Chrysalis Young Read online

  “You should go and talk to your minder,” Amanda said.

  Chrysalis agreed. She found a quiet corner and talked to the minder. As she had feared, the minder couldn’t sign the document but the minder did come up with a solution. She made a construct called ‘Aunt Jemima’ and put her in a taxi with the release documents and sent her to the Charles Horsey Convention Centre.

  Everyone found Aunt Jemima to be very strange. She signed the release documents in front of Piers Atkinson, her head wobbling on one side and a lopsided grin on her face. Piers didn’t care. He scooped up the release and put it somewhere safe because Amanda had been absolutely correct. Like the contestants, the judges had already decided that Chrysalis was destined for the charts and the one to beat.

  “I don’t mean to be rude,” Amanda whispered to Chrysalis, “but does your Aunt Jemima have Alzheimer’s?”

  “I don’t think so,” Chrysalis said. She was relieved when Aunt Jemima didn’t hang around and went back to the spaceship.

  -oOo-

  Their first live performances were a huge success. It was no surprise to anyone that Chrysalis was an instant sensation. After Chrysalis’s performance, Amanda, who had been watching Chrysalis from the wings, went with her to the dressing rooms behind the main auditorium. When the others had changed and gone, Chrysalis gave her one of several bracelets that she had on her wrist.

  Amanda played with the bracelet on her wrist, uncertain. “I don’t think you’re giving me this just because you like me.”

  “It will help protect you against the dark aliens by making it more difficult for them to see you.”

  While Amanda still wasn’t sure about the whole alien idea, the zombies that suddenly stopped being zombies didn’t add up. The undead stayed undead. Everyone knew that. “I guess I have to accept that it is you the zombies are after, as that’s kinda obvious,” Amanda said. “Doesn’t matter, I guess, whether it’s dark ones or aliens. Either way, ordinary people are becoming maniacs and attacking you. Are they making them do that? The bad guys?”

  “Yes.”

  Amanda fingered the bracelet. “So this isn’t just about protecting me. Are you worried they’ll turn me into a raving maniac too?”

  “If I’m going to die, I wouldn’t want it to be you who did it.”

  “Is that like, totally possible?” Amanda said. “That they could kill you, I mean.”

  “Yes. I am not strong yet. I’m still too young. I have not yet hatched into an adult.”

  Which meant that Chrysalis Young was an alien too.

  “Even supposing I believe you,” Amanda said. “Aliens have lots of scary stuff like acid for blood and the spearing tail and stuff like that. And lots of advanced weapons. Why don’t you just take them out?”

  For a reply, Chrysalis projected an image against a nearby wall. A cocoon shrouded in a silk-like web and hanging from threads, appeared on the wall. Through the transparent walls of the cocoon, a larvae-like creature with soft skin and large, innocent blue eyes, rested, swaying gently.

  “Is that you?” Amanda said. Although she already knew the answer.

  “Sooner or later, the aliens will realise that I can’t defend myself very well and lots of them will attack. I’ve been lucky so far and killed a few of them but that won’t last.” The image on the wall disappeared. “We should go,” Chrysalis continued. “Your family is waiting for you.”

  With a start, Amanda remembered her family, probably by now fuming away in the back carpark. It was a long way out through the main auditorium and then right around the whole of the Horsey Centre to where the car was parked. The two girls decided to go the opposite way, to cut directly through the middle of the complex to the back carpark, through a maze of offices, workshop spaces, and smaller theatres.

  The carpeted corridors were much too quiet.

  The workshop space they were walking through had no ceiling. Above them, gantries and the skeletal ribs of the building vanished into darkness. An occasional spotlight fixed to the roof superstructure threw parts of the workshop space into a harsh glare, leaving the corners dark and impenetrable. They picked up the pace, coming upon a loading dock with a large truck backing up to it. Several men in work clothes waiting for the truck all turned as one to stare at the two girls, their faces hooded, eyes in darkness.

  The two girls hurried on, cutting across an exhibition space where two people were arranging a stack of white display cubes. They too looked up, their expressions unreadable. Their eyes followed Chrysalis and Amanda through the space.

