TRIBE FURY

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Bray didn't know what to think when the parachutes came. There was little room for concern for anything other than Amber, lying in the barn and crying for his help; terrified for the baby that was trying to come too early. She was bleeding, and he didn't know what to do for her. They were both far too tired, far too strained from all that had happened recently; from the sham trial, the flight from the city, the long, long walk. He had thought that he was imagining it when the aeroplane had gone overhead; had been certain that it was his own exhaustion playing tricks on him; but when he had gone outside, to see that great, black shape pass over the barn; heard that once familiar roar of the powerful engines directly above; he had known at last that he wasn't dreaming. He had stared at it, wondering, half stupefied, not knowing what to pray for. Adults? Could some of them have survived after all? If there really was an adult at the controls of that aircraft, might he or she be in a position to help Amber? He didn't believe that there was anybody else who could. Wobbling, his legs no longer entirely capable of holding him up, he stared up at the sky and wondered where the aeroplane was going to land - if it was going to land. Amber's cries echoed inside his head, and he wondered what she must be thinking. She must have heard the aeroplane too. He took a step back, intending to go back into the barn; to tell her that there were adults coming, and that everything was going to be alright - and then the parachutes started coming, and his mind again went blank. Parachutes. It was more like an invasion force than a rescue mission.

"Bray?" Amber was calling him. Pleading with him. He started to go back to her. Whoever was coming, whatever they were going to do, it couldn't be as important as helping Amber. He wished that she would stop crying though; that things would sort themselves out. He didn't know what to do when a baby came so very early. How could it possibly survive? How was he going to cope when it didn't? He stumbled on the uneven floor, the interior of the barn shockingly dark after the bright sunshine outside.

"What's going on?" She sounded so weak, so tired. He ran to her as quickly as he could.

"Aeroplane," he told her, exhaustion bringing the New Zealand accent up from the depths of the past, hiding the American that had long ago buried it. "Parachutes."

"Para--" She broke off as a new wave of pain hit her. "Bray... the baby..."

"I know." He scrambled up to take her hand. "I know."

"What are we going to do? It can't be born yet. Bray... there's no special care anymore... It probably... probably wouldn't make any difference if there was. It's too early!"

"I know that." He squeezed her hand rather too tightly, but she didn't notice. "I don't know what to do, Amber! If... if you relax... make sure you don't push. I - I don't know. Maybe there's somebody near here who knows something."

"Nobody knows anything about medicine anymore. Nothing except first aid. No one except Dal--" She broke off then, not wanting to go any further. Bray nodded slowly. The chances were that Dal would have been able to suggest something - or at the very least could have made Amber feel better. Dal had always been the doctor; the one with the good bedside manner. Bray's own skills were rather less practical in the current situation. He could scavenge for food, find safe paths through war zones, wage a guerrilla war against a powerful enemy - but could he comfort his girlfriend in her hour of need? He felt useless. Useless like the days in hospital, watching his parents die. Useless like the days watching Trudy fight infection after the birth of his niece. Useless like that ghastly moment when Zoot had fallen to his death, and Bray had crouched over his body. Maybe he should be hardened to such helplessness by now.

"The parachutes..." She sounded faint; as though the exhaustion was finally taking over, and she was losing her grip on consciousness. "Bray... if they can fly an aeroplane, they might be able to help me. Help the baby. Mightn't they?"

"I don't know." He tried kissing the hand that he still held so tightly, but his lips were too dry. "If you think you can hold on... I might be able to find one of them."

"I have to hold on, don't I!" She was holding his hand just as tightly now as he was holding hers. Her short, sharp fingernails dug into his skin, but he was oblivious to any pain. "Bray, please. We have to try something. Anything."

"I don't know who they are. They might be--"

"I don't care who they are!" She turned her head, slowly and stiffly, staring at him with wild eyes. "Bray, we've all become paranoid since the adults died. We've all stopped trusting everybody else. I know... I know you're suspicious... but we don't have any more choices. Please. Just find somebody who can help."

"Yeah." He nodded, rising to his feet on unsteady legs, having to prise her fingers from his hand. "Yeah, sure. I - I'll find somebody." He stumbled blindly to the door, no longer thinking straight at all. Where were the parachutes likely to have landed? There had been a good many of them. Were they adults? Could they be adults? Trying to whisper prayers to a God he had long ago given up talking to, he ran out into the blinding sun.

"Don't move!" They were all around him; five or six of them at least; black shapes in his sun-drenched eyes. Their voices clamoured and echoed, and he whirled around to listen to them; to try to pinpoint them; waiting for his senses to regain some sort of control. Hands grabbed him then, threw him up against the loose wooden boards of the barn wall.

"Who are you?" His vision was sorting itself out, just in time for a view of nothing but faded white paint clinging to warping wooden planks. "Did you come from the aeroplane?"

"We'll ask the questions." It wasn't an adult voice; at least, wasn't a voice that was any older than his own. He had become so used to thinking of the departed millions as 'the adults'; of the struggling masses who had survived as the 'kids', the 'children' - that he had lost track of the fact that many of those kids were now adults themselves; or near enough. He was eighteen himself now. Old enough to have been taken by the Virus perhaps, if it hadn't eradicated itself, and disappeared. These black-clad shapes that faded in and out of the periphery of his vision were about the same age; about the same size. Not proper adults. Not people who could help him. Not bringers of all the old knowledge and capabilities.

"Who are you? Are you from the city?" He thought it was just the one voice that had asked him the questions, but it had seemed to come from several different directions. He tried to turn around, but they were still holding him fast. Somebody was checking him out for weapons, but he didn't have anything. All he had ever had was his skateboard, and that was back home in the Mall.

"Who are you?" The voice was very insistent, very loud.

"My name is Bray." He tried again to turn to face the voice, but couldn't move. "I'm the - was the - leader of the Mall Rats."

"In the city?"

"Yes in the city!" He struggled again, more forcefully this time. "Listen, my girlfriend, Amber. She's inside. I think she's in labour, and the baby's not supposed to be born for months. She needs help."

"Somebody will do what they can for her." He was spun about again, and finally got a proper look at his attackers. Five of them, dressed in uniform black jump suits; and each with three blue stripes painted with perfect geometrical precision across their left cheek. Definitely a tribe then. Not something more.

"You'll help her?" he asked, still rather disorientated. He didn't seem to have been able to think straight since Ebony's mob had chased him from the city.

"We'll try." The voice was female, and even as it was speaking, its owner was peeling away from the rest of the group, heading towards the doors of the barn. Bray tried to follow, but was held back.

"Not so fast, buddy." The one who had spoken first - some kind of leader perhaps - was looming on the edge of his vision. "You're not going back in there."

"But Amber--" His mind, at last, was clearing, and he started to struggle in earnest. "She needs me."

"No, she needs a medic." The spokesman moved closer, resolving into a tall, athletic young man of about eighteen, with shoulder length blond hair. "And we need you to get us into the city."

"No. I won't leave her." With the return of his senses; of the clarity of thought; came the return of his strength and his stubbornness. He fought back with real energy now, almost breaking free. It was no use. Dragging his hands behind him they fixed them there, with a cold, sharp click of metal. Handcuffs. Very well organised then. Nothing like the half-wild, ragged tribes of the city.

"Oh you'll leave her. We'll do what we can for her, and maybe you'll see her again. In the meantime, you're coming with us. We want to get to the city, and we want to get to whoever's in charge."

"Should have parachuted straight there then, shouldn't you." He met the blond boy's eyes. "Who are you?"

"Racha." The boy smiled; proud, haughty, almost flirtatious. "Second in command of Tribe Fury - and you are going to help us." He leaned in a little closer, and his fathomless black eyes smiled coldly. "Or we won't help you. Now, we didn't drop into the city because we didn't know what the situation there was - and besides, it's not all that safe to drop into a built up area. Instead we dropped units around the circumference of the city. As we speak, they're all closing in. Most of them will have found help on the ground, as we have. And all of them will be converging, bit by bit, on wherever the headquarters of your main tribe happens to be - always supposing that you've managed to advance to the stage where you've actually got one. The city will be ours before anybody knows what's happening."

"You might be surprised. It's a big city. There's a lot of people there. A lot of fighters." He thought of Ebony, and her army of bodyguards. "What do you want there, anyway? The city's a ruin. There's been a civil war going on pretty much since the adults died, and just lately it's been worse than ever. There's nothing worth taking."

"Oh, I think there is." Racha nodded to one of his team, and Bray felt himself being propelled abruptly forward. "Enough talking. Just take us to whoever is in charge."

Ebony. He wondered how she would react to seeing him again, let alone seeing him with these people in tow. How many of the paratroopers had already entered the city? Presumably Ebony would already know something about them. He wondered if he could lead this bunch somewhere else - somewhere where there were people enough to overpower them - but the simple truth was that, right now, if anybody save Ebony or the Mall Rats got hold of him he would likely be dead in seconds. The tribes of the city would rather fight him than drive off these strangers.

"What about Amber?" He tried to look back to the barn, straining his ears for any sound of his girlfriend, or the baby that seemed so desperate to be born. There was nothing, but whether that was for the best or for the worst, he couldn't decide. Nobody bothered to answer his question. Instead they just pushed him forward, faster, harder, until they were all but running back down the path he had taken just a short time before.

And so it was that Bray went back to the city, far sooner than he had imagined, in circumstances that he could never have dreamed. It had been mere hours, but already the atmosphere was different. He had left an angry mob; a triumphant demonstration of power. He returned to terror and chaos.

The exile of Amber and Bray left the remainder of the Mall Rats in decidedly low spirits. How soon before they were next? It would be worse for them too, they reasoned. The only reason Ebony had fought for exile this once was because she had always loved Bray, at least to some degree - otherwise she might well have considered letting the mob have the execution they had been wanting. How could the rest of the Rats hope to be so lucky? Ebony certainly had no reason to fight for their survival.

"We should have done something." Jack kicked restlessly at a screwed up ball of paper - another one of the Chosen's posters, torn down in one of the Rats' periodic attempts to tidy up the Mall. Their Mall. Their home, once. Lex laughed.

"Like what? Anyway, I can't see you fighting for anybody. Nobody stood up to Ebony. Not even me."

"There was nothing anybody could have done, you included. Being angry about it will just be counterproductive." Tai-San took her husband's arm, trying to get through to him. "Our aura is weakened enough as it is. Don't compromise things any further."

"Yeah. Don't want to ruin our auras." Jack ran a hand through his spiky hair. It was red again, Lex noticed, although he didn't quite remember when it had turned that colour. Jack had been a prisoner of the Chosen for so long, at some far away place he hadn't as yet really spoken about, that when he had returned to the city the vibrant red had all but grown out. He looked more like Jack now - the old Jack - save that he seemed so tired. So much of his enthusiasm had been drained away.

"Don't argue." Chloe had been hanging back in the shadows, almost unseen, but she came forward now to stand beside Jack. Everybody was surprised to hear her speak, for she had not often done so in the old days, let alone with such confidence. Lex glared at her, but she met his stare quite evenly. "Look, maybe we should have helped Bray and Amber - but we didn't. Maybe there's something we can do now instead? Like changing Ebony's mind? She could persuade everybody to let them come home, if she really wanted to."

"But she's not going to, is she." Lex spoke without patience, rather annoyed that it was Chloe who was trying to take the initiative. Chloe was just a kid, even if she did seem to have grown up a lot, during her own private experience at the hands of the Chosen. "Bray is her rival, remember. He and Amber are probably the only other people who have a chance of running the city. Right now everybody's against them, but in time, when that anger's died away, they might remember who it was that got the antidote for the Virus, and led the charge against the Chosen. Ebony doesn't want that kind of a threat to her leadership, does she." Something else occurred to him. "You know, with the Chosen gone, the old tribes are going to reform. People will remember what it was like before. Power and chaos, the fear, the fighting. They might also remember that Ebony was a Loco, and the chances are they're not going to be so happy about having her in charge then. No way is she going to want her main rivals back."

"All the more reason to bring them back then," pointed out Chloe. Jack shook his head.

"Bray never wanted to be a leader," he pointed out. "He always had this self-sufficiency idea, didn't he - back in the old days I mean. He didn't especially want to stay here in the Mall then. What makes you think he'd want to return to the city? You're just dreaming, Chloe. Either we get the best we can with Ebony in charge, or we split. Leave the city to its own devices."

"The city is our home." Chloe's patience and calm was astounding - her voice so steady and determined that even Lex looked impressed. "I won't leave." She frowned, and for a second her new maturity was gone. "Besides, if we leave how will the others know where to find us?"

"Others?" asked Lex, though he knew well enough who she meant. She glared.

"Patsy. The Chosen took her away, but Jack and I came back. Why shouldn't she? She'll come back here, and we should be here when she does. And Salene and Ryan. When they find each other they're going to come home, aren't they."

"I'm sure they will, Chloe." Tai-San spoke gently, the way she had when Chloe had been so much smaller, and they had been defending the Mall together against the Locos and Tribe Circus. Chloe's dark eyes spat sparks at her.

"Don't patronise me. They're coming back. You'll see. All of them."

"Yeah." Jack looked away, so that the others couldn't see his face. Dal wasn't coming back even if the others did, and sometimes that was a sorrow that was impossible to bear. "All of them."

