Sitting in a cage on a beach on a remote island Moz is having a conversation with Bray, showing him a photo from the past, a past they actually shared.
Moz watched Bray’s face as she saw how it all came back to him, the memories.
“Ebony invited me to the party,” Bray said as he looked at Moz, still clutching the picture of Moz and the baby in his hand. What he didn’t know was that that was one out of two photos Moz had of Maddy.
“I know. I told her she could invite whomever she wanted,” Moz said as she looked around at the other people in the cage. She wondered where they’d be sent, she’d heard that this was just a holding area before they were shipped off to a new place.
“Why did she invite me?” Bray asked and Moz just shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t want to mention the fact that Ebony had been wanting to get inside his pants when she’d been the one who’d succeeded. She had never told Ebony the truth about who the father of Maddy was. She’d even gotten Ebony to bring Bray and visit his child. She’d been hiding in the house while Ebony had come in and gotten Maddy and then gone out and showed her to Bray, Dee had been there and she took the photo. A photo that Moz had a copy of. She was fairly certain that Ebony had the other one. She pulled out the other photo.
“I think you’ll remember this,” Moz said as she handed Bray the photo of him and Ebony, where he was holding the baby.
“Yes I do. Ebony never told me who the friend was. She just said I knew the mother too,” Bray said as he looked down at the photo. He had an awed look on his face.
“Yes, that’s Maddy. Ëbony asked if she could come over and she asked if she could bring you, and of course I said yes. Since you are her father, and she’s one of my closest friends,” Moz said with a sad smile on her face. She remembered that day all too clear.
Flash Back
*“Hey Moz can I come over?” Ebony asked when Moz had picked up the phone. The Virus had been killing a lot of adults, but not all. Moz had just gotten home from the hospital, with her daughter. *
“Yeah sure. Then you can meet my daughter,” Moz said smiling at the phone. She was sitting in a rocking chair in the nursery that her father had built for her younger brother that hadn’t survived the birth. He’d had a heart condition.
*“Daughter?” Ebony asked and Moz didn’t say anything at first. She was choosing her words carefully. *
“Yes, remember I told you about it,” Moz said as she looked down at her infant daughter. Moz had mentioned to Ebony that she was pregnant in the passing.
*“Oh yea. You mind if I bring Bray?” Ebony asked and Moz just smiled to herself. She had Dee with her. *
*“No, go ahead and bring him,” Moz said and then Ebony hung up. Moz wasn’t too surprised. She hung up the phone as well. It didn’t take long until she heard the doorbell. *
Dee opened the door while Moz was sitting in the living room, holding her daughter. Ebony entered, she’d told Bray to wait outside.
“Hey Ebs,” Moz said smiling as she spotted her friend, with her braids.
*“Hey. Why can’t Bray come in?” Ebony asked and with one look from Moz Ebony didn’t ask anymore questions. *
*“Want to hold her? Her name is Maddy,” Moz said as she held her daughter in a way that meant that she could easily be passed over to Ebony. *
“Sure, can I show Maddy to Bray?” Ebony asked and Moz nodded as she handed Ebony her daughter. Ebony went out the front door and Moz went up and stood in the window peaking out through it. She stood so that she could see Ebony and Bray with Dee and her camera, but they couldn’t see her.
*“Just don’t tell Bray about me,” Moz said just before Ebony left the house with Dee trailing after her. Moz had asked Dee to take pictures for her on Maddy. *
Moz saw that Ebony and Bray were talking about something, she didn’t know what and didn’t care. She then saw how Ebony handed Bray Maddy. Moz started to cry. She left the window and went into the bathroom. She cleaned the tears away and then settled back down in the couch.
Flash back ends
“I remember that day. So you were our common friend?” Bray asked and Moz just nodded. She looked at the two photographs in Bray’s hands. The only photographs she had of her daughter.
“We need to get out of here,” Bray said and Moz just nodded again. She didn’t trust her voice at all at this moment. She thought it’d break if she spoke, and to Moz that would be horrible. Bray obviously had a plan, Moz didn’t, not more than getting away and back to her daughter.
“I have an idea. See the hole in the fence over there?” Bray whispered on Moz’s ear, she shivered from his breath in her ear. She just nodded, and since Bray was so close he could sense her movement. Moz had seen the whole earlier and didn’t need to look at it.
“We are going to go over there and slip through it tonight,” Bray whispered as he looked around the cage to make sure no one was paying attention to them. He handed Moz the photos back, she put them in her bra, where she’d had them from the start.
“Uhu,” Moz said as she looked around the cage just like Bray had been doing. She knew the whole, and she couldn’t wait for nightfall. It meant getting away and perhaps even getting back to her daughter.
As night fell Moz and Bray feigned sleep. Waiting for the guards to do their headcount. Before the night had fallen both Bray and Moz had positioned themselves close to the hole, covering it up by sitting with their backs to it.
Bray was working on getting the hole slightly bigger, it was quite small, just big enough for Moz to fit through it. She was the first to go through. A short while later Bray was also through the hole. When they were through it, they helped each other to close the hole again so that it wouldn’t be spotted by the guards.
