And All the Stars Shall Fall

by Hugh MacDonald

  They had travelled a few hundred metres before they noticed Lucky’s distant barking. They turned to look back to where he still sat near the point where they had stood when the last explosion occurred.

  “Come, Lucky,” Mabon called and then whistled loudly.

  The dog refused to budge.

  “Let’s go,” said Mabon. “He needs time to calm down; he’ll catch up eventually.”

  They carried on, Mabon taking the lead, his jaw set, eyes hard and cold as a winter sky, with Nora following, looking behind her at frequent intervals in search of any sign of Lucky coming with them. Eventually they crossed the nearest corner of what had been the dead zone outside Aahimsa, that dismal area cleared of all vermin or wild things that might find their way inside the walls, and Mabon recognised that they were entering the fringes of the wild in an area where he had spent all those lonely years as a disgraced Ranger demoted to a common cleaner. His punishment had been to tidy up all remains of creatures destroyed by the defenses of the city wall and its electronic devices that targeted any creature that dared to crawl or fly inside the immense stonework surrounding Aahimsa. The other part of the punishment had been isolation: he had lived completely alone in the dark area of death and destruction in a tiny and miserable hut.

  Neither he nor Nora could fully comprehend the scene before them. The vast, treed expanse of the wild that had been Nora, Mabon, and Adam’s salvation just twelve years before was no longer recognizable. At that time, Adam’s biological mother had fallen to her death from the wall, and Mabon sealed his fate by helping her — and by touching her, breaking insider law. During those same hours, Nora had fled the city with baby Adam, the tiny outsider she had saved because he was sentenced to death for being born outside the determination. His was not an authorized birth and so he could not live. Nora refused to accept the decision and chose to risk her own freedom and safety to save the child.

  Here and there a lone tree, shorn of bark and leaves, stood like burnt bone, desolate amid the destruction, but everywhere else, mangled and twisted trees lay where they had fallen or were stacked in huge mounds as if carelessly tossed there.

  “I’m going to climb up one of these piles of wreckage. We can’t travel any distance across this mess. Maybe we can see across to the Manuhome from the top. I’m guessing there won’t be much of anything to see anyway,” Mabon said. Nora grimaced and stepped toward him. They held one another in silence for a few moments before separating.

  Nora followed Mabon as they approached the closest mound, climbing and jumping, stumbling and climbing some more, then ducking under and scrambling over huge fallen trees until they stopped at the base of an enormous mountain of trees, rocks, and dirt thrown up by the destruction of Ahimsa and its Manuhome.

  “I’m going up. You wait here,” said Mabon, his face determined to appear as optimistic as he could manage to make it.

  “I’m going, too. I need to see for myself,” said Nora, eyes simmering with the heat of suppressed anger and despair, her gut holding its own mound of something that felt to her as ugly and heavy as stone.

  They climbed slowly upward, helping one another when possible, their bodies scratched and bruised by needles and thorns and jagged, broken branches, their tips as sharp and often dangerous as knives, and stones of every size that had been tossed there by what must have been enormous, powerful explosions. As they neared the top they heard barking on the ground below them. They turned together and, in spite of their misery, smiled to see Lucky sitting patiently at the base of the pile. At the top, neither chose to immediately look in the direction of the Manuhome, instead waiting until both were standing safely together on somewhat firm footing.

  “Ready?” asked Nora, placing her scratched and dirty hand in Mabon’s.

  “Ready,” answered Mabon, applying gentle pressure to reassure her.

  “Oh, no,” said Nora at first glance, her voice thick and rattling with pure anguish.

  Mabon said nothing but felt his chest grip with pain. He bit his lip. This was far worse than he’d expected.

  Nora’s knees buckled, and if Mabon hadn’t caught her she might have tumbled down the enormous tangle of debris. He found them a secure spot where they could sit for a few minutes and gather the strength they needed to make the climb down and retrace their steps back to secure shelter. Both were now convinced there was no point in continuing on toward the Manuhome, even if it were physically practical, for nothing tangible remained of what had once been Aahimsa’s vast and highly profitable manufacturing and agricultural homeland. Where the Manuhome had stood there were half a dozen deep interconnected craters. Nothing above or below ground could have survived those repeated powerful blasts — no building, no tunnel, no piece of equipment, no worker…nor any boy. They stayed motionless except for their occasional sobs, the shuddering agony of their despair. Both of their minds were overwhelmed by the realization that they would probably never see even a fragment of what was once there — nor of Doctor Ueland, his workers, or, worst of all, their beloved Adam.

  Chapter 6:

  Where to Go Now?

  Nora and Mabon sat up high on the mountain of debris feeling as broken and empty as the crater that had housed the Manuhome. They mulled over the scanty fragments of what had been their lives. As evening approached, and the numbing pressure on their minds eased somewhat, it occurred to Nora that they were sitting in a very exposed location where they might be detected by the eyes in the sky — distant satellites, the powerful cameras of Aahimsa’s tower, or perhaps a passing drone or aircraft. She spoke her concerns to Mabon, who felt like he was awakening from a horrible nightmare.

  “It’s so quiet,” he said. “Listen!”

