Chapter 2

oOo

Run.

She has to run. He's gaining on her, larger frame an advantage to her small, weak one. Would be stronger, but she hasn't eaten in so long. The man had money, and money meant food. But he saw her.

He's going to get her.

No! No, keep running, faster faster faster!

Round a corner. Jump! Over a box. He stumbles and curses. Grin. Dive into the crowd. Left. Right. Left. Duck! Left again!

A side alley. Run, leap over the bin. Keep going! Almost there...

Pain! Bottle strikes the back of her head. She trips and falls, balance gone.

"Ha! Got you, you little thief!"

No no no! Get up, get up!

Can't, dizzy. Fall again. Ow, ow, hurts. Hurts too much.

A hand, large and calloused around her throat. Back against the wall.

Can't breathe! Can't...can't...

Help!

"Hey! What are you doing? Get off her!"

Crack!

Loud noise, bad man run away.

"-You okay? Stay with me!"

Brown hair. Blue eyes. Young boy, but older than her.

"Uh, listen to my voice, yeah? You probably have a concussion, so you need to stay awake, at least until I can get you to Lizzie. She's patch you up. I'm Nick...guess you don't really care, huh? What's your name?"

"Don't...have...name." She had never seen a need for a name. Who was there to call her it?

"Oh, um, why don't I give you a name? I can't just call you girl all the time."

"O...kay." It was best to agree with him, at least whilst she was injured.

"Good! Uh...let me think. Ah ha! How 'bout Artemis? Always liked that name. Its the goddess of the moon and hunting, or something. Eh, I think it sounds kinda cool."

"I...like it." She didn't care.

"That's good, and- hey! Don't you close your eyes! Stay-"

oOo

Artemis left the school quickly enough, pushing open the doors with one hand and peering around.

Outside was chaos. Loud yells and screams assaulting her hearing, tears streaming down many of the children's faces. Flashes of colour as some ran past her, likely heading to their homes in search of family.

She cringed and shook her head, ignoring the building headache as best she could. She had never liked loud noises or vibrant colours, and had a strong aversion to crowds. Pulling up her dark grey hood, shadowing her face, she set out again.

Artemis automatically adopted the run she used for lengthy distances. Long strides which ate up the ground, but with enough manoeuvrability to dart around any kids who were in her way. Cars, too, which sat in the middle of streets or had crashed, with the noticeable absence of drivers, even dead ones. There may have been children in the back or passenger seat, but they were hardly her responsibility. Let someone who cared worry about them.

Children were pouring out of the school. The younger ones had clumped together in small groups, taking strength from their numbers. They sat at the edges of the street, looking around with lost faces. Brothers, sisters and friends huddled together. Some walked around, calling for their parents or siblings. A lot of them were crying, especially the younger girls, who walked around hugging each other for comfort.

Artemis thought the way they were acting was rather ridiculous. Then again, they were better than the groups of older children – boys, mostly – who obviously thought the whole thing was a right laugh. They were running through the streets, some already breaking into homes whilst others gathered together, smirks on their faces, though she thought she caught an undercurrent of fear in their eyes.

But they didn't matter to her. All that mattered was getting home and checking to see if Nick was there, or if he's 'poofed' with the rest of the over fifteens. She could work from there.

…

Their home was down the highway, past Coates Academy and near some agricultural land. Coates was a private, elite boarding school. However, most people knew of it as where rich parents sent troubled or 'difficult' children.

The kids in Perdido Beach seemed to have some sort of rivalry with them, and referred to the place as a 'dumping ground for problem children'. It was rather accurate, as far as she could tell, as she had heard about some of the reasons kids were sent there, and it was widely regarded as having dangerous pupils.

Artemis herself had never been there, or met any of those who attended, but if Coates's sports stadium lights were on, the school was sometimes visible from the right view. It was certainly a depressing looking place, all grey walls and imposing gates. She could also see why it had earned the nickname 'The Fear Factory', by looks alone.

Nick and Artemis lived largely apart from the Perdido Beach community, which was just fine by them. Any initial welcomes when they first arrived had been abruptly, though politely, declined, and people had thankfully gotten the message.

Unlike many her age, Artemis didn't feel the need to be popular, or honestly have any friends. She was antisocial to the extreme, though the occasional company of Nick was tolerated, largely due to her gratitude to him.

Besides, she needed him. Without Nick she would probably be back on the streets, or in foster care, which was worse in her opinion. Nick provided a place to stay, food and education. It was enough to convince her to stay with him.

She stopped, looking down the highway. She had left the other under fifteen's far behind; all of them seemed to be gathering in the Town Plaza, from what she had seen, or heading to their homes. No one was this far out though.

She considered the distance from here to Nick's place. It would take her a long time to get to the house, time she just didn't have.

At the side of the road was a small car which seemed to have rolled to a stop when the driver had poofed, not crashing as many of the others did since the highway was so straight. Jogging over to it, she could hear that the engine was still running.

Yanking the door open she sat down on the seat, thankful that Nick had taught her how to drive, after much pestering, the beat-down truck he owned. The car was at least similar in control, and before too long she was driving steadily down the highway. Too slow, in her opinion, but it was at least faster than she was, and she wouldn't be tired out at the end of the trip.

