I give a hefty shrug and wrinkle my nose, saying, "Well, it all depends, doesn’t it? I mean, who knows what’s out there? – who’s out there…?” I show Slade an ominous look which lingers for a second or two before giving way to a grin as I add gleefully, “Why, they’re boldly going where no Mall Rat has gone before.”
I’m all set to adopt a dramatic pose, mainly for my own amusement, when we’re interrupted by a newcomer’s approach and I instead turn to face them.
Ah. It’s May. One of the weaker willed tribe-members by my data. Not too hard on the eyes though, I appreciate, looking her up and down.
Her remark receives a wry smile. Heh. Bugging Slade. Right. It’s really quite interesting how little it takes to get yourself demoted from Major System Threat to little more than Low Risk Annoyance.
I smirk at her coquettish help offering. “Well, well! Looks like you’ve got yourself an eager volunteer, Sladey!” I clap a hand on his shoulder with a cackle. “Guess you won’t be needing my help, after all, man. Good luck with the, uh… crabs.”
OOC: Sorry about how long this took. Sorry if it doesn’t make sense because I have no clue what I’m doing. Not sorry for Star Trek reference.
I follow Amber, lost in my own thoughts. Could this really be happening? What if he’s still here? The place had seemed deserted thought… and I know it would be a good place for them all. But the idea of being here again frightenes me to the core.
But how could I tell them what I know… what this place is… or was…
How can I make them understand?
Holding on to Brady’s hand tightly I come to a realization. Ram… if anyone would know what to do, it was him… after all, he was the only one in a similar position… having been on top for one of the tribes that did cruel things as well, might make him able to relate to her problem.
I’m so happy to be back on dry land I don’t notice Jack’s slight uneasiness. I’m eager to explore and see what there is of interest on this island. I’m left wondering what of the stuff that’s growing on these trees that we can eat, I know I’m a farm girl and all but these are naturally grown stuff and I haven’t paid attention to that kind of thing in years really. It’s certainly something we’re going to need to think about and if It comes to it I realise I wouldn’t mind getting back to my roots as it were.
"Shall we try this way?" I ask. Having walked along the beach I see a smaller path leading up into some trees. It’s as good a place to start as any I guess.
Following KC’s advice, I reach for one of the small bottles of water, allowing the first few drops to wash the dirt and sand from out of my lips. With moisture reworked back into them, I then proceed to drink my share, feeling less lightheaded and more focused by the minute.
Pointedly ignoring the Guardian mumbling to himself in one corner of the cage, I push myself up to my feet and head towards the bars. Gripping them tightly, I look towards the other cages, trying to see if there are other familiar faces out there.
We get back to the beach in no time, didn’t the adults used to say time passed slower when you didn’t know where you were going? I wouldn’t say we knew anything about this island, but we were back with the others.
I sink down and sit in the sand looking out to the ocean watching the waves. Siva would have liked it here, I look down the beach imagining where we’d put a bungalow, we were both city kids, but who wouldn’t want a beach front mansion.
I don’t even know what resources were gathered while we were gone. But it’s not my problem, for now, I want to sit and watch the waves.
Rocking backwards and forwards, one of the other people in the cage places a hand on my shoulder and offers me some water, I don’t move just carry on rocking "Please drink’ I hear a female voice say…
“Is this a dream” shakily muttering under my breath…
“Tha…Thanks”
I manage to say as I shakily take the water, I struggle to distinguish faces where I am weak and dizzy from the sun and from dehydration… I look at the water and slowly take little bits, not sure if it was good or poisoned, I don’t care its cold and its nice, my mouth and throat feel like I have eaten a bucket of sand, slowly drinking the cold water, I feel it go down my throat and into my stomach, I can almost hear it hit the pit of my stomach, it lets out a huge growl from the hunger, I finish the water, I am given and suddenly a wave of exhaustion flows over me, I feel lile I am in a dream and floating… Putting down the bottle I lay down, feeling the urge to sleep, I curl into a ball to protect myself incase the Technos come and drag me off, closing my eyes I slowly drift off to sleep…
The walk back to the beach hadn’t taken very long, I wanted answers from more than one person - up to this point Lex had done an incredibly good job avoiding me or avoiding my questions at least, even when we’d been on the boat; so cornering him over Mega’s final words hadn’t been something I’d managed to do yet, but it would happen I just needed to find the perfect moment and perhaps have some back up - I wanted to know exactly what Mega had meant by ‘Lex knows everything’ what exactly did Lex know?
Watching as Lex goes his own way I glance at Trudy and Brady, it was easy to see something was troubling her “You saw something back there, you don’t have to give me details right now, but if there is anything important we need to know, now is the time to say it.” I say gently, was I concerned? Of course I was, not for myself though, for everyone else, my son was here and if he was in any sort of danger I wanted to be prepared.
Looking over towards the small group, I watch Ruby with my son, this was all so new to us all, being in the city or even with the Eco’s had been easy somehow in comparison to this adventure, moments like this made me miss Dal, Bray and Pride so much more, all of them handled things like this so much better than I did - the city had been our home and now everything was so unknown.
I let my eyes travel around as a I let my eyes rest on one of the water bottles, i head over to a man whos sitting there rocking. I place my hand at his shoulder. “please drink” I say and hold out the water for him to take. I lift my head slightly looking around, people are gathering up to get water. All i want to do is to go home. ‘thanks’ the man says.
There is something familiar with the voice, a voice i’ve heard so many times before. I can feel my feet falling away from me. I sink down in the beach. "R R, " I start, i have to take a deep breath. “ryan? is it you?”
