Warmed from the warrior spirits all of the children in all twenty cages managed to sleep peacefully through the night. Even Izzy got some much needed rest.  When she opened her eyes she noticed her new pal Onyx's head was in her lap and she didn't have the heart to wake her. For the first time Izzy witnessed the cake fall from heaven. It was the prettiest snow she'd ever scene.  Large flakes materialized out of nowhere and cascaded down through the chain-link ceiling.  Wanting her new friend to witness this miracle she gently jostled Onyx. "Look..."

Onyx opened her wrinkled eyelids and adjusted to dawn's light. Her vision, blurry due to the aging disease, still managed to see the falling two inch food flakes!  The girls held each other and didn't move an aching muscle.  Slowly Onyx reached out her age-spotted hand and softly a white flake rested on it.  Afraid it would melt away she gobbled it up!  She tasted red juicy pomegranate full of antioxidants, although she'd never even heard of either before.

Izzy got an idea... she remembered reading a quote from Gandhi (before his writings also became forbidden.) There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them accept in the form of bread. This inspired her and she thanked the Author for creating men like Gandhi.  "Onyx this food is the way to reach all the children in this factory!"

"But how?" Onyx asked with her mouth full.

"By us sharing the food we share the King."

"Yeah... but we'd better do it soon." As Onyx spoke she gathered the food into her oversized plaid skirt and shuddered at the thought of the mean men in the yellow slickers.

"Good idea..." Izzy agreed and set her plan in motion. She climbed half way up the cage wall and yelled to her friends next door. "Psssst... Hey you guys!"

JM stirred, still holding baby Nissa as Bell had requested.  Obediently she crossed to the north fence and whispered.  "What's going on?"

Izzy informed,  "We need to pass the food before the guards come back. Wake up Panney and get him to help you."

With precision aim (she'd learned from tossing the tennis ball with Tommy no doubt) Izzy threw clumps of manna from her cage into the next.  Panney was quickly on board doing the same into cell number 3.   Many pieces missed the target but still a few were making it in. One of the bread nuggets hit a badly burned boy in cage 3 and he woke up angry.

"What is going on?" Trone picked up the wad and sniffed it. Cautiously he licked it and tasted roasted turkey.  He ate it in one bite!

Panney chastised him. "Look pal... we need you to pass it on. Like a note in school. There's plenty where that came from but I'm not gonna toss anymore until you pass it on. Tell the people in the next cage to do the same and so on and so on. Get it?"

Trone cocked his head.  The idea of community was foreign to him. Helping others an outdated concept that he'd never even heard of.  No one had helped him after his entire family was burned to death in the Great Purging.  He'd been left an ugly scarred orphan forced to live in the shadows. Even the mutants shunned him.  As Panney continued to toss, what Izzy tossed to him, Trone ate each and every piece enjoying a Thanksgiving feast complete with pumpkin pie topped with fresh whipped cream!

Panney whined, "Izzy it's not working. This dumb butt in the cage next to me won't share!"

"Warn him if he doesn't it won't last..." Izzy kept tossing the food balls.

"Look dumb butt--" Panney tried.

"The name's Trone you twisted freak."

Panney muttered to himself, "Great now Burns R Us is calling me a freak..."  Then he swallowed his pride and with authority raised his voice. "Look pal incase you haven't noticed we're all freaks and us freaks gotta stick together. So why don't you do us all a favor and get with the plan?"

Trone refused to listen to reason and placed yet another flake in his mouth. As he chewed, the dough turned into live maggots. He spat it out half eaten bug pieces. "Ew gross!"

Panney was satisfied. "I tried to warn you pal... Now will you pass it on?" Panney knew he should wipe the smile off his face but somehow he couldn't.

—-

X pretended to sleep.  He lay as still as possible on the paisley printed lumpy sofa. X being well over 6 feet tall and and 350lbs made it impossible for him to get comfortable. He felt like Goldilocks in the Mama Bear's bed. This one is too small. His large feet dangled off the end and he fell off the couch three times already. Now he feigned sleep while listening as bad mommy whispered to an even worse man in the hallway.

"He's a retard. Certainly he won't hurt you. Just take him away before my daughter wakes up. Then after I've pumped Bell for Izzy's whereabouts I'll divulge that information as well. Afterwards you can dispose of both my disloyal brats. After the way they've betrayed me I could care less what you do to them." 

Worrying X might be overhear her Ella shut the apartment door behind her.

X had to think and even harder than usual and he needed to be quick about it.  As quietly as possible the big lug tiptoed into Bell's room. Food once again covered her bed. Somehow he knew what to do.  Taking a case off a pillow he stuffed it full of the magic food and then gently shook the girl.  "Girly we go... bad mommy want to send X away and she want to hurt you." He took one bite of the cake then roughly shook Bell until she woke with a start.

"What is it? Izzy is that you?" Bell sat straight up in bed and stretched out her arms. She smelled his musky sweaty scent.

X took her hand and drew his name in her palm.

"Oh X it's you... what's wrong? There's something wrong isn't there?" There was panic in her voice.

Slowly X spelled his first word on her palm. "G-O."

Instinctively Bell whispered. "Is there something wrong?"

X spelled his second word in thirty years. "Y-E-S."

With no time to be amazed at X's new spelling abilities Bell stood up. "I trust you. Let's go out the fire escape. It's outside my window. It sticks a little." She felt in the bottom of her tiny closet for her black ballet slippers and quickly slipped them on her small feet. Still in her pink nightgown she hurried into her baby blue fuzzy bathrobe and eased her way to the window.

The words I trust you pierced X's heart. No one had ever trusted him before. He was willing to die for his new friend.  He'd be her body guard for life. With ease he opened the stuck window and with a new lightness in his step he ducked Bell out the window only bumping her head once.

---

Speed and Lonely searched Main Street for: The Wood's Shoppe. Brown-grey clouds had descended upon the ghost town. The fog was so dense that neither of them could see their paw in front of their face.

Lonely broke the silence, "This place makes me feel lonely."

Speed snorted, "Does it? It gives me the heebie jeebies."

Lonely asked, "What are heebie jeebies?" He scratched his big hairy belly then plopped down on the dusty street.

"The creeps kid. This place gives me the creeps. Somethin' ain't right." Speed sniffed the air. He smelled the salty sea, Lonely's gamey odor and explosives! "We gotta find this Marina Woods and fast. I smell gunpowder."

The duo began sniffing out each shop. The sniffed an abandoned: bicycle shop, a bakery, a hardware store, an antique store, a cafe, a hair salon, a place of worship, a petstore, and a doctor's office.

Speed was frustrated. Lonely was hungry.

Speed thought out loud, "Maybe the scent is thrown off by the huge pile of ashes between the hardware store and the petstore. The military sometimes uses explosives to get the job done."

Lonely piped up, "Yeah but the King wouldn't send us here for nothing. I mean we both got the word. Unless... do you think we're too late?"

Speed asked, "Too late for what?" He trotted over to the plot of ashes.

Simultaneously a word from the invisible King permeated their spirits.

I am able to make beauty from ashes.

-End of  Chapter 20-

Author's note: I truly hope each and everyone of you are having a blessed day.
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