She usually walked to school, getting up earlier than most kids to be there on time. It didn't matter too much; she didn't sleep for long anyway, managing to feel rested from even the shortest sleeps. Lately she had been sleeping less and less, until it was little more than a few hours. She wondered if it would eventually be that she didn't need it at all.

It wasn't just that. Food she'd been eating less of, drinking less, yet she wasn't loosing weight. In fact, if anything, she seemed to be getting heavier, though not visibly. Eating and drinking just felt...wrong, to her, as if she was trying to eat dirt instead of a sandwich, drinking oil instead of water.

She still needed both, as evident by pangs of hunger, but they were becoming less common, until she was only having one small meal a day. Nick didn't know, but they rarely saw each other due to his work hours and her lack of need for conversation, so he had no chance to find out.

Honestly, she felt more hungry looking at living creatures than she did even the most delicious food. This had both worried and scared her a bit at first, before it was dismissed as unimportant. It wasn't as if she felt an uncontrollable urge to eat people, so it was hardly a problem. She was just a little more...fond of meat than most people.

As she drove by she glanced up at the lane leading to Coates. The school was set on the top of a hill, the road up to it steep and winding, possibly meant to add to its illusion of grandeur. She wondered how they were handling the situation of no adults. The students were supposedly more intelligent than the majority of those of Perdido Beach, but they were also more isolated. Though, due to the lack of parents caring for them, they were probably more independent and capable of looking after themselves.

She didn't bother questioning if the adults had even disappeared from there. By the abandoned cars on the road ahead and behind her, it was obviously a widespread thing. She just needed to figure out how widespread.

Soon enough, the turning for Nick's place came up. She followed the barely there track up to where she lived, keeping an eye out for any other living creatures – human or otherwise. The path was partially obscured by trees and bushes, which were starting to become rarer as she drew nearer to the desert.

Finally she arrived at the end, barely stopping to turn off the engine before getting out of the car and running to the door. Nick and herself lived in a small, two bedroomed cabin, which had been patched up from a collapsing wreck to somewhat liveable conditions by Nick. The wooden walls were old, looking unstable enough to be considered dangerous, even if you knew about the various work Nick had done to make sure it wouldn't fall down on top of them.

Artemis had been sceptical of living there at first, sure that it wouldn't last its first storm, but it had so-far held. The plain green curtains were visible through a wide window, and the dull brown door obviously wasn't part of the original design.

It wasn't much, but it was enough to satisfy both occupants.

Nick's dull red truck was parked outside, indicating that Nick was home. She grabbed the key from her pocket and stuck it in the lock, movements stiff and hurried. She wasn't sure whether she was worried or not, but she knew that she needed to find out if Nick was here or not.

The door opened with a creek, loud in the quiet clearing, and she slammed it shut behind her. Taking several steps inside, she strained her hearing for the sound of Nick's snoring; he would be asleep around this time.

The inside of the cabin was a mismatch of the original, that was still in good enough condition, furniture and design, and what Nick had chosen himself. A lot of the newer items were either stolen or from junk yards that he had been able to raid, the first with Artemis' help.

There were six only rooms; two bedrooms, a living room (where she was now standing), a kitchen, a garage and the basement. The living room was sparsely decorated, two second-hand couches in the centre of the room facing a relatively new television that Nick had saved up enough money to buy, though it was still one of the cheaper kinds. A pile of DVDs lay on the floor beside it, all of them Nick's.

The bedrooms were almost identical to each other; a single bed, wardrobe, small window and cheap wooden desk with a chair. However, Nick's was much more personal than her own, clothes littering the floor and a pile of car magazines on the desk. Several bits and pieces of junk he had picked up and decided to keep lined the window ledge, a faded, black leather bomber jacket hanging on the back of the chair.

Artemis' eyes fell on the bed, a dejected sigh escaping her. The covers were rumpled, as if someone had just been laying there, an indent still visible in the pillow from where a head had been. Nick was gone, along with the rest of the over fifteens.

Half-heartedly she called out his name, just in case he was in the garage or another room, "Nick!"

Hearing no reply she moved into the sitting room, collapsing on the couch and resting her head on the back. She needed a plan, needed to figure out what she was going to do next. This was how she did things; going through her life step by step. She didn't like planning too far into the future, knowing that it only took one variable for everything to change.

How could she turn this situation to her advantage? There were no adults. No laws, no authority figures, no punishment. She needed to figure out how she could use this.

But first, she needed to find out how far this extended, if it was just the area around Perdido Beach or the entire world. Piece together what she knew, be sure of it – don't assume anything. Treat it as some kind of experiment or research. Find out the extent of what had happened, focus on the hows and whys later. Go from there.

With a decisive nod she stood up and walked back out of the door, grabbing the trucks keys from the chipped bowl on a low table near the doorway. She locked the door behind her, though she doubted anyone would venture this far out, or even bother to try breaking in. It wasn't as if the place looked to have any valuables to steal.

Moving at a slight job she opened the door and leapt into the seat, turning the key. The engine started with a loud rumble, stuttering slightly before evening out. The truck had been backed into the drive, so it was easy enough driving down the slim lane and back onto the highway, being careful not to clip the trees on either side.

She wondered how the other kids were coping. Were they panicking, desperately looking for their parents and older siblings? Or were they causing chaos, breaking into homes and destroying everything they could get their hands on?

But it didn't matter. They had nothing to do with her, unless they provided a threat to her existence. Then, and only then, she'd react.