Laigh sighed as she sat on the area of beach that was just outside the warehouse that the Freedom Fighters lived in. She sighed and thought of how they had come together, there was only five of them, her, Harley, Max, Josh and Lucy. She had been all alone 'til she met Josh and Luce, who originally found the warehouse, but were soon discovered by Harley and then she'd met Max. She sighed again, and thought of that day. She had been walking through the city when she had heard the distinct siren of the Locos' car, she had hidden in the exact same place as Max, who quickly introduced himself and when the Locos had passed by, they went back to the warehouse as Max had nowhere to stay, and they soon fell head over heels in love with each other. The only person who had ever acted strangely about this was Harley. Probably jealous, thought Laigh, oh well her stupid life. Thinking of the Locos made a sharp throbbing pain come into her heart and she reached into her pocket and took out a folded photograph. On the photo was herself, a bit younger and laughing her head off over something, at both sides of her were two boys, they looked older than her but they weren't much older. The one on the left was blonde haired, the one on the right brown haired, the same as her. They all looked so happy, in the old days...
"You really miss them don't you?" a gentle voice said.
"Wouldn't you miss your cousins, especially if they were as close as these two were to me, Luce?" Laigh asked, teary eyed.
Lucy sat down next to her, and put her arm around Laigh, "Who do you miss the most, in your opinion?" She asked.
"I miss them both as much as the other!" Laigh said, shocked that anyone could ask that, "Why do you think I'd miss one more than the other?"
"Well because Martin became Zoot, and Bray just disappeared" Lucy said, a little embarrassed that she'd even brought it up.
"Just because of that you think I'd like one more than the other?" Laigh was appalled.
"I.. I'm sorry Leia, I guess I just didn't think." Luce said "Do you wish that you'd gone off with the Locusts then? You know, when Zoo.. I mean, Martin, asked you to?"
"Yes.. No.. I don't know" Laigh put her head down "Just leave me alone OK?"
Lucy walked off. Laigh started to cry more, Martin's final plea to her started to fly around her head once again.
"Come with me Laigh, I'll look after you, so will the rest of the Locos. Power and Chaos is the only way now". She'd just walked away, that wasn't the life she'd wanted. But something else started to come into her head. The day she'd seen the Locusts, without him for the first time, where was he? That's all she wanted to know, where her beloved cousin had gone, and Bray? Where was he? He wasn't with Ebony, that was for sure. Laigh put the photo away and walked inside.
"Oh c'mon Max, you know you want me" Harley was saying, her arms wrapped around him, her face close to his. He was trying to get away but her grip just tightened.
"Stop it Har, if Laigh sees..."
"If Laigh sees what?" Laigh leant against the door frame, her arms folded and an angry gleam in her eyes.
"Sweetheart, it's not what it looks like..." Max managed to get out of Harley's arms and put his hands on Laigh's shoulders. She knocked them off and said
"Don't 'sweetheart' me you creep" and stormed off, Max running after her.
"Laigh, Leia, please you have to believe me, you know Harley's been after me for ages! But I don't want her, I love you!" Laigh stopped in her tracks.
"You do?" she asked.
"Yes, c'mon, you know I do" he said taking her hand in his "Will you marry me?"
Laigh had to sit down quickly.
"Marry you, but how?"
"I don't know, we'll get Harley to marry us."
"That slag? No way!"
"OK Lucy or Josh then"
"Oh Max of course I will!"
She threw her arms around him and they went in for a long, passionate kiss when-
"Hey, what's going on?" Josh interrupted.
"Laigh says she'll marry me!" Max said happily.
"Hey great! Can I be your best man?" Josh said with a wink.
"Yeah sure!" Max replied, he kissed Laigh, who smiled happily at him
"What am I going to wear?" she asked cheekily.
"Anything you want!"he replied.
"I bet it'll be purple!" Josh said laughing.
They all began to laugh then, purple was what Laigh wore all the time, at the moment she was wearing purple boots, purple trousers and a lilac top and not to mention her purple hair and nails, the only thing that wasn't purple was the blue crescent moon in the centre of her forehead, the Freedom Fighter logo. Well it looks like things can only get better, Laigh thought happily to herself.
