The Ruins

Chapter 11

"Whoa!" Mal had to agree with Killeen. The area they had entered after an excursion through some office areas was an amazing sight. Large, open areas, probably corporate lobbies, had collapsed one after the other, leaving an open area leading right down to the basement level of the building. The view was spectacular, made stranger by the water pouring out of side corridors and the plant-life, possibly descendants of decorative plants in the offices, growing everywhere. It was like an indoor multi-level arboretum.

She was looking around but hadn't found any alternate routes. She gestured. "Down we go!" she remarked.

Fortunately, it wasn't as bad as it initially looked. It was possible to thread through the zig-zagging collapsed floors as if they were ramps. Finally, they emerged on the bottom level in what had once been the lobby of a corporate legal firm, by the still half-legible advertising posters and marketing brochures scattered about.

The way beyond that wasn't easy. The floor had collapsed in several places, leading into a darkened basement. Mal had to find a way through half-flooded tunnels created from partially-collapsed walls and corridors. Just to make things interesting, rain-water was pouring down from higher up in the building, creating waterfalls and currents that occasionally threated to knock the three travellers from their feet.

"Y'know... I was thinking..." Lugh turned to Mal. He was fiddling with with his ax in a distracted way. "When this is all over and we're going out, maybe we should take it easy for a while? Maybe find a car to go back to the Tradepost. I can fix it."

Mal stopped picking up the mechanical odds-and-ends and parts she had been scooping up and turned to face her partner. "You want us to take it easy?" Lalon couldn't help but blurt with a mocking grin.

Lugh shrugged defensively. "Hey, me and Mal are the ones who always going on about 'laying low', remember?"

Lalon quirked a sceptical eyebrow. "And you're the one who's always brushing me off!"

Lugh shot Lalon a smile, shoving the beanie down his face. "Well, I won't this time."

"Not my beautiful hair!"

Mal actually laughed in a way that was not fake or hard. "Well, he has a good point. Maybe..." Mal couldn't think a word so she had to ponder that, see what plan(s) work. "I will let us know when I think of it."

"...Women..." Lalon whispered to Lugh, almost being gingerly aware of Mal and her deadly glare.

" 'Hakuna Matata. What a wonderful phrase. Hakuna Matata. Ain't no passing craze...' " Rin sang the Lion King song quietly, annoying the teens to reminisce the Disney movies and their catchy songs. The only movies they could ever find when scavenging so it's movie time for the kids, the rest are playing of try not to sing challenge.

"Guys! Over here!" Vix called out from further along. "I've found a way down!"

Mal swung her torch around the subway station underground concourse that they had just entered through a collapsed roof. Long sealed off, a sort of frozen shrine to a vanished world and way of life filled with artefacts that once had a purpose and were now nothing but curiosities. From the look on Johan's face that was definitely how she saw this place.

Lugh and Max walked over to a very, very fresh corpse curled up on its belly in a corner with rifle exit wounds through its back. He crouched down and checked it out. He tapped the black armband. "Flyer Frontier."

Max nodded. "These guys aren't doing so good, in or out of the Zone's. I feel like they are some of them alive but are like... this." Lugh nodded. Max crouched down too and picked up something loosely cradled in its arm. It was a very professionally-made Molotov Cocktail. Max hefted the insurgent fire-bomb thoughtfully and, finding it of good quality, showing off his friends. Killeen grinned as a madman, Rin and Johan giving thumbs up, and Lugh grabs the Molotov and tucks it in his pack.