The Lost Boys
"Lani! Lani, Robbie, come quick, I think he's dying!"
With a muffed, choked scream he darted blindly, just to get away from fire, to escape the pain.
"Calm down! It's okay, it's okay, you are safe."
A warm, gentle hand took his, while the other stroked his forehead, removing bangs of hair and wiping the sweat off. Finally, he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a girl crouching next to him, her big green eyes looking at him with concern while lips carried a tender, reassuring smile. The girl's dark brown hair was slick and long; she wore a facepaint, a blue wave pattern on her left cheek. She looked fifteen, his age. On her oversized white T-shirt, seemingly worn out but clean, there was a cartoonish smiling kiwi and an inscription below read "Thanks for visiting Green Cross!" . The girl also wore a pair of cut-off jean shorts and was barefoot.
Crouching beside her was a little boy of about seven years of age, his hair aslo long but lighter in color. Like the girl, he wore an equaly oversized white T with a kiwi and the same facepaint. The boy looked scared.
He also felt a presence of someone else, someone he couldn't see. The place was dark; the only illumination were the shaky glimpses of fire from the next room. He realized he was lying on the matress, on his stomach and stripped down to his boxers. His neck, arched and strained, was hurting. So was his head, back and legs. He was thirsty and nauseous.
"He's not dying Dingo," the girl told the kid. "On contrary, he's waking up."
"But his eyes," stuttered Dingo, pointing. "There's blood in his eyes."
"Must be a concussion," with this, she turned back to him. "How do you feel? Do you need anything?"
"Wa... Water," he croaked.
"Coming in a minute," a male voice sounded and he saw someone's feet in loose yellow satin pants disappearing in the door.
"We were giving to drink while you were unconscious, but not much. You could've choked, you know." the girl said, as if apologizing. "I'm Leilani, and this is Dingo."
She petted the kid's hair. Dingo was still looking at him wide-eyed. "His real name is Todd, but he prefers Dingo... and this is Robbie, my big brother."
"Hey," said a tall skinny teen, entering the room with a bottle of water in one hand and a guitar in the other. He was tanned, wore no shirt and had a wild bush of brown hair sticking out in every direction and a small goatee. Like Leilani and Dingo, he had a blue wave painted on his cheek Smiling sheepisly, he added "I guess I kinda woke you up playing, sorry 'bout that."
Robbie crouched next to the matress. "Here's your water dude, drink up"
He tried to push himself up leaning on his clenched fists, but could barely support his weight. His shoulder blades exploded with pain, he bit his lip but couldn't restrain himself from groaning.
"Here, let me," carefuly, Leilani helped him to sit up and Robbie put a bottle in his shaking hands. He clinged to the bottle, swallowing greedily, choking, coughing, feeling the water, so cold and so sweet, with every millimeter of his mouth and throat.
"Easy, easy," said the girl and took the bottle from him. He let go of it reluctancly. "You can throw up if you drink too much. You can get some more later, okay?"
He nodded.
"Th-thank you."
"Be my guest," Robbie said and winked at him. "Hey, what's your name?"
"My name..." he hesitated.
"Dude?"
"Martin. My name is Martin."
"Nice to meet you," the siblings nodded, followed by Dingo's quiet and shy "Pleasure to meet you... sir".
"How do you feel?" Leilani asked then.
"Woozy a bit," he frowned, unwilling to admit his head, neck and back were screaming with pain.
"Man, your back is one big bruise," said Robbie. "Your legs, too. What happened to you? I found you in a motorboat on the beach two days ago..."
"Two days?" Martin was shocked. "Hold on, what day is it today?"
"It's friday. Anyway..."
The fight in the mall happened on wednesday night. It's been three days. Where was he? What motorboat? What was this place?
"...You got lucky, you know that? You could've just drifted into the sea and then that's it, you're history. Anyway, you were wraped in some canvas with your hands on your chest, like a corpse. Whoever put you in there probably thought you were dead. What happened to you man, you remember?"
"I-I got in a fight."
