~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~GIVING~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~ A Gone FanFiction by Helene2Troie ~~~~
(!) The original storyline, setting, and characters belong to Michael Grant. (!)
If the adults who used to live at Perdido Beach could see into the constricting bubble now surrounding the FAYZ, they would be met with a setting worthy of a post-apocalyptic movie.
Ever since that memorable night when Zil and the Human Crew had decided to spread chaos, a whole block of houses were nothing but charred remains. Some houses had been destroyed, in an effort to stop the fire. Farther away, the church, thanks to a battle of epic proportions between Sam, the official hero of Perdido Beach, and his brother Caine, was but a shadow of its old self.
Even the buildings that were still standing were a sorry sight. The streets were lined with trash and rubble, and the facades of houses and shops were covered in graffiti, sprayed in vivid colors, their offensive messages insulting any mutant who caught sight of them.
The worst, though, were the people. The children. Thanks to the effort of Albert, Hunter, the fishing and vegetable-harvesting crew, famine had been avoided. Just barely. It was obvious the young population of Perdido Beach wasn't eating full meals. Their cheeks were caved in, their arms sticks, their skins an unhealthy pale. And their eyes... Well, their eyes were haunted.
In what was now eight months, the children had lived through countless battles. They'd seen the rise and fall of numerous factions. They'd hear too many different speeches and promises. They'd been to too many funerals in so short a period.
They were already tired, tired beyond measure. And yet there were so many trials they still had to face. Water was beginning to lack. Petrol was already almost gone. And the vegetable supply could only last for so long. The fields were emptying at a frightening rate.
Not to mention strange, strange things were beginning to happen again...
Angie was trying her best to organize their house. Which was weird, because, before the FAYZ, she'd been the type to always put off cleaning her own room, let alone anything else. Her mother was always after her because of that, actually. Well, now, if somehow she was watching, Angie's mother would be proud.
At least Angie hoped so. Cleaning was no use if she was the only one pleased. And, sadly, out of their household of five, she was the only one concerned with keeping the mess at a minimum.
First, there was Kate. Kate was quite the businesswoman, and definitely too busy to keep up with something as mundane as housework. She had a stand at that mini-mall place, where she sold beauty products and proposed makeovers and haircuts. While Kate's first tries with scissors had been awful, she'd become quite adept at cutting people's hair, inspiring herself with leftover fashion magazines. Her little business was growing fast, and Kate's earnings represented the majority of the household's fund. Because of that, she was exempt from most of the chores. Well, that was fine in Angie's mind.
Now Tom also had an excuse. He was ten, and was still dealing with some of his personal demons. After the Human Crew's rampage last month, a whole block of houses had been burned to the ground. Meaning the surviving inhabitants of these houses were distributed, and Angie's household had inherited Tom. He usually kept to himself and caused no trouble, doodling on the walls of his room with crayons and magic markers. He rarely dared speak to either Angie or Kate, because they were girls, old, big ones at that, but sometimes would spend time with Lance and Shawn.
Ha! Lance and Shawn. Now these guys Angie couldn't stand. They just spent their days doing nothing, and refused to help with whatsoever. Shawn was okay enough in his good days. He tended to smile a lot and tell funny stories. But then there were the bad days, when Angie would find him knocked out on the couch, usually holding a bottle of booze. And Lance... well, don't get her started on Lance, or she would rant for hours. He was lazy. He thought he was God's gift to women. And he would disappear for hours, going 'out'. They all knew 'out' meant to his Human Crew meetings, or whatever they called themselves now that Zil was gone. They suspected him to have stepped up as the new leader. But no one said anything. At least, with the Human Crew's boss under their roof, they had nothing to fear from them.
Angie was sweeping the kitchen, regretting the electricity and thus the vacuum cleaners. She rolled her eyes when she saw someone (obviously Shawn. He always said he didn't, but you could be sure it was him), had thrown their fish bones on the floor, and had then proceeded to walking on them, thus spreading the gooey fish remains. She would have to actually bend down, get a sponge, and scoop it up manually. She hated that so much.
She sighed in annoyance, and, only distantly aware of it, noticed that her palms were sweaty.
"We have problems. Big problems.", began Albert.
The council nodded as one man. Its members, Albert, Howard, John, Dekka, Sam, Edilio, and its new addition, Quinn, were all only too-aware of the challenges now facing their community.
