And All the Stars

"Be Shakespearian later," Nash told Pan. "Focus on the fact that he's notdead. For all we know these things hopfrom person to person, and there's a chance we can get Gav back."

Pan punched the inside of the nearest door, a thump to makethem all wince, but he stopped talking.

"We've been terraformed,"said the boy in Madeleine's lap, his lightly-accented voice edged with a kindof disbelieving, acid delight. "They made us habitable."

"It's what they've done to the Greens which concernsme," Nash said. "There are somany more Greens than Blues, and they seem to have all been impacted atonce. We had best not spend long at theWharf getting those cars."

"Get out of the city as soon as possible," Emilymuttered.

"No." "Perhaps not."

Noi and Fisher, speaking together.

"Why not?" Madeleine asked, startled. "Even if we get locked up, it's betterthan...that."

"Because of the Greens. Because we don't know nearly enough about what's going on. How far does that sound carry? Is it going to tell them to do anything morethan stand gaping?" Noi roared downa wider road. "There're Greens inevery direction, in all the surrounding towns."

"We need a solid plan on where to go, and how to getthere unseen," Fisher said. He hadbeen very quiet, uncertain, but now seemed to have rediscovered his drive. "The problem is finding a place where wecan wait safely and gather information."

"That's taken care of," Noi said. "We had a Plan B."

After the swiftest of trips they hurried up to Tyler'sapartment, squashing into one elevator, tensely searching for any sign of otherpeople, straining for an individual voice over the song of the Spire.

"Someone pack the edibles while we grab our stuff,"Noi said, scooping up a line of keys.

The TV went on while Madeleine was in Tyler's wardrobe, andwhen she emerged the screen showed a couple of hundred people, all staring inthe same direction.

"All of the world," Nash said. "A simultaneous attack."

Madeleine turned to stick a large note on the fridge: "T– Don't stay here. They know it. – M" She printed her mobile number at the bottom,in case he'd lost it, then did a quick tour of the room, collecting straybrushes and the bag of pads and pencils she'd put together while huntingnappies and baby formula. Most of hersupplies were already in the bolthole, a piece of forethought she owed toEmily.

"Right." Noiemerged, two bags hooked over her shoulders. "We don't have far to go, but it's critical we go quick, quiet andunseen. Let's head down to the centralhall."

They accomplished this without much difficulty, the cloak-and-daggerpeering about not even comical when they were all so sick and nervous.

"Good," Noi said, as they emerged from theelevator. "Now–"

"Girls! Waitthere!"

Madeleine was not the only one who gasped at the sudden voicefrom above. The elevator's doors closedbehind them and, exchanging glances, they watched it go up.

"Wait," Noi murmured. "If it's an attack, run out to thevisitor parking – through the big entryway on the driveway side. I've a key to one of those cars."

"But who is it?" Pan asked, eyeing the descendingfigure.

"Not a clue," Noi said, as a beautifully-dressedwoman – all silk and pearls, her platinum hair perfectly coiffed – stepped out.

She was holding a gift-wrapped box, complete withextravagant, curling bow. "Girls," she said, her voice cultured and assured, "Iwanted to give you a small thank you before I left." Smiling, she held out the box, which Noiaccepted blankly. "Take care ofyourselves."

Without another word she turned and walked back into theelevator, her heels clicking.

"Hello TwilightZone," Pan said, as it descended.

"Have you seen her before?" Noi asked, andMadeleine shook her head.

"Something you can discuss later–" Fisher began,and stopped as Noi suddenly gaped.

"Take Him Away Lady! It has to be! Holy flippinghell."

"You think so?" Madeleine stared at the elevator, but the woman was already out ofsight. Could that hoarse, franticwhisper really have come from a person who looked like that?

"Has to be," Noi repeated. "And, yeah, now is not the time." She spun on her heel, craning to look inevery direction. "Total fail onquick, quiet and unseen, but we're going to have to risk it. Come on."

They were already near the north end of the long centralhall, so it was a short trip to the aerial bridge joining the main building tothe smaller block at the very end of the wharf.

"This is called the North Building," Noi said,after they had crossed, and the outside world was safely closed away onceagain. "When we were doing ourcheck-the-neighbours shtick we didn't find anyone alive in here. Almost all the apartments on the east sidedidn't have anyone in them at all." She paused as Madeleine unlocked the door of their chosen bolthole. "One advantage of this one is that withthe help of a ladder we prepared earlier you can jump the patio fences and dashfor either the cars, or the boat moorings. There's comparatively limited entry points, we can move through thewhole sub-building without risk of being seen, and there's a good hiding spotif anyone actually comes this far."

"You don't think it too close to where you werebefore?" Nash asked.

"I think that right now there's very few places where wecan get in and out without having an encounter like we just had with the TakeHim Away Lady, where there's no-one on the other side of a wall to hear us,where there's no easy line of sight through the windows. We might want to move again, sure, but I'mnot driving madly through the city till I have a better idea of what's goingon."

"Makes sense," Fisher said.

"Why do you call her the Take Him Away Lady?" Panasked, and Noi explained as they dumped their bags just past the entry hall.

The apartment was enormous, taking up the eastern half of theground floor of the North Building, with a spiral staircase leading up toanother quarter floor on the level above. Sliding doors led to an expansive patio bordered by potted hedges and aglass safety fence which looked directly out into the harbour. The sprawling lounge, dining and kitchen areawhich backed on to this was full of sunlight, and the room was dotted withtouches which showed that this was a family home: children's drawings stuck tothe fridge, clusters of photos, and a stuffed unicorn arranged in one of thechairs. The warm comfort of the placeseemed to make the day's losses all the crueller, and they collapsed onto thewide lounges, suddenly depleted.

"Damn it," Pan muttered again.

Nash dropped a hand to his shoulder, but he shrugged itoff. The taller boy looked worried, butturned his attention to the room. "This is Min," he said belatedly, while Fisher sorted througha collection of remotes.

"Pleased to escape with you," the younger boy said.

"Welcome, welcome." Noi gestured vaguely around the room, then paused and pulled out herphone, answering it as Fisher managed to turn on the wall-mounted television.

Images of silently-standing Greens were interspersed withscenes of unfurling stars, of fleeing Blues embraced to become abruptlycomposed and purposeful. The stars hadfound large groups of Blues everywhere, whether gathered to test their powers,or in the survival communities which had begun to form: swooping intodormitories, share-homes, repurposed hospital wards. One group of stars had even travelled far outbeyond the fringes of their city, to a quarantine facility outside the dustzone.