Later on that evening, everyone was asleep except for Laigh, who was sat drinking a cup of coffee in the 'dining area', Lucy crept up silently behind her and put her hand on Laigh's shoulder.
Daybreak, Max was snuggled under the covers of his and Laigh's bed
"Laigh darling, I'm cold, come and warm me up."
"Dear Max,
The City was silent, Laigh walked along the road which went past the old shopping mall, she stopped in front of it and smiled, she remember her first shopping spree there. Martin and Bray had told her she could have anything she wanted, as a 'welcome to your new home' kind of present. She'd picked the necklace she was wearing at that moment, she placed her hand on the soft feathers that were hung around the cord on her neck, she'd fallen in love with the necklace as soon as she'd seen it so she couldn't resist it. She sighed, and all of a sudden jumped as she heard the wailing siren of the Loco's car. But this time she didn't hide, she stood boldly in the middle of the road, hoping that it wouldn't run her down. But when she saw the ex-police car coming towards her at a terrific speed she realised that Ebony was not riding on top like she usually did, where was she? Had she gone the same way as Martin?
The car, luckily for Laigh, stopped right in front of her and what looked like the new Loco leader shouted "Hey look a Freedom Fighter!"
The country air was refreshing, she ran down a hill, the wind blowing in her face, and then sat down. She started to remember her parents...
"Josh, have you got a minute?" Lucy came up behind Josh, who had been working on fixing the generator, he stood up and banged his head in the process.
Back at the beach, Laigh was by a rock pool, washing away the last piece of her that was anything to do with the Freedom Fighters - the blue crescent moon on her forehead - she had decided that she didn't want anything to do with them anymore. She then went and sat in the same spot as she had spent the night before. She thought about her eventful day, she had discovered a lot of useful information but still felt a million miles away from Bray and Martin, "Where can you guys be?" she asked herself, "You can't be that far away."
“I can’t believe that! How awful!” Amber exclaimed as they walked into the mall. Laigh couldn’t believe how much the place had changed since the last time she had shopped there.
A lone candle flickered in the dark. Max was sat staring at it, almost as if it had hypnotized him. Harley came up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. He jumped and turned around, looking up at her. He noticed that her eye make up was a mess, two black streaks down her face, and her eyes were red, she looked like she’d been crying.
Laigh sat up quickly. She was gasping for breath and a cold sweat had formed on her forehead. That was a bad dream, she thought to herself and decided to get a drink, she was walking to the cafe when as she passed Bray and Amber’s room she could hear murmuring. She couldn’t help but listen. That’s all Laigh heard, she decided to go back to bed and see what would happen in the morning, when Amber had made her mind up properly. She smiled to herself, I’m so glad to be here, she thought as she climbed back into bed, I just hope I’ve made the right decision...
Last updated 7/11/99 © 1999 scaramouche@angelfire.com
"God Lucy! What are you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?!?" Laigh shouted.
"Shhhhh, everyone else's asleep" Lucy said. Her face was pale.
"Luce, what's wrong?" Laigh asked, pulling out a seat for her to sit on. Lucy sat down.
"I don't know how to tell you this, but I heard you were getting married to Max so I thought I'd better... Oh why did I have to hear..." she wailed.
"Just spit it out Luce, it can't be that bad" Laigh said.
"It is though. I heard Max and Harley talking earlier..."
"So? What's wrong with that?" Laigh interrupted.
"It was what they were talking about, I hate to be the one to tell you this but..."
"But what?!" Laigh was ready to hit Lucy if she didn't tell her.
"Max and Harley have been sleeping together. There, I said it, so..."
"YOU WHAT?!?!" Laigh screamed "You must be mistaken.."
"Max told her that he'd proposed and you'd said yes, and Harley was mad, she asked him if all those times with her had meant anything to him. He said yes but he wanted to keep you happy." Lucy started to cry "I'm so sorry Laigh".