"This is foolish." Tai-San walked forward, into the middle of the room. "We're all gathered here, looking into the past and dreaming of the future. We should be creating that future, not waiting for it to create itself. That aeroplane--"

"If it was an aeroplane," Jack told her. "Just because it sounded like one..."

"It was something." She interrupted him neatly, and with a sharp little smile. "And whatever it was, I feel sure that it's to be a forerunner of change. These little signs, when they're sent, shouldn't be ignored. We should go outside and find out what's happening."

"KC and Pride went out." Lex sounded strangely uninterested. "People were screaming about the adults coming back, and KC wanted to take a look. I guess Pride was feeling pretty restless too."

"I wonder if they've found anything out." Chloe went over to the main door, but she couldn't see anything from inside. The streets looked deserted though, which seemed strange. They hadn't been that empty since the days of the Chosen's random round ups, long weeks before.

"They'll tell us if they have," Lex was still distant, disinterested, detached. Tai-San frowned at him, a little concerned. They were all so separate just at the moment. So many of their number had left or been stolen away. They had to come together again, those who were left, and find their unity. Otherwise the tribe would collapse.

"Perhaps we should all go out together," she suggested. "Meet up with KC and Pride, and investigate this as a tribe? Alice will be useful. Ellie too. She's become good at asking questions since starting up the newspaper. Where are they?"

"Gone." It was Jack who answered, since nobody else knew what had happened. He didn't sound happy. Clearly this was one more thing that was getting him down, suppressing his once natural good cheer. "Alice was feeling pretty bad, with everything that happened. You know - Ned being killed, and her trying to kill the Guardian and all. And Ellie was... well I suppose she was in love with Luke after all. And now he's gone, and I was pretty cross with her..." He shrugged. "They said they were going back to their farm. Took the kids with them too - Andy and Tally. Alice felt responsible for them I guess."

"More departures." Tai-San was not impressed. "Ebony doesn't need to exile us to tear us apart. We're all exiling ourselves."

"Yeah." Jack shifted restlessly. "And who cares anyway? We haven't been a tribe since the Chosen came."

"We've always been a tribe." Tai-San stared him down, then came over to stand in front of him. "We make each other stronger, Jack. With Bray and Amber gone, and Ebony in charge, we face uncertain times. We need each other, and we need the strength we give to each other. Maybe some of us need it even more than the rest."

"Yeah, sure." Jack stood up, obviously having heard all that he wanted to. "I'll be in the lab. It's still in a mess, and if I'm going to stay I have to get it all sorted out."

"Do you want any help?" asked Chloe. He stared at her for a moment, almost as though the question hadn't registered, then shook his head and left. He hadn't spoken because he hadn't trusted himself to; had given her a negative answer not because he didn't need any help, but because the only help he wanted was Dal's. At least if he was on his own in the lab he could still talk to his friend; still act as though they were together in the room that had been theirs. He didn't want anybody else there to spoil that.

"Jack has many problems," observed Tai-San, as soon as the boy had left the room. Lex nodded.

"Yeah, and are you surprised? His best friend dies, his girlfriend leaves - and we have no idea what happened to him when the Chosen took him away." He looked troubled. "Any more than we know what's happened to Ryan."

"Or Patsy," put in Chloe, who of all of them at least had some idea. Tai-San sighed.

"And it's because of such problems, such worries and such absences that we have to be strong now. Strong for each other. Strong for those of us who are missing."

"But maybe it won't matter now." Chloe wandered back over to join them, giving up on trying to see out into the street. "If that was an aeroplane that we heard, then maybe it was being flown by adults. If they're back then we don't need to be strong anymore. They'll put everything right. They might even find Patsy and the others."

"Chloe, you know that there aren't any adults left." Lex heard footsteps, and turned towards the door. "Right KC?"

"Right." The younger boy arrived in the doorway exactly on cue, although neither Chloe nor Tai-San had noticed his approach. Clearly his ability to sneak about had only improved with age. He crossed the room, throwing himself down onto the less than comfortable wall of the fountain, and breathed out a long sigh. "It's crazy out there. Whole streets deserted, the others full of people. There's panic everywhere."

"Panic?" Chloe went to stand beside him, eager to hear what he had to say, but he seemed to be waiting for a prompt from Lex before he continued. The Mall Rats' one time head of security seemed deep in thought, though, and gave no such signal.

"Nice to know you care so much about information we might have risked our lives for." Striding into the Mall with his usual steady speed, Pride tossed down the stick he had taken as a possible weapon, then nodded a strangely polite greeting to Tai-San and Chloe. There would always be a courteousness about Pride, no matter how outdated it might be, but neither girl particularly appreciated it. Such things were unimportant to Tai-San, and Chloe, who had not yet really got to know Pride, still wasn't sure what to make of him. Lex was, and he scowled at the other boy's manner.

"Fine. So what did you see?" he asked. KC brightened immediately. All of the time that had passed, and all of the things he had seen, had not dampened his old childlike devotion to Lex.

"Panic," he said, with a strange sort of relish. KC, of course, had never been one for order and calm. "That aeroplane was dropping parachutes. Some people are saying that it's the adults coming back, like they'd just gone away or something, and not all died. The kids are going crazy. It's like... I don't know. Like they're scared."

"They're like naughty kids whose parents have just come home," clarified Pride. "All the things they've done since society collapsed - they seem to think they're going to be in trouble for it. They're going crazy. Then there are others who are predicting the end of the world, or of the city at any rate. Seems there have been rumours for some days now, about a coming threat. Something worse than the Chosen. Terror worse than any inspired by Zoot." He shrugged. "Well if it's terror they want, they're getting it. There's fighting going on like I've never seen before. Whole streets in uproar. Madness."

"It's like it used to be," KC interjected, a little annoyed that Pride had stolen his thunder. "When Zoot was still alive, and everybody was still fighting all the time. Like everything else since then hadn't happened. Everything that was supposed to have brought us all together. And all because of some stupid aeroplane."

"Not just because of the plane," pointed out Pride. "It's the parachutes that have everybody spooked. Nobody knows how many there were, but word is they rained down all over, like they were encircling the city. I saw a few come down out to the north, but I can't say they looked all that scary."

"You're not the panicking type," pointed out Tai-San. "Did you see Ebony?"

"No. She's keeping quiet, probably waiting to see what her people can find out." Pride looked over at Lex. "You'd think she'd be wanting her sheriff involved."

"Ebony isn't interested in involving me in anything. I'm only sheriff in name now." Lex wanted to sulk, but couldn't quite manage it. How had so much managed to change in so few hours? "I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Close the main door, KC. I don't want any fighting spilling in here, when we're just starting to get the place sorted out at last."

"I'll find Trudy. Somebody should tell her what's going on." Tai-San headed for the stairs. "I'm assuming that she's still here?"

"Where else is she going to go with that baby in tow?" Lex, as usual, didn't sound terribly sympathetic. "Besides, with the way that the Chosen used them both, it probably isn't safe for them out there yet. They're lucky they weren't thrown out of the city too."

"I don't think that Ebony would do that to Zoot's child." For somebody who had never known Zoot, nor observed Ebony in his presence, Tai-San had an impressive grasp of their relationship, at least as Ebony herself had seen it. "But that's immaterial. We may still have to protect them from the rest of the city."

"I think the rest of the city's got other things on its mind." KC got up, going off to obey Lex's command about the doors. "Whoever jumped out of that plane, Lex, they're bound to be coming to the city aren't they?"

"I think we can bet on it." Lex didn't care. Confrontation had always been one of his greatest talents. Pride didn't look quite so confident.

"Aeroplanes, parachutes... I don't like the way this is sounding. It's as if we got rid of one enemy just to be faced with a worse one."

"They're not necessarily the enemy," KC pointed out, hauling on the pulley system that controlled the security door. Pride fixed him with one of his piercing stares.

"How many friendly tribes have you met, KC? And if they are an enemy, they're probably the most organised one we're likely to meet. How are we going to fight them - supposing we have to - with the equipment they obviously have? They have an aeroplane - a military one so people are saying, and I suppose it'd have to be to have dropped so many parachutes. Well what if they have bombs as well? Something must have happened to all of the weapons that there used to be. The soldiers died, but their equipment didn't just disappear. It's a wonder nobody's tried to use it before."

"The Locos raided all the police stores," mused Lex. Chloe nodded, clearly unhappy.

"And remember what they were like. It took the Chosen to take them down. That and the truce over the antidote to the Virus. If these other people have military stuff..."

"We'll worry about that when it happens." Lex was sliding back into battle mode, ready and waiting even without knowing whether there was going to be a battle for him to fight. Fighting was what he did best - what he had always done best. Wars were always easier to deal with than the peace that came so erratically in between them.

"Maybe Bray and Amber are the lucky ones after all," mused Pride. Lex scowled.

"Yeah, well they're out of it right enough. Time to stop worrying about them. For now, I say we get this place secure again, like it used to be. The best safe house in the city. Right?"

"Right." KC was with him, as usual. Pride, ever the man of peace, didn't look so sure, and Tai-San and Trudy, emerging at the top of the stairs, looked even less enthusiastic. Chloe was no better. Lex didn't think that Jack would be terribly happy either, but that was just hard luck. They would all have to make the best of this. He was going to see that the Mall was defended, and then he was going to head out into the streets to see exactly what it needed to be defended against. Already he felt much happier. Ebony was yesterday's problem, like the Chosen, and in place of his concerns about what she might do, was a brewing situation it seemed that he could really enjoy. Maybe he could still play sheriff after all.

It seemed a longer walk back, but then the way out of the city had been something of a dream; a blur of wordless stumbling, trying to make sense of what had happened. Going back there was no chance of a similar retreat into such mindlessness, although the general sense of confusion still remained. The cuffs on his wrists were too tight, he was being hurried along at the pace of a military speed march, Racha was barking questions at him every few seconds. He didn't answer most of them, and he played dumb about who was in charge in the city, although he didn't think that Racha believed in his ignorance. Maybe it was stupid to try to protect Ebony, but he wouldn't have felt good about directing this lot right to her door. Not that there weren't plenty of other people who were probably doing exactly that right now. All those other units, all 'recruiting' local assistance, the way that Racha and his group had found him. Ebony had her bodyguards - a collection of muscle from half a dozen belligerent former tribes, her loyal staff of Mozzies, traitors from the Chosen and embittered one time Strays - who would probably put up a good fight at first. They might even win the first few struggles. It couldn't last though. It hadn't escaped Bray's notice that his guards carried guns. Real guns, sleek and black and large. In the city they had sticks and bicycle chains; a few knives that had escaped the Chosen's attempt at disarming the masses. Some people - the kind who had been fighting each other in street wars long before the Virus had torn society away - even had zip guns; but few people had anything else. A pistol or two; the occasional shot gun, mostly no longer with shells; Zoot had had a police issue revolver once upon a time. He thought about that aeroplane; about the girl who had thought that she might be medic enough to help Amber; about this perfectly executed speed march; and knew that there was real organisation here. Military organisation. If it came to a fight it would be like going up against the real army.

"Where do we go once reach the city?" Racha's question caught him by surprise, dragging him out of his miserable thoughts, and he almost answered. Only at the last moment did he remind himself to remain silent. Racha smiled.

"You think that I believe you, don't you. You think that you can pretend you don't know anything."

"I don't know anything." Bray had thought that he was in good shape - was in good shape - but the pace was killing, and it was getting harder to talk. Racha shook his head, still smiling, bright eyes still shining with that strange glimmer that was almost a flirtation.

"You told me that you were the leader of your tribe. But you still insist that you don't know who the most powerful person is? Who controls the city? You can't have been a very effective leader if you don't know something like that."

"Then maybe you'd better let me go back to Amber. I can't be much use to you."

"Oh, I think you can." Racha's smile hadn't wavered. If there was a way to frustrate him, clearly it wasn't in protestations and excuses. "But maybe you'd rather we asked another member of your tribe to help us? Somebody else that you care about?" Bray met his gaze with a flare of contempt.

"You'd never find them." He wasn't sure if he was trying to provoke a reaction; if he wanted to make Racha angry. An outburst, even a fight, might be a good way to break though his own mental fog; to drive out some of his own churning rages. It wouldn't be much of a fight, with the handcuffs to hold him back, but maybe if Racha hit him hard enough he wouldn't have to worry about Amber for a while. The blond boy merely laughed.

"Mall Rats, you said you were called. At a guess, then, I'd say we were looking for a mall."

"It's a big city. There's a lot of malls."

"Maybe. Just have to see, won't we. Maybe there'll be somebody in the city who'll tell us where to look. What do you think, Bray? Do the people down there know where you live?"

"What is this?" Bray came to a halt, causing the perfectly spaced Furies to swerve in well ordered precision. Did they practice such manoeuvres, he wondered? Maybe you trained for every eventuality in an army. "What the hell do you want?"

"Just information. We're being good neighbours. Showing an interest in the community. After all, we're going to be living in the city as well from now on."

"I don't live in the city."

"Oh yes you do." Racha gave him a shove to get him moving again. "Your exile has been revoked."

"Who says we were exiled?" He tried to stop again, but couldn't. They were closer around him now, and he couldn't stop unless they did. Not unless he wanted to be trampled. "Maybe we were just starting fresh."

