Lights Out and Shoot Up The Station 6b of ?
Title: Lights Out and Shoot Up The Station 6b of ?
Pairing or Characters: Slade, Amber, Ebony, Lex and Jack
Word Count: 2643
Rating: PG-13 threats of death mainly towards Lex via Ebony. Gel is also still alive.
Disclaimer: Who is Tom Raferty?
“Techno, scum!” Lex snarls, the blood from the swollen split on his bottom lip, rolling down his stubble covered chin.
The startled Techno boy's small blue eyes flare wide, as Lex launches his bulk upon him.
“Don't hurt me!” The boy wails desperately, covering his head with his arms, as he shrinks visibly.
The boy's tall, easily towering over Slade, Lex and Jack, traces of puppy fat still cling around his long, open face. His shock of mousy brown hair, has been lightened naturally under the sun.
The sound of the boy's oddly familiar English accent, causes Slade to pause for a moment too long.
It stirs a wave of homesickness he didn't know he ever possessed. Briefly he finds himself dwelling on the mothball, and lavender scented living room of his Grandmother, the noise of the gilded carriage clock, a retirement gift for his Grandfather, as it ticked away on the crowded mantelpiece.
Slade has never felt the grief of the loss of the family he'd been separated from by such a fast body of water. For him it was always as if the Virus never touched them, that his Grandmother was still safely ensconced in her high-backed arm chair in front of another episode of Countdown.
“Leave him alone, Lex.” Amber warns, stepping fearlessly between the pair.
Slade likes her, he respects Amber she knows what it's like to be weak, she wears her brittle fear for her tribe, and her child on her sleeve.
As if sensing his distracted attention, Ebony crashes back into the scene, snatching at Lex by the fabric of his jacket, she jars him back roughly, her teeth bared.
“You heard, Amber!” She warns. Slade can't help but wonder what her angle is.
Amber reflects his surprise at Ebony's voluntary aid, with the quirk of an eyebrow.
He's not sure if he's quite nailed the dynamic between the two women yet, they've got history that much is obvious.
Over the however many weeks, they've all spent confined on a vessel that's more of a glorified dingy than a fully fledged boat, Slade's been gifted the opportunity of watching the various push me-pull you relationships play out in front of him.
For instance Slade has noticed that Amber never knowingly turns her back on Ebony, that the leader of the Mallrats always has one eye trained on her opposite number.
And that Ebony in turn always manages to return that stare with a defiant look of her own, goading Amber with her continual presence.
“You're protecting him!” Lex's snaps.
“No-one is protecting anybody,” Slade attempts to reassure the struggling ex-sheriff.
“We just need to be able to ask him some questions.” He continues.
The ability to placate Lex fully is a skill Slade still hasn't mastered, it's the equivalent of trying to keep a see-saw level.
“I'm warning you, Slade.” Lex barks. “Get your woman off me!”
In reply Ebony brings the Sheriff to his knees, with an unexpected kick to the back of his legs.
Twisting his arm up high behind his back, causing Lex to whimper loudly, she warns against the side of his head “I'm nobody's woman.”
Slade struggles to fight back a smile at her comment, he's not sure she's ever been more honest.
He can't put his finger on when his fascination for the leather clad, fire-storm of a woman morphed into something more serious, it doesn't really matter, he's pretty sure he's in love with her, he's certain that Ebony's not in the right place to return his level of affection, yet.
“How many more of you are there?” Amber asks the trembling Techno.
“None!” The boy quickly shoots back a reply, he sounds almost amazed at the assumption there should be others.
“Liar!” Lex growls, his outburst quelled by a flick of Ebony's wrist.
“There's no, no-one else, I swear.” The Techno stumbles over his words, his eyes darting wildly around search for some form of escape.
“You have to believe me!” The boy begs, Slade's not sure he does.
“What happened here, to all the other Technos?” Jack's question causes Slade's eye-line to dip in the direction of one of the sprawled out, half chard bodies, he can just about recognise it as female with long turquoise, and black braided hair.
The knowledge that she's probably dead because of his brother, hits him like a ton of bricks. His throat constricts in the effort of not trying to think about Josh.
Slade can still picture the look of rapt amazement playing over his younger brother's features, as they'd watched their older sister's début with The Australian Ballet, the first and final time before the Virus had descended. It's odd to think, that he is now the soul survivor of that evening's entertainment.
