Beyond The Tribe - alternative and parallel stories by the fans

Tribal Instincts

Episode Thirty One

‘Patsy! Patsy! You’ll never guess what I’ve seen!’
Patsy looked up from one of the old magazines she’d found in one of the mall’s shops. ‘What?’
‘I’ve just seen Enna trying to strangle KC!’
‘About time too,’ grinned Patsy. ‘Face it; he had it coming!’
‘I suppose,’ said Chloe losing some of her more dramatic tone. ‘But still, it’s not like Enna, she always seems so, well, you know, like Tai-san, kind of calm.’
‘She is, Chloe, are you sure you saw it right?’
‘Yes!’ said Patsy indignantly. ‘of course I did! Don’t you believe me?’
‘Well, yes, but Enna? I mean she’s not like that.’
‘I’m telling you she is I saw it!’
‘But are you sure…’
‘Yes of course I’m sure!’ Chloe shouted. ‘Maybe Enna’s not who we think she is!’
‘I like Enna! She’s nice, she plays games with us and she’s Salene’s friend too.’
‘But she tried to strangle KC.’
Pasty stood up. ‘I don’t believe you, I won’t believe you! She didn’t do it! You’re lying Chloe!’
‘I don’t care what you say Patsy. I know what I saw and it wasn’t nice!.’
‘Well you saw wrong then didn’t you!’
‘Did not!’
‘Did too’ Trudy, interrupted by all the shouting rushed into the room with Brady in her arms. ‘What’s going on girls? What’s all the shouting about?’
‘She’s saying horrible things about Enna and they’re not true!’
‘They are true . I don’t care what you think!’ with that Chloe turned and ran out of the room.

Meanwhile Enna had returned to her room, exhausted after the conversation with Bray. She didn’t like the way Ryan had looked when he interrupted them either. She lay down on her bed and shut her eyes.
‘Enna? Are you there?’
Enna couldn’t believe it. All she wanted was rest but it was the unmistakable voice of Jack and she needed to keep in with him. ‘Sure, come in Jack, shut the door. It’s good to see you!.’ She sat up in bed and smiled. ‘So how’s things with Ellie?’
‘Er…not good. I’m trying to let her down Enna, really I am but…'
‘You’re just too irresistible?’ Enna teased as she got up off the bed and came towards him.
‘And everyone else in the tribe is kind of expecting me to go out with her.’
Enna put her arms around his waist. She could tell he was nervous. ‘Don’t worry Jack, we’ll win them round. But until then…’
Outside footsteps were heard on the stairs. As quick as a flash Enna had moved away from him and was on the other side of the room picking up an armful of the files Jack had given her. ‘So here, you go Jack, nothing useful but…’
That moment Bray walked into the room. Jack was still standing in a daze where Enna had left him. Enna continued normally. She moved over to him and dumped the files into his arms. ‘Hi Bray! As, I was saying Jack, perhaps we could go over them later.’
‘Sorry to interrupt but could I have a word Enna?’ Bray asked.
‘Er.. sure I think we’re about finished here, aren’t we Jack?’
Jack mumbled something incomprehensible before realising he was meant to leave and heading for the door.
Enna laughed as his left the room; ‘Is he always like that?’
‘No, it must be something to do with Ellie.’
‘Oh right,’ said Enna in a knowing way. ‘Anyway, what was it you wanted to see me about?’
‘I was just wondering if you’d like to come and do some herb picking out near the farm for the antidote. It’ll just be you and me, Dal was in our group but with his leg…’
Enna nodded. ‘No problem, give me five minutes to get into some more suitable clothes and I’ll meet you at the stairs.’
‘OK.’ Bray left the room. He was really beginning to like Enna, she was a really genuine individual and the first person he felt he could talk to in ages. Maybe it was because she’d lost people she felt close to as well but underneath it all he felt she was restless and unsettled.

Meanwhile Tai-san was with Dal planning the new labs. They’d decide on having three main production rooms and to have different people in charge of each, that was obviously Bray and herself but they needed one more person.
‘Enna’s the obvious choice,’ mentioned Tai-san thinking about her impressive knowledge of herbs and essential oils as well as her chemistry experience.
‘But with haven’t know her very long, Tai-san are you sure about her?’
‘Oh yes, I think so. I trust Enna, she has such a good aura.’ ‘Well, I’m not too clued up on auras, Tai-san, so I’ll leave the choice to you. By the way have you seen Jack; he’s meant to be helping us.’

