Chapter Thirty-Six

They were trying to be quiet, careful not to awaken them, but they were unsuccessful in their attempts and Bray found his mind slowly being called back from unconsciousness and black void that he had spent the past forty-eight hours or so drifting in and out of. A low moan escaped his lips as his eyelids flickered open, wincing as the brilliant red-orange afternoon sun streamed through the large, naked windows.

“He’s awake!” He heard the voice of a young girl, possibly in her early teens, exclaim suddenly. “He’s finally awake.”

“Calm down, Cougar. It’s not that big of deal. He’s been doing this the entire time. He’ll wake up for one second then fall back asleep.” Another female voice retorted, far less enthusiastic that Bray was finally awake.

“You’re always such a spoil sport, Robin.” The voice of Cougar responded. “Maybe he didn’t want to wake up before now because he knew that he only had your company to look forward to.”

“Oh shut up.” Robin snapped as Bray was slowly began to make out dark fuzzy shapes against the afternoon sun backdrop.

There were two girls seated in chairs nearby the sofa that had been made into a bed for him. One was blonde and the other brunette. The brunette looked vaguely familiar, but the blonde was a mystery to him. He figured they must be Gaians, however. He certainly didn’t know of any teenager girls who went by the names of Cougar and Robin willingly.

“Water.” Bray found his voice as he managed to gasp between his parched lips. He half wondered if the girls had spent the entire time just watching him slowly dehydrate not even thinking that he might be thirsty even if he was soundly unconscious.

“Here.” The brunette, the one who’s voice he recognized as the girl called Robin, rose to her feet, a tall plastic glass in hand. “It was mine, but you can have it. I only had one sip.”

Bray nodded slightly, biting back a cry of pain as he did so. “Thank you.” He mumbled after drinking greedily from the glass, several precious droplets of water dribbling out of his mouth and onto his scratchy chin that had more days worth of stubble growing that Bray had ever allowed.

“I can’t believe you’re finally awake.” Cougar commented, coming over and kneeling on the floor directly in front of the couch. “Robin was saying that you’ve been out of it for days.”

“Days?” Bray twisted his lips up in a bitter smile. “It feels like I just fell asleep. I feel awful. What happened?”

“You don’t remember?” Robin stared at him, clearly taken aback that he had no recall of what had transpired to put him in such a position as laying on the couch in the living room of the racetrack house that the rebels had made base at.

Bray shook his head. “No. It’s all really foggy. What happened? Why do I feel like I was just beat up by a thousand b|oody Chosen?”

“Not a thousand Chosen.” Robin corrected him smoothly. “Two women. A Mall Rat and a Gaian, though I was told I couldn’t tell you who if you didn’t remember.”

“That’s so stupid, Robin.” Cougar furrowed her brow, her eyes shining brightly as she stared directly at Bray, an intense look that Bray had seen on many young girl’s faces. He shifted uncomfortably, trying to keep his eyes on Robin instead of the obviously infatuated blonde. “We should just tell him. Maybe then he’d remember.”

“No, it’s really alright, Cougar.” Bray assured her. He didn’t want to know who had beat him up, especially if it was a Gaian and a Mall Rat. More importantly, he didn’t want to know why they had felt it necessary to beat him up. Unless it was some sort of practice exercise, but somehow from the look on Robin’s face he knew it hadn’t been.

“So,” Robin began carefully, looking down at studying him with serious eyes. “What do you remember, Bray?”

“I really don’t know. It’s all sort of hazy.” He told her truthfully, pushing a long strand of sandy brown hair away from his face. “I remember the funeral and being really upset afterwards. I wanted to be alone so I could think, but that’s about it.”

He flushed a little, not wanting to tell Robin exactly what he had wanted to think about. There had been only one thing, or rather one person, that had been on his mind for the past several weeks - Amber. Ever since he had found out she was alive Bray had been obsessed with trying to figure out a way to win her back, to get her to love him again and to make her forget that he had ever allowed his eyes to linger on another.

“Well, you didn’t just think.” Cougar told him promptly. “Or at least if what I was told is true, though I don’t think it is. You don’t seem the sort.”

“What do you mean?” Bray shifted his eyes away from Robin and looked over at the blonde curiously, for the first time realizing that she was really rather cute, though she still had not fully grown into her looks yet. Her eyes were large and sapphire blue, betraying far more emotion that he imagined the girl wanted to show. She couldn’t be more than thirteen years old, but she was already filling out and Bray could tell she would be a stunning young woman someday.

“Hush, Cougar. They told us not to say anything.” Robin scowled down at her friend crossly. “We should wait until they get back.”

