Chrysalis Young (4 page)

“I did,” Chrysalis said.

“I couldn’t really get a handle on your description,” Amanda said.

Chrysalis accessed the recording from the ship and displayed it for Amanda.

A huge screen opened up in front of the two of them, floating between sea and sky. A 3-D video of the girl attacking them in the holding room at the Horsey Centre started.

Amanda looked around in alarm, seeing who else was also on the beach. Away down the beach, along the water’s edge, a few dog owners were exercising their dogs. Up on the dunes, a couple of families were sitting hunched against the wind, while children played in the gritty sand. None of them took any notice of the screen. Amanda gave Chrysalis an enquiring look.

“It’s in your mind,” Chrysalis said.

“Oh, goody,” Amanda said. “Now you’re screwing with my mind.” It was said without heat, however, because the images on the screen had her gobsmacked. “They’re dragons,” she said. “But I like dragons. I don’t want the dark ones to be dragons.” However, that was exactly what they looked like.

“Do you know these aliens?” Chrysalis said.

“Not really. Dragons can be good or evil, so I guess these are the evil ones… I never believed in the dragon apocalypse either although I’m a huge fan of dragons.” She shook her head, trying to make sense of it all. “I can’t believe that it was the dragons who got us in the end and not all of the other stuff.”

“I’d like to tell you about the dragons,” Chrysalis said. “There’s more to them than you know.”

But Amanda went on as if she hadn’t heard. “The big problem with the light ones dark ones scenario is that if they are the dark ones, the evil ones, then we’re the light ones, protecting human beings and saving them from the dark ones. How can I be a light one if I am killing innocent people? So that doesn’t work.”

“No,” Chrysalis said.

“Now you’re getting the idea,” Amanda said. “That was the right thing to say.”

The screen in the sky dissolved into nothing.

“So I guess we’re stuck with calling them zombies because they look and act like zombies but I have to tell you, I still don’t know how I’m going to deal with killing innocent people,” Amanda said.

They wandered on for a while, fetching up against large smoothly rounded boulders, like giant marbles scattered on the sand.

“This is where the counsellor gives you a little reward for playing the game. Like a Care Bear or something.” Actually, Amanda had never been given a Care Bear or any other gift by a counsellor but it was worth a try because she really did need cheering up. And she did like freebies.

It turned out that Chrysalis did have something to offer. “The minder is pleased with our learning. She thinks you could use a bigger sword.”

It wasn’t quite the gift Amanda had in mind, but… “Sure, I’ve been thinking that myself although I’m not one to complain.” She checked up and down the beach to see if anyone was watching—Chrysalis tended to attract attention wherever she went, being drop dead gorgeous as we all know. She moved them both into the shadow between two boulders. She put her hand out and said, “Sword.” This time, a much longer and much bigger sword appeared in her hand and it was only slightly heavier than the old one. It was also much cooler; made of a metal like pewter which gave it an ancient and magical air, and scrollwork and studs and a tip like a harpoon, as though the minder had gone into her head and found the best of the fantasy art she loved and fashioned it into a sword, which is probably exactly what had happened.

Using the very tip of the sword, she carved an inscription into the face of the boulder.

‘Warrior girls rock’

“It’s a joke,” Amanda said to Chrysalis. “Because it’s a rock?” waiting for Chrysalis to get it and not being surprised when she didn’t.

When they finally left Balena Bay, Amanda still didn’t have any answers, although she did very much like her new sword.

-oOo-

On her way home from school the following Thursday, Amanda got off the bus early. It was Taz’s birthday next week and Amanda wanted to get something special to make up with her. She headed for Jonks, a popular DVD and games store, large enough to occupy its own block. Inside, she browsed the latest phone accessories, moving on to the games, trying to remember which ones Tazzie had and which ones she didn’t. Taz probably had most of them, Amanda decided, being a full-on games freak. And she was mostly an online gamer anyway. She drifted across the store into the racks of DVDs. In this part of the store, the DVD racks rose up nearly to the ceiling, making narrow aisles and isolating the DVD section from the rest of the store.

Amanda drifted through the aisles searching for a movie that Taz couldn’t get online. At first, the noises, a few metres away, didn’t register. She looked up vaguely to see two zombies, arms outstretched, crazy eyes, the whole bit, lurching towards her between the racks of DVDs.

But Chrysalis was at the ship.

Or was she? As she backed away, Amanda tossed a DVD aside she had been looking at and found her phone.

“Where are you?” she said to Chrysalis.

“At the ship.”

“I’m at Jonks,” Amanda said. “Zombies.” She had reached the end of the aisle and peered around the corner. Two more zombies were coming down that aisle too. A guy browsing the DVDs glanced up at the zombies and ignored them, turning his attention back to the DVD rack. The zombies staggered past, heading directly for Amanda. Several more appeared from another aisle.

“I have you located,” Chrysalis said. “This is not so good.”

“Oh, ya think?”

Some guys standing around, doing nothing much, noticed the zombies. They gave each other, ‘Yeah, right,’ looks. Yet another promo. A staff member, who knew that she was always out of the loop, also gave the zombies the briefest of glances and went back to serving.

Amanda knew their cynicism and casualness would quickly change to running and screaming shortly after she brought the sword out, which was likely to be very soon because she had reached the back of the store, and there were no obvious exits. She looked up at the ceiling. Security cameras everywhere. There was nothing she could do about this. She cast about for somewhere to make a stand. She headed sideways towards the TV and stereo section which looked to be deserted and was. She now had about 15 zombies trailing after her.

She took one last look around. The TV and stereo section also had high racks of shelving which obscured the view from the rest of the store, although every aisle had security cameras.

“Sword.”

