oblivious of her until she grabbed his arm. He looked up, ..... fingernail, seemingly oblivious to anything but mulling
Winter Phoenix
Copyright © Janne Varvára Seem 2017 The Tribal series is an unofficial, non-commercial work of fan fiction. Copyright and other intellectual property rights for The Tribe belong to the Cloud 9 Screen Entertainment Group. This work is distributed with their permission. Permission is granted to download, copy and print for personal use. Not for commercial use or sale.
Winter Phoenix A TRIBAL NOVEL
J.V. SEEM
For Heidi , 260 episodes later.
PROLOGUE It was almost midnight when Tag realized that the little icon on his screen was blinking. Oh no. That sinking feeling he always got in the pit of his stomach was there again. He hadn't been paying attention, hadn't been checking the computer as often as perhaps he should have. He stole a glance over at Trace, who was seated at another work station. His expression was neutral. Now he, Tag, had to ruin it again. "We've got another one." Tag watched as Trace's features clouded over. "Which one?" Tag braced himself, and clicked on the icon, opening 1
the auto-generated message. Deletion Order. A name, a photograph, physical description, time of arrest. He remembered this one. He always hated it when he remembered. "Tai-San. From the city. Hasn't been here very long." "Fine, let's get it over with." Trace pushed himself up from his desk. He didn't look at Tag. They went outside without speaking, like they always did. The tall fences reared up in the darkness, and their flashlights illuminated huddles in the grass of frightened, dirty people, clinging together for warmth or what little comfort they could find. They found her eventually, sitting cross-legged with her back to a wall, wearing the same Techno uniform she had arrived in, identical to Tag's own. Absurdly, the girl seemed to be meditating. Tag had seen a lot of strange behavior in the prison camp, especially in people who had been there a while, but this was a new one. As they approached across the dry grass, she flung her eyes wide, then regarded them suspiciously. She had only just arrived, but there were a lot of orders coming in these days, so Tag couldn't really blame her. She might have realized that others were disappearing. "Come with us," Trace said. His voice was strained. She got to her feet, but shied away from them. "Why?" she asked sharply, her expression distrustful. But Trace had already grabbed her upper arm. Tag hurried to do the same. 2
She struggled. "Let go of me!" They marched her away from the others, towards the barracks they usually used for this purpose. It was easy to secretly transport them out of there, once... Tag gritted his teeth. Just at the door, the girl wrenched free of him. He realized too late that his grip had grown lax, his mind on other things. Trace's grip was tighter, however, but once she was free of Tag, she gave Trace a mighty push, toppling him over onto his back in the grass. Then she ran. Tag didn't follow. Instead, he offered an arm to Trace. He took it, getting to his feet. For the next minute, they stood with their hands in their pockets, watching the girl laboriously climbing the slippery fence around the camp. As her silhouette against the darkness hit the ground on the other side and then disappeared, Tag spoke. "That's it, I guess." "Yep." "No way we could have caught her." "Nope." They avoided each others' eyes and trudged back to their desks. As Trace made coffee in silence, Tag archived another order.
3
CHAPTER 1 Burning lava shot into the air, spraying the dark, starry sky with light. The explosion was so bright that Tai-San was blinded, and yet for some reason, she couldn't look away. Her ears were ringing with the boom; it was like a massive gong had been hit with great force by some giant, as if the gods were preparing to deliver an important announcement. As she watched the silhouette of the naked mountain against the indigo heavens, the smoking goo started hitting the mountainsides, illuminating its surroundings, and sluggishly starting to form rivers, gliding down towards her, where she stood at the base. Her momentary shock at the overwhelming sight and sound gave way to panic. She needed to get away, and 4
fast, but she found her feet rooted to the spot, as if glued to the stone beneath. As she looked up, the streams of hot, sizzling lava was closing in on her with a speed she could barely fathom. Again, she tried to run, wrenching at her legs with her hands, at the same time terrified of falling over, but she was stuck, despite the fact that she couldn't see anything holding her feet in place. Then, the lava was upon her, and she burned. It streamed around her feet; she was a screaming rock in a river of fire. She felt her skin blistering and her hair being singed before the unbearable pain consumed her completely.
3 Tai-San woke up gasping for air in the still summer night, the rumbling of a gong reverberating in her eardrums. She sat up on her futon, trying to tell where the sound was coming from. Was there danger? She turned her head this way and that, but the forest around her was deserted. The rumbling sound continued on for several minutes as she sat there, huddled in her quilt, but then, it started to slowly fade, and eventually, all grew silent. Come to think of it, she couldn't even hear any birds or small animals rustling through the trees or ferny undergrowth. Why was it suddenly so quiet? Had they all taken off in terror?
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Tai-San threw the blanket off her sweating body, though a minute before, she'd clutched it under her chin in fright. She folded it, and put it in her bag. She rolled up her trusty futon, that had cushioned her on many nights sleeping rough lately, and attached it with strings to her bulging luggage. Even though it was barely dawn, she didn't think she could get any more sleep tonight. She felt shaken and shivery, even though sweat was beaded on her brow. If it came from the hot summer night in a wood whose trees sheltered her from the fresh ocean breeze, or from the dream, she couldn't say. Tai-San donned her bag and set off downhill, the curly ferns brushing her bare calves. She was so close to the city now, she could almost feel it. She could have reached it last night, but the apprehension in her stomach had told her to get a good night's sleep first. Not that she had managed that. She yawned. She didn't know what she would find when she got there. She had mostly traveled through woods and wilderness, keeping out of sight, but the few rumors she'd heard about the city in the short stints she spent on the road, trading and sussing out news, were ominous, yet vague, some of them even infused with the supernatural. Mega's Techno empire had fallen, she had surmised that much, but there was talk about some sort of disaster, but the story had been told in several different ways, and neither of them made any sense. She hadn't trekked very long before she could spot the line of the forest ahead of her, and a road snaking by. 6
Her unease gripped her more fiercely. She didn't walk through into the open, but instead peered carefully out at the city stretching out below her from the shelter of the trees. At least from afar, it looked much as she remembered; a cluster of tall buildings at the waterfront, ringed with the squatter houses of the suburbs, all of it nestled amidst green hills, and beyond, the bay, shimmering slightly in the dawn light. She ran quickly and quietly across the cracked and overgrown asphalt of the road, into the grassy meadow beyond. The fresh sea breeze suddenly lifted the damp hair off her sweaty neck. Her hair had been braided while she was with the Technos, but since her escape, she'd taken them out and let her hair go back to its natural sleek black, just in case they were looking for her. Strangely though, throughout her wanderings in the countryside, the handful of times she had ventured out of the protection and solitude of the wilderness, there had never been any evidence that they were actively seeking her, but she wasn't taking any chances. She followed the gently sloping hill dotted with patches of trees as she moved closer to the city, jogging across the open spaces, and catching her breath when shielded by the vegetation. A small suburb lay just south of where she was traveling, she knew that, but an uneasy feeling told her not to follow its paved streets into the city proper. However much others might scoff, she 7
had long ago learned to listen to those feelings. Intuition, perhaps. The first of the buildings were just a stone's throw away, but she couldn't see any nefarious activity going on. Despite what she had feared, she didn't spot any groups of Demon Dogs chasing down a lone victim between the dilapidated houses. As a matter of fact, she didn't spot any people at all. Strange. Soon, the buildings became denser, and Tai-San crossed the main highway ringing the town, and entered the city proper. A guarded fence greeted her. That much she gathered from the quick look she had before she had the sense to dart back into the shadows of what had probably once been an office building. Silent as a cat, she rounded the corner of the concrete structure, wishing that the cut-off kimono she wore wasn't quite so colorful and easy to spot. She peered out from the building's other side, hugging the wall. Sure enough, a fence was blocking her off from the city center. In some places, it was a solid metal fence, seemingly with gates, but further long, before she lost sight of it between two ransacked shops, it seemed to have been damaged. Where the proper fencing stopped, someone seemed to have repaired the hole with a mix of brick, wooden planks and barbed wire. But all of it was several feet taller than she was. Guards were stationed within sight of each other along its perimeter, and others were slowly patrolling. All of them carried makeshift 8
weapons; baseball bats, coshes, a club. Tai-San frowned. She didn't know what tribe these were, but they seemed to favor a uniform of different colored leather, adorned with wires and tubes. A chill went down her spine. Locos? But they had disbanded. Surely, it couldn't be. And, in addition, she sensed something. It wasn't anything definite, but as she let her gaze glide aimlessly over the surrounding buildings, she got a definite feeling of... wrongness? There was something permeating the air, like pollution, darkening her mood to a black gloom. Spiritual pollution perhaps? The city hadn't looked its best since the Virus, but she sensed something that went beyond the grunge and garbage. It was a feeling of irrevocable destruction. Something was wrong here. She retreated, then started walking parallel to the fence, but crouching down and keeping to the back of old businesses. She peered out every now and then, from behind flaking, graffitied and crumbling corners, but the fence continued. It had many different materials and incarnations along the perimeter, but there was no hole anywhere where she could slip through. And everywhere, those guards, swarming like busy ants in a hive, each completely dedicated to their purpose. At length, she grew tired, and crouched down behind a large pile of rubble for a rest. Did the fence encircle the entire city? What was this? But she knew better than to walk up to its protectors and ask. She had simply wanted to visit her home. See the Mall Rats again, and the Mall. 9
She had been gone for so long. Now what? Were the Mall Rats all imprisoned inside? It took all her inner strength to resist the wave of disappointment that was threatening to wash her away with it. She had been counting on seeing her friends today, she realized. After everything she'd been through, she just wanted to be home, just for a while, somewhere she didn't have to play a part perfectly to stay alive, only to become a prisoner in the end anyway, despite her best efforts. But anything could have happened to the Mall Rats since she was away. These were very dangerous times, after all. She had to remind herself that not much was assured in this world, and you had to play it by ear, no matter how little you wished to. She got to her feet with a sigh, and darted off to find a safe place to meditate. She needed to center herself before she could figure out what to do next.
3 Tai-San had closed her eyes to the gently waving grass, breathing deeply the salty ocean air, hearing only the wind in the trees on the outskirts of the forest, but suddenly, her meditation became something else. She felt suddenly agitated, her heart thumping in her chest as she became aware of a rumbling sound drawing closer, fast. Then, a clear, loud, insistent voice broke through her confusion. Go.
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Tai-San wrenched her eyes open with an effort to see a plane passing by very close directly overhead. She might have cried out in surprise, she wasn't sure, the plane was flying so low, too low! Somehow her mind volunteered that it was quite far to the airport from here, too far! The plane was going to crash! Before she knew it, Tai-San was on her feet and running. Then came the deafening crash.
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CHAPTER 2 Tai-San followed the trail that the plane had made through the bush. The tops of trees and palms were sheared right off; others had been felled entirely, roots exposed to the air, as the plane had dropped lower and lower. Then she spotted it on the hillside ahead. It was a propeller plane, and it was in two pieces, wrenched apart in the middle; that was the extent of her observations. The dust was still thick in the air from the impact and the rent earth it had ploughed up, as it skidded to a halt on the sloping hillside. Tai-San approached, dropping her bag, and was about to look around for people when she saw movement in the huge rift that was the opening between 12
the two parts of the airplane. They were at an angle to each other, and she could see someone crawling out of the front half. She ran to help. He was covered in dirt and dust, and seemed oblivious of her until she grabbed his arm. He looked up, and despite the layer of grime, Tai-San felt a jolt of recognition. "KC?!" He looked dazedly into her face for a moment. "TaiSan..?" "Are you hurt?" She thought she could see his face bruising, and as she helped him stand, she spotted several cuts and gashes, but none seemed too deep. He flexed his arms and fingers. "I don't think so," he said, doubtfully. Then he seemed to catch himself. "TaiSan," he said urgently, "the plane's full of Mall Rats!" She steeled herself. "It's okay, I'll get them all out." She led him a ways away over to a large tree that had gotten away from the crash unhurt, and propped KC up against the trunk. He looked much older and more worn than she remembered, but then again, he had just fallen out of the sky. He immediately tried to get to his feet, but he wasn't quite steady. "I can help!" "Sit down, KC." "But -" "Sit." He did as he was told. "You've just been in a plane crash." She hesitated. 13
"But I'll call you if I need you, okay?" She just might. She really had no idea what she'd just been thrust into. She braced herself, and peered into the front half of the plane. She thought she could spot the doorway of the cockpit, but the way was barred by all kinds of debris, strewn luggage and parts of the plane itself that had been wrenched loose. And over everything, a layer of dust, its fellow dust mites dancing in the air. She had to keep a clear head now, but a thought that she could not let occupy her mind was struggling to come to the forefront. Was he in here? Hurt? Worse? Where was he? She pushed the thought down, and instead it lodged somewhere near her heart. She turned her head towards the back part of the plane, and this time, she spotted something amidst the rubble almost immediately: some long, blonde strands of hair. Tai-San scrambled over some scattered metal tubing, mesh, and a few bags, climbing over to the tufts of hair. She heaved a heavy metal case off the girl's head. Tai-San ascertained three things in a moment: She wasn't awake, Tai-San didn't know who she was, but most importantly; she clearly wasn't him. Relief, and then a new wave of fear washed over her. Where was he? She put her hand around the girl's throat, and waited. Nothing. The girl was dead. Tai-San hardened her heart. There was no time for emotions now. She quickly cleared a way out, and got the debris off the dead girl. As she grabbed hold of her, 14
and the girl's head lolled limply sideways, Tai-San realized that the back of her head had fallen in on itself. As Tai-San dragged the girl outside, a wave of nausea swept over her, and she swallowed convulsively. "She's dead," she said matter-of-factly as she laid the girl out a ways away from KC, halfway behind a bush, so nobody would have to be confronted by the sight. "I believe her name's Tish," KC replied darkly as she passed him on her way back to the plane. He was sagging, looking deathly tired. "She's from the island." Island? But there was no time for more information. On her next rummaging through the wreck, she found someone she recognized. The muffled screaming of a child alerted her, and she found Amber slumped over on a baby. Tai-San could only assume that this was Amber's child, whom she hadn't met until now. His mother was out cold and had a bloody wound in her head, but the baby was screaming his head off. Tai-San took Amber's pulse, and sighed in relief. Strong. The toddler seemed to have been lucky; he only had minor scrapes as far as Tai-San could see, but she scooped him up first, and made her treacherous way back outside. She deposited him in KC's lap, and went back for Amber. As Tai-San hauled Amber's limp form over her shoulder, Amber woke up. She moaned and muttered something. Tai-San thought she could discern the word "baby". 15
"He's fine, he's over here." Tai-San put the still limp but now conscious Amber down as gently as she could next to KC, who, surprisingly, had managed to calm the child. He was now pointing his grubby fingers at KC's nose. "Try to keep her awake, I think she might be concussed." The next creature Tai-San pulled from the wreckage was an extremely angry but seemingly unhurt white cat in a dented basket. She entered into the cockpit the next time, wondering who had flown the plane. She cut herself on something while climbing through the rubble to get to the pilot's seat. There, on the floor, half buried, she spotted a Techno uniform. Of course. She felt a thrill of fear. Would he try to do something to her? The Technos might have fallen, but..? As she drew close however, she realized she knew the man. It was commander Jay, and as she put her hand around his throat, she realized he too was dead. She hadn't known him well, just known of him, but he had always struck her as a good guy hanging out with a bad outfit. She sighed. KC frowned as Tai-San dragged the commander's limp form over to be laid out next to the equally immobile girl. Amber was on the ground with her eyes closed, but KC was talking to her, keeping up an even stream of random observations. She merely grunted and groaned 16
in answer. But at least she was alert. Ish. As Tai-San crawled deeper into the plane through the rubble, a voice called out; a voice she instantly recognized. "Who's there? Some help here?" Ebony's braided head popped up behind some scattered metal plates that looked to have been dislodged from the ceiling. "TaiSan?" She sounded confused. "Ebony." "I'm sure you'll be surprised to hear it, but I'm mighty glad to see you." Tai-San inclined her head. "I'm stuck." Tai-San followed her gaze, and indeed, what little she could see of Ebony's brown leg was bruised and bloody and caught underneath another large piece of heavy scrap metal. "Help me lift it, will you?" Tai-San cleared some of the sheet metal out of the way, so she could brace her feet safely on the floor without slipping. They heaved, and Ebony pulled her leg free. "Is it broken?" Ebony shook her head. "No, but that thing cut off my blood flow." Tai-San wordlessly offered her an arm, Ebony took it, and they made their limping, clambering way back outside. The next person Tai-San dragged laboriously out of 17
the wreckage was May. She was alive, but out cold, and Tai-San couldn't manage to wake her. She laid her down where the injured Mall Rats were congregating with KC beneath the tree. She called her name and slapped her face gently, but May simply wouldn't wake. "Watch her." KC nodded. As Tai-San made her way into the front half of the severed plane again, two figures were making their way slowly but steadily towards the exit; Alice and Salene. They were both cut up, bleeding, but looked otherwise unhurt. "Are you okay?" she called out. "Tai-San!" Alice's face broke into a large smile, despite everything. Salene gasped. "Tai-San!" They both scrambled towards her, and the three of them embraced amidst the carnage. Tai-San felt one of Alice's tears strike her cheek. "Come on, let's get you out." They made their way into the dusty air, where they grasped each others' hands. Once Salene and Alice were safely with the others, Tai-San located more old friends. Ellie and Jack were huddled together at the back of the plane. "Tai-San?!" At Jack's astonished voice, Ellie looked up. Tai-San grimaced despite herself. Ellie's face was split open in a long, bleeding gash. 18
