Authors Note: Thanks to my reviewers Jamy98 and MixedBerry.
MixedBerry: I changed the paragraphs I hope this is better.
Jamy98: You're right I haven't mentioned May, not sure how I missed it she is with the main group and Ruby is explained in this chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or their backgrounds
The next morning when the group awoke to fire was starting to die down and Slade and Jay left to find more fuel. Amber sat rocking Bray JR quietly while Salene helped Brady and Mouse to collect shells and Trudy watched over them. Jack and Ellie were still holding each other and Ellie was in more pain from the wound on her leg. Lex lay snoring a few metres from the fire undisturbed by the noises around him. Darryl stood and volunteered to try and find food in the wooded area behind the beach.
"I'll come with you if you want." May offered and Darryl nodded before they headed off.
"Ewww!" Gel cried as she glanced at herself in the compact mirror she had found in her pocket, "I'm a mess!"
"I think you look lovely." Sammy complimented her, receiving a look that clearly said she thought him insane.
Ruby awoke cold and wet on the beach and it was a few moments before she remembered what had happened. She stood and brushed sand off her as she looked around for her companions. Ruby decided to follow the coast west and see if she could find anyone assuming they'd stay on the beach for a while at least.
After about half an hour of walking she came across a body and running to its side, she recognised Lottie. She had a wound on her head which Ruby assumed had been caused by the lifeboat or rocks in the past nights mayhem.
"Lottie!" She called loudly to the girl as she knelt beside her however she received no answer and so started to lightly slap her friend. "Lottie! Lottie!" She continued urgently. After a few seconds there was a small groan from the girl and she sat up slowly and said to Ruby
"What happened?"
"Our lifeboat capsized in the storm last night remember?" Ruby answered,
"Yeah" Lottie said holding her head as it ached painfully. "My head is thumping" Ruby nodded and stood up,
"Can you stand?" She asked concerned for the girl who looked up at her and shakily stood with some assistance.
"I haven't found any of the others yet so we'll have to keep looking, you can stay here if you like and I'll come back for you." Ruby explained.
Lottie wanted to go with Ruby "No its ok, I'll come with you"
"Are you sure you're ok to walk?" Ruby checked
"Yeah I'm fine "Lottie lied, she felt incredibly sick and dizzy but did not want to be left alone. Ruby put her arm round the young girl's shoulders, sensing her fear and noticing how unsteady the girl was as they started slowly down the beach, again heading westerly.
Ram sat by a boulder on his own feeling sorry for himself. He had once had an army of Technos at his beck and call, three wives (Although only Java mattered to him), hundreds of computers and control of everything around him. All that had been taken away from him and he had forgiven his friends for that, but now he had lost his home and travelling companions as well. A few hours after dawn he stood up and decided to find the mallrats, there was a headland behind him with steep cliffs and so he assumed his friends were still on the beach and started his search. After about twenty minutes he found his bag, which he had pulled into the lifeboat with him but had lost when it had capsized.
Hoping the contents had not been destroyed by the ocean he opened it and looked in. the bag contained 2 bottles of water, 3 tins of food, 3 bags of sweets and 4 large bags of techno zappers. Three of these had not been watertight and the technology was ruined however the fourth had protected three of the weapons. To test them Ram fired a few shots at some grasses down the beach and smiled as the grasses were burned. As he turned the setting of the zappers down he was cheered by the fact some of his power had returned. He buried the useless zappers and put two of the working items in his bag, the third he strapped to his wrist for protection.
Ruby and Lottie were still walking down the beach when they saw several shots from apparent techno weapons hit the beach in front of them. Immediately Ruby crouched and pulled Lottie to the ground beside her. They made their way to the base of a sand dune and Ruby sat Lottie down,
"Wait there while I find out who it is ok?" Ruby did not wait for an answer but crept out from behind the sand dune and waited for more shots, when they did not come she started forward as low as possible hoping not to be seen.
Ram put his bag on his bag and somewhat happier no, started forwards. Ahead of him he saw someone creeping towards him and charged his zapper up, checking it was only on stun as he did so.
Ruby saw a figure in front of her but still could not see who it was; she heard the zapper charge and guessed she had been seen. Ruby was unsure what to do; she had no weapon and had to look after Lottie. Ahead of her she saw a rock formation she could use for cover, she dived for it just as a shot hit the ground where she had been crouched. Ruby saw a large piece of driftwood and picked it up ready to hit her attacker when he looked around the boulder for her.
Ram fired at the figure that dived out of the way just in time. He waited for the person to come back out but after a few minutes went forward to see why they had not appeared. Ram assumed he had actually hit the person as they jumped and peered around the boulder to check. He saw the wood come at his face and had no chance to react before it made contact.
