Chapter 23: What Mega Knew
Refreshed from her morning shower, Trudy came out of her room and surveyed the damage from the night before. As she suspected, it would take most of the morning to clean up the lower mall, though it wasn’t half as bad as she remembered. Deciding to take the opportunity while Brady was still asleep to grab a quick coffee she made her way to the café, where she was surprised to see people already up and about. Darryl was humming cheerfully by the coffee machine while Gel was sitting at one of the tables with her tongue shoved halfway down some random guy’s throat. It was exactly one week since the city had been in a panic over Mega’s virus but looking at the scene in front of her it was hard to believe that anything out of the ordinary had happened. Perhaps it hadn’t. Survival had become so much a part of daily life since the Virus that when things like this happened people were scared, yes, but they dealt with them and moved on.
‘Trudy!’ Darryl beamed as he turned away from the counter. ‘Coffee?’
‘Thanks,’ she smiled, gladly accepting the drink he gave her. ‘Who’s the guy?’
‘No idea,’ he grinned. ‘They don’t untangle themselves long enough for me to ask.’
‘Well they seem to be enjoying themselves anyway,’ she said.
‘Love’s young dream!’ Darryl sighed wistfully.
She narrowed her eyes. ‘Alright, something’s definitely up,’ she told him. ‘Nobody should be as happy as you are this early in the morning. It’s unnatural! Did you meet somebody too?’
‘All in good time, Trudy!’ he said, tapping his nose conspiratorially. ‘All in good time!’ Picking up another cup of coffee he left the café heading in the direction of his room with a definite spring in his step. As she watched him go she saw something move at the corner of her eye; it was Bonnie, peeking around a corner and apparently spying on Gel and her new boyfriend.
‘Oh, hi Trudy!’ Gel said suddenly. She sounded out of breath and was fanning herself with her hand. ‘How long have you been standing there?’
‘Long enough!’ she laughed. In the short time she was distracted Bonnie had disappeared. ‘So,’ she said, joining Gel and her man at the table. ‘Are you going to introduce us?’
‘Sure!’ Gel said happily. ‘Do you remember I told you about how I was kidnapped last week?’ Trudy nodded. ‘Well Creg here is the lovely man who came to my rescue! We met up last night at the party, isn’t that just so random? Creg, this is Trudy, my best friend in the mall.’
‘Nice to meet you Trudy,’ Creg said, finally managing to get a word in.
‘And you, Creg,’ she replied. ‘What tribe are you with?’
‘Oh he’s not part of a tribe,’ Gel explained. ‘They disappeared after the Technos invaded, just like mine. Aren’t we just so perfect for each other?’ She smiled at him, clearly besotted, and he smiled back.
‘What were they called?’ Trudy asked.
Creg paused for a moment before answering. ‘We called ourselves the Circle,’ he said. ‘I haven’t seen any of them since the Technos arrived.’ The name meant nothing to Trudy, although it reminded her of some sort of creepy brotherhood, like the Chosen.
‘He can stay here can’t he Trudy?’ Gel asked. ‘Join the Mallrats?’
‘Who’s joining the Mallrats?’ Lex asked, suddenly appearing in the café. ‘Nobody joins this tribe without my say so, got that? Who are you anyway?’ he said, addressing Creg.
‘His name’s Creg, Lex, and he’s my boyfriend if you must know,’ Gel answered for him. ‘Creg, you don’t want to hang around with Lex, he’s a bad influence.’
‘I was talking to pretty boy,’ Lex said. ‘Or doesn’t he speak? Are you dumb? I guess you must be to fall for Gel, but then you’re not after her brains are you?’
Creg looked angry at Lex’s attack on his girlfriend but Gel butted in before he could reply. ‘Unlike some people Lex, Creg isn’t only after one thing. In fact he was the perfect gentleman last night; he slept on the couch.’
