Salene sighed slowly as she leaned against the side of the boat, looking around her she scanned around to see which Mall Rat was where. Ruby, Lottie, Sammy, Gel and May were sat on the boat with her, Trudy was sat on the beach playing with Brady and Baby Bray along with Ellie and Jack. Jay, Slade, Lex and Darryl weren't far away gathered together chatting. Amber, Ram and Ebony were all missing from the beach, the Mall Rats had been travelling on the boat for what seemed to be days, weeks even. They were all so tired and disorientated by the tropical heat that most of them had all but given up hope of ever getting off the boat, it was then by chance that Lottie after stealing the Traders binoculars spotted an island. An island, which could have been missed if it wasn't thanks to Lottie's itchy fingers so to speak. When the boat arrived near the island coastline, Amber made the decision straight away to go scouting around and see what she could come up with. Jay wasn't happy with the idea though and decided that he wanted to go with her for safety in numbers, Amber refused to let him and told him to remain behind and look after the tribe. Ram was then volunteered by Slade to accompany Amber in order to make both blondes happy, Ram would accompany Amber to keep her safe which Jay could remain with the rest of the group on the boat to keep charge. A little while afterwards Ebony stormed away from the beach where the boat had docked after having an argument with Slade, Jay wanted to go after her but Slade told him not to. She was just in a strop and she would be back in her own time, so now here they all were minus Amber, Ram and Ebony. All of them tottering around talking to each other and enjoying the sunshine, it made Salene sad because she felt deep down that the happiness wouldn't happen for long. Every time the Mall Rats had escaped evil and attempted to make a new start, some other form of evil would come on in and shatter their dreams. Why would this new island be any different? Thoughts of Bray, Alice, Taisan, Cloe, Patsy, Ryan, Danni, Siva, Andy, Tally, Zandra, Pride, Ned, Luke, Paul, K.C. every single Mall Rat that had been lost to evil in some way or another flashed through Salene's mind. It wouldn't be long before it happened to some other poor soul, Amber and Ram had been gone for sometime so had Ebony. As much as Salene didn't want to believe it she knew that there was a chance they could be next on the ever-expanding list of losses, there was nothing to stop it. Even the Mall Rats on the beach could be next.
"Salene are you ok?" May asked stirring Salene from her thoughts.
"Oh… yeah… I'm fine." Salene lied.
"No your not, that much is obvious. What's the matter, you homesick?" Ruby continued the questioning.
"A little." Salene said simply.
"I don't blame you, you and the other Mall Rats have been through so much in the City from what I've heard." Ruby said with a sad smile.
"Too till you the truth I'm a little bit homesick as well." May said.
"One thing that worries me is Mouse, Patch and Dee." The brunette added.
"Why?" Sammy asked.
"Because what if they didn't like their new lives, what if they went back to the Mall and found that no one was there. That there family was gone, same goes for Alice, Cloe and the rest." May answered.
"Who are they?" Ruby asked gently.
"They are Mall Rats." Gel said in a matter of fact tone.
"Yeah Mouse, Dee and Patch skipped town, but the rest were all kidnapped." Sammy said in an inconsiderate tone.
"Sammy! That's awful." Lottie said hitting his arm.
"What! Its true.! Sammy said rubbing where Lottie hit him.
"Your not supposed to say things like that bluntly, its not nice Sammy. Your supposed to sugar coat it, you know what I'm saying. Then it doesn't sound so bad and doesn't make the people who knew them upset." Gel added whilst looking at herself in a mirror.
"I can't listen to this anymore." Salene suddenly snapped, she then stood up and walked over to the other side of the boat.
"I'll go speak to her." Ruby said about to stand.
"No leave it, best to let her calm down for a while. Just keep Malibu Barbie and motor mouth away from her. She's feeling down, we don't want her feeling any worse." May spoke.
"Why?" Gel asked.
"That's none of your business." May said angrily at the younger girl.
"But why?" Sammy added.
"Yeah what will Salene do?" Lottie joined in.
