water, and there are some cables attached to it so it won't drift away. There are of course wooden, brown fences around the square thing so people won't fall in the river. Alright, I've stalled you long enough, back to the story!)

...all of them heard a noise. It was soft at first, but then it got louder when all of them were standing at the huge step before the stairway.

"It sounds like...a cat?" Zoe thought aloud.

"Yeah...but where is it coming from?" Max mused. The other two had the same thought, but there doesn't seem to be anything that looks like a cat around here...

Suddenly, Rex had an idea and crouched down; until his line of view was under the board they were stepping on a few moments ago. "Hey guys! Look at this!" he called to his friends. Max and Zoe also crouched down to see what he was looking at, and then, Zoe squealed. "Aww...a kitten!"

The little cat looked like it was only a few months old...or something like that. It had orange and white fur, with adorable blue eyes. But soon they found out that one of his eyes were white-ish, which meant that it was probably blind on that side. The poor kitten looked like it hasn't eaten in days!

All of them felt pity for the kitten, but there was a small problem. The cat was way out of arm's reach, plus it was sitting on a wooden beam. They couldn't just crawl in there either, because there was a large space underneath. It would be hard for anyone to get out again without tearing out the wood above them.

"What do we do now..?" Zoe's voice was filled with sorrow for it. "We just can't leave it..!"

"Um...dunno. You think we should ask Dr. Taylor?" Max shook his head. "No way..! This'll be our secret!"

"Well if he was able to get himself there then he can find his way out. The only thing we need to do now is to convince him to move."

"He can wait right? All of a sudden I feel really hungry..." Max said with a frown. That gave Rex an idea.

"That's it Max! We'll lure him with food!" Zoe agreed wholeheartedly, while Max didn't reply because he had the sudden urge to eat something.

-o-

They decided to go back to Max's parents for lunch, but they promised the kitty that they'll return with snacks. The little cat purred, as if it liked the thought, then the group of three left the fishing spot.

"We're back." they said in unison as they approached the two adults.

"So soon? Did Max get hungry already?" Spike said followed by a chuckle. Max wanted to counter him, but he was too hungry to say anything, so he let it slide.

They started to eat their lunch that consisted of a large, juicy steak, vegetables, burgers, chicken, and other kinds of food. They also had a bottle of soda and water for drinking and to water the flowers for Max's grandpa. Over all, they all enjoyed their lunch, especially Max and Spike, who really enjoyed their steak.

"That was delicious..!" the two said together after the finished eating their meal. The others ate a little slower before finishing theirs as well. Everyone helped in cleaning the table and soon Aki and Spike told the three to stay there while they would visit the temple not far from there. Now it was just Max, Zoe and Rex there, relaxing...

"Max..." Zoe was poking the boy as he was lying down on the mat. Rex was reading his book while leaning on the tree, slightly far away from the group. "Max...the kitten!" she whispered louder. All of a sudden Max sat up, which resulted in Max hitting the girl, and both of them recoiled back with lumps on their heads. "Oww! That hurt..!" the boy winced as he touched the bump on his head. "What did you do that for Zoe?"

"You're the one who sat up without telling me!" she retorted. Before long they were arguing about random nonsense, which didn't really sound like nonsense when told in an angry voice. The blond sighed and closed his book, went closer to them and pushed them apart.

"Would you guys be quiet? I'm trying to read a book and you're arguing is annoying me!" then everything grew silent, including Max and Zoe. Out of the blue, the two kids roared with laughter. "Wh-what's so funny?"

"You...you sound like some old guy..!" Max was rolling on the ground already. Rex flushed with embarrassment. "I-i..!" but Max and Zoe continued to laugh.

Finally, with little tears in his eyes, Rex ran away from the grave, and both of them didn't even notice him leaving.

-o-

"Meow..." the little cat purred as he approached Max and Zoe. The girl wiped her eyes and squealed, again. "It's the kitty..!" she crawled to it and picked the kitten up while stroking its fur. It purred once more in delight, and at that moment, Max made a horrified expression.

"Zoe...where's Rex?" the girl put the cat down and scanned the area.

"Um…I dunno. He was just here right?"

"...oh man, he ran away!"