“Good looking lad. Maybe a bit too much of a goodie shoe… But definitely nice to look at…”
I read Sam’s lips. She is looking at an old piece of paper. A poster. We are still some miles away from the city, but here seems to be sometji g like a dumpster place.
“You don’t see a lot anyway… It’s faded…” Kyle scoffs, grabbing the poster to shove it at me. Kyle, I think to myself, you and your silly jealous flips
Kyle is always a bit on the jealous side. But he doesn’t get bad on us or such. Just pouts a bit what Sam finds funny and I… Well… A bit cute.
I look down on the really faded poster and feel my mouth fall down. Though I didn’t know him for long, just some months… I couldn’t forget his or any other face of them.
“Phoenix… Hey…” Sam is on my side, a finger of her turned my face towards her so I can read her lips “What’s wrong?”“I know him…” I sign. “Or knew him once. He’s one of the Mall Rats. Bray…”
I look back at the poster “Do you know her too?” Kyle signs, showing another torn and ripped poster. There is a girl with pink and black. She looks like… A fly? I shake my head. I’d remember someone looking that silly…
Cloe came to see me, there was lots of tears, plenty of hugging and that was just from me and Cloe… I smile as I watch Dee and Cloe hug… The Ecoiv comes back to the room… Cloe and her stand for a few minutes, I realise Cloe is trying to place Ecoiv… Cloe says the name by wich Ecoov no longer goes by and smiles, I watch as they talk and share smiles… This was definately an unexpected family reunion…
Lex
We walk to the city, I listen as Kc, Ryan and Alice talk… KC is right, who exactly would want me to be back in the mall, I know what everyone thought of me, it’s not something I wish to revisit… Lost in my own thoughts, KC points and I look up, there stands the tall building of the Mall, its a decaying mess, the fires have long since gone, we walk to the sewers where a guy seems to be standing on sentry duty…
“Let’s get this over with” I groan “The sooner this is over the better I will feel”
I look at the group heading towards me “Mallrats?” I adked lifting my eyebrow slightly “Just for clarification to make sure you’re meant to be here does one of you have the… Invitation I suppose is the best word for it?”
I watch as one of them (KC) pulls one of the red letters out “Cool, go on through, traps arent live so your all good” I say with a nod.
The wind is picking up abit so hopefully anyone on their way will be here shortly.
My mind is on so many things at once, the fact others got letters aswel makes no sense. Why would they have gotten strangle letters, when we got a cry for help from Ellie?
I mean… it did look exactly like something she would write
Between all my thoughts, I can’t help but chuckle at the idea of Amber being the one bossing us all around.
She wouldn’t, would she…?
“Nah… it’s probably Jack… Revenge of the nerds and all that…” I say with a cheeky grin, trying to hide my fears and doubts.
And just like that we’re there… back at the Mall, where some guy is asking us for our invitation?! And he is clearly expecting us… or atleast… some former Mallrats…
“Who are you and what have you done with my sister… “ I say loudly, while giving him the once over. He looks strong enough, but I’m positive I could take him if need be. “I know she’s in here… so tell me… now”
I look at the ginger girl “I’m Zane, one of the Serpents that now live in the Mall and you’re gonna need to be a bit more specific, theres about 7 or 8 ex Mallrat girls who’ve turned up… Though I dont know their names, but there is a girl who looks like you with a baby” I shrug “You’s can go in or not, it really doesnt make any difference to me. We just want this red letter crap to stop”
My jaw drops as he mentions a baby. Oh for fracks sake, Ellie what have you gotten yourself into…
I look at Ryan for a sec, hoping he’ll understand why I feel like there’s no time to waste, even if this is a trap, I have to be sure.
“Ladies first I guess” I say as I climb down.
With every step I take all I can do is say “please let it be Jack’s “ over and over again in my head. Because he’s a lot of things, but he would have never left her.
Lottie wraps her arms around herself (if only that was around me ) and says how it feels weird to meet another Mall Rat she has never met and how it shows the Mall Rats history.