  Amanda decided this was becoming an incredibly bad idea. “I hope your minder’s got her finger on the pulse here,” she said to Chrysalis. Her voice bounced and echoed off the walls.

  “The aliens are around but nothing much is happening yet,” Chrysalis said.

  “Yet!” Amanda said. “Like, watch this space.”

  “I am,” Chrysalis said. “Although our location doesn’t make any difference if they want to attack.”

  “When I’m watching a movie,” Amanda said, “and they go up those dark stairs to the creepy attic because they heard a strange noise, I’m always sitting there shaking my head thinking, what a dumb idea. Why do they always go up to the creepy attic?”

  Chrysalis said nothing, not having seen any horror movies.

  When your whole life is a horror story, Amanda mused thinking of Chrysalis, why would you bother? Now her life was a horror story too and she wished she hadn’t watched so many of those movies.

  The aliens launched their attack.

  Two large fat guys ran out of the darkness, slavering, crazy eyes, arms outstretched. Amanda spun around, looking for a place to run to but skidded to a halt before she had hardly begun to move because Chrysalis wasn’t following. Instead, she had gone very still, staring at the zombies, intense concentration on her face. Amanda had seen that look before, on the bus. Chrysalis was fighting the aliens.

  The zombies stopped in their tracks and were no longer zombies. The two men looked around, confused. One of them wiped his mouth and stared, perplexed, at the spittle on his hand.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Amanda said.

  “These aliens are dead,” Chrysalis said. “Perhaps these men won’t harm us now unless other aliens arrive.”

  “Okay, so let’s not wait around to find out,” Amanda said, grabbing Chrysalis’s arm. As they hurried away, she said, “I get the feeling you did that a lot quicker this time.”

  “I learn quickly,” Chrysalis said. “As I learn to fight, the minder gives me access to more resources.”

  Moments later, the aliens attacked again. This time six zombies, four men and two women, lurched out of the darkness towards them. Chrysalis went still again. One of the guys, in overalls, carrying of all things, a spade, sat down on the floor looking puzzled. And then another one but now the other four were almost upon them and Amanda saw the concentration on Chrysalis’s face turn to fear. There were too many of them. Before she had time to think what she was doing, Amanda raced over to the guy with the spade and grabbed it from his hands.

  Thwack! She poleaxed one of the women. The woman went down, her head a bleeding mess. Amanda spun around to the next one but remembered, just in time, Columbus’s rule number two—the double tap. She smashed the spade down on the woman’s head again. Blood and gore spattered the floor. Then she took out one of the men. It was enough. Chrysalis dealt with the other two.

  Amanda dropped the spade, backing away from the murder she had just done. Her stomach heaved. She threw up in a corner.

  “We’d better go,” Chrysalis said, heading for the opening in the partitions to the next workshop. She still looked worried.

  Amanda was about to hurry away too but then turned back to the two dead bodies lying on the floor. Murder scene. Police. CSI. She picked the spade up off the floor, trying not to look at the gory bits sticking to the end of it. She wiped off all her fingerprints with a rag lying on the floor and then hung about, not sure what to
do next. In a flash of brilliance, she took the spade to the man still sitting on the floor, lost in space, and put the spade into his hands. She turned the spade around so he was holding it like a club.

  “Sorry, loser,” Amanda said to him. “I’m on a mission from God and someone’s got to take the rap.”

  She looked around, assessing the scene. The room stunk of vomit. She went to where she had been sick, and trying not to throw up again, scraped up some of it with a piece of cardboard. She took it over to the man with the spade and smeared most of it all over his mouth and face. She smeared the rest on his clothing and on his shoes.

  She re-joined Chrysalis and they took off towards the back carpark, running as fast as they could.

  At the car, Amanda was greeted with an angry outburst from her father. She cut it short. “You’ve got to call the police. Something terrible has happened.” She didn’t need to act. She felt shocking and distraught, and probably looked it too. “We heard people screaming…and… Something really bad was happening. You’ve got to call the police!”