"It's alright" sobbed Laigh, who wasn't one to cry "Look go to bed, try and forget about it OK, whatever you do, DON'T TELL HARLEY YOU TOLD ME."
Laigh, her heart broken, left the room.
He rolled over to her side of the bed to discover that she wasn't there. He opened his eyes to find a piece of paper lying on her pillow. He sat up and unfolded it, on it said-
I had to leave, Harley has gone too far this time and so have you, I don't know if I can ever forgive you for what you have done. Maybe in time but I clearly don't think so. Say goodbye to Luce and Joshua for me. I now realise that they were my only true friends. Do not come looking for me, all I can say is that I have gone to do what I should have done a long time ago.
-Leia."Episode 2
Caw, caw, the seagull cried overhead. Laigh opened her eyes, the sea was gently crashing against the rocks, she sat up, and stretched her back, she then realised that she had been lying on a stone all night which had made her back ache. She thought about the night before, "Oh why did it have to happen?" she said out loud, tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes. She didn't wipe them away, she just let them fall into her lap.
Maybe I'll be better off without them, she thought, maybe I'll be able to make a new start, do the things I've always wanted to do, get a little place in the country, maybe grow my own food- "Oh who am I kidding?" Laigh stood up and shouted out "It's just a stupid dream, I'll just be here, alone, unless..." she sat down again and took the photo out of her pocket, she smiled deeply at how close she, Martin and Bray looked on it. That party was amazing, shame they didn't know that it would be the last party they would have together, as it was a month or so before the virus had struck...
"I will find you, whatever it takes," Laigh said directly to the photo, "I will." She got up and left the beach, and headed towards the city.
"You guys, Josh, Lucy! Where are you?" Max came rushing out of the bedroom holding the note in the air.
"Hey what's wrong, man?" Josh asked, stretching as he came out of his room, half asleep.
"Laigh's gone! She's left me!" he shouted.
"What?!? You're kidding right?" Lucy came dashing in.
"I wish I was," Max replied "I really did."
Lucy turned away so no one could see how guilty she looked, she felt terrible, and wished that she'd never told her.
"What's this? Leia's gone?" Harley sauntered in casually "Oh well, you win some, you lose some..."
"Don't be so insensitive!" snapped Josh "Hey I'm so sorry Max, you must be gutted." He put a reassuring hand on Max's shoulder "You know we're all here for you, but why would she do something like this? It's crazy, she loved you so much!" he left the room, shaking his head confusedly.
"Who knows, who knows?" Lucy sighed and quickly followed Josh out. Harley walked up to Max, who was clearly upset.
"On this letter it says "Harley has gone too far this time and so have you" what does it mean? What have I done that's so wrong?" He indicated this on the letter.
"Hey Max, forget about her" Harley slipped her arms around him, "she obviously doesn't care, just think, now we can be together" she tried to kiss him but he pulled away.
"NO! stop this Harley, it's madness!" he turned away from her and went back to his room.
"You'll forget about her soon!" shouted Harley "I guarantee..."
He pointed at the moon on her forehead "Hey, little girl, have you come to try and stop us from taking slaves?" The tribe laughed at her. Laigh just glared at the boy and shouted back "Who are you? Where's Zoot and Ebony?"
"I'm Spike, the new leader," the boy shouted back, the others cheered "Zoot went away a long time ago, on some sort of journey according to Ebony, and as for her, well she ran off with this guy called Bray." The others started to look threatening and began to advance.
"Now I've answered your stupid questions are you going to get out of the way or am I going to have to knock you down?"
"I'll gladly move, thank you" Laigh said back sweetly, she stepped onto the pavement and the car sped away, the siren blaring.
Her heart was jumping, Ebony was with Bray? But where? And what had happened to Martin? This was all confusing and the city was starting to disagree with her, so she decided to head off for the country and sort her head out.
"Leia, darling we have some news, " Her mother had said "Your father has got a new job, but not here. We're moving out to New Zealand, your dad's home town to be exact"
"You mean I can be with Martin and Bray all the time?" she had said excitedly.
"Well not all the time, but a lot more than just for a week in the summer" her mum had laughed cheerfully.