Episode Thirty Two

‘Ready!’ Enna jumped down the last few steps then followed Bray out of the sewers and back into the daylight. Soon they’d made their way up into the wooded hills surrounding he city centre.
‘So what are we looking for?’ asked Enna, keen to find out as much about the ingredients of the antidote as possible. From the formula she had a good idea, but not good enough.
‘It’s a small kind of bush with spiky leaves and white flowers.’
‘Well, that narrows it down,’ said Enna sarcastically, looking around at the huge variety of plants in the undergrowth, ‘Can I have a name?’
‘It’s… it’s…’ said Bray trying to remember the complex name Tai-san had given it. ‘I’ve got it; Leptospermum scamertium, or something,’ he said hesitantly.
‘Scoparium,’ corrected Enna. ‘Are you talking about Manuka?’
‘Yeah!’ Bray smiled, ‘Do you know it?’
‘Are you joking? It’s the most useful plant in New Zealand, it's been used by the Maori for centuries.’
They walked on and Enna told him all about its origins while in her mind she calculated how the essential oils were extracted from it. ‘It’s distillation,’ thought Enna. ‘No wonder that’s what the foul smell of the antidote is! Why didn’t I guess it before and that’s where she gets the caryophyllene and the linalol in the formula from!’
In no time at all they had baskets full of the stuff. Enna pointed out some of the other useful leaves on shrubs and trees all over the place.
Bray couldn’t help pointing out some of the willow-like trees ‘That’s another thing we collect, the twigs and the flowers of that one. Do you know what its called?’
‘Yeah, that one’s er… mimosa, I love the smell don’t you?’ Enna couldn’t believe it. He was as good as giving her the method. Mimosa contained loads of the other chemicals in the formula and with a pen and paper Enna would be able to work out how to separate the fractions off.
‘Thanks, Enna,’ Said Bray happily as they made their way back to the Mall, their bags bulging. ‘Tai-san’s gonna be so impressed when she finds out how knowledgeable I am about all this stuff.’
‘That’s OK, any time!’ she said, meaning it. One more trip and I’ll almost certainly know the entire formula! thought Enna.

Bray and Enna had just arrived back at the Mall when it was starting to get back. Trudi appeared at the top of the stairs. ‘You two have been hours! We thought you’d got lost!’ she said, a faint hint of jealousy in her voice.
‘No, no,’ Bray laughed. ‘We were getting supplies for the antidote and Enna was showing me some other herbs, she’s really good you know!’
They reached the top of the stairs to find everyone sitting down eating. ‘Here you go!’ said Salene passing them a plate of food as they sat down at her table.
‘I’m pleased to hear about the herbs, Enna’
‘Oh hi Tai-san! I didn’t see you there. Yes, its great around here, especially with the lack of pollution now, the plants are really thriving, there are loads of them!’
‘No, I mean, I’m pleased to hear that you know so much because I’ve got an announcement to make.’
Bray looked up. Why hadn’t he been consulted, but then again, it was Tai-san he could hardly have expected anything.
‘As you all know we’re setting up labs to make a larger quantity of the antidote for distribution. The manufacture of the antidote can be divided into three main sections. We plan on using one room for each of these sections. I will take charge of the first section, Bray, the second section and,' she paused, ‘I’d like Enna to take charge of the third room.’
There was a mixed reaction from the group. Mostly of shock that someone else was going to share in the secret of the antidote.
‘So does this mean Enna will know how to make the antidote?’ asked Trudi.
‘No, only part of it and of course, she won’t know everything that’s in it.’
Bray smiled and so did Salene, Trudi, Jack, Dal and Patsy. Ryan and KC looked panicked, Chloe was still sulking but Ebony kept quiet in her corner, this was going to have to move her plans along more quickly.
KC couldn’t keep quiet, ‘But we hardly know her! And the other day she…’
Enna butted in keen to stop him before he said too much. ‘I understand that you have reservations. It’s quite natural, I mean I haven’t been here long but I am so honored by this. I promise that I would never dream of revealing the small part of knowledge I’ll know. So I hope you can all trust me,’ she beamed at them all.
‘I knew we could count on you Enna, thanks. It’s clear that you the best person for the job,’ put in Salene.
‘Thanks Salene.’
‘So if its all settled can we start straight away Enna. I’ve nearly finished one of the batches, we can take it from that stage.’
Bray was a little surprised. ‘Er… Tai-san, can’t you let her finish her meal? She’s just sat down.’
‘Oh don’t worry Bray, I’ll go, this is more important,’ Enna got up immediately and followed Tai-san into the lab.
She’s keen, thought Ebony.

