CHRONOS' CHRISTMAS

Three of us sat in different corners of the large activity room, across from Ceep who filled an entire wall of the pentagonal room. Except for his flashing red eye and the blue glow from his vidscreen, we waited in the dark; it was better for the arrivals of the replacements, less of a shock for them.

I could hear Snuks sucking her thumb, and I tried to see where she was hiding. She must have noticed, because she leaned out of the shadows and into the vidscreen's blue glow, looking eerie. Her round eyes made contact with mine.

Ceep's red eye, located at the other end of the room where Geebo waited, became a steady red.

"They're coming," I said to the others.

"Chronos?"

It was Ceep. "Here," I answered.

"Stand by for replacement 1313M and replacement 1315M, both chronological four."

"Double chrono four?" I asked. I thought that was strange. I went over to Ceep and touched him for a pause and repee. He repeated, and I'd heard the computer correctly. Chrono fours, two of them. Snuks, Geebo and I had all arrived when we were five, and as far as I knew the kids at the other unit had all arrived when they were five, too. This Christmas I would be nine and Snuks would be six. This was her first Christmas at Daycare. "We're ready here, Ceep," I said. Instantly, above our heads, pink finger-thin laze shot across the room. It was a soothing, hypnotic colour, and I had to walk away for a moment. The beam began to pulse, expanding in all directions and filling the room with a warm sleepy glow. A low hum caused vibrations in the floor and walls. I looked over at Snuks. Her hiding place was exposed by the light, and she was really pulling on her thumb. She'd never seen the arrival of new kids.

At the centre of the room appeared a blue dot as big as a fingernail. It hung in mid air, and then another appeared beside the first. They grew simultaneously. Snuks was engrossed by the process, or maybe she was just affected they the light. Whichever the case, she appeared to be watching very carefully. The miniature dots started to take shape the tiny human forms looked like holos suspended just above the floor. They stayed that way for a moment, and then quickly grew. The pink light intensified, became brighter, and a sudden white flash blinded us for an instant.

"How long?" I asked.

"Two hours before they are fully awake," Ceep replied.

I heard Geebo set down the gadget he'd been tinkering with while the new kids arrived. He'd been preparing the gadget for Christmas, but now that the replacements were here, he was more interested in them. He began looking the new arrivals over, checking their pockets, cutting the Velcro from their clothes and stuffing the strips into his own pockets. Ceep's red light shone in Geebo's hair making it almost the same colour as mine. It was the only time Geebo and I ever resembled each other. We were the same age, but he was a head shorter than me. His dark eyes were almost black, while mine were pale, almost colourless. I was the only one at Daycare with freckles.

I could see that Geebo was completely absorbed with the sleeping kids, while Snuks sat back in the shadows like she always did when something was new to her. There was little to do except wait for the arrivals to wake up so that we could orient them to Daycare and Christmas, which would be the next day. Deemi and his unit would be anxious to beat us to it, if they could. But we were ready, too.

"You gotta see these kids, Chronos," Geebo said. He came over to me, brushing his dark hair out of his eyes and exposing a thin, raised white line that ran horizontally across his forehead – a scar from a gadget that had backfired on him when he was younger. Geebo hadn't been much of a talker when he first came to Daycare, and after he was killed the first time, he spoke even less. The only time I'd ever seen him excited was over a new gadget he'd created and now, with these new kids. He tugged my sleeve insistently.

I followed him, and we crouched over the small bodies. He pulled a tube of glow grease out of his pocket, squirted some into his palms, and then rubbed them rapidly together.

Snuks crawled over from her corner. Her long golden hair, curling delicately at the ends, became blue as she passed through the light cast by the vidscreen at her end of the room. Sitting cross-legged, she looked at the sleeping arrivals, then at me. One of her fingers was curled over he nose as she sucked her thumb. Geebo had made her a warm-doll which she held by its head in the crook of her arm. I thought the doll was dumb, with its gaping mouth exposing its large front tooth, but Snuks would fight anyone who tried to take it from her. She took her thumb out of her mouth. ‘Ith that how I came here?"

"Yeah, ‘cept you were a pink dot, not blue," I said.

"Why?"

"Cause you're a girl."

"Why am I the only girl?" she insisted.