  -oOo-

  The police didn’t detain Amanda and Chrysalis for long. The man with the spade, now minus the spade, was arrested and transferred to a secure psychiatric unit. The police were interviewing other persons of interest found wandering in the vicinity.

  The Craze show went on. Amanda, Chrysalis, and Sarah all survived into the third week of the voting. Not surprisingly, Chrysalis was still the odds-on favourite. Amanda could have been second, but she had other things on her mind. That was okay with Sarah, who jumped up a couple of spots as a result, although she did like Amanda. It wasn’t okay with Tazzie who needled Chrysalis at every opportunity.

  The zombies attacked again. Amanda slaughtered four people with a tent pole. Chrysalis killed aliens and sent eight people into gaga land.

  Amanda and Chrysalis went for a walk in Fossils Park which was opposite Amanda’s home. There weren’t many people in the parkland. They picked their way into a forest glade dotted with huge moss-covered boulders. They chose a spot where they thought they wouldn’t be overheard and settled down.

  “I don’t know if I can do this,” Amanda said. “In school, I didn’t get voted the girl most likely to be a serial killer.”

  “If it wasn’t for you, I’d be dead,” Chrysalis said. “I’m not as strong as I should be. Not as strong as my parents want me to be.”

  “Speaking of which, why haven’t you called your parents and told them what’s happening?”

  “I have spoken to my parents but my mother didn’t say anything about the aliens.”

  “Duh… Excuse me, Mother. Did you forget to tell me about the aliens?”

  “If my mother doesn’t talk about it, I’m not allowed to ask.”

  “Okay. Dysfunctional families. I get it. We’ve got plenty of those too.”

  “I don’t think it would make any difference even if I was allowed to ask. I think my parents knew about the aliens. My mother told me about the Craze competition and then they went off visiting with neighbours they know I don’t like.”

  “How did they go visiting without your spaceship?” Amanda said.

  “The neighbours picked them up.”

  “Okay,” Amanda said. “I can see it all now. The neighbours picked up your folks as they were passing Earth and they all went off to the bowling alley or whatever, leaving you to cosy up with the really nasty aliens.”

  “Yes.”

  “Wow. And I thought Tazzie’s family was a total zoo.”

  “I can’t hatch and become an adult until I prove myself but I’m not good enough. That’s why I sat next to you at the auditions because I could see that you were strong. If you can’t be hot yourself…” Chrysalis finished, leaving Amanda wondering if Chrysalis had been reading her mind.

  “Big mistake, girl,” Amanda said. “Total error of judgement there, kiddo.”

  “No! You are strong. You just have to believe in yourself.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it. Where have I heard that before?” Amanda changed the subject. “If the aliens can turn anyone against you, why don’t they turn my family? Or Tazzie?”

  “They’re trying hard with Tazzie. It’s not going so well for them. Or with your parents. Perhaps the bonds you have between you are too strong. I don’t know much about the aliens.”

  “Why don’t they attack with, like, hundreds of them at once?” Amanda said.

  “They’re aliens. How should I know?” Chrysalis said.

  “Because you’re an alien too,” Amanda said.

  “I am not an alien!” Chrysalis said. “You’re an alien and so are they. You tell me what they’re thinking.”

  “Like I’d know. I’ve never met an alien before.”

  “Nor have I,” Chrysalis said.

  There was a small silence while they thought about this. They drank some Red Bull. Eventually Amanda said, “What happens if you don’t prove yourself?”

  “I keep growing and the cocoon crushes me to death.”

  “Oh,” Amanda said. “That sucks.” Another thought occurred to her. “Sooner or later they’re going to attack us and there won’t be a handy spade or tent pole, so what happens then? And don’t tell me to start carrying one around with me because it will very much confirm what everyone thinks about me.”

  “The minder is pleased with your learning. You are getting better at killing zombies,” Chrysalis said. “She wants to give you a weapon that’s invisible until you need it. She has increased the weapons available to me as well.”