Enna spent a gruelling but rewarding afternoon in the lab with Tai-san. Using the knowledge that she’d picked up on the plant collecting trip with Bray, which gave her some of the initial processes which Tai-san had to use and the lessons, she was two thirds of the way to knowing the complete process. She had a blank of knowledge in the middle though, she still couldn’t work out some of the other ingredients, once she had those it would be fairly easy to work out what Tai-san did with them.

Meanwhile, Ebony thought hard and put the first phases of her plan into motion. While the rest of the Tribe was eating she went down to Jack’s workshop to work out how to use the video camera which had now been fixed. She found the switch and it flicked on to reveal the deserted area around the Mall’s back door. She quickly scanned the shelves of the room until she found what she was looking for. She took the video tape down off the all and put it into the VCR below the television, she looked closely at the buttons and memorized the position of the record switch. All she had to do know was to give Lex the word...

Episode Thirty Three

‘Rise and shine.’
Lex squinted. He didn’t like Ebony’s wake up calls, they usually included a glass of cold water. ‘OK, OK, I’m awake, I’m up.’ He said angrily, sitting up in bed.
‘That’s better Lex. Now its time to put our plan into action.’
‘Plan? What plan?’
Ebony sighed, ‘The you and Enna revival thing? Remember? Oh try an get your thick head around some of this Lex. It’s not difficult!’
‘You mean where you want me to..’
‘Yes,’ said Ebony impatiently, ‘Do you remember where?’
‘It was outside the back door wasn’t it? Why there?’
‘I really thought you would have figured it out by now Lex. Just make sure you’re there around 4pm, I’ll try and get her to be there.’ She turned to leave, ‘And remember to smile for the camera!’
Lex got it, finally, so Ebony wanted to catch them on film. It shouldn’t be too difficult. So all he had to do now was to decide how to spend the day…

Patsy and Chloe still weren’t talking after their argument. Chloe had gone to play with her new friend KC and Patsy was left to wander around the mall and help Trudy to look after Brady.
She was with Trudy changing Brady when Bray came in, obviously in a hurry. ‘Er… hi Patsy, you remember that its your day to go out collecting the herbs with Chloe and KC, it’s on the rota! You remember what you’re meant to get? Good, thanks, bye.’ With that he left the room in a hurry to meet with Tai-san, he was late already.
With a sigh Patsy got kitted up to go collecting. She was just going down the steps when Enna caught sight of her from the balcony. ‘Where are you going Patsy?’ she asked curiously.
‘Oh, just herb collecting.’
Enna’s heart leapt. Patsy was the collector of the missing herb, the only one she needed to find out the formula. ‘On your own?’ Enna tried to sound shocked.
‘Er.. yeah, Chloe and KC are meant to be coming but they’re er… busy.’
‘Hold on a sec, I’ll come and give you a hand.’
‘Thanks Enna!’ Patsy smiled then she remembered what Bray had told her. ‘Oh, sorry Enna, Bray says we’re not to go with anyone except our group.’
‘Rubbish, you can’t go on your own,’ she said grabbing a coat and rushing down the stairs to join her.
‘Oh, well, I guess he won’t mind,’ said Patsy, glad of the company.

Soon Enna was in forest happily picking the herb that would be the key to her future power. But, thinking back to the formula she realised that there was still one vital ingredient missing. Tai-san must have supplies of it, she thought, I’ll have a look around the lab later. Enna found Patsy so annoying with her inane chatter that soon she was feeling pushed to exploding point but she’d leant from the experience with KC and so counted to ten and concentrated her thoughts on what she’d do when she had the formula.