“What's your name?” He asks, in an effort to distract himself. Slade watches as the boy's face twists into a confused frown.
“Raferty, Tom...” The Techno fumbles.
“Tom Raferty.” Slade concludes with a smile, that he knows doesn't quite reach his eyes.
He's not sure if he can live with this guilt.
It's been a long time since he heard anyone introduce themselves so formally.
Tom Raferty nods.
Slade watches as the sides of Tom's face slowly relax, and settle.
“It's good to meet you Tom, I'm Slade.” He pulls Tom's sweat soaked hand into his own.
This is a skill Slade shares, no shared with his younger brother, the ability to see through a person completely.
His fingers tighten around Tom's shaking hand, he enquires in a low voice. “Where are the others?”
The boy breaks down instantly, dissolving into heavy sobs.
“I can't get them out!”
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It's been dark for days.
Dark and hot.
The palm leaves that have been used to conceal them act as a conductor, shielding them from the raw raze of the sun, but also locking the heat unbearably in.
Alice sweats, all three of them do.
Having adjusted fairly well to the continual darkness, her eyes quickly pick up KC's shadowy outline. He's lying with his back to her, curled up in a semi ball, she can't tell if he's feigning sleep, he's just quiet.
Tai-san on the other hand is as talkative as ever, resting against the side of Alice's body, the smaller girl babbles away incoherently to herself, the Lycra of her Techno uniform as torn and fraying as her mind.
They are all going to die.
Alice's thoughts are now entirely dedicated to her sister, Ellie. She torments herself with different versions of Ellie's fate, that she's dead, or with Luke, or changed her mind again and gone back to Jack, in the City, and then out in the countryside, free and a slave.
The version Alice prefers is that Ellie has somehow managed to escape the Technos, flee the City, and is now living in safety with Jack.
Does Ellie think about her?
Alice doesn't have the opportunity to ponder her own question for long, a voice interrupts her. Not Tom's, this is someone different, for the first time in her life Alice tries to be quiet.
“I can't get them out!” Tom confesses with a gut wrenching sob.
“Who?” Amber demands, a clear note of desperation in her voice.
Slade's hands slowly curl up around Tom's neck, balling the material of his uniform in his fists.
“There was an uprising, some of the prisoners started rebelling. In the end, the two ring leaders were separated from the rest of the camp, that seemed to quiet things down.” His eyes dart between Amber, and Slade as he tries to explain.
“Until we got the message from the City, about the second virus. A few of us tried to help the prisoners, we let them out, but then, they were so angry,” Tom's admission is met with a snort of derision from Lex.
“They turned on us. Everything went crazy, most of the prisoners got away, the Technos were murdered.”
Slade watches as Amber and Jack recoil at the word murder, however it barely cracks through Lex's scowl, or fail to break Ebony's stride.
“So, how exactly did you survive, if all the other Technos are dead?” Ebony says, her interest clearly piqued.
“You're not buying this!” Lex frowns in amazement.
“I'm not proud of what I did. But, I just wanted to survive.” Tom admits, his eyes flashing with fresh tears.
“I hid, and I watched as my friends were killed. I didn't help them!”
Slade lets him go, and as he does the boy slowly crumples onto his knees, even Lex seems to believe him.
“We should bury the bodies, before the others get wind of this.” Jack is the first to break the silence.
“Agreed.” Amber nods.
“I don't think, there's any need for this to go further than the six of us.” Slade observes, he's surprised when he isn't met by a refusal from Amber. Her determination as given way to a look of jaded tiredness.
“What difference does it make, it's just one more lie.” She sighs, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand.
Reluctantly Ebony releases Lex with a hard shove.
“Looks like the years spent cooped up with Lex, are clearly starting to rub off on you, Amber.” Ebony sneers, Slade catches her eye, she simply stares back at him unrepentant in her callousness.
“It's not a joke Ebony, people are dead!” Jack exclaims, giving voice to Slade's internal monologue.
“Yea well, no amount of hanky wringing ever resurrected anyone.” Ebony shoots back.
Noticing Jack's mouth start to open, Slade cuts him off before he has a chance to counter verbally.
“Amber we've got this, you should go back to your child.” Even without glancing in her direction, Slade feels the atmosphere around Ebony grow tense. At the best of times she's irrationally jealous, but the idea he's trying to make some sort of move on Amber while ankle deep in dead bodies, hardens even him to Ebony, a little.