Lex laughed out loud at this new piece of information. ‘Now I know there’s something wrong with him,’ he said. ‘Why are you really here?’ he asked, banging his fists on the table and leaning menacingly over the other man. ‘Are you spying on us for your tribe? Is that it?’
‘I don’t have to listen to this!’ Creg yelled, standing up suddenly and causing his chair to scrape violently on the floor. ‘Sorry Gel but I’m leaving.’
‘Hit a raw nerve did I?’ Lex smirked as Creg walked away.
‘Lex!’ Gel shouted, giving him a slap that only made him laugh. ‘Creg! You’ll be here tonight won’t you?’ The poor girl sounded distraught.
‘Just you try and stop me!’ he replied, although Trudy wasn’t quite sure whether this was aimed at Gel, Lex or both.
‘Wimp,’ Lex muttered as the other man left.
‘Why couldn’t you just be happy for her Lex?’ Trudy said reprovingly. ‘At least somebody was lucky in love last night. One mention of Brady and the guys couldn’t get away from me fast enough.’
‘Well what do you expect?’ he said as if she were stupid. ‘No man wants to be lumbered with another guy’s kid.’
‘He does have a point,’ Gel grudgingly admitted. ‘You need to go on a few dates first, make sure they’ve fallen for you, and then tell them about Brady.’
‘I can’t believe you two!’ she exclaimed. ‘No, actually this is exactly what I would expect from you Lex, but I thought you would be a little more sympathetic Gel! Brady is not a part of my life that I’m ashamed of! I’m not going to hide her away like some dark secret! I love my daughter and if a guy doesn’t accept that we come together then he’s just not somebody I want to be with, end of story.’ Angry with the pair of them she got up and stormed away from the table.
‘Hey! Where are you going?’ Lex called after her.
‘I’m going to my room if that’s alright with you!’ she snapped back.
‘Well, no, it isn’t actually,’ he said. ‘I’m calling a meeting. Five minutes, by the fountain.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Can’t it wait?’ she asked acidly.
‘No,’ he said simply. ‘It’s important. I need everybody to be there.’
‘Fine, then I’m bringing Brady, since she’s a member of this tribe too!’
‘You can bring the rats for all I care,’ he replied. ‘Just make sure you’re down there in five minutes. You too Gel.’
Gel sighed and stretched her hands out in front of her, apparently contemplating whether or not she had time to do her nails beforehand. Trudy went to her room to fetch Brady. She didn’t like taking orders from Lex but she knew that he wouldn’t call a meeting unless it really was important.
It was more than an hour before everyone was finally assembled in the mall’s central courtyard. It was still early and most people had been sleeping off the night before, but that was no excuse! If they knew why he had called this meeting in the first place they would have all been down in a flash! The last to arrive were Jay and Amber, with Bray, who came and stood next to Trudy and Gel, with Brady and Bonnie, at the bottom of the stairs. Gel was blowing on her nails. A little further along were Ellie, Ruby, Lottie and Sammy, while Ebony and Slade stood on the stairs, away from everyone else. Salene, May and Darryl were by the fountain, closest to Lex.
‘Can we get on with this now?’ Ebony asked, looking bored.
‘Yeah, come on Lex,’ Ellie agreed. ‘I should be helping Jack with his exercises.’
‘Well if you lot hadn’t been so lazy we could have been finished by now!’ he said.
‘You know you really didn’t need to call this meeting Lex,’ Jay said. ‘We were going to tell people what happened last night once everyone had recovered from the party.’
‘Yes, what happened at the meeting?’ Salene asked. ‘Did the tribes agree to work together?’
‘Better than that,’ Jay answered. ‘We’ve already formed a tribal council and appointed a new city leader.’
‘Really? Who is it?’ Trudy asked.
Jay nudged Amber and grinned. ‘It’s me,’ she said quietly and the room erupted into celebration with people wanting to congratulate her. Lex was not amused; his meeting had been hijacked before it had even begun! Bending down, he picked up a saucepan he had brought along for just such an occasion and started to bang it with a spoon. Everybody turned to look at him.
