Post by cristina on Oct 5, 2008 12:20:01 GMT -5
The boat left and the mallrats still looked for a while at their city remembering everything they had experienced in it and how many times they had fought to control it and be able to make it a better place and now everything happened all over again, they had to leave their home because of a virus. At least this time they left their home as a family, not totally complete but a family.
Jack had his arm around Ellie’s shoulder while she was watching with saddens in her eyes how the distance to the city grew and Jack didn’t notice but she past her hand slowly over her stomach. How was she going to make it? Now that she didn’t have to think about just herself anymore, no now she had to think for two. If at least Alice was there, she missed her so much and she refused to accept the idea she would never see her again. They were sisters and Ellie knew her older sister was somewhere out there waiting for her. She turned her head slowly and observed Jack without him noticing, he would never leave her, they loved each other and they knew, but she just couldn’t tell him.
Close to them was Lex, he too was looking at the city, so many times had he tried to get away and he always ended up going back but not this time. The strange thing he wasn’t sure if he liked the idea of going away or not. He had so many times found a girl that suited him and he loved, Zandra, Tai-San and Siva and now all three of them were gone, two of them dead for sure. But he still had hope, yes he could still hope, two were buried but Tai-San was still alive and he would find out were as soon as he could, but for now he had to wait and see how things developed.
Lex: “Okay guys, who else thinks it’s time for lunch?”
Amber: “Food… Oh no.”
Lex: “You are not telling me our great leaders forgot about food??”
Jay: “As far as I know you are a leader too and if you hadn’t noticed we were quite occupied trying to get out of the city, alive!”
Salene: “May can’t you ask the Trader is he has some food with him?”
May: “I’m not sure… he is not the kind of person who likes to share; we haven’t even paid him or pretend to pay him.”
Unknown: “You’re right there May, that’s why you’re lucky I’m here and not my brother.”
May: “Michael! What are you doing here? Where is Trader?”
Michael: “I guess by now he is in hell, we left the city without him.”
May: “What?! Don’t feel attacked but can you even control the boat? Do you even know where you are taking us?”
Michael: “May I’m not the same scared boy you met nearly two years ago, I’ve grown up and I’m not like my brother and I had enough of his orders and all his evil plans to make loads and loads useless profit. He has been pushing me around since our parents died and using me to get his dirty jobs done.
You sounded all pretty hungry, there is a cupboard in the cabin full of food, it’s just a few cans with baked beans but you know nowadays everything is better than anything. So, if you want to prepare some food go ahead and meanwhile I can tell you about my plans.”
Amber: “That is very kind from you, Salene, May if you wouldn’t mind getting something ready.”
Salene: “Sure Amber. Let’s go May”.
Trudy: “I’ll help you.”
Amber with Bray Jr., Jay, Lex, Jack, Ellie, Slade, Ebony, Ram and Michael sot down on the floor and form a circle. Meanwhile Sammy, Gel, Lottie and Brady are cueing up in the kitchen and Ruby is poring some cold can food in each of the plates.
Michael: “There is an island…”
Lex: “Wait how do we know we can trust him? He left his brother behind in the city to die!”
Michael: “That is not totally true; he escaped with loads of our goods on a techno truck and left me behind…”
Amber: “I’m sorry Michael, that was not very nice from your brother… but we do trust you please tell us about that island.”
Lex was about to interrupt again but suddenly he needed to hang over the side of the boat and you could hear grouse noises while he was emptying his stomach.
Ram: “That’s one little problem fixed.”
Michael: “Okay, I wanted to tell you about an island my father used to own, it’s not well known because it was sort of kept in secret. It was a holiday resort for really rich and posh people, our guests used to be the most known pop stars and big billionaires who had all those business empires. Anyway, my brother and I used this boat only to get there and then we would take one of the other boats, there is a couple of big sailing boats but the most useful are this huge speed boats, they are bigger than some houses.”
Ram: “What do we want to know all this for?”
Ebony: “Shut up Ram and let him finish.”
Michael: “Thank you em…”
Ebony: “It’s Ebony.”
Michael: “Thanks Ebony. Anyway where was I…?”
You can tell Michael is not used to so much attention and is getting more nervous as he sees everybody is watching him but he forces himself to focus again and continue, he doesn’t want them to think he is a scared little boy like may thinks he is.
Slade: “Don’t worry; we are not going to kill you if you can’t promise us paradise.”
Ellie: “We definitely had enough of paradise.”
All glimpsed at Ram who just stared at the floor. Even if they couldn’t believe it, he was ashamed of what he had done to all those people and grateful for them taking him in, that didn’t change the fact though that he was a genius and geniuses simply do crazy stuff sometimes.
