Going Home

Chapter 1

Lex and Amber stood on the top of the hill overlooking the city.

It was the fifth excursion so far this year to check out the area, the first year ever to yield such results. Normally two of the Mall Rats would return twice a year, by boat, to a point some ten miles from the city, once in January and once in June. They'd cross the hills and approach the city, going as far as there were signs of life; grass, trees, flowers and small animals. But in January May and Salene had managed to reach the perimeter of the city, where the first buildings met the wilderness, and had reported back with much excitement that there was, at long last, life in the city; they'd found in the first warehouse they'd explored a family of dormice.

Now it was April, and Lex and Amber were going to try and reach the mall. If they returned back without any sign of sickness the Mall Rats would vote on how safe it would be to return to the city.

It'd been seven years now since the release of Mega's deadly virus, and there was an air of impatience in the old farmhouse that the tribe now inhabited.

They wanted to go home.

"We won't reach the mall by nightfall," Amber said. "Not if we have to stop for another break, and we've still seven miles to the old fence."

Lex nodded. "We'll reach the warehouses though, and I'd rather sleep undercover."

Amber shifted her backpack nervously. "I don't know if I'd feel safe, sleeping in the city. I have a son to go home to."

Lex ignored her and pressed forwards. "If there are dormice sleeping there then we'll be fine. You're not gonna get sick, Amber. No virus can survive seven years with no host."

"I suppose you're right," she agreed, and the two set off for the city.

Eight year old Bray jr. swung his feet happily back and forth as he hungrily shovelled egg into his mouth. Trudy had made breakfast this morning, and Trudy was Bray's favourite cook in the whole world. Eggs, fried of course, were his favourite of all breakfast foods.

"You eat like a pig," stated eleven year old Brady with a sniff, and took a delicate sip of her juice.

With a frown Bray looked up from his meal. "You smell like a pig," he retorted.

Brady looked hurt.

With a bang Trudy placed her own plate on the table. "No fighting. I have a headache and I want a meal where I don't have to put up with bickering. Can you two children handle that?"

Sheepishly both youngsters bowed their heads back to their meals.

After barely thirty seconds of silence Brady spoke up again. "He does eat like a pig, though."

"Right, that's it!" Trudy yelled impatiently, and snatched the plates from under the noses of the two children. "If you can't eat in peace you can't eat at all."

"But mum!" moaned Brady, over Bray's protests.

"No buts! I've had it up to here with your fighting and if you think that I'm going to let you…" she stopped short, her eyes fixed on the entrance to the kitchen diner.

"Bray," came a slow, firm voice, "Are you disobeying your Aunt Trudy again?"

Bray stood up to face the new arrival, but bowed his head so as not to look her in the eye. "No ma'am."

"Go to your room and wait for me to come and get you, please," she said tiredly.

Wordlessly Bray obeyed.

Trudy walked across the kitchen to take her best friend's arm. "Come and sit down, Amber. You look exhausted!" she insisted. "Brady, go and tidy our room now. If it's not spotless when I come to inspect it you're not going out for a week!"

The little girl did as she was told but muttered violently the whole way up the stairs, using language most wouldn't expect from an eleven year old.

"Your daughter seems angry," Amber commented simply.

"My daughter's always angry. Before I know it she'll cease to be a little girl and start being a teenager."

Amber chuckled. It was an amazing and hopeful thought. To think that the first hope born to the Mall Rats could live to have mood swings! It was almost cause to celebrate.

"How was the scouting mission?" asked Trudy, pushing Bray's half eaten plate of food towards her friend.

"Scary," Amber admitted. "It's so long since I've been that far into the city, and Lex insisted in sleeping in the city overnight."

"Is he mad!" shouted Trudy. "You have a son to come back to!"

"I know," Amber replied simply. "But it's a big city, Trudy and so many of the streets are overgrown with weeds now. We never would have reached the mall and made is back in one day."

Trudy conceded, but still looked shaken by the idea of her friend sleeping in such a dangerous place.

"It's so close Trudy, I can feel it. I'm sure the city's safe now. Next month we can start getting the mall back into a liveable state, and then a scouting party could move in to maybe find a patch of land to start growing some food. By the end of the year we could move the kids in. It'd work perfectly Trudy, I can feel it in my blood. We can finally go home."