"Then why were the two of you holed up in that barn, with her the way she was? You said your baby was coming, and way too early. Well if you could have done, you'd have gone to the city for help."

"Not if I didn't want to leave her."

"Irrelevant." Racha ran on a little further, beaming happily all the while, clearly enjoyng the fun that he was having at Bray's expense. "You'd have had to have done something for her, whether you wanted to leave or not, and there's nowhere but the city to go to for help. There are no other settlements for miles. So are you going to tell me why you were exiled? Might make a nice story."

"Get lost."

"But you're not denying it anymore. Our deductions are always right, Bray. We pick up on everything. We're always on the alert."

"Perfectly trained little soldier." He couldn't keep the hatred from his voice, although it sounded more like contempt. Still he didn't seem to have made Racha angry.

"Don't you forget it. I became a cadet when the Virus was just a twinkle in somebody's test tube. Long before the accidents and the cover ups and the dying ever started. I was the top of my year, every year. Everybody in my family was in the army, back as long as anyone can remember."

"You must have been delighted when society got wiped out." This time it was definitely contempt in his voice, alongside the anger. Racha looked at him askance.

"Glad? Not exactly. I miss my parents same as anybody else. But I relish the challenge, yes. This is a world ripe for a take-over, and my people and I are the ones to do it. We have the power, the weapons, the organisation." He came to a halt, and the rest of the group stopped neatly alongside him. "While the rest of you have been fighting amongst yourselves, having your little civil wars, starving, enslaving each other - we've been training. Practising. Planning. You've been scratching for enough food to live on - we've been collecting weapons, equipment, ammunition." Once again he broke into a run, and Bray almost fell when he was pressed rather suddenly to do likewise. "Wait and see, Bray. Your city will be ours almost before the people down there have realised that we're among them."

"It's a tough city. You might be surprised." Bray was thinking about the Chosen, who had also believed themselves to be unbeatable. They had been well organised too, and he had certainly learnt that to his cost. The Chosen had been beaten though, even if it had taken the odd alliance of Lex, Ebony and himself to do it. An awkward and fractious combination, but they had won through in the end. Or muddled through perhaps, with their uncertain attacks and their stabs in the dark.

"A tough city, huh." Racha laughed, and Bray didn't like the sound at all. It reminded him of something. Not the Guardian's humourless chuckle, nor Zoot's wild but happy laugh. It was more like Top Hat; confident beyond the point of absurdity, laughing at everything and nothing, and managing to be filled with equal measures of humour and hate. A laugh that spelt trouble.

"We've fought off tyrants before."

"Tyrants? We're not tyrants, Bray. We don't need to be. Tyrants control through fear, but we're too strong to need that. Tyrants stamp out resistance, but once we're in power there will be no resistance. It's not possible to fight us. Your friends down there will see that eventually."

"They're not my friends."

"Maybe. More irrelevancy, though, wouldn't you say?"

"Whatever." It was easy to feign disinterest in the fate of the city dwellers. They had driven him out, after everything he had done for them. Driven him out, and maybe killed his girlfriend and his baby in the process. It was almost easy to convince even himself that he cared nothing. Racha clearly wasn't bothered either way.

"Care, don't care. It won't matter soon anyway." He gave another short burst of his unsettling laugh, then gestured about them. "Buildings. I think we're arriving." He raised a hand, and the band slowed to a wary, but perfectly measured, walk. "I wonder if any of our other units have reached your city HQ yet?"

"We're being watched." Another of the tribe, his back to Racha, was scanning the streets with eagle eyes. "Sandstone building to the right, three people. White building to your rear, two people. There's half a dozen in the ruin to the left."

"Then let's say hello." Racha turned in a slow circle. "Go for the sandstone. Structure looks better. I don't want to cause too much damage at this stage."

"Right." His confederate nodded smartly, then took something from the bulky belt that was strapped across his chest. It was metallic and rounded, roughly the size of a tennis ball. Bray stared at it in shock.

"That's a grenade."

"Yeah." The boy who held it was about seventeen, with close-cropped auburn hair, and the sort of sunglasses favoured by secret service types in so many of the films of the old world. He was expressionless, and he held the small bomb like an expert.

"But you can't--"

"Watch me." He spun neatly on one heel, striding towards the sandstone building like the soldier he clearly believed himself to be. Despite his horror Bray didn't try to stop him. He knew that there was nothing he could do. Instead he watched, almost with the air of detachment that he might have had for a scene playing out on the television, whilst the boy, dispassion incarnate, reached the middle of the wide, empty street. Coming to a snappy halt he pulled the grenade's pin, drew back his arm, and threw his little missile with perfect aim through a broken window. He didn't retreat; none of them did, although Bray couldn't help tensing, ready to flinch away. There was silence; he thought he heard feet running on bare floorboards. He opened his mouth for something; he wasn't sure what. To shout a warning? Express his disbelief? Whatever it was, he never made it as far as speech, for with a roar of sound and air the grenade exploded. He saw glass shatter; dust rise; bricks crack. The ground rumbled, though faintly, the grenade not powerful enough to cause more than basic vibrations at a distance. Even so there were shouts inside the building; a frightened yell; then the clear sounds of somebody escaping out of a back way. Racha nodded in satisfaction.

"They survived. Good. That means the message will get around more quickly. The witnesses in these other buildings will be too scared to go out for a while."

"Are you crazy?" Bray turned on him, wishing that his hands were free even if there was nothing much that he could have done with them. "You don't know how many people were in that building. You might have killed some. There might be people in there now needing help!"

"This is a display of power. Casualties are just hard luck." Racha gestured for his companion to rejoin them. "Now Archer here has another two grenades on him; the rest of us still have three each. We can use them anywhere, and we will - unless you take us to whoever has the greatest power within this city. It's as simple as that, Bray. Whoever it is, you seem to care about them. Well if that's true you'd better tell me where they are, quickly, because I can't promise that my colleagues aren't using their own grenades to secure the area right now. I'll make sure that the chief is taken unhurt - the other units might have other ideas. Right?"

"Right." He said it automatically, eyes still full of the explosion. He imagined Ebony's hotel under such attack; the rubble, the dust, the noise. Ebony didn't deserve that - nobody did. He couldn't risk anybody else getting hurt either; any further innocent tribes that Racha might decide to make an example of.

"Good." The blond boy folded his arms, warm, friendly eyes once more aglow. "So go on then. Where's the centre of ops?"

"Check that building first. See if there's anybody in there who needs--"

"No point. Every unit has one medic, and we left ours with your girlfriend. There's nothing we can do for anybody inside there. Just forget about them."

"Forget them?" He stared over at the building, and the clouds of dust still drifting from the shattered window. He couldn't hear anything else. No shouting, no sounds of people in need of help. Not that that was necessarily a good sign.

"Forget them." Racha put a hand on his shoulder, smile growing ever more warm, ever more encouraging. He was a charming fellow, certainly; or he could be. "Headquarters, Bray. The city's main building. How far is it from here?"

"Not far. If we don't run into trouble..." He trailed off momentarily. Of course they weren't going to run into trouble. Even if it did try to rear its head along their route, this bunch would handle it without breaking their stride. "Half an hour maybe. Less, if you're going to run again."

"Then lead the way." He stepped aside, gesturing for Bray to move out. "Where are we going?"

"A hotel near the beach." Bray was furious, with himself as much as with his captors. "Not a big place, but big enough."

"Many guards?"

"Usually at least half a dozen out front. More inside. There are others who'll be off duty but still on the premises."

"Armed?"

"Are you kidding?" He looked back at them, with their guns and their grenades, and their identical, uniform clothing. No, they weren't kidding - to them it was a sensible question. "No, they're not armed; at least, not the way you mean. They have clubs, chains, bottles; some home-made stuff. That's all."

"Shouldn't take us long then, should it." Racha pushed him. "Keep leading the way. No need to stop."

"I want your word. Before I go any further, I want you to promise that you're not going to hurt anybody. No more throwing grenades about."

"Bray, Bray, Bray." Racha was all smiles, and those deep, black eyes shone with immeasurable charm. "We don't want to hurt anybody. Of course we don't. But we're not making any promises."

"You have enough firepower to take the whole city in a few hours. Just threats should be enough. You don't have to--"

"Yeah, we do." Archer seemed to take exception to extra talking, and clearly believed that they had more important things to do. "This is war. We're taking over this city, and revolutions don't tend to be bloodless."

"They can be as bloodless as you want them to be. You don't have to kill anybody."

"Just get moving." Archer drew out his gun, a perfect match for the sleek, black weapon that Racha carried less ostentatiously. "Or we'll start by killing you."

"I'd do as he says if I were you." Racha's smile made his eyes crinkle warmly, and his thick lashes fluttered briefly in the familiar, flirtatious way he seemed to so enjoy. "At the double."

"Yeah." Bray was subdued; eager now for this just to be over. Maybe, if he took these people to the hotel, there would at least be some answer in the end. Perhaps then he could find out what this was all about; who these people were; what they wanted in the city. Whether or not the multitude of divided tribes were about to face the threat of another dictator even worse than the Chosen's insane Guardian. Feet feeling strangely heavy, he led the way forward, through the battered streets he had roamed so often. He chose those roads that he knew were likely to be empty, for he had no wish to let his captors come into contact with anybody else until it became unavoidable. He heard shouts in the distance, and knew that the people of the city were out and about. They were celebrating the fall of the Chosen still perhaps, or partying in honour of Ebony. Perhaps they had seen the black rain of parachutes, and were coming out to see what was happening - in which case he hoped that they soon went back inside. They were sitting targets otherwise, especially if the other converging units of Tribe Fury held any more people like Archer. He listened to their echoing shouts, and remembered the voices of whoever had been inside that sandstone building. People he had helped to free from one nightmare. People who were probably about to face another. He wondered where the Mall Rats were in all of this; whether they had heard the aeroplane, seen the parachutes. Whether they were out in the streets, or even at the hotel, facing whatever fate was coming to Ebony. He thought again of other places where he could lead his Furies; but if there were other units already converging on the hotel, what was the point? And besides, where could he lead them? It wasn't as though the city was brimming was allies, ready to help him spring a clever trap.

"I think we can go a little faster, don't you?" There was cruel enjoyment mixed with Racha's good cheer now; a hint of real sadism that all his bright charm couldn't off-set. The little band moved up a gear instantly, their perfectly rehearsed marching sweeping Bray along without a hope. The city moved past in a blur then, the familiar streets ebbing away into a rush of mixed thoughts. There was no clarity; not for him. Instead just pounding feet, rushing winds, and fast approaching disaster. Helpless and hopeless, he knew that he was probably delivering death to Ebony's front door - riding at the crest of a wave that was the antithesis of her mantra of power and chaos. The antithesis; but not entirely the opposite, for it was as evil as anything that Zoot had ever planned. He wished he had never seen the aeroplane; never become a part of this. Maybe then the city, and his friends, could crash onwards into this next maelstrom without him having to know about it. It would be easier then. Instead he let Racha drag him on, with no choice but to wait and see what would happen - and hope that Ebony's luck was infinitely better than his.

In her capacity as new ruler of the city; a rank and position that even Zoot had never been able to do more than dream about; Ebony had everything that she could have wanted. Everything, that was, save a willing Bray at her side; but even she was willing to accept that she couldn't always have everything. She was relaxed for the first time in a long while, as she sunned herself by the hotel's gleaming pool; freshly cleaned out by her newest set of minions. There was no longer any electricity to run the pool's pump system of course, and under the Chosen's unimaginative rule the blue water had turned grey - but all it took was a dynamo and a few willing, or less willing, kids on exercise bikes, and things were easily returned to normal. The equipment was still in place from the days when the Locos had owned the hotel, and slave labour had powered the dynamo. It had been like a homecoming to return to it all; to order her followers to tidy the place up properly, drag the litter from the swimming pool, get the filter working again. Now the tables and deck chairs, the bright sunshades and beach mats, were out again; she could sit outside with a tall glass of fruit juice and rest easy in the knowledge that she was secure behind an army of bodyguards. Secure, that was, up to a point.

She had heard the aeroplane like everybody else, and hadn't been fool enough to doubt what the noise was likely to mean. She had left her hard earned place by the pool and gone to the roof, where a telescope, set up long ago by her one-time lieutenant, Spike, gave a good view of much of the city. She saw the plane as it banked out towards the further limits of the city; saw the first scattering of parachutes; and heard the first screams from her subjects. Even then, in those earliest moments, the fears and the theories were obvious. The adults were returning; the Chosen were returning; Zoot was bringing an army to conquer them all. Doomsday had come. She dismissed all of those theories straight away, but she despatched envoys to see what could be found out. Somebody had to discover who really had come from the skies. Whoever it was must have knowledge and abilities that were beyond those of the local people, that much was clear - and Ebony did not plan to lose control of the city she had so recently won. She returned to the pool to make plans, and waited to see what her envoys brought back to her. She waited for a long time, but the envoys brought her nothing. As it turned out, she never saw any of them again.