"I asked Ceep about girls once," I told her. She shifted her warm-doll from one arm to the other. "He said that girls used to be a lot more popular, but for a long time now girls haven't been requested as much."

"Why am I here, then?"

"I don't know," I lied.

"Doth Theep know?" She looked from me to Ceep.

I was relieved when Ceep didn't say anything. Sometimes he'd give answers but other times he wouldn't, but by that time he'd only told Deemi and me about girls like Snuks. He said that she was a longlifer. All girls were. It's the way the dults wanted them. When she was ready to leave Daycare the dults would eventually trade her to Offworlders. She wouldn't get to be immortal like me and Geebo and the others at Daycare, like the dults. Ceep told me not to tell Snuks just yet. When I asked Ceep who the Offworlders were and why they weren't immortal, he just stayed quiet.

"Look." Geebo elbowed me. He grinned and held a green glowing hand over the face of each replacement. I was surprised to see their faces were identical, and I had a feeling these two would be special. Christmas, and now the replacements, had me excited and a little nervous.

They awoke earlier than Ceep had calculated and sat quietly in the same place they had been deposited. Fair- haired and shy, they looked up at Ceep. He was talking to them, telling them about Daycare.

"Since the skirmishes with the Offworlders first began more than a century ago, it became economically unfeasible to restore Daycare to its original standards. When those in charge of maintenance were destroyed in a particularly violent encounter with the Offworlders, the dults, who long ago lost the ability to nurture their young, also lost the maintenance knowledge needed to make sure I continued to perform the task for them. Now it is entirely up to me to make the necessary adjustments in both of you if you are to fulfill the role the dults have prescribed for you."

"What adjustments?" one of the replacements asked Ceep.

"Those cannot be determined until you have spent more time at Daycare," he replied.

I knew that Ceep was talking about the times they'd be killed. Any desired abilities they displayed before their first three deaths would be "sharpened" by him.

Ceep continued: "A basic foundation of knowledge is given to all of you before you come to Daycare, but the dults can never be sure, any more, what your pre-Daycare knowledge along with your adjustments and experiences at Daycare will result in. It is during your time in Daycare that your intrinsic abilities will – or will not – manifest."

One of the little kids turned to me. "What do you call him?" he asked.

"Ceep."

"Why do you call him Ceep?" "He makes a noise that sounds like 'ceep.' But forget him," I said. If these two were going to participate in Christmas, we would have to orient them to Daycare pretty quickly. Officially, Christmas started at 1900 hours, now only a few hours away.

"One of you has to join Deemi's Daycare unit. Now who wants to go?" I looked from one to the other.

"Does Deemi have one of those?" One of them pointed to Ceep.

"Yeah. His unit's identical to this one, and Ceep is over there, too."

"I'll go," said the one who'd been doing all the talking so far.

"Good. Ceep, has Deemi responded to my message about the new arrivals?"

"Yes. He says that if you want to take Christmas this year, you should keep them both. You need all the help you can get."

I ignored the message. When I first came to Daycare, I arrived at Deemi's unit. He taught me everything he knew about getting Christmas. Together, Deemi and I used to be on the same team, we were invincible. Every year, Christmas was ours. But when he started making his own rules, I left his unit.

I looked over at Geebo, and he seemed to have forgotten the new kids and was completely absorbed with his tinkering. I waved over the kid that had volunteered, and he followed me to the exit.

"Except for Deemi, Geebo and I are the oldest at Daycare," I explained to him. "Deemi's eleven, the oldest and biggest kid Daycare's ever had. He'd never been killed before I took over this unit, but I've killed him three times." I looked him straight in the eye. "And I plan to kill him and whoever gets in the way of me and Christmas." He just looked up at me with an innocent and shy expression. I told him how to et to Deemi's unit, and said that he should follow my directions exactly. If he wandered dawdled there was a good chance he'd be killed by one of the many traps which both units had spent the rest of the year setting up. I watched him walk down the stairs to the sidewalk. He stopped and looked up at me.