Frowning, Trudy finished off the food on her plate. "I'm not sure you should rush the plans. One trip to the middle of the city isn't enough to say we can bring our children into range. You have to think about what's best for Bray!"

"Bray…" Amber stood up. "I should go and talk to him about not being so rude."

Trudy shook her head. "Eat your breakfast first. And he doesn't need to be told off, not really. It was Brady winding him up again. I overreacted."

"He needs to learn to keep his head," she counteracted simply, not really leaving room for argument. "And as for what's best for Bray; going home is best for Bray. He's a city boy, not a country boy, like all of us. He belongs in that mall." Without looking back to her friend Amber left the room.

Bray was angrily throwing marbles at the wall when Jay came to see what all the noise was about. For a moment after entering the room he almost expected his stepson to start angrily throwing marbles at him as well, but the boy lowered his weapon.

"What, is she too busy to come discipline me herself now?" Bray asked angrily.

"Pardon?" Jay asked politely.

"Did she send you to tell me off, rather than come herself?" he clarified.

"Did you upset your aunt again?" Jay tried, attempting to make sense of the boy's babbling.

Bray answered by throwing another marble at the wall.

"I only came to see what was making all this noise. You know, you'll probably get in more trouble for making dents in the wall."

Just to show how little he cared Bray threw yet another marble at the wall, this time with extra force.

Jay raised an eyebrow.

"She doesn't care at all, does she?"

Taken aback Jay managed to splutter, "Trudy loves you like her own son, just as much as she loves Brady. I do think you're over reacting a little."

Bray threw two marbles at the wall. They rebounded in opposite directions. "I know, she tells me she loves me every day. It's not Trudy. It's Amber."

Jay struggled to keep the relieved grin from his face, and instead plastered his concerned parenting expression across his features. "Your mum's back home then I take it?" he asked, trying hard to keep all emotion from his voice.

"You don't need to pretend to be worried about me, like you're my dad or something," Bray almost growled in anger. "And yes she's back, and she didn't give me a kiss, or a hug, or ask me how I was. Not even a hello. Some mother she is, she's more concerned about her stupid city than she is about me."

Amber had been gone for a week now, scouting out the city and sorting out the preparations for the Mall Rats to finally return to their mall. It had been so many years, and the thought filled every member of the tribe with joy. Every member but two.

Jay knew that Bray and Brady didn't remember the mall at all. In the minds of everyone who'd once lived there, the mall was home. In the eyes of Amber the mall represented so much more. It was their freedom, their place of refuge. It'd been hard living in the countryside, to fit in where city kids clearly didn't belong, even for those who'd spent time with the Ecos.

But Bray and Brady didn't remember being city kids. For seven years they'd been brought up in a farm house across the sea from the city. They were used to orchards and chickens and trading at market. They didn't see the impending return to the city as a return home.

"She loves you, Bray," said Jay gently.

Bray sighed heavily. "If she loved me she'd want to spend time with me."

Jay came to sit beside his step-son on the floor. It went against everything he wanted to do. He wanted to tell the boy not to be so stupid, that of course his mother loved him, and then leave him to sulk while he took Amber in his arms and welcomed her home. But he sensed that the boy wasn't simply sulking this time and that he really did need some reassurance.

"Of course she loves you Bray, and of course she wants to spend time with you. But she sees this city as her responsibility and she wants to oversee the reoccupation. She's the only one that can do this. She's the only person the people trust."

Bray sat in numb silence. He'd heard it all before, from his mother and from all her friends.

But wasn't he her responsibility? Wasn't she the only mother he'd got?

"She's only trying to build a better life for you. She does it all for you."

Fiercely Bray fought back tears. He scrunched up his face and turned away from his stepfather.

Jay sensed that the boy wouldn't speak any more. "Well, whatever you did to upset her you should probably think about it…or reflect…or something." He climbed to his feet, feeling as always awkward when thrown into a parenting situation. "I'll see you later."

And when the door closed Bray couldn't stop the tears from falling.

He was only eight after all.

Author's Notes.

Please be nice! This is the first time I've written in several years and the first time I've written anything for the Tribe. I'm not sure on fandom conventions, and sort of confused myself when it comes to Baby Bray (he's not a baby anymore, and being the only Bray around, I figured I'd just call him Bray)

I never intended to write Tribe fiction, but I was sat on a train with a notebook one day and this just came out.

Please give any constructive criticism or advice, it'd be much appreciated!