A/N: Hello again. This chapter only really focuses on Lynn, but this is where her character arc begins. And it also establishes one of the major locations within Suffeld, which may end up playing as large a role as Lynn does. ;D

Hope you enjoy!

Three

249 Hours 6 Minutes

When Lynn had arrived at the mall, she had expected it to be an empty place that she could use to gather her thoughts and plan for the future in peace. Instead, what she found was about eighty first year students from North Suffeld High School running riot within the large complex. They had raided every vending machine, and about ten of them had overrun the Pizza Hut, turning it into some sort of rave club; even from the main entrance Lynn could hear the blasting music clearly. They didn't even have good taste in music.

Currently, Lynn was in the back store room of a Primark store, trying desperately to think. A second FAYZ had occurred, and from what she knew, the barrier at least encompassed all of Suffeld, if not further. However, she had no idea about the true size or shape of the barrier. It could be a sphere like the Perdido Beach Anomaly, or it could be a cube, or a prism, or some new, impossible shape. And then there was the question of the opacity of the barrier. They could see the sky, so it wasn't black, like the FAYZ was during its final week. Which meant that it was most likely the pearly grey that the Anomaly was originally like, or entirely clear. If it was clear, then they could communicate with the adults, which would help them survive. Of course, this was all assuming that this oddity followed the same rules as the FAYZ did. Lynn laughed; she liked that name: the Oddity. It seemed to fit this situation pretty well. Perhaps she could get people to refer to it somehow, to distinguish it from Perdido Beach. If she could get people to do anything at all.

"Free lemonade!" The cry of some kid reached Lynn's ears, and she sighed. Those kids were only about two and a half years younger than her, and they were behaving like animals at a rave club, just devouring everything in the mall. She could see it clearly: restaurants littered with leftovers, growing mould. The Burger King without a single scrap of food. Forgotten ovens setting the place on fire. These people needed a leader; someone to make sure everything remained fine. And even though she would rather not, it was looking like Lynn was going to have to step up and take responsibility. That was a novel concept for her; Lynn had never really taken responsibility, mainly because she lived her whole life with over-protective parents and an obsessive brother who wouldn't be able to cope if Lynn did so much as get a paper cut. Everything had been brought to her pretty much on a silver spoon. Hence why she had enough free time to research about the FAYZ. But her knowledge was limited to live interviews and the novels by survivor Astrid Ellison. They were good enough, but they never told the whole story; there were still major kids from the FAYZ that hadn't told anything. Lana Arwen Lazar, better known as the Healer, was one. All that Lynn knew was that Lana had the only pet in the FAYZ, could heal people, and had taken up smoking four months into the nightmare. But Astrid had hinted at Lana doing something more when written about in the novels. It was most likely something to do with the whole Gaiaphage fiasco; Astrid kept mentioning it, but it was almost as if the information was being censored out. Which was just great; all Lynn had to help her was a bunch of tales of starvation and murder. Nothing about how to bring the barrier down, or to escape. There hadn't even been any information on what was known as poofing; the moment of a kid's fifteenth birthday, when they leave the barrier. For the first month, the kids that had emerged were fine. But after that... Lynn still recalled screaming at the documented footage of Mary Terrafino.

So all Lynn had to go on was a compilation of horror stories. However, as this realisation sunk in, Lynn suddenly remembered something: Albert Hillsborough. He was the sole reason that the FAYZ hadn't fallen into madness, chaos, or starvation. From what Lynn recalled, Albert was one of the most respected people in the FAYZ. He was also skilled in leading kids, and had managed to create a work force that staved off hunger. Pretty much what Lynn was going to have to do. If only she had researched into Albert more. But it wasn't her fault that Albert's story wasn't that interesting, and Lynn didn't exactly see the Oddity occurring, did she? And there was another problem as well: Perdido Beach only had about 300 kids, whilst Suffeld had just over one thousand. There was no way that Lynn would be able to manage such a large number of people; she was practically useless with class group work, and those groups only had about six people maximum. And it wasn't as if fate had hand-picked Lynn to be some sort of mayor-type figure for these kids.

Lynn's nostrils flared. The smell of burning was in the air, and a thin stream of smoke was leaking into the room. Her eyes widened at the sight, and she leaped to her feet: something was on fire. As if reading Lynn's mind, the fire alarms started blaring throughout the giant shopping complex; the high pitched noise was deafening. She pressed her hands to her ears, and stumbled out of the store room, and into the main store. A rack of dresses had been thrown to the ground, and there was a shoelace on the ground, but the Primark was still in a pretty good condition. One quick look around proved that the source of the smoke wasn't within the store itself. Lynn sighed in relief: she was safe for now. But she had to find where the fire was, and extinguish it before it got out of control, and possibly set the entire mall alight.

