lost ~ the gone series

nine

Perdido Beach was a nice town, way nicer than Blair ever remembered Coates to be. Walking in, she decided to ditch Arion in a nice cluster of trees so she wouldn't be that one weirdo strutting in on a horse.

A while ago, everyone owned horses and only the rich owned cars. Now, everyone owned cars and only the rich owned horses. Blair didn't understand that. Switching back to horses as the main form of human transportation would actually help a lot environmentally and be a lot more fun for Blair.

She remembered the plaza. Her mother would often send her here to get supplies for the ranch. It was often bustling with people, doing their daily errands or just hanging out. Now it was deserted.

But there was commotion inside the church. Some kids were hurrying out of it, and she could hear screaming from inside. Blair decided to avoid the church.

She noticed that Barbara's Day Care had its doors wide open. Maybe Barbara had a working cell phone.

Blair walked inside and was immediately confronted with the smell of diapers and oatmeal. She could only stand one of those things, and it wasn't the oatmeal. Mattresses covered the floor and each had multiple kids on it, none older than five.

"Can I help you?" A girl with dirty blonde hair carrying a two-year old on her hip approached Blair. A girl. As in, no older than fifteen.

Blair stumbled. "Hi, um, is there a phone here I could use?"

The girl just laughed. "Haven't you been here? The phones don't work. Neither does the internet." The child starting fussing and the girl held a bottle of formula to his mouth.

"Okay. Thank you." Blair hoped to end the conversation, but apparently the girl found her interesting.

"You're not from here, are you?" The girl laughed. "Sorry if I intimidated you. I'm Mary."

Blair said nothing, just continued to look around the daycare. There must have been around thirty kids, and she saw three kids the same age as Mary running around to each, giving them snacks and hugs to the ones who were crying.

Mary followed her gaze. "Yeah, we call them littles. There's so many of them without parents now that the FAYZ happened. And guess who's taking care of them?"

Blair snapped her attention back to Mary. "What happened to the parents?"

"You don't know?"

"I live up in Brair Ridge."

"Never heard of it."

"It's a horse ranch."

"Ah."

"So what happened?" Blair persisted. "I was riding with my sister and she just disappeared."

Mary laughed. "Yeah, it was kind of a universal thing. Everyone over the age of fourteen, poof." She widened her eyes and smiled, both her hands still full with the child.

"Mary, it's time for Jonas's nap!" one of the helpers, a young boy who resembled Mary called from a far mattress.

Mary sighed. "Anyway, we're just trying to make the best of what we have. And that involves me taking care of all these kids. If you see Caine, kick his ass." With that, she walked over to the boy who had called her.

The mention of Caine's name sent shivers down Blair's spine. His parents were close friends with her parents, thus resulting in them seeing each other a lot at family gatherings and such. He wasn't a very nice person, but he was attractive and Blair had kissed him once. It was a long story. She'd be glad to kick his ass.