"Bye." He turned and never looked back. I really hoped he made it to Deemi's, and I hoped Deemi liked him. At least this kid wasn't a girl. One of the rules Deemi had decided on, while I was still with him, was no girls. Once, he was sent a girl, and he killed her himself. What a waste. He never even tried to use any of her abilities for Christmas. Every time Ceep restored her, Deemi'd just kill her again until after the fourth time Ceep never brought her back. No one came back to Daycare after the fourth death. I thought it was really a shame; I felt sorry for the girl. No one wants to leave Daycare. I've never traded a girl to Deemi's unit, and I don't think Ceep's ever sent him another one.

When the new replacement was out of sight, I looked up at the light dome high overhead. It was the ceiling to the walls that enclosed the one and half square kilometres of Daycare. Ceep had the overcast filters up.

I went back to the activity room, and my knee started aching. I'd been killed three times, twice by Deemi, and my knee hadn't been repaired properly. It usually started bothering me around this time, when I was worrying about Christmas. Ceep said there was nothing the matter with it, but I knew he had to be wrong.

When I walked into the activity room, I saw Geebo watching the remaining kid, who was standing on a stool and halfway inside Ceep. The vidscreen light was out and the screen was off and on the floor. Geebo gave me a worried look, but the kid kept working. "Ceep, are you still there?" It made me nervous, seeing him in pieces on the floor.

"I'm here, Chronos," he answered. He sounded different. His voice was the same, but there was something different. By this time the blond kid was looking at me. He smiled.

"Geebo, what's he doing? You know Ceep's off limits. We all know that," I said. Snuks sat in the corner, her face painted white. She was about to apply more colours. At least someone was getting ready for Christmas.

"I gave the new kid a name," Snuks said, "Teb."

"Ceep asked Teb to do this," Geebo said.

Do what?" I asked.

"Fixth him," Snuks answered. She went back to colouring her face. Teb still worked on Ceep.

"Is that true, Ceep?" I asked, half expecting him not to answer.

"Yes, Chronos."

"But why Teb? Why not Geebo? You know how he loves to do that kind of thing. And why now with only one hour until Christmas? We've got to be ready. Deemi will be ready."

"Geebo wasn't bred for this kind of job, Chronos. I couldn't let him work on me."

I recalled the one time Geebo had attempted to tinker with Ceep. Geebo hadn't been here too long, and Ceep had zapped him so badly that I thought he'd been killed for sure, but he hadn't.

"Geebo would have changed me. He would have made me something more – or less."

"I wouldn't," Geebo protested.

"Yes, you would have. Don't feel bad, Geebo. That is your specialty. It has become more and more obvious. Your creativity is greatly needed and desired."

Ceep was absolutely right. Geebo's genius had come in handy more than once and would be greatly desired in less than an hour.

"Besides," Ceep continued, "Geebo's hands are too large for this procedure. I could not be sure the Teb or the other replacement would survive this Christimas, and this adjustment could not wait much longer. Do not worry about being prepared for Christmas. You are prepared."

By the time Ceep had finished explaining, Teb had completed what he was doing, and Geebo replaced the vidscreen and turned it back on. We always kept the vidscreen on. That way it felt like Ceep was really there.

"Teb, have you looked at Ceep's Christmas catalogues and given him you list?" I asked. His blond head nodded. It was strange talking to him when I felt like I had just said goodbye to him a moment earlier. "Snuks will help outfit you. Geebo and I have to get ready, too. Remember, it's only fifteen minutes to Christmas." Snuks looked nervous. I was nervous. But Geebo didn't look worried at all. "We've got fifteen blocks to cover by tomorrow, but then so does Deemi," I said.

We gathered on the concrete stairs outside of our unit. We looked at each other, admiring the faces we had painted on ourselves. Geebo and I snickered at Teb. He'd allowed Snuks to apply his paint to him, and she'd given him a clown's face, just like the ones she'd seen in Ceep's catalogues. Teb's nose and mouth were red, and his eyebrows arched into the blond bangs on his forehead. He looked like he'd been surprised by Deemi himself. He didn't seem to mind us laughing at him. Snuks wore a tight, black, stretchy outfit. Her hair was tied back and fastened down with a thong that looped around her neck.

