Amber breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped into the mall. Making her excuses to the rest of the group, she left them and carried on further into the building. She wasn’t hurrying exactly but she walked purposefully, wanting to separate herself from the atmosphere of the funeral. It had been the right thing to do, going. Not just out of duty, or to pay her respects to someone who had been close to some of the Mallrats - an involvement that might have got her killed, she thought to herself - but also because she needed to get used to being out in the city again, interacting with other tribes. She was City Leader after all, but she needed it for herself too. She’d spent too long cooped up in the mall since the Technos were defeated; she couldn’t stay like that forever. Even so, she was glad that the funeral was over and she was safely back home again. She hadn’t expected things to get quite so out of hand. She didn’t understand what had happened to get Cable so worked up but it had scared her. She’d felt the panic rising again, just like in the hotel, but she had managed to keep a lid on it. Just. But it was over now; she’d got through it.
The area by the fountain was strewn with toys and pieces of paper with children’s drawings on them, but there was nobody in sight. Figuring out where they would probably be, she continued on. Sure enough, when she reached the café there they all were. Bonnie and Lottie were chasing each other around the room, giggling. Trudy was trying to get Brady to eat something but she kept twisting around to see what the older girls were doing, eager to join in. Next to them, May was feeding Bray some puréed vegetables. Somehow he’d managed to get a blob of it in his tiny quiff. He turned and saw her mid-spoonful, smearing more of it over his cheek, but she hardly noticed it for the smile that lit up his face on her arrival.
‘Mama!’ he said delightedly, waving his arms in the air. Trudy and May looked up.
‘You’re back!’ Trudy smiled. Lottie and Bonnie briefly stopped their running around to say hello - copied by Brady - before starting up again. May ignored her.
‘We’re back,’ Amber sighed, walking over to them and taking Bray in her arms. ‘There’s the face I’ve been wanting to see!’ she said to her son, changing her voice to speak to him. He laughed and clapped his hands. She couldn’t help but smile.
‘How was it?’ Trudy asked sympathetically.
Her smile slipped. ‘It wasn’t great,’ she replied, starting to bounce Bray on her arm. ‘There was a bit of a drama with the Technicians. It’s fine now, nothing to worry about.’
‘What kind of drama?’ May asked, suddenly interested. ‘If there’s going to be more trouble…’
Amber started bouncing Bray a little faster, causing him to chuckle. ‘I said it’s fine!’ she said irritably. ‘Look, whatever it was, they’re dealing with it. It’s not our problem.’
May’s lips tightened and she began violently clearing away Bray’s bowl and spoon. Lottie and Bonnie shared a look and dashed out of the café. Trudy looked like she regretted having asked about the funeral and wanted to be elsewhere too. Oblivious to the mood of the room, Bray carried on laughing to himself as he bounced up and down.
Amber sighed. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. It’s not you May, it’s just that it’s over now and I don’t really want to talk about it.’
May didn’t look particularly appeased but, before either of them could say anything else, Bray - who had become a little giddy from all the bouncing - suddenly let out a hiccup and brought up some of his dinner. He grinned as it dribbled down his chin, and Amber could feel it soaking in to her top too. May brought a hand up to her face in an attempt to hide her smile. At least she wasn’t angry anymore.
‘Oh, here,’ Trudy said, holding her arms out. ‘Let me take him while you clean yourself up.’
‘No, it’s ok,’ she replied. ‘Thanks Trudy but I’ll take him to our room, clean both of us up there.’
She made her goodbyes, relieved at the excuse to leave, and made her way to the room she shared with her son. Once there, she cleaned up Bray - including the little blob of purée in his hair - and changed him, before lifting him into his playpen with his toys while she sorted herself out.
Opening the wardrobe, she rummaged around and eventually settled on a top she remembered picking up from somewhere because she had liked the colours but had never worn. She’d fashioned it into a halter neck with the addition of a silver choker, with one strap remaining over the left shoulder. At first glance it was orange, but it had other colours running through it too, flecks of red, yellow, blue and green. It reminded her of a sunset over the sea. It gave her an idea.
‘You know what?’ she told Bray as she changed. ‘Why don’t you and I go for a nice walk in the sunshine?’ Her earlier taste of freedom had made the mall seem even more stuffy than usual, and she wanted to be able to spend some time with her son and take her mind off what had happened at the funeral. The more she thought about it, the more she realised she had to get out. Soon she was packing a bag with things for Bray and putting on his little coat.
‘Hello?’ a tentative voice at the door called.
‘Come in,’ she replied with an exasperated sigh. ‘Oh, hi Darryl.’
‘Hi!’ he said brightly as he entered the room. ‘Oh…were you going out?’
‘We are,’ she said emphatically, not liking the past tense in Darryl’s phrasing. ‘Did you want something?’ After what had happened with May earlier, she made sure to soften her tone.
