Chapter 6

Ginger stared out the bus window at the passing cars. She was bored out of her brain, but wasn't going to complain. Mars sat next to her sleeping. She had gone about 48 hours, maybe more, without sleep and almost passed out as soon as she got on the bus.

The cars seemed to have been overtaking the bus, even the little mini buses. Suddenly the bus jerked and there was a loud clanking like something fell out of the bus. The driver slammed on the brakes and everyone jolted. Mars was now awake and wondering what was going on. The driver got off to inspect what had happened. He was gone a while and Mars was beginning to worry. No one else one the seemed concerned about what was happening, most of them had gone back to sleep.

"Stay here," Mars said and got up. She glanced out the window on the other side of the bus and saw the driver shaking his head in amazement with the occasional mouthed curse. She got off the bus and saw what the driver was so amazed by. A few metres back up the road was the buses engine with a trail of miscellaneous bits and pieces off the bus. "Oh, great," Mars complained, "someone doesn't want us to get to New York".

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We had ended up staying at one of the abandon factories nearby so we could be close when the others arrived. Alley wasn't too happy with me for going with them or trusting them for that matter. She sat in the corner glaring at them and occasionally at me. "Is she usually this friendly," Fang asked sarcastically. "No, she's usually cheerier," I replied with a sarcastic answer. "So who did you say you were waiting for?" Max asked. "Some relatives... well they're not actually related, but their family".

Max left with her flock to get some food, I suppose they were planning to stay a while. Alley hadn't spoken to me all night and the next morning, she only began to talk to me because she was hungry. "Elsie, I'm hungry," were her first words. "Okay, we'll go out for lunch". So we went out to a corner cafe and ordered two huge meals, though my meal wasn't as big as hers. On the way back to the factory we past an electrical goods store. The store window was covered with TV screens all set on the same channel. A news flash came on just as we were passing.

"Three days ago there was an explosion in house a in ... No survivors are known yet, but five unidentified bodies were found. The cause of the explosion is thought to be a terrorist attack..." Those were the only words I heard and from the look on Alley's face, she heard them too. She stared at the TV screens, horrified. I did the same.

They couldn't have been dead, Mars had trained us to survive something like that. Alley looked up at me with watery eyes, "They're dead aren't they?" I wasn't quite sure. The evidence pointed towards their death, but my knowledge of our training and the disbelief that anything like that could happen persuaded me otherwise. "No, they can't be. This is the Flock we're talking about, they're too smart for that to happen". "How can you say that? You know they're dead. Look," she pointed at the screens, "there's prove. Five bodies were found. There are seven of us in the Flock, minus us that equals five!" she yelled. "How do we know it's the flock, maybe they're Erasers. Trust me, they're alive". "You can't lie to me!" she said coldly as she stared into my eyes. "I'm not lying," I stared back. So far she had been able to control herself, but she couldn't anymore. She began crying and ran back to the factory. I ran after her to make sure she didn't do anything stupid and reckless.

She reached the factory before me, when I reached there she was in the corner again crying. I shut the door behind me and leaned up against the wall. Tears began to form in my eyes. What if they were dead, after all they were supposed to be here already? I went into one of the rooms and cried. Last thing I wanted was for Alley to see me cry. Anger built inside of me and I couldn't contain it anymore. I punched an old filthy mirror. Fragments of glass dug into my knuckles and they bled, but I didn't feel the pain. In fact I felt better, all my emotional pain flooded out with my blood, but I still cried. I walked out of the room and began to pace. I leaned over the bench. I had another burst of anger and knocked a few cups off the bench. They flew across the room and hit the wall next to the door. Collapsing to the ground, I buried my head in my hands. Yes, even my bloody one.

The door creaked open, I glanced over and saw Max and her flock standing in the door way. "Okay" Max muttered at our appearances. Alley abruptly stood up and walked over to me. When she reached me she began to yell. "Why do you continue to lie to me?! You know as well as I do that they're all dead!" "Alley cal-" I began to say but she cut me off. "No. Stop it Elsie. You always lie to me. Everyone knows it!" "Just...just...SHUT UP!" I screamed at her. She fell silent in shock but I couldn't contain my anger and sadness anymore. "You're not perfect either. What about when you murdered that kid." I stopped myself realizing what I had just said. Alley stared at me, all of the colour had evaporated from her face and tears rolled down her cheeks. "I can't believe you brought that up," she whispered. "Alley I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." I tried to apologize but she shook her head. "Stop." she muttered then turned away from me and ran out of the room.

Once she had moved out of my view I noticed that everyone else was staring at me. "Stop staring at me." "Shouldn't you go after her?" Nudge asked. "I said stop staring at me," the flock broke their intent stare then I added, "Besides that is my business. Anyway I'm going now." I ran out of the factory to find Alley hoping that she hadn't gone far.