Michael: “This Island is just half a day away. I thought we could go there and pack enough supplies on the big speed boats; there are three of them so there is enough space for everyone. The place is full of clothes so we can all change into something clean and it has its one water system so we can even have a shower.”
Jack: “That sounds all great but I don’t think we can stay there for longer than a day. It’s a risk anyway because we don’t know how far the virus is going to spread but I doubt that it will only stay in the city.”
Ram: “He is right there. It won’t go very far but we should have a few days journey between us and the city, just in case.”
Amber: “How about if we go there for today and get us ready to leave tomorrow morning when the sun comes out?”
Jay: “Sounds perfect to me. Has anyone got something against that plan? No? Okay that’s done then, let’s go and have some food.”
Everybody moved away satisfied with what they had decided for now. Only Ram stood up and watches the last bit of the city disappear and he couldn’t help it but he thought about Java, they could have been so happy together. But he knew there was no point thinking about that anymore, he had to move on and it looked as if the mallrats were going to be his future for now. He had to admit that for once it didn’t feel bad not having all the responsibility and having to think constantly about the next move. Thinking about moves he asked himself when Lex would come up with what Mega had told him. Even if Lex didn’t say anything they would end up asking him what he had done to their friends and he had decided it was time for the truth.
-----
Ruby was standing alone on a side of the boat just starring out into the sea. She was thinking about how much she had wished to be pregnant, now she realized it hadn’t been like that because she wanted a baby but because she wanted Slade’s baby. She had not told him yet, there had been so much hassle today, in only a few hours they had left behind their home, she had left behind her saloon she had so much loved and would probably never see it again like the others their mall. Ruby was still amazed about how little she had been surprised by what Ebony had done. In a way she knew it just showed how much Ebony loved Slade and that she really thought Ruby was a threat. It satisfied Ruby to know that Ebony was so scared of her that she even felt the need to get rid of her by killing her. Apart from that when she had woken up after her little accident she had decided without hesitating that Slade could have Ebony, one day he would realize what a mistake it was, he had preferred the most evil person you could find to Ruby. Someone that was just able to think he had even fallen for Ebony just didn’t deserve her love. She knew it would take her time but she would forget him and be looking out to find someone she could love and that loved her, taking her as she was.
Ruby was so distracted that she didn’t notice Slade coming up and standing beside her. He watched her and tried to study her expression and read out of it. She obviously hadn’t noticed him and had his strange grin on her face Slade didn’t know. Before he could go any further Ruby asked him in a mocking voice: “Are you going to talk to me or just keep on staring at me?” She turned to face him. “I don’t think that is wise, you could get into serious problems with our little self crowned queen. And you don’t want to end up alone do you? Because I don’t think you will find any other woman on this boat willing to satisfy you. None of them is so easy to play with like I was back in Liberty.”
Slade was buffed, that was not the Ruby he knew. Sure he had seen here talk like that to bad behaved customers in her Saloon but she had always treated him like a friend at least, someone who she cared for, he knew she could never treat someone she cared for in this cold manner. Then he looked in her eyes and was even more shocked as he noticed that she DIDN’T care for him anymore. There was something else there now when she looked at him when he realized what it was his mouth dropped open, she was disgusted by him.
Slade: “Ruby…
Ruby: “Oh, now I know, you thought you had to keep talking to me and faking you care for me because you still think I’m pregnant, well wrong, I’m not pregnant. Sorry fake alarm.”
With that she briskly walked off.
That was all too much for Slade. He really liked Ruby but he just didn’t love her the same way he loved Ebony. Still he had got used to the idea of becoming father and was even happy about it. Now he had lost his best friend and it felt like if he had lost his child. Slade lent against the little wall of the boat and dropped to the floor. At the same time Ebony was looking for him and was very surprised to find her tough boyfriend sobbing on the floor. She knelt down to him and wasn’t sure what to do. “What is it sweetheart?”
He couldn’t even look up at her, somehow he thought that if he had stuck to Ruby he would be becoming father in some months but this was his punishment for choosing Ebony and breaking Ruby’s heart. He knew it was a dumb idea but he couldn’t stop feeling that way. The only thing he managed to say was “Ruby… my child… you”
Of course Ebony got it all wrong and thought Ruby had told her boyfriend that she had pushed her in front of the truck and as consequence she had lost their child. That stupid cow she didn’t know with who she was dealing. So she rushed away looking for her.
Ruby was sitting on the other side of the boat talking to Lottie. On her way Ebony grabbed a stick and was about to hit Ruby when this one turned around and grabbed Ebony’s stick and pushed the surprised fighter on the floor and knelt over her so she couldn’t move. Everybody was just staring amazed at them.