That had been 3 months before the dreaded virus, she thought, what if we'd never moved from England? I'd probably be all alone still, she sighed and heard her father's final words in her head, that had been so long ago, but it still felt like yesterday...
"Leia you have to be strong, please for our sakes, look after yourself, I'm sure Bray and Martin will look after you, just remember, your parents love you no matter what and we'll always be watching over you"
He'd then hugged her and left her, in the middle of a crowded hall of people she didn't know. She remembered one person from that place in particular, she'd come up to Laigh one evening while she'd been crying.
"Hey don't cry," she'd said soothingly and put an arm around her shoulders, "Everything will be just fine, I'm sure it will. Now here, I'm Salene, I'll look after you until you or I leave."
Salene, such a nice name, thought Laigh, and such a nice person too, but one morning when Laigh had woken up she had gone, along with 3 children she had been looking after, now what were their names? Patsy, Paul and Cleo? "Oh well I'm sure they were something like that," she sighed "I wish I could have gone with them..."
"OW! Lucy, please? Can't you see I'm busy?" He said roughly, rubbing his head.
"Oh I'm so sorry!" exclaimed Lucy "But it's urgent, it's about Laigh...".
"What about her?" asked Josh gently. Lucy burst into tears.
"It's all my fault! I'm such an idiot for telling her!" she sobbed.
"No you're not! Now what's wrong?" Josh put his arm around Lucy.
"The other day Harley told me that she'd slept with.. with Max" Lucy sobbed harder.
"WHAT?!? That's impossible! He's in love with Laigh!" Josh exclaimed.
"Well it happened, I know because the other night I heard Harley having a go at Max because he'd proposed to Laigh, she asked him if all those times with her had meant anything to him, he said yes" Lucy was choked up.
"Well, wait a moment, you didn't..." Josh looked at Lucy, who nodded her hear sorrowfully "You did, you told Laigh, how could you?".
"I didn't want her to make a terrible mistake by marrying him then finding out about Harley. Please you can't say a word to anyone, you have to promise...".
"OK, Luce, I promise," Josh held Lucy in his arms.
Harley came walking into the room, "Oh come on Lucy, get over it, Laigh's gone and she's not coming back" She said spitefully.
"One of these days, you're gonna pay for what you did Har, you just wait and see..." muttered Josh.
She picked up a stone and launched it towards the sea, it obviously didn't hit the rough waves but she was so fed up she felt she had to throw something. The sun had started to set, the red rays of light lit up her face and the cold evening wind started to make her shiver.
Her thoughts began to wander back to the evening before, what Lucy had said and how she'd felt when Max had asked her to marry him, "Of course, it's all starting to become clear," she exclaimed to herself, "The way Max had acted when Harley was all over him when I came in that afternoon. He wanted to hide all evidence of him and Harley by proposing, he didn't really want to marry me at all!" She started to cry, she felt terrible, she'd trusted him for all that time and he'd just gone and thrown it all back in her face. To try and forget about that, the photo once again came out. "Oh Bray, oh Martin, where can you be?" she sobbed, "I miss you, I need you both here with me." she put the photo in her lap and remembered something Bray had said to her when the news about the virus had first come out,
"Don't worry Laigh, whenever you're lonely and feel that you need me or Martin, just sing our song, you'll feel a lot better."
She smiled and began to sing 'To You I Belong' by her favourite group B*Witched. She sang it out, loud and clearly in her sweet and gentle voice that so many people had loved. Suddenly, from out of nowhere a voice shouted "Leia? Laigh! Is it really you?"
She stood up quickly, recognizing the voice instantly. There, coming towards her quickly were two people. One, she had never seen before, a girl with blonde knotted hair, but the other, could it be really? Bray?Episode 3
“Bray! Bray! Oh my God! Is it really you?” the smile on Laigh’s face couldn’t have got any bigger as she ran across the sands, straight into the arms of one of her favourite cousins.
“Yes Laigh it’s me” he said happily. “I heard you singing our song. Where have you been? How are you?”
