Chapter Two
A/N I own nothing (apart from Lillian Power) therefore I am homeless. :) R+R
Lillian awoke to the sound of waves rolling gently onto the sand. The sound of the weak surf made her regret leaving Ireland. Irish waves were fierce, they attacked you from behind, crashing into your back like freezing walls of water and sea-foam causing you to fall like a clumsy moron and flail wildly around in the sea. Lillian felt strangely empty while recalling her memories of wading around in the sea with her friends as they tried to push each other over and giving awkward piggyback rides as the waves tried to tackle them to the sand.
Lillian swung her legs off of them bed and she padded into the bathroom. She took a long, leisurely shower, relishing the hot water cascading down her body, unknotting her muscles and waking her up. She washed her hair and got dressed in the clothes she wore yesterday apart from a white blouse she had packed into her "Alien Invasion Emergency Bag". Lillian tied her wet, curling hair back into a braid and she applied some mascara to her eyes and lip-gloss, wondering idly why the hell she packed make-up in the event of an invasion in the first place. Lillian adjusted her ponytail, hoisted her bag up on her shoulders and she left the room.
Lillian smiled at Sam and Astrid talking together on the balcony, conversing about the size of the dome and theories on how it happened. She leant against the doorframe and she resisted the urge to say something sarcastic like: "You look so cute together!" Lillian tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and she strode over, making her presence known. "Do you guys hear that?"
It sounded like a JCB digging. Lillian looked at Astrid who furrowed her eyebrows "It sounds like a backhoe." Astrid stated in that painfully annoying statement tone of hers. Lillian bit back a remark and shrugged.
"I'll go wake Quinton. Then we'll check out whatever the hell that is."
Indeed it was a backhoe. Lillian raised her eyebrows as she watched the Mexican-looking boy from the fire trying to, from what it looked like; dig his way out, going under the wall. Sam shouted his name over the sound of the backhoe and stood beside the backhoe and grabbed Mexican's attention. The boy must have jumped about a mile but he came down smiling. Edilio gestured to the blank, grey wall and then to the backhoe. Sam grabbed a shovel that the boy must have dragged down with him and he started digging. Lillian grabbed a shovel along with Quinn and they started digging vigorously into Californian dirt, hoping to see the end of that infernal wall. Lillian sighed in frustration after a few minutes of digging and she climbed out of the hole with the help of the Mexican boy with Quinn. She smiled her thanks at him and she waited for Sam to surface from his hope that there was an end to the wall. Sam raised his head sharply and realized that no one was digging with him. He threw the shovel down with a groan of defeat and he took Edilio's extended arm.
"It's doesn't end does it?" Lillian asked with dread tinting her usually dry voice.
"It doesn't seem to." Sam replied back, equally as dismayed and he sighed. "Lillian, you know Edilio, right?"
Lillian tilted her head at Edilio. He was a nice looking boy; a person you know was going to be nice just by looking at them. He had and olive tint to his sin, a crew-cut of neat brown hair and soft brown eyes. "Lillian Power." She held out her hand and Edilio shook it.
"Edilio Escobar."
"Are you Mexican?" Lillian asked, unable to stop herself.
"No, Honduran." He replied almost exasperated. Lillian figured he probably got that question all of the time. "You're not American, are you?"
"Nope, Irish, like the Celtic Tiger." Edilio smiled back at Lilly. Oh she liked him.
"So do you work here or something?" Quinn asked shortly, apparently not up for chit-chat.
"No, my mom does."
"You haven't seen my brother, have you?" Astrid broke in, warding off the fight they could all see coming. "My mother sometimes plays tennis here and she brings Little Pete with her so I thought..."
"No, I haven't seen anyone. Not my parents, no one." Edilio kicked with the the toe of his shoe and he shoved his hands into his pockets.
"Is there anywhere else he would be?" Sam asked. Astrid pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.
"P.B.N.P. My dad works there and sometimes he brings Petey with him." Astrid seemed to visibly cheer up as Sam nodded and said "Yeah, it's worth a shot."
"Power plant's, like ten miles way." Quinn stated "Do you expect us to walk ten miles?"
"We could take a golf cart." Edilio suggested "It'll be faster.
"Do you want to come with us?" Astrid asked ignoring Sam's look of outrage. "Don't be petulant."
"I wasn't being petulant." He muttered under his breath. Edilio smiled.
"Thanks Astrid, as I said, the golf carts' will be faster. It's better than walking anyway."
"What does your mom do here anyway?" Quinn demanded "Is she like, the manager or something?"
"Housekeeping." Edilio replied shortly.
"Really-?"
"My mother works at the Cliff top doing housekeeping." Edilio stated coolly "My brother's in the army-"
"OK, OK."Lillian broke off an argument that probably would have blown into a fight. "Jesus Christ, Quinn, shut the hell up!" He ground his teeth at Lillian and he walked beside Sam, seething with every step. Lillian looked at Edilio and she threw her eyes up to heaven and he smiled back at her. They reached the garage and Edilio inserted the key and he opened the garage. Lillian grinned like a man loon at the carts and she hooked her thumbs into the loops of her shorts. "Fuck yeah."
In Lillian's opinion there was nothing better than riding in a golf cart down a road devoid of cars. Lillian had the biggest smile on her face and she insisted on being in the passenger seat. She could see Edilio throwing odd looks at her and raising his eyebrow occasionally at her euphoric mood which stemmed from riding in a golf cart. As amused as he was trying to look at her childlike expression and her terrible singing voice as she tried to sing "Highway to Hell" he couldn't help but laugh.