"Tai-San!" "Are you... okay?" Ellie understood her hesitation. "This injury isn't new, it just split open again." "I think we're okay." Jack coughed in the hazy air in the plane. "Just a bit beat up. Hadn't quite mustered the strength to get out of here yet." "Do you think you can walk?" Ellie nodded. "Help Ellie," Jack insisted. "I'll bring up the rear." Where at another time, perhaps a less hazardous one, Ellie might not have complied, but she took TaiSan's proffered hand. Jack kept coughing and retching and spitting all the way outside. He seemed to be badly affected by the dusty air, which didn't seem to settle or blow away, even as they came outside; Tai-San couldn't understand it. But at least it provided Tai-San with the knowledge that he was still there, on his feet and alert behind them, until Jack and Ellie were deposited on the ground outside with the others to recuperate. And then she found him. Half buried in the carnage, he was cradling a badly swollen arm, looking at her with a dazed expression, but definitely alive. His clouded gaze fixed on her. "Tai-San..?" He said it uncertainly, as if he had a faint suspicion that he was seeing things. "Lex." His eyes widened, and he seemed to sober up 19
somehow. "Tai-San!" He tried getting up into a sitting position, but gasped and flopped back down. Tai-San scrambled over to him, laying a hand on his chest. "Be careful, you're hurt." "Might have busted a few ribs," he conceded, but the pain did little to dampen his growing excitement. "I thought I would never see you again! I searched and searched..." "Later, Lex," she hushed him. "Are your legs okay?" He nodded. "I think so." "Let's get you out of here. Carefully." She got him to his feet with difficulty; he was trying to move his torso as little as possible and he only had one good arm, but as they got him upright, the hauling of his weight turned into an embrace. He hugged her tightly, broken ribs or not. They stood there for a while in silence. "Come on," she said lowly, adjusting her hold on him to support him out. They staggered out and over to the others. She helped Lex sit down gently in the dead grass, and put a hand on his chest again to make him lie back, but it seemed an effort to him to stay still. "Where did you go, what happened?" "Lex, stay down." He kept firing off questions. "Why did it take you so long to get home, where were you? What did they do to you?" Tai-San turned to KC. "There are more, yes?" 20
"Trudy and Brady," he said. He looked tense, as if expecting more of the worst. The others looked at him nervously. Some of the faces were tear-streaked, others merely in pain. "Would that be everyone?" The Mall Rats looked around at each other, tallying up their numbers. Not everyone had seen the two bodies in the bushes yet. Salene was about to answer in the negative, but KC cut her off. "Yes. I'll come help you." Tai-San eyed him critically as he got stiffly to his feet, but didn't argue. Lex looked like he wanted to come along, but Tai-San shot a strict look his way, and he stayed where he was with a large tuft of grass as his pillow. The rest of the beaten up Mall Rats were perfectly fine with staying put for now. Jack was mopping the blood off Ellie's face with a discarded bit of clothing. "One each?" KC said as they reached the open halves of the aircraft. Tai-San nodded. She started calling Trudy and Brady's names as she slowly and meticulously went through the destroyed cabin, but no one replied. Then she heard her own name called from somewhere behind her. "Tai-San! I found them!" Having made her way over, Tai-San found KC, with Trudy in an almost catatonic state, but very much alive. She was staring straight ahead of her, tears pouring steadily down her face. Tai-San looked her over, hands prodding and poking her limbs; she seemed okay, 21
though a bit beaten up. Nothing broken, she thought. Brady was sitting awkwardly next to her mother. She was crying silently too, her leg sticking out at an impossible angle, but she met Tai-San's eyes as she bent over her. "Brady? Do you remember me?" The child frowned. "Does your leg hurt a lot?" She nodded. "Okay, I'm going to carry you out of here. So I need you to be brave. Then we can make your leg well again. Okay?" "Okay." Brady stretched her arms out trustingly to her, and Tai-San scooped up the child, who was now far more substantial than she remembered. "KC will help your mommy, okay?" Brady nodded, and so, out of the corner of her eye, did KC. Tai-San carried Brady outside. As she turned after putting her down in the care of Salene, KC came towards them in much the same manner; holding Trudy in his arms. He kneeled, putting her down on the ground. "I don't think there's much wrong with her except shock," he shrugged. "But I'm not sure she heard what I was saying." Salene put an arm around Trudy's stiff form. "Well, that's everyone," KC concluded. Tai-San looked around at the survivors. There were faces missing, faces that apparently no one else 22
expected would be here. Where was Cloe? Pride? Tally and Andy? But there was no time for that now. KC leaned in close to Tai-San's ear. "Who's going to tell Amber about Jay? I don't think she's realized." Tai-San looked over at Amber, who was lying in a heap, eyes closed, clutching her head. The two of them must have been close then, Tai-San surmised. She recognized KC's question as a leading one. "I guess I will," she sighed. She crouched down next to Amber, putting a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently. "Amber?" She reluctantly opened her eyes, squinting up into Tai-San's face. "I have some bad news, Amber." She braced herself. "Jay is dead." She needn't have worried. The reaction was simply... nothing. Amber stared at her, wide-eyed, but she merely seemed dazed. Tai-San waited a few moments. Still nothing. She turned to the others. "Some of you might not have seen yet," she said to the Mall Rats at large. "There's also another girl. Tish?" she said uncertainly. "They're over there." She pointed to the bushes, behind which the two corpses were barely discernible. She turned back to Amber at a retching noise. She was throwing up violently on the ground beside her, but whether it was the fault of the concussion or the news, Tai-San couldn't say. 23
"Jay?" Trudy suddenly piped up. The news seemed to have brought her back to reality, albeit a very cruel one. She started sobbing noisily. Tai-San gave them only a few moments to gather themselves. She needed to be ruthless now, and get them all to safety. "We need to make stretchers for the injured," she began decisively. "We can gather branches and use clothes or fabrics from the luggage or anything else we can find to fashion them." "I'll help," said KC. "Me too," volunteered Alice. "Okay. The rest of you take care of each other." She saw that Lex was about to protest and try to get up again. "You stay where you are!" she growled. Tai-San and Alice dragged luggage out of the wreck, piling it in a heap, and then quickly rummaged around, finding blankets, sweaters and jackets from the travelers' meager belongings. KC emerged from the woods laden with sticks, and they worked swiftly, attaching the clothing onto two parallel branches, into something vaguely resembling stretchers. "It'll have to do," Tai-San concluded, looking over the finished result. They started loading up the dead and injured, at least those who couldn't walk, onto the stretchers. As she helped her carry May's limp body, Salene voiced Tai-San's own concerns in a low voice. "What if she doesn't wake up?" Her face was taut and 24
tense. Tai-San didn't answer her directly. "We'll just have to hope," she concluded. She looked up, then, at the dust in the sky. She had thought it was just sand swirling from the crash, but in all the time she had been working, it hadn't dissipated. Quite to the contrary. Black dust had filled the air and obscured the bright summer sky. What is this? It didn't look like rain clouds. The dust simply covered the land, sealing them off from the heavens completely. Why hadn't it blown away on the strong sea breeze, or at least settled? She gazed every which way for the sun, the moon, but couldn't locate either one. It was... abnormal. It had gotten dark, but she knew it should still be daytime. The superstitious voice in her reared its gloomy head. It's an omen. No, it isn't, she answered it decisively, but she wasn't sure she believed it. This was unnatural. Nature was clear and logical. But what was it trying to tell her now? Tai-San shook her head. She didn't understand. "Let's get them home," said Salene as they were all loaded up and ready to go. "The city's fenced off, there's no way in," Tai-San said, and saw Salene's face fall, and then grow confused. "Let's go to the farm," she said in a raised voice to everyone, in a strike of inspiration. "It's not far. Come on." 25
She noticed that Amber had insisted on carrying the head end of the stretcher where commander Jay's dead corpse lay. Tai-San stooped to grab one end of the one with Lex on it. He grimaced as they jostled him, but then went back to his questioning as the other stretchers, carried by the least injured of the Mall Rats, lined up behind them. "How did you find us?" Pause. "No, I mean, how did you know it was us?" "I didn't." "How did you get here? Where have you been?" "It's a long story, Lex. For later." "Have you been okay? Did the Technos treat you terribly?" He tried getting up onto his elbows, winced, and gave up, but his eyes roved over her as if looking for possible injuries. "I'm fine, Lex. Later." As he drew breath to speak again, she cut him off. "I'm not going to tell you again." But she smiled to herself as they found a path and started trudging along it beneath the trees. Their path soon joined another; one that she had walked to the farm many a time. Its pale dust snaked through the hillsides covered with trees, palms and ferns; a garden of green, now dull beneath the dark sky, even blacker than the last time she had looked up. It was ominous. No, it was downright threatening. She couldn't understand what was being communicated to her or what was happening, but whatever it was, it couldn't be anything good. 26
But despite everything, she was glad to be home. As they closed in on the farm, Tai-San prayed that it was indeed still standing, and that it, regardless of everything else, had not changed while they had been away. As they emerged from the trees into the meadow where the small farmstead was located, she couldn't find a single thing wrong with the sight. The small, white farmhouse with its peeling paint even looked inviting across the long grass. She spotted a few leftover logs stacked in the porch. The barn looked worn too, but it was a truly welcome sight. She was sure that inside both structures it would be dry and homey. They passed the vegetable patches, where, remarkably, Tai-San spotted a pumpkin among the overgrown weeds. Behind her, she could hear Alice's exultant laughter of homecoming. Then someone cried out. Tai-San whirled fast enough to see the stretcher with Jay's dead body fall to the ground at the head end, and Trudy lose the other end in surprise. Jay fell like a sack of potatoes with the makeshift stretcher, and landed halfway off it, next to Amber's limp body, which had fallen face forwards in the wildflowers in a dead faint. Trudy screamed. Tai-San exchanged a look with Salene, and they set Lex down on the ground. He was mercifully quiet. Salene ran to Trudy, muttering comforting words. "It's okay, Trudy. Jay doesn't mind," Tai-San said. But 27
it didn't seem to make her feel better. She ran to Amber, hauling her limp form over her shoulder. "We'll pick him up after we get the wounded inside." As they carried Amber and the first stretchers into the farmhouse, Tai-San began to feel real exhaustion seep into her bones. It had been a long day. She dumped her bag to the floor. "Salene? Will you take charge here? There's comfrey and a few other remedies in my bag, but see if you can't find a first aid kit as well." Once the little house's double bed, two single beds and the two small sofas that faced each other over the coffee table were all occupied by patients, Tai-San, KC, Alice and Jack carried the two dead bodies into a tiny outhouse, draping them unceremoniously across the dirt floor. "I suppose they can stay here until the morning," TaiSan said. The living need to rest. "Where will we sleep?" asked KC, reading her mind. "The house is pretty much full." "It'll have to be the barn for the stronger of us," Alice concluded. As they trudged through the darkness of what must now be early evening, Alice asked: "How did you come to our rescue, anyway? Seems an amazing coincidence... Right place at the right time?" Tai-San shook her tired head thoughtfully. "No..." She hesitated. "I was called there." She looked askance at 28
Jack, who had raised his eyebrows. "How do you mean?" KC asked. "I don't really know. Something told me to come there. I can't explain it. A voice in my head." A higher power? The ancestors looking down on us? The bond linking each Mall Rat heart to the others with invisible threads, never to be severed? Jack was wearing his most incredulous expression, but he seemed too tired to fight with her this time, even in the corner of science. "I should have known it would be something like that," Alice grinned. She put a warm arm around Tai-San's shoulders. "Well, whatever brought you here, I'm glad it did." Even Jack nodded.
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CHAPTER 3 Tai-San thrust the shovel into the ground yet again. The other Mall Rats, the ones who were capable, anyway, were doing the same. They had decided it would go a lot faster if they all pitched in. Even Amber, stony-faced, was digging one of the two holes; the grave of what Tai-San realized had been her lover. Not far away in the gloom was Ned's grave, a little mound of overgrown earth with a painted grave marker, a little faded, perhaps. The day was remarkably cold. Tai-San shivered, even as her muscles strained, shoveling earth out of the way onto a quickly growing heap. The sky had still been dark when she had stepped out onto the porch this morning. It 30
was as if dawn had never come. As she cast a glance up at the sky, muddy dark clouds were obscuring any hint of sunlight, let alone any hint of blue. Tai-San's unease was growing by the minute. The rest of the group was quiet too. As they were piling the earth back into the holes, Jay and Tish now lying still and cold beneath the black soil, the first snowflake fell. Tai-San looked up as more white crystalline flakes started to fall, hanging suspended for a moment in the chill air in front of the Mall Rats' tired, grimy and griefstricken faces. Salene looked about her in confusion mixed with wonder, at the large, white flakes. "But it's summer," she told no one in particular, or perhaps nature herself. They stood there for a moment, just taking it in, while KC scraped the last few spadefuls of earth onto their friends' final resting place, slapping the shovel on top, a job well done. Amber winced. The freshly dug soil was quickly being covered with specks of snow. What was this sudden winter magic? At last, Jack cleared his throat. "I was thinking," he began lowly. "This cold might be good in case of disease. If there's still toxicity around the city. I don't really know for sure though," he finished lamely. "It probably won't last long," Alice suggested. "Seeing as it's summer and all." "Yeah. Probably just an anomaly," Jack agreed. But Tai-San's bare legs were getting raw and red with 31
cold. "So many anomalies," she muttered to herself. "What?" Jack's ears had perked up. "Are there more?" She shrugged, but they were all looking at her; Jack, Salene, Alice, Ellie, KC and Ebony; all except Amber, who still stared morosely at the white flecks covering the dark, overturned earth. "Oh, I don't know, there was this huge bang when I arrived here." She hesitated. "Yesterday." It felt like a month ago, and she'd only remembered it in passing, anyway. "Sounded kind of like an explosion, but... different. Somehow." She couldn't really put her finger on it. "It woke me up," she explained. Jack looked intrigued now. Intrigued, and focused. His face had affected a pondering look, and he gnawed a fingernail, seemingly oblivious to anything but mulling over her words. He walked a few paces away; restless, then spun and came back. "This isn't the start of a volcanic winter, is it?" Even Amber looked up, confused. "What's that?" KC asked. "Well, it's when a major volcanic eruption happens, and the ash from it covers the earth, shuts sunlight out, and the climate cools down." He turned to Tai-San. "Could that be what you heard?" "I suppose so." She knew there were volcanoes around on these islands. She wondered which one, and where. "So how long is this going to go on for?" asked 32
Ebony, ever the practical one. Jack shook his head. "I don't know. We could be in for a long haul." Tai-San suddenly had a real sense of déjà vu; Jack on the way to Eagle Mountain long ago, he with his map and her with her inner compass, finding the tracking station and Jack vowing to stay with her to operate it. "It's funny how we solve things together, isn't it, Jack?" Science and spirituality together. Harmony. "We've worked well together in the past." She smiled at him. Jack looked away, bashful, his face coloring. He murmured something indistinguishable. Tai-San smiled to herself. Then her gaze shifted again to the burial mounds. "Let's join hands," she suggested. Alice dropped the shovel she was leaning on immediately, and grabbed Tai-San's right hand. Salene took her left. Jack seemed reluctant, but shrugged and joined in. Only Ebony hadn't moved. "Come on, Ebony," Salene urged. "I suppose it won't hurt," she conceded, and the circle was completed around the two elongated patches of newly disturbed earth. Tai-San closed her eyes, and felt snowflakes catch in her lashes. "May our friends, Jay and Tish, rest peacefully and be absorbed into the earth, to give it new life for another day." But as she opened her eyes, her breath was a mist in 33
the air before her, the snow was falling harder than ever, and ice crystals were forming on the wet clumps of dirt. Yes. Another day.
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CHAPTER 4 Bray was walking south. He'd been walking south for days, but he was still so far away from his goal. There were too many dusty roads, green hills, glistening lakes and deep, dark gorges between him and it. The scenery was beautiful, at times even stunningly so, but it was just in the way now. Thousands of trees that he had to pass before he could arrive. He was a different person now. That day, he had known only that the Techno guards had been acting strangely. Confused, and suddenly unsure of themselves. Once he reached the mainland, he learned that the Techno empire had fallen altogether, but at the time, he'd simply been looking for his chance. Any chance would do. 35
He had been held on an island with other slaves, toiling away every day in the heat, being herded around by a local tribe who had apparently welcomed and cooperated with the invading Technos. Bray had nothing but contempt for them. The Techno presence on the small island was limited; Bray had never been able to find out exactly how many they were, but there seemed to be only a limited number of officers to give the orders and organize their slave handlers. So when the Technos started behaving oddly; running around, whispering to each other in in frantic hisses, Bray had grasped the opportunity. He'd had nothing to lose. The guards had been getting lax; the island was tiny, and it wasn't like he could ever hope to get off it by swimming, so their attitude was less than vigilant as he shoved the closest one aside and made a break for it. As his feet had pounded the hard, baked soil, and he realized no one had grabbed him yet, he had made for the docks; his only way out. He'd seen them from a distance; a few smaller vessels, decked out with Techno logos. An officer in uniform was standing on the pier. He was alone, but if the shouts behind Bray were any indication, he wouldn't be for long. "Hey!" he yelled at Bray's approach, and made an attempt to raise his wrist, which was braceleted with one of their barbaric weapons. The crunching sound his nose made as Bray's fist 36
made contact with it was highly satisfying. The young man fell on his behind, his hands at his broken face. Bray jumped into the first boat he got to, ran for the wheel, and miraculously, got the engine started. He hadn't turned to look back. And the events had almost repeated themselves on the next island. And the next. He took what he needed; another boat, another tank of petrol, to get him that one step closer to the mainland. And now, having reached it, he kept walking south. It was so near now, and yet so far.
3 There was a kid begging on the side of the road. Bray was making his way out of a small, rural town when he spotted him, by a straight line of dry gravel road heading across seemingly endless grassy fields. The boy's once bright clothing was faded, and he held his dirty hands out to the few people who passed by. Bray was sweating in the summer sunshine, and was about to head straight past without meeting the eyes of the boy, but the outstretched hands materialized before him just when he thought he'd passed without incident. "Have you got some food, mister?" "No." This despite the fact that he knew that half a dozen apples, pilfered from an orchard, were clearly outlined against the fabric of his stuffed backpack. "Please, sir?"
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"I said no!" he spat into the boy's face as a girl approached. The newcomer's eyes looked deep into his. "Have some compassion," she said gently, as she handed the boy a bread roll. Her dark eyes bored into him. He didn't need this. And so he simply walked away, knowing his face was wearing a disgusted scowl. Compassion was the last thing he needed. Compassion was not what had gotten him a boat that first day of his travels, and it had certainly not gotten him home, he thought, mentally counting up all the things he'd stolen and taken by force along the way, as he churned up the dust of the road with his boots. And compassion was certainly not going to play a part when he got his hands on that witch. That night, the first snowflake fell.
