I had made a note of everything that the Bohemians would need to complete a food replicator, Macca had decided that I should go out with Brit and his team, and as Meat wouldn't let me go with Brit on my own she came along as well. She had this idea in her head that he'd tie me up and leave me somewhere. Though for some reason the idea of tying me up was one that intrigued her, Brit wouldn't be the one doing the tying.
We had been walking for a few hours when we hit the edge of the Outlands, Brit was still grumbling about how much of a stupid idea it was me going with them, the Police would be looking for me.
"I don't see why she had to come with us." He said to Galileo.
"Well she could have just given you the list," Meat said, "but knowing you, you'd have come back with half a rusty old car or something."
"I don't understand why we need a food repli… whatever anyway." He said.
"And with that sentence he proves my point about the rusty old car…" she whispered to me.
"And you two used to date?" I asked.
"She couldn't get enough of me." Brit said.
"I didn't realise what else was out there…" Meat hit back, "it was all 'dreamer this, dreamer that' no offence G… then once he found the dreamer he gets himself shot, that's him all over, one big anti-climax."
"You can question many things about me, Meat," he said, "but not that."
She rolled her eyes. I laughed.
"This is it," I said, "the disused factory…"
"Right," Brit said, "we need to find a window that's low to the ground…"
"Or…" Meat said walking up to the doors, "we could go through the door…"
She opened it with ease.
"How did you know about this place anyway?" Brit asked me.
"I passed it when I was trying to find you guys," I said, "I figured if I couldn't find you then I'd need a place to stay for the night…"
"Not just a pretty face…" Meat said.
"We have work to do." Brit said.
Brit walked off with a couple of the others. Meat headed off to see if she could find anything worth anything.
"Don't mind him," Scaramouche said, "he's still a bit touchy about Meat not remembering him, I don't think he's completely over her to be honest."
"What about her?" I asked.
"Oh she's so over him," Scaramouche said, "she probably wouldn't even piss on him if he were on fire anymore…"
"So he doesn't like me because… well…" I said, trying to find the right words.
"Because you and Meat are getting along?" she asked.
I nodded a bit.
"He's a bit wary of you," she said, "we all are in a way, but he's more worried about you hurting Meat, for all his bravado, he still cares."
"I don't want to step on anyone's toes…" I said.
"Don't worry about it," said Brit, having walked back over to us, "you're not. She isn't in to me anymore, I've dealt with that. I think I've found what you're looking for…"
He lead the way over to a machine that came to just above my knee from the floor, I crouched down and took a closer look.
"Yeah, this is it," I said, "looks very nearly complete… but just in case it's not, grab pretty much everything you can find that might go with it…"
"This is all well and good," Meat said, walking over to where we were, swinging a huge metal pipe, "but what about that stuff we need to put into it…?"
We heard banging. Looking around we saw a huge storage container at the end of the factory.
"I think Cliff found what we're looking for…" Meat said with a laugh.
Brit went and let Cliff out. I looked in one of the boxes in the container.
"This is exactly what we need…" I said.
"This?" Meat asked picking up a square of green jelly, "this is what we'll be eating? I'm going on a liquid diet…"
"Trust me," I said, "once we've got the machine working, it'll taste great."
"If you say so…" she said.
We didn't notice the Police that had walked in through the door that Meat had opened 10 minutes before.
"Hey, what are you kids doing in here!" shouted one of the police officers.
We all turned around.
"Oh shit…" Brit said.
"We figured as no one else is using this stuff, we might as well put it to good use…" Meat said, "if not it's just going to sit here, and it'll cost Globalsoft a lot of cash to sort it all out…"
"You're trespassing on private property." He said.
"Right," she said, "we'll just take what we need and get going…"
The Police looked at each other.
"I don't see why not," one said, "if it's gone it's one less thing for us to worry about."
"They don't pay us enough to give a shit really," another said, "posted to the Outlands and forgotten about."
"Okay," said the first one, "just take it and be quick about it…"
We all looked at each other, and let out a collective sigh of relief, thankfully the lack of lighting in the factory was working in our favour, well in my favour.
We loaded up the cart we had brought with us, we packed it with everything we might need, the machine itself, parts and enough food to last a good 6 months. As we were leaving the factory, we had to go past the Police.
"Wait one minute…" one said, clicking away at the device on his arm, "you look familiar…"
I looked at Meat, it was almost like she could read my mind, as she gripped the metal bar she was still carrying. She looked at Brit and he handed the pull bar of the cart to Galileo, Scaramouche moved so she was standing between me and the Police, and Cliff stood there looking gormless.
"Wow…" Cliff said, "what does that thing do?"
The police officer looked at him.
"This?" he asked, "it's a communication device, everyone on Planet Mall has one, don't you?"
"I think I lost mine…" Cliff said, "what does it show you?"
"Well right now I'm looking to see if that girl is the one I think she is." The officer said.
"She's nothing special," Cliff said, "brains of our current operation, but other than that she's not that interesting."
The two other officers had already gone to stand outside, I figured they really didn't care who I was either way.
"Can you show me how it works?" Cliff asked.
"Not right now," the officer said, "this is important…"
Brit looked outside the door.
"Your buddies don't seem to think it's that important…" Brit said, "they've already gone across the road to that bar."
The officer obviously got to what he was looking for. He looked at me, then back to the picture, then up at me again. I didn't blink or look away, he narrowed his eyes.
"You…" he started to say.
"Phoenix, run!" Meat said, "don't stop running till you get back to the Heartbreak, go!"
I did as I was told and ran out of the building, on my way out I heard the sound of metal connecting with something. The last thing I heard was Meat shouting at the officer in her Scottish accent.
"You little fucker, don't get blood on my boots."