“Wanted to finish your job?” Ruby hissed so that only her enemy could hear her.
“You shouldn’t have told him. You are not capable of killing me, but as you know I will kill you for taking him away.”
“He broke up with you?” Now Ruby was surprised.
“What did you expect? You told him I tried to kill his saloon b*tch and by the way killed his unborn child. He was not going to love me for it, was he?”
“I didn’t tell him that. You can have him; I don’t want somebody who is dumb enough to fall for you. The only thing I told him was that he could forget one nightstand with me and that there was no child.”
Now it was Ebony’s turn to be surprised, “You mean you didn’t tell him...”
Ruby was starting to get tired and everybody was staring at them.
“God I thought you were supposed to be bright. I just told you, didn’t I? I didn’t tell him, there is no point he’ll find out what kind of person you are anyway. If I tell him he’ll think I’m making it up because I want him back, and that’s not true so what’s the point? It’s not my business anymore, SO YOU POWER FREAK GET AWAY FROM ME.”
Then she punched Ebony in the face and stumped away leaving a shocked Ebony lying on the floor. Slowly she started to realize what Ruby had just told her. It meant that she was not pregnant and she would not tell Slade what she had done and leave them alone. Suddenly she began to laugh and laugh and laugh; everyone was by now staring at her and couldn’t believe it. They had all just heard the last bit and hadn’t quite understood it, but now Ebony just seemed mad. They hadn’t expected that from Ruby either.
Lottie hadn’t run after Ruby because she was scared of her that was not the Ruby she knew.
Ram seeing that nobody cared about Ruby went after her. He found Slade still sobbing on the other side of the boat and harshly told him:”You huge baby, get your act together and stick to your girlfriend. You have done enough damage to one woman.”
Ram left still looking for Ruby and saw her sitting inside the cabin in a corner and sat down beside her. They just sat there until Ruby started to talk and told Ram everything just everything and felt incredibly relived and Ram simply listened.
It was quite late when they got to the island Michael had told them about. And they got there just on time because, as Lex had kingly pointed out several times, nasty looking clouds were catching up with them and nobody wanted to spent the night on a rough sea. The little ones where sleeping but got woken up by Lex shouting LAND, of course not thinking about them. Lex had been thinking about what to do during their journey. He wanted his Tai-San back, that’s why he had talked to Mega. He knew the solution to his problems had two legs, disgusted him and was a freak called Ram, but he would use this card when it was time for it.
Now Michael was taking the boat to the hidden port. He loved this island even though it reminded him of his father who he missed a lot.
There was on one side of the island a hidden entrance you could just see it from a specific angel if you drove around some dangerous rocks. The mallrats were all looking worried because they seemed to be going past rocks far too close and they couldn’t see why Michael was heading threw this way either.
Amber:” May could you…?”
May: “Sure.”
May went into the cabin and asked Michael carefully what he was doing; after all he had their lives in his hands so it was better not to upset him.
Michael simply smiled:” Trust me for once May. We’ll be there in 5 minutes.”
May left and told the other one’s that she hadn’t got anything knew out of Michael.
I would knock it out of him Lex thought but he was far too sea sick to go and threaten anybody.
Suddenly there was an opening in the cliffs that surrounded the whole island and they went threw it. As they did so it all went dark, of course there was no moonlight in a cave.
“Mummy I’m scared.” Brady started crying on Trudy’s arms. “Shh sweetheart it will all be okay.”
---
Michael pressed a button on a commander that was kept in the cabin and the lights in the cave went on. All the Mallrats gasped; in front of them were loads of huge yacht. Even before the virus they had never seen so big yachts. The first person to recover her speech was May: “There must be 5 or 4 rooms in each and they look really fancy”
“You are right May, I told you this was a resort for the wealthiest people on the world, they were not bound to save money on a yacht, and it was just a toy to them. Most of them have 4 rooms, a kitchen, go at huge speed and a really comfortable and everything in them is of the best. I thought it would be better to split up and travel with two or three of them.”
Amber just stared at him, it that was great. They would be able to travel comfortably and fast and everybody would have enough space, even if they had just been on the boat for less than a day it had seemed liked ages and by the time they got to the port all of them were in a grumpy mood, now they just needed to know where to go and she already had an idea.
Salene: “Where are we going to sleep tonight? On the boats?”
Michael: “I think it’s better if we sleep in the houses, the boats are comfortable but a house is always better.”
Ebony: “Well if they are as fancy as those yachts lets go for the houses, they must be great.”
Michael: “They are. Follow me.”
