Outside, Angel hopped in the tray of the ute again. Poison and Phobia looked at her, puzzled, not sure whether to follow her or leave her for the safety of the cabin.
"Spiders like to live in the air conditioner," Angel explained. Poison laughed. "Well, in that case, I'm joining you!" she said, hauling herself into the back. "I'm terrified of spiders."
Phobia smiled. "I don't mind spiders," she said. "And unlike you two, I'm not that fond of getting dusted out. Have fun with the sand, guys."
"At last, someone who sees sense!" Midas said, swinging himself into the driver's seat. "You and I can be the sensible people staying cool and comfortable in the front, Phobes. We'll leave these idiots to the mercy of the wind and sand!"
"Whatever, you two have fun with the spiders!" Angel called, laughing.
Phobia got into the cabin of the truck, and the ute rolled away from the house. Angel and Poison waved at Black Jack, who stood outside waving enthusiastically. "You kids stay safe now!" he called, his voice getting fainter as the ute rolled further and further away. "Take care, girls!"
The ute rumbled past the gate, Poison waving at the sunburnt man, yelling "Take care, Jimmy!", and then they were off, the ute picking up speed as the ranch grew smaller in the distance.
Eventually, they couldn't see it anymore, the farm lost in a cloud of dust and sand.
Angel pulled her goggles over her eyes, and looked around the valley. She'd just gained two new friends, her first after her long solitary seven years in the desert. She hadn't had proper friends for so long, she'd forgotten how good it felt to be able to just chat about whatever.
Of course, she and Poison couldn't do much chatting in the back of the ute, for fear of inhaling lungfuls of dust and sand in the process. But Angel still felt amazing. She looked over and caught Poison's eyes occasionally; the two would smile at each other and then look back out over the valley.
After about an hour, the ute swerved erratically, then suddenly screeched to a violent stop. Poison and Angel were nearly thrown out of the tray. With the engine killed, Angel could hear Midas yelling in the cabin.
The driver's door was thrown open and Midas tumbled out, yelling and cussing. "Holy fucking shit!" he screeched, gasping for breath and wheezing in fear. "Shit shit shit!"
"Midas, what's going on?" Angel said, jumping out of the back. "You two okay?"
"Spider!" Midas yelped. "Big fucking spider. But that's not it, that's not it at all, spiders are okay – fuck, Angel, you've picked up some fucking weird friends holy shit –"
"Midas, what are you talking about?" Angel said, turning to the cab. Her jaw dropped.
Phobia was sitting calmly in the passenger seat. She blinked slowly. In her hands, held up close to her face, was a massive tarantula – a huge hairy beast. Angel didn't even know they lived in the desert – new desert-adapted species, maybe? It sure wasn't like any tarantula she'd ever seen.
Phobia was staring deep into the monster's eyes. She looked perfectly at peace.
"P-Poison?" Angel mumbled. "Does... does Phobia do that a lot?"
Poison jumped out of the tray after Angel, peering into the cabin. Angel heard her take a sharp breath.
"I knew she liked spiders," Poison murmured. "She's great with them, and she doesn't like people killing them. And they never bite her. But that, I've never seen her do that before."
Angel stared at the girl sitting in the passenger cabin, staring calmly at the monster of a spider.
She turned to Midas, who was still crouched on the ground, but appeared to have calmed down somewhat. "Midas, what happened?" she asked.
Midas took a deep, shuddering breath. "It was stuck in the air con," he said. "Too big to get out of the vents. I told Phobia to just ignore it, and we'd deal with it when we got back. But she got all weird... she got agitated and said it was cruel to leave it there. I told her that if she was that bothered, she could turn the air con off and we'd open the windows. But then she pulled the grate off the air con and it flew out. And she caught it."
He shook his head. "I swerved the car, I yelled at her to drop it, to get away from it. I stopped the car and I asked if she was okay, if she was bitten. She didn't say anything. She was still holding it."