‘You can all smother Amber some other time,’ he said. ‘This isn’t why I called a meeting.’
‘Why did you call the meeting then?’ Lottie asked.
‘I was getting to that,’ he said through his teeth.
‘Oh, this had better be good,’ Ebony moaned.
‘It will be if you all stop interrupting!’ he snapped. When he was convinced that he had everybody’s full attention he continued. ‘I know where our missing friends are,’ he said proudly. Groans of disbelief drifted from the assembled Mallrats. ‘What? Don’t you think I’m smart enough to find out?’ he asked.
‘That pretty much sums it up,’ May smirked.
‘It’s true! It was Mega himself who told me!’
That didn’t go down well either. Ebony openly laughed. ‘And why would Mega tell you where they were?’ she asked.
‘In exchange for his freedom of course.’
‘So it was you who let him escape!’ she said. ‘I knew it!’ Suddenly everyone was turning against him.
‘How could you Lex?’
‘…can’t believe you would be so stupid!’
‘…trust Mega of all people!’
He banged his saucepan again. ‘I can’t believe you people!’ he said once the clamour had died down. ‘Don’t you want to find the rest of our tribe? Tai San? Cloe? Alice? What about Bray?’
‘Bray’s dead Lex!’ Amber fumed. ‘I saw the files myself. It said he’d been deleted.’
‘That’s not the same!’ he argued. ‘Look, I was talking to an ex-Techno, goes by the name of Fish. He said he was in charge of transporting prisoners, and that ‘deleted’ just means they were shipped out.’
‘Shipped out where?’ Salene asked.
He dug out a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. ‘Here,’ he said. ‘Mega drew me a map. All the prisoners who were taken from the city ended up on this island.’ Finally people were starting to take him seriously!
‘What did he look like?’ Jay asked thoughtfully.
‘Who?’
‘This ‘Fish’ guy. What did he look like?’
‘Tall, slim, short dark hair.’
‘That doesn’t narrow it down much!’
‘Hold on! I’m thinking! He had some sort of scar just above his eyebrow.’
‘Sounds like Flash,’ Jay said. He was responsible for transportation.’
‘Thank you! Now do you all believe me?’
‘Ved,’ Jay whispered.
‘Yes, Ved, Bray, they could all still be alive!’ Suddenly black flecks appeared in front of his eyes. It took him a moment to realise that Amber had slapped him. That was twice so far today and it wasn’t even lunchtime. He could be in for a new record. ‘What was that for?’ he asked.
‘Because you knew all this and you said nothing!’
‘I wanted to wait until everything was ready!’
‘So you could get all the glory you mean. I’m the mother of his child! I have a right to know!’
‘Wait,’ May said. ‘What do you mean ready?’
‘You know, supplies and stuff. If we can organise a group now we could leave first thing in the morning.’ Excited murmurs came from the rest of the tribe.
‘And how exactly do you plan to get there?’
‘The same way we were going to leave the city. Your friend with the boat.’
There was a sudden silence. ‘I don’t think he’s going to want to take us anywhere soon,’ Ellie said.
‘What did you guys do?’ he asked. Nobody answered. ‘Well thanks for messing up my plan guys!’
‘It could still work,’ May said slowly. ‘He might still take you, but not me or Darryl. He’ll want payment upfront though, and it won’t be cheap.’
‘But we don’t have anything to trade!’ Salene said sadly. ‘Why are you grinning Lex? It’s not funny!’
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘You didn’t think I was going to let all those presents go to waste did you?’
‘You fixed the raffle?’ Amber said, sounding appalled.
‘But I was watching the whole time!’ May said. ‘You gave everything away!’