The weak, grateful smile the other woman flashes him only makes things that little bit worse.
“So, what I'm on grave digger duty now?” Ebony doesn't hold back on her disgust at the idea.
He's about to tell her to go back with Amber, or to please herself when Lex distracts him.
“What?” He frowns, having missed the beginning of Lex's rant.
“Didn't any of you listen to him, he said there are others, other people on this island!” Lex pushes himself up from his knees, keeping a weary eye on Ebony, who looks as if she's thinking of biting him.
“Not this again, look Tai-san's not on the island.” She fumes.
“He's right, though.” Jack shrugs.
Amber appears to brighten a little at the prospect as well, her worn expression fading.
Slade's not entirely sure how such a relevant piece of information managed to slip his mind, or more importantly how it hadn't been lost on the ex-sheriff.
“You said you weren't alone, where are the others?” He jabs in the direction of Tom, who is busy rubbing his snotty nose across his sleeve.
“Who are the others!” Lex interjects.
Tom turns grey, his eyes fixed on the dark blue pentagram tattoo on Lex's hand.
“You've seen this before?” Amber cries suddenly falling to her knees in front of the Techno, pressing her index finger hard against the raised lines on her own skin.
Slade watches as Ebony moves past him, inching closer to the group.
“The ringleaders, was one of them a boy?” He listens as Amber and Lex describe the appearances of there long lost loved ones, learning that Bray is a tall, handsome boy with dark hair, and that Tai-san is around the same height as Ebony with blue eyes.
Slade's more than familiar with those motions, what it's like to carry around a picture in your head, and your pocket, to tire other people out with your incessant questions, and to realise one terrible day that the boy you were searching for has probably grown up.
That even if you saw him, you might not recognise him.
He lets his eyes wander across the dark, swaying outlines of a dozen or so palm trees, trying to accurately estimate how long a coconut could last before it spoiled, if they decided to move on from this island.
“When we separated the trouble makers, we put them in a holding cell with another prisoner. All the cells have different keys, in the confusion the key to that cell must have been lost. I've looked everywhere, and I've tried everything I can think of to get them out, but they're stuck in there. I've done what I can to make them comfortable. I just hoped all this time, someone would find us.” Tom gushes, tripping over his own tongue at points.
“Show me!” Lex grabs Tom by his collar, hauling him up onto his feet.
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Amber tries not to let herself think too far ahead, she can't let herself get lost in the idea that somehow Bray is still alive, that he's found a way to come back to her.
She's rehearsed the moment where she will finally be able to hand him their son so many times in the confines of her own head, that sometimes even Amber gets swept along by the fantasy.
She wants so desperately for her son to be held by his Father, the way she was by her own.
Amber lets her feet lead her, tracing a line across the sand.
“Do you think it's really, Bray?” Ebony asks, betraying the true nature of her withered vestige of a heart.
She wonders if Bray knows how many people love him.
Amber doesn't respond, she's afraid to open her mouth in case she gives voice to her greatest hope.
Her eyes roll over the heavy indents of Lex, Jack and the Techno's boot prints.
In front of her the movement stops, Amber can't bring herself to look at anything other than the sand under her feet.
Lit only by the reflection of the moon, and the faint burst of Jack's torch the sand has the appearance of ghostly, silver tipped stardust.
The rustle of leaves is downed out by the rapid beat of her heart.
Amber tries to resuscitate what's left of Eagle, attempting to harness any of her former persona's strength.
“Alice!” She hears Jack's excited cry.
“Lexy! Jack!” Alice's voice booms back in reply.
And then Amber looks, when she can't bare it any more, she raises up her head, catching a glimpse of the outline of a tall boy behind Alice's tangle of dirty, russet curls.
“Bray!” Ebony steals his name from Amber's lips.
The boy shuffles towards the bars, his tanned face catching the light.
“KC!” She tries to smile, hot tears spilling down her cheeks.
“You came to rescue us, I told Alice, and Tai-san, you guys would.” Her insides churn at KC's words, the knowledge that he's been sustained by the idea of being saved them, when he's been the furtherest thing from Amber's mind.
“Tai-san, where is she!” Lex suddenly resembles a man possessed at the mention of his wife's name.
KC limps to one side, his face growing grave, Amber knows it's bad, something is terribly wrong, and then her eyeline falls on Tai-san.
The breath catches in her chest at the sorry state of her friend, who resembles a rag doll, her hair in tatters, her Techno uniform in rags.
