And All the Stars Shall Fall Read online

  A moment later they were slammed flat on the ground once more, stunned and deafened by an enormous explosion. The walls of Aahimsa, well over three kilometres away, seemed to have turned to dust before their eyes and disappeared. Moments later a steady rain of fine, granulated particles fell out of the sky and settled on them like warm, suffocating snow. They turned their faces toward the ground and covered up with scarf and shirt tail, clamping their eyes shut, struggling to breathe. Mabon tucked Lucky’s snout close to his chest. Nora wanted to weep, but tears were not possible in this dreadful dryness, and breathing enough to survive was more important for the moment.

  After a while the dust stopped falling and, though their eyes ached, they found their hearing somewhat restored. It took them a long time to rid themselves of the worst of the gritty dust and still longer to take in what had happened. “Shock,” said Nora, mostly to herself.

  “What?” said Mabon, as Lucky lay quiet and still near to them, his tail tucked close against his haunches.

  “I think I’m in shock,” she said again. They turned a full circle. The thick, black smoke still rose in the west where the Manuhome had been located, but there was clearly no sign of the city. This was no illusion. It was gone. All gone — the city and the Manuhome. And Adam. What about Adam? Nora wept deeply and in near silence and Mabon held her warm sadness close.

  Chapter 4:

  Strange Bedfellows

  Alice was doing her best to control the festering knot in her gut and keep up the reassuring smile pasted on her face for Tish’s benefit. However, she guessed that Tish was smart enough and knew her mother well enough to recognize the danger they were in. The time of waiting and pacing had been growing long and the deepening darkness swallowed them as the batteries for the red emergency light in the room dimmed to almost nothing. Tish sat, her back as straight as the near invisible walls and door, on a wooden chair. She hadn’t spoken since the lights died. Blanchfleur was pacing back and forth between the two doors, every now and then trying one door or the other. None of them knew how much time had passed.

  Then, without warning, the door to the train tracks opened and two darker silhouettes stepped into the dark room. Tish couldn’t see them but she thought she could smell them, something wild and frightening that had found them all cornered in this dark cell.

  Blanchfleur edged toward them. “Thank goodness,” she said. “You are finally here.”

  As Alice and Tish cautiously approached the two latest arrivals, they realized that two outsiders were standing only metres away from them in this suffocatingly small room underneath the city of Aahimsa. The daughter and granddaughter of Mayor Blanchfleur were shocked that these two male outsiders had the gall to come so boldly here. They must be mad.

  Adam glared at the older woman in the near dark and wondered who she was. He could just barely make out that she was tall and pleasant-looking and she stared open-mouthed at him as if he were a ghost. Her surprise turned briefly to suppressed anger.

  No one spoke for a few moments. Finally, Ueland spat out a few words. “No time for hesitation or discussion. We have to put all of our negative feelings on hold and concentrate on getting out of here as quickly as possible. We can’t go back over the tracks that brought us here. They’ve already destroyed all that. We have to head down the underground tunnels toward the shipping docks and seek some usable path out of here, or a safe place to hide for a while.”

  Alice spoke and Tish’s horrified expression said that she completely agreed with her angry mother. “We’re not about to go anywhere with outsiders!” The two insiders stood, hands on hips, their body language determined not to take part in any plan.

  Blanchfleur remained remarkably silent, her face frustrated and pained.

  “Who are you all?” asked Adam.

  Ueland spoke sharply. “I’m sorry, Alice and Tish, but we’re the only option you have. You can stay and die or you can come and have a chance to live. The city will be wiped out any moment now, just like the Manuhome was destroyed, along with most of its occupants, all annihilated. Whatever you had in the city before is gone. Live or die; that’s it. Choose!”

  Blanchfleur led the way quickly out the door without a word and the two outsiders followed, the young one first, then the older one. Alice and Tish hesitated one mere instant, then followed. Ueland and Adam scrambled up and into the forward cabin of the waiting rail coach and took their seats at the controls. Ueland flicked a switch on the console and a computer monitor screen on the dash lit up a soft green, showing the three insiders taking their seats in the luxury cabin at the rear. The insiders sat in silence, staring straight ahead like pretty robots. They had no idea what lay ahead of them. Of the train’s passengers and crew, only Blanchfleur and Ueland had travelled these rails before. Only Ueland knew the tunnel system intimately. He had overseen the design of the entire system and his workers from the Manuhome had carried out the construction and regular maintenance ever since. The doctor settled into his seat and the railcar began to move slowly in the direction of the harbour front.

  “Who are these insiders?” Adam asked Ueland, who was watching anxiously up ahead and to both sides as they glided with increasing speed along the tracks.

  “Later, Adam,” Ueland said. “Right now we have to concentrate. There are dangers up ahead. This could be our last few minutes together. So sit tight and be ready for anything. If all goes well, we’ll get time to share our stories soon.”