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CHAPTER 5 The snow was still falling thick and fast the next morning as Tai-San and a few of the other Mall Rats made their way back to the plane wreckage. The enormous flakes were coming down so thickly that you could see but a few yards ahead. Thankfully, Alice was well acquainted with the footpaths leading to and from her farm, or they might have gotten lost. The snow reached over the top of Tai-San's boots now, and lodged icily between its linings and her bare ankles. The others were in equally inadequate summer clothes. If it went on like this, they'd have to do something about it, thought Tai-San. They spent quite some time sifting through the destroyed plane cabin for any bags or belongings or 39
anything else they could use, before they realized it was all gone. It was hard to spot the looting; it's not like it was easy to tell that anything was missing when the whole plane was a disaster zone in the first place. But as the minutes ticked by, it became more and more obvious that the place had been picked clean overnight. "It's all gone," KC said; the first one to realize. Tai-San sighed. "The others will be disappointed," Salene said. "I was hoping we would have something to bring back, especially for May and Amber." "We might need to do some looting ourselves soon," Tai-San said, trying to be practical but at the same time disapproving of the thought. "We can't go on like this. We need warm clothes, food, and blankets." She had spent a sleepless night in the farm's barn, shaking with cold, huddled under a quilt that was much too thin. It was a necessity, but she would prefer it if whoever they had to steal from were no longer around to return to find their possessions gone, like they had. But they might have to go far for that. She sighed again. "I'll organize something later. Amber has too much on her mind right now." Their leader still seemed to be in a state of shock. She was still sick and in pain, and talking little. Worse still was May. She still hadn't woken up as they traipsed back into the tiny farmhouse, where a fire was crackling in the hearth. May was laid out on one of the sofas, and Trudy rose from her side, a bowl in hand, 40
as they entered the old-fashioned, but cozy living room. "I've given her some broth and something to drink," she said, giving a downcast shrug. "I'm not sure how much it's helping." "You're doing great," Salene said. Tai-San bent over May's limp form. She extended her palms above her, feeling her energy field. She quickly retracted her hands. May's aura was icy cold. Tai-San dropped her hands to her sides, hoping no one had noticed the gesture. "If she doesn't wake up soon..." she said, not wanting to finish the sentence. "She might not make it?" asked Ellie, who was seated in a chair by the fire. Tai-San nodded, and several of the Mall Rats fixed their eyes on the floor. Lex was unusually silent. He had been twitchy and annoyed since they brought him back; where he got the energy when he had to be in pain was anyone's guess, but he somehow managed to already be restless in his state of recuperation. But now, he was avoiding everyone's gaze. Tai-San knew there was no love loss between him and May, so perhaps that was why he held his tongue for once. Perhaps the enmity was because they actually had quite a bit in common, Tai-San thought wryly. He'd just love to hear that. Trudy had been very upset yesterday, over commander Jay, Tai-San had deduced, but this evening another Trudy had taken over. There was no other way 41
of putting it; she seemed happy to be home. Tai-San hadn't had a chance to hear much of the story about the island they had briefly inhabited, or its locals, but she had gathered it wasn't a harmonious place. Not that this was either, at the best of times, but as Trudy went into the kitchen, they heard her humming and tinkering about with something, before, a moment later, she stuck her head around the flaking door frame. "Anyone hungry?" she asked, almost cheerfully. "There wasn't a lot, but I found a few cans..." Alice had ventured outside in what was quickly becoming a summer blizzard to pull up the root vegetables and harvest the pumpkins. Dig up, more like. None of it was quite ripe, but it would have to do. After they had eaten their modest evening meal of canned beans and hard vegetables boiled into submission, and the children; Brady with her broken leg in a splint, had been put to bed utterly exhausted, TaiSan applied ointment to Ellie's face, where the long gash was red and raw. There was going to be a scar. The others' various smaller cuts and bruises would have to do without. They would probably heal just fine without it. And besides, her jar was running low. Another thing they would soon be needing; medicines. But the snow was obscuring the window, and the sudden frost had made the herbs in the woods useless, even if they were easy to get at. The forest was suddenly all but impassable. As she worked, the Mall Rats went to bed one by one. 42
She heard the front door open and close several times, letting in the howling of the wind and probably more than a few snow flakes onto the hall floor. It would be another icy night in the barn for her, Alice, Ebony and KC, who had volunteered to stay there, as the children and injured had gotten first priority in the house. It couldn't possibly work for long-term habitation. Her thoughts strayed to the Mall, so filled with memories, but at this moment, it was surrounded by aggressive-looking guards, a tall fence and an expanse of snow. It might as well have been situated on the moon. And anyway, none of the others had broached the subject; it was all too much to consider, too soon. "Try not to get it on your pillow," she said, as Ellie headed off to bed. "This remedy is quite sticky." "Okay, good night." She disappeared into her room, in which Jack had already gone to sleep in the one single bed. It couldn't have been comfortable with two of them in the narrow cot, but they had insisted. There was only Lex and May remaining in the living room now. A candle illuminated their faces in ghostly yellow from the coffee table Tai-San had pushed against a wall, out of the way. It was littered with her herbal remedies; little jars and bottles not containing anything close to what was ideal. The fire had burned low, and Tai-San added another log. She covered May, immobile on the pea-green sofa, with a blanket and a couple of jackets. Most of the other 43
blankets had gone out to the unheated barn. "Can we talk now?" Lex, stretched out on the other couch, his legs dangling off the edge, was insistent. "I suppose it's due, now that everyone's tucked in," she smiled. She sat down on the edge of one of the sofa cushions next to him, and looked into his face on the pillows, waiting. His questions came immediately; he'd been holding them in since yesterday, after all, and he was not a patient man, by any standards. "Where have you been? How have you been? Are you okay?" She chuckled. "One thing at a time." "Where did you disappear to? I searched for you everywhere." He looked suddenly lost. She must have worried him. Yes, she thought. We might as well start there. "I couldn't help it," she started. "I'm sorry. I wouldn't have left like that, without saying goodbye." But I might have moved on, she thought, as she remembered the beautiful, dark-skinned woman at his side at their last meeting. She wondered if that was Java's sister; the resemblance was uncanny, but she decided against asking. It was a part of his life she had no right to. But she hadn't realized quite how lost he'd felt at her sudden disappearing act. She had figured he'd gone on with his life and his loves and allocated her to the past. She didn't think he would have dwelled on her, but from his expression, that wasn't so. 44
"After the battle against Ram..." She hesitated. "I saw that you had moved on -" "I've never moved on!" he cut her off, attempting to get up on his elbows, but wincing, and easing himself back down. She laid a hand on his chest to keep him there. "I saw that you had moved on," she continued in a calm, but firm voice, "but I wouldn't have just left like that, not without a word." She sighed. "I was trying to do what I could from inside the Techno organization." "Spying, you mean?" "Sort of. Finding information, yes, but also trying to limit the damage they were doing. Mega found me out. Or," she amended, "perhaps he knew all along I wasn't genuine." The man had been devilishly clever, but a cold, cold fish. "He's dead, you know." She hadn't, but that explained some things, at least. "I think he considered me too dangerous to keep around, knowing I was trying to gum up the works. I knew some of his plans. I knew he was going to take over. He couldn't have that. So, he removed me to a prison colony." She said it as matter-of-factly as she could, but Lex' face clouded over with anger. "He knew I would be able to warn you," she continued. "So he gave me no time to do it." "So you escaped when the Technos fell?" "No. I actually escaped just a few days after I got there." 45
He looked surprised, but said nothing. "They were taking people away all the time, and so when they came for me, I figured that I probably had nothing to lose." He nodded, pensive, but then looked up in confusion. "But I thought you only came back to the city now?" She nodded. "I did. At first I was simply afraid to show my face anywhere near Mega or any other Technocontrolled areas; I figured I was a wanted woman. And then..." She shrugged. "And then I thought about not coming back at all." Lex suddenly looked outraged. "What, why?!" She shrugged again. "Just because... You have to keep moving on. You had." She looked askance at him, and his face fell. "Not really." "Where is she?" "In the ground." He looked downcast. "I'm sorry." He nodded. "I liked her a lot." Lex glanced up at her. "But I annoyed the hell out of her spending all my time searching for you." "I just thought I'd let the path take me where I needed to go," she continued after a pause. "I wandered the countryside for a while. But in the end, I was drawn here." "Tai-San," he said intently, "you have to promise me." "What?" "I can't get off this blasted sofa to chase you down, so 46
you have to promise me you'll stay. At least for now," he added, reluctantly. She gave him a peck on the cheek, and got up to leave his bedside. "For now. I promise."
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CHAPTER 6 It just wouldn't stop snowing. Bray was no meteorologist, and even though he made a point of not talking to anyone on the road, he knew by his own reasoning alone that this wasn't normal. A random snowfall in summer, sure. That wouldn't have astonished him. But it had been snowing non-stop for over a day now; large icy flakes that made no sign of halting. He passed through a town that day. Most of its destitute citizens had returned to their rat holes, sheltering in a huddle from the cold, no doubt. Way back, when he was roaming the lawless streets in solitude, darting in and out of hiding, he had seen a rat king while seeking refuge in a sewer outlet. Fifteen rats 48
or more, frozen together and petrified on a concrete ledge. That's how he pictured the disgusting people of this town ending up. But he sure wouldn't stay to see it. He traveled without hiding now, in the middle of this god-forsaken city's main street, making a divot in the snow, recording his passage; at least until the sun returned. He thought he had known what this cluster of destroyed buildings was called once, long ago. He couldn't remember now. On a corner, he spotted one of the few people who hadn't gone into hiding in this freak winter. A kid was standing at a booth there, its fabric canopy sagging, heavy with snow, and the boy stomping and rubbing his arms to stay warm. Bray wondered why he was even out here, until he realized what the boy sold. It was the only thing anyone would venture out for; thick winter jackets and furs. "Hello, stranger!" the boy said with forced cheerfulness as Bray approached. Bray didn't answer, just grabbed one of the furs on the table, and kept moving. "Hey! You can't do that!" Bray heard the kid come running through the snow after him, and he turned, grabbing him by the collar. "And who's gonna stop me?" He gave a mighty shove, and the much smaller boy sprawled in the snow on the sidewalk. Bray walked away at an even pace while slipping his 49
arms into his new fur. He didn't bother looking back.
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CHAPTER 7 When Tai-San entered the farm house the next morning, the white cat was warming Lex' feet. When he saw her, he feigned annoyance, saying "get off", and wiggling his toes. Tai-San hid a smile. All for show. That was Lex. Apparently, the cat had been the dead girl's. May's now, she supposed, if she had understood the situation correctly. It went to sit erect on May's chest instead; eyeing Lex with a yellow gaze of pure disgust. Tai-San had shivered all night; she'd certainly have been happy for a furry foot warmer. She looked down at her bare legs; they were red and raw from the cold. Her kimono was much too thin, and her boots inadequate for traipsing through deep drifts of snow. They'd have to do something about that. Today. 51
As she fussed around May, giving her a drink and a herbal remedy, the rest of the farm came to life. The barn-dwellers came in, all blue from the cold, and the residents of the house; that is, the ones fit enough, got up to help with breakfast, so that a cheery bustle of pots and pans soon wafted out of the kitchen. "We need to do something about our clothes," TaiSan declared when most of the scantily clad Mall Rats were seated at the kitchen table. "I'm going out to scavenge for warm clothing and blankets. Anyone care to come?" she said hopefully. The faces surrounding her were doubtful; no doubt reluctant to go out into this weather. Amazingly, it still hadn't stopped snowing. A sudden fear-tinged thought struck her. What if it didn't stop? Her mental image of all of them buried inside the small house was interrupted by Lex calling from the living room. "I'll go!" "You'll stay right there!" she snapped back. "How about you, Ebony?" she said, feigning her casual tone. She looked askance at her, and saw she was satisfactorily taken aback. Surely, she thought herself one of the last people Tai-San would want with her. "Why me?" She looked around the table, hoping for a different volunteer. None came. "Oh, I don't know... There might be something I want to sound you out about." 52
Ebony hid her confusion, but looked at her with narrowed eyes instead. "Fine. I don't care." "Good." Tai-San smiled to herself. "I'll go too, I guess," KC volunteered, but with some reluctance. "Great! The three of us, then."
3 They had bundled themselves up as best they could with clothes borrowed from the ones staying behind, and makeshift cloaks fashioned from blankets. But even though the formerly exposed parts of her skin were now covered, Tai-San still felt icy cold as they walked single file through the wintry forest towards the city. When they neared the fence, Tai-San crouched down behind a burned-out car covered with a generous dusting of snow. The insurmountable fence was partly hidden by mountains of snowflakes, but there it was, and the same leather-clad guards were patrolling. But even their dilligent attitudes seemed to have been dampened by the weather. They looked as cold as she felt. Her eyes traveled to her left, and she realized they weren't the only ones out here this morning. A tiny crowd had gathered around a boy who was standing on a wooden box, apparently doing some sort of speech, but the snow muffled his words. They crept closer. Tai-San noticed that Ebony now had an expression of
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pensiveness and dawning comprehension on her face. So. She was drawing the same conclusions that Tai-San had. She didn't like that. She admitted it; she was worried. As they sneaked closer to the group, her worry solidified. "What have we done?" the street prophet on the box yelled over the heads of shivering onlookers. "This is surely an omen! Towards this holy place, where He eliminated every single one of His enemies once and for all, His rage is still channeled! This unnatural winter, this ice and snow in the midst of high summer is a message! We, who are not worthy to look upon His face have displeased this irate and vengeful god! We must find the answer!" He paused a moment, for breath. Tai-San noticed he was wearing an old-fashioned pilot's hat. "First, it was the adults. Then, it was the children, turning wrinkly and gray overnight! Then it was the Technos, themselves slaves of a different kind! And then it was the Purge." Tai-San wondered about that last one. Did he mean the toxic explosion the Mall Rats' had escaped? "We must clean ourselves of His rage, and keep his city pure, or another plague will be coming!" Tai-San looked sharply at Ebony, where they huddled in the snow drifts. Her eyes were glassy as she stared at the small gathering. "Locos," she muttered. "That's what I thought," concluded Tai-San. 54
KC's face too was strained; he too must be remembering the bad old days like a film roll of fear and violence running through his head. He looked sharply at Ebony, hissing. "You're not tempted, are you, Ebony?" She made a show of confusion, and a terrible sense of foreboding filled Tai-San's heart, when she saw that it was also mixed with angry defiance. "Aren't you missing being queen of the Locos?" he continued relentlessly. "Torturing little children, humiliating them for sport? I just bet you miss being top bitch, Ebony." "Let's keep going. This conversation is boring me," she answered dismissively, and moved off. Tai-San exchanged a look with KC, and they both followed after her, heads down, hiding. It was already like the good old days in that respect, she thought wryly. As they passed behind a snow-covered trash heap close to the fence, Tai-San caught some words of the conversation between two guards loitering on the other side. "I was hoping we'd abandon the fence soon," one of them said despondently. "What's the use? We'll sooner die of cold than stop someone trying to get in, at this rate." The other sounded offended. "Didn't you hear the preacher? We need to atone, to Zoot! He's not pleased with us. We've got to do something! Like..." He thought about it. "Recruit more people, or... Take back the city for him, or make sacrifices at his shrine!" 55
"Yeah, yeah." The other one wasn't really listening. They skirted around the city and the fence, keeping behind the old, dilapidated buildings, and then, as they reached the city limits, heading for the suburbs, they followed a line of trees on a hillside. The trip took many times longer than it would have if the ground was bare, and when Tai-San remembered that they also had to go back, she almost despaired. The snow fought them with every step, and as they entered the first abandoned house in a suburban residential area, the first thing they did was sit down for a rest in the living room. A few minutes later, however, as KC started rummaging around the house and opening cupboards and closets, they soon realized the house had already been looted. Perhaps many times over. The looters had left nothing, absolutely nothing useful behind. They tried another house, and another. At the end of the street, however, they struck it lucky. On a high shelf in a dark, cobwebbed closet in a back bedroom, Tai-San found several woolen blankets and down jackets, scarves, mittens and socks, neatly put away in storage before the owners had died, and their children moved on. She breathed a sigh of relief. They went to a couple more houses, stuffing bags and backpacks with everything they could jam into them. Then came the even more exhausting trek back, their feet sinking deep into the snow with every step, their baggage pulling them down relentlessly. 56
CHAPTER 8 The next morning, when it finally stopped snowing, May started stirring. She was moving about, making noises, and Tai-San took this as a good sign. By noontime, she had opened her eyes confusedly. She looked up at TaiSan, who had been hovering over her for the last few hours, and over at Lex in the opposite couch, at the white cat cleaning itself on her stomach, and finally her eyes roved the unfamiliar room. "May?" "Tai-San..?" Her voice was raspy. "How are you feeling?" She grimaced. "Terrible." "No wonder. You've been out for a while." Tai-San could feel people gathering quietly behind 57
her, no doubt arriving as they realized that May was once more residing firmly in the land of the living. "I'm so hungry," she complained. "No wonder!" "I'll make you something," said Trudy. "I'm so glad you're back with us!" Tai-San heard her retreating into the kitchen. "Do you remember what happened?" Tai-San probed. May's eyes widened. "Yes. Is everyone okay?" Her eyes jumped from person to person standing around her. "Mostly." "What do you mean, 'mostly'?" Her voice was sharp now. "Where's Tish?" Tai-San steeled herself. Best to rip the band-aid off quickly. "I've got some bad news," she said. "Tish is dead. So is commander Jay." May's face turned to stone before her eyes. She said nothing, didn't cry, just stared blankly into nothing. Tai-San patted her gently on the shoulder and gestured to the gathered Mall Rats. "Let's give her some space."
3 As the day wore on inside the farm house, everyone taking turns putting logs on the fire to stave off the sudden winter that made blossoms of frost on the windowpanes, May started sobbing. So, thought Tai-San. It's sinking in.
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She went to sit at May's bedside while the other girl let out her grief. "Was she your girlfriend?" she asked at a lull in the weeping. May turned her head on the pillows to look at her, and finding no ridicule or prejudice in her face, nodded silently. Tai-San squeezed her hand. "It's all my fault," May muttered. "What is?" "That she's dead." Her voice was rising. "I practically killed her!" Tai-San frowned. "Why do you say that?" "I made her come with me. She didn't want to because she couldn't find her little brother, but I pressured her to leave without him, because I was selfish." She spat the word. "And now she's dead." Tai-San frowned. "As I understand it, Tish would have been killed for certain if she had stayed where she was," she said reasonably. "It's not your fault. You were trying to get your girlfriend to safety, weren't you?" "I don't know." May was staring at the ceiling, her makeup smudged on her cheeks. "I've had Pride's death on my conscience, and now Tish's. Perhaps I'm some sort of jinx. I kill the people I care about." "That's not true!" May didn't answer, just kept staring at a spot somewhere above Tai-San's head. "Look, this isn't your fault. Fate catches up with all of us in the end. If you keep going like this, the guilt will 59
consume you. You never could have foreseen that this would happen," she said firmly. May's eyes abruptly snapped back to her. "But you would have, right?" She sounded angry now. "What?" "You'd no doubt have seen it in your crystal ball, right? And you'd have saved the day, I'm sure! Well, we're not all blessed with your special talents, Tai-San!" She spat the words at her. That was a tad unfair, Tai-San thought, but arguing was pointless. May needed to vent her anger at the world, and unfortunately, Tai-San was the one who had stepped into her line of fire. She sighed. "We think her things have been taken by looters," she said lowly, and as May's eyes again filled with tears, she quickly plowed on. "But her cat made it," she said, hoping it might take the edge off, gesturing at the white fluff that had now arranged itself into a kitty loaf and half closed its eyes. May's tears spilled over. "What do I care about the cat?!" she yelled. "I hate cats!" But she made no move to push it off her. The cat opened its eyes and stared at her icily, seemingly deeply affronted at her raised voice. The pep talk didn't seem to be going so well, so TaiSan got to her feet. "Well... If you ever feel like contacting her, or holding a funeral ceremony for her, that could be good for -" "Oh, fuck off!" May screamed, and the cat started, 60
and dug its claws into her blanket, but didn't move away.
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CHAPTER 9 "What if these new Locos are inside the city as well?" The Mall Rats were gathered in the small farm house living room, where May and Lex still occupied the couches, and the others were scattered in chairs and on the floor. "I rather got the impression that they were trying to keep people out," said Tai-San. "But I don't think we can be sure." She frowned. "Or how many of the other tribes have gotten in," Lex piped up from deep in the cushions. "There's bound to be a hole in that fence somewhere." Tai-San gnawed her lip. She wasn't so sure. She had seen this fence, followed it for miles, but there seemed to be no part of it that wasn't either too tall, solid, or heavily 62
guarded. Sure, she could have scaled the more improvised sections quite easily, but she'd be lynched by angry Locos the moment she tried. She remembered the bad old times, and had no desire to visit them again. "We've got to risk it, though," said Alice. "There are too many of us to stay here comfortably, and we might not wake up at all if we sleep in the barn much longer." Salene had a couple of coats in her lap; she was sewing, altering them for her fellow Mall Rats to wear. What they'd brought back from their raid didn't include everyone's size. She looked up from her work. "I dunno about you," she said, "but I want to see the Mall again. It's home, after all." Some of the others nodded their assent. "So, who goes?" asked KC. "Anyone who's able would be good," Tai-San said, but Ebony interjected. "Not too many, though. We don't want to draw attention to ourselves." Tai-San nodded thoughtfully. "True. Especially since we've still got no idea how to get in." She found she wasn't used to leading these tribe meetings, but Amber sat dejected and quiet in a corner, so Tai-San was trying to lessen her load. "We might have to create a diversion." But she grimaced as she said it. It was dangerous, and not at all like the stealth mission she'd imagined. "And someone has to stay here with the injured," said Salene. "I don't mind," she volunteered, and Trudy did 63
too. The living room fell silent for a moment. The curtains were closely drawn over the drafts of the old windows, and there was a blazing fire in the hearth, but Tai-San could still feel the cold seeping into her bones where she perched on the arm of the sofa at Lex' feet. The other Mall Rats too looked frozen, as well as downcast. Then, KC suddenly grinned from where he sat, crosslegged on the carpet. "You guys, don't worry, I've got an idea."