‘Um…’ Darryl began hesitantly. ‘I thought we could prepare for the Tribal Council meeting together. That’s this afternoon, right?’
Amber’s heart sank. She’d forgotten all about the Tribal Council. No doubt they’d all have their own ideas about what were the priorities for the city and she’d end up with even more work to do as a result. She’d never have any time to herself then, or to spend with Bray.
No, she thought to herself stubbornly. The Council can wait.
‘Oh, that’s tomorrow,’ she said innocently, not meeting Darryl’s eyes as she tossed more things into the bag.
‘Really?’ he asked, the confusion apparent in his voice. ‘I was sure…’
‘Tomorrow,’ she lied. ‘Today’s schedule is a big fat nothing, which I think is exactly what we both need after this morning.’
‘Well, that’s true enough,’ he said.
‘In fact, there’s an idea,’ she continued. ‘Why don’t you come with us? You’ve worked so hard on all that paperwork, you deserve a break too!’
‘Really?!’ he beamed, puffing his chest out with pride.
‘I insist!’ she said authoritatively. She knew it wouldn’t be fair to leave him alone to face the wrath of the City Council when they showed up expecting to see her. And besides, it really would be nice to spend more time with him without work getting in the way. He was one of the few people who could really make her smile these days.
‘Yes boss!’ he agreed with a salute. ‘But, where will we go?’
She gave a conspiratorial smile. ‘I know just the place,’ she answered. She shivered at the sudden feeling of déjà vu before joining the dots and giving a soft laugh at the memory. Of course. Sasha. Maybe this was fate after all?
Spinner hurriedly pulled open the doors to the power station and stood back as the Technicians with her filed in, Cable held aloft in their arms. He looked almost comical, riding a wave of white-uniformed figures into the building. That was until he passed where she was standing and their eyes met. She quickly looked away, unable to take the anger and hatred that seemed to bore into her from the very core of his being. He snarled around the gag they had had to put on him during the journey. She had never felt so completely and utterly loathed.
As the last of the Technicians entered the building she followed silently, closing the doors behind her but not letting go of the handles. She stood there, knowing that as soon as she stepped out into the main hall everyone’s eyes would be on her. She would be expected to lead, to fix everything. But how? Taking a deep breath she mentally hardened herself before letting out a sigh and removing her hands from the door handles.
She made her way through the entry corridors and out into the main hall. The hum of the generators assaulted her from all sides. Usually she could block it out but today it wouldn’t be silenced. It seemed to press on her, feeding her anxiety.
‘Ma’am!’
Almost immediately a clipboard-wielding Technician hurried towards her, pushing through the group that stood milling around holding Cable, her dark hair still in Techno-style buns on either side of her head. ‘Ma’am,’ she repeated. ‘Thank goodness you’re back! The grid…’
‘Not now,’ Spinner interrupted her, her attention all on the Technicians who had returned with her. She pointed in turn at about half of the group, rattling off their names. ‘Take Cable to his office,’ she told them. ‘Secure him. I’ll deal with him as soon as I can. The rest of you back to work, we need to get back to full capacity as soon as possible.’
‘That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,’ the Technician with the clipboard chimed in, thrusting it in front of Spinner’s face. ‘Ma’am, the situation…’
Spinner grabbed the clipboard and scanned it, clicking her tongue in exasperation. This was bad. Some sectors were already experiencing intermittent outages and they were close to a city-wide shutdown. She pushed the clipboard back at the Technician.
‘Wait!’ she called to the group of Technicians making their way back to the generators. She pointed at one of them. ‘You, with me.’ She didn’t stop to see if he was following her before making her way down the stairs to the storerooms, the stressed-out Technician with the clipboard on her heels. She reached the medical supplies area and unlocked one of the cabinets, removing a sealed vial and a syringe. Tearing into the syringe packet, she removed it and pierced the vial with the needle, drawing up a clear liquid into the syringe.
‘Here,’ she said, handing the filled syringe to the Technician she had called down. At the same time she discarded the empty vial and syringe wrapper and started heading back upstairs. ‘That’ll put Cable to sleep for an hour or two and then everyone can get back to work,’ she said without looking back to see if her instructions were being followed.
At the top of the stairs she carried on walking, crossing the hall to the stairs leading up to her own office. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the guy rushing off to Cable’s office with the syringe. Behind her, the other Technician caught up with her at the foot of the stairs.
‘Ma’am, we need all hands on deck!’ she pleaded. ‘Is…is Tag with you?’
‘Does it look like Tag’s here?’ she snapped. ‘Look, I’ll be with you shortly. The others will be joining you once Cable is settled. In the meantime, go and help.’ The Technician looked conflicted for a moment before nodding and running off. Spinner carried on up the stairs, feeling a little guilty. She knew she should be with the rest of her team. Without Cable, Tag or Link - oh, Link! - there was nobody else senior enough to oversee the work to stabilise the grid, but the Technicians were all capable. They knew what they were doing. And besides, she couldn’t stop thinking about Cable.
