The trouble that started in Civic Square had spread throughout the populated parts of Locksley.
As Robin and Marion rode across town towards Sherwood, they saw buildings on fire and a group of city youths who’d looted a liquor store then turned vodka bottles into petrol bombs when the cops came.
Marion thought there might be Rangers blocking the major forest roads because of the trouble, so they rode a couple of kilometres up a busy Route 24 and pulled off at an unmarked exit that had once formed the start of a scenic walk.
The moonless forest was dark and the path heavily overgrown. They abandoned the bike after four hundred metres, rolling it away from the path and tearing up ferns to hide it.
‘This is as close as we’ll get a bike to Designer Outlets,’ Marion said.
‘You reckon it’ll be here when we come back?’
Marion shrugged. ‘Someone might stumble on it, but it’s a big forest.’
Their eyes adjusted to the dark as they swapped sneakers for boots and split the money so they both carried the same load. Robin was amazed at how Marion navigated a kilometre of black forest, locating a dribbling stream. After a brisk fifty-minute walk, where the water never topped their boots, they met the more powerful stream they’d wound up in two nights earlier.
Neither of them fancied wading, so Marion found a crossing that was a mix of stepping stones and a precarious walk over two rotting logs. Once they were across, they could see Designer Outlets’ south parking lot, and Marion pulled out her radio to let the watchtower know they were coming in.
It took half a minute for a guard to open a steel-plated door, then they stepped into the southernmost tip of the H-shaped mall. Nobody lived down this end because it regularly flooded and there was a muggy, mushroom, smell.
‘This is my cousin, Freya Tuck,’ Marion introduced. Then to Freya, ‘I thought you’d be in town throwing rocks through windows.’
‘Worst night to draw guard duty,’ Freya complained. ‘I’ve heard the whole of Locksley has kicked off.’
‘Pretty much,’ Marion nodded, then broke into a huge yawn.
‘I need my bed,’ she said. ‘I’m trashed.’
‘You wish,’ Freya grinned, as Robin caught the yawn. ‘I’ve got orders to take you up to Will’s command tent. He’s cheesed off with you guys going AWOL.’
‘Freya, let us sneak up to bed,’ Marion begged. ‘I can handle Will in the morning.’
‘He heard your radio call,’ Freya said, shaking her head. ‘He’s expecting you.’