The mallrats picked up the few belongings they had taken with them and followed Michael. They had to take turns for the lifts and Brady was scared. But it wasn’t as bad as she expected. Then they got to the top, it was already totally dark but Michael pushed another button on his commander and a few lights went on. The lights illuminated a path down to three houses.
Ebony: “Very small resort”
Michael: “That was just the administrative houses, one was ours, and in another one lived the staff and the other on is a store, the one my brother used now for his business.
Jay: “Where are we staying?”
Michael: “I’ll show you when we get there”
They walked down the path in silence looking at how beautiful the resort was.
It had all sorts of plants in it; you could compare it with a jungle nearly. Everywhere were exotic flowers, huge trees but that ‘jungle’ was separated a few meters from them by grass, perfect trimmed grass as Lex noticed. Lex: “So you cut the grass every time you come over” he said in a mocking voice. Michael: “Do I look like a gardener? This resort
Was built with special advanced technology, the rest of the world didn’t even now about it. The grass doesn’t grow it stays at a perfect measure, so do the plants of what looks like a jungle and if you hadn’t noticed there is no bugs either. Don’t ask me how it works exactly but it’s amazing and really useful.” Ram was getting quite interested and so was Jack who mumbled something to Ram who answered nicking. They kept on walking in silence until they got to the three main buildings; they were built in a Mediterranean style. Michael asked them to wait a moment while he walked into a building and cam out with loads of cards; they looked like the cards you had to use when Ram installed his security system in the hotel.
Michael: “Okay I think I got all kind of houses so chose when I name them. A house for two? “
Gel: “ Lex and I will take one”
Everyone just laughed and then ignored her.
Ebony: “Slade and I will have that one.”
Michael: “Another one?”
Jack: “ Ellie and I “
Amber: “Is there one with a crib?”
Michael: “Yes I got one especially for you. And Trudy I thought you, Brady, Ruby, Lottie, Gel and Sammy could share a villa that has enough rooms.”
Trudy: “ That sounds perfect”
A second later a very loud thunder followed a bright lightening and scared the children. The thunder was followed by rain, from one moment to the next it was pissing it down.
The rain was so heavy that they could hardly see each other anymore. “Over here” Michael shouted and the mallrats followed him into one of the buildings. It had a big hall but it didn’t look as fancy as they had expected after everything Michael had told them.
Amber and Trudy were busy calming down their children while Ebony muttered: “Looks like if we’ll sleep together again” “No don’t worry, this is the staff-house and they have underground access to all houses, so they could fulfill their duty’s there without being seen” Michael replied. “Now, they lived well.” May
Michael guided the Mallrats down some stairs and they got to a place that looked a bit like a train station. On the railway stood egg shaped capsules of different sizes.
Michael: “You just need to sit down in one of this one’s and they will take you directly to your house. Tomorrow morning you can come back with them. To get them to start you just need to press the star bottom.”
Nobody was very sure if they liked this, it was kind of weird.
“I want home, mummy” Brady cried.
“Shh, its okay we’re all here with you.” Trudy answered here daughter avoiding a direct answer.
“If we at least had a home…”Amber thought worried about the future of her tribe.
After that everyone decided they were too tired to argue about this strange transport and just sat down and after Michael pushed a few buttons on each control panel they just had to press star. Surprisingly the “egg” was quiet comfortable and it felt safe. All of them traveled for about ten or five minutes underground at quit a speed.
Trudy, Ruby, Brady, Gel, Lottie and Sammy got to their villa. They followed some stairs with a sign at the start that said rooms. After going up the stairs they exited threw a door into a hallway, then they noticed that the door was disguised behind a huge modern drawing. “Indiscreet service” muttered Ruby. “Not bad, we just need somebody to serve us” Sammy replied. “Get real” Lottie answered in a bad mood. It had been a long day.
Trudy interfered before a fight started: “How about a quick dinner and we all go to bed?” Ruby gave her a hand: “Great idea Trudy, come on kids lets look for the kitchen”.
They found an enormous kitchen equipped with expensive looking stuff and when they opened the cupboards they found lots and lots of food. So they had a nice and warm dinner, so did all the other ones. After that everybody lay into a very comfortable and smart looking bed.
Not all of them fell a sleep immediately. Amber was exhausted but she was still taking in what had happened to them today. They had been living and working together for four years in their mall, in their city. Every time when they seemed to get closer to building up some kind of organized society something put them back again, but this time it was for good, there was no way back. She thought about everything they had gone threw and about how many they had lost along the way. The hardest shock had been the Techno invasion, after that there wasn’t even enough left to call themselves a tribe anymore, but they had pulled threw like always. Since then they hadn’t been a proper tribe anymore but that had to change she decided. They were starting new from zero, but together and they could only manage together like they had up until now. She decided tomorrow there would be a meeting and she would discuss this matter with the other mallrats. After that slowly Amber started falling asleep.
