Chapter 19
The mall was quiet. Of the three pairs, Dee and Kyle had taken the first watch, from 11pm to 2am, then Gary and Anni had taken over. Everyone else was asleep, even Cat, who had dosed herself on valerian to try and stop her waking during the night. At 5am, Anni and Gary had instructions to wake Zane and Christy. It was during the last three hours, around dawn, that Christy had deemed the most vulnerable: when the majority of the mall, even the night owls amongst them, would still be fast asleep and when there would be a degree of light to work by. Anyone trying to break in to the mall would need some light to work by, after all.
What she hadn't counted on was not a break-in, but an attack!
At about 2.30am, a small explosion echoed from the third front door - the one at the far end from the one the girls had opened to get into the mall - and Gary and Anni heard the grill go up and then heard the door shudder as something heavy pounded against it. They weren't the only ones to hear it and Dee and Kyle soon came running up, make-shift weapons in their hands.
"Wake the others!" Gary cried, reverting to his previous role as leader in the Counting House.
Anni and Kyle headed off to do so, Anni running round the rooms on the lower floor before heading up the stairs, Marie in tow, to join Kyle in rousing those on the upper floor.
"Help me wake Cat!" Anni called to Alice as she shook the young girl awake, "Then you and Marie stay up here!"
"We can fight too!" Marie shouted.
"Just do it!" Say shouted, hurrying past on her way down the stairs.
Christy, Zane and Steve were all down the stairs by the time Say joined the group. The door shuddered again and gave way a little.
"Where's Cat?" Christy asked.
"Anni and the younger girls are waking her," Say replied, "They might take a minute or two, but when she comes down don't get in her way."
Christy looked at Say with a confused look.
"Cat's a good enough fighter," Say explained, "But she was exhausted last night and she'll be dead tired now thanks to those sleeping pills - she'll go onto auto-pilot and attack anything that comes near her. I've seen her do it, it's scary!"
"I thought she'd just had one nights disturbed sleep. How come she's so tired?"
"One disturbed night here, who knows how many before we got here! I've only seen her like this a couple of times and in both cases she'd gone months without a decent nights sleep. Sometimes days without any at all! She just focuses in on one thing and switches to auto. That's the only way she can stop the fatigue catching up with her."
The door shuddered and gave some more. Anni and Cat joined the group. They were positioned round the corner, out of sight of the door, with Dee, Gary, Steve, Christy, Zane and Marc at the front of the group.
"Where's Bobbi?" Anni asked Amy and Will.
"Asleep," Will answered, "If the blast didn't wake her, there's a good chance the fighting won't either."
"Any idea who we're fighting?" Amy asked.
"Sophia!" Steve and Gary replied in unison, without turning round.
"The girl who..." Amy began.
"Don't say it!" Will cut in, "Just be ready."
"Why are we round here?" Cat asked, sleepily, "Shouldn't we meet them head on?"
"They just blasted their way though the grill," Gary replied, angrily, "Do you really want to be standing right in front of them if they decide to chuck a nice little home-made bomb up the corridor?"
"Point taken."
Dee unsheathed the knife in her hand.
"Is that a good idea?" Anni asked.
"You can bet your boots they'll have them!" Dee replied.
With a crash and a groan, the door gave way. Christy twirled the broom handle she was holding.
Silence.
Slowly the quiet sound of feet became audible as the intruders stole up the corridor. Christy held up her hand. Cat edged away from Anni's side, her feet apart and hands hanging a little away from her sides. Everyone held their breath. With the glint of moonlight on his knife the first intruder became visible round the corner of the wall and Christy brought her staff smacking down on the back of his neck, flooring him. Feet pounded up the corridor and the group spread out to intercept them.