"Watch this," Geebo said. He slipped off something that he had slung over his shoulder, and then moved down the stairs and away from us. It was a flat chrome disc tied to the end of a plastic string. He held it out to one side. With a few twists of his wrist he had the disc spinning, and then he released it. Slicing through the air, the silver disc cut two branches from nearby bush before it was stopped by a clump of twigs. Not until it had become lodged did we realize that the razor-disc was still attached to the string Geebo held. He flicked the string; the disc dislodged and spinning wildly, it came back to him, stopping just short of his hand. He grinned, looking delighted with himself.

Geebo had other gadgets hooked to his belt. I recognized his grease gun and a few other things. Snuks wore her pellet shooter around her neck like a necklace. She blew through it a couple of times then tucked it down the front of her top. A small pouch filled with pellets hung by her hip. When she was ready, she slipped her thumb into her mouth and sat on the top step.

I was ready too, but I wasn't sure about Teb. I had no idea what his capabilities were. He probably wouldn't make it all the way through Christmas, but I was going to make sure we got as much use out of him as possible, at least until Deemi or one of his gang got him.

"Message from Deemi," Ceep's voice came through the com by the door.

"I'll come inside to take it." I didn't want to take Deemi's message while the others were listening. It might disturb them.

I left Geebo bragging to Teb about some gadget he'd created and wlaked into the silent activity room. Ceep was quiet.

Ceep was quiet!

That was it. Teb had fixed Ceep so that he no longer made the hissing sound we'd named him after. I stood in the silence and wondered what Deemi could possibly have to say just before Christmas. I decided that it was probably some kind of trick and was ready to walk back outside when Ceep spoke.

"Shall I communicate Deemi's message?" he asked.

"No." I really didn't want to hear it."

"I would like to talk with you before you go."

"There's not much time, Ceep." I felt uncomfortable."

"I have always considered your development, and the others at Daycare, my most important task, but until now, the way your time has been spent here has never been completely under my control."

"You've done everything for us," I said, wondering what Ceep was getting at.

"No. The dults neglected Daycare and were afraid of the children that were coming out of here because the children were violent. Conditions here demand that yhou be tough. I do what I can to ensure that you will survive once you leave here. The dults don't know how to stop Daycare, and at one time hoped it would break down completely -- until they saw how they could take advantage of the children. They need you to defend them from the Offworlders. The dults introduced Christmas to Daycare to ensure the violence would continue – a motivating agent. They've been preparing you, the others and many before you to fight for them, to die for them –"

"But you won't let us die."

"You will be beyond my range once you leave Daycare," he said.

I felt cold.

"The dults who do not fight the Offworlders are not mine. They didn't come from Daycare. But you and other are mine. Especially you, Chronos."

"Me?"

"Yes. You love the other Daycare children, even those in the other unit. You even loved Deemi once but you especially care for Snuks –"

"I'll be sorry to see her go," I mumbled.

"She will be traded to the Offworlders. You may kill her one day, or she you."

"Why does Snuks have to go there?"

"The Offworlders threaten to destroy the dults. They want the dults' secret to immortality. Unfortunately the remaining dults don't have that information. It was lost long before the first Offworlder skirmishes. The immorality gene was bred into you and the others – except for Snuks. Her offspring will be longlifers, and all females like her are traded to the Offworlders in order to keep the Offworlders from carrying out their threat. This trade appeases them for awhile."

"Can you give the Offworlders the information they want"?

"No. I've lost large batches of information as a result of the degeneration that has taken place in Daycare and the outside world. Your immortality was already present in you gene pool."

"You don't think I'm going to survive this Christmas, do you, Ceep?"

"I did consider that possibility. I have reissued your genetic pool, Chronos, and have designed the two new replacements after you. Yet they are also significantly different from you."

There was a long silence.

"Are you finished?" I asked.

"Yes."

"I have to get back to the others."

"Goodbye, Chronos."

I stepped outside not wanting to think about why Ceep told me this. I just wanted to win Christmas.

"Let's get Christmas," I said, and we began.

We jogged the down the street on which our Daycare unit was stationed. Snuks and Teb followed me with Geebo bringing up the rear. We moved in single file towards the centre of Daycare.

Skirting potholes and debris from other Christmases, we travelled north. Daycare had been a small grassy park surrounded by many city blocks. The park was battered and worn from years of battle, but there were still patches of yellow grass to be found at the outskirts. The old tenement buildings that still stood were now empty shells. Some old street lamps will worked, and Ceep usually turned them on for Christmas.