‘Which is exactly how it was supposed to look,’ he bragged. They didn’t need to know about the deal he had made with the Skinks, trading winning tickets for half the prizes they got. The muttering grew louder, with everyone condemning his little scam. What was with them? It wasn’t like he’d robbed an orphanage or anything. It was their stuff in the first place! ‘Hey!’ he shouted. ‘HEY!’ He banged the saucepan again until everyone was listening. ‘Bigger picture here people! Do you want to get our friends back or not?’ Nobody spoke. ‘Good! Now who’s coming with me?’ May and Darryl were already out, and Amber had to stay to run the city, but Ebony quickly volunteered, dragging Slade along with her despite his reluctance. He was also slightly surprised to see Salene raise her hand.
‘I want to come,’ she said. ‘Maybe Ryan’s out there somewhere.’ Lex nodded. He missed Ryan too.
‘And me!’ Sammy cried. ‘I want to go too!’
Lex snorted. ‘Forget it kid.’
‘I’m not a kid! I can do this!’
‘Just drop it!’ Ebony said. ‘We don’t want to have to be keeping an eye on you all the time. You’re not coming and that’s that.’ Ruby tried to put an arm around Sammy but he just shrugged it off. Did the kid really believe that they were going to let him tag along?
He looked at Jay. ‘We’re going to need you there with us, Jay,’ he said. ‘We don’t know what we’re going to find on this island, and you know the Technos better than any of us.’
‘He can’t go,’ Amber said.
‘Amber,’ Jay pleaded. ‘This could be my only chance to find Ved! And don’t you want to know if Bray’s out there too?’
‘That is not the point, Jay!’ she said. ‘You promised!’
‘I know, and I’ll be there for you, just as soon as I get back.’ Amber gave him a disgusted look and stormed off to her room. ‘This had better be worth it Lex,’ he said.
‘Of course it will,’ he replied. ‘You’ll see. We’ll have everyone back again in no time.’ It was really happening, and soon he would have Tai San back in his arms where she belonged. He’d had her once and let her slip away again, but he wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.
‘Amber, can’t we talk about this?’
‘No Jay, we can’t,’ she said, grabbing his clothes and a pair of boots from the wardrobe and throwing them out of the room. How could he do this to her? ‘The only reason you managed to talk me into this was because you promised we could do it together, but the first opportunity you have you go swanning off on a wild goose chase with Lex of all people!’
‘It’s not like that!’ he said, ducking to avoid a flying shaving kit. He winced as something cracked when it hit the floor. ‘These are exceptional circumstances! If there are still Technos on that island then I could make all the difference. You still have the rest of the tribe here to support you. I thought you’d be happy that Bray might be alive.’
‘Bray is dead, Jay! Now get out!’
He stood silent for a few seconds then turned and walked away. Lying down on her bed she closed her eyes and repeated those three words over and over in her head. ‘Bray is dead. Bray is dead. Bray is dead.’
Ebony took a deep breath before steeling herself and marching into Ruby’s room. The other girl was lying on her bed reading a book while Lottie was sitting playing on the floor. Ebony gave the little girl a sharp look and she quickly took the hint and hurried out of the room.
‘Don’t you knock?’ Ruby asked tartly.
‘And ruin the element of surprise?’
‘What do you want Ebony?’
‘Look don’t make this harder than it already is okay?’ she said, fiddling nervously with her hands.
‘Make what harder? What are you talking about?’
‘I know you remember what happened that day. With the truck.’ She took another deep breath; it was now or never. ‘I just wanted to tell you that…I’m sorry.’
‘Sorry?’ Ruby laughed. ‘Would you still be saying that if I had been pregnant?’
‘Look I said I’m sorry! It’s up to you whether you accept it or not. It’s no skin off my back if you don’t because quite frankly I have no intention of being your friend. I’ve said what I came here to say.’
She turned to leave but Ruby wasn’t finished. ‘Did Slade put you up to this?’ she asked.
‘Slade has no idea what happened and if you tell him you’ll regret it!’
‘Poor Ebony,’ Ruby mocked. ‘Are you scared that he’ll leave you and come back to me? That’s why you’re so keen on going to this island isn’t it? You don’t care about any missing Mallrats, you just want to get him as far away from me as possible!’