The sun was nowhere near rising yet, but for once the stars shone through the glass roof, illuminating the scene. The best fighters had gravitated to the front of the group and Dee, Gary, Steve and Christy were doing well. Cat had moved off to one side, away from her comrades, and was fighting, as Say had described, automatically. Say and Anni fought side by side, Britt broke a chair over someone's head then joined Steve. Amy, Will and Marc tackled the stragglers that got round the corner and Kyle and Zane were in front of them somewhere.
As the fight continued, Anni felt a blow hit the back of her head and she collapsed. The last thing she saw, before passing out, was Alice and Marie charging forward, each brandishing a long iron pole from a clothes rail. Gradually, the attackers thinned and the defenders seemed to be getting the upper hand. Kyle was knocked out, a bone protruding from his lower leg, and Steve's nose was streaming blood. Gary screamed in pain as a knife passed to close to his face, opening a cut right down one side and across his eye.
Dee paused, seeing something, and charged for Cat. They collided with a loud bang and hit the floor, blood seeping from Dee's side. All eyes turned to the source of the bang: Sophia. Turning to face the others, her allies retreating behind her, she again fired the gun. This time, it was Amy who was dragged out of the way by Will, the bullet grazing her shoulder as it passed. Suddenly, a loud screaching was heard and Sophia's attention was drawn to a figure at the back of the group flying forwards at immense speed. Marc intercepted Bobbi, feeling the bullet embed itself in his shoulder as he did so and collapsing to the floor. Bobbi picked herself up as though she had never fallen and careened into Sophia, knocking her to the floor. The gun flew from the taller girl's hand and, as she expertly rolled out of the maddened Bobbi's grasp and stood up, she found Gary levelling the gun at her head, the right side of his own face a mass of blood.
"Oh, you're not going to use that, Gary," Sophia laughed, "you couldn't shoot me!"
"Give me one good reason why not!" Gary replied, through gritted teeth.
"Well, what would my son do without me for starters? You wouldn't want to deprive one of your own family of his mother, now would you?"
"Y-your son?" Gary's one remaining eye widened, "M-my family? What?"
"Oh, he's definitely your family, all right. I'm sorry, I rather lost track though," Sophia tilted her head to one side and smiled, "I'm not too sure if he's you son, or your nephew!"
Gary froze, too stunned to speak, and Sophia turned and ran the remaining distance to the door, joining her troops where they awaited her. Silence descended.
"S-son... Or nephew?" Gary turned to Steve, shaking with a mixture of shock, pain, blood loss and rage, "H-how could he be my nephew, Steve? I only have one brother and he wouldn't do that, would he?"
Steve looked to Britt. She backed away.
"I-I didn't," he cried, "I swear! She was just messing with your mind! Confusing you so she could get away!"
"Steve..." Gary's tones held a warning as the gun in his hand levelled in his brother's direction.
"I swear," the younger boy protested. "I never!"
"I don't... believe you," Gary gasped, but his strength was gone and he dropped to the floor.
Christy kicked the gun away from him and Will picked it up, neatly opening the chamber to reveal an empty barrel.
"No more bullets," he declared, tucking the gun into his belt, "she was out."
"Just as well!" Amy commented from his side.
"Let's get everyone cleaned up," Say said, quietly, helping Anni to her feet and looking around her.
"Cat! Dee!" Anni cried, pulling away from her friend to drop to her knees beside the two girls.
Cat came round, gradually, but Dee lay unconscious, a bullet hole draining the blood from her side. As Kyle and Marc were also brought round, Marc by Bobbi, they gathered together, each having their wounds dealt with by various, less wounded, persons.
"It won't stop bleeding," Christy exclaimed, pressing down on Dee's wound.
"I don't know what else to do!" Say shrugged, "They covered knife cuts in first aid, but not gunshots!"
"H-her friend," Kyle cut in, gritting his teeth as he spoke. "U-up in the bridal store. She's a healer. I heard them talking."
"I'll get my keys," Cat said, rising from where she was cleaning an unconscious Gary's wounds. "Maybe she can do something about his eye too."
"I'll come with you," Zane said, rising from Kyle's side.