Jack had his arm around Ellie’s shoulder while she was watching with saddens in her eyes how the distance to the city grew and Jack didn’t notice but she past her hand slowly over her stomach. How was she going to make it? Now that she didn’t have to think about just herself anymore, no now she had to think for two. If at least Alice was there, she missed her so much and she refused to accept the idea she would never see her again. They were sisters and Ellie knew her older sister was somewhere out there waiting for her. She turned her head slowly and observed Jack without him noticing, he would never leave her, they loved each other and they knew, but she just couldn’t tell him.
Close to them was Lex, he too was looking at the city, so many times had he tried to get away and he always ended up going back but not this time. The strange thing he wasn’t sure if he liked the idea of going away or not. He had so many times found a girl that suited him and he loved, Zandra, Tai-San and Siva and now all three of them were gone, two of them dead for sure. But he still had hope, yes he could still hope, two were buried but Tai-San was still alive and he would find out were as soon as he could, but for now he had to wait and see how things developed.
Lex: “Okay guys, who else thinks it’s time for lunch?”
Amber: “Food… Oh no.”
Lex: “You are not telling me our great leaders forgot about food??”
Jay: “As far as I know you are a leader too and if you hadn’t noticed we were quite occupied trying to get out of the city, alive!”
Salene: “May can’t you ask the Trader is he has some food with him?”
May: “I’m not sure… he is not the kind of person who likes to share; we haven’t even paid him or pretend to pay him.”
Unknown: “You’re right there May, that’s why you’re lucky I’m here and not my brother.”
May: “Michael! What are you doing here? Where is Trader?”
Michael: “I guess by now he is in hell, we left the city without him.”
May: “What?! Don’t feel attacked but can you even control the boat? Do you even know where you are taking us?”
Michael: “May I’m not the same scared boy you met nearly two years ago, I’ve grown up and I’m not like my brother and I had enough of his orders and all his evil plans to make loads and loads useless profit. He has been pushing me around since our parents died and using me to get his dirty jobs done.
You sounded all pretty hungry, there is a cupboard in the cabin full of food, it’s just a few cans with baked beans but you know nowadays everything is better than anything. So, if you want to prepare some food go ahead and meanwhile I can tell you about my plans.”
Amber: “That is very kind from you, Salene, May if you wouldn’t mind getting something ready.”
Salene: “Sure Amber. Let’s go May”.
Trudy: “I’ll help you.”
Amber with Bray Jr., Jay, Lex, Jack, Ellie, Slade, Ebony, Ram and Michael sot down on the floor and form a circle. Meanwhile Sammy, Gel, Lottie and Brady are cueing up in the kitchen and Ruby is poring some cold can food in each of the plates.
Michael: “There is an island…”
Lex: “Wait how do we know we can trust him? He left his brother behind in the city to die!”
Michael: “That is not totally true; he escaped with loads of our goods on a techno truck and left me behind…”
Amber: “I’m sorry Michael, that was not very nice from your brother… but we do trust you please tell us about that island.”
Lex was about to interrupt again but suddenly he needed to hang over the side of the boat and you could hear grouse noises while he was emptying his stomach.
Ram: “That’s one little problem fixed.”
Michael: “Okay, I wanted to tell you about an island my father used to own, it’s not well known because it was sort of kept in secret. It was a holiday resort for really rich and posh people, our guests used to be the most known pop stars and big billionaires who had all those business empires. Anyway, my brother and I used this boat only to get there and then we would take one of the other boats, there is a couple of big sailing boats but the most useful are this huge speed boats, they are bigger than some houses.”
Ram: “What do we want to know all this for?”
Ebony: “Shut up Ram and let him finish.”
Michael: “Thank you em…”
Ebony: “It’s Ebony.”
Michael: “Thanks Ebony. Anyway where was I…?”
You can tell Michael is not used to so much attention and is getting more nervous as he sees everybody is watching him but he forces himself to focus again and continue, he doesn’t want them to think he is a scared little boy like may thinks he is.
Slade: “Don’t worry; we are not going to kill you if you can’t promise us paradise.”
Ellie: “We definitely had enough of paradise.”
All glimpsed at Ram who just stared at the floor. Even if they couldn’t believe it, he was ashamed of what he had done to all those people and grateful for them taking him in, that didn’t change the fact though that he was a genius and geniuses simply do crazy stuff sometimes.
Michael: “This Island is just half a day away. I thought we could go there and pack enough supplies on the big speed boats; there are three of them so there is enough space for everyone. The place is full of clothes so we can all change into something clean and it has its one water system so we can even have a shower.”
