"She won't open the door." Bray told Amara after he'd given up getting Brady out of her room. He sat down at a table across from where River was still sitting, staring down at the table below her elbows.
"It's my entire fault." River snapped out of her trance, looking over at Bray. "I told her about the skeleton men... At first I didn't realize it was her they were speaking of, I couldn't recall the name. But once she told me, I remembered again."
"Hold on." Amara walked over to where Bray was standing, right in Rivers line of sight. "You're telling me that the people who raided the Eco camp were looking for my cousin?"
"I guess. They were saying her name over and over, asking each of us if we knew her."
"What's going on?" Falcon walked up the stairs of the mall, having heard the commotion from his room below in the military shop. At the sound of his voice, River stood up and ran to him, hugging his middle. "Hey, hey, hey... What's going on?"
Bray was angry. He could feel his fists tightening in anger. Earlier this morning, himself and his sister had asked the Eco's which were in the hospital below everything they had heard and seen- Amara had even wrote it down to keep it documented. The way it sounded, this was just a rogue tribe of arsonists. But knowing what they knew now... things were suddenly different.
"I just didn't know... I didn't think it was her!" River was near tears. Falcon had never seen his sister so upset before in his life.
"Go downstairs with the others. They probably need you." He told her. She nodded up at him and made her way down the steps. He turned to Amara and Bray, his arms crossed around his chest. "Now, care to explain to me what's going on?"
"Your sister was talking to my cousin... apparently the skeleton crazies have something other than arson on their mind." Bray told him, running a hand through his hair.
"They were asking the lot of them if they knew Brady."
"So? Brady might be a common name..."
In unison, Bray and Amara gave Falcon a skeptical look.
"Sorry..."
"I was worried about this. It's happened before with our Elders. You see, Brady's father was my crazy uncle. A tribe called The Chosen, who basically worshiped the man named Zoot, decided to take over the Mall and try to take Brady captive. We fought back, full force. We haven't heard word from them for years... not since my mother was a girl." Bray had only heard stories of The Chosen. Brady had lived it.
"You don't think it's another group like The Chosen?" Amara asked, a sudden flutter in her chest making it a bit hard for her to breathe.
"Who knows...? Hopefully they didn't follow the Eco's to us…"
They all hushed their voices when Lux walked into the kitchen. She grabbed a glass from a cabinet and poured some bottled water into it. Feeling all of their gazes on her back, she turned to look at them. "What's all this? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you guys are talking about me."
"No, it's… complicated." Amara replied, cupping her chin in the palm of her hand.
"A new threat to us, unfortunately." Bray added. "A tribe of crazies, looking for..." He paused for a moment. "Brady." He had so much on his mind right now; he could tell his half sister did too.
Lux remembered all of what the Eco's told her the night before- about the skull-faced men. She felt bad that they had trashed their camp, but she was happy that they'd begun hunting. When Bray said they'd been looking for Brady, she stopped. Maybe this wasn't the right sort of skull-faced men? She'd told them to hunt and destroy the Bulldogs. That was the incentive for Zoot's goggles. Why were they looking for Brady? "Oh." Was all she could manage to say. Her face was emotionless, but her mind could not stop racing.
"Do you think you could draw up plans for an alarm system? I know Jack has one throughout the sewers, but it needs major improvements. We need traps, too. I want this mall to be as safe as possible, understand me?" Amara asked. She knew she could trust the girl. Lux had the knowledge of Jack and the beauty of her mother, Ellie.
"Yeah, sure. I'll get on it right away." Lux turned away from them, the glass of water still clutched in her hand. She walked to her room, her brain working on overtime.
"Ahhhh! Stop it!"
Amara, Bray and Falcon all turned toward the entrance of the mall, watching Niko run inside. She was laughing, not crying as the three of them thought she had been. Tristan was running after her, finally grabbing her around the middle and picking her up. "I got you." He said, kissing her on the cheek. The two of them shared a passionate kiss, then turned to the audience watching them. The trio looked away, pretending they hadn't watched this intimate moment between the two of them.