"It's probably the Locos," said Dingo suddenly with anger in his voice. "They did it to him. Damn Locos."
Locos?! Oh shit.
"Dingo," Leilani said, and put her hand on the boy's shoulder, calming him down. "So who did this to you, Martin? Were it the Locos?"
He shook his head.
"I don't remember. Some guys, that's all. Maybe the Locos. I don't remember, really."
"Anyway, it's all over now. You're safe here. No one will harm you. What tribe are you with?"
"Thanks," Martin managed to smile. "I don't belong in any. Used to hang out by myself. What tribe are you guys with? And what is this place?"
"Hey, we're back!"
Two girls entered the room. The older, who looked around sixteen, had her fiery red hair done up in a ponytail and wore jean vest and pants; the girl she was holding by the hand seemed same age as Dingo. The little one, curly and blonde, was dressed in a bright green coverall. Both spotted the same white "Thanks for visiting Green Cross" shirts, had the blue wave face paint and were staring at Martin, surprised - the redhead with chocolate-brown eyes, the blonde with bright-blue. Both girls carried plastic boxes under their arms.
"Hon," Robbie got up and embraced the older girl. "I was starting to get worried... Girls, meet Martin. Martin, these are Blaze and Janey."
"Hi," he said, raising his hand.
"Hi Martin. Glad to see you're okay," replied the redhead smiling, while the little girl dropped her box and stepped back to hide behind her.
"His eyes are scary," she whispered. "What is wrong with his eyes?"
Dingo turned to her.
"It's okay Janey," he said with an air of importance, "He's just having a con... concultion."
Teens around him couldn't help but laugh. "It's called concussion Dingo," said Leilani. "And Janey, don't be afraid, Martin won't do anything wrong to you. He's a nice boy. Come on, come on over and say hi to him."
The little one approached him shyly.
"I'm sorry. Hello Mr. Martin,"
"Hi Janey.And don't be. I'm sorry I scared you."
Blaze opened up her plastic box which appeared to be filled with red berries. "Anyone hungry? Boys, Lani? Martin? Or you guys are in a mood for something more serious? We still have some dry-cured fish left."
"You sure you have enough food to share?" Martin asked cautiously. He was starving despite the nausea. "I don't want to be a burden."
"Dude, you're not in the city anymore," laughed Robbie and slapped him on the back, causing Martin to wince. "Aw, sorry! What I'm saying, there's plenty of food for all of us in here. Don't be shy. Blaze, I'll just have me some berries, please."
"Me too," echoed Dingo, while Leilani thanked Blaze but said she wasn't hungry. When the redhead looked at Martin, he asked for berries too.
Blaze poured remaining water into her and Janey's plastic boxes ("I've picked all of these by myself!" the blonde girl informed Martin proudly) to wash the berries, poured it off and put the boxes on the floor near the mattress. Gathering around, they began their feast.
"Back to your questions," said Leilani, seeing as everyone else had their mouth full, "You are at the Green Cross island. Green Cross National Park, ever herad of it?"
Even been there once. When he was nine, his parents took Bray and him to the Green Cross, a relatively large island, which shape resembled a cross, about 30 miles off shore, for a visit at the national park At the dock, they rented the bikes and spent the day traveling around in the woods and swimming in the Silver Mirror, a pond in the middle of the island. Now he remembered, before they left, Bray bought himself a kiwi T-shirt in the souvenir store that stood on the beach.
"This is the souvenir store right?"
"Manager's office", said Blaze, gesturing around herself. "We use the store itself as a living room."
"How did you get in here?" he asked.
"Our folks brought us here in attempt to escape from the virus. As in, Robbie and Lani's mother worked here at the store, and my mom and dad tagged along. And Dingo and Janey live here to begin with. Their father was a forest guard,so they lived here in a hut in the woods all year round."
"It's not such a bad place to live in," added Robbie, wiping his lips, smeared with bright red juice. "We're not starving - there are fruits here, vegetables from Janey and Dingo folks' garden, berries, mushrooms, you name it. Plenty of fish, too. As for water, we get it from the Mirror. And I hear in the city people are killing for food, not so?"
