Contagion (Toxic City)(8)

As plans went, it seemed hazy at best. But it felt good to be doing something positive rather than sitting in the furniture shop, letting the weight of events crush him down. And as they left, Rhali's hand felt good in his.

Jenna and Sparky followed behind, comfortable in their closeness. A couple only for a matter of days, it seemed to Jack that they had been together forever. He loved them. They were his friends, and the idea of anything happening to them was horrible. They will die, he thought, an idea that often impinged upon him about the ones he loved. Sometimes he hated his sense of morbidity. They'll die, we'll all die. But I want them to live first.

None of them knew when the bomb was set to blow. The pressure of Big Bindy was all around them, and in their own ways they were all aware of it. Each step he took might have been his last. Every breath, each glance, every thought might be his final act in this world. Everything in the city seemed primed to accept the light, the heat, and then the blast that would bring its destruction. The silence seemed different from usual; a held breath rather than an absence. For now, everything mattered about the city and the people still alive within it. It was important. But one blast and the resulting vaporisation of everything he could see would make it unimportant. From one moment to the next London might cease to be, and all his worries would end.

But Jack wanted the worries. He wanted to persist, survive, and drive forward into the new world that Doomsday had seeded. It was too important to have all been for nothing.

They headed east, moving quickly but cautiously, listening for motors that might give away the presence of Choppers in the vicinity. They could not afford another confrontation. Jack had no wish to kill again, ever. But he knew he would if he had to.

“McDonald's!” Sparky said. The remains of the burger bar took up one street corner. Its windows had been smashed and a burnt-out car was crushed against the entrance doors, but adverts for cheap burgers were still hanging behind the shattered glass.

“You eat that shit?” Rhali asked.

“Hell, yeah!” Sparky said. “I could eat about ten of their cheeseburgers right now.”

“And take ten days off your life.”

“You don't look like a health food freak,” Sparky said, and they all paused, a loaded silence.

Then Rhali burst out laughing, and the others joined in.

“Er, I didn't mean…” Sparky said, but Jenna slapped him playfully around the head.

“They'll be the first back in if we open London up again,” Jack said. “Day one: four hundred McDonald's branches re-open in London.”

“And I will live here in luxury,” Sparky said.

They moved on. A group of dogs crossed their path several hundred yards along the street, and they paused until the pack had disappeared. Jenna looked at Jack, waiting for him to access a power to check the dogs had gone. He didn't.

Three people dashed from the cover of a Tube station entrance, looked their way, then ran along the street, hissing and clicking in what might have been a strange language. Again, Jenna looked to Jack, but he shook his head and waved them on.

He dipped in and out of the universe of potential he carried inside, and each time that pulsing, living red star stared back. It was as aware of him as he was of it, and it scared him. He did not like the fear. He wanted to know more, but to do that he would have to take back possession of his starscape.

Soon he would go deep and confront it, touch it, find out exactly what it was. Soon.

Rhali squeezed his hand. She stopped walking, and if he hadn't caught her she would have fallen. He was amazed at how feverish she felt, and her lightness shocked him afresh.

“What is it?” he asked tenderly.

“Something not normal,” she said. “Sit me down. Let me…” She drifted off, her eyes rolled, and Jack eased her down to the pavement and leaned her against a shop front. It had used to sell wedding dresses, but now its window was home to a leathery corpse.

Jenna knelt beside her, and Sparky stood guard, scanning the street in either direction and glancing back at them to see what was happening.

“Is this how she does it?” Jenna asked.

“Don't know,” Jack said.

“What's wrong with you, Jack?” It surprised him that Jenna would query his well-being while Rhali was like this. But then Jenna hardly knew this girl, and Jack was her friend. She'd sensed that he was troubled the evening before, and it must have been playing on her mind.

“Something,” he said, touching his head. “In here. Something strange.”