Song: Skin- Alexz Johnson
The Lost Mallrats
They're all sitting around the camp fire. No Name is sitting rigidly next to Jack staring at the flames as if lost in them.
Ryan: After the Chosen many tribes were formed. I lead one- the Harmonies. We often traded with another, the Skies. We lived peacefully nest to each other. The Skies leader used to be in my work crew in the mines. She always caused trouble for the Chosen, no matter what they did to her. She came close to death more times than I can count. Anyway, after the mines and she was a strong person and the people that had been enslaved with us looked to her. When the tribes were formed she was immediately elected as a leader, as was I. Soon after becoming well established and successful we heard about the Techno's. We were very far north and it taken them that long to realise that there were mines there and that the people that had used to work in them were closeby still. The other work camps hadn't been hard for them to re-establish but now they wanted much more than the other mine camps might provide. And ours was the best bet. The Skies leader wasn't going to let someone take our new freedom. She called a tribe meeting, got everyone together and we formed an army. A lot of our fellow members died and some, like me, were put into work crews. She disappeared. No one knew what happened to her. It was like she dropped off the face of the earth. She was the ringleader and that was the first organised resistance against the Techno's, especially on such a large scale. I don't even want to remember the fighting.
Ved: I remember hearing about that rebellion. It makes sense. Ram would punish such a first resistance leader with a horrible torturous existence.
Cloe: What was the girl's name?
Ryan: She called herself Sapphire. Her sister's name was Topaz. They became separated because of the Chosen. She also had a brother called Ree. They were separated at the very start of the virus. They'd changed their names when the virus started. Ree, Sapphire and Topaz aren't the real names.
Ved: Ree? Her brother was Ree?
Ryan: Uh huh, they grew up in the west suburbs. Their father was a military man who really only took notice of their brother. He was the oldest and a boy. Her mother was too worried about their father to pay much attention to her or her sister. So they used to take care of themselves and get into all kinds of messes. Her brother was a hypochondriac who couldn't stand any kind of untidiness. And sometimes, he wouldn't like to leave the house.
Ved: What?! But...wait...okay, do you know anything else?
Ryan: Their real names have to do with the first letter of their gem stones. She said it was the most creative thing her mother had ever decided to do. After the virus she changed her name to Sapphire because that's her gem stone so her real name really does begin with S. Her sister's begins with T and her brother's gem is a Ruby. They never changed their brother's name. He was a technology nerd. Used to mess around with wires and computers and junk. She was proud that once she got him to go to the park with her. Topaz was at a tap class and Sapphire had no one to play with so for one day she convinced him to go outside and have fun. He did, but the next day he developed the flu. He refused to do it again. After their father died and their mother was contemplating moving out Topaz and Sapphire were evacuated out of the city. They ended up in the countryside with their school. A freak accident involving an electrical storm and a bus left the two sisters as the survivors but like all of those accidents a letter was sent home saying they were dead. When they eventually returned and made it back to the City no one in their family was left in the house. Their mum had left the house and died, while their brother Ree was gone. The letter explaining their deaths had been left on the kitchen table with a smashed photo.
Jack: And this No Name girl reminds you of Sapphire?
Ryan: How else can you explain those screams? The only reason I didn't recognise it straight away was because look at her. She's a tortured, gaunt, thin, sick, disturbed version of Sapphire.
Ved bangs his fist against the log he's sitting on.
Cloe: What? For Pete's sake- spit it out Ved!
Ved: I can't believe it.
Cloe: What!
Ved: (mutters) I know who Ree is...