She reached her office, stepping inside and immediately heading to her desk. Removing a key from around her neck, she unlocked the desk drawer and took out a computer disc. The disc. While the Technicians were fixing the grid, maybe she could fix Cable. But things were different now. He knew. This wasn’t just a case of keeping him in the dark, keeping him safe. He remembered everything - the way he looked at her told her that - but Ram was gone now, the Technos were finished in this city. Whatever happened this time, he wasn’t in danger of getting himself deleted. If she used the disc again, suppressed his memories, would it really be for his benefit? But the way he was now, he was no use to the tribe. He was no use to her. When they had started this journey, started the Technicians, there had been the four of them. She couldn’t do this on her own.
Slowly she closed the drawer, but the disc was still in her hand. It would be for the good of the tribe, she told herself, the good of the city even. She couldn’t deny, though, that it would make things easier for herself too.
Suddenly there was a whirring noise, a droning that became lower and slower until it stopped with a loud click and all the lights went out.
‘No, no, no!’ she said aloud, dropping the disc and all thoughts of Cable and making her way quickly but carefully out of the office, feeling her way down the stairs. The grid was the priority now. It should have been all along. If they couldn’t restore the power then Cable would be the least of her worries. She would have the whole city on her case.
Jack hobbled around the upper gallery of the mall on crutches, doing laps to try and get used to walking again. Below him, he could hear the sounds of Brady, Lottie and Bonnie playing some sort of game, watched over by Trudy and Ruby. He was glad that the two older Mallrats were getting on a little better, although he paid little attention to what the group downstairs were doing, concentrating as he was on making his way around the gallery.
He thought that walking was getting easier. A little, maybe. It was hard to tell. Certainly he could make it around the gallery, albeit slowly, without falling over. Most of the time at least. It would have been too much to walk to the funeral and back this morning, hence the wheelchair, but he was hopeful that it was only a matter of time before he would be able to do a journey like that again. That he would be fully in control of his body once more. Even being able to do what he was doing now was a relief after spending so many days trapped inside his own mind.
That didn’t stop him from wanting to push himself further, though. As he completed another circuit of the gallery he reached the stairs and decided to try and make his way down, to switch up the scenery a bit by doing some laps of the ground floor instead. Checking to make sure that nobody was watching, he slowly hopped down the first couple of steps. He wouldn’t have tried this if Ellie had been around - she would have been too worried - but soon he had built up a rhythm and was making his way down steadily, hop by hop. As he reached the bottom he gave a satisfied chuckle, feeling pleased with himself. Then Brady burst out from behind the fountain and ran past him, giggling, pursued by an equally giddy Bonnie. He wobbled on his crutches but managed to stay on his feet. Just.
‘Careful, honey!’ Trudy called out to her daughter before noticing him. ‘Jack! Are you ok? You should have told us you were coming down!’
‘I’m ok!’ he said cheerfully, trying to give a reassuring smile. ‘See? Nothing to worry about!’
Seemingly placated, Trudy returned to what she was doing and Jack started making his way around the lower level, glad that nobody was going to report to Ellie that he was pushing himself too far.
He carried on slowly, trying to use the crutches more for support than for actual movement. As he approached the grille area he realised he could hear voices in the entrance. Feeling suddenly vulnerable he nevertheless went to investigate further.
‘Hello?’ he called, rounding the corner. Two figures jumped half out of their skins, and their startlement startled him so that it was only his firm grip on his crutches that stopped him from falling over. A third figure smirked in amusement at the other two. He thought she might have been a Demon Dog but he didn’t recognise the tribal markings of the others.
‘Can I help you?’ he continued.
‘We’re here to see Amber?’ the Demon Dog answered for the three of them. ‘For the Tribal Council meeting?’ Although more confident than the other two, the way she made everything into a question suggested she wasn’t quite as sure of herself as she was trying to project. It made sense, he supposed. If they were here for the meeting of the tribes - he vaguely remembered Amber saying that the first one was happening soon - then this was all new. Nobody really knew what would happen once representatives from all the tribes got together in the same room.
‘Ok, well follow me,’ he told them in a welcoming tone, trying to put them at their ease. ‘Welcome to the mall!’
He led them into the mall, the three becoming four by the time they reached the fountain area with the addition of another representative from one of the smaller tribes he didn’t recognise.
‘Wait here,’ he said. ‘I’ll find Amber.’
He walked over to where Trudy and Ruby were standing, looking curiously at the newcomers. The children had stopped playing at the strangers’ arrival and were now huddled around the older Mallrats. He didn’t really blame them after what had happened with the Skinks. He grimaced, wondering if they were going to show up to the meeting too.
‘City Council members for Amber,’ he told them, gesturing at the group with his thumb. ‘Somebody should let her know.’