Martin nodded, frowning. "Yes, happens all the time now. For food, for water, for turf... just for fun, too..."
He cut himself short, remembering Pennywise, Gail, countless others who found their death on the streets in the fire of tribal warfare. Some of them from his hands.
"Yeah the city sucks these days. It's a damn jungle out there." said Robbie with a sudden sadness in his voice; the others nodded and the room went into silence.
"So what tribe are you guys with?" Martin asked finally and Dingo hurried to answer,
"We're the Lost Boys."
"You know, no parents and stuck on the island, like in that Peter Pan book. The Lost Boys."
"The Lost Boys?" he wondered. "But there are more girls in your tribe than guys."
Again, a heavy silence fell. The kids bowed their heads; Blaze was sullenly rolling a berry between her fingers; Robbie sighed and tugged at his goatee. Finally, Leilani spoke quietly,
"You see, there were more of us. There was Rick, Dingo and Janey's older brother, and Kai and Donna. They..."
"Hey kids you wanna come watch the sunset with me?" Robbie asked the little ones suddenly. They looked up at him and he added, "I'll let you ride my surfboard too. How does that sound?"
The siblings looked at each other.
"Yeah, okay," said Dingo quietly. "Let's go. Thanks Rob."
As they left the room, Robbie stopped in the doorway and gave Blaze, Leilani and Martin an apologizing look. "Don't think they should hear this again."
His girlfriend nodded silently and gave him a thumbs up. After Robbie left, Leilani continued:
"So Kai and Donna, yes. They actually came from the city on a boat. Now about six months ago were entertaining with the idea of trading with the tribes in the city. We thought we'd trade water and fresh fruits and vegetables for battaries, clothes, gasoline, stuff like that. For a while, everything was going smoothly, but then three months ago Kai, Donna and Rick went to the city, and in the evening Rick returned alone. He was shot in the back. Really I have no idea how he managed to make it to the island, with this wound and all the blood loss..." she shook her head. Martin bit his lip thinking damn, I can smell where this is going. "They were ambushed by some tribe called the Locos, ripped off from all the stuff they had with them. Those bastards were demanding to tell them where they got water and food from. Neither of our guys would speak, so the Locos killed Kai before Donna's eyes. Then they began to rape her. Ricky siezed the moment, broke free and ran; they shot him but he still managed to get away and get to the boat they left on the beach. He told us that much. He died the next day and we couldn't save him. Donna was probably killed, too."
"I'm sorry."
Martin just couldn't hold back. He didn't remember being reported about such an encounter - the guys who did the ambush were probably too scared to tell him they failed to get the Lost Boys to talk and let one of them escape. He did however remember fresh water and a big sack of fruits that Spike brought him the other day.
The girls looked at him perplexed.
"I'm sorry... uh... to hear this. Sorry you lost your friends," he said.
Leilani smiled sadly at him. "Thanks Martin."
"Dingo only talks about revenge since then," Blaze said bitterly. "About how he's gonna go to the city when he grows up and kill all the Locos. Poor kid. Truth is, we probably will never go back to the city again. At least not before all this tribal war bullshit ends. Or if there's an emergency, like if one of us gets sick. Besides, we only have enough fuel left to get there.And I don't have to tell you how little fuel is left in the city by now."
A couple of hours later, as Martin lay in the dark falling asleep to a quiet sounds of Robbie's guitar from the next room, it suddenly came to him.
Yes, it appeared that Bray was able to explain the situation to the Mallrats - otherwise they'd just throw his body out on a street and wouldn't bother with this burial ritual. Yes, it also meant that his brother, Trudy and the baby wouldn't be expelled, would stay in the mall and enjoy a relative safety.
But Blaze said they only had enough fuel for a one-way journey. Martin doubted they would waste it on giving him a ride back to the city and he doubted even more he could force them to; not after what the Lost Boys been through thanks to his tribe.
His daughter was safe.
But it would be a long time before he could see her again.