I look at her and say, “But none of them are as pretty as you!” Wow Andy, real smooth. “In a million years I never thought Tally and I would return here. We weren’t Mall Rats for long. But yeah your right about the Mall Rats having history and it seems maybe someone from the past is wanting to dig it all up…”
I put my hand on her shoulder. “I don’t think you have as many spiders in here… But you not need to worry, I can always swing by from time to time and check on you…” I spot a spider from the corner of my eye and extend my arm out and grab it in my hand. I awkwardly smile.
Hearing a voice call out about fresh bedding i quickly turn and rusb out my room to where the pile was sat “Thanks!” I smiled happily as I picked a nice light blue set, first come, first serve after all.
Turning back I headed into my room quickly stripping off the bed quilt and pillow covers and tossing them aside quickly followed by the sheet.
It didnt take long to fix the bed, though they were abit discoloured it looked so much better already. Having the bed looking good it pushed me to carry on getting my room fit to live in.
If I had been confused before I was even more now, They had gotten strange letters while we got a letter crying out for help. Was it a pure coincidence perhaps? It seemed too freaky to be that but I really didn’t know.
I understood Alice’s choice of words and reaction when we arrived at the Mall where some random guy is standing asking for our invitation. I place a hand on her shoulder but also give the guy a stern look. Then my eyebrows got together a bit confused, “Baby?” I asked out loud a bit confused.
I looked back at Lex and KC as well still looking confused over this whole thing, “I guess it’s now or never” I said and started climbing down myself. “7 or 8 other Mallrats? maybe soe of the others made their way back with Ellie?” I said to Alice walking behind her.
I glanced up a little at Andy with one raised eyebrow and then laughed a little, I decided not to comment on it just yet but I wasn’t gonna let it slide. “I wasn’t either, but my exist from the Mall was… unexpected and rather stressful” I said and laughed bitterly thinking back on that day when we were told we had to leave the city.
“Thank you, as long as they and the rats stay out I’ll be good” I told him with a smile. My eyes then also light up when someone shouted out clean bedding. “Oh excuse me, I have to get that” I tell Andy before running out to grab one. “Oh thank you so much!”
Lottie tells me she wasn’t a Mall Rat for long and her exit was unexpected and stressful. She brushed over that quite quickly so I guess maybe that’s a conversation for another day. She shows her gratitude before she makes her exit as there is a shout out that there is clean sheets etc by the fountain. I smile back at Lottie. These Serpents didn’t seem so bad after all… I regret losing my lid so badly. I hate when my temper gets the better off me and I go all Hades.
I do one final swoop in Lottie’s room as Spiderman finding a few. I place them all into the container. I swing by the fountain. I spot some suitable bedding for Tally and I but don’t draw her attention to it.
I fling it inside our room over the pallets that I know Tally will be using as our bed.
(@Trudy don’t go all supreme mother on me. I tried to make smaller and probably failed… Please be nice. )
“Always resourceful and creative aren’t you? Gotta love her!” She had made quite the dent in the room that was going to be ours for how many ever days ahead…
I dart off into the sewers to release the spiders and hear voices ahead from the ladder. Seems more Mall Rats have found there way back to what once their home…
I scoot forward staying in the shadows, I wasn’t hiding as such so if they happen to see me fair enough, but if not I can do all the ‘how have you been’ bull later… There are 4 individuals, 3 that are very recognisable to me from my time; Alice, KC and Lex. The other guy was not someone I recognised…
I glanced at Lex “Ellie doesn’t look anything like Alice” I whisper to him with a smirk before grabbing shoes out my bag, changing out of the skates. As confident as I wasn’t, there wasn’t a chance I was going to attempt going down in them.
Wasting no time I gave a nod to the guy before following Alice and Ryan down and through the sewers “I excited to see how everyone has changed” I say grinning as we walk, you what they say, best way to get over someone is to get under someone else.
People came pretty much running for the bedding, definitely my good deed of the day done! I grinned at Lottie, clearly chuffed with myself “You’re welcome, once everyone is settled and back in the cafe we’ll go over things like showers and rationing” I tell her.