3 KC was carrying a sledgehammer in each hand. Their heads brushed the mounds of snow on either side of the path, making lines on the rapidly growing heaps of white as the Mall Rats waded slowly towards the city. It was snowing again, and large flakes were getting caught in Tai-San's eyelashes, but at least they were bundled up against the crisp frost this time. In the end, it was her, KC, Alice, Jack and Ebony who went. Apparently, KC's master plan needed some muscle, but they wanted to stay under the radar as well. As they entered the outskirts of town, they crouched down, keeping themselves well hidden, but perhaps they needn't have bothered. It was snowing so thickly now that Tai-San couldn't see very far ahead of her at all. They drifted about amidst the concrete walls for a while, KC apparently searching for something. At last, he
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stopped near what appeared to be the front of an old shop. Tai-San couldn't be sure what it had sold before the Virus; there were so few of its original characteristics left, and no sign anymore that could proclaim it. The place was a dump; all warped wood and broken windows. As for the front door; there wasn't one, so they followed KC straight inside. It was just as bleak in there. Whatever the place had sold, it must have been looted a hundred times, and amidst cobwebs on overturned shelves, now frost-bitten weeds had been growing in the floorboards. They sparkled with frost crystals in the dim light. "Come on, guys," KC called lowly from across the room. "We're heading for the basement." "What for exactly?" asked Ebony suspiciously. "Yeah, what is this plan of yours?" Jack asked. The wooden stairs creaked under Tai-San's thick winter boots, and she suddenly hoped fervently that they weren't rotten. "This basement shares a wall with another building," KC explained. "A building on the inside of the fence." "We're knocking through a solid wall, aren't we?" Ebony didn't sound the least bit enthusiastic about the idea. KC nodded as Tai-San's feet hit the concrete cellar floor safely. Alice nodded grimly, holding out her hand for one of the hammers. KC handed it to her, and indicated a wall at the other 65
end of the rubble-strewn room. "It's this one." Alice went to work immediately and with vigor alongside KC, while Ebony went back upstairs to keep an eye out in the front doorway for anyone coming to inquire about the muted thuds coming from the basement. Tai-San sincerely wished the snow would muffle everything. Over the next few minutes, it seemed like Alice and KC made very little progress. They hit the wall with all their might, but somehow the pieces of brick and mortar they dislodged were very small. Tai-San made herself useful by clearing rubble from around them so they had room to work, and Jack joined in. They threw collapsed shelving, a load of ring binders with yellowed paper and the drawers of a filing cabinet into a pile in a corner, along with other junk. Tai-San found an old broom, and started sweeping away at the debris KC and Alice had created. They took turns hammering. Even Tai-San insisted on her turn, though she had rarely done this kind of work before. Squeezing her eyes shut against shards, she hit away at the bricks, but making far less of an indentation than the others. It was back-breaking work, and they were all forced to discard their thick winter outerwear. Despite the freezing temperature down here, their brows were all beaded with sweat. Hours later, however, they had managed to create a hole through the foot-thick wall big enough for everyone to climb through. 66
As KC pulled her to her feet in the other basement, she saw that this one was much like the previous, but much more littered with binders, papers and files. An office building, perhaps? They stumbled through the rubble in the light of the small windows at the top of the walls. They were almost entirely covered with the snow in the street outside. Locating a staircase, Ebony led the way silently upstairs. "They might have posted guards on the inside too," Alice whispered. Tai-San nodded silently. They made their way through a couple of dusty, trashed corridors, past offices that had seen better days, looking for a door leading outside. And there it was, across a demolished reception area sprayed in black graffiti. Tai-San reached it first, pushed it open, and then quickly shut it, as silently as she could. Her breath had caught in her throat. "There's someone out there!" she whispered frantically. Where the fence met the wall of the building, she'd seen the silhouette of a tribal someone standing rigid, and barely an arm's length away, on the other side of the chicken wire, close enough to touch. Ebony peered carefully through a snowless patch in a nearby window and nodded. KC gestured at a window on another wall. "Let's try climbing out there." The window was miraculously not broken, but opening it was a laborious task in itself, stuck as it was 67
from long disuse. Tai-San hoped no one was watching outside, as with a final shove, the pane flew open. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw only snow beyond, and no Locos standing ready to attack. They climbed out and dropped into the soft snow outside, one by one, onto a white city street, littered with the usual trash and debris around the fringes, making strange shapes out of the snow. As Jack, the last one out, stepped away from the window, Tai-San grabbed a plank leaning against the wall, pulled its end out of the snow, and used it to disturb their footprints that clearly emerged below the window in a telltale line into the street, as the others began filing away. They wouldn't want anyone to find their secret entrance, but with the snow still coming down, their prints would soon merge into the rest of the landscape anyway, leaving no sign of any of them.
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CHAPTER 10 They made their slow progress into the city center, aiming for the Mall. They hadn't waded for long before they noticed the smell. It was sickly sweet and overwhelmingly rotten. Tai-San pulled her scarf up over her mouth and nose. From what the others had told her of their flight from the city, she guessed what it was before she actually spotted the first body. It sat under the roof of what might have been an outdoor cafe once, and the snow hadn't reached it. It was leaning against the wall, slumped down, with limp arms flanking it. There were only a few pieces of flesh still sticking to the skull. Tai-San fought the urge to throw up. The sight was grisly, and the smell overpowering. As she passed, not 69
being able to look away despite herself, she saw from the weather-faded clothing that the person might have been a member of the Gulls once. Soon she spotted remnants of other tribes she recognized by their attire, as they walked on in silence. They exchanged grim looks, all no doubt scared they'd recognize someone, but no one spoke. The threshold to make a noise was too high, and the city too oppressing, too muted to penetrate the gloom with their voices. Tai-San suddenly wondered how many more bodies of those who hadn't managed to escape in time lay hidden beneath the snow, inches from her feet? The thick layer of snowflakes looked crisp and clean; a magic carpet of sorts, hiding all the grisly shapes of rotting flesh and stained bone along with the debris of the streets. If the cold persisted, everything left would surely freeze straight through, and even the smell might go away. The winter had hidden and purified, softened the blow, and she wasn't sorry for it. The city was very different, though, and it wasn't just the sudden, explosive winter, though that was no doubt part of it. They started seeing damaged buildings when they were a few streets away from the hotel. That had been the epicenter of the blast, the Mall Rats had explained. She saw the countless shattered windows, and soon a wall here and there that had fallen in on itself. There were even holes where it looked like shrapnel and debris from the explosion had knocked through. She frowned at it all. She couldn't imagine what a blast it 70
must have been; they were still blocks away from the Horton Bailey Hotel. More disconcerting, perhaps; there were no birds or animals anywhere, Tai-San realized. It created a totally different and alien atmosphere to see the town so still. In the past, there would always be gulls, little songbirds pecking at discarded crumbs on the street corners, and unfortunately, rats scurrying around, but now there was nothing. Had the fish in the bay beyond left them too? It was eerie. She spotted a single word graffitied on a building's wall across its planks: "Why?" She sighed, and nodded to herself in agreement with whoever had sprayed the paint. "Hey, look." It was Jack, pointing in the snow. It was a single set of footprints, crossing their path across the street. They all looked around uncomfortably, but spotted no one. "I bet others have had the same idea as us," said Ebony. "Unless it's Locos," said KC. "Let's keep going," said Alice. Tai-San nodded. "Keep your eyes open." The buildings were becoming more and more destroyed the further they walked; the hotel was just around the corner now. There was even one, where the steel and concrete structure had been halved; as if some giant monster had taken a bite out of it, leaving the rest with rooms exposed to the elements and pipes dangling 71
in midair. And in no time at all, they were standing in front of the hotel. Or rather, they weren't. There was no hotel. The building had been completely leveled to the ground. A bulky coating of snow hinted at various debris underneath, but otherwise, it was simply a slightly elevated and uneven, but empty lot. Tai-San reckoned much of the debris must have been scattered across the city. She looked around at the others. Jack's mouth was hanging slightly open, and Ebony was wearing an angry frown. She didn't still consider it her hotel, did she? Did she miss her Loco queen days here? Her city leader days, living it up in style in the hotel's suites? They continued on.
3 Then, there it was. They were standing in front of the Mall. Good, old Mall. But it was damaged. Horribly damaged. Tai-San felt tears sparkle in her eyes at the sight of it. She saw there was a giant hole in one wall that extended to parts of the roof. At least that was the destruction that was visible from across the street. No one spoke for a moment, as despair crept up on them all. Tai-San hardened her heart. "Come on. Let's go inside, see how bad it really is."
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They entered through the car park, went though the hallway, and came out at the grille; the center of what had for so long been their home. In front of them was the phoenix statue with its back to them, and beyond it, the double staircase leading upwards. And there was the enormous, gaping hole. The wall to their left was almost completely gone. There was really nothing above the floor they were standing on. Tai-San looked up to where Zandra's old room had been, and it just wasn't there. Neither were the shops that had previously been on either side of it. Instead, mangled support beams, pipes, cladding and unevenly ripped plaster plates made up the edges of the hole, through which the snow was streaming relentlessly. The floor had at least a foot of it, and it covered the bottom half of the left staircase. Bulging out of the snow and scattered in corners was debris of various kinds, both building materials and personal belongings that had been left behind. A dusting of snow covered the phoenix fountain's head and wings, and a thick layer of the same lay in the pool beneath, but amidst the carnage and debris, it seemed completely unscathed. Tai-San walked all the way around it, observing it from every angle. It was whole and perfect, like before. It made her more optimistic; the everlasting immortal phoenix, the bird that regenerated with every death. She quietly stored the symbol and its message in her heart. "Come on," she said. "Let's check out the rest." She 73
peeped into the electrical shop, the magazine shop, and the other rooms on the right-hand side. All intact. The others' faces were glum. They filed up the stairs, Tai-San in the lead. The old cafe was okay; at least nothing a good clean wouldn't fix, even though it looked like a great wind had shoved all the furniture to one side. Come to think of it, perhaps it had. They didn't approach the hole (it hardly seemed safe), but pushed aside the tangled chairs and instead toured the stores on the opposite side, starting with the furniture store. They ventured deeper into the Mall, but only Tai-San and Jack really looked. The others followed in silence, just going through the motions. There was the store room, the offices, and (Tai-San's heart fluttered) her old room in the Pharmacy, next to the now closed up lab. "I guess that's it, then," said Ebony, when they were back beside the phoenix fountain. "What is?" asked Jack. "It's not like this place is habitable." "Yeah," Alice chimed in. "It's completely hopeless. What are we gonna do?" "We'd better look for a new place to live," said KC. "And fast. We need to get out of the weather." "Wait!" interrupted Jack. "Let's think about this!" "What's there to think about?" Ebony asked. "Couldn't we repair it?" There was a brief silence, as hope swelled in TaiSan's heart. She didn't want to leave. This place was so important to all of them, to the tribe's history; it was 74
imbued with their energy, and although they were now entering a new phase of their existence, at least there was this, the place they called home, to anchor them during their future trials. "Surely, between us, we could start repair work, and get this place fixed up with time!" The others looked at him doubtfully, but Tai-San suddenly felt enthusiastic. "You think so?" "I guess... We could find out how from books, couldn't we? I admit, I don't know much carpentry, I'm no Dal, but..." He was momentarily derailed as a dark look crossed his face. "But I can always research the subject," he finished lowly. Tai-San nodded thoughtfully. When she looked up, she saw that spark of hope lit in some of the others' eyes as well. "It would be rough though; no heat, no running water... At least at the farm there's a fireplace," Alice said. "But it'd be a big improvement for those of us sleeping in the barn." "We could sleep in the back rooms together for now," Tai-San said. "Maybe we could even make a fireplace here!" Jack exclaimed. His eyes sparkled with excitement. "One thing at a time, honey," said Alice, but she was grinning.
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CHAPTER 11 "I could never live anywhere else!" Trudy declared. A few of the others around the living room made noises of agreement. "There is quite a bit of the Mall that's destroyed, and I want to make it perfectly clear that it'll be a lot of hard work to repair the damage and make it habitable again," Jack said honestly. "Are you taking back your promise to recreate the Mall now?" asked Ebony sarcastically from the corner. "We can do it, it's just work!" said Lex enthusiastically. "I don't see you carrying the heavy loads," she countered, eyeing his still very much recovering body, draped over the sofa. "Whereabouts is the damage, exactly?" asked Amber 76
lowly. Tai-San was almost startled to hear her voice, she'd uttered so few words recently. She seemed to walk around in a daze, eating and speaking little. Was this a good sign? Was she taking an interest again? "On the left hand side coming towards the stairs. The stores both upstairs and down are pretty much gone," Tai-San admitted. "Zan's room?" Lex asked suddenly, just like she thought he would. She nodded. "Anyone against?" Tai-San asked. No one spoke up. "Someone needs to stay here with the injured and the children," Salene interjected. "I volunteer," said Trudy. "Amber?" She nodded. "For now, at least." "Alright. Then I suggest that those of us who are willing and able, move back to the Mall as soon as possible and start the work."
3 The next morning, Tai-San, Alice, Ebony, KC, Jack, Ellie and Salene packed their bags with warm blankets, and set out for the city, to stay. Tai-San hadn't been able to persuade May to come with them; she had simply rolled over on the sofa and turned her back to her. Lex, however, couldn't be dissuaded from going. Tai-
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San had given up; they weren't going to be able to keep him in bed any longer, though he must be nowhere near healed. His arm was in its sling, and he walked carefully, so as not to jostle his broken ribs, but he was cheerful and talkative as the rest of them lumbered gloomily through the resisting snowdrifts, and he couldn't be deterred. He had also waved aside Tai-San's arguments that he wouldn't be much use in the building work they'd be planning, and that he'd no doubt be much more comfortable in the little farmhouse, warm and now much less cramped, but he'd insisted that he would be of great help "working with his mind". Tai-San had raised her eyebrows at that, and laughed when his face had adopted a grumpy, offended look. But she'd let it go.
3 Jack was surveying the hole, arms crossed, looking pensive. "We should put in a fireplace here," he muttered, pointing and indicating a spot at at angle from the phoenix statue. He gestured upwards, indicating a chimney. "What would we build it of?" asked Tai-San. It had suddenly occurred to her that they needed materials. Jack shrugged. "Stone. Brick. There's a whole city out there, a lot of it in rubble anyway. Ripe for the picking." She nodded. "The winter might last, you know." "You think?"
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"Yeah... There's no way of knowing how long. I could try to find some research, but..." he shrugged again. "We might find we'll come to need a fire. Better safe than sorry! I'll make up some sketches of everything. We'll start there." A solemn look suddenly crossed his face. "What is it?" asked Tai-San. He looked askance at her. "Oh, just thinking about Dal." Tai-San nodded. "I miss him too." She watched his eyes cloud with tears. "He'd have been brilliant at this," he said, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
3 Jack and a few of the others went outside shortly after, bundled up against the cold, to look around the hotel site for any materials that could be salvaged. They took a small cart they'd found in the store rooms, but Tai-San wasn't too sure how much use that would be in the deep snow outside. While they were gone, Tai-San went through the Mall systematically, dragging out every single tool she could find, from the stores and the electrical shop, mainly. TaiSan wasn't familiar with all of them or what they were for, but Lex was apparently keen to feel useful and lent his limited expertise while hovering nearby, gesticulating with both his good and broken arms. At the end of the search, a good pile had formed on the bottom step of the
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staircase. She also found some candles, and soon, the place was lit up with as many of them as she could find in an effort to fight the persistent darkness; both the one inside, and the one seeping through the hole from the clogged sky outside. The candles lined every step of the staircase, and she dragged chairs and small tables out of the shops to place more in the obscured corners, but when she was done, there still wasn't that much light to work in. Tai-San gathered some of the planks from the rubble, turning the bowl of the phoenix fountain into a makeshift, temporary fire pit. Smoke would hardly be a problem; the enormous hole in their home would take care of that; she was practically outside. Tai-San wasn't sure whether she should laugh or cry. It was absurd. She started the fire with some scavenged paper and matches. It was deadly cold in here. Without a fire, they wouldn't survive at all. How they would stave off the cold when they went to sleep in the back rooms tonight, she had no idea. She suddenly saw the cold and winter as a slowmoving but relentless monster. Creeping up on you, not aggressively, just completely determined on your death; absolutely sure that it would lift your soul from your frozen body. She shook herself. Lex raised his eyebrows at her, but she didn't answer his unspoken question. She looked up at the phoenix statue instead. The flames in her little fire were now making patterns of light and shadow across the metal; a dance of light and 80
darkness. She looked into the bird's eyes, and for a moment, it seemed alive. Sure, it had snow on its metal feathers, but she thought it looked regal and calm nonetheless. The sight filled her with hope. The phoenix could rise from the ashes of its own destroyed body, and so, perhaps, could the Mall, and the scattered Mall Rats with it.
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CHAPTER 12 "Look who I brought." Alice had materialized at the phoenix statue. She had gone off to the farm for a saw that morning, and returned with May, Amber and the baby. May was carrying a basked stuffed with blankets, looking sullen. Tai-San suspected that it hadn't been entirely her own choice to come. Amber was looking around hopefully. Tai-San guessed that the newly arranged tarp that covered the gaping, jagged hole in their home did a lot to soften the blow. Also, she was looking a lot better after a few days of rest at the farm. Tai-San took her arrival as a sign that she had decided to live. She was nothing if not a survivor. 82
"Trudy stayed behind," Alice explained. "She didn't want to move Brady, because of the leg, you know. We weren't sure how she'd make the trip exactly. She's getting a bit big to be carried all that way in the snow... But Trudy's keeping the farmhouse warm for anyone who changes their mind about this place." As if she was herself uncertain, Tai-San saw Alice shudder with the cold. She didn't think a single one among them stayed out of anything other than stubbornness. The Mall wasn't exactly the home sweet home of bygone days. Well, if they were all honest, it hadn't always been that homey then, either. "I'm so happy to see you all here!" Tai-San gushed, and was rewarded with a tentative smile from Amber. May didn't react, but a white head suddenly popped out of the blankets in the basket and sniffed the air. The cat. They had slept in one of the back rooms last night; Tai-San remembered it with sadness as the room the Guardian had used for his office. It hadn't been utilized as living quarters for anyone since, as far as she knew; it seemed like everyone had avoided it and denied its very existence. Sure, it was cold in there, but at least there wasn't a horrible draft, like here, underneath the dark green tarp that couldn't quite keep the winter out of the Mall. They had slept all together after covering much of the floor in mattresses, wearing hats and scarves and covered in duvets, but the icy hands of death still 83
managed to reach under their woolen blankets, making sleep a shivery, restless affair. The cat was apparently also displeased with the arrangements here, because as Tai-San watched, it reconsidered and dove back beneath the blankets of the basket. May set it down on the edge of the fountain, near the fire. "What's its name?" Tai-San asked, inclining her head towards the basket. For once, May's face changed from the stony look into a grimace. "It's too silly, Tish always..." And she stopped, clamping her mouth shut, but the tears already stood in her eyes. "It could be nice, having something of hers," Tai-San volunteered, but May had already turned away. Cat the cat it is, then, thought Tai-San. She stepped outside with a kettle, and filled it with clean snow from the sidewalk. Inside, she hung it over their little fire to boil. Water was no problem, but food was a different story; their rations were running low. Ebony had gone alone, despite Tai-San's protestations, to scavenge for what food could be found in the city, but she had reported that there wasn't much to be found. The ruined buildings made the search difficult. Other buildings she simply hadn't been able to go into to check, as the doors had to be dug out to be opened. Since it would take too much time and there weren't any guarantees anyway, she hadn't bothered with those. While traveling homewards, Tai-San had had the idea 84
to create an herb garden on the roof of the Mall. For her herbal remedies, yes, but also to supplement their unstable diets. The food situation could hardly be more unstable than it was at present, but now, her plan was impossible. Suddenly, with an unexpected change of season and no way of knowing how long it would last, there was no way of growing anything outside. That night, Tai-San dug a hand brazier out of the mess of her old room. She'd known it had to be there somewhere, and at last she found it amid some books and crockery on a shelf. It looked a bit like a teapot, but with no spout or handle. You opened the lid and filled it with burning coals from the fire. She brought the warm thing up into their current sleeping quarters, and they sat for a while, passing it from hand to hand around the circle of tired, cold people, May's cat following it around, desperate for a piece of the heat it gave off. "Where did you get it?" asked Amber as she smiled down at it, holding it close to her baby. Tai-San suddenly saw an old woman's face in front of her. A clever and wise woman with shrewd, slanted eyes in a wrinkled, brown face, beneath a shock of untidy, gray hair. She sighed internally. "I inherited it," she simply stated.