For the city, the panic set in gradually, after the initial terror had worn away. When death and destruction didn't come immediately, superstition gave way to a more rational kind of fear, and a curiosity that led people back out into the streets that they had earlier abandoned. Ebony could hear them milling about outside the walls. Some were shouting to her to come out and address the populace; tell them what she knew. She wasn't ready yet to tell them that she didn't know anything, so she stayed where she was, and waited, and wondered, and tried to make plans. If the people from the aeroplane were an invasion force then it made sense to assume that they would come to the hotel sooner or later. Somebody would tell them that she was in charge here; that the hotel was the heart of the city. She had faith in her guard, though. They had more knives and chains and clubs; more muscle, more strength and more determination than most of the city's ordinary people. Nobody could take the hotel. She believed that right up until she heard the first distant sounds of gunfire - and then, at last, she knew that she was in real trouble. They all were. Even the Locos themselves couldn't fight against bullets and win.

For a long time she stood up on the roof, at first relying on the telescope, and then just her unaided eyes. She saw little groups of people, each one apparently led by a prisoner - some local that was usually a splash of ragged colour against the uniform black of their captors. She saw occasional skirmishes; heard the rattle of further gunfire. She saw death. It was something distant and strange; something that couldn't really be happening, but was. An army had come to her city, and was unquestionably converging now on the hotel. They had come for her, and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that if they reached the hotel with her still inside it, those guns would make short work of her. They would want to get rid of the city's leader. Her guards would hold out - an hour maybe, or possibly two - and then the defences were sure to fail. Ebony knew all about fighting and sieges, and firepower and limitations. Her apprenticeship under Zoot during the great war against the Demon Dogs had taught her all of that. Announcing her intention to walk abroad, and see for herself what was happening, she ordered her guards to hold the fort; took a day's food and the best knife she could find, and slipped out into the clamouring streets. Nobody noticed her even with her distinctive appearance, for the people were past calling for her now. They had returned to their earlier state of mindless panic, and were merely awaiting their fate. Cattle, she thought, certain that they deserved what they got. She wasn't going to stand around and wait for whatever was coming. She was smarter than that.

She stuck to the shadows at first; took tiny alleys and back streets; crept through burnt out shells of buildings still daubed with the graffiti of before the Virus, as well as that of after. She clambered over low walls, avoided milling crowds, listened out for unwanted company, and all the time built up an image of things as she went. She saw dead bodies; crowds herded along by the oncoming invaders. She heard whispers and rumours of countless attackers, with weapons unseen since the days before the adults had all died. She saw people fleeing for cover, desperate to find themselves somewhere to hide, clearly convinced that discovery would mean death. It was disheartening, and she spat curses at the universe for throwing such trials her way. How on earth was she supposed to deal with this? Finally, after taking a circuitous route that eventually brought her back within sight of the hotel, she found herself a suitable vantage point from which to look out on all that was going to happen. She had to see it, even though she felt sure that she should be going far away. It was still her city; her domain. She had to see if it was all going to end.

They came in their little groups, each with their captured local. A shower of black uniforms, gun-toting teenagers, and cowed and handcuffed city dwellers. A few other locals got in the way - most were shot down. There seemed no pattern to it; just a random scattering of bullets. Nobody seemed to care if they were killing or just wounding. They merely wanted to clear a path to the hotel. She knew straight away what would happen then, and she wasn't proved wrong. A member of each unit pushed the little band of handcuffed guides forward; and each one was taken out with cold precision. A bullet in the back of the head; even Ebony was shocked at the sight of it. She had killed, in her various battles within this city. She had seen death almost every day of her life since the Virus had first swept amongst them all. But this was something else, and it chilled her to the bone. Kids with guns; kids killing without passion. She wanted to shiver, but she couldn't seem to move. Not until she saw what seemed to be the last of the units arriving - and saw the local they had taken as their guide. The world zoomed into sharp focus, and she ceased to breathe.

Bray. He was looking about him with a detached kind of hopelessness - an emptiness that showed he was finding it hard to assimilate everything he was seeing. Dead kids, dying kids; writhing bodies covered in blood. Seven handcuffed bodies, all neatly executed - all screaming his own fate straight at him. An auburn-haired boy pushed him to his knees, and Ebony's heart leaped into her throat. They were so many, and she didn't risk her life against that kind of odds. Not ever. Not for her fellow Locos, not for her fellow Mall Rats, not for Bray. The auburn-haired kid was raising his gun, pointing it at the back of Bray's head. Bray wasn't struggling, wasn't trying to get away or plead for his life. He was just staring at the other bodies; listening to the sounds of gunfire, thinking about the other units that now had the hotel under siege. The world had seemed to slow down; Ebony was sure that her pulse had stopped. The gun was pressing against the back of Bray's skull, she couldn't see the auburn-haired boy's face - and then she was running, and falling, and hitting the kid low, tumbling with him in a mad mess of limbs that somehow righted itself instantly. She heard a shout - the boy on his feet already, staring down at her, expression furious. How was that possible? How did he come to have regained his balance so soon? She was like a cat herself, with her grace and acrobatic skill, and even she was not yet ready to roll to her feet. She stared up at a face, partly hidden by mirrored sunglasses, and saw a hard mouth tightening into a line - saw a gun staring straight down at her. Voices were echoing around. A boy with blond hair swam into view, shining eyes a picture of merry laughter that for some reason made her want to choke - then Bray cannoned into the auburn boy; the blond boy made a grab for them both; somebody's gun went off. There was a shout of something like pain - she didn't think it was Bray's voice - and then she was on her feet, lashing out wildly, hitting anything that didn't seem to be Bray. People were cursing; in the corner of her eye she saw another gun being brought to bear; then somebody crashed into somebody else and the gun fell away. She wasn't even sure what she was doing when she grabbed Bray by the collar; when she dragged him away through rows of long-toppled rubbish bins; fell over a low wall; stumbled and hurtled down a tiny, almost too thin alley. She couldn't hear anything anymore, save for the rush of blood in her ears. She didn't know anything until she was bursting into the old paint factory, falling through the half-hinged door, collapsing on the wide, bare floor of grey tiles. Bray fell beside her, and they lay there gasping for breath. Everything else was agony.

"They... they might be coming." It was all that she could say, and although she thought she heard the words, she still wasn't sure if she had really said them; let alone said them correctly. Bray tried to get up, and failed.

"No. We can't be that important. They want the hotel." He turned towards her, his dark eyes as serious as they always seemed to be when he looked at her. "You're not in there."

"You noticed. Fighting losing battles is hardly my scene, is it. I got out as soon as I realised what was coming." She sat up, breath and strength returning with true clarity of thought. "And thanks for leading them straight to my place, incidentally."

"I didn't have much choice. They have grenades. They were killing people." He broke off to listen to the rattle of gunfire. Not that they weren't killing people now as well. It sounded like a full scale massacre. "Your people?"

"They're still in the hotel. The Mozzies would never surrender to anybody." She drew in a deep breath and forced herself up, going to the door to look out into the streets. She could see no sign of the carnage from here, but the volume grew louder when she put her head through the gap in the door. Screams, crashes, the sharp bark of orders. Yells of triumph and the occasional explosion. Grenades. Real, actual grenades. How the hell were they supposed to stand up to that?

"Get these handcuffs off." Bray was struggling up, and she glanced back at him, concerned by the heat of determination in his eyes.

"I'm not sure that I don't trust you more with them on," she told him. After the way in which they had last parted company, she definitely felt that there was something to be said for the cuffs. He glared.

"I have to get back to Amber."

"Out of the city?" She shook her head. "You'd never make it. How many of those people are out there? How many parachutes were dropped? There could be a lot more of these soldiers outside of the city, and if they're half as tough as this bunch, none of us stands a chance."

"She needs me!"

"She needs you to stay alive." Ebony went back to him, turning him around to have a look at the cuffs. Standard issue. It wouldn't take her long to pick the lock. "No heroics, Bray. Not yet. We have to find out what's going on first. Agreed?"

"What do you suggest?" He didn't like the fact that she was behind him, and that he couldn't see what she was doing. She knew that he didn't trust her, and that amused her. Had the circumstances been different; had her pulse not still been racing, she might have smiled.

"We should get to the Mall. It's unlikely to be a high priority on anybody's take-over list. There are people there that we trust, and we know that we can hold out against an attack there for a while at least. There's a good rear exit if we get into trouble - and Lex and Pride ought to give us at least a fighting chance. Extra muscles, even if it is the annoying kind. Right?"

"Yeah." he nodded, though listlessly. "Okay. Sure."

"And then, when we're all together, we'll think about what to do next. We'll have more chance of fighting as a group, and maybe then we can get to Amber."

"You don't care about Amber."

"No." She pulled off his cuffs, and turned him around quite gently. "But I don't want to get killed; not after everything I've been though trying to make my life worth living again. I don't want you dead either, or you'd already be that way. We stick together, for safety's sake; and if you're going after Amber, I'm going with you. Is she a long way out of the city?"

"Yeah. Quite a way."

"Then all the more reason to go. This place doesn't seem nearly so safe as it did this morning."

"It didn't feel so safe this morning, either. Not for some of us."

She sighed. "Hey, come on. All's fair in love and... well, whatever it is we've got. I had to do something."

"She's pregnant!" He was angry now, and shouted without thought of Tribe Fury. Ebony's own anger flared up in response.

"I was trying to save your lives! The Mozzies wanted to lynch you!"

"She went into labour!" He was furious now; grabbed her shoulders; stopped short of shaking her only when a wave of worry and fear for Amber crashed over him once again. "She went into labour, and there was nothing I could do. Then Tribe Fury came and took me away, and she's up there somewhere in the hills, and I don't even know if she'll survive. The way they're killing people here, why would they bother to look after her? They said they would, but..." He trailed off, releasing her and turning away. "They could both be dead by now."

"She went into labour?" Ebony sighed, realising that Bray was finding this very hard to take. "Look, I'm sorry. But people do that all the time, you know, and it can be stopped sometimes. And even if it isn't--"

"People used to do it all the time. It used to be able to be stopped. What now? There's no medicine, no intravenous drip, no muscle relaxants. And there are no incubators either. It's too early. Even if it wasn't, you've no idea what we went through when Trudy had Brady. She was so ill. If it hadn't been for Dal--" He thought about the younger boy, risking everything to get medicine for Trudy, and then thought of him again, lying dead in the road, and he leaned back against the wall. He wasn't sure if he wanted to cry, or just to hit something, but he knew that he wanted to do something. "Dal... Damn it, Ebony, it's all such a bloody mess! Everything's wrong. Everything. I thought it was going to be better. I thought everything could be better. That we could sort it out, and get back to... to something like normal. And now look. Look at it all out there. Dead people filling the streets, all over again. And for what?"

"For Tribe Fury, at a guess." She spoke evenly, quietly, trying not to fuel his anger. "Is that what they told you they're called?"

"Yeah." As she had hoped, his own voice now mostly matched hers; calmer, quieter, though heavy with sadness. "Army cadets, that sort of thing. They've been together a long time now, training while we were slumming it down here in the city. They're like something out of a nightmare, and they have a whole lot of hardware. Guns, grenades, at least one plane. Goodness knows what else. We could well be screwed. All of us."

"Speak for yourself." She frowned up at him, trying to cut through the dangerous defeatism which had threatened to be his undoing more than once in the past. "Look, I'm not the one worrying about a lover and a baby, I know - but I'm not going to give in that easily. We've got all kinds of chances. So what if Tribe Fury are planning to take the city? We can hide from any kind of danger - indefinitely if we have to. You and the rest of your little band proved that hiding in the Mall all those weeks, with the Locos and the Demon Dogs out rounding up Strays. We can do the same now. We'll be safe there until we can be sure of getting out into the hills. Amber will be alright. She's tough."

"Yeah." He nodded mechanically, and tried to convince himself of that. Ebony nodded back, trying to encourage him further.

"And sometimes you just have to accept that there's nothing you can do. For your sake, and the rest of the Mall Rats, you're going to have to stop thinking about her for a while. I mean it Bray. Snap out of it."

"Snap out of it." He couldn't stop his thoughts from lingering on his last view of Amber, lying in that old deserted wooden building, confused and in pain. Still, Ebony did have a point. Amber would be furious if he threw everything away trying to get back to her; if he abandoned the rest of the Mall Rats, or took too many stupid risks. "We should get to the Mall."

"Then let's hurry." She led the way out of the door, into the grimy alley beyond. "Stay alert. We don't know where anybody is, and by the sounds of things, they're getting the upper hand over by the hotel. That might mean they're more likely to see us."

"You won't know it if they do. They'll just shoot the pair of us down." He moved into the lead, calling on all his old instincts, listening out for any footsteps that did not belong to Ebony or himself. "As soon as we hit the mouth of this alley, we're going to have to start running. Keep running. Don't stop until we're at the Mall."

"Right with you."

"See that you are." He looked back at her, eyes deep and dark. "I'd stop for some people, Ebony. I'd go back for others, whatever the risks. Don't count on me doing that for you."

"Sure. It's always nice to know who your friends are."

"You earn your friends." He turned his back on her again. "I don't know yet if you've earned this one."

"I will." For perhaps the first time there was no hint of a double meaning; of any falsehood in her voice. For perhaps the first time she sounded genuinely sincere. "Now let's get going."

"Yeah." Already too tired to want to worry about anything else, he headed for the end of the alley. Before him lay streets filled with potential enemies; streets that were spattered with the blood of his neighbours. Streets that no longer seemed familiar. Somewhere out amongst them was the place that had been his home during some of the hardest times of his life. Time, then, to go back there, for what could be the hardest times yet.