"What's going on, guys?" Niko asked, walking up the steps. She took off her metal breast plate and ankle guards, and then proceeded to place a woven satchel on the table in front of them. "Tristan and I were out in the woods, gathering some things. Can you believe we found an apple tree? Like, what are the odds?" She pulled out an apple from the many they had gathered.
"We also got some berries and roots." Tristan took a chair from a vacant table.
"Great..." Bray mumbled. He was in no mood to celebrate the fruits of the earth right now. The city had been a war zone since the Elders died, but somehow the Mallrats had always been at peace- with each other and most of the other tribes. The Bulldogs never bothered them personally. True, they shot at everything that had two or four legs, but it was never like them to have a personal vendetta against any one tribe. The only time where that was the case was before he was born.
"Well, don't be enthusiastic about that, then. But Tristan and I have some news." Niko was grinning from ear to ear, a complete contrast of what Bray, Amara and Falcon were feeling. Niko quickly scurried over to where Tristan was seated, wrapping her arms around his neck lovingly. "We're going to have a baby!"
In Niko's mind, the entire room would fill with clapping. They would all have huge smiles on their faces. Amara would hug Niko and tell her how lucky she was. Falcon and Bray would pat Tristan on the back. Everything would be perfect. Instead, on each of their faces was a growing look of panic. "Um, guys... you know, it's supposed to be a HAPPY thing, having a baby..." Niko unwrapped her arms from Tristan, placing them on her slender hips.
"Uh, it's great." Amara murmured. Bringing a baby into the world now? What were they thinking! Then again, they didn't know all of the potential danger that everyone was in. She wasn't sure if she should tell them or not, though it was too late. In all her anger, Niko stood Tristan up and stomped off into her room. Amara's posture relaxed a bit.
"Don't worry now." Falcon piped in. "Seriously... if you all start panicking now, your heads will fog. We don't know where this tribe is, and we don't even know if they know where we are. The Mallrats aren't as well known as they used to be... they could be completely lost as to where your whereabouts are."
"You're right." Amara said. "All we can do is hope that Lux can improve the alarm system... I think I'll be able to sleep sounder at night."
"What's their problem?" Niko asked Tristan as she sat in their bed, Indian-style. "They can't just be happy for me, FOR ONCE?"
"If it were any other day, I'm sure they would be." Tristan replied, grabbing a book off of his night stand. It was a book from what seemed like another life to him- 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte. Books were rare to come by lately. When they had computers back, once upon a time, most of the literature was typed and stored there. There was never really a need for books. When Niko took him to the mall that was when he finally started to read again, because they had book shelves among bookshelves in the Book Store. "Obviously something is on their minds. I think it has to do with those Eco's that have taken shelter in our basement."
Niko grabbed the feather pillow from behind her and placed it between her legs, wrapping her arms around it. Her eyes followed Tristan as he made his way to his hammock which was conveniently placed by a bookshelf. "I guess you're right... You know, everyone's been acting so weird. It just gives me a really bad feeling."
"Don't think about it... you're carrying a little one now, so any anxiety you feel goes right down to him or her."
To this, Niko couldn't help but smile. All of her bad feelings quickly melted away as she thought of the life growing inside her. "What shall we name it when it comes out? I do hope it's a girl... I've always wanted a little girl to dress up."
"Are you saying you will love it less if it's a male?" Tristan asked, peeking from over the book he was reading.
"No! Of course not." Niko wrinkled her nose at him. "I'm just saying... it's every woman's dream to have a little girl they can coddle and dote upon... and dress up." She was too busy in her own little world to see Tristan shaking his head, a huge grin on his face. "I was thinking of maybe naming her Regina... or Gayle?"
"Gayle sounds like an old woman." Tristan remarked from behind his book.
"Fine, not Gayle. How about Fiona? And for a boy... we could name him Gideon or Skye. Or how about-"
As Niko went on, Tristan tried to tune her out a bit with his reading. He loved her dearly, but the girl knew how to run her mouth sometimes. "If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it." He read, in awe that someone could write something so beautiful and yet so depressing all at once.