"Now's not the time." Ruby said in a hushed tone.
"Go on May, tell us why." Gel said almost trying to torment the brunette.
"Because Y is not a Z that's why, now get out of my face." May said angrily, she then stood up herself before giving Gel a chance to move and climbed off the boat.
"Of course Y isn't a Z, if it was then there would be to Y's in the alphabet and no Z's duh." Gel said as she watched May disappear from sight.
Jay looked at Lex with anger in his eyes, Slade and Darryl just looked at the senior Mall Rat with anticipation in their eyes for what Lex might say next.
"You knew that Deleted didn't mean killed when we were back in the City and you said nothing! You know how much Amber, Ellie, Salene and all the other Mall Rats would have loved to know that information, what was you going to do? Sell it to them." Jay asked angrily.
"I would never sell the information, I've lost someone as well… Taisan! You know my wife, I want to find the losties just as much as everyone else." Lex answered.
"Amber hated me, I hated myself. Think of all the trouble you could have saved telling us that Deleted didn't mean killed." Jay snapped.
"Oh calm your horses, I didn't know when Amber found out that Bray was deleted. I only found out just before we had to evacuate the City, I would have told everyone but I couldn't find the right moment." Lex continued.
"So what? Us all being stranded on some unknown island with no idea what we are going to do next is the right moment is it?" Jay said in a demanding tone.
"Why are you so angry Jay? Lex has just told you that your kid brother is alive, you should be grateful instead of questioning him. I know I would be." Slade said sadly as Mega crossed his mind.
"Look what do we tell the others, this is good news but I don't think we should tell them." Darryl said suddenly, all three men looked at him with confusion in their eyes.
"What are you going on about?" Jay asked.
"Look we don't know whats going to happen next, Amber, Ram and Ebony have all gone walkabout and we don't even know when they will be back. We don't know where we are going next or where our next meal is coming from, we could be captured or worse before we find all the missing Mall Rats. I think you should keep it a secret until we're safe." Darryl said, Jay looked at him strangely for a few seconds. That was probably the smartest thing the former Zoot impersonator had said in his life.
"Your right, we should wait." Slade said.
"But I don't want to wait, I cant wait I want to find Taisan." Lex said.
"We all want to find someone Lex, we should wait until Amber and Ram get back. That way we can get Amber's input and we can get information from Ram about where the prisoners were sent." Jay replied.
Amber and Ram had been walking for ages, both of them looked exhausted but Amber wasn't ready to stop.
"Where are we?" Ram asked with a yawn.
"We're in a jungle." Amber said in a sarcastic tone.
"Ten points for you miss smarty pants, that's obvious Sue Ellen. When will we get back to the beach." Ram moaned.
"I don't know, I just don't know." Amber said in a worried tone.
"I thought you were able to follow tracks and find your way through anywhere, what with you being a big bad tree hugger and all." Ram said in a vicious tone.
"How dare you." Amber snapped.
"Well excuse me for being a little bit worried, you don't even know where we are." Ram snapped back.
"Of course I know, we are near the coast." Amber said angrily.
"Near the boat?" Ram asked brightly.
"Nowhere near, now be quiet." Amber said sounding worried once more.
"Why do you sound so worried?" Ram asked.
"Because we are in a strange new land, anything could happen plus this jungle is giving me the creeps. I didn't want to scare you but I saw tracks before, human tracks and they were fresh. I've also got a very bad feeling that we are being watched." Amber answered gravely.
"I always knew you Mall Rats would be the death of me." Ram said as fear trembled within his voice.
"If the jungle doesn't get you first." Amber said in a shaky tone, Ram looked at her and the surrounding area. He then spotted a distinct pair of eyes staring back at him from behind a bush.
"Amber." Ram gulped.
"What is it?" she asked nervously.
"Run."
There's something in the jungle! will Amber and Ram escape? Ebony marches right into trouble on the island! the Mall Rats are forced to make a move when a storm hits whilst Alice and K.C. put in an appearance and do some digging to find out about their captors!