Chapter 2

"Jetta, she needs me!" Jack called as the blue haired girl stormed across their room. Jetta turned on her heel and bore down on him with an unrivaled ferocity.

"I can't believe your still trying to make that line stick!" she yelled, "I need you too, Jack! She's not alive; I am! She's just a computer program now!"

"You know she's more than that!"

"To you!"

"Not just to me, Jetta! She was alive! She was a person, a Mall Rat, just like you and me!"

"The only difference being that you loved her!"

"Loved. Past tense. I love you now, Jetta!"

"You'll never love me as much as you loved her!" Jetta shouted then, turning before Jack could answer, she stalked out of the room.

"But I do!" Jack said as she disappeared through their door.

--

"Pride?"

"I don't want you near her, Ryan." Pride replied, his voice monotone and lifeless.

"It's not her I'm worried about," Ryan said, gently, "She's in good hands; Dee and Patch are good at their job. You're the one that hasn't eaten or slept since ..."

"I know. But that's nothing to do with you. You have nothing to do with me. I don't want your pity."

"Maybe not; but if you ever need someone to talk to, just remember that I've been through the same thing."

Ryan left the room before Pride could reply. Hobbling over on the wooden leg he had carved for her, Helena took one hand off her crutches and placed it on Ryan's arm.

"He still won't talk to me," Ryan told her.

"Give him time, Ryan. As far as he's concerned you're the last person he wants to see right now."

"I know, but that's not my fault. She needed someone to talk to and she came to me, just like she always did. It's just a habit with Salene."

"You know that's not it! You were there when she woke up: you heard her."

Moving away from the side-room door, they sat down at the chairs in the centre of the main ward to continue their conversation. Helena almost slipped as she shifted her weight on the crutches to ease herself into the seat, but Ryan was there to catch her. It had been a hard six months, getting used to having only one and a half legs, but Ryan had been there to help her through, just as he had been in the mines.

"I know, but that's not my fault either. I'm no threat to him: I'm not her lover, just her sounding board, her agony aunt. That's all I ever was to Sal."

"But it's not all she ever was to you, Pride knows that; and remember he didn't know either of you when you were together. What would you think if your wife, after almost dying, woke up and said her ex's name?"

"I guess I'd feel pretty bad."

--

May led her troop of searchers through a deep gully, following an old map on which Jack had marked a number of crosses: these were the remaining Techno outposts and testing stations, where the remaining Mall Rats were hoped to be found. Paul walked swiftly behind May, his head held high. The team had travelled a long way from the city, but there would still be another day or two's walk before they could hope of finding the first outpost.