CHAPTER ONE

'These are the keys to my heart…'

Amber now clutched them protectively to her chest, and held them right by her heart. She remembered clearly the day he gave them to her…they were only a set of rusty keys on an even rustier keychain, but they meant more to Amber than anything else he gave her. They told her that he was serious about her, about them.

Oh, Bray! Ever since splitting up with Jay, she couldn't stop thinking about her one true love. For three weeks practically non-stop she had locked herself in her room, and refused to come out. Her room was her sanctuary, where she allowed herself to cry all those tears she had held back for such a long time. She was the leader – she had to be strong for everyone, and for her son. Smiling through her tears, she crossed the room to gaze at him – he was the spitting image of Bray, and Amber knew he would be proud to be his father. She had even called him Bray Jr. in honour of his great dad. Now he was all she had left of him.

She had desperately tried to make things work out with Jay; she was physically attracted to him, she knew he'd be a good father figure to Bray Jr., and she knew he was a decent, moralistic guy, but he just wasn't Bray! No matter how much she told herself that Bray wasn't coming back and that Jay wanted to be with her – he had even professed his love for her – she couldn't bring herself to say it back. Amber had only ever told one man that she loved him, and that was Bray!

Trudy peered around the corner of the mall to where she knew Amber would be – in her room, as per usual. She couldn't believe how much her best friend was missed around the mall. In those three weeks since she had been away from her duty as leader, the functioning of the mall was chaotic. Virtually every adult had attempted to take over from Amber, but it was proving near impossible to restore the calm they had come to expect. How was she ever supposed to get Brady of to sleep in the madness that was occurring all around her? And who would organise the tribe to be prepared for the oncoming power struggle they were certain would occur now that the Technos has been defeated. Everyone wanted to be top dog, and all the tribes were fighting amongst themselves to take over the place the Technos had left behind when they were beaten by the mallrats, and several other allies.

The mallrats had come to the logical conclusion that somebody had to talk Amber into coming back. And being both Amber's best friend, and close to Bray, Trudy was decided upon. Amber was in the strange position where she was respected by the children and adults alike, and what she said was generally accepted without questioning – except for Lex of course, who was so big-headed he believed he could run the whole thing single-handedly, despite his huge failure when he tried to do just that! No, Trudy decided, Amber had to come back, to save them all from themselves! But how?

Trudy approached the door to Amber and Bray's room. She tapped gently, but nobody stirred. She put her ear to the door, and was about to leave when she heard sniffling noises from inside.

"Amber, Amber please let me in!" she begged her friend.

"Trudy, just go away! I don't wanna talk." came the response.

Again Trudy tried, "Amber, I understand what you're going through, so please let me in!", but again Amber refused.

Trudy had to report to the others about her failure. They decided to try one by one to get through to Amber, but it seemed that nobody or nothing could help her to overcome her grief long enough for her to become leader and restore the peace. Lex remained the only one not to have a go, and the others were dubious about even permitting him to try, what with him always winding her up, and saying the wrong thing, but, as Siva pointed out, what did they have to lose – she was already lodged indefinitely in her room.

Lex went off to try to diffuse the situation. This reminded him of when it was Patsy's birthday, and it was not long after Sasha had left. He had asked Amber to go with him then, and she had turned him down saying that she had too many responsibilities. Well if his memory served him right, she had stayed in her room then for days on end, even managing to spoil Patsy's birthday. He felt the anger bubble up inside of him, and he decided that there was no way he was gonna let her let the tribe disintegrate because of her lack of interest. And who did she think she was? He was so sick and tired of hearing everyone talking about Amber. It was all he ever heard about nowadays, and it wasn't even as if he had never lost anyone before. With that thought, his mind drifted onto Zandra – she had been his wife, before she died, - and he had loved her dearly, but now he had Siva. He turned his thoughts back onto the task at hand…Amber.

He swiftly approached her door, but unlike the others, he banged on it quite hard, and his cries of "Amber, let me in!" thundered across the whole of the mall.

May ran out into the corridor, and upon realising that it was only Lex said,

"Oh, I thought it was Pride….! He's been missing for a few days now, and I'm convinced something awful has happened to him! I'm so worried he's lying on the streets somewhere injured!"

"Look May," began Lex, "I haven't seen or heard from Pride for a long time, and I reckon you'll be lucky if you ever see him again!"

Lex had noticed over the past few months that Pride had started to get strong feelings for Salene again, and therefore was battling with his emotions on a daily basis. He knew that Salene was trying to find Ryan in a bid to try and save her marriage, and also that he didn't want to hurt May, but Pride knew he couldn't keep stringing her along. However, when May confessed that she loved him, he knew then that he couldn't bear to break her heart. So he came to the conclusion that it would be best to leave without telling anyone of his plans; not even Amber. That's not to say that he didn't trust Amber enough, but with her recent rollercoaster of emotions, he didn't want to be the one to tip her over the edge. But when he was raiding the food cupboard for his rations to take with him on his journey, he awoke Lex. Lex had thought it was a Demon Dog, or a Loco, and took a baseball bat with him in order to scare the prowler, but he wasn't prepared to greet Pride. After some probing questions, Pride caved in, and told Lex about his plans to leave that night. He made Lex promise not to blab to anyone – not to Amber, and certainly not to May! Lex didn't understand, but he gave his word, and Lex was a man of his word.

"Why?" persisted May. "You know something don't you? Lex if you know anything, please tell me!"

Lex shook his head, and turned to face the challenge of getting Amber to even answer the door to him.

So May returned to her room, as she realised she would get nothing more from Lex.

Lex knew he was in a rough time with Amber here, and made a mental note that, after this, he would never get involved in women's business ever again.