Laying with my eyes closed trying to sleep, I hear a voice, then my name, not moving from where I lay, I sit there and mumble…
“Yes my names Ryan”
I lay there puzzled for a few moments, I had been called alot of things, slave, guniea pig and test subject being among them, it had been a while since some one had said my name…
“Patsy”
I mumble confused, no it couldn’t be, its a trick, but what if it wasn’t, I sit up slowly and turn to the young woman sitting by me, I just look at her,
It is Ryan! Oh my, I look at him with my mouth dropped open, I can’t help but to show how surprised i am. I feel my eyes tearing up, a few tears running down my cheek. “it really is you” i say in a whisper, before throwing my arms around him. “your here?, your supposed to be back home, supposed to be home” i say in a whisper, tears running, i can’t stop them.
Looking at Patsy blank and confused, she throws her arms around me and I know I am not in reality space, I can feel her holding on to me, her tears run down my neck as she sobs…
“Patsy”
I say with a sigh and wrap my arms tight around her, she had become like daughter to me and Salene when we were in the mall, I just hold her close as she sobs, tear start to run down my face, there are so many questions, but where do you start… Patsy repeats over and over
“Your supposed to be at home”
Not speaking we just hold each other… Eventually I break the silence…
Ryan really is there, it is not a dream. His arms around me as i hug him tightly. Salene and Ryan had been like parents to me and Cloe after the virus. We had been like a family, before everything changed. I use my hand to dry my face as Ryan speaks.
he asks if ive seen anyone else. I think i have. Nodding my head i look at the fence before at him. “i saw Danni, and” I take a deep breath. “Zandra, it really was her, it was not a dream, she gave me water, Danni seemed mad with me, still”
I look at Patsy even more confused, my stomach knots a little as I remember, I had always had a soft spot for Zandra…
“Zandra is dead Patsy, we buried her and Amber on Eagle mountain”
I look at her knowing there is no way Zandra could be alive, maybe she was in reality space when she saw her…
“We don’t know where Danni is the choosen took all the leaders away”
Could it be true, could Patsy be right, not knowing how it could be, Lex buried her himself… Keeping hold of Patsy’s hands, shaking but not wanting to let go incase I am in reality space…
He doesn’t believe me? Could I have been imagining it? But it seemed so real, it had to be real. Zandra gave me water. I look at Ryan through teary eyes. “but she seemed so real, she said she would get me out” I say in a whisper.
I look down. “they were both wearing black uniforms” i add still holding his hands.I want to hug him again, it feels so good to finally have a familar face around
Lookin at Patsy, she was so sure it was Zandra, I couldn’t work out how it could possibly be that she is alive, I have seen that look in Patsy’s eyes before, not knowing what to believe I look down at her hands, they are dry and cracked, I turn them over and look at her palms, feeling a pain rip through my heart and stomach, she was so young, she means so much to me and Salene, I promised I would protect her, I let her down, I feel so bad, I pull my hands away from hers, I notice her clothes are dirty and tatty like mine, she shouldn’t be in here she should be free and happy…
“I am sorry”
I move away slightly, I can’t shake the feeling that I let her down,
Ryan says he’s sorry, why is he sorry? He move slightly away from me. I bite my lip looking at him. “you have no reason to be sorry” I say looking at him. If anyone should be sorry, it should be me, i betrayed him, and the rest of my family.
“Ryan, please dont pull away, I’ve missed you, your my family,” i say, I want to reach over to him, but im afraid he will pull back. “im sorry if i upset you” i say looking down at my hands, i look at the mallrats mark i’ve been digging into my hand a several times over and over.
“I promised I would protect you and I didn’t, I let you down, I let Salene and cloe down, I should have protected you”
Banging my fist against the cage, not realisin i made my knuckle bleed…
“I am going to kill the guardian if I see him again, he took my family from me, they threw me in the mines”
Anger building up inside my stomach and chest, feeling like I want to explode…
“I was building a home, a home for us all to be happy, my family, I was going to get you and take you all there, you, cloe, salene, our baby, the technos came and destroyed it and put me on machines” shaking
Looking at the floor, wanting so much for this to be real, that Patsy was there, but convinced i was in reality space because I know Zandra is dead in real life, I pull back some more not wanting to get too close to Patsy incase she wasn’t real disappeared again…
I look at Ryan, he hits his hand into the fence so it starts to bleed. I want to clean his hand, clean the wound, but my clothes are dirty. “you couldn’t protect me, I wouldn’t have listened, I thought i was doing the right thing, you never let me down Ryan, I let you down” i say,. He spoke about building a home, that the chosen ruined it, and something about the technos.
Having heard about them, I nod my head, before she move closer to Ryan wrapping my arms around him pulling him into a hug. “im not letting go, till you forgive yourself, its not your fault” i say whispering into his ear.
Feeling Patsy’s arms embrace me, ‘my’ little girl back with me, I try and hold it together but I can’t, always believing a man should not cry, I have been strong for so long and I didn’t want to show my weakness to the Technos but I can’t hold it in any longer, I wrap my arms around Patsy and break down crying, there was nothing i could do, it overwhelmed me, here she was, I know she is here, I know she is as safe as can be for now, she doesn’t blame me for standing up to the choosen and getting taken away, for not protecting her, I was still hurting about the choices salene had made, she turned her back on me, on our family… Pulling myself together, I look at her…
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that”
Finding part of my sleeve I wipe my eyes, smearing some dirt across my face…
“I didn’t go back to the mall when the choosen left, Salene made her choice” looking at the floor thinking if the baby "she turned her back on me and chose a fruitcake over our family, our baby’ sighing “the baby should be close to being born now or have been born, I don’t know” thinking back to Brady “I am not good with these things”
Still holding on to Patsy but now shes beside me, I gently run a finger down her face…
“Your almost grown up” I smile “Your mom and dad would be proud” trying to change the subject, wondering what my parents would think of me if they saw us now locked in a cage like animals, starving…