Back at the Mall, Ebony was on the prowl. For all her surveillance skills she couldn’t work out where Enna was so she resorted to interrogation. After unsuccessfully trying Salene, Trudy, Danni, Bray and Tai-san she went to find Alice and the others. She walked up to Alice’s room to hear a fascinating conversation going on inside.
‘I know he does, Alice, it’s so obvious.’ It was clearly Ellie’s annoying voice.
‘But you can’t be sure, I mean she’s too old for him and he must realise that!’
Ebony was intrigued, she was usually clued up on what was going on in the Mall but this.
‘I know he doesn’t like me any more, it’s the way he looks at me; its more guilt than love. Oh and there’s the other thing, not that it would affect Jack. I hope,’ said Ellie sulkily.
‘What’s that?’
‘She was talking about it the other day. She can never have children or something.’
‘She’s infertile?’
‘Yeah, that’s it. I mean that must have some temptation for guys, especially nowadays.’
‘Ellie, I’m shocked at you how can you say that!’
Ellie knew it was wrong and there was an embarrassed silence so Ebony stepped into the room, still smiling at the new information she’d picked up. ‘Hi everyone. Seen Enna?’
‘No, why?’ asked Alice suspiciously. ‘Time for a confrontation is it Ebony?’
Ebony didn’t respond to that. ‘If you see her can you tell her that, er.. Salene wants to met her outside the back door at about four.’
‘Sure, why?’
‘How should I know?’ she said aggressively and she turned and walked out.

About half an hour later Ebony glanced at her watch. It read five to four. She moved to the empty workshop and carefully pressed the record button, the red light flashed and a contented Ebony went back to her rooms to wait.

Back in the city, Enna felt more relieved as she saw the Mall coming into view. Not far now, she thought.
The first person they met on the way into the mall was Ellie. ‘Oh hi Ellie!’ Enna said brightly.
‘Hi,’ she replied unenthusiastically. ‘Oh by the way, Salene wants to see you outside the back door at four.’
Enna glanced down at her watch, it was already ten past. ‘I hope she’s still there’ she said, running out towards the deserted end of the Mall.

Episode Thirty Four

She pushed open the stiff back door which the mallrats hardly ever used and went out into place where all the rubbish was dumped. Why did Salene want to meet her here, she wondered suspiciously. ‘Salene are you there?’
‘Better still,’ Lex stepped into view. ‘It’s me.’
Enna’s mind raced, why was he here? How did he get the message to her? What did he want?
Lex walking closer to her, continued, ‘So how are things? Taken over the world yet?’
Enna glanced around distrustfully to check no one was watching but it was empty as far as she could see. Meanwhile Lex was still talking: ‘Getting bored yet? They’re all so annoying aren’t they, just a bunch of do-gooders. Don’t you find it tiring?’
‘Why are you here, Lex?’
‘Let’s just say I’ve been missing you.’
Enna raised her eyebrows and laughed. ‘You know Lex, I’ve been missing you too.’ What harm could it be? she thought, still a little wary. Just so long as she didn’t get caught. She moved closer and put her arms around him. ‘But let's get to the real reason,’ she said still smiling. ‘Like I said,’ she gripped him tighter, ‘Why are you here?’
Lex just leaned in, reverse tactics streaming through his mind. ‘You don’t really care about that now do you?’
Enna laughed.

Back in her room Ebony was restless. She couldn’t bear waiting for anything. Moving silently, she went straight back to Jack’s workshop and checked he wasn’t around. She moved over to the TV set and flicked on the camera. To her delight she saw exactly what she wanted; Enna entwined in Lex’s arms looking less than innocent to say the least. She leaned down to check the red light was still flashing on the video before quickly flicking off the screen and moving out of the room.

Back outside, Enna remembered herself and pulled away. ‘No.’ she said as firmly as she could, remembering her brother’s words. This was all too surreal for her.
Lex laughed, ‘A bit late to be have a conscience now isn’t it?’
‘A conscience? You must be joking! What are you up to Lex? Please tell me, I’m curious.’ She remembered that now Tai-san was busy in a planning meeting and the lab would be unguarded, it was the perfect time for a raid.
Lex couldn’t help himself, ‘Smile, you’re on TV.’
Enna’s face fell as she swivelled her head around to see the CCTV camera aimed directly at them. ‘You bastard,’ she said coldly. Then she smiled bitterly and laughed, ‘You fool.’ She walked calmly away, back into the mall.

