Chapter 6

The afternoon went almost smoothly, as far as the security issues were concerned, with only a couple of arguments betweeen Cat and Dee over how would be best to seal up one of the exits and whether or not to leave one other exit open. On the ground level, however, where Amy and Bobbi were settling in, Amy and Anni kept a close eye on Bobbi as she went about decorating her shoe store to suit her.

"I'm worried," Amy whispered to Anni as they repositioned a bed they had just constructed from the one of the flat packs from the furniture store below, "She was like a zombie this morning, from the funeral right up until we got here. Now she's like a bumble bee high on caffeine! Zooming all over the place, trying on different shoes with every different job she does in there!"

"I know," Anni replied, "but it'll pass. Bobbi's always been mad about shoes, now she has something to distract her from her pain. It might even do her good!"

"Just so long as she doesn't get totally distracted!"

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The girl walked through the abandoned streets of the city, hugging her holdall to her and trying to ignore the pain caused by the large rambler's rucksack cutting into her shoulders and back. The faux fur collar of her jacket caught the collar of her white shirt and turned it up to crease backwards and cut into her neck. Her grey flanel hipsters were stained with mud where the flared bootleg hems had been dragged through a deeper puddle than her high, sturdy heeled boots had been able to raise her out of. Strands of loose brown hair had broken free from the high ponytail on the back of the girl's head and whipped about her face, getting in her mouth and tangling themselves behind her glasses. Mascara ran down the girls face in tear-made tracks as she turned into the next street and trudged, apathetically, up the hill.

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Another girl ran through the back streets of the Merchant City, heading desperately for City Centre. Her pink, ruche-necked top was torn and hanging down over one shoulder. She wore no jacket, carried no pack: they had been left behind, long ago, to escape her persuers. She stumbled blindly, her eyes clouded with panic. Her glasses sat askew on her face and the band holding one of two braids in place had gone, letting her dark hair fly back freely on one side of her head. Her trousers were torn at the knees and the sole was hanging off the front part of one buckled shoe.

Seeing George Square loom out of the shadows ahead of her, the girl put on another spurt of speed and raced out into the light and across the square. She stumbled and fell as she crossed the next road, but there was no longer any traffic to beware of. She picked her self up and carried on running, not looking back to see if she was still being chased but heading straight for her goal.

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"I still say we should have sealed it!" Dee cried as the two girls made their way up from the lower ground floor.

"It has a grill, which we can operate from in here easily enough, and it leads out into a more or less hidden courtyard from which you have to go up one flight of steps to get to street level. It's defendable and we can get out that way if we have to!" Cat replied.

"The basement entry to the sewers is a safer way out!"

"Oh come on Dee! This is Scotland! In fact, it's Glasgow! Sewers here flood! Even if we are up a hill, we're far too close to the river to risk having that as our only other emergency exit!"

"I still think we're leaving ourselves vulnerable!"

"This is a mall! You can't turn it into Fort Knox, it's just not do-able! We'll always have weak spots, we just have to do the best we can to protect them, without shutting ourselves in a prison!"

"Guys what is the racket all about!" Amy shouted, meeting the two at the top of the first flight of stairs.

"Just a slight difference of opinion," Dee answered.

Cat glared at her adversary in reply. Amy and Anni glanced at each other, then sighed.

"Perhaps you should start sorting your rooms and your stuff out?" Anni suggested, hopefully.

"Yeah, I guess," Cat sighed, "Where's Say?"

Anni opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a rattling of the grill at the main door by which they had all entered. She looked to the door, then back at Cat who, on cue, produced her set of keys and headed off to the doorway. Dee followed her but Anni placed a hand on Amy's arm and whispered to her to go and find Say and bring her to them before hurrying off to catch up with Cat and Dee.

Cat reached the door and called through to ask who was there. There was a tearful sob and someone shouted "Me". Cat opened the door as Anni caught up with them. At first she only opened it a little, peering through to see the owner of the sobs. On seeing the face outside, she opened the door fully and pulled the grill across, letting the girl enter and walk on into the mall with no more than a nod to any of them. As the party reached the top of the walkway into the mall, the grill and door being once again fastened, Amy and Say joined them. The new girl saw Say and, dropping her bag, ran straight into her arms and burst into loud sobs.

"Christy!" Say exclaimed, "What's wrong? What happened? Where's James? How did you get here so soon?"

Christy pulled herself back from Say and wiped her eyes on her jacket sleeve.

"I-I stole a car. I would have been here sooner, but I crashed it," she hiccuped in reply, "I'm okay, just a bit sore. It wasn't bad, just enough to stop the thing working."

"Where is the car?"

"Uh, it's kinda, um, in the river. I went off the road where the banks aren't built up or I'd be in there too."

"And what about James? He's not..."

"No, he's not. Well, not as far as I know. He's gone," Christy sobbed, but this time there was anger there, "He left me! He sodding left me! I got up one morning and he was gone. I found a note on the breakfast bar and that was it: gone!"

"Oh, honey, come here," Say cried hugging her friend again, "Well, you're here now and you're all in one piece, thank goodness, so let's find you somewhere to sleep and some clean clothes."

The others were left standing as Say disappeared up the stairs with Christy. They looked at each other then Cat shrugged and headed off up the stairs to her room. Amy wandered back to Bobbi's room and stopped to look in the door to where her friend was happily telling a pair of shoes why they were being put up on a high shelf and another pair why they were staying in their box. Dee trudged down the stairs to the furniture store to pick out a few choice items and Anni stood alone, looking around her, hugging herself and biting her lip before wandering into a nearby shop to look for something.