"Stop!" Astrid shouted and as the golf cart stopped suddenly, she ran to the other side of the road and she knelt beside a seagull. "This isn't right." Astrid said warily.
"Everything isn't right." Quinn shot back. Lillian nodded in approval.
"True dat." There was a collective silence.
"Look at that." Astrid exclaimed pointing to the seagull's foot. Lillian and Quinn joined Sam and Astrid.
"Talons..." Lillian stated slowly trying to think why it wasn't right.
"Seagulls don't have talons. They don't need talons, they're not predators. This isn't normal..."
"Again, is anything normal anymore?" Quinn asked with an edge to his voice.
"Fair point." Lillian agreed and she poked the bird with her shoe. "C'mon, let's just go."
Lillian nudged Edilio as they neared the centre of town and a group of boys were loitering near the plaza. "Sam heads up!" Lillian called back to him. As they passed the group Lillian waved sarcastically. Their heads shot up but no one challenged them. That was until a wiry boy ran down the road yelling "Hey, stop!" Sam muttered "Keep driving." Under his breath to Edilio and he smiled at the boy. "Hey Chaz, just going to find Astrid's brother."
"Stop man!" the boy apparently known as Chaz yelled again.
"Can't man, sorry!" Sam shrugged
Chaz, now accompanied by his friends was running after the cart with a stick. One kid with a mallet tried to knock the head off of Quinn who swore and batted the mallet away with his forearm. Lillian kicked one boy who had caught up with the cart and she knocked him over flat on face. She cheered and high-fived a surprised Astrid as the boys fell back into the distance.
"Hey, were they wearing a uniform?" Lillian asked, remembering what was strange about the group of kids.
"Yeah, they're from up the hill." Sam explained to a bemused Lillian.
"Coates Academy: Dumping grounds for children who either need help or are just put there by their parents." Astrid spat venomously looking back at the direction where Chaz and his "homies" were previously. Lillian smiled and she stretched her arms.
"Well that was close." She turned to Sam. "Do all of ye talk like surfers?" when she didn't get a response from Sam she held her hands up in defence. "Y'know, the "brah's" and the man's..."
"We're living in California, what the hell do you expect?" Quinn snapped, ignoring Lillian's response of: "Better grammar, Quinton."
"Sam!" Edilio called, pointing to a truck that was barrelling down the road like a drunk lunatic was driving it. The truck drove halfway onto the footpath and knocked over one of the many bicycles that littered the street. "Pull over or keep driving?" Edilio was gripping the wheel so hard that his knuckles were starting to turn white.
"Keep driving?" Sam suggested
"And get knocked over? Are you fucking insane?" Quinn was starting his own method of panic which was swear a lot, insult the nearest person and fiddling with his hair like a teenage girl.
"It's a low speed car chase, maybe we'll be on the news." Edilio laughed nervously.
"Sam we can't keep driving." Astrid pointed out not very helpfully. Sam hung his head and sighed.
"Fine, pull over, s'not like we can keep driving."
"We're in for a pounding." Quinn growled.
The truck stopped about twenty feet away from the now motionless golf cart. A short black boy accompanied with three others from Coates Academy kicked the door open and he strode over to the cart with the smuggest grin on his face. Lillian decided that she didn't like him; he looked like too much of a smarmy git. He stopped a feet away from them and shook his head. "Tsk, tsk, Sammy."
"What do you want Howard?"
"You should have stopped, Sam I Am. What am I going to do?"
"Not run us over and let us go?" Lillian suggested. "I'm just throwing it out there."
"Don't tell me what to do bitch!" Howard snapped obviously amused by her reaction by the person who climbed out of the truck and joined him. He was huge, probably six feet tall and he wasn't exactly skinny. "You and your fucking wetback friend never should have-" However, Howard's next words were cut off by a punch sailing right into his smug face by Lillian Eleanor Power. She had to be held back by Sam and Edilio.
"You racist son of a bitch, I'll kill you!" She broke free of them and she charged at Howard only to be slammed to the concrete by the monster of a boy who probably bruised several of her ribs. Lillian gasped for air and she lurched off of the ground swearing in pain. Sam and Quinn were tackled by the Coates Academy boys while Edilio was repeatedly kicked by Orc. Edilio was curled into a ball, using his arms to protect himself from the monstrous bastard that raining kicks down on Edilio like it was his job. Lillian shoved Monster Boy, not really doing anything but getting his attention. She swore and backed up with her hands over her face.
"Jesus Christ, just STOP!" Astrid screamed with tears in her eyes. She pushed her way past Sam and stood in front of Monster Boy. "Orc, just stop!" Ah, that was his name.
"Astrid, I can handle this." Sam growled but he was stopped by Howard.
"Hold on Sammy, Astrid, what did you want to say?"
"We don't want to fight! I just have to find my brother!"
"Yeah but you broke the law Sammy."
"What do you want Howard?" Sam was getting impatient.
"The golf cart. Maybe you'll think twice before breaking one of Captain Orc's rules."
"Captain Orc?" Lillian asked sceptically.
"Yeah, me and Orc, captains of the FAYZ."
"The Phase?" Howard looked happy that they had asked.
"Fallout Ally Youth Zone. F-A-Y-Z, FAYZ. Just us kids now." Howard smirked and he inclined his head at the cart.
"Take it." Sam spat and he walked up the highway. Lillian fell back to Edilio who was wincing in pain and holding his stomach.
"You OK?"
"I've been better."
Lillian nodded and she turned her haze to the long stretch of the highway.
"Perfect, we get to walk ten miles in the blazing sun. Does it get any better than this?" she asked rhetorically, ignoring Quinn's snippy retort of "Lilly, just shut the hell up."