  Ueland was very worried. When they had picked up Blanchfleur, her beautiful daughter Alice, and Alice’s daughter, Tish, who was just a few months younger than Adam, they had been directly beneath Aahimsa’s city centre. Now they were approaching the commercial harbour front. If they were spotted by any citizens they would be in trouble, and if they encountered any of the forces who had just wiped out the Manuhome — almost certainly the forces of the World Federation Council, which had been tightening its control over Aahimsa, the only city-state where any males were permitted to exist — they could all be terminated on sight. Leaving the tunnel and entering the aboveground harbour area was risky unless the attacking forces had already wiped out the rest of the city and departed. But then there would still be the possibility of further explosions or toxic gases and bacilli.

  So Ueland’s plan was to avoid the harbour and take one of the older, unused tracks that once took tours to some of the small islands of the lake or the river lying to the north and east. These rails had been usable the last time he had seen them, and he could activate the necessary power switches from inside the railcar. The destruction of the Manuhome may have knocked out the power connection, but since the car was still running and the tunnel lights and signals were powered up, there must be plenty of battery storage power remaining. The stored power was designed to provide hours of backup. And there were emergency generators at every station along the way. He was surprised, though, to find this section already operational. He wondered who had activated it and why. And he also realized that whoever they were, they could be waiting somewhere up ahead. But he and his passengers had no choice other than to forge ahead with their plan.

  Adam remained at his side, silent but deep in thought, taking in everything that passed by the tall, curved windows of the control cabin as the train slowed and switched tracks and they turned to enter a poorly lit, dilapidated side tunnel to their left. As they made their way over the next several kilometres, the dark, damp, musty sides of the older, unused tunnel made him nervous, though the greater part of his anxiety still stemmed from the three insiders in the railcar.

  He had asked Doctor Ueland who they were, but he was pretty sure he had guessed their names. The older woman had to be Blanchfleur, the mayor of Aahimsa. If so, she was the one who had wanted to kill him when he was a baby because he was a boy, and boy babies weren’t allowed to live inside Aahimsa. The next oldest would be Alice, who was a friend of his mother, Nora. The two of them had found
him in a basket under a tree when he was a baby. Nora had run away from the city with him in her arms and saved his life.

  She had met Mabon in the wild and together they took him to see Ueland. The doctor had hidden them with the old ones in their valley for nine happy years. Then Blanchfleur sent the Rangers to attack the valley of the old ones. Blanchfleur and her Rangers drove them all out of the Happy Valley after killing all the old ones.

  And now she and Alice and Tish, Blanchfleur’s granddaughter, were back there in the car behind them, and, for some reason he couldn’t understand, he and Ueland were helping these murderers escape. Adam looked at Ueland. The doctor sat there looking perfectly normal as he drove the railcar full of their enemies as quickly as possible away from the city.

  “Who are those insiders sitting back there behind us?” he asked again.

  “Fellow humans who need our help,” Ueland said without batting an eye. But he was startled out of his cool manner a moment later when their world went suddenly black and the railcar’s screaming brakes automatically locked. The underworld shook, and as a few emergency lights came on dimly, dirt, rocks and water poured down on them from overhead. The tunnel came apart and water pipes along the side ruptured, and some insider voices screamed in panic in the chamber behind them. As the light strengthened, the insider voices quieted and the women silently entered the forward cabin.

  “Are you all right?” Ueland asked from the pilot’s seat as another dim set of emergency lights lit the shattered tunnel up ahead of them. The windows of their car were streaked with dust and muddy water, but looking at the pile of debris around them it was clear that even if the car could get under power again, they weren’t going to get anywhere in it.

  The older woman shrugged. “How long will these lights last?” she asked, her eyes on Ueland. From the tone of her voice, Adam could tell she trusted the doctor’s opinion and judgement.

  Ueland merely raised his bushy eyebrows and shrugged. His voice was gentle and honest. “The batteries indicate that they are fully charged, so it depends on how much power we use. If we keep the lights low and don’t run any of the electric engines, they could last two days or more, though I’ve never tested for that. Who knows, maybe even a week.”

  Alice spoke then. The sound reminded him of Nora’s beloved voice. He felt his emotions welling up. He missed his mother so much. He wondered if she and Mabon were still alive. He wanted to ask Blanchfleur or this daughter of hers if they knew, but this wasn’t the time. Blanchfleur looked as if she was in no mood for questions from the boy she had tried to murder more than once.

  “Why don’t we try and go back to Aahimsa?” Alice asked.

  Blanchfleur and Ueland glanced at one another and Blanchfleur nodded at him, looking down at her feet. Ueland cleared his throat.

  “Not possible,” he said.

  In the silence that followed, Blanchfleur looked up. “The tunnels have collapsed, and I’m afraid that there is nothing left to go back to. My guess is that our city is no more.”

  Adam was wondering what else they could do, and the girl at Alice’s side seemed to be thinking the same thing. With a shaking voice on the verge of tears, Tish asked, “Are we going to die?”

  Silence again, while the adults looked from one to another. Ueland spoke first. “No, Tish,” he said kindly. “We are not going to die. Not for a long, long time.” Tish looked from one insider’s face to another, both of whom seemed uncertain whether they believed the doctor.

  So her name is Tish, Adam thought. Then she must be the daughter of Alice. She looks to be about my age.

  “What next?” Adam asked as he turned away from the girl.