"We only have one field of veggie left, which will last us about two weeks, three tops. How's the fish, Quinn?", asked Albert. Ever since Astrid's departure from the Council, he had began to impose himself as the leader in all of their discussions.
"No problem there. We're catching loads of it. Doesn't look like it's running out anytime soon.", answered the head of the fishermen.
"Great. We'll always have fish, at the very least. Oh the delights of tuna."
That last phrase was from Howard, who couldn't keep himself from making sarcastic, often caustic remarks.
"Water's getting to be a problem. There's still some in the reservoir, we've been good at rationing it, but the problem lies with the trucks. We're really low on oil.", said Edilio.
"Yeah. It's kind of a bummer to have the water, but not being able to bring it back to us."
"If worse comes to worse, we'll ask some kids to take wheelbarrows and get the water that way.", proposed Edilio.
"Hmm... Could be a new job. What should we pay them, ten 'Bertos a week?", proposed Albert.
"What! Hey! That's what we get! If you're going to pay someone ten 'Bertos just to roll some water down, you're gonna have to boost the fisherman's salaries!", protested Quinn.
"Oh, puh-lease. What do you fishermen do? You get the best food, and have fun, all day on the sea, like. I don't get why you should be paid more.", said Howard.
"Like you're one to talk? What do you do?"
"Come on, people, let's calm down..."
" What do I do? I'm an adviser here, mister. I'm also an agent to our most powerful.. uh, 'xcept Sam here present, of course, mutant, and dare I remind you who, or what, me and Orc are responsible for?"
"So you watch over a closed door. How heroic."
"Look here, Fish Boy, you're a newbie here, so don't try to..."
The spat between Howard and Quinn continued, both gradually raising their voices. Dekka, her chin in her hand, sighed. This wasn't getting anything done.
"Hey people, I'm home.", called Kate.
She was met with a couple groans. One from the sofa: that could only be Shawn, already sucking on his bottle. One from upstairs: creepy little Tom in his room, still drawing on his walls. And one from the kitchen: Angie, who had suddenly turned obsessive compulsive, and had taken it into her head to clean the house. Kate rolled her eyes. What a perfect little family.
She walked by the mirror in the living room, and groaned when she caught sight of her reflection. Before the FAYZ, she'd used to be beautiful. She'd wake up at five every morning to make herself that way, to do her hair, pick her outfit, and put on some makeup. She'd dated countless guys, and could have dated countless others. She was proud of her looks, of her knowledge in all things related to beauty. Now, her reflection sneered at her, as she would have sneered at any ugly girl in her old life. She was beyond thin, she looked anorexic. Once upon a time, that had been exactly what she wanted. Now she realized her shapes were gone, her eyes caved in, and no amount of foundation could hide the hollow of her cheeks.
"What's for dinner, honey?", she called out jokingly.
Angie came out of the kitchen, looking disgusted, mindlessly wiping her hands on her jeans.
"Hey Kate. I dunno what's for dinner. Haven't had time to hit the mall today."
"But you've been here all day. I thought you didn't have to work for the veggie crew anymore."
"Yeah."
"So... why didn't you get food?"
Angie bit her lips, a nervous tick she'd always had. It made her already thin lips look like a single line.
"Be-cause, I've been trying to get this place to look decent."
Kate looked around the living room. Glass bottles laying on the floor, dust over the lamp shades, pillows all over the place, feathers lying on the dirty carpet.
"And you've been doing such a good job."
"Hey, I just did the kitchen.", said Angie, now sounding defensive.
"So in a whooole day...", began Kate.
"Look, why do I have to do everything around here? Why can't the guys do something for once?"
"You? Doing everything? Don't make me laugh. Who spends all day slaving at the mall, working from morning to nightfall to have some 'Bertos to buy some food which apparently, we didn't even buy!"
"Hey girls, keep it down, will you? Trying to sleep over here...", moaned Shawn from the couch.
Both Kate and Angie spun to face him, almost growling.
"You little drunk piece of crap! What do you do all day, uh?", said Angie.
Shawn was now painfully getting up, still holding a bottle in his right hand, stuffing a pillow under his armpit.
"Look, if it's to be abused, I'm not sticking around..."