  “Yeah, you took out eight without even mussing your hair last time.” Amanda brightened. “An alien weapon. Cool.” She stood up and braced herself, arms spread out, ready to receive the super amazing alien gravitron weapon with whatsit buttons and the 3-D screens. A short sword appeared in her hand. Amanda stared at it in disbelief. “Excuse me, super advanced alien person,” she said to Chrysalis, “A sword? Really?” It was not even a very big sword. “You want me to kill zombies with a…toothpick?”

  “It’s very sharp,” Chrysalis said. “It can cut through anything.”

  Amanda favoured Chrysalis with a sceptical look and swung the sword at the boulder beside her, hoping she wouldn’t break her wrist or something when the sword hit the rock.

  The little sword sliced effortlessly through the boulder, leaving a deep incision in the rock. Amanda looked at the sword with new respect. “I guess we’re not going to need the double tap anymore. If you take their heads off, they don’t get up again. How do I vanish it?” As she spoke, the sword vanished. “Sword,” she said experimentally. The sword appeared again. “Oh, look at this,” Amanda said. “It’s my reward for being this week’s most improved serial killer.”

  -oOo-

  At school, Tazzie and Amanda had lunch together, sitting up on a concrete ledge outside the cafe, as they did most days. Always, they had fooled around, explosively released from the classroom and making the most of it. Now an awkwardness had come between them. They mostly ate their lunch in silence until Amanda said, “You know I’ll never choose between you and Chrysalis. You’re my best friend since forever. When the competition is finished, Chrysalis and her family will go somewhere else probably, and everything will be normal again.”

  “Can we have even one conversation where we don’t talk about Barbie?”

  “I think, sometimes, that you might attack her, you know, punch her, and I think that would be very not good. She’s tougher than she looks.”

  “Yeah, so am I,” Tazzie said. Which was not true. Tazzie was every bit as tough as she looked. “Somehow, I don’t think she’s going to want to scratch her fingernail polish,” Tazzie added.

  “If you felt, like, really wanting to punch or kick her, or hit her with something, would you talk to me about it first?”

  “What are you on?” Tazzie said, vehemently. “Whatever it is, I don’t want any of it.” She crumpled her lunch wrappers into a tight ball, and sat with her knees drawn up, hugging t
hem tightly, and shutting Amanda out.

  “She’s not from around here,” Amanda said, knowing it was a really dumb thing to say. It’s what you say when you know you’ve already lost.

  Tazzie decided to give the conversation a miss. She grabbed her lunch rubbish and hopped off the ledge. Her parting shot was, “You’ve been acting really strange lately. Seriously, you should get some help.”

  Amanda watched her best friend walk away. Tell me about acting strange, she thought.

  -oOo-

  A few days later, the sword was put to good use. It was Saturday afternoon. Those contestants still in school had a heavy weekend schedule of promotions and appearances. This meant getting out and about amongst the public which both Chrysalis and Amanda knew the aliens would probably take advantage of. They were not disappointed.

  The Craze Saturday afternoon promo was at the football stadium at Caseins which was surrounded by industrial estates in the northern suburbs of the city. Amanda and Chrysalis had finished their particular segment and were waiting at the side of the stage that had been erected on the playing field, when a chunk of the crowd left their seats and staggered across the field towards the stage, doing the zombie thing.

  Everyone loved it. The crowd, and the contestants, thought it was all part of the show.

  Not the promoters, though. They looked at each other, shrugging, thinking it was a flash mob of some kind—a new dance troupe grabbing attention maybe—the possibilities were endless. If they were any good, the promoters would seize the chance to have some fun with it. End the day with an interesting twist, maybe. They waited to see what unfolded.

  “We can’t do this here,” Amanda hissed at Chrysalis. At the questioning look from Chrysalis she said, “Kill zombies on television? Are you kidding?”

  Now Chrysalis got it. “It’s me, they want,” she said. “They’ll follow me. Perhaps we could take them somewhere else.”

  The mob of zombies was now three quarters of the way across the field towards the stage.

  Not far from the stage were the access tunnels to the players’ changing rooms. Today the rooms were being used as dressing and bathroom facilities for the Craze competition. Amanda seized on this.