He gulped. "And she's still holding it now!"
"I can hear you, you know," Phobia said softly. Midas went quiet, as did Angel and Poison.
"It's okay," Phobia said. "She's not gonna bite me. She might have bitten one of you guys, but I asked her not to. She's pretty angry. I'm just gonna wait for her to cool off, then I'll let her go. I told the other spiders to leave the vents, too, so I'd keep clear of the vent."
Angel looked at the air con vent, a vertical pipe next to the cabin. Sure enough, small spiders were crawling out of it, racing to evacuate the air con vents.
"How did you talk to them?" Angel asked.
Phobia shrugged, her eyes still locked on the spider. "I dunno. I just do. They like me. They like my eyes, I think."
Midas shook his head. "Well, now I'm officially weirded out," he announced.
As they waited for Phobia to finish with the spider, Midas looked nervously at Angel and Poison. "So nobody knows anything about this girl?" he asked. "Nothing at all?"
"No," Poison said. "She has no memory preceding her escape from BL/ind. Her first memory is of running out of the city."
Midas looked thoughtful. "No memory," he said quietly. "So.. she's Coloured, she has crazy facial tattoos, and she can talk to spiders."
He twisted his mouth. "I think we need to take her to see the Red Mob," he said. Angel's eyes went wide. The Red Mob? Of all people?
Poison blinked. "Who's that?" she asked.
"They're kind of a religious sect," Midas explained. "They're a group who live way out in the desert. They're spider worshippers. They believe some spider deity called Destroya is one day going to be reborn into the human race to lead humanity to their salvation. To destroy those who would disturb the balance of the world, or something. I'm not sure how it all works. But basically, Destroya is this giant spider god that apparently caused the Fires, and is going to lead the survivors to salvation. The Red Mob are waiting for Destroya, and they hope to be saved. They all wear red, it's kind of weird. They're like monks, really. But they get by thanks to the fact that they run a massive ammo plant that supplies a lot of fighting gangs. Those gangs tend to carry the insignia of the Red Mob. They don't have to be believers in the religion, but they do have to buy the ammo and protect the Red Mob to wear the insignia. You guys ever heard of the Fabulous Killjoys?"
Poison shook her head.
"They're these assholes who run around making trouble for BL/ind. They're one of the reasons why BL/ind hate us so much, why they're trying to get rid of zonerunners. The Killjoys blow up their resources and kill their Dracs, they're worse than bandits. They try to be all like Robin Hood – you know, steal from the rich, give to the poor. But all they seem to achieve is to piss off BL/ind. And all that does for us is make life difficult – we have to hide, we have to avoid Dracs, and Dracs hunt us down."
Midas continued. "Anyway, the Killjoys are a major affiliate of the Red Mob. I don't know if they follow the religion, but they're pretty close buddies with them. As much as I hate them, the Killjoys are probably the best guys to talk to if you want to see the Red Mob. Their location is top-secret, you'd never find it, and the Killjoys are one of the only groups of people who know where they live, so to find the Red Mob, we need to find the Killjoys."
"They're kind of like local celebrities, huh?" Poison asked.
Midas snorted. "Yeah, kinda. Some people treat them like celebrities. The idiots that think they're actually helping somehow. But really, they're not. They're just making life more difficult than it has to be."
At last, Phobia looked away from the spider, looking up at Midas. "Someone wanna get the door for me?" she asked. "I'm gonna put her down, now."
Midas nodded and walked around the cabin, opening the door for Phobia. She carefully stepped out, walking over to a withered shrub. She crouched beside it and gently coaxed the tarantula onto a branch, before standing up and jogging back to the ute.
"Sorry about that," she said apologetically. "But I didn't want her getting into more trouble. If I just left her, she'd just run around looking for a human to bite, and then she'd just get herself killed. Now she should stay put, and she won't bite anyone again."
She looked at Poison and Angel. "The cabin's safe, now," she said. "All the spiders are gone."