Ruby heard the Technos footsteps and swung the gnarled driftwood with all of her strength as they looked round the boulder. Ruby didn't realise it was Ram until she had hit him with the wood.
Ram was pushed backwards with the force of the blow and fell to the sand. His eyes were streaming and blood was running down his face from his damaged nose. As he wiped his eyes furiously blinking back stars he stumble up and waited for the girl to continue hitting him. His eyes were misting so badly all he could see was that she had long blonde hair.
Ruby dropped her driftwood but the damage had already been done. She watched Ram adopt a fighting stance and assumed he couldn't recognise her
"I'm so sorry Ram." she said starting towards him. Ram backed off as Ruby apologised and asked her
"Who are you?" this confirmed Ruby's guess and she said
"It's me. Ruby." She stopped a metre or so in front of him. "I didn't realise it was you I'm sorry." She continued.
"I didn't realise it was you either," Ram said stepping forward recognising Ruby's voice. Ram wiped his face with his sleeve again, his eyes watering less now but his nose starting to throb painfully.
"Have you found any of the others?" Ram asked Ruby to break the awkward silence that was forming.
"Only Lottie." Ruby said starting back to Lottie, Ram following behind. Lottie jumped violently as Ruby came over the sand dune, "Sorry" She apologised "It was only Ram" Ruby gave Lottie a hand standing up as the girl asked
"Did you find any others?" Both Ram and Ruby shook their heads "Oh" Lottie said disappointedly,
"There's nothing else in that direction only a cliff" Ram said
"Back the way we came then I guess" Ruby said starting back east.
Jay and Slade walked down the beach several metres apart with Jay nearest the ocean. "Do you think any of the others survived?" Jay asked thoughtfully after a few minutes. Slade shrugged
"I don't know we have most of our friends which I guess we should be thankful for." He answered thinking of Ebony.
"What about Ruby Lottie Trader and Ram?" Jay asked wondering why Slade wasn't more worried.
"They're strong they're probably just down the beach somewhere." Slade stated confidently. Jay said nothing as he thought it unlikely. The two men did not have to go far until their arms were full of fuel, they headed back in silence.
Darryl and May headed cautiously through the woods not knowing what to expect. As they headed further in the light being filtered in began to lessen and the gloom thickened. May spotted a bird's nest in a tree and pointed it out to Darryl,
"I'll see if there are any eggs in it, you see if there is anything edible on the ground." Darryl nodded in response and started to look for edible roots or fruits. May climbed the tree skilfully but found no eggs and so began to descend again. Darryl found a mushroom patch and started to put the fungi in his pack.
May found a hole in the tree and peered in wondering whether it contained anything of value. The darkness of the forest meant she could not see inside and so placed her hand inside. The hole was fairly shallow and she felt many round object of different sizes, she pulled several out to see what the objects were. To her surprise May pulled out nuts, hazelnuts mainly with a few acorns thrown in. She assumed she had stumbled onto a careless squirrels forgotten winter store and so put as many as possible into her bag and continued down. Darryl had collected all the mushrooms and widened his search until he found a blackberry bush covered in fruit. As he started to collect it he heard May call to him and shouted back
"I'm here collecting blackberries"
May walked in the direction of Darryl's voice but could see no one "Darryl?" She called again finding a blackberry bush but not her friend.
"Maybe she's fallen out of the tree." Darryl thought to himself as he hurried back to the tree after her second call. When he reached the tree he could not find May "May?" he called and saw her walk out of the bushes several metres from the direction he had taken,
"How about we don't separate again?" May suggested, Darryl nodded in agreement,
"This way" he said going back to the blackberry bush with May behind him.
Mouse moved closer to the dieing fire yawning as she pulled her jacket closer to her. Nearby Salene and Trudy were playing with Brady and Amber was still quieting her son. Gel was trying to fix her hair and make up while Sammy watched adoringly, Mouse shook her head, Sammy was strange sometimes. Ebony was stood staring into the fire oblivious of everything including Lex's aggravating snoring from next to her.
Jack and Ellie were talking quietly about something Mouse couldn't hear but she wasn't really bothered just cold. Salene addressed the whole group
"Slade, Jay Darryl and May have been gone a long time." She received an answer from Jay who came up from behind her and dumped the driftwood in a pile close to the fire.
"Well I'm back and Slade is right behind me." Slade walked up and put is driftwood on top of Jay's
"So where did Darryl and May go?" he asked
"They went to find some food just after you left." Amber replied glancing up now Bray JR had finally fallen asleep.
"Has anyone seen Ruby or Ram yet?" Slade asked causing Ebony to feel a rush of jealousy which she vented by glaring viciously at the fire with her back to Slade. Salene shook her head
"Nor Lottie and Trader, we should send out search parties down the beach they could be hurt and need our help." Salene suggested
"We could split into threes one group go west, one group go west and the other two go the same directions but further back in case they have left the beach." Jay proposed. Amber nodded
"Once Darryl and May get back…"
"Once we get back what?" Darryl asked walking up. Mouse laughed loudly at the coincidence and Lex awoke with a start
"What the…?" He mumbled sitting up with a confused expression causing everyone to laugh.