“She's malfunctioning.”
Pairing or Characters: Slade, Amber, Ebony, Lex and Jack
Word Count: 2643
Rating: PG-13 threats of death mainly towards Lex via Ebony. Gel is also still alive.
Disclaimer: Who is Tom Raferty?
“Techno, scum!” Lex snarls, the blood from the swollen split on his bottom lip, rolling down his stubble covered chin.
The startled Techno boy's small blue eyes flare wide, as Lex launches his bulk upon him.
“Don't hurt me!” The boy wails desperately, covering his head with his arms, as he shrinks visibly.
The boy's tall, easily towering over Slade, Lex and Jack, traces of puppy fat still cling around his long, open face. His shock of mousy brown hair, has been lightened naturally under the sun.
The sound of the boy's oddly familiar English accent, causes Slade to pause for a moment too long.
It stirs a wave of homesickness he didn't know he ever possessed. Briefly he finds himself dwelling on the mothball, and lavender scented living room of his Grandmother, the noise of the gilded carriage clock, a retirement gift for his Grandfather, as it ticked away on the crowded mantelpiece.
Slade has never felt the grief of the loss of the family he'd been separated from by such a fast body of water. For him it was always as if the Virus never touched them, that his Grandmother was still safely ensconced in her high-backed arm chair in front of another episode of Countdown.
“Leave him alone, Lex.” Amber warns, stepping fearlessly between the pair.
Slade likes her, he respects Amber she knows what it's like to be weak, she wears her brittle fear for her tribe, and her child on her sleeve.
As if sensing his distracted attention, Ebony crashes back into the scene, snatching at Lex by the fabric of his jacket, she jars him back roughly, her teeth bared.
“You heard, Amber!” She warns. Slade can't help but wonder what her angle is.
Amber reflects his surprise at Ebony's voluntary aid, with the quirk of an eyebrow.
He's not sure if he's quite nailed the dynamic between the two women yet, they've got history that much is obvious.
Over the however many weeks, they've all spent confined on a vessel that's more of a glorified dingy than a fully fledged boat, Slade's been gifted the opportunity of watching the various push me-pull you relationships play out in front of him.
For instance Slade has noticed that Amber never knowingly turns her back on Ebony, that the leader of the Mallrats always has one eye trained on her opposite number.
And that Ebony in turn always manages to return that stare with a defiant look of her own, goading Amber with her continual presence.
“You're protecting him!” Lex's snaps.
“No-one is protecting anybody,” Slade attempts to reassure the struggling ex-sheriff.
“We just need to be able to ask him some questions.” He continues.
The ability to placate Lex fully is a skill Slade still hasn't mastered, it's the equivalent of trying to keep a see-saw level.
“I'm warning you, Slade.” Lex barks. “Get your woman off me!”
In reply Ebony brings the Sheriff to his knees, with an unexpected kick to the back of his legs.
Twisting his arm up high behind his back, causing Lex to whimper loudly, she warns against the side of his head “I'm nobody's woman.”
Slade struggles to fight back a smile at her comment, he's not sure she's ever been more honest.
He can't put his finger on when his fascination for the leather clad, fire-storm of a woman morphed into something more serious, it doesn't really matter, he's pretty sure he's in love with her, he's certain that Ebony's not in the right place to return his level of affection, yet.
“How many more of you are there?” Amber asks the trembling Techno.
“None!” The boy quickly shoots back a reply, he sounds almost amazed at the assumption there should be others.
“Liar!” Lex growls, his outburst quelled by a flick of Ebony's wrist.
“There's no, no-one else, I swear.” The Techno stumbles over his words, his eyes darting wildly around search for some form of escape.
“You have to believe me!” The boy begs, Slade's not sure he does.
“What happened here, to all the other Technos?” Jack's question causes Slade's eye-line to dip in the direction of one of the sprawled out, half chard bodies, he can just about recognise it as female with long turquoise, and black braided hair.
The knowledge that she's probably dead because of his brother, hits him like a ton of bricks. His throat constricts in the effort of not trying to think about Josh.
Slade can still picture the look of rapt amazement playing over his younger brother's features, as they'd watched their older sister's début with The Australian Ballet, the first and final time before the Virus had descended. It's odd to think, that he is now the soul survivor of that evening's entertainment.
“What's your name?” He asks, in an effort to distract himself. Slade watches as the boy's face twists into a confused frown.