"Abused? You haven't seen abused yet, you moron! I know you left that fish bone on the ground! And you know I hate picking it up!", yelled Angie.
"Whoa... what?"
"Yeah! That thing he does! It's annoying! Why can't any of you at least try to keep this place clean?"
"Angie. Are you mad at me for some fish bones? Girl, you have issues."
Angie was about to scream something nasty and potentially rated R, when the front door opened, letting in none other than his Highness Lance.
"What's going on?", he asked, handsome features twisted in a stupid expression.
"Angie's losing it. Again."
Now that came from Kate. Angie looked hurt. She had expected an attack from Shawn, but this felt like a back stab. She glared at her traitorous roommate. The emotion was making her hands even more sweaty. Embarrassed, she wiped them on the sides of her jeans.
"I'm off to my room. Find another sucker to cook for you tonight.", she spat.
She almost ran upstairs, speed walked across the corridor, where, through a half-opened door, she saw Tom was already asleep, and locked herself in her room.
It had previously been the master bedroom, but Angie had inherited it because Kate wanted the other room instead, as it had a TV. Now that the electricity was gone, Kate wanted to switch. Fat chance, thought Angie.
She dug through the wardrobe (note to self: clean it. Clothes all over the place, what a mess), and extracted a pair of PJs. Making sure the door was well locked, she began to undress. As she took off her jeans, she was surprised by the wet, sluggish feel to them. She let go of her pants in surprise. It was already too dark to really see properly, but she could distinguish the shape of her jeans against the pale carpeted floor. Timidly, she reached out. The front was fine. Relief. She had been pretty sure it wasn't that time of the month yet. The legs were dry... But the sides... the sides were soaking wet. Angie made the link, and saw herself wiping her hands on the side of her thighs. Eww. That was nasty. They really needed electricity back, and get some AC back in this place.
Angie collapsed into her queen sized bed. Great. The last thing she needed was some weird sweating issues.
One thing you needed to know about Shawn Wood was that he was filled with good intentions. He wanted to be helpful. Most of the time anyway. But not if it meant any work on his part.
Back in the adults-were-still-here days, Shawn had been the secretary of the Just Say No league at his junior high. He'd even organized a stupid play about the dangers of alcohol. If anyone back then had offered him a beer, Shawn would have probably lectured him. He was much more engaged, involved back then.
When the FAYZ started, Shawn quickly found himself overwhelmed by the events. He had let Sam and the others take charge, glad for once to follow someone else's orders. It made him above reproach. Who could blame him for simply doing what he was told?
Lance and him had been friends in school. He offered him to move in. In exchange, Lance had introduced him to the Human Crew, HC for the initiated. Shawn didn't do too much. Some idiotic graffiti. 'NO FREAKS', or something stupid like that. Just to fit in really. He didn't see the harm in it.
And then Zil got some other ideas, that included burning houses and whatnot. Shawn, to his greatest shame, had followed at first. It had seemed exciting. But as soon as the gunfire started, he had peed his pants and ran off, hiding behind their house. He'd never told anyone. After Zil's death, the HC had become a joke. Shawn attended the meetings once in a while, just to make Lance happy.
But mostly, Shawn tried to forget. And alcohol was good for that.
So he sometimes stole a few 'Bertos from the family fund to go buy himself something on the black market. He knew Kate knew. He also knew Kate had such a crush on him that she'd never rat him out, let alone tell him to stop.
Gulping down the remaining liquid of an old rum bottle, he attempted to forget the memories of his anti-alcohol speeches, of the disastrous figures he'd so often tried to hammer into people's heads, of the diagrams of healthy lungs vs. a smoker's lungs. Alcohol was good for that. Forgetting.
Behind a locked door in Orc and Howard's house, there was something terrible. Howard himself, outspoken and sarcastic as he usually was, only reluctantly adventured near this door.
Sometimes, there were horrible screams, mostly threats. Howard told himself they were worthless, this prisoner was never going to escape, let alone make good on his sinister promises of pain. To no avail. Then sometimes, the prisoner, now with a girl's voice, would scream for Howard to kill her. This was, in a way, much worse.
Thankfully for Howard, this last type of scream was gradually giving way to the first. It was only seldom now that the girl prisoner came out. The darker side was slowly beginning to gain more power.