We didn't move straight down the middle of the park but drifted west where the park foliage was heavier. Here, some of the trees were still real and alive, but most were imitations. None of us were even sure which ones were real, though Ceep assured us that there were still originals. We had planted many of our own traps here and were able to move through the area in relative security.

The buildings on the outskirts were a kind of no-man's land where both groups, Deemi's and mine, tried not to become trapped. The roads there did not lead to Christmas, but the buildings could provide cover from an attack.

It was getting cooler out. My breath came out in cloudy bursts, but it seemed too early for Ceep to be lowering the temperature. We came to the treed area, and I jogged to the base of a tree with low branches. Linking my fingers together, I formed a cup with my hands. Snuks ran as hard as her legs could go, stepped briefly into my hands and leaped upward. With the momentum gained from the leap, she swung her body around the branch, straddled it and was able to reach the rest of the branches to clamber high into the tree.

In a moment she was rapidly climbing down the tree. As she came to the last branch, she leaped, confident that I would catch her.

"They're coming, three of them. They're just over the hill. Run!"

Our only chance was to head west towards the empty buildings and hide there. Snuks was ahead of me, her small legs pumping so fast that I couldn't keep up with her. I couldn't figure out why Deemi had deviated to drastically from the course that would take him to Christmas. Snuks headed for an old house. She took the steps two at a time and disappeared through a doorway. I followed her and, and in the distance, cold hear Deemi calling my name. I ran faster. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw his gang take cover behind a bush.

In the dim light, inside the house, I saw Snuks in a corner. From the window I saw the dome light fade. For a moment Daycare was dark. The street lamps that still worked came on. Ceep even brought out a few stars and a moon. Snuks came over to the window and stood beside me. The moonlight sparkled in her eyes.

"Are you afraid to leave Daycare?" she whispered. I looked down at her. She seemed very small. I nodded.

"Why?"

"Because I don't know what's out there," I said.

I scanned the street looking for some sign of Deemi. It seemed quiet, and I wondered why he'd called my name.

"Why do we need Christhmath?"

"Because."

"Becauth why?"

"Because it's important. What else is there? I mean don't you like the idea of getting all those presents every year?"

"Yeah."

"That's why," I said.

"But why don't we share Chrithmath? Then we wouldn't have to kill each other, and then we could alwayth be at Daycare."

She had a point, but it wasn't the time to explain that Deemi would never agree to a truce; besides, before now, Ceep always encouraged us to compete for Christmas.

"Are you afraid of Deemi?" she asked.

"No. Just the dults."

"I'm afraid of Chrithmath. If Deemi killth you, you won't be back. I don't want you to go away, or Geebo."

I didn't know what to tell her, so I took her hand and held it.

Without warning, Deemi burst through the door. Snuks had time to pierce his cheek with one pellet. Then she jumped up onto the window ledge, somersaulted through it and landed safely outside. She ran towards the street. "Run!" I yelled after her. A member of Deemi's gang stepped out from behind a lamp post and caught her.

"Why didn't you answer my message?" Deemi said.

He was holding his left cheek, blood oozing through his fingers.

"You mean back at Daycare?" I watched him carefully. I was at a disadvantage. I couldn't get to the door or window without fighting Deemi.

"That kid you sent to me never showed," he said.

I glanced out the window. Snuks struggled with a captor, much bigger than herself.

"Damn."

"You should have got rid of her a long time ago." Deemi walked over to the window. His back was to me. I should've tried to kill him then, but I saw something whiz out from one of the shelled houses across the street. It struck Snuk's captor in the neck. He let her go and grabbed his own neck with both hands.

"Those replacements are missing. What's going on with them?" he asked.

"What?"

"The replacement you sent over to my unit – it never showed. Those new kids – they've done something to Ceep."

"How do you mean?" I tried to stall.

"Ceep's making the weather cold sooner than last Christmas. The night's come too soon, and I think it's those new kids."

Deemi was afraid. He leaned on one arm against the window frame, blocking my exit. When I looked for Snuks, she was gone. Her captor was on his knees with a red glistening stream spurting from between his fingers.

"Where's your new kid?" He glanced suspiciously around the room.

