The Labyrinth of living

Conversation and discovery

"Why would it be dangerous, Jonesy?!" Vyne demands. They seem horrified, their eyes unable to stay still. The air is tense.
"Isn't their an epidemic outside? Isn't is more dangerous out there?" Jo's eyes were filling with tears, his voice strangled.
"WHAT EPIDEMIC, JONESY?! WE'RE STRANDED IN A CRUMBLING CITY. THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT IT IS MORE DANGEROUS OUTSIDE!" Their anger fills the room, Jamie is covering his ears, Faye is staring, bewildered, at Vyne. I turn my head back to Jo, he is shaking quite violently, white as a sheet. A tear rolls down his cheek as he gawks at Vyne, scared, intimidated. He snaps back into reality. He's mumbling now, panic flooding his voice. I manage to catch what he is saying. He is repeating the words, 'he lied to me' over and over. He stays there, in a trance, for a minute or so before standing up and shouting into nowhere, "THAT BASTARD LIED TO ME! He...," Jo burst into tears, sitting on the floor, knees pulled up to his chest, "He said he loved me...he said it was safer here...wh- why?-," and soon his stuttering became inaudible. I gesture for the others to leave, and they do, before crouching down beside Max.
"Max...who, who lied to you..?" I ask, careful not to deepen any opened wounds. He struggles to project his words now, "Father... He..he said he loved me..."
"What? Who? Jo..what's going on?" He won't calm down, he's panicking. I sit down so that I'm at his his level.
"It's ok, we'll deal with this later, try to calm down," I say, wiping away tears from his cheek.
"Yeah..." He responds through sniffs, before closing his eyes and unclenching his jaw.
One final tear rolls down his face before he opens up his forest resembling eyes. I give Jo a moment before proceeding,
"Can you tell me what happened?"
He sighs again and answers,
"My mothers, when I was 5 or 6, they had to let me go. They couldn't afford to look after me." A pause. "So they put me up for adoption. Standard thing to do. And I was adopted. He was so nice to me all the time. He would say things like 'Remember that I love you like my own son' and I thought everything was perfect," he sighs, holding in tears. I struggle to find the right words.