They had almost reached the Mall when Ebony heard sounds - shouting, screaming, banging. She came to a halt, grabbing Bray's arm and pulling him through the broken door of an old bakery. He glared and pulled free.

"Don't drag me about. I've had enough of that today."

"Oh right. I'll just let the screaming mob find you then, shall I?" She peered out of a glass-less window. "Sounds like quite a crowd."

"People wondering what's happened, or panicking because they know what has." Bray crouched down beside her. "Sounds... angry?"

"Angry and scared. Sounds like a mob going crazy." She ducked sharply. "They're heading this way."

"They'll be going to the hotel. Probably hoping you'll be there to tell them what's going on." He started to stand. "We should warn them."

"Are you nuts?" She pulled him down. "They see you, and things'll only get worse. You're not exactly Mr Popularity out there you know."

"Yeah, and who's fault is that?" He sat down on a wooden crate, that looked like it still held some of the bread that this bakery had once produced. Mould protruded from every crack, green fingers reaching out to the world. Bray didn't seem to notice. "You go out then. It's you they want to see, and you can tell them not to go to the hotel. If they walk into all that they'll be wiped out."

"Not all of them." She stared at the people as they came down the road - a riot of coloured clothes and tribal paint; a wild tumble of crazed hair styles, different designs clashing and complementing each other. The noise was an aural match for the visuals - a rise and fall of clamouring, ringing shouts and plaintive cries. Everybody was demanding an answer to their own most pressing questions, suggesting theories, spreading rumours. Some voices rose above the others, letting the hidden onlookers hear whole sentences in the midst of the bedlam, but it offered no glimpse of a sanity hidden in the storm. There were cries about the return of the adults, about Zoot and the Chosen, about an army sent in by the outside world to bring the many tribes under new control.

"You can't let them walk into a massacre." Bray was still seeing unwanted images of all those bullet-riddled bodies. "Ebony..."

"That's a mob, Bray. They don't want to listen to anybody right now. Anything you can do isn't going to make a difference."

"It might." He stood up suddenly, heading for the door. "They need guidance from their leader - and that's you, in case you'd forgotten."

"You're not going out there?"

"You want me to let them die?" He moved aside before she could grab his arm again. "I guess I'm not as cold as you are."

"I'm not being cold, I'm being practical." She followed him to the door. "Listen to them. They're half crazy."

"They made you their queen, Ebony. Don't you think that you owe--" He broke off, listening to a new sound that was rising above the raucous noise of the crowd. "What's that?"

"You know what it is. Gunfire." She felt genuinely sad, even if she had been trying to appear unconcerned until now. "It must be more of Tribe Fury, coming up from behind."

"They're all over the place."

"It's an invasion, isn't it. They couldn't take over the city with just that bunch at the hotel. Goodness knows how many there are."

"Then what do we do?" He seemed to have lost his momentum, and was standing still, staring at the milling crowd. They were starting to hear the guns themselves now, falling quiet one by one, stopping to listen but shifting with increased restlessness.

"I think it's a little too late to warn them to run." She took his arm again. "Come back inside. We don't have to get caught up in this."

"But we can't--"

"Yes we can." She pulled and he didn't resist, although she still had to fight to move him. He was a dead weight, preoccupied mind making his movements slow. "Whatever is going to happen to those people is already happening. There's nothing we can do."

"They're here!" The cry came from a girl of about fourteen, whose yellow hair clashed insanely with the shocking pink overalls she had chosen to wear. "They're coming for us!"

"Is it Zoot?" asked another.

"They have guns!" That last was at first just a murmur - then others repeated it, shouted it, and with a wretched cry that tore through the massed ranks of the crowd, everybody began to shout it in an off-kilter chorus. Ebony dragged Bray back under cover in the bakery just in time.

They came in pairs - ten or twelve of them in total, possibly more - all in their black uniforms, and all with their guns. The crowd broke apart, everybody running for shelter in a jagged stampede. Tribe Fury split up, neatly blocking the way with their own limited numbers, guns raised. A few people tried to run past, but they were shot down.

"Just stay where you are." Moving into the lead, one of the Furies made a show of putting away his gun. "We don't want to kill you, but we won't allow you to resist us. Is that understood?"

"We're all going to die," babbled somebody. Ebony couldn't see who, although it was hard to see anything when she didn't dare risk being seen herself.

"Nobody need die. Just come with us to the hotel, and move in an orderly fashion."

"They're going to kill us." It was the yellow-haired girl in pink who spoke this time, and the sound of her voice seemed to make the crowd more restless again. They began to move around, those at the edges getting pushed towards the black-clad gunmen around them. There was a shout as somebody in the midst of the crowd fell under the feet of the others. Bray shook his head.

"They're going to get themselves shot. They have to calm down."

"For what? To get herded who knows where, for who knows what reason?"

"Maybe we can distract the Furies. Some of the crowd might get away."

"More likely they'd be shot down, and us along with them. Let it go, Bray." She sat down on the crate he had used earlier. "So much for my reign of glory. I had such hopes for this city."

"Yeah. Slave labour and madness. All the money for you, and most of the food as well. Some of us know the truth about what went on in your corridors of power, don't forget that."

"Always my conscience, right Bray?"

"Not conscience enough, apparently." He turned away from her, looking back towards the crowd. There were about forty of them, he thought, mostly backed up against the towering wall of an old metro supermarket. Some of them were trying to get away by climbing through the big front windows into the building, but they had chosen a series of some of the only windows that weren't yet broken. Coloured glass shouting about low prices every day, and advertising the latest loyalty scheme, barred their way. Somebody tried to break a window with a shoe, and a Fury sent a shot overhead.

"Calm down." The tribe's previous spokesman spoke up again. "There is no need for panic. We are asking for your co-operation, and if you give it nobody else will be hurt. Come with us to the hotel, and everything will be explained to you there."

"Who are you?" Somehow the yellow-haired girl had become the leader of the crowd, although she looked terribly small against some of the others. The leader of the band of Furies marched neatly forwards, and stopped very close to her.

"We are Tribe Fury." He said it as though it should mean something to everyone who heard it. "This is our city now. Do as you're told, and nothing will happen to you."

"What do you want from us?" The young girl seemed isolated, the others drawing back as far as the could, determined to keep her between themselves and the black-clad soldiers.

"Obedience." He drew his gun, reaching out with it, and resting it against her chin. "Who are you?"

"Emmy." She was faltering now, withered by the force of a glare that remained invisible behind dark, mirrored glasses. Her antagonist lowered the gun, although he didn't back away from her.

"Emmy." He nodded. "I'm Kesh. Lieutenant Kesh, and it's my job to get you and your companions - and anybody else we can find - to the hotel. There are other units in other parts of the city, and they're going to be bringing you all in. Once we've got as many of you there as we can, our leader will make an announcement, and I think you'll want to hear that. Especially since it details new rules that you might just be executed for not complying with." He smiled, and the girl shrank even further away. "Come with us, or die here. We've got bullets enough for everybody."

"What's to stop you using them?" Emmy clearly didn't appreciate being the voice of the crowd, and would far rather have been one of the people trying to hide at the back. Kesh smiled, his eyes almost as flirtatious as Racha's had been, though with none of the warmth and the charm.

"You'll just have to take my word, won't you. It's all you're getting. Now come with us, or die."

"Yeah." She lowered her eyes, unwilling to say any more, equally unwilling to disobery him. "Yeah, sure."

"Good." He stepped back, holstering his gun once again. "Then let's move out, shall we?"

"Make us." Finally finding his voice, one of the older boys in the crowd pushed forward, jostled by the other, bigger boys further back. He was taller than Kesh by a good deal, bigger of build and older by some way. Perhaps he hoped to impress the younger boy with his size, although with so many other Furies present it was far from a sensible move. Kesh didn't so much as blink.

"I'd get back if I were you." His voice was pleasant, although his face was not. The older boy sneered.

"Why? Listen, you might have guns, but there are only twelve of you. Maybe if we all--" He broke off at the sound of a gunshot, and looked around to see where the bullet had gone. Perhaps he thought it had been fired overhead, or that somebody nearby had been hit. It was several moments before he noticed the bloodstain on his own, already crimson, shirt. He gaped.

"The lieutenant gave an order." Her gun still faintly smoking, a powerful, heavy-set girl of about fifteen came forward. "Obey it."

"Thankyou Lana. There's no need for any unpleasantness." Kesh snapped his fingers, and pointed to the boy who had been shot. Two of the Furies marched smartly forward, catching the boy as he fell, lifting him up as though he weighed nothing. "This one will receive medical attention, if he survives the journey. I'd advise you all to avoid any likelihood of joining him."

"Don't... don't go with them." The boy in the crimson shirt was struggling weakly. "Don't..."

"If they don't they'll all be as dead as you," pointed out Kesh, completely unmoved. "What's it to be? Anybody else want a shot at playing the rebel leader?" There was no answer, and he smiled in satisfaction. "Good. Then let's go. Sharpish."

"Ruthless bastards." Unable to keep the sense of shock from her voice, Ebony watched the crowd leave, their escort keeping the pace up to a smart jog. She didn't think that the jostling would do the wounded boy any good, but clearly nobody cared. Bray nodded.

"We should get back to the Mall. Warn them even if we can't help anybody else."

"Now? Are you kidding? We don't know how many of these people are out there! Stay here for now Bray, and head out later on. You know it makes sense."

"Yeah." He rubbed his eyes, obviously tired. "Yeah. You're right I guess"

"I'm always right." She touched his hand, though only for a second. "Try to get some sleep. We both need it, and there's no telling when we'll next get the chance."

"Sleep? Now?" He shook his head, clearly not believing that he would be able to get any rest after everything that he had just seen. Ebony knew better though. Anybody could sleep, if they were tired enough. It didn't matter what images were echoing around inside their heads. And at the end of the day, even after all that they had been through, she and Bray were still young. Young enough, perhaps, to still traverse the darkest of life's many horrors without too many ill effects.

"We could both do with the rest," she told him. "We can post a guard it it'll make you feel any better, but I don't think it's worth it. With the sort of firepower they've got, we won't get very far once they know where we are."

"They might search all the buildings," he reminded her. "It might be safer just to move on."

"And risk somebody seeing us going into the Mall? No. And besides, they don't have the manpower to make a proper search of the city. They'll recruit from the prisoners they've taken today; go through the city with a proper army to back them up. I should think we'll be safe for a few days, so long as we stay undercover."

"And then?"

"Who knows." She lay down, settling herself on the hard ground. A debris-covered bakery floor was never the best place to try to sleep, but she had known worse places since the death of the adults. "Worry about that later."

"Some of us like to think about the future, Ebony."

"You shouldn't." She smiled, her eyes bright and warm. Flirtatious, he thought. Just like Racha; though potentially even more deadly. "Planning your future is about order. You should search for chaos. Power and chaos. Let the future take care of itself."

"Maybe." But he couldn't; not when the future was his own child, trying to be born too early, on a hillside miles away, when he was powerless to do anything for it. He couldn't help but worry, and think, and try to make plans that right now he couldn't believe he would ever be able to bring to fruition. So it was that he fell at last into a troubled but restful sleep - and didn't wake even when Ebony slid close to him, and laid her head against his shoulder to seek dreams of her own.

They had wandered the streets for half an hour, trying to find somebody who could tell them something about the paratroopers. Lex was becoming agitated, and although he was learning to control his temper, Pride knew the warning signs. They hadn't known each other for a great deal of time, but Pride knew people, and judged them well. Lex wanted to hit somebody. The problem was that he couldn't find anybody to hit.

They couldn't find anybody, period. It had been with a fair certainty of their success that they had set out from the Mall, looking for someone who might have seen one of the parachutes land, or who might have discovered who the new arrivals were, but the streets were deserted. The questioning, panicking crowds that Pride and KC had seen earlier had departed, and everywhere was now quiet. Rubbish blew along the empty roads, the wind whistled through broken panes of glass. Loosely hanging shutters banged without rhythm. Lex almost expected to hear the howl of the Loco's police siren, bringing the peace to a close.

"Where the hell is everybody?" Walking down the middle of the road, he turned in a circle, staring about in every direction. He saw no faces at windows, no people moving in the alleyways. He didn't even hear any sounds in the distance.

"Maybe they've gone to the hotel. Ebony might be making a speech about our visitors." Pride had to smile at that image - Ebony, the great orator, talking to her subjects and easing their fears. Lex shook his head.

"She'd have got somebody going around with loudspeakers blaring, telling us all about it. No, that can't be where they've gone."

"Then they must be hiding, mustn't they." Pride also turned in a circle. "I take it that you were expecting somebody to be out and about at least?"

"Yeah. There's always somebody. Scavengers, touts, you name it. Even when the Chosen were rounding everybody up, there'd still be people taking the chance to go out. They have to. People need to eat, and to make some kind of a living. Either that or they go out just to avoid going stir crazy."

"There aren't any vibes." Pride was practically sniffing the air, trying to use his instincts like the wild animal he modelled himself on. "I can't sense any unease."

"That's because there's nobody to sense it from." Lex slammed his fist into the palm of his hand. "What's going on? Somebody must have spread one hell of a warning about for the streets to have cleared up this quickly."