Ruby frowned. ‘She’s not here,’ she said. ‘I saw her leaving the mall earlier with Darryl and Bray.’
‘Well, I’m sure she’ll be back soon,’ Trudy said confidently. ‘She wouldn’t have forgotten this. What time is the meeting anyway? Maybe this lot are early.’
Jack looked around to see that the group of council members was growing as more trickled in from outside. He recognised bigger tribes being represented now, including the leaders of the Mutants and the Jackals.
‘Um…I’d guess around now,’ he said worriedly.
‘What’s going on?’ May asked as she joined them. ‘Have we got trouble? Who are these people?’
‘Amber’s Council meeting,’ he told her. ‘But she’s not here.’
May rolled her eyes. ‘Great,’ she said sarcastically. ‘Well, Darryl’s her assistant, can’t he do something? Surely even he can occupy them with something until she gets back without causing a diplomatic crisis?’
Ruby cleared her throat. ‘He’s not here either,’ she said quietly. ‘They left together.’
‘Did they now…’ May replied tightly. It wasn’t a question.
‘Hey!’ the Demon Dog shouted over at them. ‘What’s going on over there? Some of us have things to do, you know. We can’t hang around here all day. Just go get Amber already!’ There were a few murmurs of agreement.
‘What are we going to do?’ Trudy asked. She kept looking towards the entrance, practically willing Amber to walk back in.
‘Ruby!’ Lottie complained, tugging at the older girl’s sleeve. ‘I don’t like this!’ Bonnie nodded in agreement, while Trudy held Brady close.
‘I know sweetie,’ Ruby replied. ‘It’ll be ok.’ She looked at the others. ‘Can we reschedule?’ she asked. ‘Tell them Amber’s not well or something?’
‘They won’t like it,’ May answered, sounding as if she agreed with the crowd. ‘But I can’t see that we have any other option.’
‘Who’s going to be the one to tell them?’ Jack voiced, then immediately regretted it as all eyes turned to him.
‘We’ve got your back,’ May said unhelpfully. ‘But you’ll be fine. They’ll probably go easy on you on those crutches.’
Probably? he thought to himself. With a sigh he turned and hobbled over to the steadily growing crowd - now over a dozen - before addressing them. ‘Um, hi folks,’ he said tentatively. He raised a crutch with the intention of giving them a friendly wave but felt unsteady and immediately put it down again. He gave a nervous chuckle. ‘Well, um, thanks for coming today,’ he continued, speaking slowly and carefully. ‘Um, unfortunately Amber’s…not actually available…at the moment…’ He trailed off as the tribal reps started grumbling.
‘What do you mean she’s not available?’
‘…supposed to be having a meeting…’
‘…some kind of joke…’
‘…doesn’t she care?’
‘Hey, hey,’ he called, trying to get their attention and regretting it when he succeeded. All eyes were on him, and their expressions ranged from confused to mildly irritated and even dangerously angry.
‘If Amber’s not fit to be City Leader,’ one of the crowd said into the silence - he thought it was Slime, of the Orphans - ‘Then maybe we need a new one.’ Some of the others mumbled approvingly but most stayed quiet. He was glad that the Skinks hadn’t shown up, or at least not yet.
‘It’s not that,’ Jack tried to argue. ‘Look, the truth is…’ He stopped, not knowing where he was going with this. The crowd looked at him expectantly. ‘The truth is…’
There was a sudden noise and then the lights went out. A power cut. It was still far from dark in the mall but it whipped up the already agitated crowd further.
‘It’s a trap!’ a timid looking member of one of the smaller tribes cried out.
‘Are we being attacked?’ he heard Trudy call from behind him.
‘What kind of trick is this?’ another of the council members demanded. ‘Where’s Amber?’
‘She’s at the power station!’ Lottie shouted, breaking free of Ruby’s hold and running to Jack’s side.
‘She is?’ he asked, turning to her in confusion. She stared at him intently as if trying to tell him something, then he realised what she was doing. ‘I mean, she is!’ he said more confidently, addressing the crowd once more. ‘Emergency meeting. Problems with the power, as you can see. No time to get a message out to you all. But Amber’s sorting it.’
‘Makes sense,’ the Demon Dog said loudly for the rest of the crowd to hear. ‘See, I told you Amber would be on top of things.’ Jack didn’t recall her saying anything of the sort.
‘I guess it couldn’t be helped,’ Slime muttered a little sceptically. ‘Those Technicians aren’t as clever as they like to make out, clearly. We’ll let her off this time.’ A few of the council members looked annoyed at the implication that he was speaking for the group, but they let it slide. ‘We’ll reschedule then, same time tomorrow work for everyone?’ Once more, some of the crowd bristled at Slime taking charge but ultimately nobody had a problem with the new time. ‘That’s settled then,’ he said with an air of finality. ‘Oh, and make sure she’s well prepared.’ He shoved a stack of papers at Jack’s chest.