“Raferty, Tom...” The Techno fumbles.
“Tom Raferty.” Slade concludes with a smile, that he knows doesn't quite reach his eyes.
He's not sure if he can live with this guilt.
It's been a long time since he heard anyone introduce themselves so formally.
Tom Raferty nods.
Slade watches as the sides of Tom's face slowly relax, and settle.
“It's good to meet you Tom, I'm Slade.” He pulls Tom's sweat soaked hand into his own.
This is a skill Slade shares, no shared with his younger brother, the ability to see through a person completely.
His fingers tighten around Tom's shaking hand, he enquires in a low voice. “Where are the others?”
The boy breaks down instantly, dissolving into heavy sobs.
“I can't get them out!”
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It's been dark for days.
Dark and hot.
The palm leaves that have been used to conceal them act as a conductor, shielding them from the raw raze of the sun, but also locking the heat unbearably in.
Alice sweats, all three of them do.
Having adjusted fairly well to the continual darkness, her eyes quickly pick up KC's shadowy outline. He's lying with his back to her, curled up in a semi ball, she can't tell if he's feigning sleep, he's just quiet.
Tai-san on the other hand is as talkative as ever, resting against the side of Alice's body, the smaller girl babbles away incoherently to herself, the Lycra of her Techno uniform as torn and fraying as her mind.
They are all going to die.
Alice's thoughts are now entirely dedicated to her sister, Ellie. She torments herself with different versions of Ellie's fate, that she's dead, or with Luke, or changed her mind again and gone back to Jack, in the City, and then out in the countryside, free and a slave.
The version Alice prefers is that Ellie has somehow managed to escape the Technos, flee the City, and is now living in safety with Jack.
Does Ellie think about her?
Alice doesn't have the opportunity to ponder her own question for long, a voice interrupts her. Not Tom's, this is someone different, for the first time in her life Alice tries to be quiet.
“I can't get them out!” Tom confesses with a gut wrenching sob.
“Who?” Amber demands, a clear note of desperation in her voice.
Slade's hands slowly curl up around Tom's neck, balling the material of his uniform in his fists.
“There was an uprising, some of the prisoners started rebelling. In the end, the two ring leaders were separated from the rest of the camp, that seemed to quiet things down.” His eyes dart between Amber, and Slade as he tries to explain.
“Until we got the message from the City, about the second virus. A few of us tried to help the prisoners, we let them out, but then, they were so angry,” Tom's admission is met with a snort of derision from Lex.
“They turned on us. Everything went crazy, most of the prisoners got away, the Technos were murdered.”
Slade watches as Amber and Jack recoil at the word murder, however it barely cracks through Lex's scowl, or fail to break Ebony's stride.
“So, how exactly did you survive, if all the other Technos are dead?” Ebony says, her interest clearly piqued.
“You're not buying this!” Lex frowns in amazement.
“I'm not proud of what I did. But, I just wanted to survive.” Tom admits, his eyes flashing with fresh tears.
“I hid, and I watched as my friends were killed. I didn't help them!”
Slade lets him go, and as he does the boy slowly crumples onto his knees, even Lex seems to believe him.
“We should bury the bodies, before the others get wind of this.” Jack is the first to break the silence.
“Agreed.” Amber nods.
“I don't think, there's any need for this to go further than the six of us.” Slade observes, he's surprised when he isn't met by a refusal from Amber. Her determination as given way to a look of jaded tiredness.
“What difference does it make, it's just one more lie.” She sighs, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand.
Reluctantly Ebony releases Lex with a hard shove.
“Looks like the years spent cooped up with Lex, are clearly starting to rub off on you, Amber.” Ebony sneers, Slade catches her eye, she simply stares back at him unrepentant in her callousness.
“It's not a joke Ebony, people are dead!” Jack exclaims, giving voice to Slade's internal monologue.
“Yea well, no amount of hanky wringing ever resurrected anyone.” Ebony shoots back.
Noticing Jack's mouth start to open, Slade cuts him off before he has a chance to counter verbally.
“Amber we've got this, you should go back to your child.” Even without glancing in her direction, Slade feels the atmosphere around Ebony grow tense. At the best of times she's irrationally jealous, but the idea he's trying to make some sort of move on Amber while ankle deep in dead bodies, hardens even him to Ebony, a little.
The weak, grateful smile the other woman flashes him only makes things that little bit worse.