“Get back?”

“Yeah, they’re gone.” Cougar supplied for him. “They all left for the village early this morning leaving me with the kiddies.”

“You’re only a couple months older than I am, Cougar.” Robin stated evenly, and Bray could tell that Robin envied those few months that Cougar had on her. “Besides, did you really want to go back to the village after seeing what you saw?”

Cougar blanched and she immediately shook her head, causing her long golden tresses to spill over her shoulders reminding Bray a bit of a waterfall made of pure spun gold.

“That’s what I thought.” Robin sniffed, a triumphant expression on her face.

“So who went to the village?” Bray found himself asking, though he did not direct his question towards Cougar. Though she proven herself far more willing to give information than Robin had, she was clearly emotionally upset by whatever had taken place in the village and Bray was sensitive enough not to try and set her off more. “And what exactly happened there?” He finished quickly.

“Everyone went to the village.” Robin shrugged her shoulders, taking a cloth and dipping it in a shallow bowl of water, then moving over to bathe his forehead, immediately offering him a bit of relief from the strange buzzing sensation that had begun to fill his head. “Great White and the others were attacked by the Chosen. Cougar managed to escape and come here to get some help. They told us to wait.”

“So it’s just you two and me?” Bray stared at her in astonishment, realizing that whatever had happened at the village must have panicked Amber more than Robin was letting on. For her to take every last one of the fighting Rebels with her and leave him with two defenseless teenager girls…

“Moose is here too.” Cougar jumped in. “He’s in the kitchen making us some soup. I’m getting awfully tired of soup though.”

“You should be grateful for what you have, Cougar.” Bray found himself correcting Cougar. “In the city there’s barely enough food for everyone to have one meal a day. I remember some really long days where there wasn’t any food at all. You’re lucky to have soup.”

“Yeah, I know. Its just, well…” Cougar trailed off, flicking her hair back over her shoulders. “Moose always lets it cook too long and I hate burnt soup.”

“Burnt soup?” Bray chuckled. “I didn’t know you could burn soup.”

“Oh believe me, you can.” Robin rolled her eyes, a small smile cracking across her lips. “Cougar, if you’re so worried about Moose burning our dinner, why don’t you go help him? I can take care of Bray.”

“Oh, I’m sure you can.” Cougar shot Robin a nasty look, though she slowly rose to her feet and stomped off to the kitchen, grumbling things about Robin just being jealous of the fact that she was two months older than her.

“I’m sorry.” Robin smiled simply at Bray, offering him the water glass again. “Cougar’s not usually like that. She’s just a bit on edge today. She’s seen a lot of things that could bring a grown man to tears.”

“Seriously?” Bray felt the well-familiar feeling of worry settle in his heart. Whatever had terrified Cougar was probably still in the Gaian village - where Amber was. He had to get there. He had to protect her…

“It will be alright, though.” Robin quickly assured him, as if reading his thoughts. “Amber’s a lot different than the girl she was when she arrived in the Gaian village. She knows how to take care of herself, and others-“

“She always knew how to do that.” Bray interrupted, feeling a sharp pang in his chest as he thought of the dazzling blonde. “Amber always knew exactly what to say and when to say it. She was the glue that kept the Mall Rats together for such a long time.”

“I believe it.” Robin agreed, tucking a strand of curly mousy brown hair behind her ear. “She did that with the Gaians as well. After Silver Fox died it would have been so easy for the rest of us to go our separate ways, but she kept us as a whole, a unit. If it hadn’t been for her, who knows where we’d be right now.”

“Yeah.” Bray nodded. He too often wondered where he might be if it had not been for Amber. Most likely he would have deposited Trudy at the mall and then gone off by himself, a free spirit not tied down by anyone or anything. But there had been a gorgeous young woman at the mall, full of fire and spirit. She had drawn him in like moth to the flame and once she had him in her snare he found he had no longer wanted to be free.

“You really love Amber, don’t you?” Robin asked him suddenly, taking Bray off guard.

He hesitated for a long minute, wondering just how to respond. He knew that the Gaians felt fiercely loyal to their own tribe and he also knew that Pride and Amber had once been an item - sort of. So more than likely Robin would find him inferior to the great and prestigious Pride.

“Yeah, I do.” Bray told her at last, realizing that even if he had lied to Robin to save face she would have been able to see through the mask. There was something about her dark brown eyes that told Bray she could tell instantly if a person was being completely honest with her or not. “I always have, since the moment I laid eyes on her.”

Robin bit down on her lower lip, clearly upset about something. “Tell me, Bray. If you love Amber so much, why did you try and do what you tried to do?”