“Better now you’re here!” Laigh laughed, she gave him one final squeeze and then let go of him.
The girl with the blonde knots looked confused, she put her hand on Bray’s arm and said
“Erm, sorry to break up the reunion but who’s this?” She seemed very threatened by the presence of Laigh.
“Oh sorry Amber, hey no need to look so worried, this is my cousin Leia.”
“Please - Laigh,” Laigh smiled and put her hand out to Amber, who immediately relaxed and took it.
“You never told me you had a cousin Bray,” she said “Let alone an English one, how did you end up here?”
“My dad and Bray’s dad were brothers,” answered Laigh, “Twins, to be exact. Anyway my dad got a job in England, where he met my mum, who got married and then had me, about 3 months before the virus we moved here because dad wanted to be near his family and had got a job here and so that’s my story,” Laigh gave Bray a cunning look, “So, how long have you two been together? You seem to be pretty close, and how come you’re on the beach, do you live near here?”
Bray smiled and looked at Amber, who also had a smile on her face. “Not long, it’s actually a long story, we live in the mall and we’re on the beach because we had to get away from the others” he answered.
“Others? There are more of you?” Laigh enquired.
“Another 15 of us, to be precise,” replied Amber “That’s including a dog, a pig and a chicken”.
“Wow! So have you got a name?” Laigh asked.
“We’re the Mall Rats” Bray said proudly. “Hey are you with a tribe, Laigh? Or are you a loner?”
“I was with a tribe, but something happened and I’m not going back, I was looking for you, or Martin” she replied. Bray looked troubled when she mentioned Martin, but she just ignored it.
“So are you sleeping on the beach?” Amber asked gently “Please, come back with us, even though there’s so many of us, there’s still plenty of space”.
“Are you sure?” Laigh asked “I wouldn’t like to impose...”
“You’re not,” Amber said “I’m sure Bray would love it if you came back with us, wouldn’t you?” She looked Bray in the eye, he smiled thankfully at her.
“Of course I would. Come on, you can tell us why you’re not going back to your tribe on the way”.
“Alright, if you're sure...” Laigh said cautiously.
“Of course we’re sure!” exclaimed Bray and Amber together, they looked at each other and smiled, they then all walked off together, arm in arm.
“I can’t believe that anyone could do that, I don’t think he loved you. I mean, I would NEVER ever do anything like that to Amber because I love her so much...” he looked at Amber and took her hand, she smiled lovingly at him and they started to kiss.
“Ahem,” Laigh cleared her throat “I’d like to meet the others, if that’s alright with you two...”
Amber and Bray stopped and started to go red.
“Sorry cus, we got carried away I guess,” Bray said. “OK let’s go and find the others.”
“Hey everyone! Could you come here please? Amber and I want you to meet someone” Bray shouted out as they entered the cafe. A group of people came from different directions, they were an assorted bunch, there was a boy with bright red hair, a dark skinned boy with dark hair, a girl who had blue and pink hair, holding her hand was a long haired boy who looked suspiciously at Laigh, a little girl with pigtails and a boy with spiky hair.
“Who’s this? What does she want?” the boy with long hair demanded to know.
“Shut up Lex, everyone this is my cousin Laigh. Laigh, this is everyone”.
‘Everyone’ introduced themselves, she found out that they boy with red hair was Jack, the boy with him was Dal, the girl with the multicoloured hair was Zandra, Lex’s wife, the girl with pigtails was Patsy and the spiky haired boy was KC. Just then another girl came in, she had bright red hair and Laigh recognized her straight away.
“Salene? Is it really you?” Laigh exclaimed.
“Laigh? That’s your name right?” Salene asked “Wow! How are you?” They hugged and it was Bray’s turn to look confused.
“How do you two know each other?” he asked.
“We met at one of the drop off points when the adults evacuated!” Laigh explained. Just then another girl came in, about the same age as Patsy, who now Laigh had also recognized “You were there too! Now what’s your name? Cleo?”
“No Cloe,” The little girl told her “and this is Tai-San” Laigh smiled at the girl, older than Cloe, stood next to her.
