‘So I’m not a prisoner any more?’
‘You never were.’
Holly stood, taking a sip of the wine and swallowing a handful of berries. They could be drugged, or poisonous, but the women could have harmed her in either way without the subterfuge. So she accepted their gifts and sat back down.
Drake shifted uncomfortably, Moira looked back at him, and Paloma simply stared at Holly.
‘Tell me one thing before I come with you,’ she said.
‘Of course,’ Drake said, and there was a vulnerability in his voice she’d never detected before.
‘What’s beyond the hills?’ Holly asked. ‘What else is out there?’
‘The rest of our world,’ he said. ‘Our Earth.’
Holly nodded, her heart thudding as she remembered the way that zombie — that fury — had come through the breach. Staggering, slow, weathered away.
‘It ended,’ Paloma said. ‘Before I was born. The furies’ threat lessens as they age, but they left little behind.’
Holly felt sick. It was a truth that she had expected, but to hear it spoken was still a shock.
‘And you fight them with just bows and arrows?’
‘Silence is our best defence when we’re out in the open,’ Drake said. ‘That’s why we use. .’ He signed, clicking his fingers, and smiled at whatever he had said. ‘And why we find it safer using bows and crossbows — anything louder would be foolish. Destroy what’s left of their brains and they become still. Properly dead. An arrow or a bolt usually does it. But decapitation makes sure.’
‘Are you the only ones still fully human?’ Holly asked, barely able to speak because the answer might be so awful.
‘There are isolated islands of survivors,’ Moira said. ‘A few communities here and there. Wanderers. The older ones tell us what it was like before, and there are books.’
‘So we do mourn what should have been,’ Paloma said, as if to know that was important.
‘I’ll tell you the rest while we walk,’ Drake said.
‘Where are we going?’
‘Down into Coldbrook. You don’t think we spend our lives living in caves, do you?’ He smiled that confident smile again, and Holly had to remind herself that she was the stranger here, she was the visitor.
Gaia was another world, and yet it was very much like the Earth that Holly knew. They spoke English here, and she craved to know the extent of the similarities. Had they known Mozart and Metallica, Shakespeare and Stephen King? Was there Britain and Australia, or had their history evolved away from her world’s long enough ago for such things to be vastly different?
Everything Jonah had believed was true, and he didn’t yet know. He might even have died without knowing.
As they left the small room and headed along a corridor lit by oil lamps, Drake started talking.
‘There’s a whole history to tell you. I’m keen to know of the differences between our worlds, when our Earth and yours. . parted ways. That should be easy to pin down date-wise, but the actual cause. .’ He shook his head, but when she glanced at him Holly saw an excitement that reminded her so much of Jonah. ‘But first and for your own safety, you need to know about the world you’ve come to. Our Earth is a dead world. It died forty years ago with the Fury plague, in nineteen seventy-two. It spread quickly. Spanned the globe. And less than six weeks later, all was lost.’
‘Forty years!’ Holly gasped. ‘None of you can be-’
‘There are a few here old enough to remember,’ Paloma said from where she and Moira followed behind. ‘Though most of them try to forget.’
‘So what are you still doing down here?’ Holly asked.
‘Same as you. What else is Coldbrook ever for?’
‘What do you mean?’
But Drake walked on ahead in silence. He keeps thinking he’s said too much, Holly thought.
The corridor was long, curving down to the right, and the walls were made of smooth blockwork. There was a wire tray just below the ceiling that contained a spaghetti of wires of all colours.
‘You still have electricity?’
‘Only for what’s important.’
‘What happened after the plague?’ Holly asked, because she sensed that was all he felt happy talking about for now. And besides, knowledge of the plague on this side of the breach could perhaps help her when she returned to her own world.
If I return. The idea was harsh, but it had to be considered. These people were being pleasant enough for now, if cautious. But if they wanted to keep her here for some reason, there was no telling how forceful they might become.
‘With few left alive to spread the plague, the furies’ numbers went down. They ground to a halt slowly, faded, and now it’s rare for them to hunt for new victims. If you go too close, though, and they smell you. . then they rise.’
‘They’re still alive after so long?’
‘Nowhere near alive. But though their bodies wither, their heads remain full of whatever drives them.’
‘And you don’t know what that is?’
Drake didn’t answer, but carried on talking as if he had not heard Holly’s question. ‘The surviving communities of humans live in the hills, the deserts, at the icy poles, on islands. Wherever the furies aren’t too prevalent.’
‘There seem to be some around here,’ Holly said.
‘Yes,’ Drake agreed. ‘But we’re special. Most people are living their days as best they can, others have embarked upon. .’ He motioned her and the others through a door into a wide lobby area.
‘Upon what?’
‘There are extermination squads in Italy,’ Paloma said.
‘Well, that’s good!’ Holly said. ‘Surely wiping out the furies is best for everyone?’
‘They’re not exterminating furies,’ Moira said.
‘Oh.’
‘This way,’ Drake said, nodding towards a door set in the lobby’s far wall. There were more oil lamps here, and the ceiling had collapsed in one corner, letting in a landslide of heavy rock and soil.
‘So you never made a breach?’ Holly asked. And if that were true — and they had never found their way into the multiverse — then the Fury plague must have originated in this world somewhere. Another thought that led to a thousand more questions.
‘We did,’ Drake said. ‘But not like you. And that’s what I have to show you. It’ll answer so much more, but it won’t be pleasant.’
Paloma produced a small cloth pouch from her pocket and waved it towards Holly. ‘I have this if it all becomes too much.’
‘What is that?’
‘It’ll calm you.’
‘No, thank you,’ Holly said. She had no idea what they were going to show her but Paloma’s offer of some herbal drug troubled her.
‘I’ll take her from here,’ Drake said.
Paloma nodded and turned away, but Moira shifted from foot to foot.
‘Can I not stay? I took down the fury that nearly killed her. And she’s special.’
Drake seemed uncertain, but Holly nodded.
‘I don’t mind,’ she said. She hoped that Moira might be a little more open, if she had the chance to talk with her alone. The source of the plague was a mystery still, and the Inquisitor that Drake had mentioned, and. .
And a million other things, she thought. Jonah should have been here, not me. She knew that he and Drake would have had so much to talk about.
‘One thing,’ Holly asked. ‘Are you the lead scientist in Coldbrook?’
‘I’m the one they look up to.’
‘They?’
‘There are about forty of us here, adults and a few children. Let me show you what I’m taking you to and then after that we can talk some more. But it will clear up questions that I really don’t feel qualified to answer.’
‘Your accent,’ she said.
‘My father came from Wales.’
She gasped. ‘Jonah Jones?’
Drake stared at her. ‘His name was Richard Slater. His middle name was Jonah.’
Holly frowned, trying to make sense of what this might mean, if anything. Drake’s similarity to Jonah had unnerved her. But perhaps it meant nothing.