Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own The Tribe. Kinda wish I did but that's another story.

Rose felt heavy. Every inch of her body just felt like she was submerged in sand. This must be what it feels like to be dead, she thought. But if I were dead, her mind added, I probably wouldn't feel like crap. There was something cool on her forehead and someone was calling her name. The voice was becoming more and more insistent as consciousness began to creep back to her. The voice sounded familiar as her mind slowly processed it. The last thing she could remember was stopping in that alley. The voice continued to be persistent, asking her to open her eyes. Her body was beginning to become aware of its surroundings and she knew she couldn't still be out in the alley. It was far too warm and soft to be an alley. There was someone holding her hand. Rose willed her eyes to open. They felt so heavy. She managed to crack them open for an instant but all she made out was a swirl of color and light. She opened her eyes again and the swirls began to take form. She was indoors at least. The voice, which her mind now clearly identified as a male voice, kept talking, encouraging her. She opened her eyes again for longer this time and the voice now had a blurry face. She opened her eyes one more time and was finally able to keep them open for a moment. She blinked quickly, the room becoming clearer each time. When she finally focused there was a pair of eyes staring back into hers.

"Rose?" Lex asked quietly.

She groaned and tried to sit up. He leaned forward and a woman emerged from the shadows. They helped her rearrange herself and put some pillows behind her back.

"Where am I?" she asked quietly.

"You're at the mall," he answered as if expecting the answer to evoke instant recognition.

"Ok." she took a sip from the glass of water the woman had produced.

"You know who I am, right?" Lex took a seat at the side of the bed.

"Yes, dumb ass, I know who you are."

He grinned at her answer. "That's Amber." he nodded in the direction of the woman across the bed.

Rose nodded and started at her hands in her lap.

Amber felt the tension in the room and pushed her self away from the bed. "Well, I'm gonna go tell the others you're awake."

He waited until he was sure se was gone to speak again. "What happened?"

Rose sighed, "Where should I begin?"

"How about after you left here."

"We went south and played a few more shows. We decided to come back further north. We were on a real crappy road through a forest east of here. We were close to the city. We could see the tops of the buildings now and then through the trees. We stopped in a clearing for the night. It was a normal night; we lit a couple fires, cooked dinner, just hung around. Most of the tribe was asleep, it was after midnight, when it happened."

Lex leaned forward hoping she would continue.

"It got real quiet. Like scary quiet. No birds or bugs or animal sounds. That's when they attacked us."

"Who?"

"Don't know", she shook her head, "They came out of the trees. They had weapons. I don't remember. There were so many. It was like they were everywhere at once. They just grabbed people and disappeared back into the trees. People were screaming. I tried to run but one grabbed me and I fought back. In a second, there were dozens of them. They were kicking me and hitting me then there was this pain in my back and I passed out."

"You were stabbed, in the shoulder."

She winced as she shifted in the bed. "Kinda figured that one out on my own."

"What happened when you came to?"

"They were gone. Everyone was gone. There were a couple bodies. I think that's why they left me. It was weird like they just took all the people and left all the supplies, medicine, food everything."

"Did you get a good look at them? What did they look like?"

"Like people, I don't know it was dark," she stopped a moment frustrated, "They wore black, maybe dark blue, I'm not sure."

"Like spandex black?" he asked.

"No, like, I don't know, dirty, raggy. Most of them had dreads and breads. Like they'd been playing Wildman for a long time," she thought a moment. "One thing I remember was weird. Their faces."

"What about them?"

"They were almost trying to blend into the trees but their faces were all painted pale blue."

Lex leaned back in his seat quietly thinking. No one could ever have described the Technos as raggy, even the renegades hadn't been out of the city long enough to get too ratty looking. And kidnapping and violence definitely weren't the Ecos style. He was about to speak again when amber came in the room.

"The meeting is going to start in a minuet." she looked toward Rose, "Will you be alright alone for a little while?"

Rose nodded and Lex followed Amber out of the room.

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