A boy suddenly ran out of the Vodafone store opposite the Primark. He was a chubby boy with pale skin and light brown hair. His button-up shirt revealed his school's logo; Lynn noted that his tie and blazer were nowhere to be found.

"What's going on?" Lynn asked the boy, rushing up to him. He turned to face her, his wide blue eyes brimming with tears, his body trembling.

"The Pizza Hut," he gasped. "It's on fire!"

"What?" Lynn said. "But it was fine less than twenty minutes ago. What happened?" They were now running across the slick floor, their shoes squeaking.

"I don't know!" he cried. "One second we were dancing and eating from the vending machines, and then smoke came from the back area of the place!" Of course. Something was being prepared in there when the vanishing occurred. And since a bunch of eleven year olds weren't likely to think about that sort of thing, something caught fire. Lynn's mind was racing: how big was the fire? Was it likely to spread? How long had the blaze been burning for? Were there any kids in danger?

"Who's there?" she asked.

"Uh, besides me," the boy said. "There's Tony and Simon, and Max, Morris, and Sean."

"So quite a few of you," Lynn replied. "Were any of you close to the fire?"

"Well, Morris was sleeping, but I think that he would be awake by now."

"And the others?"

"No idea," the boy said. "I just ran out of there, looking for some way to put out the fire."

"Aren't there fire extinguishers in there, though?" Lynn asked. The boy turned red.

"Yeah, I guess there are," he paused to catch his breath. "I didn't think of that."

"Of course you didn't," Lynn said with a sigh. "Too bad that's the case, since that fire could easily grow out of control and potentially burn the entire mall down."

"What?!" The boy seemed extremely alarmed by this, as if he had no knowledge on fires at all.

"Yeah," Lynn said. "Did you not realise that all these stores are connected?"

"Oh no..." The boy started to breathe heavily. "No, please, no!" He suddenly grabbed onto Lynn. "Why are you doing this!? Shouldn't the fire department be handling this?!"

"If you haven't already noticed there isn't a fire department any more!" Lynn snapped at him. He let go, and slowed slightly as the strip of shops opened out to the upper plaza.

The upper plaza consisted of a ring-like balcony that went across, and the lower plaza was visible below. They were connected by two sets of escalators and three elevators. All around fire alarms were going crazy, and Lynn began to feel genuinely scared by this. She looked at the thick cloud of smoke rising from the gap in the middle of the balcony, and realised she was putting her life at risk here. But it had to be done: she couldn't let this place burn down. Lynn took one last look around, before running straight ahead. The boy followed her, his face pale. They ran through the cloud of smoke, emerging on the other side. Lynn looked around, seeing the escalator just a little further ahead. She also saw the walls: already the smoke was blackening this place.

"Come on!" she yelled, more for her sake than the boy's, and sprinted to the escalator. The grey steps moved downwards underneath Lynn's feet, but it was taking far too long; she took a deep breath, and ran down the escalator with surprising speed. She had nearly reached the bottom, as well, until one misplaced foot send Lynn flying down the remainder of the stairs, crashing on the floor below.

Lynn groaned for a moment, but stood back up immediately. Her left shoulder hurt slightly, but it was nothing really. She looked up the escalator; the boy was stumbling down, trying to catch up. He was taking too long. Far too long. And every second that Lynn wasted waiting for him was just decreasing the chances of stopping this fire.

"I'm gonna go on ahead!" she called up the escalator. "I can't risk the fire getting out of control: don't do anything stupid!" The boy nodded in understanding, before Lynn turned in the opposite direction, and ran down the path, following the stream of smoke.

The temperature was starting to increase rapidly, and Lynn felt sweat breaking out on her forehead. She wiped weakly at it, too occupied with the smoke; it was increasing in size the closer she got to the food court. The floor beneath her changed from a creamy colour to black-white checkers, and the stink of burning tomato was in the air: Lynn had arrived at the food court.

The food court was laid out like a cul-de-sac, but with several restaurants. The middle was filled with tables and chairs. Food was laying across them, some on the tables, some on the floor: Lynn saw at least two half-eaten Big Macs on the ground. And right on the other side she could barely make out the Pizza Hut sign. Smoke was billowing from the business, filling one side of the food court entirely. But Lynn could see into the McDonald's to her right, and saw five boys in there, each of them clutching a fire extinguisher.

"Hey!" one of the boys called. "Have you seen Dean?"

"Who?" Lynn replied, but soon realised. "Yeah, I have. He's near the escalator."

"Thank god for that," the boy said, before letting out a sob. "But we have a problem."

"I can see that," Lynn said. "I'll help you." The look of relief on their faces was immediately noticeable, and for a second, Lynn felt a sense of dread for saying yes to this. But it was too late to back out now, and someone had to do it.

"Too bad that someone had to be me," Lynn said quietly to herself as she walked through the automatic doors of the McDonald's. The smell of fries filled the air, and she inhaled greedily. But, she reminded herself, she wasn't here to admire the food: she had to deal with the fire.