"He's not here."

Deemi was volatile and unpredictable. He gave me a violent shove against the wall and then grabbed me. "We've got to find them." He was desperate.

"You find them," I said and jammed two knuckle into his throat. He let go, and I jumped out the window and ran for the cover of the trees. I ran past the body of Snuks' captor and saw someone hiding in the bush ahead of me. It was Geebo. He motioned for me to follow him, and led me to one of the traps we had set for Deemi's unit. He pointed to the strip of laze-eyes he had placed along one side of the trunk of a tree.

The trap had been tampered with. It should have let any one from my Daycare unit pass through it without harm, but no one from Deemi's. It had been dismantled, and Geebo couldn't figure out how it had been done.

"Did you see Snuks or Teb?" I asked him.

"Snuks got away." Geebo patted his blood-stained razor-disc. "But I haven't seen Teb since we left the unit."

I was relieved to hear that Snuks had got away. We left the trap and decided to try to make our way to Christmas.

We moved cautiously, encountering no difficulties. This unnerved us even more than if we had been attacked or injured by Deemi's gang or their traps. We walked through his territory as if he had never been expecting us. We found that Deemi's traps were dismantled, too.

We weren't far from Christmas when we heard a noise. I climbed a tree and ws barely up and hidden when two shadowy forms came from opposite directions to converge on Geebo. He decided to stay and fight it out. Besides he couldn't follow me because he had too much junk strapped to himself. He had his grease gun out and sprayed the stuff all over, but they got him. He never made a sound. His body was heaped awkwardly on the ground, a dark silhouette against the soft green glow of the grease.

They tried to climb the tree after me but were covered with the slippery glow grease, and even when they tried to hide, the thick foliage couldn't completely conceal their glow. They waited for me, so I couldn't climb down. I remembered a group of trees in this part of Daycare that were clumped together. Crawling through the tree, I hoped the neighbouring one would be close enough for me to jump across to it.

Not knowing if the tree I was in was real or not, I moved out onto the branch as far as I dared. There was a good chance that small branch of a real tree would not hold my weight. Flat on my belly, pulling my feet under me until I crouched, I got ready to jump to the next tree. Suddenly, my knee started to ache.

When the pain subsided a little, I leaped. My knee cramped just as I took off, and I knew in mid air that I did not have enough force to make the branch. I crashed through the branches, grasping at twigs that tore the skin from my hands. Everything blurred as I plummeted and hit.

I'd been out for awhile, but I wasn't sure how long. It was very dark out, and a light snow was falling, covering the ground. I was cold, but more worried that I had lost Christmas.

I took a few things from Geebo's body, things that I thought I might need in case Christmas wasn't over. Carefully, I wiped off my footpads and followed a small trail through the brush. It was against all the rules for members of opposite Daycares to break away and form their own team, and I was beginning to suspect the new kids.

I came to the north gate where Christmas normally took place and didn't find anyone. I climbed another tree and waited there. Perched high in a branch, I cold see someone hiding in a bush below. Christmas wasn't over yet!

A portion of the north wall began to change colour. Normally grey, it became a bright orange. Only a small section of the wall changed colour and began to sink into the ground. When it had disappeared, a gush of air and mist blew into Daycare, then quickly dissipated. The black space left in the wall reminded me of the gap left in Geebo's grin when he'd lost his front tooth.

They entered Daycare cautiously and looked the way they had last year, tall, taller even than Deemi. They wore bulky white clothing, their heads helmeted. Their weapons holstered, but their hands rested on them. More dults followed them. They brought Christmas into Daycare. Some had their arms full of presents while others carried glitter and lights. Another brought a tree.

They placed the parcels and packages on the ground and decorated a small area around the gifts. The tree was raised and powered up. It was a magnificent tree which rotated at the base with the centre section slowly rotating in the opposite direction. The branches shone, blinking on and off in many colours. More and more gifts were brought in, until the area in front of the wall gate was nearly covered. The presents that didn't give off their own light reflected those of the Christmas tree.