3 It hadn't occurred to anyone that they needed to worry about security. There simply wasn't anyone around in the
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city anymore; well, apart from the elusive footprints they'd seen when they arrived. No feet had materialized to reveal who made them, despite the fact that the Mall Rats were going in and out several times a day, in groups of two and three, to scavenge for any remaining foodstuffs, and to dig more usable material out of the snow drifts. But this changed slowly after Amber arrived. She still seemed melancholy, more muted somehow, and no wonder, thought Tai-San, but she was slowly easing herself into her old leader duties. This turned out to be fortunate for everyone, because things occurred to Amber's practical mind that no one else realized. And so, the former head of security, Lex, had been chosen for the rather more menial task of keeping watch on the street, because with his broken arm, he was less useful in the re-building than the others. And so he sat perched in an upstairs window, wrapped in a blanket, watching the street below, and occasionally, going around the Mall to other well-situated windows to look down from the other corners of their home. They hardly expected anyone to appear from behind, however, as it was far less accessible and the snow was deep there. And so far, Lex hadn't reported any footprints, or anything alive moving about at all. It was like a ghost town out there. Even the rats were gone. Tai-San wasn't too handy with carpentry work either, and she freely admitted it, but she refused to be idle. She 86
cooked their meager rations over the fire and served them out to the Mall Rats, she fetched and carried, and lent a hand whenever someone needed a plank of wood held steady for sawing. There was also a lot to do elsewhere around the Mall, since it seemed like every item in there had been displaced by the blast, so she busied herself tidying the rooms and re-arranging the furniture, and throwing away everything that was beyond salvaging.
3 Later, Amber called her first meeting as tribe leader after returning to the Mall. They were all clustered around the fire in the phoenix fountain, some of the Mall Rats huddled in coats and jackets. "About Hope Island..." Amber started. Tai-San had heard the story by now, of how the tribe had split in two back when the city had to be evacuated. How some had chosen to stay there and take their chances. Tai-San felt a gloom settle over her. Even if they had survived the bomb, there was nothing on the island, at least not to speak of, and they would have needed food and shelter. How could they possibly have made it? "I know this isn't the best time," Amber went on. "But several of you have been inquiring," her eyes went around the circle, "and there might never be a good time." She sighed.
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"I don't see why we should look for them," Ebony intervened. "As far as I'm concerned, they made their choice." "Ah, the voice of compassion," Alice mocked. Ebony sneered. "It really isn't that straightforward though," KC joined in. "I bet the snow is just as deep out there as here, and we have to find a boat while trying to escape notice from these Zoot lovers!" "Chicken?" Ebony mocked. KC rolled his eyes. "KC is right," Amber cut them off. "It could be dangerous." She looked around at them seriously. "And I wouldn't want us to stall the building. I want people to go who are willing and able, but I want Jack to keep organizing the building. KC, Alice, Salene... You stay behind and help him. Lex is on security. Is everyone okay with that?" They nodded. "So. Any volunteers?" "I'll go," said Tai-San immediately, but other volunteers were less forthcoming. Amber looked around the circle again, this time with a disappointed air, and apparently realized the same as Tai-San; that there weren't that many to choose from. "Ebony?" she asked, strictly. "Count me out." She folded her arms over the chest of her fur coat and fixed her eyes stubbornly in a corner of the room. "Tell May to go." But May seemed an even less likely candidate. She was staring into the floor behind her lank hair, apparently 88
oblivious to the fact that she was in a meeting at all. Amber raised her eyebrows, as if saying "really?". "Ebony, please," Tai-San joined in. "For the tribe." She wasn't sure how much the tribe really mattered to Ebony, but to Tai-San's surprise, she harrumphed. "Fine! Whatever. You all owe me." Amber shot Tai-San a smile of thanks. "But the Ecos are a different matter," Amber continued. "I know you miss Mouse," she looked at Salene, and Tai-San frowned at the unfamiliar name. "But I can't with a clear conscience authorize an expedition into the wilderness in these conditions. I might be condemning you to death." "So you might be," Ebony muttered, but Amber ignored her. "The weather is bad. The snow is too deep. I'm not even welcome there anymore, and we don't know where they've relocated to. They might even have left the area altogether. It'll just have to wait. Right now, it's too risky." Salene nodded in understanding, but there was a crease of worry between her brows. "Frankly, I'm not sure how much good we'll be able to do on Hope Island either," Amber confessed. "The island itself is pretty small, but there's bound to be snow, as you said, and poor visibility. And if we're looking for bodies..." She trailed off, as if she couldn't bear continuing. But as Tai-San looked around at the others' faces, she saw that the damage was done. They had all gone dark, imagining the possibilities; frozen, decomposed flesh, or bones buried in the snow. Or, worse, perhaps: 89
nothing at all.
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CHAPTER 13 It was almost unbearably cold in the boat. Ebony rowed against the uneasy waves, looking thoroughly displeased about it. But for once, Tai-San agreed with her. She was huddled under a blanket, wrapped in thick layers of clothing, but the cold was so profound that she several times had to resist closing her eyes to drift away. She wasn't sure she could muster the strength to open them again if she did. She knew the water must be black beneath them, swallowing the snowflakes, but the snowfall was so thick she could barely see. Amber nudged her roughly as the boat bumped on rocks. "Tai-San!" she patted her frozen cheeks. "Are you with me? Keep yourself moving, okay?" "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she lied, as Amber helped her 91
out of the boat. She had brought several long sticks, and now used one to feel her way through the snow until she found a nearby branch buried in a drift to serve as mooring. She tied up their dilapidated little rowing boat as Ebony climbed out. Amber handed them the sticks. "Use these to feel your way through the snow, okay?" "It's like a blind person's cane," Ebony remarked. "Well, we are blind, more or less," Amber remarked, looking around. "If you find anything irregular beneath the snow, call out, okay? And for safety's sake, I think we ought to keep each other in sight at all times." Tai-San couldn't figure out how, but Ebony had found, somewhere, a bright red leather jumpsuit with black fur lining and collar. I'll hardly lose sight of that, thought TaiSan, as they spread out. But she was soon proved wrong. They started by searching the shoreline, stopping at regular intervals when their staffs hit something more solid than snow; just logs and stones mostly. There were small trees ringing the base of the island in some places, and it was difficult keeping track of each other. Tai-San thought she had lost both of them a couple of times, only to see their blurry outlines appear from behind a bush or just out of the whirling snow. If there had been any signs of human habitation near the waterline, either it was washed out to sea already, or they didn't find it. It was hard work, staggering through the deep snow, 92
but Tai-San was glad to be moving, and felt, if not the warmth, the life returning to her body. They moved upwards towards the top of the island, where the destroyed building was supposed to be located. Tai-San couldn't spot any change in the landscape at first, until her foot caught on something, she stumbled, and realized she was prostrate on a pile of rubble lightly coated with snow. Perhaps it was a blessing that the wind was so harsh here on top of the plateau that was Hope Island's crown, since the snow was less deep here, the wind having swept most of it out to sea. On the other hand, the wind was strong, and she had to fight it to stay upright and it forced tears from her stinging eyes. She could barely see anything but an eternal streak of relentless snowflakes. As she moved out to the head of the bare island, turning her gaze out over an ocean she couldn't see, she sensed something besides the stinging snow. She turned her head, and thought she could see a handful figures standing in the distance. She knew Amber and Ebony shouldn't be among them, and sure enough, as she turned her head to the left, she spotted Amber closest to her, fighting her way through the snow that reached her knees, and further away, a bleached dot of red; Ebony's flashy jumpsuit. She turned her head back towards the figures, and started walking, but as soon as she did, it was as if the shapes became more indistinguishable from the snow. She stopped, trying to count them, but found that she 93
couldn't. They drifted in and out of view. She moved again, and sure enough, after a few steps, though she was sure the figures were standing stock still, they disappeared before her eyes. Whose are you? she thought at them. A moment later, she met up with Amber and Ebony at the head of the island. "Anything?" Amber asked desperately. She looked exhausted. Tai-San shook her head. "Of course not," said Ebony grumpily. "This was a stupid idea. The only way we'd find anything here is by stumbling over it. Sure, this is a small island, but right now, it might as well be the Sahara desert for all the good we can do around here." "Not even an object? Piece of clothing?" Tai-San shook her head again, but Ebony wasn't done yet. "Get real, Amber! Slade, Ruby, Gel, all the others... They probably died right there on the shore where we left them. Then, when the high tide came, woosh! Gone! We'll never see hide nor hair of any of them again." TaiSan heard the "good riddance" she didn't utter. "They could have gotten away, saved themselves..." Amber persisted. She looked at Tai-San, but Tai-San could only stare blankly back. There were the fuzzy figures in the distance... She couldn't say. She didn't know. "I admit," Ebony continued, "it's not like I wouldn't like 94
to mount Slade's head above our new fireplace, but this is useless!" Amber didn't comment. "Let's go home," she said instead.
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CHAPTER 14 "Someone's coming!" called Lex in a strained voice. He was hurrying along the banister, heading for the candlelit double staircase, slinged arm swinging madly. He had been sitting at his perch as usual, in one of the upper windows overlooking the street. When Tai-San had brought him a hot herbal tea half an hour earlier, there had still been nothing to spot outside. There never was. "Who?" asked Amber sharply. Her head had snapped up at his words. She discarded the little coat she had been modifying with needle and thread for baby Bray, and stood up. "Dunno, couldn't see. Big bloke in a fur and cap. Seems to know his way around, though, and I'm pretty 96
sure he's coming in." They hadn't actually planned for this moment, but everyone's memories from the Loneliness and the tribal clashes must have kicked in, because most of the Mall Rats got to their feet, grabbing anything remotely dangerous that was handy. Lex too picked up a plank of wood in his good hand as he joined them, advancing to the front of the group, facing the entrance from the car park. For a few moments, there was no sound save the rapid breathing of the people around her. Tai-San peeked past the broom she was brandishing, and sent her consciousness forth. Not a stranger, it told her. But still strange. What did that mean? She couldn't put her finger on the feeling she sensed. She knew she didn't have to fear whoever was approaching, but still, something was different. She lowered her broom a little. She didn't have to worry long. Soon, she heard echoing footsteps coming along the bare hallway, and then a figure appeared on the other side of the lowered grille. It was big, as Lex had indicated, but Tai-San wondered if that had more to do with the thick, brown fur the person was wearing. Its shoulders were coated with snow, and an equally snowy cap was pulled low on the figure's face, just as the collar was pulled up. "Who are you?!" Lex commanded. "Show your face!" As the stranger undid the fur collar and swiped his cap off, the hammer Amber was holding clattered to the 97
floor at her feet, narrowly missing her boots. Tai-San gasped herself, lowering the broom handle entirely, as she felt a smile break on her face. It was Bray. His hair was untidy, and his face looked thinner, as if he hadn't been eating well or had been sick, but it was definitely Bray. The Mall Rats crowded around the grille as Jack ran to open it. Amber didn't wait for the grille to rise much before squeezing underneath it and throwing her arms hard around him. "Bray!" she sobbed. He put his arms awkwardly around her, as if he had half forgotten how. "We all thought you were dead, mate!" exclaimed Lex, thumping him on his one available shoulder. Amber had buried her face in the other one. "Not for the Technos lack of trying," Bray said seriously. "This is a wonderful omen!" Tai-San couldn't stop herself. She beamed around at them all. Jack, who was rejoining them, cleared his throat noisily, but said nothing. "We will be a proper tribe again, just you wait! I bet more of our friends are alive and well, and will rejoin us, and we'll be stronger than ever!" "Thanks, Tai-San," Bray said with a crooked smile. Just then, Salene went to the head of the group. She was carrying baby Bray in her arms. Amber, still weeping, took him from her, and held him, 98
face forwards, in front of his father. "Bray... This is your son." She choked on the words. Bray's eyes went wide, and tears started streaming down his face too. He took the toddler in his arms, hugging him gently. The baby was completely oblivious to the emotional situation, and instead played idly with his dad's collar. "His name is Bray too," Amber said. "I guess that's gonna get complicated now, huh?" But she smiled broadly. As Ebony shifted uncomfortably off to one side, Bray's attention was derailed, however. His eyes widened again, but in a very different manner from when he first saw his son. "What is she doing here?!" he screamed suddenly, and the baby started to cry. Bray handed him quickly back to his mother. It looked like Ebony was about to say something, some half-hearted greeting perhaps, but she had barely opened her mouth before Bray lunged at her. Before Tai-San could really tell what happened, Ebony's small frame was hidden behind his bulk, and as Tai-San moved quickly towards them, she realized he had his hands at Ebony's throat. Ebony looked shocked, and her breath was wheezing out of her mouth where she slumped, pinned to the wall, scratching at his hands. Lex too, had rushed forwards, and so had Alice, and when Tai-San reached Bray, they all clawed at his hands and fingers, finally prying them off Ebony's exposed 99
throat. Tai-San had rarely seen Ebony so vulnerable; she had barely reacted at all. Tai-San was sure she would have, if it was anyone else who had attacked her. She bent over, clutching her throat, where bruises were already blossoming forth. She quickly tried to compose herself in front of the others' shocked stares, and straightened up, but stayed where she was, standing against the wall. Lex and Alice had Bray's arms in their grips, but he was struggling, and Alice exclaimed "what are you doing?!" as much in disbelief as anything else. As Amber stepped in front of him, shielding his view of Ebony, Bray calmed down somewhat, and dropped his arms to his sides. Tai-San saw Alice eye him suspiciously. She didn't let go of him. "What is this?" Amber looked confused, but also hurt. This clearly wasn't the reunion she had imagined. "How can you ask that?" Bray seemed outraged. "What is she even doing here, after everything she's done?! I thought I'd have to search far and wide for her, I figured you'd probably exiled her! I even thought someone might have gotten to her first..." Amber, if possible, looked even more mystified, so Bray continued, though it seemed to cost him. "After everything she did to us, how is she still alive?" There was a brief silence. The Mall Rats exchanged uncomfortable glances. "She banished us, Amber! She took over the city to spite us, and then banished you when you were 100
pregnant, leaving you to give birth in some barn! She's the reason I don't know my child!" Tai-San, who knew the story, didn't think that was entirely true, but rather a series of circumstances lining up against them. "She has caused us all so much suffering," he continued, a bitter edge to his voice, and tears streaming down his cheeks again. Then his voice hardened. "I demand that some punishment be carried out." Ebony seemed to have pulled herself together, at least enough to sneer behind Amber's back. Bray didn't see her. Tai-San was surprised. Was this what her intuition had meant? The events Bray spoke of seemed so long ago now. She thought back, to being abducted by the Technos and separated from her friends. A lot of time had passed between then and now. While it seemed that a lot more had happened to some of the other Mall Rats; being marooned in an island paradise with scary, radioactive vehicles, and traveling thousands of miles there and back, it seemed long ago to Tai-San too. She thought she could see some of the same thoughts on the faces of the other Mall Rats. They had been invaded, they had fought Ram, some had stayed with the Ecos for a time, Mega had come and gone and they had been set adrift... It seemed ancient history. Not that Bray wasn't partially right, Tai-San admitted to herself. Ebony had done a lot of despicable things in 101
her time, for power and for love, but though Tai-San had never been her best friend, she tried not to dwell on those things. What she really wanted was to look to the future, after all. There was no place there for grudges. Tai-San was pretty sure that that was exactly what Bray used to think. She had known him well enough that she thought she was right about that. But here he was, having seemingly not moved on an inch since his banishment and abduction by the Technos. Tai-San frowned. This wasn't the Bray she knew. "Put her on trial." He was begging now. Amber was frowning too, looking at him in confusion, and obviously trying to soak up his words, without success. Then, seemingly deciding they had to resolve the situation, or they'd be in this stalemate all night, she said: "Fine, we'll hear the evidence." Her voice was curt, and she didn't meet his eyes. Tai-San looked around. Some of the others' jaws had dropped, clearly shocked at both the demand and Amber's agreement to it. Alice and Lex were still flanking Bray, but both had dropped their hands, staring at Amber. Bray seemed satisfied with this. "I'll put her in the cage." Now, even Ebony was surprised. Her eyes bulged out of her head. "What do you think you're playing at?!" she screamed, outraged. Bray made a move to step forward, but Amber held 102
up a hand. "You'll do no such thing," she said strictly, affirming her authority. Her voice was sharp. "I said I'd hear the evidence. That's all. We'll have a hearing or something. We'll hear you out, Bray. I promise nothing else." Bray seemed disappointed, but he nodded. "Lay off her until then, okay?" said Lex. He looked at Bray apprehensively, apparently through new eyes. TaiSan could only think that her own expression must be very similar. "I'll get you something to eat," said Salene lowly, and disappeared towards their food stores, head bowed. The others started slowly dispersing too, as if catching themselves, realizing they had somewhere to be. Tai-San looked after Amber, disappearing up the stairs with her son. As she stepped onto the landing, her face half towards her, Tai-San thought she could see it crumble.
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CHAPTER 15 Alice had trekked out to the farm in the snow to get Trudy. She, perhaps even as much as Amber, probably missed Bray the most out of all of them. They arrived with Brady in the dark of evening the night after Bray's arrival at the Mall, all three of them almost completely covered by winter clothing, and Brady riding along on Alice's back. Trudy threw herself on Bray, hugging him for a long time. He smiled vaguely, but said little. Trudy seemed oblivious, just reveling in his company, completely ecstatic. Alice had put Brady down near the fire, where KC presented her with some short, wooden crutches he had fashioned that day, especially for her. Her broken leg 104
was still in a splint, and probably would be for quite some time, but probably not as long as Lex' arm; he hardly took care with it, waving it around and doing things he shouldn't try to make it do. KC proceeded to teach Brady the use of the crutches. Tai-San's eyes followed them around the room, as the little girl giggled at KC's exaggerated, silly demonstrations. "We've closed up the farm," Trudy said finally. Alice nodded. "We're all back for good, now!" she said cheerfully. "Brought some supplies, though." With a nod, she indicated a sack that had been unceremoniously discarded on the floor as they stepped in. "It's not much." She suddenly looked downcast. "I'm sorry." "Not at all!" said Amber with feigned positivity, but Tai-San could see that she too was worried about the food situation. "Every little bit helps." Tai-San couldn't help remembering the bad old days, when she had first come to the Mall, when Bray risked his life every day to find a tiny scrap of food for them all; scavenged from a warehouse or store, or stolen from a Demon Dog's vegetable patch. Their stomachs were never full these days either.