“Huh?” Bray blinked at her shock. “I’m not really sure I know what you’re talking about, Robin. You’re going to have to be a little less cryptic if I’m going to answer your question.”

Robin stared at him, pools of unshed tears filling her dark eyes. “You tried to rape Amber, Bray. Two nights ago. You got drunk then tried to force yourself on her. If it hadn’t been for Lex, who knows what you would have done!”

Bray felt his heart plummet as he desperately searched the recesses of his memory. In the very back, deeply hidden as if he had tried to forget about it, Bray faintly recalled finding the full bottle of vodka in one of the kitchen cabinets. He had taken it out with him on the veranda and promptly got wasted. Everything after that was a muddled blur, a blur that he couldn’t even attempt to try and figure out.

“I don’t remember any of that, Robin.” Bray whispered, feeling rather close to tears himself. “You have to believe me. Hurting Amber is the last thing I would have ever wanted to do. I love Amber. With all my heart, soul and body. She’s my life, Robin. Without her I don’t know what I’d do. I’d go insane without her-“

“Save it.” Robin instructed stiffly. “I believe you, though I don’t know why. I’ve never liked you. But I believe you for some reason.”

“Thank you.” Bray whispered, feeling the briefest of relief that at least someone believed him. “I-is Amber alright? Is she upset?”

“Yes, she’s fine.” Robin nodded. “And of course she’s upset, though she’s forgiven you already. That much is clear. Otherwise you’d be dog food right now.”

“She’s forgiven me?” Bray breathed it out so softly, fearful of saying the words too loudly, terrified that they would suddenly be snatched away. “She must know that I wasn’t myself, that it wasn’t really me.”

“I don’t know what Amber thinks or knows. She wanted you to be treated fairly though, so the suggestions to trade you to the Chosen or flay you alive were voted out rather quickly. In the end it just came down to letting you get off scott free or throwing you out of the tribe. Guess which one won.”

“Obviously not the scott free one.” Bray winced in pain as he attempted to shift into a more comfortable position. “But I’m not thrown out either, am I?”

“Actually, this was done before the vote took place.” Robin shrugged. “This is your punishment. Or at least all Amber thought was necessary.”

“I see.” Bray nodded.

He would have said more but at that moment Cougar appeared in the doorway, her long golden tresses done up in an elaborate style that made her look at least three months older. She gave Bray a flirtatious smile then announced in a loud voice, “Dinner is served.” She paused dramatically. “And it’s not burnt.”

~*~*~

Patsy didn’t know if she could take another step. Her entire body ached from walking and she felt as if she demanded that her muscles move her any further she would simply fall apart, too tired and sore to go on. Her delicate fair skin had been horribly sunburned after just one days travel and now, six days later she had so many blisters that Patsy thought she had blisters upon blisters.

She had resisted the journey at first, thinking that she could escape the lone Chosen guard that had been selected to escort her to her new prison. He was not much older than Patsy, maybe a year at the most, and seemed rather nervous about the duty that had been assigned to him by Luke. However, after Patsy’s first failed escape attempt he had put her in manacles and kept his viciously sharp Chosen blade constantly in her sight.

“Get up, Mall Rat.” Her captor stared down at her, his hazel eyes hard and void of emotion. “You’ve rested long enough. We’re nearly to the base and then you can become someone else’s problem.”

Patsy winced, biting back a cry of pain as she slowly staggered to her feet, having to use the tree that she had leaned against during her brief rest for support. “Please, Chaise,” She used his given name, knowing that she got further with him when she used his name rather than calling him nasty names like scum, lemming, and such forth. “I’m exhausted. I need to rest. We’ve been walking for days and my feet feel ready to fall off.”

Chaise said nothing, only stood there, his forehead dotted with perspiration from the afternoon heat. “We must press on.” He stated at last. “Zoot rewards those who are faithful and make the most of the time he has given them.”

Patsy had enough energy to roll her eyes, but she kept her mouth firmly clamped shut. She had attempted to argue with Chaise during the first several days of the journey, explaining to him that Zoot had only been a boy, lost and confused just like the rest of the city, but Chaise had refused to believe her. He told her that he had seen Zoot’s eyes, seen the passion and fire that had lingered there. He said that no mere mortal could have eyes like that. He had spoken with such conviction that Patsy began to half-wonder if Chaise could be right. Could Zoot have been more than just Bray’s younger brother?

The oddly matched pair continued on in silence, Patsy leading the way though she did not know where she was headed. If ever she began to turn the wrong way, Chaise would roughly push her in the right direction, criticizing her for being weak and mocking her saying that if she was a true follower of Zoot he would have shown her the path.