Jack: “That sounds all great but I don’t think we can stay there for longer than a day. It’s a risk anyway because we don’t know how far the virus is going to spread but I doubt that it will only stay in the city.”
Ram: “He is right there. It won’t go very far but we should have a few days journey between us and the city, just in case.”
Amber: “How about if we go there for today and get us ready to leave tomorrow morning when the sun comes out?”
Jay: “Sounds perfect to me. Has anyone got something against that plan? No? Okay that’s done then, let’s go and have some food.”
Everybody moved away satisfied with what they had decided for now. Only Ram stood up and watches the last bit of the city disappear and he couldn’t help it but he thought about Java, they could have been so happy together. But he knew there was no point thinking about that anymore, he had to move on and it looked as if the mallrats were going to be his future for now. He had to admit that for once it didn’t feel bad not having all the responsibility and having to think constantly about the next move. Thinking about moves he asked himself when Lex would come up with what Mega had told him. Even if Lex didn’t say anything they would end up asking him what he had done to their friends and he had decided it was time for the truth.
-----
Ruby was standing alone on a side of the boat just starring out into the sea. She was thinking about how much she had wished to be pregnant, now she realized it hadn’t been like that because she wanted a baby but because she wanted Slade’s baby. She had not told him yet, there had been so much hassle today, in only a few hours they had left behind their home, she had left behind her saloon she had so much loved and would probably never see it again like the others their mall. Ruby was still amazed about how little she had been surprised by what Ebony had done. In a way she knew it just showed how much Ebony loved Slade and that she really thought Ruby was a threat. It satisfied Ruby to know that Ebony was so scared of her that she even felt the need to get rid of her by killing her. Apart from that when she had woken up after her little accident she had decided without hesitating that Slade could have Ebony, one day he would realize what a mistake it was, he had preferred the most evil person you could find to Ruby. Someone that was just able to think he had even fallen for Ebony just didn’t deserve her love. She knew it would take her time but she would forget him and be looking out to find someone she could love and that loved her, taking her as she was.
Ruby was so distracted that she didn’t notice Slade coming up and standing beside her. He watched her and tried to study her expression and read out of it. She obviously hadn’t noticed him and had his strange grin on her face Slade didn’t know. Before he could go any further Ruby asked him in a mocking voice: “Are you going to talk to me or just keep on staring at me?” She turned to face him. “I don’t think that is wise, you could get into serious problems with our little self crowned queen. And you don’t want to end up alone do you? Because I don’t think you will find any other woman on this boat willing to satisfy you. None of them is so easy to play with like I was back in Liberty.”
Slade was buffed, that was not the Ruby he knew. Sure he had seen here talk like that to bad behaved customers in her Saloon but she had always treated him like a friend at least, someone who she cared for, he knew she could never treat someone she cared for in this cold manner. Then he looked in her eyes and was even more shocked as he noticed that she DIDN’T care for him anymore. There was something else there now when she looked at him when he realized what it was his mouth dropped open, she was disgusted by him.
Slade: “Ruby…
Ruby: “Oh, now I know, you thought you had to keep talking to me and faking you care for me because you still think I’m pregnant, well wrong, I’m not pregnant. Sorry fake alarm.”
With that she briskly walked off.
That was all too much for Slade. He really liked Ruby but he just didn’t love her the same way he loved Ebony. Still he had got used to the idea of becoming father and was even happy about it. Now he had lost his best friend and it felt like if he had lost his child. Slade lent against the little wall of the boat and dropped to the floor. At the same time Ebony was looking for him and was very surprised to find her tough boyfriend sobbing on the floor. She knelt down to him and wasn’t sure what to do. “What is it sweetheart?”
He couldn’t even look up at her, somehow he thought that if he had stuck to Ruby he would be becoming father in some months but this was his punishment for choosing Ebony and breaking Ruby’s heart. He knew it was a dumb idea but he couldn’t stop feeling that way. The only thing he managed to say was “Ruby… my child… you”
Of course Ebony got it all wrong and thought Ruby had told her boyfriend that she had pushed her in front of the truck and as consequence she had lost their child. That stupid cow she didn’t know with who she was dealing. So she rushed away looking for her.
Ruby was sitting on the other side of the boat talking to Lottie. On her way Ebony grabbed a stick and was about to hit Ruby when this one turned around and grabbed Ebony’s stick and pushed the surprised fighter on the floor and knelt over her so she couldn’t move. Everybody was just staring amazed at them.
“Wanted to finish your job?” Ruby hissed so that only her enemy could hear her.