3 It was over their evening meal that tensions flared again. Perhaps they were all touchier than usual because they went hungry so much. They were all helping themselves
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from the pot hanging over the fire, when Bray ended up behind Ebony in line. As she finished scooping the stew into her bowl, she looked up and met Bray's eyes. She looked insolent, and Tai-San could all but feel the tension coming off Bray's body in waves. Ebony sneered at him, and he completely lost his cool. His metal bowl went clang on the floor. The Mall Rats all jumped. Bray had thrown it with all his might. "Why do you let her live here?!" he screamed, rounding on Amber, who was sitting nearby. "How can you let her near our son?!" Amber's brow knotted together, but she said nothing. Soon, tears were brimming in her eyes. Tai-San stepped forward. "Bray, please! This solves nothing!" His face, which was contorted in anger, slowly unclenched as she watched. Amber had managed the business of raising their child since Bray was taken, and managed it very well at that, and Tai-San couldn't help but think that Bray was overstepping his bounds. He was barely back, and here he was, raging at the way she did something that she had probably never considered much of a problem, something she had at least never considered a danger to her son. Amber would never willingly risk Baby Bray. Bray suddenly looked a little ashamed, and Tai-San wondered if he too had realized that he might have implied that Amber wasn't a competent mother. He cleared his throat loudly and sat down, but didn't 106
apologize. Amber looked away, focusing on her meal. Tai-San sat down too, next to Lex, who was shaking his head. She wondered what Bray was more focused on; reuniting with his son, Amber and the Mall Rats, or punishing Ebony? Tai-San sighed. She feared that right now, it was the latter. But she knew that revenge would never make things better for anyone. It poisoned the soul. As she listened to the idle talk slowly start up again, she closed her eyes for a minute and felt the air with her spiritual tendrils. She quickly opened her eyes again, sighing. Bad vibes.
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CHAPTER 16 "This trial is a complete farce!" Ebony exclaimed angrily. Tai-San wondered if she would have dared say it if Bray and his (these days, anyway) explosive rage was around. He was out scavenging for food with KC and Jack. Not that there was anything meek or cowardly about Ebony, but Tai-San thought Bray might be the only person she couldn't, or wouldn't best. "If you ask me, you've had it coming a long time, Ebony," said Lex cheerfully, as he rummaged around in the tool box. He had abandoned his lookout post for a while, bored with the monotony of it, and was instead helping with the building. The remodeling was going better than Tai-San had expected. It had just been a few weeks, but the damage had been covered up, and the 108
fireplace was taking shape. "Can't handle the heat, Ebony?" asked Alice mockingly as she straightened from her work. "Oh, please," she sneered. "It's just a hearing, Ebony," said Amber reasonably, putting down a heavy basket of bricks. "And considering your substantial efforts in our escape from the island, and the things you've since done for this tribe, I think we can promise leniency." "God, you're already talking like a judge!" Ebony spat. Her face was a mask of incredulity. She dropped the hammer she was holding rather harder than necessary. "When's it going to be, anyway?" asked Ellie. "As soon as this lot's finished, I thought," said Amber, looking their work in progress up and down. "We have to at least be able to accommodate a court." "Have you forgotten," said Ebony loudly over her words, "that there is no law to judge me by?!" For a beat, no one spoke. "We're trying to build a civilized society here, Ebony," said Amber. She sounded tired. "Is that what you tell yourself every night?!" Amber just sighed. Since no one else offered up anything either, Ebony started walking towards the car park. "Whatever. I'm going out." "Where?" asked Amber, but Ebony didn't answer; her jumpsuited body kept walking. "Don't go far," Tai-San muttered after her, but Ebony 109
was already gone. Amber appeared at her elbow. "Tai-San, can I have a word?" "Sure, Amber." Amber led her up the stairs, and into one of the cold offices. As Tai-San closed the door behind them, Amber turned to her with a concerned manner. "About Ebony..." "My thoughts exactly." Amber nodded. "You're a people person, Tai-San..." She hesitated. "I'm starting to think that I might have made a mistake in agreeing to the hearing." She bit her lip. "It would never have occurred to me at all, if Bray hadn't..." She sighed, and came to the heart of the matter. "The truth is, I think we're between a rock and a hard place here. Bray is demanding it, and I half agree, but what do we do if we have to sentence her?" "You mean," started Tai-San, picking up Amber's train of thought, "that if we punish her, we'll make an enemy of her." Amber nodded. "I like it best when Ebony is where I can see her, but what if Bray wants her banished, or something?" Tai-San nodded thoughtfully. "She could come back with a mob, for all we know. You're right. She might want to get us back. We're in a difficult position." "A hopeless position." Amber rubbed her arms, her breath a mist in the air before her. "Don't say that." Tai-San put a hand on her shoulder. "But I think we should keep an eye on her, nonetheless." 110
Amber looked relieved. "Leave it to me. I know your plate is full. I'll report back." She smiled reassuringly, and they went to rejoin the others, where Tai-San pulled Lex aside. "Lex," she whispered. His ears instantly perked up, sensing something interesting. "Yes..?" "When you're on guard duty, will you keep an eye on Ebony for me, and tell me when she comes and goes?" He waited, as if he expected her to say more. "Oh come on, babe," he said, when no more information was forthcoming. "You've gotta do better than that!" She sighed. "I just spoke to Amber. She thinks we should keep an eye on her. Just in case she might try to avoid the trial." Or come for us afterwards, she thought to herself. This had apparently not occurred to Lex. He looked thoughtful for a minute. "You think she might do a runner?" "I don't know..." Tai-San hesitated. "Running doesn't quite strike me as Ebony's style somehow." "Oh, I see. You think she might get an idea to plot something, as usual." Tai-San didn't quite like to suspect her of such wrongdoing, no matter how vague, and she nodded apologetically. "It wouldn't surprise me," Lex concluded. He then strolled happily back to his perch in the window overlooking the street, as if this suspicion, and 111
the opportunity to catch Ebony at something nefarious was just the encouragement he needed to return to his post.
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CHAPTER 17 For the first few days, nothing happened. Lex was diligently watching the street, save when someone else took over for him to be able to take a break to eat and sleep. But the street was empty, save for their own occasional comings and goings, and if Ebony went out alone, they didn't see it. She was working alongside the others, but apparently avoiding Bray as much as possible. Bray would constantly forget what he was doing around her, and simply stop in his tracks and just stare at her with hatred in his eyes. Tai-San didn't feel like she quite knew him anymore; this was a side to him that she had never seen before. She wondered if something really bad had happened to 113
him out there. Then, one morning, Lex sidled up to Tai-San just as they were starting their morning chores. "She's just left," he whispered. Even though neither of them had mentioned it lately, there was no need to ask who he meant. "What direction?" Lex shrugged. "South." Ebony ended up being gone all day. At least, Tai-San thought so. Lex had seen her leave, but no one noticed her returning. With his newfound zeal, determined to catch Ebony at something, Tai-San doubted Lex had fallen asleep on the job. Any other time, sure, but now? No way. But suddenly, she was just there, among them, sweeping the floor clean of sawdust, working alongside everyone else. Ebony knew, of course, that Lex was observing the street most times, and had apparently found a way to sneak past him, despite the fact that all the other entrances but the car park and the main entrance were obstructed by mounds of snow. So Tai-San watched Ebony carefully over the next few days, hovering around her, making excuses to be near her. And when she left, Tai-San noticed, and followed her.
3 Tai-San stepped out into the dark winter day. Every noon was like dusk all the time now.
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She looked up, and raised her gloved hand to wave at Lex in the window above her. He waved back, looking slightly concerned, she could see that, even at this distance. Then she jogged down the street after Ebony. She had gone south this time too, towards the city center, she thought, but who knew where she was going after that? She could be heading out of town. She ran through Ebony's tracks snaking through the snow, and as she reached the corner, she spotted the red jumpsuit ahead of her, hood drawn up. She kept a careful distance through the eerily quiet city streets. The snow was crunching beneath her boots, but she didn't think the sound carried to Ebony's ears. The snow seemed to muffle everything like a thick duvet draped over everything, and she counted on Ebony's own steps to drown hers out. Ebony disappeared briefly from view again. She was taking a zigzag route across the labyrinth that was the city. It was lucky Tai-San wasn't afraid of the dark. The steel and concrete of the high rises, the graffiti and smashed windows the snow couldn't obscure made the buildings around her look like empty skeletons from the city's former bustling life. The suspense of tailing Ebony to see where she was heading was excitement enough. Tai-San spotted her again briefly as she rounded another corner. Ebony was closer this time; she had slowed her pace. What's more, she had her head turned half to the side, and Tai-San suddenly had a frightening idea that she knew she was there, though she didn't see 115
how she could. Tai-San ducked down behind a barrel with a dome of snow, and waited. She briefly wondered if she had been wrong about the emptiness of the city when she heard a small noise behind her. She turned, scanning her surroundings, but there was nothing. The snow lay still, shielding all the trash and scrap metal from view. She turned back to follow Ebony on, but she had barely taken one step before everything went black.
3 The next thing Tai-San knew, was that Lex was shaking her awake. She was colder than she thought she had ever been, and before she opened her eyes, she thought to herself that they had to do something about the sleeping arrangements soon. Then she realized she was outside, in a snowdrift. The back of her head hurt. "Are you okay?" Tai-San groaned instead of answering and touched her skull. A lump was growing there. "What happened?" "I don't know," she confessed. "Your lips are blue, come on, let's go home." Lex dragged one of her frozen, stiff arms across his shoulder, and dragged her to her feet with his good arm. Her body didn't seem to want to move, as if it was frozen in position. She must have been there for a little while, at least.
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"I thought something like this might happen," Lex muttered. "Don't go following her again," he ordered. "Not by yourself, anyway," he amended. Tai-San could only groan and agree.
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CHAPTER 18 He had started going out by himself. He didn't tell anyone where he went; after all, he didn't seem to have their support anymore, so why should he? Bray couldn't understand it. Why didn't they get it? Amber had taken him aside the other night, explaining that she felt that so much time had passed, and it seemed odd to try Ebony now. Firstly, it wasn't that long ago, and second, what did the time element matter anyway? Ebony had done what she had done, nothing changed that. But even Amber, whose support he had needed most, and frankly, expected, didn't seem to understand his stance. He just couldn't understand it. Everyone seemed to think he should just move on. As if he could, especially with that witch living in the same 118
building. Apparently, the Mall Rats had all slept in the same room when he had arrived; trying to keep each other and the small space warm. He had refused to join them, since she was there, and to his astonishment, they had refused to throw her out. The look she gave him as he left was almost enough to make him rip her throat out right then and there. He had stubbornly made a nest for himself in the next office over, freezing terribly through the night. He had had no choice but to bide his time. His choice of sleeping quarters wasn't such a glaring difference anymore, though. As the Mall Rats' remodeling project came closer to completion, the tribe members had started moving out, preparing their own rooms for when they would hopefully be able to warm up the Mall again. The fireplace taking shape wasn't your average one. Bray didn't think he could quite stand up in it, but almost. It was a grand thing, and it might actually be able to heat the Mall. Amber and the baby had moved out too, to new rooms since their old one had apparently been destroyed. He hadn't been invited to join them there. What's more, he knew she was up to something. Her old tricks, no doubt. It didn't matter if no one believed him. He had been following her; he had seen her. He kept his eye on her constantly, and the moment she left his sight, even if it was only in the direction of the bathroom, he tailed her. She had started leaving the Mall at random times; 119
and she was clever; most times she managed to lose him in the maze of concrete and snow. He would have jumped her right there, in the lonely city streets, but Amber had declared that she would have no violence. He had agreed. For now. He had even told Amber that he had been spying on Ebony, explaining how she kept eluding him, or, if she couldn't, simply turned back home, declaring what a nice walk she had had when she came through the door. Amber told him she knew all about her outings, but that there was no evidence that Ebony was planning anything at all. As if she didn't know her almost as well as he did. "You're starting to resemble the loner you were in the very beginning," she had sighed. "Remember?" "And do you know what I saw every day I went out onto the streets all alone?" he had asked. Amber had looked surprised. "What?" "The Locos. Zoot, and Ebony, hunting down innocent people, Amber! For all we know, she is rallying the old gang!" But she hadn't listened. She had just sighed deeply, saying she was tired. It had been his cue to leave her room. It was frustrating beyond belief to watch Ebony living freely among them, not being able to lay a finger on her, while she smiled slyly at him whenever she caught his eye. He wondered how long he could hold back, for Amber's sake. No one believing him was just an added bonus. That is, until Ebony disappeared. 120
CHAPTER 19 They told him to wait. Wait. Bray was pacing madly all afternoon. Ebony had gone out that morning, and she hadn't returned. Whenever she had disappeared on her nefarious excursions before, she had always returned after at least a few hours. But that night, as they all gathered around the bean pot on a salvaged table at the base of the phoenix statue, she still hadn't returned. He was going crazy. "We're going to be attacked, you know that, don't you?!" he yelled over the idle chatter, and the Mall fell silent, heads looking up from plates as the other Mall Rats stared at him. Reflected in some of their eyes, he could see a completely unhinged version of himself, but he didn't care how they saw him. They needed to get 121
ready. Amber, at least, had the decency to look a little concerned. "I don't think that's likely -" she started, but Bray cut her off. "She's rejoined her old friends from her Loco days, and she's coming for us, you mark my words!" "You're getting paranoid, mate," said Lex carelessly. Before Bray could round on him, Tai-San stood up from her chair. "Everyone," she said in her carrying voice. "We haven't been home long, and we've all been so busy, so let's take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to the tribe. Let's join hands -" "Do not bring out your voodoo, Tai-San!" he screamed at her, and her usually tranquil and together frame shrank back a little, and baby Bray, in his mother's lap, started weeping. "It is not the time!" Tai-San looked hurt. "I'd have thought it was the perfect time," she said lowly, but she sat back down. "Don't any of you realize the danger you're in?!" He waited for a moment for someone to join his cause. When no one did, he stormed out into the street, but not before he caught the rolling of Lex' eyes.
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CHAPTER 20 Trudy started weeping the moment Bray stormed out on them. "I don't understand it," she said. "What, Trudy?" asked Tai-San. "He's so different, so changed. I don't recognize him anymore!" Tai-San could see what she meant. "I'm devastated," she said, as fresh tears made their way down her face. "Mommy's alright, Brady," she added in an aside to her daughter, who was looking disturbed. "Something foul must have happened to him," she concluded. "He hasn't changed, really," said Amber halfheartedly. "He's just... overreacting. That's all." Tai-San wondered if she really believed that herself, 123
or if she was just trying to make herself believe it. "Let's just be happy he's back, okay? Let's give him some slack, I'm sure he's been through a lot." "Yes. We have to be patient," Tai-San agreed. Amber went off to put the baby down for his nap. "I don't know who came back here," Trudy said, once Amber was out of earshot. "But it wasn't Bray." She stared unseeingly at the floor. "Too right," joined in Lex, through a mouthful of beans. The raised voices didn't seem to have affected him in the least. "He's lost it," he concluded.
3 Tai-San was lying on her back on her futon, covers packed as tightly around her against the cold as she could muster. She was back in her old room, that is, the one she'd had way back before she and Lex had been married; the old pharmacy. She had found some of her old things and done the place up as best she could. She was almost dropping off to sleep when she heard footsteps, and then voices. "What can I do to make you understand?" said Bray, in obvious frustration. Amber just sounded tired. "I don't know, Bray. I've tried to." Tai-San turned her head, and could see their shadows on the floor outside her room. They were pulled and elongated across the floor, their heads dropping over
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the edge beneath the railing. "But when?" "Soon, okay?" She sounded irritated now. "Can't you just be patient?" "How can I, she ruined my life!" "Well, you're making a good go at ruining mine!" She had obviously said it in anger, and by how she pulled herself together, Tai-San deduced that she probably didn't really mean it. "I'm sorry. Please. We've missed you so much for so long. Can't you just try to move on along with us? Me and Bray." Her voice was soft, painting the picture. "How can we be a family with that witch still around?!" he exclaimed. There was silence for a while. "I see. Well... That's that, then. I really didn't expect this of you, Bray," she said quietly. Tai-San heard her footsteps as she walked away, leaving only one shadow on the floor. It lay there, black and unmoving for a few minutes, before it too, went away. Tai-San sighed to herself. Then she thought of Lex. They had been distant with each other since they had been reunited. Perfectly friendly, not like Amber and Bray, but they hadn't been able to pick up the old intimacy where they had left off. She didn't know why that was. Sure, Lex had been with other women since she'd been gone. She hadn't expected anything less, and it hadn't really bothered her. People always found ways 125
to move on, and she didn't begrudge him that. But he had also looked so hard for her. There wasn't any reason, she decided. Bray and Amber wouldn't become a couple again any time soon, it seemed. But the chasm between them had become vast. Not so with her and Lex. She didn't think either of them had changed much since they were apart. So then why? She got up, and wrapped a blanket around herself. He would be on guard tonight. Her slippered feet brushed the cold floors until she found him, perched in the window, seemingly half asleep. She leaned down, planting a kiss on his lips. He looked up at her in surprise, then grinned. Getting to his feet, he embraced her tightly. "I've missed you."