"Maybe we should have gone straight out, instead of spending most of the day trying to make the Mall secure first?"

"No. No, I don't think so." There was an alternative explanation for the silence, and not one that Lex liked. "Maybe there wasn't a warning. Maybe everybody who was out here got rounded up."

"We'd have heard something, wouldn't we?"

"Maybe we did. Remember all the shouting? You and KC said it was people panicking, thinking that maybe the adults had come back, and maybe that was what it started out as. But maybe it turned into something else - like real panic."

"You think the paratroopers meant business." Pride sighed heavily. "Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire. Why do so many people want control of this city? It's not as if it's even an especially nice place to live."

"It could be a lot worse, country boy. As cities go, this one's perfectly attractive." Lex scowled. "We should carry on looking. Find somebody."

"And maybe walk right into a trap. What if you're right, and the streets really have been cleared? What if those paratroopers really were something sinister? We don't know what we might be walking into."

"Scared?"

"No, Lex, not scared. Just cautious. Listen, dozens of people parachute down here, there's widespread panic followed by silence. Streets full of people either whisked away, chased away, or just so damned spooked that they ran away. Does that really say to you that we should go risking who knows what, just to get a few questions answered?"

"Might be something good. Might be that these people are friendly, and that they're handing out supplies."

"Yeah Lex." Pride rolled his eyes. "And maybe they're the adults come back. You know as well as I do that they'll be kids; another tribe, probably flexing its muscles. If there's one thing I've learned about this city, it's that it doesn't attract big, strong and friendly tribes. Just the crazy and power hungry kind."

"Yeah." Lex had to admit to the truth in that. "So what do you want to do? Head for the hotel and see if there's an official word on all of this?"

"What would you do, Lex, if you were an invasion force attacking this city?"

"Find out where the centre of operations was, and--" He frowned. "I guess we shouldn't go to the hotel then."

"If those paratroopers really are after this city - probably even if they're not - the first thing they'll have done is headed there. It won't be safe."

"So I guess we're going back to the Mall then." Lex scowled again, not happy with the situation. "I don't know. I mean, we could be getting completely the wrong end of the stick here. Those people might be perfectly friendly. We could be going back to hide in that stupid place for no reason. The rest of the city has a great time without us, and we look like complete morons when we find out we've been hiding from... from missionaries or something."

"You really believe that those people were missionaries? Or any kind of good guys?" Pride turned in a circle once again, staring about at the depressing sight of the ruined city, with its burnt out buildings, graffiti, and piled up mountains of rotting rubbish. "Trust your instincts, Lex. What do they tell you?"

"Honestly?" Lex couldn't help thinking of all those other times when he had seen the streets deserted. The days of Zoot's reign; of the chaos that had existed before the return of the Virus; of those early days before the Mall Rats had been able to distribute the antidote, and bring some order in the process; the fear and madness of the occupation by the Chosen. Empty streets and silence meant fear, and that was never a good sign. "I think we should go back to the Mall and make sure that everybody's safe. I think something's up."

"I think you're right." Pride clapped him on the shoulder. "What do we tell the others?"

"The truth. They're not the kids they used to be." Lex began to lead the way back towards their fortified home. Despite being the sort who thrived in battle, and had never been entirely certain what place there was for him in a calm and ordered city, he was uneasy now. Uneasy and unhappy. They had defeated the Chosen, brought the tribes together, embarked upon something that should have been great. Now, so soon, it looked as though they were in trouble again. "But they'll want to know what we're going to do next."

"Fight or run?" Pride quickened his step, his own uneasiness growing. He wasn't used to these streets, this city, this silence - but instead to the wild outdoors; the countryside; and tribes that were for the most part largely harmless. All that he knew of the city was his time as a prisoner in the seclusion of an occupied Mall, and the struggle to restore peace after the collapse of the Chosen's regime. It was different now. Oppressive and cold, in a way that his beloved forest home had never been, at least to him. "Depends how highly you rate your city, I suppose. Is it worth staying here and fighting for, if it really has been overtaken again?"

"This city is always worth fighting for." Lex said it automatically, because fighting talk was one of his talents - but even as the words were tumbling out, he knew that they were true. He loved this city. It was the place he had always known, and the place he wanted to stay in. He didn't want to be driven away. Pride nodded.

"I can't say that I feel the same. This place will never be my home."

"Nobody's asking you to stay, nature boy." Lex sped up, feeling oddly annoyed with his companion. "If you want to get out of the city, go ahead. But don't be too quick to leave, just in case any of the others want to go with you. I don't know that Chloe or Trudy are going to want to go through another turf war."

"I'll take them, if I leave." Pride slowed his step. "Lex... It's just that--"

"Hey, you don't have to explain anything to me. You came here because of Amber, and you stuck around longer than you were planning to because you were captured, and there was that whole thing with the Chosen... I understand that. You'd have left long ago if you could have." Lex shrugged. "I guess it seems a shame to split up the team, but you've got places to go."

"I'd like to get back home. The rest of my tribe came to help defeat the Chosen, but they've all gone back now. I don't know why I stayed as long as did, really. Amber maybe... wanting to see that she really was settled with Bray." He smiled ruefully. "But that's over now. Really over, since they've left as well. I just think that it's time for me to go, before I get sucked into some other battle, and wind up staying even longer."

"It's okay." Lex clapped him on the shoulder. "I understand. Let's just get back to the others, and tell them what we've found out, yeah? We'll all have some decisions to make then."

"Yeah." Pride nodded slowly, wondering how many, if any, of the Mall Rats would choose to come with him, out of the city and back to the idyllic rural life he had used to lead. It would be good for all of them, he thought. It would help Chloe to come to terms with all that had happened; help Jack to find peace within himself; help KC to experience the gentle, ordinary life that had never been his. It would be good for Brady, too, although he was sure that Trudy at least wouldn't go with him. Like Lex she was of the city, and there was too much that kept her there. Too many ghosts, too many echoes of the white-blond boy who had had so great an effect upon all their lives.

"I wish the streets weren't so quiet." Lex's restlessness wasn't helped by the silence and stillness of his city. "Feels weird."

"Like somebody came through here and stole everybody when we weren't looking." Pride smiled rather ruefully. "Ever have that dream when you're all alone?"

"Yeah. Years ago." There were things that you dreamt about as a kid that were never supposed to become a part of reality. "This is not good, Pride."

"You can say that again." The voice made them both jump, and they whirled around together. Ebony was standing in the middle of the road, although where she had come from neither could think.

"Ebony." Lex was taken aback, and angry that he had let others see him when he was so shocked. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Making you jump by the look of things." She was smiling, the way that she so often was - one part humour to at least two parts mild mockery. "What are you two doing out on the streets? Don't you know it's not safe?"

"We were starting to guess, yeah. We haven't seen a living soul." Lex glanced back at Pride. "Maybe we should have gone to the hotel after all."

"If you had you'd be dead by now. That or a prisoner." Ebony shook her head slowly. "You really don't know anything, do you. Where have you been all day, Lex? Outer space?"

"In the Mall, trying to reinforce its defences. We don't know what's coming. Don't know what's already here." He looked around again, scanning the streets. "You alone?"

"Not entirely. Bray's with me." She smiled in gentle delight at his surprise. "He's checking through some of the buildings, trying to be noble. I think he's hoping to find some people he can rescue."

"Just looking for food." Bray came out of an alley nearby, smiling half-heartedly at Lex and Pride. "Some of us haven't eaten in a while."

"Yeah, well if you will get yourself exiled, and then captured by an invading army, you've only got yourself to blame." She was, as ever, unrepentant. "Did you find any cowering children, desperate to be saved?"

"I wasn't looking." He sounded sour, as though he had had enough of her company for the time being. "There's nobody left around here. It's like a ghost town."

"Yeah, we'd noticed." Eager for answers, Lex turned to him in excitement. "So what's going on? What's this about an invading army? Where did the two of you--"

"Go easy, Lex." Pride could see that Bray was in no mood to be interrogated. "We should get back."

"I'd recommend it. You don't know who's out in these streets." Ebony seemed jumpy all of a sudden, disturbed by the inactivity; by the waiting around in too exposed an area. "Come on. At least then we'll only have to tell the story once."

"What story?" Lex was hopping mad. "Just tell us what's going on! The streets are empty, everybody's disappeared, Bray's back. Say, where's Amber?"

"Rather what I was thinking." Pride's concern was too great to allow him to be sensitive to the pain that Bray couldn't hide. "Where is she?"

"Out of the city. Somewhere. Probably safe." Bray was as restless and twitchy as Ebony. "Come on. Lets just get out of the street, okay? Ebony's right, we shouldn't be hanging around out here."

"Yeah, but you won't tell us why." Lex saw that they were determined, and sighed. "Okay, we'll head back to the Mall. But where exactly did the pair of you spring from?"

"We were hiding out a little way north of here," supplied Ebony. "When everything seemed to be quiet we started out for the Mall, going by the side streets. Bray thought he heard your voices, but I told him he was imagining things. I didn't think anybody was crazy enough to be out and about." She smiled. "Then Bray reminded me who we were talking about, and I agreed it might be worth taking a look."

"Funny." Lex walked on ahead, apparently sulking, and with an exasperated look at Ebony, Bray went to join him. He fell into step beside the other boy, and flashed him a rather weak smile.

"Don't let her get to you, Lex."

"You think she does? After everything we'll all been through together, I think I've learnt how to handle her."

"Yeah, I suppose." They walked on a bit further, Bray starting to feel rather awkward. "Listen, Lex... I don't mind having to explain things twice, you know. Just because Ebony said--"

"Bray, don't sweat it, okay? It makes sense to tell us all together, and it's hardly a long walk from here, is it." He looked over at his companion, frowning slightly. "But it's bad, isn't it. Even Ebony seems a little freaked."

"It's bad. Maybe the worst. The Chosen... well they were tough, but this lot... Is everybody at the Mall? I mean, there's nobody missing, is there? I don't like to think what might happen if they were out in the streets earlier today."

"Nobody's missing. Exactly. I mean, Salene's not back yet, and Patsy and Ryan still haven't turned up, but Chloe's still watching out for them all. Alice and Ellie have gone back to their farm, and they've taken the two little kids with them. Four less people to worry about I suppose." He frowned suddenly. "May. I haven't see her. Where could she have gone?"

"Who knows." Bray rubbed a dirty hand across his face, irrevocably smearing the last of the tribal paint there. "How about KC? And Jack?"

"KC's fine. Restless, but I think he'll stay put. I told him to look after the place, and he seemed to like that. Jack's okay too. He's not going anywhere. Not in any mood to go taking risks just now I don't think. He seems a little... I don't know. Vague."

"Good. We don't need any heroes." Bray toyed with the meagre stores he had found. It had always been his job to find food for everybody, and he had enjoyed it in the days when their occupancy of the Mall had been relatively new. He fell silent, wandering along without real purpose in his stride, then looked up sharply.

"Did you hear that?"

"You're pretty jumpy, aren't you."

"I don't plan on getting myself shot, Lex. Not when I have a pregnant girlfriend to get back to."

"Shot?" Lex came to an abrupt halt. "There are guns?" As if in answer a single shot ran out, and he whistled softly. "There are guns."

"Come on." Ebony broke into a run, taking the lead now, and heading for the back entrance to the Mall. She heaved off the manhole cover, jumping inside. Pride followed her, calling to her to mind the newly re-organised alarms.

"What the hell is going on?" Pausing before climbing down into the sewer, Lex looked up at his old sparring partner, eyes sparking with that same intense gleam of confrontation that he had turned upon Bray so often in the past. The other boy glanced back over his shoulder, towards the sounds of gunfire.

"Not now Lex!"

"But those are guns!"

"Yeah. Lots of them, and being waved about by people who know how to use them. So get down that ladder, alright?"

"Alright, alright." Lex slid down out of sight, and Bray followed quickly, dragging the cover back into its place. In the familiar dark of the drain he felt safe, momentarily, until another gunshot rang out somewhere above him. It galvanised him into action, and he followed on as Pride led the way past the alarms, towards the ladder that would take them up into the Mall. Home, thought Bray, somewhat unwillingly. Why did it always feel so weirdly good to be back?

"Pride." KC, standing guard by the entrance to the drains, jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of the older boy. "Aren't the alarms working?"

"I should think so. I was trying to avoid setting them off." He offered Ebony a hand out of the manhole, and smiled slightly at her affronted expression. "Get everybody together, KC."

"Sure." KC stared hard at Ebony, and opened his mouth to ask a question. Pride glared.

"Now, KC."

"Yeah, yeah. Man, I heard you the first time." The boy went off to do his bidding, through with an exaggerated lack of his usual speed. Ebony stared after him.

"Zoot's Oracle. Still an annoying little pain in the butt."

"Yeah, well he's a useful little pain in the butt." Lex pushed her out of the way so that he could also exit from the sewer. "If it wasn't for him we'd probably still be hiding from the Chosen, instead of whoever that is back there."

"I'd rather it was the Chosen." Climbing up awkwardly with his arms still full of stores, Bray looked around at the building that had been his home for the past year. "This place never gets any better, does it."

"Don't knock it. It's keeping us off the streets." Lex headed off into the middle of the large front hall, taking up a position beside the long-dry fountain. The others were appearing, one by one, coming down the stairs in a shower of questions. Tai-San hurried to Lex, relieved that he was back, and at the sight of Bray Chloe also sped up, delighted by his return.