As the sun was rising Bray and Moz were sitting in a small row boat. “This is going to take forever,” Moz said disgruntled as Bray was rowing the boat. They didn’t know how long it’d take them to reach the mainlands and Moz didn’t like the fact of being stuck with Bray on a boat for days with barely any food.
Two days passed, with Moz being sick the entire time before they reached land again. Moz was the first out of the boat, kissing the land beneath her feet. Glad to be on solid ground again. Moz didn’t know where they were, but Bray did. It was the beach where he’d said goodbye to his brother when he’d died.
“We made it Moz,” Bray said as he started walking in the direction he remembered he’d come from when he’d come to bury his brother at sea. He remembered it still as if it was just yesterday. Standing on the beach with Amber, Trudy, Jack, Dal and Martin’s dead body.
“Are you sure?” Moz asked uncertain as she glanced around. She had never explored the beaches of the city, she had stayed around her own home.
“Yes I’m sure. Now come, let’s go to the mall,” Bray said as he kept walking. Moz followed him for a while. She truly didn’t want to go to the mall. She wanted to go to the farm, to her daughter. The daughter she hadn’t seen since she’d been born almost five years earlier. Moz had lost track of time since she’d been captured by the Technos, but before that it’d been close to three years since she’d last seen her daughter. She had left Maddy with Dawn when she was just a few months old.
“I’m not going to the mall. You are free to do as you want, but as soon as we enter the city, I’m heading to seeing my daughter,” Moz said as she walked next to Bray.
“You need to be careful Moz, and I am not letting you go alone,” Bray said as he studied the back of Moz, she was walking ahead of him. She knew the city like the back of her hand, however, there was something she hadn’t expected. A high electrified fence.
“This isn’t supposed to be here,” Moz said as she was staring at the fence. She was reading a sign that was just a few feet to the right on the fence. She didn’t want to try it and see if it was electrified. To her it wouldn’t be a surprise. She’d seen some of the weapons the Technos had.
“I say we don’t try and climb it,” Bray said as he started to walk alongside the fence. Moz followed him. She knew that it would take longer to walk around the whole city than straight through it, but with the fence it wouldn’t work at all.
“Definitely, we’ll get fried if we try. It’s electrified,” Moz said pointing at another sign they passed as they went. They kept walking along the fence, and not before long they saw posters. They said “Zoot lives” and “Zoot’s 2nd coming” on both posters there were an image of Ebony standing right beside Zoot.
“He’s dead,” were the first words that came out of Bray’s mouth when he saw the posters. They’d been gone from the city longer than they thought. A lot had changed. First of all, the fence around the inner part of the city, and these posters.
“How do you know?” Moz asked Bray. She remembered his brother Martin vaguely. She’d only met him in passing once or twice during school. She didn’t know how such a shy boy could’ve turned into the tyrant he was.
“I watched him die” Bray answered and Moz stopped dead in her tracks and just stared at Bray’s back as he kept walking. Moz spotted a gang of people ahead of Bray. They were dressed in mimickry of Zoot. She grabbed Bray’s arm and pulled him into an empty building. It seemed like all the buildings outside of the fenced in zone was empty. So far they hadn’t seen anyone inhabiting a building that was outside the fenced in zone. It didn’t surprise Moz now to see the tribe. It put pieces of a puzzle together. Something was going on inside the fenced in area, which they couldn’t get into, also the place within the mall was.
“Who are they?” Bray asked and Moz just shrugged her shoulders, she was sitting in the doorway, listening and watching. It seemed as if they’d disappeared.
“Let’s get going. I need to get to the farm as soon as possible,” Moz said desperation colouring her voice. She ducked walked out of the building, the pack of crazies were nowhere to be seen. It was the first time they had to hide. On their way through the city they had to hide three more times, it was as if the pack of Zoot followers were patrolling the city. Moz was actually certain that they were.
It took them several of hours to reach the other side of the city. And they had to hide several more times from the pack of kids with clothes were similar to Zoot, making Moz believe they were Zoot followers.
“I’ll lead the way from here,” Moz said as she headed for an old path that looked as if it hadn’t been used for months. The forest was moving in closer on the path. Bray had no idea of where they were going, just that it was to a farm. Moz walked hurriedly and quiet. Bray wasn’t too surprised. Apparently Moz was anxious to get to the farm to see if it was still standing.
“I know that sign,” Bray said as they reached a huge sign with the symbol for female. It was the farm Bray had gone to with Lex, Dal and Jack when they’d gotten food for Lex’s wedding to Zandra all those months ago.
“Huh?” Moz asked and looked over her shoulder at Bray. He just shrugged his shoulders. Moz didn’t bother with asking him why. She just made her way into the farm.
“DAWN!” Moz shouted as she was standing in the middle of a field of potatoes. Since crops were still growing Moz figured someone was still there, tending to the farm. Moz was hoping that it was Dawn and the other farm-girls.