~*~*~

Ebony stared down at the face of the woman who had haunted her dreams for over six months, the face of a woman she had never dared hope that she would ever lay eyes on again. She couldn’t understand how it was possible, she had seen Zandra’s blood drenched body herself, felt for a pulse, but there had been nothing. Nothing at all. Zandra had been dead by all accounts, and yet here she lay, so close to death’s door that Ebony wondered if she would ever find out the answer to the mystery that now plagued her.

“It’s so strange.” Amber commented, brushing a tendril of deep blue hair away from Zandra’s face. “I can’t believe she’s really alive, and yet somehow I knew she was never dead.”

“How so?” Ebony furrowed her brow, looking over at her friend curiously.

“I’m not sure exactly.” Amber shrugged her shoulders, tearing her eyes away from Zandra’s face and meeting Ebony’s even gaze. “Just something inside me told me that when we couldn’t find her body that day so long ago that she wasn’t dead. That she was someplace out there… And then I had this dream.”

“Dream?” Ebony’s eyebrows shot up. “My sort of dream?”

“No, not exactly.” Amber pursed her lips together and slowly shook her head. “It was strange. I was Zandra. I was trying to get out of the burning observatory. I had gotten separated from everyone else because I had gone back for something, though I don’t really remember what. It was something extremely important though. And then I couldn’t find my way out. It was awful.”

“I can imagine.” Ebony shivered, well remembering her own horrifying memories of the observatory exploding, and she had not been trapped inside like both Amber and Zandra had. “When did you have this dream?”

“Not long ago.” Amber shrugged her shoulders, rubbing her temples with her fingers as if attempting to knead out a headache. “After, well, after Bray.”

“Oh.” Ebony bit down on her tongue to keep her from making a snippet remark about Bray. It seemed that she had at long last completely crossed that fine line that existed between love and hate. Now whenever she even heard Bray’s name mentioned bile rose to her throat and she felt like letting out a long string of curse words that would have earned her at least six months grounding from her parents if they had still been alive.

“Ebony, it won’t do you any good to hold onto your anger.” Amber murmured softly, taking Ebony’s hand in her own and giving it a gentle squeeze. “It’s just like you were telling me about trusting people this morning. Anger cuts you off just as much as not trusting them. And being alone is very lonely.”

“I know.” Ebony gritted her teeth, not understanding how Amber could have let go of her anger towards Bray so quickly and easily. It was almost as if she had completely forgotten what he had tried to do. Ebony admired that in Amber but also knew she would never want that characteristic herself. Something inside her liked remembering all the wrongs done against her. Every last one of them.

“So,” Ebony shifted uncomfortably, not liking the direction her thoughts were turning. “Is Lex still out of it?”

Amber nodded slowly, a pink flush creeping up on her cheeks, though Ebony could not know why. “Yeah, last time I checked on him. I think just the past few days finally caught up with him and then seeing Zandra, alive… Well, it was too much for the poor boy to take.”

“No kidding.” Ebony cracked a grin, chuckling softly. When she had heard that Lex had fainted she refused to believe Panther, but then Panther had told her just why Lex had fainted and the puzzle pieces had begun to fall into place.

“Hey you two.” Ebony looked up at the sound of Danni’s low voice only a few feet away from them. She was carrying a food-laden tray and a hesitant smile on her lips. “Hi Ebony.”

Ebony studied Danni curiously, not really sure what to make sure of this new attitude towards her. When they had crossed paths earlier that day Danni had been frosty towards her - as was expected. And Ebony had returned the cold indifference, but now Danni appeared hesitant, almost shy, though Ebony chalked it up to Amber being there.

“Hi Danni.” Amber smiled warmly at Danni, patting the recently vacated bed beside her. “Is that for Zandra?”

“Well, no, not really.” Danni gave a wiry grin. “It’s for you guys. Ocelot told me that you guys kept giving your food to the wounded and that pretty soon if you didn’t eat we’d have two more people to be waiting on.”

“I’m not hungry.” Amber brushed Danni off, “But Ebony, you should go ahead and eat.”

“Both of you are going to eat.” Danni insisted, setting the tray on the bed where Amber had motioned to earlier. “You have to. And I’m not going to leave until every last drop of the soup is finished.”

Hearing that, Ebony immediately reached for a bowl and began slurping the soup up, trying to ignore the strange flicker of pain in Danni’s dark eyes that Ebony’s rather childish actions had caused.