"Bray!" The relief in her voice was enchanting, and for a second she was once again the child she was still supposed to be. "You're home!"

"Hey Chloe." He set the stores down in order to give her a brief hug. "Yeah, I'm home."

"But where's Amber?" She looked around expectantly, searching for the girl who had been as much a mother to her as Salene; and whom she had been missing just as much. Bray shook his head, and Chloe's face fell.

"Oh." She turned away, trying to hide her disappointment that another member of her family was still absent. "Is she coming soon?"

"I don't know. I sure hope so." He let her lead him towards the fountain, exchanging a nod of greeting with Jack as he emerged from the direction of his workshop.

"Bray." Her own greeting measured and even, Trudy made a slow descent from the upper floor, carrying Brady as always. Bray smiled rather awkwardly at her. Their relationship had been a trifle strained since her brainwashing at the hands of the Chosen, and even though she had long been returned to her true mind, he knew that she still felt bad about some of the things she had been compelled to do. He went to meet her, taking Brady with a fluttering of sadness for his own child. Trudy saw the expression in his eyes, knowing him so much better than did the others.

"Where is Amber?" she asked him. He smiled awkwardly.

"I don't know. All I know is that she's ill. In trouble. Everybody's in trouble."

"You can say that again." Standing on the wall of the fountain, Ebony cast an imperious look around at the others, still apparently eager to play at her new rôle of queen. "Alright, here's the way things are. You know about the aeroplane? The parachutes?"

"Yeah." KC seemed enthusiastic, as though he was hoping that there might be a chance to get a ride on a plane if he met the right person. "Everybody was saying it was adults. There was panicking going on everywhere."

"Yeah, well it wasn't adults." Ebony paused for effect, showing her talent for theatrics. "They're called Tribe Fury, and they're an army. A real army. They've shot up half the city, rounded everybody up, and killed who knows how many people. They've got guns, grenades, probably other things as well."

"They were well fed," added Bray, "and they said they had medics, so they've probably got medicine as well as food. They're really well organised."

"We don't know how many there are," continued Ebony, "but they want the city, and they're well on their way to getting it. They were taking everybody they could find to the hotel, for some kind of briefing. Or maybe just a massacre."

"Not a massacre." Seeing the look on Chloe's face, Bray quickly interceded. "They want people alive, for some reason."

"They didn't want you alive," Ebony reminded him, and for that he had no answer.

"Guns, grenades, an army?" Trudy sat down, looking pale and drawn. "Another tribe trying to take over just like the Locos, and the Demon Dogs, and the Chosen. Why can't they just leave us alone?"

"We're not going to know that until we know what these people are after." Lex started to pace. "Anybody know how many paratroopers a plane like that could hold?"

"Military aircraft was never one of my specialities," Bray told him, sarcasm heavy in his voice. "Can't be that many surely. Or that few."

"Does it matter how many of them there are when they've got guns?" Trudy took Brady back, hugging her close. "We have to... to do something."

"Well that's helpful," snapped Ebony. "Like to tell us what exactly it is that we should do?"

"Stopping the arguments would be a good start." Tai-San stood pointedly between the two girls, preventing them from glaring at each other. "Bray, are you sure that this is as serious as it sounds?"

"Yeah." He thought back to his brief time as a prisoner of Tribe Fury, remembering their professionalism; the cold way that they had prepared to execute him, just because he had no further use save as a demonstration to onlookers. He thought about all the others, dead or wounded, and lying in the street; the clamouring crowds and the subdued group he had seen being taken away. The boy in the crimson shirt. "Yeah, it's serious. More than serious. I don't see how we can go up against people like this. All those weapons... and they've got no worries about using them. I've seen them using them."

"Then we should cut our losses and leave." Pride's thoughts were back with his earlier resolution. "Get out of the city. There are plenty of other places we can go."

"Until this tribe recruits all the people in the city who'd rather join them than be killed by them - and then they'll start taking over other places as well." Trudy shook her head. "We can't leave. We can't let them take the city."

"Are you bullet proof, Trudy? Because if you're not you haven't got a hope in hell of fighting these people." Ebony laughed unpleasantly. "Maybe you're still believing all that rubbish that the Guardian used to say about you. Is the Supreme Mother as immortal as Zoot is supposed to be?"

"Leave Zoot out of this." Bray was looking uncomfortable. "Trude, I see your point, but I don't know that we have any choice. Tribe Fury brought me here, and made me leave Amber behind, out there somewhere. I have to get back to her."

"Chances are they're bringing her to the city." Jack sat down on the fountain wall, resting his face in his hands. "I really don't need this. Another crazy army?"

"This one isn't likely to send us away to prison farms," Chloe told him, sounding rather cold at first. "Just shoot us, apparently."

"It's not necessarily as bad as that." Bray tried to make her feel better, although his own unhappiness didn't give his words much resonance. Chloe gave him a horribly adult stare, and sat down beside Jack.

"We need to find out how bad it is, don't we," she said. KC nodded.

"Yeah. Like an undercover mission or something. We could sneak into the hotel and pretend to be soldiers."

"Shut up," Ebony told him, never one to display much patience with those younger than herself. Jack looked up.

"No, he's got a point. So's Chloe. We do need to find out a few things. What they're after, why they want the city, whether or not they're really likely to kill us all. I'm not saying we should try sneaking into the hotel, but we ought to try going along there."

"They said there was going to be some kind of announcement," offered Bray. "There was a bunch of them rounding people up in the street. They said that when they thought they'd got as many people as they were likely to, there'd be an announcement from their leader, about rules and stuff."

"Then we want to hear that, don't we." Lex nodded, glad that things had reached a point where he could once again play a part. "Once we've heard what's going on, we can make plans. We've made this place pretty secure, so we should be safe enough. Bray's always been good at finding food in war zones, so we shouldn't go hungry. Jack can get the water filter running again, and the battery charger too. The Chosen tore them down, but the stuff's still all up on the roof. We'll be safe in here as long as we need to be. Then we can make real plans. Long term plans." He nodded, pleased that he had come up with a reasonable strategy. "For what it's worth, I think Trudy's right, and we at least ought to try to fight back. We've done some pretty amazing things in the past. Beating some new tribe can't be harder than beating the Virus."

"I don't know how safe we are here." Bray was standing still, though in his mind he was pacing as restlessly as ever he had done. "I told them I lived in a Mall. They said they were going to look for it."

"Huh?" This was news even to Ebony, and she gazed at him now, as did everybody else. "You did what?"

"They asked what tribe I was with. They were trying to get to me." He rubbed his wrists, where red marks still showed from the handcuffs. "I wasn't thinking."

"Sounds like it." Lex let out a long sigh. "Alright. Well there's more than one mall in this city. Even if they were serious about coming after us, they're not going to know this is the right place, are they. We'll fix the place up. Make it look derelict. It'll be good protection, just in case they do recruit some locals. There are plenty of them that know which mall to look in."

"That's not a bad plan. Suggest one truth to hide another." Tai-San nodded her approval. "But I don't like this idea of going to the hotel. It's not safe."

"Well we couldn't all go. That really would be dangerous." Lex looked around at the others. It had been Jack's idea, and by rights he should be offered the chance to put it into action; but he was hardly the right person to choose. KC would gladly go, but Lex was not willing to send the boy do to such a job. He was still too young, too frivolous. "Bray and me'll go. Right Bray?"

"Yeah." Bray nodded, glad that he would have something to do. Chloe looked sour.

"And me," she announced. Lex shook his head.

"Not likely."

"Why not? I sort of suggested it first. And don't tell me that I'm too young, because I'm not. Even KC isn't all that little anymore."

"Hey!" KC, unsurprisingly, took exception to the 'even'. Trudy smiled.

"You're not going, Chloe," she said with authority. "I need you to help with Brady. Besides, we'll all be busy making the place look like nobody lives here. The fewer people that go, the better."

"Okay." The younger girl still didn't look happy, but she was sensible enough to be ready to be useful where she could.

"I'm coming as well," announced Ebony. Lex wasn't surprised.

" Fine," he told her. "But this is a security matter, which puts me in charge. Don't go trying to follow your own agenda in all of this."

"As if I would." She fluttered her lashes at him, then turned to Pride. "There's a lot of junk outside the fire escape beside the old craft store. Every kind of rubbish. Spread it around in the right way, and it'll make this place look nice and abandoned. You should probably block the tunnels in the sewers too, and try to do something about the front entrance. Hell, cave in the lobby or something. We don't how long we might have to hide out in here."

"There are only five of us," pointed out Pride. She shrugged.

"So? There's a bloody sight more of them, and you don't want them finding you here. Do what you have to do."

"I think we can block the tunnels okay." Jack's mind was already working on the problem. "The lobby will be harder, but I can probably come up with something. We'll need at least two new entrances though. It's always a good idea to have a back door."

"You'll think of something." The prospect of action was making Bray feel better than he felt since his capture; since even before then, when he and Amber had been driven out of the city. He was almost eager for the off. Of all of them only Tai-San and Trudy looked unhappy.

"We should go. We don't have any idea when this announcement is being made, and we don't want to miss it." Ebony started off for the sewers, not bothering to make any goodbyes. She didn't really have anybody to say good bye to. Tai-San squeezed Lex's arm.

"Are you sure about this? You've only just got back. It's not as if your luck is endless."

"Tai-San, I'll be fine." He kissed her gently, then nodded around at the others. "Keep your heads down, and get started on the camouflage. KC, the new exits are your responsibility. You're the sneakiest guy we've got."

"Sure Lex." The boy nodded his green-haired head in determined confirmation. "I'll sort it."

"I know you will." With one last, fond smile at Tai-San, he followed Ebony away. Only Bray remained.

"I... guess I'll be going," he said, rather awkwardly. It hurt that Amber wasn't here, to bid farewell to in the way that Lex had taken leave of Tai-San.

"Take care." Trudy held up Brady, as though to allow the baby to wish her uncle a safe journey. She looked so small in her mother's arms; proof by her size that, despite all that had happened, it really was only a year since they had all come together in this place, and Trudy had given birth.

"Yeah. Good luck." Jack offered a well meaning, if typically distracted, smile. Bray nodded.

"And you. No risks. Don't make more noise than you have to. We'll try to be back by morning, give you an update."

"Keep an eye out for Amber," Pride told him. "Just in case she's been brought into the city." Bray nodded.

"I will. I doubt she's been moved yet. She wasn't in great shape, but... yeah. I'll keep a look out." He raised a hand, taking his leave of them for the second time that day, though in radically different circumstances to before. "See you soon." He hurried away. Chloe stared after him.

"They'll be alright, won't they?" she asked. Tai-San put an arm around her shoulders.

"We'll send them strength," she said, in the same voice she had been using to reassure Chloe since the day they had first met. "But it must be as we work, not in the circle we usually form."

"Gee, no holding hands. I'm gutted." Jack stood up, mind working over the many possible plans. "Come on. We'd better get moving. Pride, find all the heavy things you can. Chloe, all the tools, especially sharp ones. Raid the gardening store. There's lot of stuff there that escaped the lootings. I guess most of the tribes aren't into gardening. KC, Tai-San, collect all the rubbish you can from outside, but don't take any risks. There's a lot there that we dumped when we were tidying this place up, so you won't have to go far."

"Do you actually have a plan?" asked Trudy. He smiled, though not with all of his usual confidence.

"Yes... sort of. It's a start, anyway."

"Wonderful. So what do you want me to do?"

"Get together all the soft furnishings that we don't need. Blankets, rugs, anything like that. Bring them down here." He grinned, cheerful if not entirely certain of success. "Yeah, I think this is going to work."

"I hope so. I don't want to end up being captured by these Tribe Fury people." Chloe, who had never liked guns even just on the television, set off on her appointed errand, Pride at her heels. Jack glared at them, as though they were somehow insulting him by seeming less than confident.

"Nobody's going to be captured by Tribe Fury," he muttered; then thought of Bray, Ebony and Lex. "Well, except maybe--"

"You're right, Jack. Nobody is going to be captured by Tribe Fury." Interrupting him before he could depress any of them even more, Trudy tried to turn her own thoughts away from the others. Lex... Ebony... and Bray. Especially Bray. Somehow it always came back to him. Maybe she was still in love - either with him or with his brother. Maybe she couldn't let go. Maybe, if he came back, she would finally try to address all of that, and sort if out once and for all.

Or, rather more likely, she would not.

It should not have been an especially long walk to the hotel; the route was a direct one, and it was no great distance. The threesome were taking no risks, however, and it was only after much care, and frequent dives undercover at imagined dangers, that they eventually reached their destination. Lex immediately tried to take charge, but Ebony, as usual, was oblivious to anybody's authority but her own. Bray didn't care much for Lex's aspirations of leadership, either, and never had.

"I'm head of security," hissed Lex, as they hunted for some place from which they could watch the proceedings. "I'm supposed to stop the rest of you from getting killed."

"Take it easy, Lex." Bray led the way along a tiny street filled with the almost unbearable stench of putrefying trash. "Nobody's looking."

