Near the Mall is a play area where Salene (an
older kid) informally supervises younger kids Paul, Patsy (brother
& sister) and Cloe plus Patsy's dog Bob. Cloe is apt to
go walkabout, oblivious to the dangers of marauding Locos and
Demon Dogz, rival tribes in a city that has become a war zone.
Amber and Dal are on their way out of the City when they spot
Cloe and rescue her from certain pickup by the Locos. |
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Cloe introduces Amber and Dal to her friends
back at the play-area.
Salene has no plans, where to stay or how to survive. She tells
Amber she was letting the kids play one last time before....
We can only guess what she meant.
Amber and Salene discuss survival - a place to stay - when trouble
arrives in the form of Lex and his friends, demanding food.
Then the Locos arrive and then the Demon Dogz ready for a fight.
Amber, Salene, and their group escape and find the Mall first.
Lex and his friends soon follow, still demanding their food,
but Jack, the Mall's unseen resident, drops the grille, trapping
Lex behind it until they can decide what to do about him. |
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Jack introduces himself and shows everyone round
the Mall, and most importantly the furniture/ Bedding store.
This is where everyone will sleep, at least for the first night,
though Jack himself sleeps in the electrical store (his workshop).
There's one set of bunk beds. Cloe picks the lower bed and Amber
takes the bed above her.
Cloe is upset because she has lost her teddy. In fact Ryan is
now using it as a pillow on the cold stone floor behind the
grille. She will get it back the following day when Lex, Ryan
and Zandra are allowed to join the tribe. Bray also introduces
himself, and the following day Bray brings Trudy. It's not long
before many decide to move out from the Furniture store to find
privacy in their own rooms. Salene alone will choose to stay
with Cloe and Patsy, until she eventually moves in with Ryan. |
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At about the same time as Paul and Patsy discover
that Jack has a secret food store, and as Trudy goes into labor,
Cloe makes friends with a stray calf that has been roaming the
streets.
Cloe keeps the calf tethered in the parking lot and takes her
coffee creamer to drink. As time goes by Cloe takes her for
walks to find fresh grass. This is a dangerous game, for on
more than one occasion Cloe finds herself near the railyard,
where Zoot and the Locos hang out. |
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| In Ep.6 Cloe spots Bray talking to Zoot, the feared
leader of the Locos. What is Cloe to think? Is Bray a traitor?
Cloe hides from Bray, but he soon finds her. He makes a deal:
if she will keep quiet about what she just saw, he will keep
her secret about Bluebell. Otherwise Lex will want to eat her. |
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Because Lex is really mean to Trudy, she agrees
to meet with Zoot inside the Mall. For it turns out that Zoot
is the father of her baby. Unfortunately Lex discovers their
secret meeting and attacks both Bray and Zoot. In the fight
that follows, Zoot falls to his death from the balcony.
Bray, Amber, Trudy, Jack and Dal take Zoot's body to the beech
to give him a warrior's funeral on a burning boat.
Cloe prays for everyone, especially Trudy, Bob and Bluebell,
but most of all, Zoot. |
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At the end of Ep.10 Lex becomes leader, and
his first job in Ep.11 is to put Jack on trial after Ryan carelessly
lets slip about Jack's secret food stash.
Unfortunately for Lex, Jack threatens to tell everyone about
Lex's water stash. Lex must therefore do everything to ensure
a "not guilty" verdict.
Lex uses his knowledge of what other people have to hide to
his advantage. In the end it's down to Cloe to cast the deciding
vote. She declares "Not guilty." |
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As leader, Lex allocates all the chores, like
cooking and cleaning, to the girls. The boys on the other hand
are to be given weapons training, and Lex summons the girls
to watch. Cloe slyly disappears. In the parking lot she tells
Bluebell all about Jack's trial.
The girls don't like being treated as skivvies and Amber calls
a midnight meeting to decide what to do. They decide to go on
strike, to cook and clean only for themselves.
Suddenly an eerie sound permeates the Mall. Are they under attack? |
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Cloe suggests it might be Zoot's ghost. Amber
doesn't believe in ghosts, but whatever it is, they are about
to find out.
Cloe has a knowing look about her. |
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Macho Lex leads the boys, following the sound,
down into the sewers, then the parking lot. Meanwhile Amber
figures why Bray and Trudy find the situation so amusing: they
know what it is!
Lex and the boys find Cloe, desperately trying to protect her
pet from harm. |
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| Lex's immediate thought is hamburgers for breakfast.
It's only when Cloe holds out the prospect of milk that the
boys begin to think further ahead, like milk on their breakfast
cereal. Lex relents, and Cloe hugs him. |
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| The girls' no-work protest gets under way, but
before long the boys begin to cooperate. Accordingly the girls
invite them to share their food. All except Lex, who stubbornly
refuses to join in. He blames Amber for plotting against him. |
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Bluebell's prospects change dramatically in the
Café when Bray enlightens Lex that without a bull, Bluebell
will not be able to supply them with milk.
Lex's popularity and credibility ratings are way down right
now, and bringing home some fresh beef might do the trick. Accordingly
he takes Jack and Ryan to do the necessary. Cloe is terribly
upset, declaring that she hates everyone.
Ryan cannot bring himself to wield the knife, and neither can
Jack. That means Lex will have to do it on his own. Preferring
not to have an audience he dismisses the other two. But when
it comes to it, Lex can't do it either. |
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To save face, Lex's answer is to send Bluebell
toward the woods, then to return to the Mall with a cover story
that the Locos attacked him in order to take the calf for food.
Amber doesn't believe Lex's story for an instant. Her guess
is that he had a fight with the calf and it won! |
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Cloe bolts from the Café. She's just got
discover what she can about Lex's story, and Bluebell's fate.
Lex watches as Cloe finds Blue unharmed. This isn't good. Once
she tells her story, everyone will know that his story was a
complete fake. |
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| Cloe takes Bluebell deep into the woods to protect
her from Lex. But in so doing she becomes lost. This isn't a
good time to be lost in the woods: a storm is coming. |
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Next day Ebony organizes a search party to look
for their missing leader Zoot. Today they will concentrate on
the woods. At the Mall, Lex leads a search party to find Cloe,
but insists they head for the City, not the woods as Bray assumed.
As Lex planned, they return at the end of the day without finding
Cloe. Lex seems to rule out any further search for her, and
tomorrow their top priority will be to fetch water from the
stream.
When Cloe wakes at dawn of the third day she spots a couple
Locos have camped nearby. Unfortunately they also spot her,
and the chase is on. |
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Cloe manages to lose one Loco, but then she trips,
spraining her ankle. Just when the remaining Loco is about to
find her, a stranger appears at her side, throwing a stick to
create a diversion.
Tai-San binds up her ankle, applying some herbs to reduce the
swelling. She mystically enables Cloe to look inside herself
for the way back to the Mall.
Back home the Mallrats make Tai-San welcome - except Lex who
is hostile. And try as he might, Lex cannot prevent Cloe telling
her story about how she found Bluebell unharmed. |
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There's a party to celebrate Cloe's safe return.
Salene takes Bray aside for a chat, and what-do-you-know....
Trudy finds them kissing. She slaps Salene and demands that
Bray make a choice between them. Bray can't handle this and
leaves the Mall for time to think.
Cloe takes Bob to visit Trudy. It seems they both hate the Mall
and everyone living there. Trudy is so depressed that she might
have driven Bray away for ever, she totally neglects to look
after Brady.
Meanwhile Bray gets caught by Ebony, and at the Mall Zandra makes
preparations to marry Lex. |
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