We’re going to need to sit down and discus everything, everything in the city was pretty limited but we were lucky for what we have considering the city wasn’t thriving like it used to but the others saying they can get fresh food was really good news, we did runs and got what we could but they really seem to know what they’re talking about.
Now when things were starting to settle down a bit, i did change my opinion about some. Zandra had remained the same, but the serpents showed to not be so bad. Andy had seemed hot headed but had been kind and helped me out.
I held the bed sheet close to my chest as i looked at Luc and smiled. ”I think Thats a good idea”* i told him nodding my head. I then tilted it a bit as a i looked at him, ”You know…. You arent so bad”
I let out a laugh “Don’t worry, I know I come across as a dick 90% of the time, I’m all about the banter and flirting, and that includes slightly inappropriate comments but that’s just me. I promise you’ll get used to me and learn to love me, everyone does… I’m pretty epic” I tell her grinning. I love who I am.
Being back here is rough, and the memories keep flooding over me.
I’d been back here only once since Ned died, and the memory of what happened then still hurt, almost as much as loosing Ned did. I hadn’t even killed Jaffa… yet… back then…
Yet Bray ordered Lex to arrest me, clearly judging me…valuing The Guardian over me.
Thank goodness Ebony had been in charge by then, and pardoned me… it had given me the chance to leave back to the farm, away from those that didn’t truly value me… until the Techno’s ruined that plan…
As I wait for the guys to climb down, I’m relieved Ryan is the first to follow. The sound of his voice alone helps me snap put of my thoughts and settles me.
“I don’t know who… but I dare to bet it’s people like Amber, Bray, Ebony or Tai-San… I mean… one of them must have a hand in this, or made an enemy that led us here…”
Not long after KC comes down, smart enough, not climbing with his rollerblades on.
“Oi Lex!” I call up. “You coming in today, or are you afraid of the big bad sewers?”
Zandra heads off to finish sorting her room and I do the same. I managed to find a load more magazines, which could be used for kindling if nothing else, there are also some action figures and even some old video tapes. It’s so weird seeing these things just abandoned in boxes but I doubted many people had had the time or the incentive to go through the shops.
Hearing a shout about clean bedding I’m almost tempted until I notice a door at the back of the room, it’s hidden behind some boxes which I shift out the way. It takes a bit of effort, and I have to give it a good kick, but the door eventually opens to what much have been a staff area. There’s a small seating area, kitchen area and even a toilet. If it wasn’t for the lack of water I’d be excited at the thought of my own private bathroom, but as things stand it’s just another thing we can’t really use. Maybe there would be a way to get more water and electricity… maybe Jack would come back with some genius ideas, oh now that would be heavenly. I take a moment just imagining the sheer luxury of it, but reality draws me back as I notice several large spiders lurking on the wall… I’m not usually one to freak out at spiders but maybe they were ones for Andy…
Hopefully the others were having as much success in their shops as I was. I couldn’t quite bring myself to call it a room, especially given the size. Realistically this could sleep a few people, but I had it all to myself. It was weird being alone, and after a moment the reality hits me and I have to sit down. Alone… no one from the farm popping in to check I’m ok, no chores, no animals to look after or crops to tend. Closing my eyes I brace against the tears that threaten to fall, it hadn’t been perfect at the farm, especially after… but it had become home, and now… well, now that was gone.
I raised my eyebrow and let out a scuff at banter ad flirting, “Why does that not surprise me one bit?” I said with humor in my voice. I really tried not to laugh, not to be mean but just cause I did find it funny. “I don’t know about love but… I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. But right now? I don’t hate you so I guess that’s something”
I shrug “At least I am honest about it, some guys are all about pretending and the moment you let your guard down they show their true colours” I tell her “People never hate me for long, I’m too awesome”
I was very confident though I wasn’t actually bothered if anyone disliked me, I was fairly selective who I’d spend time with.
) and says how it feels weird to meet another Mall Rat she has never met and how it shows the Mall Rats history.
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