"Ah…Sleeping Beauty has awakened." May joked as she sat down and started to empty her bag of mushrooms and nuts.
"We couldn't find a lot" Darryl explained "Just a few mushrooms, nuts and berries." He started to empty his bag too.
"Better than nothing" Trudy said gratefully.
The group settled down and ate the little food that had been found. "We were discussing finding the others before you returned" Amber said picking up the conversation. "If we split into groups of three as Jay suggested," Ebony gave a slight cough "That still leaves two people here. Do you want to take Brady?" Amber asked Trudy who nodded. "Ellie you'll have to stay because of your leg, but does anyone want to be the second?" Mouse put up her hand
"Can I stay?" Amber nodded
"Groups of three then." She instinctively moved closer to Jay and watched the others group. Darryl, Gel and May grouped and set of West along the beach. Trudy, Brady, Salene and Sammy headed west but off the sandy shore. The east beach team consisted of Jay and Amber, with Jack asking to stay with Ellie which no one objected to. Lex, Ebony and Slade took the last available path, leaving Ellie, Jack and Mouse by the fire.
Ram, Ruby and Lottie walked for a while before resting "We've covered a fair bit of ground, we must caught in a strong current to be separated this far." Ruby said.
"Or the others left without us." Ram said pessimistically. Ruby glared but he continued anyway, "We aren't exactly important to them are we. Lottie the thief, Ruby the barmaid and Ram the ex-techno leader." He said scornfully.
"Ram this is why you'll never understand other people, not everyone is like you not everyone only looks out for themselves."
After several hours of anxious waiting Ellie and Jack heard someone coming, as they turned they saw Slade and Ebony with Lex a little behind, they admitted finding nothing and seated themselves around the fire. Jack added more driftwood and the group settled as the light dimmed.
Trudy, Salene, Sammy and Brady came back a few minutes later with various berries and roots although they did not find any other mallrats. Brady and Mouse soon fell asleep and Lex went to fetch more kindling for the fire along with Jack. Darryl was the next back, with May and Gel close behind, they had found a washed up first aid kit from the boat but nothing else of use. Salene and May gently removed the shirt from Ellie's leg and although it was long it was not as deep as it appeared to be, Ellie grit her teeth as Salene used cleaning fluids to sterilise her wound and then bandaged it tightly.
Jay and Amber returned with Ram Ruby and Lottie however no one knew where Trader was. The group held a meeting about this after everyone had eaten their meagre portion of berries and roots.
"We need to know what to do about Fish." Amber said.
"Well we can't stay here any longer, we need to move on" Lex pointed out. May nodded
"I know Trader; he would have found us by now he obviously got pulled down by the ship."
"So are we all in agreement; we'll move on tomorrow?" There was a murmur of consent from everyone but Mouse, Lottie and Brady who were all sound asleep.
"Which direction shall we take?" Sammy asked
"We could head for that building that was on the headland near where I woke up." Ram suggested
"What kind of building is it?" Gel asked
"An old house, big probably derelict but its shelter." Ruby explained.
Slade nodded "So it's agreed?"
"Wait we don't know what we'll find at this place, it could be dangerous, not to mention we have no food for a days trek to nothing." Lex protested standing up.
"Well we don't have any food to stay here either, where it's nice and sheltered and completely hidden." May snapped sarcastically.
"So we're going to find this house, which will be perfectly safe, full of food and live happily ever after?" Lex replied equally sarcastically his volume rising as he became more irritated. Trudy stood between Lex and May
"Will you please be quiet the children are trying to sleep, although how they've managed it with you two arguing I don't know." She said angrily in hushed tones. "Can we sit down and be a little quieter about this?" she asked looking from one to the other. May resumed her seat and Lex reluctantly followed suit. Trudy also sat down after checking on Brady, relieved the argument was over.
"If we don't go to the headland where else could we go?" Darryl asked, and there was silence until Lex suggested
"We could find a town, trade for food, get to know the locals, you know." Ebony shook her head
"We don't know how far we'd have to go or if there is a town nearby, besides we'd have nothing to trade when we got there." Lex was about to object when Amber spoke up,
"How about we go to the house check it out, get our bearings and go to the town in a few days?" The group agreed and Lex although hating to compromise saw he would not win and couldn't be bothered to argue.
"Is this meeting over now so I can get my beauty sleep?" Gel asked impatiently.
"So all in favour of going to the headland?" Slade asked ignoring Gel. The tribe unanimously agreed and each chose a place to rest.