She looked at Midas. "You talk to me before you use the car again," she said. "Those spiders were pretty banged about. Let me see if there are any spiders before you drive, so I can get them out before they get stuck in the vents again. Then you don't have to worry about them flying out of the air con."
She sighed and hopped into the cabin. "We all good to go?"
Midas, flabbergasted, hopped into the driver's seat. "Um. I guess." He turned on the ignition.
Poison and Angel clambered into the back seat of the cabin, both stunned by Phobia's behaviour. Angel began to wonder for the first time if bringing the pair home had been a good idea. Maybe she'd been a bit too hasty. Poison was fine, but Phobia... she was nice enough, but Angel had the bad feeling that the strange girl was going to make life altogether more crazy.
And Midas's plan to bring her to the Red Mob! That could only mean trouble. Angel knew that for Midas to make a decision like that mean that he'd seen something truly worrying in the girl's behaviour.
The ride back to The Sanctum was quiet. Phobia was back to normal, but Midas, Angel and Poison were still stunned, shocked by what they'd seen. Midas was no longer joking and laughing, but had now taken on an air of grim determination.
Angel began to calm down once they entered The Sanctum, looking around the familiar slums and roadside sellers with relief. In the midday, the markets were gone – food would spoil in the hot sun. Now, people walked along the road beside the cars, knocking on windows and car doors, hoping to find someone to sell their wares to.
These people, known as roadrunners, were the truly desperate, braving the the sun and the big cars and trucks and risking their lives to try and earn something tradeable for food. Angel felt a little sorry for them, but ignored the knocking on the windows – they had nothing to trade.
She was a roadrunner herself once, when she and Harmony had first moved into The Sanctum. Harmony had worked selling handmade bracelets and jewellery made out of bits of string and beads and coloured pebbles and other treasures found in the sand, and Angel had walked along the side of the road trying to sell them. She'd managed to sell them for a few tradeable items, but it had been difficult work, and she'd often suffered heatstroke and terrible sunburn in the process. She'd never been hit, but she'd nearly had an accident several times on the road.
She looked out at the roadrunners and felt grateful for the fact that she didn't have to roadrun anymore.
Eventually, they reached the hut, and Midas pulled the car into the cave/garage. Phobia hopped out first, followed by Poison and Angel.
"Well, here we are," Midas announced. "Home sweet home!" He began to head to Ace's place. "Angel, you get the girls settled in, I just need to talk to Ace for a second."
Angel led the girls over to the house, knocking on the door. "Harmony, we're home," she called, well aware that Harmony might be in the middle of some embarrassing yoga move set for her to practice by Donorcycle and Kitty. She'd walked into one of those once before. Never again.
Sure enough, Angel heard a grunt, an "Oof!" as Harmony twisted herself back into a normal position, and an exhausted-sounding "Come in!".
Angel opened the door, leading the girls into the house. She caught sight of Harmony, sitting on her bottom in the middle of the floor.
"Hey, Angel," Harmony said. "I see you brought the kids Black Jack sent us?"
"Hey, Harmony," Angel said. "Poison, Phobia, meet my sister, Harmony. Harmony, meet Poison and Phobia."
Harmony grunted, motioning for Angel to help her up. Angel ran over and hauled Harmony to her feet. Harmony walked over to the girls.
"My name's Harmony, as my sister just mentioned," she said with a sunny beam. "Now, you two make yourselves at home, and I'll just see if there's anything for you to eat. Welcome to our home, humble as it is!"
"Thank you, Harmony," Poison said. "We appreciate you taking us in at short notice, especially with.. your baby coming, and all."
"Oh, this little sprog?" Harmony patted her belly. "It's nothing, nothing at all. Our pleasure. Besides, you've arrived just in time, Gaia knows I'll need babysitters!" She winked at the three girls. "Now you run up to Angel's room and she can get you settled in. I'll call you down once I've got something for you lot to eat."