‘Perfect!’ Jack wheezed, trying to grab hold of the paperwork while remaining standing. In the end he had to hook one crutch around the stack while leaning into the other to keep his balance. ‘See you tomorrow!’ he called weakly, but Slime was already marching out of the building. The rest of the council members lingered a little longer in the courtyard - some out of confusion, others because they didn’t want to look like they were following Slime - before slipping away themselves.
Jack sighed in relief when the last person had left the mall. ‘Lottie, you are a genius!’ he gushed.
‘Yeah, quick thinking kiddo!’ Ruby agreed, coming over to pat Lottie on the shoulder before taking the papers from Jack so that he could right himself. He smiled at her gratefully.
‘How could you just lie like that?’ Bonnie asked her friend disapprovingly, her arms folded.
Lottie shrugged uncaringly. ‘It’s easy,’ she said. ‘I just make stuff up.’ The answer didn’t seem to impress the other girl, who continued to frown.
‘Which is all well and good,’ May interrupted. ‘But let’s not forget that Amber isn’t at the power station. She’s not fixing the power situation and she’s not here reading whatever’s in those papers. What’s going to happen when they all come back tomorrow?’
‘It’ll be fine,’ Trudy said, sounding like she was trying to convince herself. ‘Amber will be back soon and everything will be cleared up.’
Jack shared a look with Ruby that took in the stack of papers. It seemed like a lot of city business to deal with. Ruby nodded, sharing his thought. ‘Even so,’ he said to Trudy. ‘Maybe we should take a look at what’s in these, just in case.’
It was always good to be prepared.
Spinner hesitated in front of the door to Cable’s office. She was tired. It had taken two hours to get the grid completely under control again. Did she really want to do this right now? Well, ‘want’ didn’t really come into it, she realised. He was in there, restrained and sedated, no matter what she wanted. She couldn’t just leave him like that. For one thing, it was cruel. For another, and probably more importantly, much as she hated herself to admit it, he would only become more difficult to deal with the longer she waited. Once the sedative wore off, there was every chance he would be as angry as he had been at the funeral. There was no choice. She would have to act now.
Composing herself, she opened the door and walked in. Cable was sitting in the middle of the room, his arms and legs taped to his chair, head lolling about under the effects of the sedative. She walked up to him. He started mumbling incoherently and tried to lift his head. She took his chin in her hand and lifted it herself, tilting it up towards her.
‘Hello,’ she said.
His eyes moved in and out of focus and his mouth worked uselessly before he finally managed to force out a word.
‘You.’
‘It’s me,’ she confirmed. ‘How are you?’
Cable’s mouth opened again. ‘Why?’ he asked. A look of hurt flashed across his face and he repeated the question. ‘Why?’
‘I’m not proud of what I did,’ she admitted, though in a way she was. Proud of the ingenuity at least, if not the act itself. Not many could have pulled off what she’d done. ‘But I was desperate. You were desperate, you were going to kill Ram.’
‘Deserved. It,’ he said through gritted teeth.
‘Probably,’ she agreed. ‘But you would have only gotten yourself killed. You know that, don’t you? I saved your life! Nothing about that situation was ideal but I did the only thing I could!’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Didn’t. Save it…Took it away.’
He tried to twist his head from her grasp but she held it firm. ‘Don’t you see?’ she demanded. ‘The Technos needed you. I needed you. Without you, we couldn’t have fought back against Ram or Mega. All this, what we’ve created from the ruins of the Technos, what we’ve become, it wouldn’t have been possible. Think of it as her legacy.’
His eyes took on a sudden focus and seemed to burn her with the accusation they harboured.
‘How…dare you?!’ he slurred. ‘You…have…no right!’
His head drooped as she let go of it and walked away. ‘You don’t understand,’ she said sadly. ‘Ever since the Virus, this world has been Hell. A daily struggle just to survive. I thought the Technos would change that, make things better again. I was wrong; we all were. You thought the same, remember? But now…Now we can make a real difference Cable, I know it! I know it won’t be like it was before but we can still build something better. You and me.’ And Tag, she hoped. If he came back to them.
She approached Cable’s desk on the other side of the room and booted up his laptop before inserting the disc she had brought with her. She’d made her decision about it while she was trying to restore the power with the rest of the Technicians. Seeing how the team worked together to accomplish their task, she knew this was the only way.
‘That’s why I have to do this,’ she said, picking up a headset and turning it in her hands sadly. Knowing it was right and liking it were two different things. ‘I need you at your best. It’ll only be temporary, I promise.’ She hoped she was telling the truth, but she feared that once she’d done this it would be too easy to continue, knowing how he would react when he remembered again.
Cable groaned as he strained to lift his head, his eyes widening when he saw the headset.
‘No!’ he spluttered. ‘Spinner…please…don’t…don’t take her away from me again!’ His arms strained as he channelled all his energy into trying to break free.