“So, what I'm on grave digger duty now?” Ebony doesn't hold back on her disgust at the idea.
He's about to tell her to go back with Amber, or to please herself when Lex distracts him.
“What?” He frowns, having missed the beginning of Lex's rant.
“Didn't any of you listen to him, he said there are others, other people on this island!” Lex pushes himself up from his knees, keeping a weary eye on Ebony, who looks as if she's thinking of biting him.
“Not this again, look Tai-san's not on the island.” She fumes.
“He's right, though.” Jack shrugs.
Amber appears to brighten a little at the prospect as well, her worn expression fading.
Slade's not entirely sure how such a relevant piece of information managed to slip his mind, or more importantly how it hadn't been lost on the ex-sheriff.
“You said you weren't alone, where are the others?” He jabs in the direction of Tom, who is busy rubbing his snotty nose across his sleeve.
“Who are the others!” Lex interjects.
Tom turns grey, his eyes fixed on the dark blue pentagram tattoo on Lex's hand.
“You've seen this before?” Amber cries suddenly falling to her knees in front of the Techno, pressing her index finger hard against the raised lines on her own skin.
Slade watches as Ebony moves past him, inching closer to the group.
“The ringleaders, was one of them a boy?” He listens as Amber and Lex describe the appearances of there long lost loved ones, learning that Bray is a tall, handsome boy with dark hair, and that Tai-san is around the same height as Ebony with blue eyes.
Slade's more than familiar with those motions, what it's like to carry around a picture in your head, and your pocket, to tire other people out with your incessant questions, and to realise one terrible day that the boy you were searching for has probably grown up.
That even if you saw him, you might not recognise him.
He lets his eyes wander across the dark, swaying outlines of a dozen or so palm trees, trying to accurately estimate how long a coconut could last before it spoiled, if they decided to move on from this island.
“When we separated the trouble makers, we put them in a holding cell with another prisoner. All the cells have different keys, in the confusion the key to that cell must have been lost. I've looked everywhere, and I've tried everything I can think of to get them out, but they're stuck in there. I've done what I can to make them comfortable. I just hoped all this time, someone would find us.” Tom gushes, tripping over his own tongue at points.
“Show me!” Lex grabs Tom by his collar, hauling him up onto his feet.
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Amber tries not to let herself think too far ahead, she can't let herself get lost in the idea that somehow Bray is still alive, that he's found a way to come back to her.
She's rehearsed the moment where she will finally be able to hand him their son so many times in the confines of her own head, that sometimes even Amber gets swept along by the fantasy.
She wants so desperately for her son to be held by his Father, the way she was by her own.
Amber lets her feet lead her, tracing a line across the sand.
“Do you think it's really, Bray?” Ebony asks, betraying the true nature of her withered vestige of a heart.
She wonders if Bray knows how many people love him.
Amber doesn't respond, she's afraid to open her mouth in case she gives voice to her greatest hope.
Her eyes roll over the heavy indents of Lex, Jack and the Techno's boot prints.
In front of her the movement stops, Amber can't bring herself to look at anything other than the sand under her feet.
Lit only by the reflection of the moon, and the faint burst of Jack's torch the sand has the appearance of ghostly, silver tipped stardust.
The rustle of leaves is downed out by the rapid beat of her heart.
Amber tries to resuscitate what's left of Eagle, attempting to harness any of her former persona's strength.
“Alice!” She hears Jack's excited cry.
“Lexy! Jack!” Alice's voice booms back in reply.
And then Amber looks, when she can't bare it any more, she raises up her head, catching a glimpse of the outline of a tall boy behind Alice's tangle of dirty, russet curls.
“Bray!” Ebony steals his name from Amber's lips.
The boy shuffles towards the bars, his tanned face catching the light.
“KC!” She tries to smile, hot tears spilling down her cheeks.
“You came to rescue us, I told Alice, and Tai-san, you guys would.” Her insides churn at KC's words, the knowledge that he's been sustained by the idea of being saved them, when he's been the furtherest thing from Amber's mind.
“Tai-san, where is she!” Lex suddenly resembles a man possessed at the mention of his wife's name.
KC limps to one side, his face growing grave, Amber knows it's bad, something is terribly wrong, and then her eyeline falls on Tai-san.
The breath catches in her chest at the sorry state of her friend, who resembles a rag doll, her hair in tatters, her Techno uniform in rags.
“She's malfunctioning.”