"What happened?" I asked at last.
"They were on patrol and they saw us," Marty said. "Simple as. I told Dev to leave the trolley, but he wouldn't."
"I thought we'd be safe once we got inside the Library," Dev said defensively.
I shrugged. "You should have left it. Even if they weren't after the batteries, they were probably slowing you down."
"Well," Marty said, "It happened." He shrugged sullenly.
"What do we do now?" I asked. "We can't go back."
"We could," Dev said. "Give it a few hours, they'll have cleared out."
"And left the place in a mess," Marty said, "Taking anything of value with them." He sighed. "They might even decide to burn the books," he added. "There'd be no point in going back, even if we could be sure they weren't going to stay there long."
"We'll have to go to the Mall, then," I said. "I just hope Lex doesn't cause trouble."
"Is that really our only option?" Dev asked.
"We can try," Marty said, getting up from where he was perched on the old desk.
"Wait," Dev said. "Maybe we should wait a few hours, give the Locos time to move out of the sector."
Marty hesitated, then nodded and sat back down.
"We were really starting to make it work," I whined. "The planters, the water purifier..." I sighed. "Damn, this is stupid. What was the point, if we were just gonna end up crawling back to the Mallrats so soon anyway?"
"We always planned to rejoin them, though, right?" Dev pointed out. "That's what all that was about. Convincing them that Marty isn't Zoot any more."
I shifted and pushed a stray strand of hair back from my face. "Well, yeah, but I sorta imagined it differently. I figured they'd ask us back, for a start."
"It doesn't really matter," Marty pointed out. "Getting back is the goal. How we do it isn't important."
"Yeah," I agreed relucantly. "I just know Lex is going to make something of it. You guys don't know him like I do. Anyway, we've now lost all hope of plan B. Everything rides on getting back into the Mall. We can hardly hold out here long."
"It'd getting close to lunch time," Dev said.
"You reckon this counts as an absolute emergency?" I asked him.
He fished out the key to the filing cabinet from under his shirt and held it up.
"What's that for?" Marty asked.
"There are emergency supplies in the filing cabinet," I told him, while Dev unlocked it.
Dev opened the bottom drawer and produced the two tins. Baked beans and pineapple chunks.
Marty shook his head. "Put them back," he said. "We can go hungry for a few hours. There might be another time we need them. Or if the Mallrats don't let us stay, we'll need them then. Anyway..."
From his back pocket he pulled a bag of cheesy biscuits – "Mini Cheddars" - and held it up.
"They're a bit broken. I'd forgotten about them til now. Found them in a drawer in the electrics shop we were in earlier, along with a banana-shaped pile of mould. Must have been the owner's lunch, before the virus."
"Should we put those in the filing cabinet too?" I asked. "Or eat them now?" I was starting to feel pretty hungry myself.
"Eat them," Dev suggested, turning the key in the lock. He dropped the key under his shirt as he straightened.
Marty opened the packet, took half a biscuit and ate it, then offered the bag first to me, then to Dev. We ate in silence, and the pack was soon gone. I was still hungry, but it would help us last a bit longer.
"Maybe we shouldn't have eaten those," Dev said uneasily. "Now I'm really thirsty."
"What about that fruit drink you picked up?" Marty asked. "Did that go in the trolley?"
"Yeah. Sorry. Didn't expect it'd matter."
"Next time we come here with supplies, we leave some water and a few more tins," I suggested.
The other two agreed.
"Man, sitting in here is so boring," Marty said. "The Locos are probably still raiding the library. It we go in the opposite direction, we could avoid them completely."
We were just standing up to look out the window, when the sound of a siren squealed in the distance, and it was coming closer.
"Maybe not," Dev said, peering around the edge of the graffiti'd plyboard. The police car passed slowly. For the next hour, it never went beyond hearing range. They were patrolling the area, possibly in search of us, perhaps merely looking for some poor stray to chase and bully and rob. We didn't say much, in case they heard and realised we were there. Instead we looked nervously at each other, and watched the only way in and out of the pokey little office, a broken window covered by a sheet of plyboard.
"I think they've gone," I whispered at last, ten minutes after the siren had faded into the distance. "Maybe we should make a move now."
"Yeah," Dev said. "I'll have a look outside, see if there are any signs they might be coming back."
He watched carefully in both directions for more than three minutes before he gave the nod. "Let's move."
Other strays had starting moving again, slowly, carefully. They watched us as we moved through the city, but never drew close. Likewise, we gave them their space, and were careful not to act threateningly.
Moving carefully but quickly, we were soon behind the Mall, standing around the entrance to the sewers.
"Right," Marty said. "Down we go."