‘Please! I’ll…I’ll do anything…you want!’ he begged between attempts to free himself. His head bobbed from side to side as she approached with the headset, trying to avoid it, but she easily slipped it on.
‘I won’t forget!’ he wailed as she returned to the laptop, tears streaming down her face. ‘I won’t forget! Elsaaaaaaaaaa!’
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, pushing the button to start the programme. Cable’s thrashing stopped as the interface connected with his brain.
Then the power went out again.
She gave a wordless cry of frustration. She had known this was a possibility. With the city starting to use electricity again after the initial outage, there was always the risk of a surge destabilising the grid again in its current tenuous state. The rest of the Technicians were doing their best of course, but there was only so much they could do. Her own power usage here with Cable probably hadn’t helped matters either.
She didn’t have much time to think about all that though. With the connection severed, Cable sat panting for only a few moments before resuming his attempts to escape with renewed vigour. In the dark, she heard him thrashing in desperation, groaning with the effort.
‘Cable, no!’ she cried. ‘You’ll hurt yourself!’
She felt her way around the desk, just in time to hear the ripping of the tape around his arms and the crash of the headset as it was flung to the floor. They approached each other in the dark and collided, Cable’s still-sedated body feeling like a dead weight as they both lost their footing and fell. Her head hit the floor and she saw stars. The chair that Cable was still partly attached to split with a crunch on impact and dug into her arm as he rolled over on top of it – and her – and pushed himself awkwardly to his feet. She fluttered in and out of consciousness, dimly aware of the shuffling noises of Cable groggily trying to flee the office, bumping into things on his way and sending items crashing to the floor. Lying helpless, she listened as the noises subsided and he escaped into the darkness.
As the power failed again, the steady beeping of the monitoring equipment in the lab fell silent and the liquid in the flasks stopped bubbling, falling flat just like Proxy’s own hopes of salvation. One of those flasks had been preparing a batch of the antidote to the virus Meta had infected her with. She supposed she should be pleased that the other flasks - creating the viruses that would target the Mallrats - had also failed, but all she could think about was the antidote. It was the only thing keeping her alive, after all.
Next to her, Meta cried out in frustration, sweeping the flasks off the workbench in a fit of rage. The glass smashed and their contents spilled onto the floor.
‘Your former colleagues are getting on my nerves,’ Meta snapped. ‘This failure to maintain the power is nothing short of incompetence! Now, clear that up!’
Proxy had already gone to the cupboard in anticipation of this order. ‘Yes sir,’ she replied meekly as she put on a pair of thick protective gloves - she didn’t want to risk cutting herself on the glass and becoming infected with another virus, even if it wasn’t specifically attuned to her DNA - and started sweeping up the broken glass.
There had been no chance to get an update from Creg yet but the trouble at the power station confirmed to her that Link must be dead. What else could have sent the Technos - no, they were called Technicians now - into such chaos? Not that there was any other possible outcome really, not after what Data had told her she had done, but she had hoped. Oh, how she had hoped! Link had been their best chance to stop Meta and save both their lives. After that initial burst of hope, their situation now seemed bleaker than ever.
For now, then, it seemed there was no choice but to play along. Be the obedient slave. For now.
‘About the power situation,’ she said hesitantly. ‘There may be a solution.’
Meta looked at her coldly, a sly grin appearing on his face.
‘I’m listening,’ he said.
Amber lay contentedly on her blanket, the soft sand beneath moulding to the shape of her back. It wasn’t a blazing hot day but the sun was out and she could feel its warmth on her skin like a caress, helping her body to relax. On their arrival at the beach, Darryl had been excited to discover a battered old bucket and insisted on showing Bray how to make sandcastles - no, sandmalls he had called them - although secretly she thought he would have been eager to do the same even if Bray hadn’t been here. As a result she found herself enjoying a rare moment of solitude. It was an odd feeling; she didn’t quite know what to do with herself. Perhaps she should have brought a book. When was the last time she had read for pleasure? For that matter, when was the last time she had done anything for pleasure? Maybe not since the last time she had visited this very beach.
Not liking where her thoughts were going, she closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind. She made herself concentrate on the sounds of the beach - the gulls gliding overhead and the soft lapping of the waves on the shore. The occasional crash of surf as a larger wave hit the beach.
She opened one eye, her thoughts not allowing her to relax. Why couldn’t she hear Bray and Darryl? Opening the other eye she propped herself up a little and looked around. She lay in the shelter of a rock outcrop so didn’t have a view of the full beach, and the two boys were nowhere to be seen. Where were they?
