Mama Said - Trudys Story
Chapter 2
Trudy remembered back to the months that followed. She and Bray were living at Brays house, the one he used to share with his family. Life was harder, life was scarier, life was boring...but she had Bray to look after her.
All the adults were dead. There was no TV, no items in the shops, no order.
Martin, or Zoot as everyone now knew him, ruled the entire city. He ruled with Ebony down by his feet and his "tribe" of followers. They raced round in a police car, causing havoc, vandalizing walls and windows, homes and shops. They started fires, burning all books and fashionable clothes , they attacked small kids, and recruited the bigger kids to add to their mob.
They were known as the Loco's...and they were feared.
He had changed. He was no longer the shy, quiet boy she had met in school. The boy who had no confidence, and walked in his brothers shadow. The boy who was so nice to her...had become a monster.
She had not see him since that last day at school, but she heard stories. Stories from scared children of a man so evil he haunted them in their sleep. Stories of torture and murder. She did not believe it at first, but the frightened look in their eyes, and the way they shook their bodies with terror, were too horrible to deny.
Bray hardly spoke about his brother. She guessed he was embarrassed and some what scared. Scared that he might be at the top of his hit list,so they kept quiet. She stayed In most of the time, hiding while Bray went out to search for food. At first he was only gone for half an hour, but as the weeks past, the time he spent out grew longer. Food was disappearing fast. But Bray was cleaver, he was only ever after the tins, because he knew they could keep longer. Most kids went after sweets and chocolate, but things like that were wiped out in less than a day. He had less competition, but as the weeks past, the other kids were wising up. Things were getting harder. Their secret stashes were slowly disappearing, which was hard for her, as she was always hungry.
She thought that now it was just her and Bray that they could be together again. But it never happened. Bray treated her like a little sister, like a friend, and she didn't want to spoil that. He took care of her, he helped her when she was sick, and was there for her when she could t sleep. She looked up to him...she had nobody else...all she had was Bray.
She remembered the day she decided to go with Bray to the supermarket. She was bored, fed up of staying in with nothing to do. He had protested at first, but she begged him, she wanted to do something, and wanted to see what had happened to the city. He agreed, and she promised to be quiet.
They by-passed the local store at the end of the street, and headed for the larger supermarket on the edge of the estate. Bray knew it still had plenty to grab before they moved on. The streets were eerily quite and all she could hear was the wind blowing her hair and scuffing of both their shoes. What used to be busy with neighbors walking down the pavement, and children running and laughing whilst riding bikes was empty...not even a child insight. She wondered what had happened to them all.
She sat and hid behind a car whilst Bray went inside the supermarket. There was still nobody around, which felt creepy, they had not seen a single human being since they left the house.
She saw Brays head poke round from the supermarket door , and he ushered her to go in. She struggled slightly to get up, carrying her ever growing baby lump, and followed Bray in. The place was a mess. Aisles had been over thrown, crude words had been graffiti-ed all over the walls, there was packets, and containers sprawled all over the floor, there was even moldy food, which she figured had been part of a food fight.
Bray told her to go grab anything she wanted, as long as it was in date, whilst he headed to the aisle which contained the tinned food. He left her standing there alone.
She wondered through the mess on the floor, looking at the shelf's, most were empty. There was a few boxed items of food but she figured they were out of date, and she wasn't going to look inside to find out. The place sank, of moldy food, it made her feel sick.
She came to the section that must have been for babies, and it wasn't intentional. There was only 1 tub of formula left sitting sideways on the top shelf, she did think about taking it but had a wise moment. It was probably out of date, and there was no clean water and no way of boiling water to use it with anyway. Without realizing it she had made the decision to breast feed. She shuddered at the thought, and looked down at her breasts. They were small, but heavy and swollen with brewing milk.
She continued down the aisle and then spotted something shiny on the floor, it was a box. She picked it up , "Purple power" it read. She cheekily smiled to herself and popped it in her bag.
She wasn't getting anywhere on her own, so she scouted out Bray.
She remembered back to when she first applied "purple power".It was a mess. She had purple hands, stains on her head, face and hands. She used the rain water they had been collecting in saucepans to rinse it out in the bath, and she only had enough to rinse the colour out. Bray was out at the time, she could have waited and asked for his help, but she wanted to surprise him.
When done, she stared at herself in the mirror. It was dark. It looked different. She didn't look like an innocent school girl anymore. There was one thing that was missing. Trudy picked up the scissors and began to cut her long locks off.
"Bye Bye"