Chapter 35

"You're being childish!"

"She doesn't want to go!"

"What she wants is irrelevant!"

"Who are you to decide that?"

"Her oldest friend!"

"And her only psychiatrist!"

Amy and Will glared at Marc. The tall, muscular young man was physically blocking their route into Bobbi's hiding place: her beloved shoe store. Over his shoulder, they could see Bobbi's black and blue hair sticking up from behind the cash desk.

"Bobbi!" Amy called, ignoring Marc. "Come on, sweetie, we don't want to hurt you!"

"No!" Bobbi's voice shouted back.

"Bobbi, we just want to help!" Will tried.

"You'll take me away!"

"No we won't!"

"You'll take Marc away then!"

"They couldn't if they tried," Marc cut in.

"Bobbi!" Amy cried, her voice beginning to sound desperate. "You can't go on like this! You're not yourself!"

"You have to deal with your grief," shouted Will. "You can't keep bottling it up inside. You have to talk it through at some point."

"I'll talk it through with anyone, so long as Marc stays!"

Amy looked up at Will, her eyes pleading. Will's eyebrows rose up his forehead, then he sighed, rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Okay," called Amy. "We'll do it your way."

"We need to prioritise," said Anni. "Work out what we have to do and what the most important things are."

"I don't see why," replied Gary. "There are enough of us now to split the work and get it all done at once."

"Some jobs take longer than others, and are easier with more people," said Say. "Take the food inventory: that would have taken ages to finish if I'd been doing it on my own. There's no way the fridges and freezers would have stayed cold long enough."

"Are there still stores to add to the inventory?" Steve asked.

"One or two," said Cat. "Mainly the specialist ones: The Whisky Shop, Kshocolat, Starbucks..."

"Don't forget the Herb Store, too," said Zane. "We wouldn't have got far without that."

"I think that should go down as a separate resource," Britt suggested. The others nodded.

"So what do we have so far?" Anni asked, brandishing a pen and paper.

"Provisions," said Say. "Internal and external. Energy supplies. Security. Other resources."

"What category do you want me to put the Herb Store under?"

"Other resources," said Britt. "It doesn't really fall into the other three."

"Okay," said Anni, making a note on the sheet before her. "So that's four areas to work on."

"Don't forget the general maintenance work around here," Christy added. "We're all still fixing up the stores so that we can live in them. That takes time and people."

"True," Anni added another category.

"Apart from moving beds around, though, that's all a fairly low priority," said Gary. "I mean, what's more important: food or wallpaper?"

"Don't all fall over in shock, but I agree with Gary," said Cat, prompting an exchange of raised eyebrows between Say and Anni. "Anyway: with the top priority stuff we should all be too busy to care what our rooms look like."

"So who does what?" Anni asked, changing the subject.

"Well, Zane and I will go over the security stuff," said Christy, "but we'll need to draw up a rota for guard duty and something will have to be done to keep an eye on the sewer entrance. It's the only way any bad guys can get in, but it's also our only way out. We need to be able to defend it."

"I could do with a hand up on the roof now that the bad weather is starting to set in," said Cat. "The quicker all the panels are connected up, the better."

"I can help with that," Steve offered. "I'm good with mechanics."

"We'll also need to stockpile all the other energy resources we've got," said Say. "You know: batteries and the like."

"I can do that," Gary stuck his hand up.

"I'll help," said Britt.

"That leaves Provisions and Other Resources," said Anni. "Say and I will continue with the inventory of the provisions in the Mall, and we've got the kids helping out with that."

"We'll take the foraging side of things," said Sarah, speaking up for the first time in the meeting. "Di knows the sewers better than anyone and we've already got a few ideas of where to look first."

"Which leaves us with Other Resources, but no spare hands," Anni sighed.

"Maybe Kyle and Beth could make a start on the Herb Store," Britt suggested. "The rest isn't just as important: it could wait until other stuff has been done. Gary and I could move on to the other resources side of things once we've finished hunting batteries."

"And Alice and Marie could join them once they've finished helping us," said Say.

"And then, once everything else is in place, we can start sorting out our living quarters," Cat finished.

"That sounds sensible, at least," said Anni. "Is everyone agreed?"

"What about Amy, Will and Marc?" Christy asked.

"Oh, I think they've got enough on their plates just now!" Gary laughed.

"Bobbi, please: try to concentrate!" Amy pleaded as her friend's eyes darted from the swinging pendant to Will, who was holding it, to Marc sitting at the side of the room.

"This is hopeless!" Will sighed, dropping the pendant. Ironically, Bobbi's eyes stayed on the pendant for longer than they had before, but soon flitted off to the sides of the room again.

"What are we going to do with her?" Amy groaned as Bobbi started playing with her shoes again.

Will and Amy started as Marc stood up. He had been so still and quiet that they had forgotten he was there.

"I have an idea," he said, keeping his voice low. "Wait here. Keep her occupied."

Amy and Will exchanged glances as Marc disappeared, silently, from the room. They quickly turned their attention back to Bobbi, but she was too busy trying to undo the triple knot in Will's boot laces.

"She can concentrate on that when she wants to!" Will muttered.

Will jumped when a silver court shoe on a chain dropped in front of his eyes. He looked up to see Marc standing over him, dangling the chain.

"Ah! No! Not for you!" Marc said suddenly, pulling the chain upward out of the reach of the fist that had just closed on thin air where the silver shoe had been. Will looked down to see Bobbi's attention now riveted onto the shiny shoe.

"Finally," he breathed.

On the other side of the city centre, a young man stumbled through the quiet streets. He was unwashed and unbrushed. Thirsty and half starved. His hair and beard were a tangled mess and his clothes were dirty and torn. He had known this art of the city like the back of his hand before the virus, but now, it was all he could do to remind himself that he was in the same city. He certainly wasn't in the same world: that had changed far beyond recognition. Normal life had gone and all that was left were feral groups of children scavenging anything they could from the streets and shops. He had tried his best to avoid them. His general appearance helped in that respect. Now he needed to sleep. Somewhere safe, where the rats wouldn't bother him.

He pushed the broken glass of a shop window to one side with his foot and dragged himself across the darkened floor to the cash desk, gathering up what clothes and other materials were left as he went. Dumping the armful of fabrics behind the counter, he limped off in the direction of the store room, returning a few moments later with an armful of flattened cardboard boxes. Soon he had built himself a warm nest behind the counter, with a mattress of cardboard and a blanket of dresses. He buried himself in the pile and let his exhausted body fall into a deep slumber.