Inside
Simon Chang watched his sister write out names on two poster boards duct taped together.
"Katie, this really isn't nice." he said for the zillionth time. She didn't even bother to reply. Simon turned to his sort of girlfriend, who was cradling Holly May Hollands, the baby that was born the day before the FAYZ hit.
"Drea, please get her to change her mind." he begged. Alexandrea Bell shook her head.
"I don't know about Katie, but I threw 'nice' away sometime around week three. Besides, they deserve to know."
That was true, but Simon thought that it could be gone about a bit more…nicely.
Holly twisted in Drea's arms and she yelped as the one year old kicked her recently broken wrist. The flames she held aloft in her right hand leapt up dangerously. "Let me take her." Simon offered. "That way you don't have to worry about setting her on fire."
"Please."
Holly sat herself in Simon's lap and started drawing in the dirt. "Are you alright?" a voice asked from far behind him. Simon turned around and saw Sanjit standing by the door of the hotel. Since Clifftop was pretty empty, even after the skirmish by the wall, standing far away so Simon couldn't brain him with his spiked baseball bat was a good idea on Sanjit's part.
"We're doing fine, Sanjit." Drea told him after he'd come closer. "We're just going to head down to the wall and then we'll meet with everyone going back to the Lake. No need to worry."
Sanjit looked at Katie's poster. "Are those…?"
"Yup." Katie said as she wrote the final name.
"And you're putting that up by the wall?"
"Right where all the people with signs are."
"It's not very nice."
"Why don't you get Lana out here so that I can shoot you?"
"I think I'll pass."
Katie, Simon and Drea stood up. Katie held her poster with the writing up against her body.
"I'm clear to go, right?" Drea asked Sanjit, who nodded.
"You'll be a bit sore for a while, but other than that, you're good."
Drea smiled and the new scars by her eye twisted. "It was Drake. If I wasn't sore then I'd be worried." Sanjit laughed in agreement.
"See you later then." he said.
"No offense intended but hopefully we don't see you soon." Simon told Sanjit. "I'd be happy to have no excitement for a least the next week."
"Agreed." Sanjit said. "Travel safe." He went back into Clifftop and they started down to Perdido Beach.
"Let me take Holly back." Drea said after they'd walked a few feet. "You need two hands for your bat."
Simon knew that was true but as he handed Holly over he couldn't help commenting. "We're two freaks, the Miracle Mechanic, and a one year old girl. No-one's going to attack us."
Drea rolled her eyes at him. "And that kind of thinking is what's gonna get us killed."
They didn't say much as they walked. It was still early, the sun had barely risen, and the only people they saw were the fishermen heading to the beach. With Penny dead they were right back to work, even though some of them probably wanted to go to the wall to wait for their parents.
Simon, Katie, Holly and Drea reached the wall at what was probably seven in the morning. The only people standing on the outside were the members of a TV film crew who were setting up a camera and some sort of screen that was attached to a computer. When one of the crew noticed their approach, he said something excitedly to the woman plugging in electrical cords. She fiddled with a switch and the screen lit up. The man sat down at the computer and began typing. The words "CAN WE INTERVIEW YOU FOR STARR TV?" appeared on the screen.
"Hell no." Drea muttered. "Where do you want that poster, Katie?"
Katie looked at the ground directly in front of the clear wall. "Let's put it there." she said, jerking her head to indicate a spot. Drea nodded. Then she twirled her fingers and the fire in her palm was snuffed out right before a pile of dirt rose up and solidified to become what was essentially a stone easel. Katie leaned her poster up against the stone and the Starr TV camera focused on it.
"Are we done?" Simon asked as the computer man started typing out what was probably another question.
"Definitely." Katie said. "Let's get out of here."
The TV people were trying to get their attention but they ignored them.
"Edge of town, right?" Katie asked.
"Yup." Simon said. "Let's go home."
They walked back to town in silence. They stopped at the edge of town to wait for Sam, Astrid, and the other few people that were going back to the Lake. While they were waiting Simon had to ask his sister one last question about her poster.
"Did you really have to add the bit about the pets?"
-. - -. . .-.-.- / ... ..- -. -. . .-. .-.-.- / .-.. .. . ... .-.-.- / .-. .-.. .- -. ..- . .-.-.- / ..-. . .- .-. .-.-.- / .-.. .. -. ... - .-.-.-
Outside
It was on 'Starr News' first. Then the Families and more news crews came. Early in the morning three teenagers and a baby girl had been to the edge of the Anomaly. They had refused to communicate directly with the news personal stationed there, but they left a poster behind.
"No more lies." was written across the top. The list of names started with "Elizabeth Bell, 7, house fire, probably smoke inhalation". Then "Bouncing Bette, 14, beaten up, probably internal bleeding" and on and on down to "Penny the Monster Bringer, 12, had her crazy brains smashed out".
It wasn't hard to figure out that it was a list of the dead.
A few names jumped out.
"E. Zellicoe,12, got eaten by freaking Zekes"
"Duck Zhang, 14, saved us from the Gaiaphage, for a while"
"Peter Ellison, 4, saved us from the bugs"
"Zil Sperry, 13, fell out of the sky"
Then there was one cause of death that had people more confused than "Zekes", but only for a little while. It was figured out when "Mother Mary, 15, poofed" was connected to Mary Terrafino, a girl who had come out of the dome horribly mutated and then died.
"Poofed" meant leaving the dome, and to whoever had written the list that meant that you were as good as dead.
There was almost a whole poster board of space left under the entry for Penny, like the list-maker was expecting more people to die.
Most families with children on The List (and it did quickly come to be capitalized in many minds) were devastated. Some of them refused to believe that their child had died and continued holding up signs with their child's name.
What almost no-one noticed was the asterisked sentence at the very bottom of the poster.
"By the way, stop asking about your pets unless you want to hear about how they were cooked."