She started to worry. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Darryl with her son - he’d looked after him before with no trouble, after all - but he did have a tendency towards being accident prone. What if he was lying injured somewhere and Bray was all alone? What if…
‘NYEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!’ Darryl suddenly burst out from behind the rocky wall, running across her field of vision making aeroplane noises, Bray sitting on his shoulders with his arms out to the sides. Her son was screaming with laughter but it sounded distant to her ears. Her skin felt clammy and panic tickled the back of her mind. The beach seemed to retreat from her awareness like the tide and for a long, drawn-out moment she was no longer laying on sand but on the scratchy hay on the floor of a barn as aeroplanes flew overhead, the sound of their engines mixing with the first cries of her newborn son as he arrived into the world. Then just as quickly the beach returned. The aeroplanes were just Darryl, and her son was laughing, not crying. But the memory remained and she breathed in deep gulps of air as her eyes darted around frantically to remind herself where she was.
Darryl had circled around and was running back towards her. She tried to settle herself but his steps slowed as he approached and he began to frown.
‘Amber? Are you ok?’ he asked. ‘You look…’ He trailed off, clearly not really knowing how she looked. She understood his confusion; she didn’t really know how she felt either.
She stood up shakily, brushing sand from her clothes to give herself time to regain a little of her composure.
‘I’m fine,’ she said curtly, holding out her arms for Bray. ‘You startled me, that’s all.’ Darryl lifted Bray down from his shoulders and handed him to her, looking abashed. She ignored him and walked further down the beach towards the shore. She carried on walking until she felt the water washing against her ankles and then she stopped. Bray seemed to sense that something was wrong and snuggled into her quietly. She stroked his head, drawing comfort from him as she looked out to sea, not really focussing on the horizon but allowing the water flowing around her to anchor her in the here and now instead of slipping back into her past traumas.
‘Amber?’
She wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing there before Darryl approached. As she turned to face him she realised she’d been crying, but there was no way to hide it while she was holding Bray. Darryl paused in the act of rolling up his trouser legs, noticing, before joining her in the water.
‘Sorry,’ he said guiltily. ‘I’ve made you think about Jay, haven’t I?’
She frowned in confusion. ‘Jay?’
Darryl nodded, gesturing out to sea where she’d been looking. ‘He’s out there somewhere, isn’t he?’ he explained. When she continued to look at him blankly he held his arms out, imitating an aeroplane again. ‘Technos. Jay. I should have thought. Sorry.’
‘Oh!’ she exclaimed in realisation at his thought process.
‘You…weren’t thinking about Jay?’ he asked tentatively.
‘I try not to think about Jay,’ she said automatically before she could stop herself. There was an awkward silence then, and the only thing she could think of to break it was to tell the truth.
‘It did make me think of the Technos,’ she admitted. ‘More specifically, the day this one was born.’ She kissed the top of Bray’s head and he cooed happily. ‘His father and I had been banished from the city when he decided he was ready to come into the world. It was too soon, and the birth was…difficult. I don’t remember much of it. But it was the day the Technos invaded. I remember the planes flying overhead. Bray went out to see what was happening. I never saw him again. If Trudy hadn’t found me when she did I don’t think either of us would have made it.’
Darryl was quiet for a while. ‘I’d heard it was tough,’ he said eventually. ‘But I didn’t realise…I’m sorry, if I’d known I’d never have done that back there.’
She shrugged. ‘Life seems to have been a constant fight since then,’ she said. ‘I guess I didn’t realise how much I’d kept inside, waiting for a time when I could properly deal with it. Now it all seems to be fighting to be dealt with at once.’
‘Is that what happened after we beat the Technos?’ Darryl asked. He sounded uncertain, as if he didn’t know if he should be bringing up these things. ‘When we all got back to the mall?’ he continued. ‘Is that…is that why you and Jay started fighting?’
Amber wrinkled her mouth at the mention of Jay but found herself answering the question anyway. ‘Partly,’ she admitted. ‘At first, maybe. But he abandoned me! He pushed me into dealing with city business again and then ran off! And I know he had to go, I know that. But I still can’t think of him without getting angry about it!’ She also knew that the image she had in her head of Jay when she thought of him wasn’t the real Jay but the smirking, mean-eyed Jay that the Zoot computer programme had tricked her with back at the hotel.
She sighed. ‘Darryl, can I tell you something?’ she asked.
Darryl looked unsure but nodded.
‘Something happened to me,’ she said. ‘At the hotel, when we were trying to stop the Virus.’
‘Amber, you don’t have to…’
‘I do!’ she said firmly, causing Bray to stir, then more gently. ‘I do.’
Darryl nodded and she continued.
‘I didn’t think we were going to make it,’ she explained. ‘Ram had tried and failed, and we’d lost Mega. Jack had hooked himself up to the machine but it was doing things to him. He was in pain. I was all alone with him and I didn’t know what to do. I thought we were going to lose him too!’ She forced herself to remember, knowing that they had succeeded. The Virus had been destroyed. Jack was going to be ok. She was safe.