Some of the tree ornaments played soft music which drifted upward, to me. The tree smelled fresh, too. Everything was beautiful, better than the light shows Ceep would put on to entertain us. It was a warm, enticing scene and before I realized what I had done, I was down from the tree and wading knee-deep among the presents. I wanted to hold one, feel the smoothness of its wrapping and the crispness of a bow. I picked up a small package that glowed softly. It was wrapped in gold and trimmed with a pink ribbon and bow. I could smell the newness of it and felt whatever was inside slip and slide around. As I turned it over, the small identification tag lit up. It was for Snuks.

"Put that present down. It's not yours yet."

It was Deemi. I dropped the gift and ran towards a bush, trampling gifts as I went. I could hear Deemi right behind me as I dove for the bush. To my surprise Snuks had been hiding there all along, and she sprung at Deemi. I watched them tumble among the gifts and reached in my pocket for one of the Velcro bombs I'd taken from Geebo. She was no match for Deemi, but she'd taken him by surprise. At last Snuks fell away from him but when I stood to throw; I had a severe pain in my ribs. I couldn't throw the small explosive without risking the chance that it would miss Deemi and cling to Snuks. Suddenly, two of the dults were keeping Snuks and Deemi apart with the threat of their weapons.

They threatened to blast all the gifts if Deemi and Snuks didn't stop fighting immediately. They stopped and Snuks walked back towards me. Someone touched me from behind.

It was the two new kids.

"I found them taking apart all the trapth in Daycare," Snuks said. "They don't want to fight for Chrithmath all the time."

"Geebo's dead." I looked at them. Snuks started to cry quietly.

"Teb." I waited until one of the kids looked at me so that I could identify Teb, whose clown face had been wiped off. "What did you do to Ceep back at the unit?"

"Just adjusted the problem that caused him to make that funny noise. It would have eventually caused severe problems," he said.

"They fixthed Theep. Now he doth everything on time, like thnow for Chrithmath," Snuks said.

"That's all? You just fixed him?"

The kids looked at each other, and I had this sick feeling there was more.

"We did some security bypasses," Teb said.

"It was all done at Ceep's request, which was made before we arrived at Daycare," the other one added.

"What does all that mean?" I asked.

"Geebo won't be back," Teb answered.

"Geebo only died twith. He'll be back," Snuks said.

"None of the kids killed this Christmas will be back," Teb told her.

There was a commotion beyond the tree. We turned to see Deemi jump onto the dult guard who had separated him and Snuks. A second dult guard was on his way over. While Deemi struggled with the first guard, I saw my opportunity to win Christmas. Except for the kid who never actually joined his side, Deemi seemed to be the only survivor from his Daycare unit. Once I go rid of him, Christmas would be ours. And Deemi would be gone for good.

The second guard slowly weaved his way through the gifts, weapon ready. Then it happened – my chance came. The first guard, weaponless, broke away from Deemi. I ran from the tree for Deemi, tackled him and struggled for the weapon he'd taken. The next thing I knew Snuks was yelling at me.

"Stop it, Chronos. Stop. Ceep can't bring you back if you die. He can't hold any of us any more."

I let go of Deemi and shoved her away. "Go back!" I screamed. The second guard grabbed Snuk's arm. "No!" I started after him, but he brought his weapon to her face. I stopped and watched him drag her, screaming, backwards through the gifts.

Behind me I could hear Deemi laughing, and I turned to face him. He had the weapon he'd taken from the first guard aimed at me.

"You lose," he said. And in that instant a hole burned through Deemi's neck as another guard shot him from behind. I thought I would be next but the guard walked away, following the one that carried Snuks. I watched the two dults take her out. Then they all left Daycare and Christmas.

"They won't be coming back," a voice beside me said. It was Teb. "Ceep's gonna let you decide what should happen at Daycare."

I saw the small parcel I'd seen earlier, the one tagged for Snuks. It was crushed; the lighting mechanism on the tag had gone out. I kicked it away. Ceep didn't want any more Christmases – not like this one. That was why he brought Teb and the other kid. I supposed it was the only way he could stop it. "Ceep" I yelled up at the trees. "I don't want any more either." There was silence.

Behind us the wall began to hum and change colour. The gate slowly sank into the ground, and the two small kids held my hands as we slowly approached the opening. There were no dults anywhere. I thought about Ceep, but he'd already said goodbye. So the three of us walked through the opening and never looked back.

Copyright Rhea Rose 1985