She sliced up through the nearest zombie, cutting him in half from his crotch up through his body and out through the top of his head, ignoring the blood spraying out of him and all over her. Zombie blood. Except that these weren’t exactly zombies. There was no virus, so the blood didn’t matter. Without pausing, she brought the sword down on the top of the head of the next one and down out through the crotch. She had to admit that the new sword gave her much more reach and felt good in her hands as though they had been made for each other.

She pirouetted across in front of three zombies, using the reach of the sword to decapitate them in one sweep, beyond the reach of their grasping hands. It did mean less body parts on the floor which had to be a good thing, if only so she didn’t trip over them.

She slashed her way up and down the aisles and it was over in less than a minute. Now the TV and stereo section looked like a slaughterhouse. She was still not used to the length of the new sword and had also cut indiscriminately through the stock on the shelves and many of the shelves had collapsed. Today she was glad of the ultra-loud music from the store speakers which made normal conversation difficult in Jonks. And hid any other sounds too.

Amanda vanished the sword. She found her phone. Chrysalis was still on the line. Amanda showed her the carnage.

“You have to get out of there,” Chrysalis said.

“Yeah, got that,” Amanda said.

Now she noticed the fire alarm box on the back wall of the store. ‘In case of emergency break glass.’

One thing was for sure, this was the mother of all emergencies. She smashed the glass and pushed the button.

Grumbling, the customers and the staff left the store. Amanda waited until she was amongst the last. The security staff were still on the doors, checking people out. They stared at her blood-soaked clothing and face.

“Zombie promo,” Amanda said.

They waved her through the security screens. Outside the door, Amanda hooked right, away from the crowd gathering at the assembly point in the parking lot. She hurried to a belt of trees fringing the parking lot. The sirens of the fire trucks swelled in the distance.

Amanda peered out from the trees, looking back at Jonks. The fire trucks were beginning to arrive.

As she had thought, the Jonks’ building was entirely surrounded by the parking lot. She showed the entire scene to Chrysalis. “You’ve got to take the building out,” she said. “Bomb it. Super ray gun or whatever. But, absolutely, you must not hurt any of the people in the parking lot or the fire fighters and the rest of them.”

“What!” Chrysalis said.

“The place is full of security cameras. They see those pictures, I’m in jail. And then it’s no more watching your back, little cocoon girl.” The firefighters were climbing down from the trucks. “This has got to happen now.”

“I’ll talk to the minder,” Chrysalis said.

“Don’t make it a long conversation,” Amanda said.

Seconds later, the most tremendous blast levelled the Jonks’ building. A hailstorm of debris ripped through the trees, throwing Amanda to the ground.

When she was finally able to sit up, her ears still ringing, she could hear Chrysalis saying loudly down the phone. “We’re coming to get you. Go out to the roadside.”

Amanda waited on the street side of the trees, scanning the sky, not sure what to expect.

An old and battered City Transit mini-bus pulled into the side. Amanda stepped back, shaking her head negatively. She didn’t want ‘hail and ride’ today. The bus’s doors hissed open. Chrysalis yelled through the open door, “We should leave now.”

Amanda climbed aboard. Aunt Jemima was driving. “Oh, great,” Amanda said. The inside of the little commuter bus was as worn and tattered as it was on the outside. “You didn’t tell me you were doing this on a budget.”

The minder did the clean-up of Amanda’s clothes and face, and after an erratic and very scary drive across town, Aunt Jemima dropped Amanda off at home.

As the bus pulled away, Amanda thought, I guess I’ll just have to get Tazzie a present some other time.

-oOo-

“That was all over the place,” Tracy Buckingham said to Amanda. A scant five hours after the Jonks mayhem, Amanda fronted the judges and the television audience to wow the public with some Country and Western. They were not wowed. Nor were the judges.

Even Roman Harding, the hard-bitten television producer, was taken aback. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone fumble a line at this stage in the competition. You’ll be lucky to survive tonight.”

Amanda dragged herself back to the bear pit—as they called the circle of studio sofas to one side of the stage. The remaining contestants were no longer allowed the luxury of hiding offstage until their performance. The most competitive relished it, hamming up their reactions to the performances of the other contestants for the benefit of the television audience.

Not Sarah. She gave Amanda a quick hug as she sat down between her and Chrysalis. “Are you okay?”

“No,” Amanda said. “I am very not okay.”

“You’ve got to hang in there,” Sarah said. “Roll with the punches.” She had now moved into number six spot ahead of Amanda, mostly because Amanda was sliding. Sarah didn’t mind how she got ahead but she still liked Amanda.

During the next contestant’s performance, Amanda whispered to Chrysalis, “We’ve got to talk.”

The following day, Amanda stayed after school to work in the library. She met Chrysalis and they walked across one of the playing grounds to a little creek running along the edge of the school. Chrysalis sat on some stones at the water’s edge and dabbled a hand in the water, letting it trickle through her fingers. She found water fascinating, Amanda had noticed.

Amanda sat up on a large boulder. She fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist. “The bracelet was supposed to hide me from them. You weren’t even there so they didn’t find me that way.”

Chrysalis took her hand from the water and shook the droplets from it, watching them fall, before looking up at Amanda. “I said it would help but it always depended on them being more interested in me than you.”

“Why have they suddenly decided to attack me?” Although the answer to this was obvious.

Chrysalis spelled it out. “You have become skilled with the sword. They now see you as an essential component of my weapons systems. The upside—”

“There’s an upside?”

“There is always an upside,” Chrysalis said calmly and continued. “At least now we won’t have to worry about them turning you and making you attack me. You’re much too strong now.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get too carried away with that scenario. I feel like crap.”

“They wouldn’t have attacked you if you were not a threat to them. You are a threat to them because you are now much stronger and more skilled. You should be able to work that out for yourself.”