Cruel World (The Tribe Book 1)

1. Less Power, More Chaos (Pt. III)

This is the chapter where Alleia comes in, above is her outfit. Thank you all so much for reading, and here's another chapter!

The rest of the group sits down on the edge of the fountain, making small talk while they wait for Dal to come back from scouting the mall.

"So your name is Patsy. And yours is..?" Amber trails off, waiting for the young boy to answer. However, Patsy answers.

"Paul."

"And who is this?" Amber asks, gesturing to the dog. "Bob."

She ceases conversation with the young children seeing Dal come back. "Did you have any luck?"

"No," Dal sighs slightly disappointed. Amber smiles at him, as a gesture of thanks for trying anyway. Dal moves closer to the rest of the group, "We don't have much, so we'll have to share."

Amber turns and indicates to the kids, "This is Patsy and Paul, Patsy does all the talking I think her brother's a bit shy," she states with a fond smile.

"He's not shy," Patsy starts. "I'm deaf," Paul finishes.

"He doesn't seem to have trouble talking," Dal says smiling slightly, slowly warming up to the new additions to the group.

"When he feels like it," Patsy says. Amber, with burgeoning curiosity, asks Paul "Oh I see, do you lip read Paul?"

Patsy answers instead, "He prefers to sign".

As she talks, Paul is looking behind the group, startled at what he sees and furiously starts signing to Patsy. Amber notices and asks what he's saying. Dal looks up and sees.

"It means we're in trouble," he says nervously, pointing to the trio behind them. All other kids stand and move away from the trio, Amber and Dal moving in front of them all, acting as leaders of the small misfit group.

Lex moseys on forward, smirk never leaving his face, acting as if he owns the building he just walked into and looking as though he believes the misfit group to be finished.

"Now, where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?" Lex asks, only to hurriedly stumble back when the grated roller doors fall from the ceiling, slamming into place with a sharp clank and blocking the trio in from all sides. The smirk has dropped from Lex's face by now, as he turns back to face the group in fury.

"How the hell did you do that?" he spits. "We'll find another way in, you're not getting away that easy," he grumbles angrily, eyes scanning for a way out. Amber, seeing that he has no way out, becomes very smug and begins to goad him.

"Looks like you're the ones not getting away," she smirks, enjoying the frustration of the trio after tormenting the misfit group. Dal speaks up, "What do you want with us? We've got no issues with the Loco's". "These are no Loco's, if they were they would've done the job right," Amber responds snarkily.

"Open it up!" Lex shouts. "Open it up now or you'll regret it. I'm gonna count to 10. 1, 2, 3--". He is cut off by two voices from the balconies above, one an early teen male whose voice hasn't quite dropped, and a girl in her late teens.

"4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10."

"So what happens now? I think you'll find that was a fairly empty threat, didn't think it through, did you? Not to worry," the young red headed male states, before turning to face the group. Hi, I'm Jack."

"And I'm Alleia, his older sister," the girl continues. "And I think you've got something to say to us," she says, eyebrows raised, waiting for an answer from the group.

"Like what?" is not the answer she was expecting. "Well in our day, it was thanks, but times have changed" Alleia responds curtly. Amber untenses slightly, "Thanks."