‘The computer tricked me,’ she continued. ‘It used images of Jay from Reality Space and broadcast them on the monitors in the room, making me think that help was coming. I…I left the room, and it locked the door. All I had to do was stay with Jack, keep him safe, and I left him!’
‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Darryl said. ‘You couldn’t have known.’
‘Couldn’t I?’ she argued. ‘I should have guessed that it was possible, should have questioned it. I just wanted to get out of there. You didn’t see Jack’s face, what it was doing to him. And it knew, it knew I could see from outside the room. It was taunting me!’
‘It still wasn’t your fault,’ Darryl repeated.
‘But there’s nobody else to blame,’ she explained. ‘Nobody to bring to justice. Ram made the programme but he died trying to stop it. Mega made the Virus but he’s gone too. Zoot’s long dead, not that it was really him anyway. There’s only me. And…’
‘And Jay,’ Darryl finished.
‘And I know it’s not fair,’ she admitted. ‘But every time I see him I see how he looked on those screens. I see Zoot. And I see myself betraying Jack. And whenever we argue over something or I’m reminded of any of his faults that’s all I see too. It’s like he’s become this monster version of himself in my head and I don’t know which parts I’m genuinely angry at and which parts are Reality Space!’
Darryl stood silent, not quite knowing what to say. She diverted her attention to Bray, who was picking up on her mood and beginning to get upset. Soothing him helped to soothe herself too.
‘I haven’t told anyone else what happened back there,’ she said finally. It felt good to put some of what she was feeling into words.
‘Maybe it would help?’ Darryl suggested. ‘If you talked to a friend, like Trudy, or…’
Amber felt suddenly hurt. ‘Aren’t you my friend?’ she asked.
‘Um…yes? I mean, sure!’ Darryl smiled. ‘I mean…if you want to.’
She smiled sadly. ‘Darryl, I hope you don’t think I only invited you today because you’re my assistant, or because you’re good with Bray. I’ve really enjoyed the time we’ve spent together recently.’ She rested a hand on Darryl’s arm and Bray mirrored the gesture in his own way, smacking Darryl’s other arm and chuckling. ‘See?’ she laughed. ‘I’ll have you know he’s an excellent judge of character.’
Darryl beamed. ‘I like spending time with you too,’ he agreed. ‘Both of you.’ He intercepted Bray’s latest attempt to smack him, taking his little hand in his thumb and forefinger and shaking it playfully. Bray laughed in delight.
‘You are good with him though,’ she repeated with a fond smile for the pair of them.
Darryl grinned. ‘Kinda had to be,’ he replied. ‘We had a big extended family, before the Virus. Family nights were always a bit wild when everyone came over to the farm. Aunts, uncles, cousins…I’d always have to be the one entertaining the kids. I used to hate it at first, but seeing all their little faces, having fun…well, it was nice to be appreciated I guess. There wasn’t always a lot of that, once everyone had gone back home.’ He gave an embarrassed chuckle. ‘That’s how I knew I wanted to be a star!’
Amber laughed fondly. ‘Even after the Virus?’
Darryl’s expression became serious. ‘Especially after the Virus,’ he said. ‘My nieces and nephews…they were all younger than me.’ He looked at her to make sure she understood what he was saying.
‘They would have survived the Virus,’ she realised. ‘What happened to them?’
Darryl shrugged and shook his head. ‘I went round to their houses after my parents had died but there was nobody there. I asked some of the kids that had stayed in the neighbourhood but they didn’t know anything. I figured maybe if I made a name for myself they’d hear about me and come and find me. Failing that, if I just carried on doing my thing, entertaining, then maybe there was a chance that someone, somewhere, might be doing the same for them.’
He gave a rueful grin. ‘And that’s something that I’ve never told anyone,’ he said.
She took his hand. ‘Well I’m glad you felt able to share it with me,’ she told him earnestly.
He looked at her hand grasping his for a moment before giving it a squeeze in return. ‘I’m glad that you could share too,’ he said.
She smiled and tilted her head. ‘It’s like you said when we started working together,’ she told him. ‘We make a great team.’
‘I said that?’ he replied, rubbing the back of his head and giving a self-conscious, lopsided grin.
‘You did!’ she laughed. ‘See? You’re not just a pretty face.’
She bit her tongue as soon as the words had come out. She hadn’t meant to say that. Darryl gave a startled jerk and blushed. She was aware of their hands still clasping each other. Neither of them wanted to make things more awkward by letting go.
Oblivious, Bray started singing to himself. She exhaled with a laugh. Darryl did the same, the awkwardness immediately dissipating. Their eyes locked. Amber didn’t know if it was relief at the avoidance of a sour moment, the catharsis of having finally shared her experience at the hotel, or even the sea air but, suddenly emboldened, she leant forward and pressed her lips to Darryl’s.
He was surprised at first, almost losing his balance before righting himself with a splash. Then he was kissing her back, as Bray continued to sing and the waves danced around their legs.