  All the insiders looked at him as if they were surprised he would speak to them. Blanchfleur seemed on the verge of responding, but Ueland sensed Adam’s nervousness and jumped in. “I think we should lay low and show no signs that we’re down here. We’re perfectly safe for the moment. If there are no more explosions, we will make our way along the tracks and stop at the first service hatch we find.”

  “How far will we have to go?” asked Alice, holding Tish close beside her and rubbing her right hand along the girl’s right shoulder. Adam thought again of Nora and the thousands of hours they had spent sitting together as she helped him with his reading and his lessons back in the valley.

  “I didn’t notice a sign of one, but they are set up every ten kilometres or so. Sometimes one site or the other wasn’t suitable for construction and we had to go a bit short or long. We have gone over two kilometres from the wall, so there should be one within seven or eight kilometres.”

  “How long will the emergency lights last along the tracks?” asked Blanchfleur, her anxiety showing in her voice.

  “I don’t know. They are pretty dim, but part of that may be dirt on the lights themselves. I can’t be certain. I expect they’re running on emergency battery power, too. So probably no more than a few hours. But given some time they can be recharged.”

  “Then let’s get going while we have light,” said Blanchfleur. “We don’t want to be walking too many kilometres in the pitch black. Are there any emergency torches on this car?”

  “Yes, there are half a dozen, with a few extra batteries and a few emergency provisions.” Ueland paused and spoke to everyone. “Well, what do you think?”

  Adam watched everyone’s faces. No one seemed sure about anything.

  “Let’s gather up everything we can and get going while we have this light.”

  “I don’t want to go with them,” said Tish, clinging tightly to her mother. “I’m afraid of outsiders.”

  “I’m afraid of your mother and grandmother,” said Adam. “They hate me and want to hurt me. Why are we helping them, Doctor Ueland? You know what they tried to do to me and to Mabon and Nora.” His heart pounded, afraid he may have gone too far. He glanced at Ueland, whose expression seemed unchanged, and then at Blanchfleur and Alice — he was now absolutely certain who they were.

  Ueland tried his best to smile reassuringly at Adam, and then turned his face to Blanchfleur, who rose and turned toward the rear compartment.

  “Yes, let’s all go, but first let’s spend ten minutes beginning to say the many things we must eventually say to one another. Come in here where we can all sit like civilized people. Come on, Doctor Ueland, bring the boy with you and I’ll bring my girls. Then we can say a few things each. We can’t possibly solve all our issues here and now, but we can make a small start. Who would like to go first?” There was only silence as all found seats, Adam sitting close to Ueland, Blanchfleur opposite the doctor with Alice on her right and Tish to her mother’s right.

  “Okay, then. I’ll begin. I’ll tell the truth and I hope you will do likewise. You may not believe me, but with time you’ll see that I am honest, if little else. I will also say that we are on the same side. In a way, we always have been. From today forward we have no other choice. And, Adam — that is your name, isn’t it?” She waited for an answer.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Well, Adam. You were right. I tried to have you terminated. I only wanted to save Aahimsa. I failed in that, it seems. I promise you I will only try to help you from now on. I will do everything in my power to protect each and every one of us. We have to work together to find another way to live together in peace.”

  “Why should I believe you?” Adam asked her, his face determined, his jaw set.

  Blanchfleur turned then to Ueland. “Do you believe me, Doctor Ueland?” she asked, a smile on her round face.

  “I have never known you to lie,” he said, smiling back at her.

  “Unlike yourself,” she said, her friendly expression unchanged.

  “We both did what we had to do to protect what we believed in and to protect each other,” he said. “I’m sorry I had to deceive you, but you held all the cards, all the power. But yes, I believe you.”

>   Blanchfleur turned back to Adam. “Do you believe me now?”

  “Maybe.” He was more and more confused. All the old rules no longer meant anything. They were headed into the unknown in more ways than one.

  Alice and Tish had remained silent, but they looked to Adam as baffled and lost as he was.

  Ueland turned to the girls. “Adam and I are your only friends for the moment. Remember that we saved your lives. We will do all we can to keep you safe as we travel together. You will learn many things about us and about surviving in this new world that will change the way you see the wild places we live in. And you will teach us many things we do not know. But now we have to go before the darkness makes our travelling impossible. Let’s get going.”

  Ueland picked up his suitcase as everyone gathered up anything from the railcar that might prove useful and they made their way in silence along the battered, dark, and depressing rail bed.

  Chapter 5:

  The End of the Manuhome

  “I’m heading for the Manuhome,” Nora said after they had stood motionless together a long time. Their hearing, numbed by the explosion, had begun to return a little at a time, though their heads ached and there remained a continuous ringing in their ears. They had finished brushing away the worst of the dust that coated their bodies and clothing following Aahimsa’s powerful final blast.

  “We have to find Adam.” She began to stumble off away from Mabon, heading toward the wild and the Manuhome where they had left Adam under the protection of Doctor Ueland almost three years before.

  Mabon hesitated a moment, knowing from experience that the series of blasts they had heard coming from the site of the Manuhome was very unlikely to allow for survivors at the point of impact. Then, seeing that Nora was going nowhere until she saw the damage for herself, he followed her.