“You shouldn’t have told him. You are not capable of killing me, but as you know I will kill you for taking him away.”
“He broke up with you?” Now Ruby was surprised.
“What did you expect? You told him I tried to kill his saloon b*tch and by the way killed his unborn child. He was not going to love me for it, was he?”
“I didn’t tell him that. You can have him; I don’t want somebody who is dumb enough to fall for you. The only thing I told him was that he could forget one nightstand with me and that there was no child.”
Now it was Ebony’s turn to be surprised, “You mean you didn’t tell him...”
Ruby was starting to get tired and everybody was staring at them.
“God I thought you were supposed to be bright. I just told you, didn’t I? I didn’t tell him, there is no point he’ll find out what kind of person you are anyway. If I tell him he’ll think I’m making it up because I want him back, and that’s not true so what’s the point? It’s not my business anymore, SO YOU POWER FREAK GET AWAY FROM ME.”
Then she punched Ebony in the face and stumped away leaving a shocked Ebony lying on the floor. Slowly she started to realize what Ruby had just told her. It meant that she was not pregnant and she would not tell Slade what she had done and leave them alone. Suddenly she began to laugh and laugh and laugh; everyone was by now staring at her and couldn’t believe it. They had all just heard the last bit and hadn’t quite understood it, but now Ebony just seemed mad. They hadn’t expected that from Ruby either.
Lottie hadn’t run after Ruby because she was scared of her that was not the Ruby she knew.
Ram seeing that nobody cared about Ruby went after her. He found Slade still sobbing on the other side of the boat and harshly told him:”You huge baby, get your act together and stick to your girlfriend. You have done enough damage to one woman.”
Ram left still looking for Ruby and saw her sitting inside the cabin in a corner and sat down beside her. They just sat there until Ruby started to talk and told Ram everything just everything and felt incredibly relived and Ram simply listened.
It was quite late when they got to the island Michael had told them about. And they got there just on time because, as Lex had kingly pointed out several times, nasty looking clouds were catching up with them and nobody wanted to spent the night on a rough sea. The little ones where sleeping but got woken up by Lex shouting LAND, of course not thinking about them. Lex had been thinking about what to do during their journey. He wanted his Tai-San back, that’s why he had talked to Mega. He knew the solution to his problems had two legs, disgusted him and was a freak called Ram, but he would use this card when it was time for it.
Now Michael was taking the boat to the hidden port. He loved this island even though it reminded him of his father who he missed a lot.
There was on one side of the island a hidden entrance you could just see it from a specific angel if you drove around some dangerous rocks. The mallrats were all looking worried because they seemed to be going past rocks far too close and they couldn’t see why Michael was heading threw this way either.
Amber:” May could you…?”
May: “Sure.”
May went into the cabin and asked Michael carefully what he was doing; after all he had their lives in his hands so it was better not to upset him.
Michael simply smiled:” Trust me for once May. We’ll be there in 5 minutes.”
May left and told the other one’s that she hadn’t got anything knew out of Michael.
I would knock it out of him Lex thought but he was far too sea sick to go and threaten anybody.
Suddenly there was an opening in the cliffs that surrounded the whole island and they went threw it. As they did so it all went dark, of course there was no moonlight in a cave.
“Mummy I’m scared.” Brady started crying on Trudy’s arms. “Shh sweetheart it will all be okay.”
---
Michael pressed a button on a commander that was kept in the cabin and the lights in the cave went on. All the Mallrats gasped; in front of them were loads of huge yacht. Even before the virus they had never seen so big yachts. The first person to recover her speech was May: “There must be 5 or 4 rooms in each and they look really fancy”
“You are right May, I told you this was a resort for the wealthiest people on the world, they were not bound to save money on a yacht, and it was just a toy to them. Most of them have 4 rooms, a kitchen, go at huge speed and a really comfortable and everything in them is of the best. I thought it would be better to split up and travel with two or three of them.”
Amber just stared at him, it that was great. They would be able to travel comfortably and fast and everybody would have enough space, even if they had just been on the boat for less than a day it had seemed liked ages and by the time they got to the port all of them were in a grumpy mood, now they just needed to know where to go and she already had an idea.
Salene: “Where are we going to sleep tonight? On the boats?”
Michael: “I think it’s better if we sleep in the houses, the boats are comfortable but a house is always better.”
Ebony: “Well if they are as fancy as those yachts lets go for the houses, they must be great.”
Michael: “They are. Follow me.”
The mallrats picked up the few belongings they had taken with them and followed Michael. They had to take turns for the lifts and Brady was scared. But it wasn’t as bad as she expected. Then they got to the top, it was already totally dark but Michael pushed another button on his commander and a few lights went on. The lights illuminated a path down to three houses.