Episode Thirty Five

Enna ducked back to her room to reapply her dark purple lipstick before heading down to the workshop. To her relief it was deserted - she caught sight of Jack running back up to Dal’s room. Her eyes scoured the room until they rested on the VCR with the red light blinking at her. She moved swiftly over to it and found the eject button. The machine obediently delivered her the tape which she grabbed.
On her way out of the room she bumped straight into Ellie. ‘Have you seen Jack?’ she asked, noticing Enna hastily moving what looked like a video tape behind her back.
‘Er.. no,’ she was a little flustered. ‘I was just looking for him. Good luck.’ And with that she moved quickly out of the room. Hearing someone coming she ducked into one of the empty shops as Ebony swept past her. She breathed a sigh of relief, she’d got to the tape just in time. Not that it mattered now that, she thought as she made her way back to Tai-san’s lab. As she went across to the entrance she saw that Alice was still there on guard.
‘Hi Enna,’ she smiled. ‘Can I help you?’
‘I know that you don’t usually do this, Alice, but can you let me in, I left my note book there earlier when I was with Tai-san, she said I could come and get it.’
Alice wasn’t even suspicious, she knew how implicitly Tai-san trusted Enna. She still didn’t suspect anything when Enna came out a few seconds later with a large note book under her arm. ‘Thanks, Alice, you’ve been unbelievably helpful.’

Ellie slumped down in Jack’s workshop and decided to wait for him. He’d been ignoring her for days now and she had to find out where she stood. So she slumped down in front of the computer and picked up some of the files to read.
Suddenly Ebony came quickly into the room, she started when she saw Ellie there.
‘Oh, hi Ebony. Looking for Jack?’
Ebony’s mind raced, looking for an excuse. But she turned the situation to her advantage, using the info she’d overheard earlier to win another anti-Enna supporter.
‘Er.. no actually you, Ellie.’ She sat down on a chair opposite.
‘Me?’
‘Yeah, I just wanted to say how sorry I was about you and Jack.’
‘What?’ Ellie sounded worried.
Ebony tried to look surprised. ‘You know, I’m sorry that you aren’t going out with Jack anymore. I suppose it was because he wants to go out with Enna now. How did he break it too you?’ she tried to sound sympathetic.
‘We were never going out.’ It was all Ellie could manage.
‘Oh right, maybe I misheard, it was just I accidentally heard Jack asking Dal how he should drop you now he and Enna were about to start going out,’ Ebony said casually.
Ellie’s face turned bright red and she gasped for breath.
‘Oh I’m sorry!. I thought you knew? You mean Jack hasn’t told you! How terrible of him.’
‘How could he? How could he?! She stole him from me Ebony! It’s all her fault.’
Ebony remained calm. ‘It does sound like that, doesn’t it? I mean, before Enna came along he was as good as yours. Like I said, I so sorry.’
Just then Jack walked into the room, ‘Hi! Were you waiting for me? How can I help you?’
Ellie just looked at him in horror before running out in tears.
‘Er… did I say something wrong?’
‘Not that I know of,’ Ebony replied calmly. ‘She just went on about you ignoring her, she wasn’t making much sense I’m afraid. Sorry, Jack, I’ve gotta run.

It didn’t bother Ebony too much that she hadn’t got the tape, at least she knew that it was there. She didn’t give a thought to the idea that Lex might have revealed that him and Enna were being recorded. He couldn’t have been that stupid. She found him crashed out in the room next to Spike’s. ‘So Lex, how did it go?’
‘Good, very good.’ A smile spread over his face as he thought of Enna’s when he’d told her about the camera. ‘She couldn’t resist me.’
‘Hmm… I saw some of it on the screen and from what I saw it was more like it was the other way round.’
Lex smirked. ‘Believe me, it wasn’t. So anyway, what’s the next stage of your great plan?’
‘Now, Lex, we produce the evidence. I’m going to call a meeting and I want you to be there. But you want to know what else I found out? Have no fear. Enna’s not pregnant.’
Lex breathed a sigh of relief, but secretly he was a little disappointed. He felt that there was such chemistry between them that they would have made a good couple. And deep inside him, something had said that maybe if she had a baby it would draw them together just like he’d hoped with him and Zandra. Enna’s child would have the kind of father that he’d never had and he would have looked after it and made sure it grew up right. The baby would have filled some of the hole left by Zandra. The disappointment was there and he couldn’t stop it. Now was the time to pay her back, he should set aside all his other thoughts and just enjoy it…

Episodes 36 --->
Back to the Fan Fiction index
Back to The Tribe's Shopping Mall