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CHAPTER 21 The remodeling was finally finished. The walls had been patched and rebuilt tightly, and the brick fireplace was large and promising. Amber had gathered the Mall Rats in front of it by the phoenix fountain. "I thought we ought to have a special ceremony," she said. "To celebrate this great accomplishment, and the lighting of our first fire!" The Mall Rats applauded. "We'll be cold no more," she added, laughing. "Please give a big hand to everyone, but especially to Jack, who organized this project." The Mall Rats clapped and whooped. Tai-San noticed Bray standing off to one side, by himself, not entirely with them, not really a part of the tribe. Then again, he hadn't left either, like she had wondered if he would. 127
"I'd like Jack, therefore," Amber continued as the applause died down, "to light our very first fire for us." There was sporadic clapping again as Jack walked forwards, into the middle of their little circle, head bowed, clearly shy and ill at ease. Amber handed him a box of matches. In the grate, logs and pieces of old newspaper were stacked expertly, just awaiting a spark. Jack paused, match in hand. "I," he stammered. "I'd like to dedicate this moment to the memory of my best friend Dal," he said lowly. "It was a long haul without you, mate." Tai-San smiled in fond remembrance, but her heart gave a twinge of sadness. There was a silent, somber moment before Jack started fumbling with the matches. He dropped one, broke one in half, and fussed getting new ones out of the box. Some giggles soon escaped the Mall Rats, but then, the tinder finally ignited. The Mall Rats screamed and applauded again. Soon, a roaring fire was burning, and the warmth would spread slowly, but surely through their home. The Mall Rats stood for a while, just taking in the spectacle. Some stretched out their cold hands to warm them as crackling sounds and orange light filled the room and glinted on the phoenix statue. Then someone cleared their throat. "So can we have the trial now?" They all turned towards Bray, but no one answered. An awkward silence stretched out, and no one seemed 128
inclined to break it, but as Tai-San finished scanning the room, she took it upon herself. "Where is Ebony, anyway?" she asked. "She went out," Bray answered, his mouth taut. "Where?" asked Amber. Bray spun to face her. "That, he said," with rapidly escalating intensity, "is exactly the point." Tai-San prayed he wouldn't lose his temper again. "Wait," said Trudy suddenly, her voice dark with dread, "where's Brady?" Tai-San looked around. She could have sworn she'd seen Brady moving about on her crutches just a little while ago, but she couldn't think how long ago that had been. During the lighting of the fire? Before? Tai-San wanted to simply comfort Trudy and say that it was all fine, that Brady was around here somewhere, but her instinct told her it wasn't that simple. "I'll go look for her upstairs," she volunteered, "you look down here, okay?" she told Trudy. Tai-San quickly jogged up the stairs, sticking her head into every room she passed along the balustrade, calling Brady's name. She then headed deeper into the Mall, through the labyrinthine store room, past the old lab and her own room, and then on to the various other rooms and offices. No Brady. She returned quickly to the others. "She's not there." The look on Trudy's face was enough: She hadn't found her either. 129
"How far could she have gotten on her crutches?" Ellie wondered. It was true. The little girl would hardly be a sprinter right now. "I've done everything to make her understand it's not safe out there, but she still runs off, even on a broken leg, for heaven's sake!" Trudy seemed halfway between rage and tears. "I do everything I can to keep her safe, I can't watch her every single minute, why does she keep doing this to me?" "She can't be far, we'll find her," said Bray reassuringly. But his jaw had tensed. "Ebony's gone too," said KC lowly. He was wearing a shrewd expression, Tai-San noticed, but Trudy failed to catch on. "Why should I care?!" "I was just saying!" he backtracked. "I'll go look for her," Bray volunteered. "You stay here," he added for Trudy's benefit. "I will not!" she yelled. "Please, just stay here, I'll find her, I promise, just have faith -" "Faith?!" she spat. Bray was stepping forward yet again, Tai-San thought, to take responsibility for Trudy and her daughter; his niece. He always had. But this time, it seemed Trudy wasn't having it. "I've stayed here too many times!" she declared. "I'm off to look for my daughter." She grabbed her coat, and promptly marched out, towards the main entrance. Bray 130
followed, frowning.
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CHAPTER 22 Tai-San was worried. Ten minutes later, neither Trudy or Bray had come back, and there was still no sign of Brady. The girl had a broken leg. Surely she was nearby. Tai-San had also started sensing an energy in the room that she didn't like. The fire was roaring, the phoenix was sparkling, and the cozy atmosphere shouldn't have been interrupted. But it had, she couldn't deny it. She felt it like a crawling on her skin. An itch she couldn't quite scratch. The air around her seemed to tingle. Something was wrong. She could feel it. But there was no use trying to tell the others, she thought to herself. Most of the Mall Rats seemed relaxed, lounging in front of the fire, but she caught a worried look on 132
Amber's face. But, since she didn't know exactly what was wrong, she didn't speak. She knew that Jack would laugh at her for sure, or even get annoyed, and the rest would no doubt also cast aside her worries. Like the seer Cassandra of legend, she knew they wouldn't listen. Even when she had something concrete, like one of her dreams of foresight, they usually decided it was just a coincidence. How frustrating. She started pacing restlessly back and forth. She saw from most of the others' body language that she was the only one who felt the oppressive atmosphere. After a few minutes, she realized that Amber had started following her pacing with her eyes, the tense expression on her face exacerbated. "Jeez, sit down, will you!" Lex finally snapped. "I can't," she said under her breath, bending close to his ear. "Something's going to happen." "What?" She didn't answer, just shook her head and kept pacing. Lex shook his head in turn, no doubt attributing her behavior to her inherent weirdness. Then, just as Tai-San had started feeling she was going to go nuts if this went on any longer, Ebony walked in. She sensed her more than she saw her in the corner of her eye. Tai-San's head snapped up to look at her; she was sure this was it. Ebony was wearing her red leather jumpsuit with the 133
fur trim. And following close behind her, came a whole crowd of other people, most of them too, wearing different color leather clothing, some of it adorned with tubes or electrical wires. Tai-San couldn't tell how many they were, they were crowding the hallway outside the grille, and she didn't think she recognized any of them. What she did recognize was the red and black makeup on every face. Even though it had slight variations from person to person, only one descriptive word sprang into Tai-San's mind. Locos. "Here we are, boys," said Ebony triumphantly, apparently reveling in the rapt attention of a tribe of Mall Rats staring at her, completely dumbfounded. Some, like Amber, had even gotten to their feet. "Home, sweet home," Ebony said slowly, apparently enjoying every syllable. "Ebony, what's the meaning of this?!" Amber demanded, but Tai-San thought she knew. "Oh, we're here to take back the Mall," Ebony said, grinning. Then, between the leather-clad bodies of the group of Locos, Tai-San spotted a familiar face peeking out. Brady. "Brady!" she exclaimed, but her worry was needless. Brady was smiling, apparently pleased with her current predicament. "Oh yes," said Ebony distractedly, "she followed me. Seems to have taken quite a shine to me. I was wading 134
down the street," she grimaced, "when I heard a telltale sound behind me. She was limping after me, poor thing. And then I thought, how can I use this to my advantage?" She gazed into empty air, making a show of pondering the question. "So I turned back to help her. I never turn away a budding Loco." As Tai-San stared in horror, Ebony grinned, apparently pleased with how everything had turned out. Tai-San gazed at Brady. She seemed just as pleased. The little girl just didn't understand what she was doing, what it meant, or what was going on at all, she decided. The tribe had tried to shelter her. Had they been wrong? Tai-San wondered. "This is it, our home, but more importantly, the shrine of our master. How appropriate that the new empire of the Locusts should start here, at the heart of everything. Make yourselves at home, boys," said Ebony, and the Locos streamed into the room. Some started climbing the stairs and disappearing deeper into the Mall, and others sat down around the fire, as if feeling completely at home, with an attitude of having lived there for years. The Mall Rats who hadn't yet gotten to their feet now did so, frightened and uncomfortable at being surrounded, rubbing elbows with their enemies, be they old faithfuls or new recruits. "Hey you!" Ebony snapped at one of her men. "Take those tools away!" She gestured at a box put away in a corner. "I don't want them getting any ideas." 135
Tai-San noticed that the burliest of the Locos had taken up positions at the exit, obviously not allowing them to leave. Somehow, the Mall Rats all drifted together in a tight knot of a group in the middle of the room; they had, consciously or unconsciously been drawn together, as if closeness to each other would somehow help the situation. Or perhaps it just made them feel better, to know that the others were there. Tai-San felt Lex' hand brush hers. She at last found her voice. "Why?" "Did you say something?" Ebony reluctantly turned her head towards her. "I asked why!" said Tai-San, louder this time. Ebony strode calmly towards them. "This is our new power base. The city is back to square one, you know. More so than after the Virus, even. Even the Loneliness wasn't this lonely. At least there were people here, then," she mused. "So I'm being proactive. Chances are, the city is going to repopulate soon, and I'm going to be here, on top, when it does, building this world again, in our image." Tai-San felt her lip curl at this grandiose plan. It was so Ebony. "Yes, we're seizing the power," she continued contentedly. "Or, I am, rather," she added in a whisper so her new tribe couldn't hear. "I am the rightful queen of chaos after all." Tai-San wondered if she said it in jest. 136
Ebony's voice went back up in volume as she continued. "And let's face it, this is the best house in town. You prepared a fireplace for us and everything. I sure do miss the hotel, but you know; next best thing." She grinned again. "Warm, too! It's a virtual palace these days, compared to the other shit-holes, right boys?" She yelled the last part so the whole room could hear. Some of the Locos roared their assent. Tai-San wondered if indeed her entire crew were boys. She couldn't tell, they were still very much bundled up. "In any case," Ebony mused, "this building... It houses Zoot's ghost." She said it in a remarkably soft voice and she was looking up the stairs, but her eyes didn't seem to fix on anything in particular. Tai-San frowned, wondering if she was serious. She lowered her voice again. "Power... Resources... That's what this place represents." She looked around, pleased with herself. Then she leaned in and lowered her voice further, to a whisper. "Also, I had to strike before you did." Seeing the Mall Rats' confused faces, she continued. "I couldn't let you put me on trial. Me. No way." "Wait," said Amber, "This is all because we were going to put you on trial?" "That, and some other details. I won't let you take power and hold it over my head. Ever." She had grown serious now. Then, she seemed to realize something. "Where's Bray and Trudy?" she asked, her eyes having scanned their nervous group. Tai-San thought fast. "Store room," was the best she 137
could come up with. She tried to say it with conviction, but she wasn't sure Ebony bought it. "Uh-huh," she said doubtfully. "Never mind. They'll be back once they realize I've got Brady." She looked over at the girl, who had sat down at the edge of the fountain, apparently still reveling in the action of the day. "It doesn't matter," Amber tried. "You can take your Zootists and go!" Ebony calmly turned her gaze to her. "There aren't any Zootists." Amber looked dubious, but Ebony went on. "They're Locos. Locusts. You might remember that my beloved sister and the Zootists," she said the word contemptuously, "had me brainwashed and half off my rocker believing that Zoot was alive." She grimaced sarcastically. "You might say it's a sore topic for me. The Zootists were fake," she explained. "But the Locos," she gestured at her scattered troops, "are very real indeed." "But Ebony," Tai-San started. She tried to keep her voice calm and reasonable. "You didn't have to do this! Didn't you realize that we had a good thing going here? You were going to live here anyway, with us, working together to make a better life for ourselves. But it's not too late," she assured her. "Stop this now, make your men leave, and you can still have that future." "You were going to put me on trial over ancient history," Ebony argued, her voice growing angrier with every syllable. "I had to strike before you did. No one puts me on trial." "You know what would have happened, Ebony?" Tai138
San asked her, but continued on, not waiting for her to answer. "We would have had a trial for you, yes. And we would all probably agree to go easy on you, to let it go entirely, even, with no repercussions. Like you said, it's ancient history. Bray would have been disappointed, but with time, he would have healed and gotten over it, and he probably would have forgiven you. I think you might have just ruined any chance of that with this stunt. You've known us all for years, Ebony. We're the Mall Rats, remember? We want to make a better world for everyone, not through force or violence, but understanding, and forgiveness. Do you really not know us by now?" Ebony had stayed remarkably quiet while Tai-San spoke, and even now, as she paused, she said nothing, just stared back, defiantly. "Oh, Ebony..." Tai-San sighed. "You've got to learn to leave things alone. Will you really choose Zoot over us again? He died a long time ago, Ebony. We're alive, we're your friends." Ebony leaned in close to her, and Tai-San had to fight the urge to take a step back from that angry face so close to her own. "It doesn't matter whether I choose Zoot or not. It doesn't matter whether I believe in Zoot or not, be it his legend or his ghost. Because my followers believe in both." Her voice changed to a whisper. "And they hang on my every word. He's just a tool to me," she admitted. "A tool that gathered my followers around me, made 139
them do my bidding, got me what I wanted; this new home among other things." She looked around appraisingly. "I much preferred the hotel as a base though, but even if it wasn't a pile of planks, it would be a mighty cold place to be these days, with no heating. Just a roof over our heads isn't going to cut it. This is the most luxurious place in the city right now." "You're just using these people," Ellie piped up from somewhere behind Tai-San. Ebony looked at her, unconcerned. If Ellie had thought that her pointing out the moral issue of what Ebony was doing would hold any weight at all, she was very much mistaken. "Also, it's very fitting, don't you think?" she continued, without addressing Ellie's statement. Ebony's eyes scanned the room again, resting on the Locos, who were now engaged in conversations of their own, and on the railings along the upstairs walkways, where she knew he must have fallen from. "Zoot." She said the name half lovingly, half mockingly. A chill went down Tai-San's spine. The Locos, living beneath the roof where their legendary leader once died. She wasn't sure what symbolic or spiritual power that created. But she was sure that Zoot's followers residing in the Mall couldn't possibly lead to anything good. Whether they imagined it or not, she was sure his ghost would egg them on. At a ripping sound, Tai-San started, looking down. The white cat had appeared from somewhere, between 140
hers and Ebony's feet, and it was sharpening its claws on the hem of her jumpsuit. Ebony shook her leg, and after a few tries, dislodged the cat, which landed on its feet, skidding. Ebony kicked it. The cat leveled itself again, hissing. "Hey!" yelled May, running to the rescue of the cat, gathering it into her arms. It seemingly had all bones intact, but it was scowling evilly with deep, amber eyes. Ebony's lip curled, but she dropped the issue, and walked away to lounge by the fire with her people. The Mall Rats instinctively and immediately formed a tight circle, heads together. "What do we do?" Amber asked. Tai-San glanced at Ebony. She ignored them. TaiSan had a nasty feeling that that was because there was nothing they could do. She didn't think Ebony would act so relaxed if she didn't have the place locked up tight. "We're under siege," Jack whispered. Tai-San realized he was probably right. "What's gonna happen to us?" May looked frightened. "Let's fight our way out," Lex said enthusiastically. "To where?!" asked Ellie. "The farm? What if some of us get injured? They'll follow us there. They'll never leave us alone!" "She's right," Jack agreed. "There's nowhere to go to. I don't give us much of a chance of making it out in the elements." "We could stay in one of the empty buildings until we take this place back," Lex suggested. 141
"And how exactly do you propose we do that?!" Jack argued. "From out there? They'd find us. Weak from hunger, or plain, old-fashioned frozen to death. We wouldn't stand a chance. Anyway, we're outnumbered." He raised a finger, apparently trying to count the Locos who hadn't yet gone to explore the Mall, but he gave up at around a dozen. Tai-San guessed there must be at least twice that. Amber nodded. "Yes, escaping is out. It would be suicide." "We can't just do nothing!" said Lex, frustrated. "I think we should resist!" "We could wait," tried Tai-San. Lex looked outraged. "What?!" She held up a hand. "Hear me out, Lex. Right now, I don't think an all-out fight would do us any good. There are so few of us. You're injured," she pointed out. She saw the thought I could take them all with both hands tied behind my back flicker across his face, but she cut him off as he opened his mouth to utter it. "Even you won't win that fight, Lex. Let's just wait for now. And observe our... house guests. Perhaps we can learn something. Remember, Bray and Trudy are bound to realize something's wrong really soon, and they'll come back." I just hope they won't barge into the trap as well, she thought. "There's nothing we can do right now." She saw Lex finally acknowledge that fact. He looked angry, and walked away, sitting down in a corner, to sulk, no doubt. She had to admit he was right; it was 142
frustrating. "A solution will come to us," she promised the rest of the Mall Rats. "Really, it will." Tai-San said it with complete confidence. She just hoped it was indeed the truth.
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CHAPTER 23 Bray hadn't managed to follow Trudy more than a couple of blocks before he saw her freeze. He didn't realize what was wrong at first, his eyes had been fixed to her tense and stubborn back. As she spun around, motioning him towards her frantically, he spotted the crowd of people emerging out of the darkness. It was eerie. The city had been empty for so long; it seemed to Bray that he had unconsciously decided that as long as the snow lay thick in the city streets, there was no room for any more people. Somehow his memories of bare streets walked by people in tribal garb didn't depict the same city as the one he was now standing in; white snow, darkness and muffled sounds. The group was simply out of place. 144
He darted across the road, crouching near Trudy behind a tall pile of snow near the concrete wall of a building. Bray suspected there were trash cans buried underneath. They waited for a minute, and then the person heading the group passed them, walking straight, and clearly with purpose. It was Ebony. She didn't see them. Behind her followed a motley crowd of people, varying in age and appearance, but what they all had in common was their shared taste in clothing, and their synchronized makeup. "I knew it," he whispered. Trudy's breath was coming fast in a mist by his ear. And then he saw her. One of the group, a burly fellow, was carrying a little girl on his back. Another, a skinnier younger boy, was carrying her crutches. The girl seemed very pleased with this arrangement. She was grinning. Brady. A sharp gasp sounded as Trudy too took in the sight. She made a sharp movement, as if to run into the road to stop them, but Bray had been expecting it. He threw one arm around her, clamping the other one over her mouth. She struggled. "Trudy, don't!" Muffled arguments from between his fingers. "Can't you see they're heading for the Mall? Can't you see that's the best place for Brady? She'll be fine with the others, she'll be safe, and she'll be warm." The last of Ebony's crew had walked by, and when he 145
judged the distance long enough, he loosened his grip. "They've got Brady!" she snarled. "I know." She stared at him, eyes popping out of her head at the resigned tone in his voice. "They're too many, Trudy. I'm thinking. Maybe we can find a way to help them from out here. She'll be fine with the others, don't worry. They won't let anything happen to her." Trudy looked dubious. "I knew this would happen," said Bray. He sat down hard in the snow. He had no idea what to do. "We've got to get those thugs out of there!" If Trudy had been at all surprised to have Bray's fears realized, she didn't show it. He was impressed at how speedily she adapted to this new situation, but he also knew that Trudy had known Ebony for a very long time, about as long as he had. Perhaps Trudy too had reached her limit with her. Perhaps her lies didn't surprise her either anymore. Bray rubbed his cold hands over his face. "You were right all along," said Trudy dejectedly. Bray didn't answer. He wished he hadn't been. "I thought you would rant and scream and break things. You know, throw a full-on tantrum. Say you told us so." He turned to look at her, but couldn't manage more than a sigh. "You're surprisingly calm," Trudy concluded. "So are you." 146
"Not really. I just don't know what to do." "My worst fears have been realized," Bray heard himself saying. "But it's a bit late for a tantrum, isn't it?" He smiled grimly. "You're not holding up so badly yourself." Trudy grimaced. A moment passed in silence. Then she said, "you've changed, Bray." He held a hand to his throbbing forehead. "Yeah. So have you," he added. "Well... You always took care of us, Bray. Brady and me. But then, you weren't there anymore. The Technos told us you were dead. It's good of you to try to take responsibility for us... again. But while you were away, we survived. Somehow. Though it didn't look good at times. It's my job now, to try to save my daughter. She's my responsibility. And I'll try to do it." She seemed determined. "Can I at least help?" She smiled grimly. "Of course. We've got to help all the Mall Rats." "Hey, I know something we can do!" "What?" she asked eagerly. "It's not really a plan, but it's a start anyway." He got up, grabbed her hand, and pulled her along with him up the street.