Ebony: “Very small resort”
Michael: “That was just the administrative houses, one was ours, and in another one lived the staff and the other on is a store, the one my brother used now for his business.
Jay: “Where are we staying?”
Michael: “I’ll show you when we get there”
They walked down the path in silence looking at how beautiful the resort was.
It had all sorts of plants in it; you could compare it with a jungle nearly. Everywhere were exotic flowers, huge trees but that ‘jungle’ was separated a few meters from them by grass, perfect trimmed grass as Lex noticed. Lex: “So you cut the grass every time you come over” he said in a mocking voice. Michael: “Do I look like a gardener? This resort
Was built with special advanced technology, the rest of the world didn’t even now about it. The grass doesn’t grow it stays at a perfect measure, so do the plants of what looks like a jungle and if you hadn’t noticed there is no bugs either. Don’t ask me how it works exactly but it’s amazing and really useful.” Ram was getting quite interested and so was Jack who mumbled something to Ram who answered nicking. They kept on walking in silence until they got to the three main buildings; they were built in a Mediterranean style. Michael asked them to wait a moment while he walked into a building and cam out with loads of cards; they looked like the cards you had to use when Ram installed his security system in the hotel.
Michael: “Okay I think I got all kind of houses so chose when I name them. A house for two? “
Gel: “ Lex and I will take one”
Everyone just laughed and then ignored her.
Ebony: “Slade and I will have that one.”
Michael: “Another one?”
Jack: “ Ellie and I “
Amber: “Is there one with a crib?”
Michael: “Yes I got one especially for you. And Trudy I thought you, Brady, Ruby, Lottie, Gel and Sammy could share a villa that has enough rooms.”
Trudy: “ That sounds perfect”
A second later a very loud thunder followed a bright lightening and scared the children. The thunder was followed by rain, from one moment to the next it was pissing it down.
The rain was so heavy that they could hardly see each other anymore. “Over here” Michael shouted and the mallrats followed him into one of the buildings. It had a big hall but it didn’t look as fancy as they had expected after everything Michael had told them.
Amber and Trudy were busy calming down their children while Ebony muttered: “Looks like if we’ll sleep together again” “No don’t worry, this is the staff-house and they have underground access to all houses, so they could fulfill their duty’s there without being seen” Michael replied. “Now, they lived well.” May
Michael guided the Mallrats down some stairs and they got to a place that looked a bit like a train station. On the railway stood egg shaped capsules of different sizes.
Michael: “You just need to sit down in one of this one’s and they will take you directly to your house. Tomorrow morning you can come back with them. To get them to start you just need to press the star bottom.”
Nobody was very sure if they liked this, it was kind of weird.
“I want home, mummy” Brady cried.
“Shh, its okay we’re all here with you.” Trudy answered here daughter avoiding a direct answer.
“If we at least had a home…”Amber thought worried about the future of her tribe.
After that everyone decided they were too tired to argue about this strange transport and just sat down and after Michael pushed a few buttons on each control panel they just had to press star. Surprisingly the “egg” was quiet comfortable and it felt safe. All of them traveled for about ten or five minutes underground at quit a speed.
Trudy, Ruby, Brady, Gel, Lottie and Sammy got to their villa. They followed some stairs with a sign at the start that said rooms. After going up the stairs they exited threw a door into a hallway, then they noticed that the door was disguised behind a huge modern drawing. “Indiscreet service” muttered Ruby. “Not bad, we just need somebody to serve us” Sammy replied. “Get real” Lottie answered in a bad mood. It had been a long day.
Trudy interfered before a fight started: “How about a quick dinner and we all go to bed?” Ruby gave her a hand: “Great idea Trudy, come on kids lets look for the kitchen”.
They found an enormous kitchen equipped with expensive looking stuff and when they opened the cupboards they found lots and lots of food. So they had a nice and warm dinner, so did all the other ones. After that everybody lay into a very comfortable and smart looking bed.
Not all of them fell a sleep immediately. Amber was exhausted but she was still taking in what had happened to them today. They had been living and working together for four years in their mall, in their city. Every time when they seemed to get closer to building up some kind of organized society something put them back again, but this time it was for good, there was no way back. She thought about everything they had gone threw and about how many they had lost along the way. The hardest shock had been the Techno invasion, after that there wasn’t even enough left to call themselves a tribe anymore, but they had pulled threw like always. Since then they hadn’t been a proper tribe anymore but that had to change she decided. They were starting new from zero, but together and they could only manage together like they had up until now. She decided tomorrow there would be a meeting and she would discuss this matter with the other mallrats. After that slowly Amber started falling asleep.