Deciding she had heard enough she walked away from Ruby’s room, her face contorted in rage. ‘Bon voyage, Ebony!’ Ruby called after her.
That evening Lottie went to Gel’s room as usual to find Bonnie. Her friend was sitting on her bed looking rather sullen, although she brightened up a little when she saw Lottie. The girl had been in a sulk the whole day, apparently because Gel was now paying more attention to her boyfriend than to her. Gel herself was sitting at her dressing table, getting ready for her date.
‘Hi Lottie,’ she said, catching sight of her in the mirror. ‘Is it alright if Bonnie stays with you and Ruby tonight?’
‘Sure,’ she replied. ‘You look really nice Gel,’ she added.
‘Thank you Lottie, that is so sweet!’ Flattery would get you everywhere with Gel.
‘Actually,’ she said. ‘Bonnie and I were thinking that maybe we could move in with Sammy.’ She looked over to Bonnie, who was biting her lip anxiously, and gave her a reassuring nod.
‘Really?’ Gel asked, turning away from the mirror to look at them. She looked a little upset.
‘Yeah,’ Bonnie said. ‘We spend nearly all our time together anyway, and you and Ruby deserve a little space.’
‘Well, if that’s what you want.’
‘It is!’ Bonnie said.
‘Then I guess it’s fine by me. I’m going to miss you though. I mean, I know you’ll only be down the hall but it’ll be strange with you not here.’
‘I’ll visit,’ she said, then a little more quietly ‘When he’s not here.’
Lottie looked on as the two girls hugged and then started to head out with Bonnie. Before they got to the door, however, she thought of another question. ‘Gel?’
‘Mm?’ the older girl mumbled as she put her lipstick on.
‘Have you seen Sammy recently?’
‘Not since the meeting. He’s probably still sulking somewhere if you ask me.’
‘Alright then. Bye!’
Bonnie stopped her as soon as they left the room. ‘Has Sammy disappeared?’ she asked.
Lottie nodded. ‘He has. And I think he might have done something stupid.’
Sammy rubbed his hands together as he walked along the seafront. It was a chilly night and his breath was misting up in front of him. Not for the first time he wished he was back at the mall, but he had to show them that he could do this. That he was a man. As he approached the docks he saw the trader’s boat at the end of the quay. A light inside the fisherman’s hut told him the trader was home. He would have to be careful sneaking onto the boat. He was paying so much attention to the hut that he didn’t notice the feral cat crossing his path until it was too late. He stepped on its tail and it miaowed noisily. Startled, he fell into a stack of crates which toppled over with a loud crash. He just had time to duck down behind the remaining boxes before the door to the hut burst open and the trader staggered out clutching a bottle.
‘Who’s there?’ the man shouted. When nobody answered he came forward and approached the crates. Sammy could smell the alcohol on his breath and held his own so as not to be detected, and to block out the smell. Thankfully he was rescued by the reappearance of the cat; it jumped up on top of the crates and started hissing at the trader. ‘Cooking fats!’ he slurred. ‘Stop disturbing my rest or next time I’ll skin you, and eat you!’ The cat took no notice so the man went back inside and slammed the door. A soft thud immediately afterwards indicated that he had collapsed in a drunken stupor, so Sammy took his chance and ran the rest of the way to the boat, climbing on board and hiding underneath a pile of blankets where he lay shivering for the rest of the night.
So ALL OF ME already has Amber as voted city council speaker… What literally means city leader.
) (okay in ALL OF ME I like him… But guess that because I also like Dylon so much 
Glad to see the back of the boat owner! Best bit in this chapter was Gel telling them all about her ‘knight in shining armour’. 
And I liked Trudy’s line that closed that scene. 
But I am hopeful this is the end for Jay and Amber as they just weren’t right for each other, he should of stayed with Trudy. Enjoyed the scene with the boys, what an ending!!! 
