Sam no longer slept. He didn’t need sleep. Trying to was counter-productive, lying in bed in the dark, wide awake to the increasingly demanding voice of the virus. Instead he spent the nights outdoors, studying the infinity of stars gleaming bright in the desert sky. He could hear them now, too, or what he thought was them, the shivery static from above. And the desert that surrounded him. The sounds from there were overwhelming if he let them all in. He was beginning to appreciate the place, though it was a prison that kept him confined, separated from the ones he loved. Enthralled by the beauty and mystery of the skies and the land. Night time was his time, while the preacher slept.

He paused in the quadrangle, listened. He’d heard it before and here it was again tonight, always in this one spot. Beneath his feet, a sound like the heartbeats of the earth.
…………. . ………….

“Debra,” whispered Ana, “he’s up there.”

“Shhh, go to sleep, Ana,” mumbled Debra sleepily. “We’re safe. He won’t find us down here. Go back to sleep.”

Ana squinted her eyes in the darkness, staring up at the ceiling of their underground hiding place. Debra didn’t understand. Ana wasn’t scared of this man. She hoped he would find them. Sometimes she thought of going above-ground while he was there and saying hello. Or even just watching him without letting him see her. He was nice. She thought so the first time she saw him, when he arrived in the pod with another man and two giants. Toby said they weren’t giants, they were Ex, but to Ana they were big and scary like giants. They left in the pod, the nice man and his friend stayed. None of the children knew why, not even Debra who knew everything.
………….. . …………

Dan wheeled the shopping trolley, while Sally selected what she wanted from the shelves. She spoke hardly at all, barely acknowledged his presence. He was grateful that she allowed him to do this little thing for her, be her trolley boy. The supermarket was small, catering as it had for a few hundred people that used to live in and around the country town.

When Sally was done, she headed for the door without a glance at him. It wasn’t rudeness, this silence of hers, nor punishment for leaving her behind. She was pre-occupied, had been from the moment they’d arrived here. Still hadn’t spoken about what had happened to her, trapped in the underground with the GOD virus and its rogue Ex.

He stopped at her gate. This was as far as she’d allow him. Watched her wheel the trolley up the paved garden path to the steps of the verandah. The garden of the cottage she’d chosen was overgrown. She refused his offers to help there. He watched her effortlessly hoist the laden trolley onto the verandah, waited till she’d disappeared indoors, then walked back, past a few cottages, to his own with its neatly pruned and weeded garden. The roses had responded with a profuse blossoming, the air heady with their fragrance. Shouldn’t be blooming at all, this late in the season. Dan shivered. It was colder than he’d expected, here on the edge of the desert.
………… . ……………

“Peaceful, like in the old days,” observed Bill. “Where’s everybody?” He’d been coming up the mountain regularly, working and harvesting his old patch was the excuse he gave Stella and the folks down in the valley. Truth was, he liked to get away from the noise and activity of the community, needed the break from that and from the tension of keeping to himself the secret behind Rosie’s miraculous recovery. Only Raven and the Ex knew, no-one else, not even Stella.

“Sage has gone to check on the others. We haven’t heard from them for a while.” Raven gave him a look. “I think we might have lost them to the Sweeties.”

“And you let him go alone?” A teasing grin from Bill. “Those Ex are sure catching up for lost time, eh?”

“I think it’s great, though I do miss them. I think Sage would be happy if they stayed there,” she smiled back then looked at Fury who had lifted her head, ears pricked to attention. “That’s him now,” she said.

Fury charged for the door, Raven at her heels. Bill watched through the window at the pod landing in the snow, Fury prancing around it as Sage hopped out. Snowing again. With a bit of luck, it’ll get heavy enough to give him the excuse for staying the night. He watched Raven run up to Sage, wrap herself around him. Bill smiled. Maybe he should make the effort, climb back down the slope, wrap himself around Stella’s soft, warm body.

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chapter 2

chapter 123 of ‘inbetween’ – book 1 of this story
will give an indication of what went before

chapter 1 of ‘inbetween’ – book 1 of this story