Angel led the girls to her bedroom. It was a small room with a little window and a crevice in the wall which held a few candles. A pile of clothes sat on the floor, separated into "clean", and "dirty" - Angel didn't have a wardrobe or cupboard, so most of her belongings just sat on the floor or in crevices she'd hollowed out of softer veins in the rock wall.
She just had a clock (batteries provided by Acetone), a couple of books, a few gifts and toys from Acetone, some bracelets and anklets left over from Harmony's jewellery business, and a string of feathers garlanded around the room for decoration. There was a little table where she placed another candle and a few other things. Her spear leant against a corner of the wall.
"Cool place," Poison said. Phobia nodded in agreement. "What's the spear for?" she asked.
"Protection," Angel explained. "I'm not allowed a gun, Harmony doesn't like them. And I need something to protect myself when I'm on my own in the desert, in case of bandits or Dracs."
She stared at the mattress on the floor; it wasn't going to be big enough for the three of them.
"Um," she said. "You two set down your stuff, I'll go see if I can find a mattress for you guys."
"You sure?" Phobia asked. "I don't mind the floor."
"Don't be silly, you guys need something to sleep on," Angel said with a smile. "I'll be right back."
She ran back into the kitchen. "Hey, Harmony, what are the girls meant to sleep on?" she asked.
Harmony turned, a pensive look on her face. "Hmm. I know I asked Ace to drop a mattress off just outside the door," she said. "Check outside, maybe he hasn't dropped it off yet."
Angel poked her head through the door. Sure enough, a mattress just big enough for two girls leaned against the wall of the house. "Thanks Harmony!" she called, before dragging it into the house.
She pulled it into her room, dumping it onto a bare space next to her bed. "There we go!" she announced, looking up at Phobia and Poison. They beamed simultaneously. "Thanks, Angel," Poison said. "This means a lot to us."
"Yeah, we forgot to thank you for taking us in earlier," Phobia said sheepishly.
"No problem," Angel said. "You're no trouble."
She looked around the room. Poison and Phobia had put their bags down near Angel's clothes.
"Sorry there's nowhere you can put your stuff," Angel said apologetically. "Furniture's pretty difficult to get out here."
"No problem!" Poison said. "We can live out of our bags, it's fine." She smiled at Angel. "It's just nice to have a home, really."
"So, do we get a tour?" Phobia said hopefully. Angel laughed. "Sure," she said. "Come with me."
She led the girls through the small house, showing them the basement, the kitchen and the living area. Harmony accosted them in the kitchen, giving them each a snack of nuts and dried fruits. Angel led the girls outside, showing them the street where they lived.
"That's where Lewis and Carol live with their kids Alice and Dinah," she said, pointing to the houses. "The girls there are Coloured, they're pretty young. Harmony used to babysit them. And over there is Blondie, she lives with her brother Archie and his girlfriend, Sabrina. Esau and Judas live over there, they work with Midas a lot. Moses lives over there with Jacob, they're both really nice. And over here is Acetone," Angel pointed out Acetone's house. "He's actually got a job up in Battery City, so he goes there a lot. He brings a lot of stuff back from there – he's got his own generator, a refrigerator and other stuff. He's set up his basement for Harmony to give birth there. He likes to bring back treats for the little kids. He's really great."
As if on cue, the door to Acetone's house swung open, and Acetone himself swept out, closely followed by Midas. "Hey, girls!" Midas crowed. "Look, Angel! Look who scored a beer for being such a great guy!"
Acetone smirked. "Yeah, yeah, don't get too excited," he said. "Enjoy it, 'cause that's your last one from me for a while."
"Aww, Ace, you're such a buzzkill."
"What did you do?" Angel asked Midas. Midas beamed. "I fixed his generator," he said. "Stupid bugger was putting diesel in there instead of petrol."
"Hey, language! And besides, petrol's getting expensive, and the label said that it takes any fuel," Acetone grumbled. "Stupid BL/ind products. Clearly nobody in Battery City does much camping, otherwise the damned thing might actually work properly."