“Look,” Ebony stated finally, after Amber had nudged her in the ribs, “You can stay Danni. Amber and I were just talking about tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? What about tomorrow?” Danni folded her hands and rested them on her protruding belly.

“We’re going to transport everyone to the track tomorrow.” Amber explained. “That is if everything goes according to plan.”

“But how? Isn’t it too dangerous to move the prisoners soon?” Danni queried curiously, pushing a strand of dark brown hair away from her face. She had found some bobby pins and managed to twist the majority of her choppy locks away from her face in a style that was almost cute and hid her vicious hair cut, save for the few strands that were still too short and fell forward into her eyes all the time.

“Yes and no.” Ebony felt like answering her. “It will be dangerous to move them, but if they stay here in the village where the Chosen know they’re at, they’re in even more danger. We’ve been talking and I think I know where the Guardian may stash some of his creepy black vans. If we can steal one we can transport the wounded relatively unnoticed and safely.”

“That just might work.” Danni nodded her approval. “But what if you’re stopped by a Chosen patrol along the way?”

“We’re not sure yet.” Amber admitted. “That’s what we were discussing. We thought we could just pass the wounded off as prisoners, but then if there’s some higher ranking officer, he may insist on escorting us to wherever we’re supposed to be taking them and then the jig would be up.”

“Plus I’m pretty sure the Guardian has informed all his lieutenants to keep their eyes open for large transports of wounded.” Ebony put in.

“Well, I have an idea.” Danni stated almost shy once again. “It would be a bit tricky, but I think it would work a lot better than just saying their prisoners.”

“What is it?” Amber asked between bites of her soup.

“I’ve noticed that there are a lot of dead Chosen bodies about. We could take their robes and dress our wounded in them. That way if anyone stops us they can just think we’re moving wounded guards.”

“But there will be blood all over the robes.” Amber pointed out.

“Which would be conspicuous if we tried to wear them,” Ebony grinned from ear to ear, seeing the logic in Danni’s suggestion, “But not if wounded are wearing them. Plus I’m pretty sure we could find a few robes that aren’t bloodied that a few of us can put on, that way it would seem even more legit.”

“Exactly.” Danni smiled over at Ebony and Ebony felt the smallest crack begin to form in the resentment she had harbored against the woman that had caused Bray to reject her so cruelly. “That’s a really great idea, Danni. Very well thought out.”

“Thank you.” Danni’s cheeks flushed a bit. “That means a lot coming from you, Ebony.” She added, her voice true and genuine, not sarcastic in the least.

~*~*~

He was no longer in the Gaian lodge with Amber. Lex knew that instantly, but where he actually was still remained a mystery. The hard-packed dirt floor had been replaced by plush red velvet-like carpet that had obviously not seem much traffic. The walls were a soft pastel pink and were decorated with blue, purple and brilliant red hearts. There was no ceiling, only the various workings of stage lights and instantly Lex realized that he was on a television set of some sort.

“What’s going on?” He mumbled to himself, slowly turning around, focusing his attention on the brightly flashing sign that adorned one of the sidewalls. The writing was in cursive and Lex struggled for several minutes trying to make it out. He had just barely begun learning the regular alphabet; once the loops and curls were put in he was lost.

At last he thought he could make out the word ‘love’ at least, and above it ‘the’. The final word started with a ‘C’ and had a few ‘n’s’ in it, but Lex doubted he would have been able to read such a long word even if it hadn’t been written in cursive.

“Welcome to our show, Lex Kennedy.” A man wearing a garish tweed suit and a well-practiced, oily smile suddenly materialized between Lex and the flashing sign. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

“Excuse me?” Lex stared at him, not really knowing what to make of what was going on. The older man made Lex uncomfortable and the way he was walking towards him, an expectant look on his face reminded Lex of how his teachers used to come towards his desk back in school, expecting him to hand in his homework.

“You heard me, Lex.” The man replied smoothly. “We’ve been waiting for you. The show is about to begin and the audience is getting restless.”

“Audience?” Lex looked around, bewildered. Suddenly the empty stage room had a rowdy, clapping audience mostly filled up with girls. Lex recognized several of the faces, some from school days before the virus and some of them people he had met in his days as a Mall Rat.

“Take a seat, Lex.” The man ushered Lex towards a hot pink velvet seat with the back in the shape of a heart. “We’re ready to begin.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Lex did as he was told, making his way towards the hideous chair and quickly sitting down. As he sat, he noticed a false wall appear, dividing the stage in half. Beyond the wall he heard the soft sounds of giggling. A sinking feeling hit Lex in the pit of his stomach, he knew exactly where he was.