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"No."
Madeleine wanted to run, but she stepped forward to Noi's side, gripping the metal pole of a parking sign forsupport.
"You're the ones who're outgu
Lifting her free hand she aimed the palm at the windscreen ofthe nearest car, and pushed out with the strength which had been in her sincethe surge, giving her all in order to impress.
She'd kept her eyes on the leader, and only saw the result ofher effort in peripheral vision as, with an enormous smash and scream of metal,the car shot back and then flipped up, setting off a cascade of collisionsclimaxing with the first car's descent, a smack-bang coda only a ton of metalfalling out of the sky could provide. Ahalf-dozen car alarms rose in discordant chorus.
The reaction of the two men was, thankfully, exactly asMadeleine had hoped. As she stood there,one hand wrapped around the metal pole and the other still pointed at thedestruction she'd created, they turned tail and ran in the opposite direction,and did not look back to see that she still stood, hand out, head high, eyesfixed on the place they had been. Paralysed.
ooOoo
The aftermath followed the same course as the time at StJames Station, with the added complication of Noi, who managed to lowerMadeleine's arm, producing a burning sensation in her shoulder. When, soon after, Madeleine curled down toclutch her knees and gasp in pain, the girl hugged Madeleine protectively, notrealising that made the pins and needles worse.
Despite the blaze of pain Madeleine could feel Noi shaking,so struggled to say through stinging lips: "S'okay. Jus' tempry."
"I reserve the right to panic," Noi replied, with agasp of relief. "I've called theapple-green cavalry to give us a lift."
By the time the cheerful Volkswagen arrived, the worst hadpassed, and Madeleine was sitting almost upright, bracketed by Noi and theblonde girl, Emily, all her limbs feeling disco
"Questions later," Noi said, as the cavalry piled outof the car. "This is all way toonoisy and attention-getting. Can youstand, Maddie?"
Standing wasn't much of a problem with so many hands ready tohelp, though Madeleine was feeling far too vague and floaty to navigate herselfto the back seat of the Volkswagen, and yet found herself there, Emily on oneside and Fisher on the other. As Gav wascheerfully exchanging names with Emily, Madeleine remembered the squares offudge Noi had given her before they set out, tucked into the front pocket ofher backpack. A backpack now sitting onFisher's lap.
Painful heat washed through her as she stared at theoverstuffed bag. He couldn't possiblyknow, had no reason to open it, but–
Fisher frowned. "What is it? Are you goingto be sick?"
Madeleine looked away, head spi
"Ferrying the court jester," Nash said, noddingahead just as Noi's moped cut in front of them, Panbalanced precariously backward, indulging his i
Trying not to picture the contents of the bag spillingeverywhere, Madeleine turned resolutely to the girl on her right. Tall, fine-boned and delicately pretty, withthe kind of silken, straight hair which Madeleine sighed over on the days whenher own was determined to imitate steel wool.
"Emily? Sorry,didn't mean to be so...over the top."
The girl ducked her head, colour flooding through porcelainskin, but then lifted her eyes and said fiercely. "I'm glad you did. They were such awful people, pretending theywanted to help. I couldn't find a way toleave without them getting angry."
"What more can we do to get the word out, Fish?"asked Gavin as he followed Noi onto the private road along the eastern side ofFinger Wharf. "People are checkingon each other, grouping up, but for kids like Emily here there's too big achance they'll walk right into the wrong person. The site messages, Twitter, it's notenough."
"The Safe Zone model's gaining momentum," Fisherreplied. "Melbourne Trish gotthrough to the ABC, and once they start broadcasting links we'll catch themajority." He saw Madeleine'sconfused expression. "A sister siteof BlueGreen,working a model which came out of Toronto. Establish safe zones, just as we have with Rushies. Remove corpses, manage food, identifysurvivors with expertise, like doctors, electricians, and then gradually clearoutwards from your central point. We'relooking at seventy to ninety per cent mortality in high exposure areas, whilethe fringe areas are full of people trapped in their houses. Even in cities which have had rain, likeSydney, they'd be risking everything to go outside. Once the Blues and Greens have establishedsome organisation, we can look at trying to help the uninfected in the dustzones. Not to mention working on somekind of inoculation. There's Blue groupsin Berkeley, Beijing and London who are the primary focus for that research,and we're feeding them as much information as we can."
His glance at Madeleine clearly put her in the category ofinformation to be gathered, but questions were forestalled as they pulled upnear the apartment elevator. Madeleinewas by now piercingly hungry, but all her attention was focused on retrievingher backpack from Fisher, which she managed to do with minimum fuss as theywaited for the lift, drawing a startled look and stifled cough of laughter fromNoi.
"So are we all capable of trash compacting cars if weput our minds to it?" Pan asked, as they travelled upward. "I mean, I know I'm not the only onewho's been playing with recreating the surge. I've felt tired afterwards, but haven't collapsed. Definitely haven't had any couldn't movemoments."
"Do you get pins and needles after?" Madeleineasked, better able to engage with the situation now that her backpack wassafely in her arms, and Fisher was carrying i
"Nope." Panglanced around, but everyone shook their head.
"I haven't even tried," Noi said, unlocking Tyler'sapartment with the master key.
"Do you react like that every time?" Fisher deposited the bags he was carrying bythe couch, started to sit down, then said sharply: "Unmute that TV."
The television, which had been busily telling the world'sstory to an empty room, currently displayed an unsteady image of two menwalking toward a Spire.
"What are they – is that a bazooka?" Gavin asked.
The pair had stopped, one man moving back to whoever wasfilming while the other dropped to one knee and lifted the bazooka to hisshoulder. Noi found the remote in timeto give them sound as the man fired, a plume of white followed swiftly by asunburst of orange.
"That was perhaps not an entirely pointlessexercise," Nash said, as the fiery bloom died to a drift of smoke,revealing a completely undisturbed Spire. "It gives us a gauge for what will not penetrate it, at least."
"Aliens always have impenetrable force fields," Pansaid. "Must be some kind ofindustrial law. No invasions of Earthuntil force field technology achieved."
"You still think it's an alien invasion?" Noiasked, bringing water and a plate of sweets over to Madeleine, who gratefullytucked herself into one corner of the couch and stuffed her face.