He turned to Angel. "Anyway, forgive my rudeness – hello, Angel! And how's my girl?"
"Pretty good," Angel replied. "Ace, let me introduce Phobia and Poison. Phobia, Poison, meet Ace."
Acetone's eyes lingered bewilderedly over Phobia for a moment, before he broke out into a wide grin. "Well, hello girls!" he said, ushering them into the house. "It's great to see Angel hanging out with kids her age at last. Do you both drink Coke?"
Poison nodded eagerly, while Phobia stared at Acetone in confusion. "Coke?" she said.
Acetone gaped at her. "You don't know what Coke is?" he asked.
"She's an amnesiac," Angel explained. "She hasn't got any memory of before living in the desert."
"Interesting," Acetone said quietly. "Well, no matter! Perfect opportunity to introduce the stuff to you!"
Acetone turned to the refrigerator, pulling out a bottle. "Now, I wasn't expecting visitors, so you'll all have to share," he said apologetically. "But next time I'm in the city, I'll bring back plenty for you girls."
"Thanks, Ace," Angel said, twisting open the lid. Poison was beaming. "Thank you so much!" she gushed. "I haven't had a Coke for a couple years!"
"Two years?" Ace exclaimed. "Well, that must be rectified immediately!"
Poison took a long sip from the bottle, sighing happily. She passed the bottle on to Angel, who also took a hearty gulp. Then she passed the bottle to Phobia, who stared into the black bubbly sugary drink curiously.
"Just take a sip and see what you think," Poison said.
Phobia pressed the bottle to her lips, her eyes suddenly wide. She gulped some down before putting the bottle down.
"Um," she said. "It's... fizzy."
Angel and Poison laughed. "Of course it's fizzy, it's soft drink," Angel giggled. "What did you think?"
Phobia wrinkled her nose before smiling. "I'll think I'll leave the rest to you two," she said. "I'm not sure I like it much."
"I'd better find something for you, then," Acetone said, rummaging through the fridge. "You ever tried lemonade?"
"No."
Acetone held up a bottle of lemonade. "I like to keep it for Donorcycle, she gets dehydration sufferers sometimes, and the lemonade helps rehydrate sick people."
"Donorcycle?" Poison asked.
"She's sort of a doctor around here," Angel explained. "She's been Harmony's obstetrician during her pregnancy, and she's gonna be her midwife as well during the birth."
"Tell me what you think of that," Acetone said, handing Phobia the bottle of lemonade. Phobia opened the bottle and took a sip. She smiled. "I like this much better," she said. "This stuff is nice."
Acetone chuckled. "I'll remember to bring some for you, then, next time I'm in the city," he said.
When Poison and Angel finished their Coke, they and Phobia left Midas (who went home to practice birthing exercises with Harmony) and Angel took them to their next destination – the plateau.
The walk to the plateau took about an hour and a half if you were hasty. With the two girls in tow, Angel found that it took them about two hours. She wasn't worried, though, even if it meant that they probably wouldn't get back until after dark. A group of three would be much safer than herself on her own. Nonetheless, she was glad she'd brought her spear just in case.
"Man, this is a long walk," Poison complained as they crossed the ranges. "Do you do this every single day?"
"Pretty much," Angel said. "Keeps me fit, so I'm not complaining."
"I can tell," Poison panted. "Even after the ranch, I'm not used to this kind of walking."
"Well, we're nearly there," Angel said, grinning. "You two are going to love this."
They emerged from behind a hill, and were suddenly hit with the warm light of a spectacular sunset. The plateau stretched for about fifteen metres, and then dropped away to reveal the wide expanse of desert stretched out before them. Kilometres away on the ground, Angel could see a bush of tumbleweed rolling away in the distance.
