The Plague City

Chapter Two

The Plaguelands

Lily Lou met up with Royal in the abandoned chapel, surrounded by graves. This was their usual haunt for this part of the Plaguelands. He was leaning on a headstone and drawing on another cigarette, but he stopped when he saw her.

"Took you long enough," Royal snorted.

"M'sorry." Lily shrugged expressionlessly, although inside she was burning with self-loathing. She knew Royal could only stay mad at her until he found something else to be interested in, which couldn't be long. Royal had more than enough spunk for both of them; he was impulsive, aggressive, and always itching for a fight, or to watch one. Abruptly, he grinned. "It's fine, as long as you vouch for me,"

"Alright--"

"And five cigarettes."

"...Fine."

"Then of course I forgive you!" He flicked the glowing stump of the cigarette onto the sand.

"Race you!" squealed Lily suddenly, and took off running for Edmund.

"What?! Not fair!!" Royal yelled after her, going in the opposite direction for his Smilie-skulled motorcycle.

The wind blasted at her face, making it cold and flushed all at once. She had the lead on Royal, for the moment. She crouched down on Edmund, trying to gain speed, trying to come in first, if only so she could tease him about it later. She squinted, since it was much harder to see with her goggles, and, thanks to that, she almost didn't see Royal quickly U-turn, passing her up. Yelping in equal parts surprise and fury, she strained to catch up, but to no avail. Royal pulled in his bike first, throwing up a cloud of dust and sand. Lily leaped off her scooter in annoyance, coughing.

"Ha! Did you see that?!" Royal exclaimed.

"Sure, what about it?" she replied, scowling.

"Oh, come on, I win! You don't! Be a good sport!" Lily snorted, knowing that he surely would not say the same thing if she'd won. This time, she saw, Tent City was up against a levee. The water on the other side had long since dried up, of course, leaving not precisely a levee, but more of a very long hill. It was checkered with so many tents, blankets, cookfires and unwashed bodies that you couldn't really see the ground at all. It was to the heart of this mess Lily Lou started running to, quickly losing herself in the crowd. Royal found her on a dime, to the eye quite easily.

"Lady Lily!" someone called. She recognized and waved sheepishly to the child who greeted her. His name was Tai, and, if memory served her correctly, he was six. "Can I talk to you about someone...I mean something? It's kinda important..." Lily made herself smile. What did that bitch do this time?

"Of course. That's what I'm here for, isn't it?" Waving and moving on, she halted and found the Highness' Haunt, named so because it was the tent that quartered the royal family, and also because apparently it needed a catchy title. Spotting it, the image pulled from memory, she went on until there was only an arm's length separating her and it. She paused, pushed aside the flap and came face-to-face with her little sister, Jezebel. She was sporting a puffy black eye.

"Watch it," said Jezebel, shoving past her before Lily Lou could ask what happened. Lily scowled, knowing what must be inside. Everett, Jezebel's twin brother, was close behind, smirking at Lily Lou in an annoying fashion. She was hoping to see her father inside, but there was only Elizabeth. With no one else there, she didn't bother to disguise a small sneer of contempt as she watched Elizabeth clean a pair of muddy boots. "Elizabeth, where's Pop?" She asked flatly, carefully not looking at the woman. Elizabeth straightened, visibly disgruntled. She always rolled her eyes at Lily Lou's calling her Elizabeth instead of Ma, but Lily always took a cruel sort of pleasure from it anyhow. Since her mother's death, dozens of girls from camp tried to have Chief's heart, so they could be married and indulged and entitled. Her Pop was smart enough to deny most of them but wasn't stubborn enough to resist Elizabeth. Being a Queen doesn't give her a right to be a jackass. She was rubbing off on the twins, and Lily really didn't need that arrogant harpy squawking over her shoulder.