It was true. Although the space outside the hotel, and all the main thoroughfares around it, were packed with people, nobody was interested in the three late arrivals. Tribe Fury was present, but as guards only, patrolling the edges of the crowd, and standing on some of the buildings. Bray kept an eye out for Racha or any of his unit, not anxious to be recognised; but beyond that small threat they seemed safe enough. Ebony found them a good place to stand in amongst the shadows, from where with luck they could slip away quickly, and not be herded off somewhere once the announcement had been made. They were assuming it had not yet taken place, for there was an air of expectation about the crowd. They were waiting for something - for someone. Waiting for a glimpse of whoever was the leader of all of this. The person who had guided Tribe Fury to take over the city.

"This is... impressive." Lex had been intending to show how appalled he was by this latest belligerent tribe, but his grudging respect wouldn't be held back. It was impressive. Very much so. The whole execution of the invasion, the use of parachutes, the obvious efficiency on display - it was the kind of thing he had been looking for himself, when he had first left the military training camp in the hills, and returned to the city. When he had seen the need for strength in the vacuum left by the dying adults. He had changed since then of course, and would no longer jump at the chance of being a part of such an operation - but he couldn't help marvelling at it all the same.

"I'm glad you approve." Ebony was faintly amused. "I'll bet all the people who died here today aren't."

"I wonder what happened to the Mozzies?" pondered Bray. He owed them no fondness, and certainly felt none - but it was never nice to think of death; especially violent death.

"Knowing them they're probably already working for whoever's in charge." Ebony looked about, a little worried that one of the crowd might recognise her. All that it would take was for one person to call her name, and soon everybody would know that she was here. She wasn't sure that she liked the idea of that, since Tribe Fury would no doubt rather she were dead. "Those girls take care of themselves well."

"They learnt from you," muttered Lex. Ebony smiled sweetly, then pointedly turned to Bray, neatly cutting her former sheriff out of the conversation.

"When do you think it'll start?"

"You heard as much as I did. When they think pretty much everybody is here, I suppose." He scanned the nearby roofs, the figures patrolling there, the many sentries on the streets. "Any time now, I'd say. There's a lot of them here."

"A hell of a lot. We're going to have a job getting away from here." Lex didn't like the look of the figures walking slowly back and forth on the roofs, all carrying rifles, and all, apparently, wearing head sets. They were in constant communication with each other, then, which could only add to their efficiency. His blood would have run cold, he was sure, if it was not already as cold as could be.

"We'll get away when the time comes." Ebony was staring at the hotel, or more particularly at the person she could see striding out onto the roof of the lobby. "Look. It must be show-time."

"He must have a hell of a loud voice if he think he can talk to everybody from up there," commented Lex - but of course Tribe Fury had already taken care of that. When the noise of the lone figure clearing his throat thundered out of a collection of well-positioned speakers, it was clear that there was going to be no problem hearing his words.

"Friends." He spoke with warmth, but also with authority; a strong voice that suggested it didn't like to be argued with. "Thankyou for coming here today."

"Yeah, 'cause you gave them a choice," muttered Lex. The voice continued, booming out of the unseen speakers with an easy resonance.

"I am Silver, and we are Tribe Fury. This city is ours. You don't need to ask us why, or what we intend to do with it now that we have it. Those things aren't important. Just know that it is ours - and so is everybody in it."

"Like hell," growled Ebony. Both her companions had to smile.

"And so, now that you, your homes, your streets - all that you see before you - belongs to us, perhaps you'd like you know how we intend to govern?" Humour tinged the voice. An unpleasant, mocking humour that still didn't quite lose the voice its warmth. "You've seen our strength; our resilience; our weaponry. The streets are already full of your dead, one of our new buildings is already full of your wounded. I'd advise you all not to try to join either group. The dead face an ignominious disposal, and the wounded take their chances at the hands of our medics. They do their best, but -" a small laugh - "they're only children."

"Hey, man - Amber will be fine." Lex's words came in answer to the flicker of anger on Bray's face, but Bray barely reacted. He was thinking pleasant thoughts of wiping the audible smile from that faraway face.

"There will be changes, and they will be immediate. Firstly, a curfew, between sunset and sunrise. Anybody found outside during the curfew will be arrested and imprisoned. Secondly, the work detail. All those above the age of ten are eligible for military training. Those who pass may eventually be inducted into the ranks of Tribe Fury. There will be extra rations for all such volunteers, and you will have no further need to worry about your illnesses and ailments. Our medics may not be expert surgeons, but they have experience and medicine enough to deal with all those complaints that have become such a concern since the adults died. Childbirth, infectious diseases. How many died that first winter from fevers, from meningitis? Joins us and you'll be taken care of."

"Very persuasive," Lex muttered, already hearing murmurs of interest from the crowd. Bray nodded.

"He knows how to press the right buttons," he whispered back. "Food, medicine, security - he's already got most people's major concerns sewn up."

"Except for freedom," shot back Ebony. Lex shook his head.

"This lot are too scared to worry about that right now. Don't you think?"

"Probably." She turned back to stare up at the distant figure of Silver, standing silently whilst he waited for his words to sink in. "I wish we could see him. I like to see a person's face when they talk to me; especially if they're laying down the law."

"Kid over there's got a telescope." Bray had spotted a gleam of brass, and tried to edge a little nearer. He froze though, temporarily, when Silver began to speak again.

"Those who choose not to train are eligible for the work details. You'll collect food, help to grow food, clear out and repair damaged buildings in the area around this hotel. This is to be our headquarters, and we want the buildings around it as well. They're to be our barracks, our prisons, our medical centres, our schools. Yes, our schools. All children above the age of ten can train or work with us - all children below the age of ten will report here for schooling. And you will come. There will be penalties for those who do not attend."

"Nice way to try brainwashing the masses." Lex was not impressed. Neither was Ebony, although she was rather absorbed in watching Bray's progress towards the boy with the telescope, and wasn't paying much attention to Lex's sarcasm.

"You may keep your individual tribes, until - and if - you are allowed to join us. You may keep your individual tribal leaders. Just remember that all are now answerable to us. We rule. If you think that you can fight us; if you think that you're stronger than our guns, you can try to fight back - but I don't advise it. You won't win. Don't try to leave the city. You won't make it. Nobody else will be able to enter the city. They will be stopped."

"Pretty damn sure of yourselves, aren't you." Lex couldn't help his pithy responses to Silver's words. Nobody could hear them, so there was little point to them - but it made him feel better to try making at least a kind of rebellion. Nearby Bray made a grab for the boy with the telescope, and in a silent, hurried scuffle, got it away. The boy didn't object too much - either because he was already too afraid, or because he was too small to want to try fighting against somebody of Bray's size. Feeling wretched for his thievery, Bray returned to the others, and handed the telescope straight to Ebony.

"Thankyou." He might be feeling too guilty to want to use it, but she wasn't bothered by such scruples. "Did anybody see you?"

"I don't think so. Nobody that mattered, anyway." He drew back into the shadows with the others, and they settled back to hear the rest of the speech.

"I said that there would be rules, and there will be. Tribe Fury brings order and law. There will be no more looting. There will be no more fighting. There will be no more alcohol. All tribes will receive a food allowance. One designated member of each tribe will report here daily to receive that allotment. There will therefore be a register. If you want to be fed, you must be registered. Your name, your age, your tribe. If you have no tribe you will be co-opted into our training programme, for your own safety. If one of you breaks a law, your whole tribe will suffer the consequences. Food rations will be docked. Water may be withheld. Obey all laws for your own well-being.

"If a member of Tribe Fury is attacked, random civilians may be executed in retaliation. Certainly there will be repercussions. Food will be withheld until a culprit is found. If a member of Tribe Fury is killed, ten random civilians will be executed in retaliation. Food will also be withheld until a culprit is found."

"A culprit, not the culprit." Bray shook his head. "Some law."

"It may be a lousy law, but he's enjoying himself announcing it." Ebony was staring through the telescope, watching the mocking, amused face of the boy on the roof. He was about eighteen, with an athletic frame and impressive stature. His black uniform flattered him, matching his skin colour almost perfectly, and contrasting nicely with the gleaming silver of his hair. He wore the three blue stripes on his face like the others, but also wore a matching set across the front of his uniform, along with a pair of silver epaulettes that increased the breadth of his shoulders. A splendid figure, Ebony couldn't deny - and a handsome one. The smile was pleasant even if it was mocking; the eyes were bright and intelligent. She sighed. What a shame he had to be so definite an enemy. Order and law indeed. Ebony would always remain true to Zoot's love of power and chaos.

"You may be thinking that these are big claims. Big laws. That we're speaking empty words. Well we're not. You've seen our guns, and you know that we can use them. We already have most of you in our power, and once they discover that registration is necessary in order to get food, we'll have the rest of them as well. Once they see us patrolling the streets with their guns, once we raid their homes to check for weapons, for rebels, for forbidden items, they'll see that they can't hold out against us. When they see our might, they'll quail."

"Not sodding likely." Even so, Lex couldn't sound quite as certain as he would have liked. Silver was speaking with an understandable confidence. Nobody in the large audience was showing any sign of arguing, either with Silver or with his many guards.

"Shut up, Lex." Lowering the telescope to glare at her companion, Ebony darted a glance around at the people closest to them. "Somebody's going to hear you."

"Let them." It was a sulky comeback, but Lex was not fool enough to mean it. "I just can't believe nobody is even heckling this jerk."

"Probably because they don't want to get shot." Bray frowned suddenly, listening to something that was rising above the faint murmur of crowds-people discussing all that they had just been told. "Is that the aeroplane coming back? I think I hear something. An engine?"

"Two engines, I'd say. It doesn't sound like an aeroplane though." Lex tried to listen, but up on the lobby roof Silver was speaking again.

"You might think that you can stand against us. Don't. Anybody who tries will be dealt with. Anybody who helps those who stand against us will also be dealt with. Anybody who knows anything. Who sees anything. Anybody who knows the whereabouts of your former leader, Ebony, and all those known to be her associates - all must come forward, or there will be repercussions; for you and for your tribes. We have the manpower. We have the firepower. The city is ours." He paused, briefly, for effect. "Never forget that."

"Great." Ebony retracted the telescope and put it into her pocket. "So now I'm on the most wanted list. If anybody sees us..."

"Sod being seen. We've got to get away from here, seen or otherwise." Lex didn't like the rising volume of the mysterious engines. It suggested that something was coming. Something that was intended to reinforce Silver's speech about strength and power. "We have to get away before this registration starts. If we get caught up in that we haven't got a hope."

"Yeah. 'Cause we've got so much hope anyway." Ebony also stopped to listen to the engines. There was a rumbling too now; a clanking and a juddering, and a sensation of vibrating earth. "What the hell is that?"

"You might doubt us," Silver was saying, although less of the people were listening to him now. Everybody was turning to look in the direction of the oncoming noise. Bray, Ebony and Lex ducked down as best they could, desperate not to be seen by anybody, and finding it increasingly hard. "You might still harbour some hope of getting away, of overpowering us, or maybe chasing us from the city one day. Well forget it. We're not going anywhere, and you cannot defeat us." His faintly mocking smile became a broad grin, sparkling and bright, though there was nobody left to see it. Every pair of eyes was now staring down the road, waiting to see what was coming. The engines grew louder. Over the speakers a faint chuckle brought Silver's amusement to everybody's ears.

And then, with a roar of power that drowned out the first whisper of panic, the approaching vehicles at last came into view. Crashing through a dilapidated fence that made the thoroughfare too narrow, rolling easily over a low wall, they came. Tanks. They were monsters; great metal beasts that made the ground shake, and the glass in the nearby buildings tremble. The caterpillar tracks crushed the windblown litter, the guns turned and turned about; eyes watching the crowd. Eyes that seemed to the three would-be rebels to be searching for opposition. Onwards and onwards they came, scattering the crowd, knocking aside the cover that had allowed Bray and his companions to reach the gathering. And still on they came. On and on until nobody was left in their path save the three who couldn't risk being seen; couldn't risk bolting for better cover. Only when it seemed to the threesome that they were about to be crushed did the tanks at last stop, their eye-like guns swivelling about to survey the whole crowd, and coming to rest, almost as though with purpose, to point at the unseen dissenters. Ebony realised that she was holding her breath, but wasn't sure that she dared release it.

"You see?" Silver's triumph was absolute, but few still had ears for his speechmaking. "You see our power? We are invincible. There is no escape from Tribe Fury. There will be no resistance!" Up on the roofs his people were cheering, waving their rifles in the air, whilst the two tanks stood, silent and immovable; terrifyingly symbolic. Bray felt his stomach sink into his shoes.

"This doesn't look good, guys," he whispered, throat unexpectedly dry. Lex nodded slowly.

"Yeah." He felt even more hopeless than the other two looked, and he knew that his shoulders were slumped in dejection. All his fine hopes of standing up to Tribe Fury; of finding a way to fight them and purge them from the city, danced now in his mind. They were mocking him, belittling him in just the same way as the two tanks. There couldn't really be any way they could fight this - could there? He shook his head in answer to his own unspoken question, and slumped back against the nearby wall. "That guy Silver might just be right."

"Giving up, Lex?" Ebony wanted to sound tough, but even she couldn't quite manage it. Lex didn't look at her.

"Giving? I think it's already given. Face it guys." He stared up at the guns of the tanks, so eerily pointed straight at them. "This could be it."

THE END

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