"Hey," a boy with curly blonde hair said. "Do you want this fire extinguisher? There aren't any more around here."

"Why not?" Lynn asked, even though the answer seemed obvious.

"Well, um, we kind of were playing about with them." His cheeks burned with humiliation, and he lowered his head, handing the fire fighting device to Lynn.

"Hey, it's fine," she said. "You're just kids at the end of the day; it's never been your responsibility to deal with any of this stuff." Lynn took a deep breath. "Okay, you guys stay safe: I'm going to try and tackle this fire."

"What?" the boy said instantly, his blue eyes wide. "Why would you do that? I was just thinking that we were getting these to give them to the fire department when they came, except that the phone line seems to be down, and my phone has no signal." As if to demonstrate, he lifed a Blackberry out of his pocket, and switched it on, pointing to the screen. "See? No bars."

"Yeah, it's like that all over Suffeld," Lynn said dryly. "I'll explain later."

With one last look, Lynn gathered all of her courage, and ran out of the McDonald's, her hands wrapped around the extinguisher. She ran across the food court, expertly dodging an abandoned wheelchair, her mind having enough time to wonder who was there when they vanished. Perhaps an elderly person, or someone with an injury or disability. But whoever they were, they were now gone. Not like it was anyone's fault or anything, it was just the way that things had happened.

Lynn was now deep into the smoke cloud, and could feel her lungs burning. She lifted her blazer awkwardly to her face, and took a shallow breath. Her lungs didn't feel any better, but it stopped the feeling of faintness. She crouched low, and saw something sliding through the smoke: the automatic doors. Relief washed over Lynn's smoke-stained face, and she rushed forwards, feeling the ground change beneath her feet.

The sound of the fire alarm was deafening; the high pitched ringing was seeming to get louder with every beep. Lynn ducked to the floor, unable to hold her breath any longer, and took a deep breath, looking up. The cloud of smoke was above her head, and she could clealy see that it was coming from the ovens behind the counter. Or at least what vaguely had the same shape as a counter; the smoke had blackened everything inside the Pizza Hut.

Lynn crawled across the floor, and around the counter. The heat was unbearable, and she took one last breath before standing up, armed with the fire extinguisher. She took several steps forward, and saw the bright orange glow. Her hands moved to the nozzle.

"Just like during fire practices at school," she told herself as she freed the lock on the fire extinguisher. She pressed down. Some strange foam erupted from it, the force pushing Lynn back. But she saw that it was simply falling to the ground: she needed to be closer.

Without hesitation, Lynn pressed onwards, moving closer to the fire. More foam came out, and Lynn heard the fizzling sound of part of the fire dying out. A triumphant grin crossed her face: she could do this. She took a couple more steps forward, foam still coming from the extinguisher, and located the power plug for the oven. She turned off the power switch with her food, and the humming of the oven died down. Relieved, Lynn took a few more steps forwards, her confidence growing.

This confidence was promptly shattered by a flame licking at Lynn's arm.

She let out a scream of agony, and fell to the ground, dropping the extinguisher. The flesh on her arm had already turned red, and it felt painfully hot; all she could think was that it was a good thing she was left-handed. But determination took over, and Lynn fumbled for the extinguisher, grabbing it. She stood up, and using only one arm, aimed at the fire, and fired.

Despite the lack of air, despite the fear, despite the pain, and despite the sheer confusion of the situation, Lynn managed to do it. The glow of the fire died out, and the cloud of smoke soon cleared. Lynn dropped the extinguisher to the ground, and collapsed to the floor herself, breathing heavily in the clearing air.

She had done it. She had successfully stopped a fire; she had saved the mall. Her face was black, and her right arm was badly burned, but she had done it. The horrendous ringing of the fire alarms died out, and an eerie silence filled the air. The smell of smoke lingered.

Lynn stood shakily to her feet, and walked out of the Pizza Hut. As she did so, she noticed a blackened tray of food on the counter, and money on the floor. Without meaning to, Lynn picked it up, and placed it in her breast pocket: it was just too hard to resist. And besides, it was, what, £15? Nothing anyone would miss.

She emerged from the Pizza Hut, and the six boys ran up to her, shaking, but happy. So incredibly happy.

"Oh my god, you did it!" they cried out in a chorus of joy.

"Yeah, I guess I did," Lynn said.

"You're a hero," one said, bowing in respect. "You saved us all. How could we ever repay you for this?"

This was the moment: Lynn could say no, and retreat to her home, and try to survive the Oddity on her own, or she could step up, take charge, and make a difference. Maybe become a leading figure. Maybe even save more lives. She contemplated it for no more than a minute before her mouth opened.

"Well, for starters you could find a first-aid kit for my arm," she mused. "Oh, and also a notebook and pen: I'll need it to keep a record of everything in this place."