3 It wasn't easy getting to the roof. There was a fire escape
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at the back of the Mall – just a spindly ladder, really, and they struggled to even reach it, fighting their way through drifts as deep as Bray's middle, but not by any means strong enough to hold their weight aloft. Then, as they reached the metal rungs attached to the wall, they were covered in ice, making for a very treacherous hold. He made Trudy climb first, in case she slipped and fell, even though logically, he supposed the drifts below would break their fall if an accident did happen. It was a frightening climb, several stories straight up. Bray's boots were constantly slipping, and he felt clumsy, his booted feet going numb from the cold. He climbed blindly much of the time, because the wind made his eyes sting with flecks of snow and ice. They both fumbled, and the climb took much longer than Bray would have thought, but at last, they reached the roof, and Trudy extended a hand to help him up. The roof of the Mall was covered in snow. Bray would have thought it was too windy up here, the way it tore at his fur, but there was a stubborn layer of ankle-deep snow still clinging to the concrete. The roof was big enough that its edges disappeared completely into the night, but it suddenly occurred to Bray that perhaps it was just that he couldn't see the drop in the dark, the snow blended so seamlessly into the background. "Stay close," he told Trudy sternly. "We might fall off and not even realize until it's too late." She nodded as a shiver went through her. 148
They made their way slowly and methodically across the roof. It was very dark, and Bray couldn't see many meters ahead of him, but he wondered if the snow was tricking his eyes again. Everything looked the same up here, and it seemed impossible to judge distances. He made Trudy walk in his tracks just in case. Just as Bray was sure he had managed to lose his way up here, he spotted the vague square outline in the darkness. They waded over to the chimney. From the smell, rather than from the sight, Bray didn't think it was smoking too bad, and as he popped his head over the edge and peered down, careful not to dislodge any snow that would kill the fire, he felt warm air strike his frozen cheeks, and saw, all too bright for his eyes after the dimness of the black roof, glowing embers, the remains of the fire, far, far below him. He pointed his ear downwards. For a moment, he could hear only the wind, and some distant rumblings of conversations from below. He leaned forwards further, his head hanging below the edge of the chimney, and listened. For a moment, there was nothing. Then, he heard Ebony's voice. "Don't think I haven't noticed," she said, and the other conversations happening seemed to still when she took the floor. They usually did. "But I did. There are a couple of people missing from your midst. Glaringly so, I'd say. That's the only reason you're all still here, you know. Didn't think I'd realize that Bray and Trudy are missing?" Someone jumped in, with something Bray couldn't 149
make out. But apparently, it wasn't something Ebony wanted to hear." "Shut it!" she screamed. "The only reason you all are still here," she couldn't seem to calm her angry tone, "is that I want every single Mall Rat accounted for, before I decide what to do with you." Bray didn't like the sound of that. "I fully expect Bray to come barging in here and try to rescue you sorry saps. With a simpering Trudy in tow, no doubt. He never can resist rescuing his little family. So predictable," she declared in contempt. "And when he does, we're ready. In fact, he should be here any minute!" Bray withdrew his head. "What?" Trudy asked, at the look on his face. "She expects us to come and try to save the day," he said grimly. Trudy didn't look surprised. "We'd be playing right into her hands." "Well," said Trudy, now shaking in her thick coat, "if we're going to take the bait, we'd better come prepared." "What are you on about?" "Let's find some weapons." She paused, then amended it. "Well, at least something that can be used as a weapon." Bray looked at her, surprised, but didn't comment. "Okay. Let's see if we can find anything in any of the buildings." He gestured vaguely at the darkness. They made their way carefully back the way they had 150
come, treading the same tracks again. At least neither of them fell off the roof.
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CHAPTER 24 Bray fished the little box of matches out of his pocket, and fumbled around with them until he finally managed to strike one in the complete blackness. For a moment, he could only see that bright spark, and then Trudy's frame slowly materialized near him. It might have been some sort of storage facility, or perhaps a factory once. The darkness that pressed in on them seemed vast, and the light of the match didn't illuminate much of what must have been a very large room. But from the little Bray saw of it, it was littered with debris. He thought he spotted a bike, a pile of something that must be fabric, something that was probably sheet metal... Trudy made her way forwards meticulously, careful 152
not to trip over any of the strange and varied objects that were scattered across the floor. "I think... yes!" she exclaimed. "Here's a cricket bat!" She cradled it in the crook of her arm and kept looking. Bray followed her with the match until it burned his fingers. He dropped the charred thing and lit another. "Do you think we'll be able to get these to the others without the Locos and Ebony noticing?" "Well... With what I'm thinking... No, probably not," Bray admitted. Trudy looked at him sharply. "If we act fast, and we can take back the Mall and drive the Locos out, it won't matter. Blitz attack. I can't think of anywhere we can get in silently, they'll have all the entrances under guard." Trudy looked even more dubious now. Bray lit another match. Then he spotted a rope, coiled in a corner. "Hey, bring that!" He pointed. "I figure we're gonna need it," he declared darkly.
3 In the end, they had to go to a few more buildings, but they managed to find a number of things at least resembling weapons; the bat, a couple of frying pans they located in what must have been the cafeteria of an office building, a replica Japanese sword from a shop, some broom handles from a warehouse, and various other implements. It wasn't easy carrying them all, and
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Bray had resolved to tying the rope around himself, binding to himself as many of the items as possible. He prayed silently that when he broke the rest of the plan to Trudy, she wouldn't go off the deep end. But he had to admit, the more he thought about it (he tried not to), he felt more and more like he might do just that himself.
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CHAPTER 25 They trudged back towards the Mall in the snow. It was snowing again, but at least the wind had let up a little. They moved in the shadows of the buildings, just in case Ebony had posted lookouts in the windows, just like they had. Since theirs were the only tracks in the otherwise smooth rising and falling of the layer of snow that covered the world, Bray stopped dead at the sight of some he hadn't been expecting. He felt Trudy put a hand against his back as she braced herself, walking into him. There were some clear tracks in the snow, fresh apparently, branching off from the street going around the side of the Mall, disappearing into the alley. The 155
street outside the Mall's entrance was littered with the Locos' footprints, but they were all starting to lose their shape in the wind and snow. Soon, they'd be gone all together. Bray frowned. "Did you make those?" He pointed. Trudy peered over his shoulder. "No, I was with you the whole time, you know that." It was true. He and Trudy hadn't been on that side of the Mall at all when going up to the roof. "Well, someone's about. I hope the Locos haven't decided to send out a patrol. I guess people might be returning to the city. I doubt they've let the Mall Rats out." "Perhaps one of them managed to escape?" Bray didn't reply, but he doubted it. "Well, let's hope they're friendly." They sure didn't need more trouble. "And that they've moved on," he added, adjusting his grip on a frying pan. "Come on, let's get out of sight." Bray headed towards the back of the building, again heading for the bottom of the ladder. "The roof?" Trudy asked. Bray nodded, and gestured for Trudy to go first. She didn't move. "But... The door to the roof is buried beneath the snow, the whole stairway is blocked, I saw it earlier. Anyway, they probably locked it from the inside anyway..." She stared suspiciously at him. "What?" "We're not going through any door." And he started climbing the slippery ladder, without checking that she 156
followed. But as he reached the roof, she was right behind him, and he hauled her up. As they fought their way over to the chimney, he heard, above the breeze, Trudy beginning to protest behind him. "What..? The chimney? How is that going to help?" At the base of the brick structure, Bray started tossing the various implements they had gathered into the snow at its base. Trudy was regarding him critically, arms crossed. When he re-tied the rope to the nearby railing there on the edge of the roof, her arms dropped to her sides. Her eyes went wide, going from him to the chimney and back again. "Wha..? No!" "It's the only way we'll take them by surprise," he said reasonably. "You're insane! We'll get hurt! We'll break our legs, or, or... burn!" He noticed she said "we", not "you", and smiled inwardly. "Any better ideas?" She was quiet for a moment. "No." He began loading her arms with weapons. The cricket bat, the sword, and various other things. She frowned at him, but put up with it. When she had as much as she could hold, he loaded his own arms full. Then he extended them over the open chimney. "Drop them right after me." She nodded. 157
"Then follow me down on the rope." She looked terrified. "I'll hold them off until you're inside," he promised, but the stunt in itself was bad enough without Locos crawling all around, probably all gathered right near the fireplace. She had gone rather pale, he thought, but she nodded tersely. "One... Two... Three!" He dropped the armful, and a moment later, so did Trudy. Bray didn't stop to listen to the loud bangs and clatter and, no doubt, the fizzing of the fire, but swung himself onto the ledge of the chimney, grasping the rope in both hands. He drew a quick breath, ignored the panicked surge of fear in his stomach, and plunged his legs down into the narrow abyss that was the chimney.
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CHAPTER 26 The sudden banging and clanging made Tai-San jump. She turned her head towards the sound, and saw a cloud of smoke spill out of the fireplace, and drifting pieces of ash were suddenly in the air, about to settle on the Locos crowded around the fire. She got instinctively to her feet, but remained where she was. The Locos around the fire had gotten up as well, coughing and waving the smoke out of their eyes. It was hard to tell through the gray cloud, but she thought something was spilling out of the fireplace. Then, as the smoke was settling, she heard another thud, and a crouched figure righted itself and emerged from the fireplace, shoe-soles smoking, brandishing a cricket bat. Tai-San's eyes saw that it was Bray, suddenly magically materialized, but her brain 159
found it difficult to catch on. Then he started swinging; two Locos went down, and Tai-San found herself springing into action. The Locos were frozen; too shocked to comprehend what had just happened. So were the Mall Rats. "Come on!" Tai-San screamed, running over to the fireplace from her spot in the corner. She grabbed one of whatever was in there (thankfully, it hadn't been in there long enough to be very warm), thrust another of the things at Lex, who had joined her, not bothering to check what any of it was. She lifted the frying pan she was holding just as the first Loco came at her, and swung. The clang it made against the helmeted head was sickening, and the man went down. Lex darted in front of her. She realized with a jolt that what she had handed him was a sword. No one came at them as he hovered protectively, grasping the hilt of the thing with both hands, his good and his injured one. The Mall Rats had come out of their shocks; several of them had grabbed makeshift weapons from the floor in front of the fire while she hadn't been looking, and fights were breaking out all over the hall. She spotted Salene brandishing a smoking frying pan, and Alice a long stick. She and KC were standing protectively in front of the children, Brady and Bray jr., holding the advancing Locos off. Tai-San spotted movement at the corner of her eye, and while Lex performed some theatrical swings with the 160
sword in midair (keeping them away from her, she realized with slight annoyance), she turned her head a little to the side. It was Trudy, coming out of the fireplace, rather less smoothly than Bray, stumbling onto the floor, but determinedly thrusting a plank into the stomach of the first leather-clad person she saw. As the young man bent over, she hit him again with the flat of the piece of wood over the back, and he went down like a sack of potatoes. The Locos previously standing guard at the exit were joining the fight. None of them had weapons handy, and were using their fists. So even though those guys were the burliest of the bunch, the Mall Rats had an advantage. And they had taken the Locos off guard. Lex advanced, swinging the sword in the general direction of two of he guards, and Tai-San followed, making for a third. She swung at him just as he darted backwards. Taken off guard and caught in the momentum of the old school iron pan, she spun all the way around, and hit the man in the knee upon her return. His knee buckled, and she took the opportunity to smack him over the back. He went down. She saw that Lex had drawn blood on the two others, and they were keeping their distance from the blade, unwilling to get within its reach. Tai-San turned away, just as another Loco fell on her. He had a plank of wood, leftover from their remodeling no doubt, and he managed to hit her in the arm with it, getting past her guard. She winced, swinging at him, and caught him in the stomach. 161
He bent over, and Tai-San moved on. The hall was a blur of fighting. Everyone was moving, and it was hard to tell, but it seemed like they had the upper hand. A surge of elation blended with her adrenaline. Ebony had joined the fight too. She was yelling something at her men, but Tai-San couldn't, over all the other noise, screaming and clatter, make out any words. She saw her hit Trudy hard in the neck, and moved on to Salene without stopping to see whether or not she was out of action. As Tai-San watched, she pushed Salene over, so she fell into some furniture, and didn't get up. Just as Lex zipped past her in a blur, an arm locked on Tai-San's throat. A surprised gasp escaped her, she dropped the pan, struggling to catch her breath through the pressure on her wind pipe. Whoever had a hold of her; someone with a hairy hand sticking out of a blue leather jacket, was dragging her across the floor towards the stairs. She struggled and scratched, but the arm was like solid metal around her neck, and didn't budge. Whoever it was, he was too strong for her. As she was being dragged backwards up the stairs, trying to get her feet under her on steps she couldn't see, she saw Lex' back ever so far away on the other side of the room. She tried calling his name, but it came out as a whisper. Her face must be turning red. Her eyes darted desperately around the room, but no Mall Rat eyes met hers. Some were down, injured, and the rest were busy fighting Ebony and her men. No one could see she was 162
in trouble. She struggled harder when they were on flat ground again, on the upper floor. She banged her knee against the railing beside her, and it suddenly occurred to her with a sickening jolt that he might throw her over. That, apparently, was not his plan. They moved slowly deeper into the Mall, towards the store rooms and offices. With a great effort, she kicked the man, and twisted momentarily out of his grip as he grunted in pain, but before she knew it, he was dragging her on by her long, black hair. At last, he shoved her hard through a doorway, and she tumbled to the floor. She realized she was in the empty room the Guardian stayed in, once, in another lifetime. She got laboriously to her feet, facing him as he closed the door, shutting out the light from the candles outside, landing them in twilight. He was wearing a leather helmet and a cheesy grin. She acknowledged she might be in trouble. "What is this?" "Oh, I thought we might spend some alone time together." She didn't like the sound of that. "I don't want to hurt you," she said, in her most menacing voice. He laughed then, advancing on her. At least she faced him now, and had her hands free. As he lifted a hand to her, she grabbed one of the fingers as quick as a snake, and snapped it the wrong 163
way. The crack, so far away from the rest of the battle, seemed deafening. The man roared in pain. But it didn't stop him, it had simply made him angry. She ducked a millisecond too late, and his fist smacked her cheekbone, hard. The sting brought tears to her eyes, but she wasted no time; she had to get away sooner rather than later. She kicked him hard in the groin with her heavy boots before the momentum of his punch was under control, and he lost his balance and fell onto his front on the floor, roaring in anger. She took the opportunity to kick him again, in the face this time, and she thought she saw a tooth spin away into a corner. He screamed again. "You could have avoided this," she said, as she leveled a final kick to his stomach. Then she ran for the door, grabbing the key from the keyhole. Before she slammed the door shut, he was getting unsteadily to his feet. She fumbled with the key, finally got it into the lock, and turned it, just as his heavy bulk slammed into the door on the other side. She ran, key in hand, back towards the others, tears stinging her eyes. As she passed the open door of one of the store rooms, she suddenly halted. She had seen movement in the corner of her eye, and turned swiftly towards it, half expecting her adversary to be upon her again, locked in or not. There, in the window, was a white, distorted, grotesque face, seemingly hovering in midair outside, 164
looking in at her through a hole in the snow. She startled, but before she knew it, the face was gone. Had it been any other day, she would have gone into the room and looked out after it, perhaps even opened the window. But not today. Not now. She hurried on, but even in her haste to return to the others, the logical part of her brain offered up that someone must have been standing on the fire ladder outside, peering in. One of Ebony's men? Should she have gone back? Tried to push him off? And yet the face had seemed unreal, barely human, like something from a nightmare; distorted. She wasn't sure what she'd seen. As she arrived, running, at the top of the stairs, she saw immediately that the tide of the battle had turned. More Mall Rats were on the floor, and Ebony was yelling at her people. "Round them up!" The Mall Rats were being herded together. Apparently, they were keeping the children protectively in the center of the group. She spotted Lex. He was hunched over, cradling his now twice injured arm and bleeding from the head. "Lex!" She ran to him. He looked up, startled, apparently having realized she was gone. "Ah, Tai-San, how nice of you to join us," said Ebony, as her men pushed and shoved the defeated Mall Rats into a tight knot. Tai-San ignored her. "Lex, are you okay?" she whispered, as she pushed 165
her way through the guards to join him. "Are you?" She nodded, but offered no more, even though he didn't look convinced. It clearly wasn't the time. Suddenly, Bray broke out of the throng, lunging at Ebony. Before she had time to protect herself, he was on top of her, knocking her to the ground, her head smacking loudly against the floor. Seemingly letting all that pent-up aggression loose, he hit her hard in the face. Tai-San winced. Never mind what she had just done upstairs, she hadn't ever seen Bray like this before. She could barely see Ebony beneath Bray's bulk, but she could hear the smacks as he hit her across the face. But then, the Locos were upon him, grabbing his arms, his clothes, and heaved him off her. Tai-San could see Ebony breathing heavily. Her nose was bleeding, the blood smudged across her face. She got slowly to her feet, but didn't wipe off the blood. Her face was enraged, and, Tai-San thought, humiliated. TaiSan had seen it before; there was only one way for Ebony to react now: revenge.
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CHAPTER 27 "Throw them out!" she screamed hoarsely. Bray struggled against six men holding him. "You won't get away with this!" He yelled. But they had already started moving him, and them, towards the exit. "You can't do this, we'll freeze to death!" Amber yelled. "Let us at least take our coats and hats," said Salene reasonably. "Please." Ebony looked at her reluctantly. "Fine. Whatever. I never cared much for your fashion sense anyway." Salene left the group, a Loco following her closely, and returned with her arms full of their winter coats that had been discarded in a pile by the fountain. She handed them all out in silence. 167
"Great," said Ebony sarcastically. "Now get out of my house." Tai-San supported Lex as they were marched, closely watched by guards, out the grille and down the hall and out. The icy wind hit Tai-San's face, and filled her eyes with more tears from its sting. They gathered outside the front doors, but didn't move from there. Everyone was looking at Ebony, standing in the doorway in her red jumpsuit with a bloody face. "Don't try to come back," she requested. "Then we have to do this all over again. And just so you know, my people have taken the farm too." She smiled. "Just wanted to save you a wasted trip." "What are we supposed to do?!" Salene wailed in desperation. "We can't survive long out here, Ebony," said Amber, appealing to her reason. But Ebony was beyond that. "The Mall Rats," she sneered. "You're an enterprising bunch. You'll figure it out." She gestured to her men, and the next moment, the doors were shut tight against the winter. Tai-San turned to the others. Lex was tying his scarf into a sling. Was his arm broken again? She saw Jack's face in the darkness; it had a black line of blood down the temple, and Salene was knotting her handkerchief over a cut on her forearm. No one spoke, as Tai-San looked around at them all, dejectedly. But then, she was distracted by movement between the heads of Alice and Ellie, and looking past them, she thought she saw a 168
huddled, dark-clad figure a ways away down the street, ducking out of sight in an alley between the snow drifts. She had momentarily forgotten about the frightening face in the window. Was this it? But just as soon as she had thought it, she wondered if she had seen it at all; the figure had disappeared. She became distantly aware that Brady had started crying in gasping sobs. "Oh, you'll be crying when I'm done yelling at you," Trudy threatened her. "What are we going to do?" Amber asked despairingly. She was holding her son close to her, sharing her warmth with him. No one answered her. "TaiSan?" she asked. Tai-San shook her head. "May?" Amber sighed. "Lex? KC? One of you must know a place we can stay?" Lex lost his temper. "Like where?!" he yelled. "Sure, I had lots of places to stay, way back when! But then there was the explosion, and besides, none of them had heating anyway." "We could make for the suburbs, find a house with a fireplace," Jack suggested. "It's the middle of the night, Jack!" Ellie chimed in. "And it would take all night. In the pitch dark. Besides, we haven't got a sandwich between us." It was all true. The only reason Tai-San could see their faces, was the glow of candles from the Mall's windows. It was looking grim then, she thought. She had kept resilient through many struggles, but now, she felt 169
her hope slipping. They couldn't do anything unless they found food, and heat, fast. They'd never make it even as far as the suburbs. She was already shaking violently from the cold. "Wait, guys," said Trudy suddenly, clearing her throat. "I have a plan."
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Epilogue From the darkness of the alley, a shadow separated itself from the others; materialized, and moved towards the street. It moved stiffly, stopping at the corner and peering out, resting its dark hood against the rough concrete of the nearest building. It observed the Mall Rats, thrown out into the cold outside their Mall, huddling together and apparently discussing what to do. The figure's shoulders moved slightly up, and then down, as if the person inside the cloak had just drawn a deep sigh. No, it thought to itself. It wasn't time yet. The figure walked quietly out of the alley, and down the tracks the Locos had made in the street. None of the Mall Rats looked over and saw it this time. They clearly 171
had other worries to occupy them, and the shadow was soon swallowed up by the darkness from whence it came.
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