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Joh
It was.
Outside, there was the sound of someone trying to start a motorbike very hard and swearing.
"It's a trick," said the man. "One of you messed around with the pack."
"Shuffle them all you like," said Joh
"How did you do that?" said Yoless, as the boy turned the card over and stared at it.
"Er ... " It had felt like memory, he told himself. "I remembered seeing it," said Joh
"You remembered seeing it before you actually saw it?" said Kirsty. Outside, there was the sound of someone trying to start a motorbike very hard and swearing even harder.
"Er ... yes."
"Oh, wow," she said. "Precognition. You're probably a natural medium."
"Er, I'm a size eleven," said Joh
Kirsty had turned to Tom.
"You see?" she said. "Now do you believe us?"
"I don't like this. This isn't right," he said. "Anyway ... anyway, There's no phone-"
The door burst open.
"All right!" roared Mr Hodder. "What did you kids do to my bike?"
"It's the carburettor," said Joh
"Here, Arthur, you ought to listen to this, this boy knows things-"
Kirsty glanced at her watch.
"Twenty minutes," she said. "It's more than two miles down to the town. Even if we ran I'm not sure we could do it."
"What're you talking about now?" said Mr Hodder.
"There must be some kind of code," said Kirsty. "If you have to ring up and tell them to sound the siren, what do you say?"
"Don't tell them!" snapped Mr Hodder.
" "This is station BD3"," said Joh
"How did you know that? Did he tell you? Did you tell them?"
"No, Arthur!"
"Come on," said Kirsty, hurrying towards the door. "I got a county medal in athletics!"
She elbowed the older man aside.
The thunder was growling away in the east. The storm had settled down to a steady, grey rain.
"We'll never make it," said Yoless.
"I thought you people were good at ru
"People of my height, you mean?"
"You were right," said the young man, as Joh
"I know," said Joh
He staggered and grabbed at Yoless to stay upright. The world was spi
He felt that his mind was being shaken loose in time, and it was only still here because his body was a huge great anchor.
"It's downhill all the way," said Kirsty, and sped off Yoless followed her.
Far away, down in the town, a church clock began to strike eleven.
Joh
Why are we doing this? He thought. We know it happened, I've got a copy of the paper in my pocket, the bombs will land and the siren won't go off
You can't steer a train!
That's what you think, said a voice in his head ...
He wished he'd been better at this. He wished he'd been a hero.
From up ahead, he heard Yoless's desperate cry.
"I've tripped over a sheep! I've tripped over a sheep!"
The lights of Blackbury spread out below them. There weren't many of them - the occasional smudge from a car, the tiny gleam from a window where the moths had got at the blackout curtain.
A wind had followed the storm. Streamers of cloud blew across the sky. Here and there a star shone through.
They ran on. Yoless ran into another sheep in the blackness.
There was the crunch of heavy boots on the road behind them and Tom caught them up.
"If you're wrong there's going to be big trouble!" he panted.
"What if we're right?" said Kirsty.
"I hope You're wrong!"
Thunder rumbled again, but the four ru
They were leaving the moor behind. There were hedges on either side of the road now.
Tom's boots skidded to a halt.
"Listen!"
They stopped. There was the grumbling of the thunder and the hiss of the rain.
And, behind the noises of the weather, a faint and distant droning.
Gravel flew up as the young man started to run again. He'd been moving fast before but now he flew down the road.
A large house loomed up against the night. He leapt over the fence, pounded across the lawns, and started to hammer on the front door.
"Open up! Open up! It's an emergency!"
Joh
We could have done something, Joh
"Come on! Open up!"
Yoless found a gate and hurried through it. There was a splash in the darkness.
"I think I've stepped into some sort of pond," said a damp voice.
Tom stepped away from the house and groped on the ground for something.
"Maybe I can smash a window," he mumbled.
"Er ... It's quite deep," said Yoless, damply. "And I'm caught up on some kind of fountain thing... "
Glass tinkled. Tom reached through the window beside the door. There was a click, and the door opened.
They heard him trip over something inside, and then a weak light went on. Another click and
"This phone's dead too! The lightning must've got the exchange!"
"Where's the next house?" said Kirsty, as Tom hurtled down the path.
"Not till Roberts Road!"
They ran after him, Yoless squelching slightly.
The drone was much louder now. Joh
Someone must notice it in the town, he thought. It fills the whole sky!
Without saying anything, they all began to run faster
And, at last, the siren began to wail.
But the clouds were parting and the moon shone through and there were shadows nosing through the rags of cloud and Joh
First there was the allotment, and then the pickle factory, and then Paradise Street exploded gently, like a row of roses opening. The petals were orange tinged with black and unfolded one after another, as the bombs fell along the street.
Then the sounds arrived. They weren't bangs but crunches, punches, great wads of noise hammered into the head.
Finally they died away, leaving only a distant crackling and the rising sound of a fire bell.
"Oh, no!" said Kirsty.
Tom had stopped. He stood and stared at the distant flames.
"The phone wasn't working," he whispered. "I tried to get here but the phone wasn't working."
"We're time travellers!" said Yoless. "This isn't supposed to happen!"
Joh
It was the hereness of here, the nowness of now ... People survived by not paying any attention to feelings like this. If you stopped, and opened your head to them, the world would roll over you like a tank ...
Paradise Street was always going to be bombed. It was being bombed. It would have been bombed. Tonight was a fossil in time. It was a thing. Somewhere, it would always have happened. You couldn't steer a train!
That's what you think ...
Somewhere ...
Flames flickered over the housetops. More bells were ringing.