“Hey you haven’t met Trudy yet!” Patsy said, stroking Bob the dog.
“Of course, erm actually you’re in for a surprise when you meet her” Bray said mysteriously. “Follow me, we’ll go and find her”. They went to a room where a pretty girl with blue and black hair was nursing a baby.
“Come on Brady, go to sleep” she said gently.
“Trudy?” Bray whispered, as not to disturb the baby, “I’d like you to meet mine and Martin’s cousin Laigh. Laigh this is Trudy and this is Brady, Martin’s daughter”.
“What? You’re joking right?” Laigh exclaimed softly.
“He’s not, I’m afraid,” said Trudy “It’s nice to meet you Laigh. There, she’s finally asleep, come on, let’s leave her now”. They all left the room quietly, Laigh was quite overwhelmed by everything that had happened so far, but she was exhausted, she began to yawn.
“Laigh you must be exhausted, come on, let’s find Amber and then we’ll find you a bed, she’ll know where to put you.” Bray put his arm around her “I’m so glad I found you”.
“And I’m glad I found you too.” Laigh said sleepily.
“Harley, what’s wrong?” Max asked, standing up to let her sit down on his seat.
“Why does everyone hate me so much?” she sniffled. “What do I do to make them all hate me? I mean, I tried to cheer Lucy up this afternoon and all she did was shout at me.” Her sobs became harder, Max put his arm around her shoulder.
“You know this whole Laigh thing’s upset us all, Har. I mean, I want to know what I’ve done wrong, I really do.” Harley then noticed how red Max’s eyes looked, she could tell that he’d been crying as well, and was about to start again, much to the annoyance of her. “I have to find her, I can’t let her go. I love her...”
“Well she can’t love you or else she’d still be here. Why don’t you just get over her?” she snapped.
“How could you say that? No, you’re right.” He sighed. “She can’t love me or else she’d be here now, with me. Harley, thank you, maybe it should have been you I had fallen for at the start.”
He gave her a kiss on the cheek, nothing major, just a friendly gesture. However Harley saw that as her moment to strike, she grabbed hold of the front of Max’s top, pulled him towards her and gave him a passionate kiss. He pulled away and looked her in the eye. Thinking that maybe she’d made a big mistake Harley stood up and started to run to her room, majorly embarrassed. However, the next thing she knew was Max’s strong hand pulling her round to look at him as she reached the door of her room and kissing her, this time a lot more meaningfully. They carried on kissing as they stepped backwards into Harley’s room...
“What do you think of Laigh then?” she heard Bray ask.
“She’s great, I feel really sorry about her and that Max though, I can’t believe the nerve of that Harley!” Amber replied.
“So do you think she should stay?”
“Yes, I’d love her to stay but we have to cast a vote, you know the rules," Amber said softly. “I don’t think Lex would like it if we just said “yeah, sure, of course you can stay” without his say, do you?”
“No you’re right. Amber?” Bray asked even more gently than ever, so gently that Laigh could only just hear him.
“Mmmm?” Amber sounded as if she was half asleep.
“You know I love you, don’t you?” he asked.
“Of course, what made you ask that?” Amber sounded extremely suspicious.
“Because I want to ask you something, but I don’t know how to as I know how you feel about it.”
Bray is acting very strangely, thought Laigh, what’s he up to?
“Just spit it out Bray!” Amber sounded annoyed, and very tired.
“Will you, errr, oh it doesn’t matter, just go to sleep and forget I ever brought it up.”
Laigh was slowly working out what Bray wanted to ask.
“Just say it Bray” Laigh whispered to herself.
“TELL ME!” Amber was REALLY feeling tormented now.
“Will you marry me?” Bray blurted it out, Laigh moved so she could see Amber’s face - she looked very, very shocked.
“What?!? Are you crazy?!?” She exclaimed “After what Laigh told us this afternoon?!? I don’t think that’s a very good idea at all!”
“Amber, please! I love you so much, it would make me so happy and I’m sure Laigh would be happy for us too!” Bray pleaded.
Episodes 4-6
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