The sky seemed to have put on a particularly wonderful light show for them, as if welcoming the new arrivals. Soft purples and mauves set the backdrop for a bank of bright pink and orange clouds. The clouds seemed to gently embrace the slowly sinking crimson sun in the distance, as if hugging it goodnight like a mother tucking her child into bed. The sand of the desert was stained orange and lavender by the light, and miles away near the coast the twinkling lights of the huge Battery City was just visible. The sight was so cheerful that you almost forgot what a dull, depressing place it was to live in.
And of course, further away, almost beyond their view, they could see the start of the huge sandy dunes that protected the lapis lazuli blue ocean from view.
Angel looked back and saw Poison and Phobia both gazing into the distance in awe, entranced.
"It's beautiful," Phobia murmured.
"Just a shame you couldn't build a house here," Poison sighed. "This view is iamazing/i."
"So worth the walk," Phobia agreed.
Angel grinned. She walked over to the edge of the plateau and sat down, swinging her legs over the edge of the cliff. She heard Phobia and Poison walking over.
"Doesn't that scare you?" Poison asked.
"It used to," Angel said. "I got over it though."
Phobia cautiously sat down and gingerly lowered her legs over the edge. She giggled nervously. "It's kinda scary, but cool," she said, turning to Poison. "Come on, you won't fall over – the plateau's kind of on an upwards slant before the drop, you know?"
Poison crept over and sat down next to Phobia. Soon, she too was cautiously swinging her legs over the edge.
"This is amazing, Angel," she said, clinging onto Phobia's arm. "How on earth did you find this place?"
"I got lost one time," Angel said. "I was trying to find Black Jack's place and went in completely the wrong direction. So worth it, though. I've been coming here ever since."
Angel giggled. "And nearly causing Harmony to go into premature labour in the process."
Poison giggled as well. "Oh Angel, that's mean."
"I know, but it's still funny."
"How's her pregnancy going?"
Angel shrugged. "As well as it could go, I guess," she said. "There's nothing wrong as far as Donorcycle can tell. And Harmony's been following all the rules – staying out of any high-radiation areas, keeping indoors in storms, sleeping in the coolest area in the house. She even started eating meat again to keep her baby healthy – considering she's a vegetarian, that's saying something. Donorcycle put her on all these vitamin pills and stuff as well, so she wasn't lacking any nutrients." Angel shrugged. "As far as anyone can tell, the baby is in perfect health. But we won't know for sure until the baby's born."
"When's the due date?" Phobia asked.
"Anytime in the next two weeks," Angel said. "Hell, Harmony could give birth right now. The baby's moved into the right position, so it won't be a problem. Now, it's just a bit of a waiting game to see how it all pans out."
"Do you think it might be Coloured?" Phobia asked, her eyes bright. Angel looked at her, and suddenly felt sad.
Phobia had no family that she knew of, no memory, no life previous to her escape. She couldn't even wonder where she came from, because she was so abnormal, impossible. She was Coloured despite being older than Angel. She had no history.
She couldn't even really relate to the friends she'd made in the desert – they were so different from her. Normal humans with pasts, lives, histories. She had no past, no history. They had a reason for being in the desert – she didn't know why she was there.
No doubt the Coloured kids were a ray of hope for her – a sign that she wasn't all alone in this harsh world by herself. There were people that she could relate to, people she'd never known existed. Their histories, their reasons for being what they were helped give her a reason.
Angel smiled at her. "Well, by all accounts its as healthy as can be," she said. "Like I said before, there doesn't seem to be any problems. So its very likely to be Coloured."
Phobia smiled. The orange sun glinted off her strange eyes, her catlike pupils narrowing in the glare.
"I hope so," she murmured.
The three girls sat in silence, staring out over the desert. In that moment, everything was perfect. Angel felt on top of the world. In her situation, nothing could possibly be better. Everything was exactly as it should have been.
She felt sure that these two strange girls were supposed to be with her. It felt like fate. Everything seemed to have aligned.
She smiled. Tomorrow was going to be a good day.