  Nora listened as she scanned the horizon. From where they sat it was possible to see far out into the freshwater sea, the great lake called Ontario. There were no ships moving on its surface. She looked toward where Aahimsa had been and she realized they wouldn’t be seen by the eyes of the tower: the giant structure had been destroyed along with the city itself. There was only the sound of the light breeze as it moved in from the lake. There was nothing artificial that she could spot moving overhead across the sky. She and her cherished companion Mabon were the only living creatures she could see. The invaders who had so brutally attacked were nowhere to be seen. “The tower is gone,” she said.

  “Yes,” he said. “Almost everything is gone.”

  “We have to go now or stay here all night. It will be cold,” she said. “Let’s go back and take shelter out of the wind down close to the lake. In the morning we can plan.”

  After slowly and carefully navigating their way down the heap of tangled trees, dirt, and rocks, they found Lucky waiting patiently below, lying at rest on the mangled earth. They made as much fuss over him as they could muster in their sorrow and fatigue as they began to walk separate and alone toward the lake, somehow avoiding the many obstacles strewn across their path by the recent demolition.

  “Where do you want to go?” Mabon asked, his crooked smile nervous and unconvincing.

  “Want?” After a minute of silence Nora shrugged. “I only want to be where you and Lucky are. Nothing else matters.” She stopped moving away and drifted near enough for him to drape his left arm across her shoulders. Close together once more, they felt a small, warm easing of their pain. It was enough for now. Perhaps they could heal after all. Perhaps, she thought.

  “We can’t stay here, though. What about going south? It’s warmer there, much less winter cold,” said Mabon, pulling her closer. She put her arm partway around his waist. It still felt wonderful to be touched by her. Whatever happened to Adam, Mabon needed to carry on, to be with this woman as long as he could. But he found himself still clinging to a niggling belief that by some miracle their boy might be alive somewhere, though he could not imagine how such a miracle could ever happen. Then again, the boy had been a miracle from the beginnin
g. He had survived the determination in Aahimsa. He had been found by Nora. Somehow he always survived; somehow all three of them had always managed to carry on.

  Lucky seemed to have been infected by Nora and Mabon’s deep despair and he lagged behind them, head down, occasionally whining softly. Mabon stopped every so often and rubbed the dog’s large floppy ears.

  “Yes,” Nora said, finally responding to his remark. “But there are more large cities to the south, cities full of angry insiders, constant danger. I would rather head to the northeast.”

  “The northeast. Ueland says there is nothing much there anymore,” Mabon said, wondering if she realized how hard life would be in that wildest of wild places.

  “It is called the abandoned east,” she said. “There are no cities. It is a true wild place.” She remembered how, long ago, Mabon had convinced her to share his love of the wild places, and how he and Adam had travelled all around the wild outside Happy Valley with Aesop and a few others. “No one will think to look for us there.”

  “Don’t you think they have stopped looking for us already?” he said, hopefully.

  She shook her head and sighed. “No, they may never stop completely. But perhaps if we can get far enough away from here we’ll better our chances of survival. The abandoned east is a cold, hard place for part of the year, but many people lived there for a long time. Many thousands of people once lived happy lives there.”

  “How do you know all this?” he asked.

  “Those books Adam and I borrowed from Brin in Happy Valley. Also, Aesop and Brin and the other old ones spoke of how things used to be before the Insider Revolution, before the feminine era. Those books told about the settlement and long history of those places. People lived there and raised their families close to the land and sea in happiness, until cities lured them away.”

  By the time Nora and Mabon and the dog Lucky reached the shoreline, the moon was full in the sky off to the southeast, and they picked up the few items they had left behind when they raced toward the Manuhome after the mighty explosions there. They fed Lucky bits of smoked meat from one of their bags but agreed they wanted nothing to eat themselves. After gathering their gear and arranging a rough shelter, they lay awake, clinging together, looking out over the grey lake.

  Part 2

  Chapter 7:

  Up Along the Murky Tunnel

  Adam would never understand any of this. Especially how Doctor Ueland seemed willing to forget the horrible crimes Mayor Blanchfleur had committed against him and Mabon and Nora, and especially against Brin and Aesop and the old ones in the valley.

  They had left the railcar far behind and were making their way in near darkness up along the damp and chilly rail bed. At first he and Ueland had kept close together. The doctor had insisted on checking the outside third rail on their right for electric power. “Be careful,” he had warned everyone. “Adam and I are going first. We’ll make sure the high-tension rail is without electricity. That way no one will be electrocuted.”

  “How far are we going today?” Adam asked Ueland.

  “Not sure,” the doctor said as he took long strides on his wiry, muscular legs. Adam had never seen him move so fast. He was moving the way Adam imagined a praying mantis might, an insect he had only seen in books. “I can’t be certain how far from the last station we’ve come. We are looking for the next electrical relay maintenance station. If it hasn’t been damaged by the attackers, we should be able to get up to the surface from there. There will be a small building partly underground with an abundance of emergency equipment. If we’re really lucky, there’ll be a service vehicle and a portable generator to power it up sufficiently to take us fairly quickly to the next stations.”

  Adam stayed well clear of the potentially dangerous electrified rail until Ueland signalled that the thick steel power source was disconnected and it was safe to come in contact with it.

  “It could possibly reset later, but with the damage behind us, and the destruction of the Manuhome, it’s unlikely. Anyway, if it ever did power up, the lights would come up at the same time and we could hear the power snapping and surging through the line. There would be a powerful humming noise. Lots of warning signs telling us to stay away.”

  Then Adam and Ueland turned back to where the others waited and Ueland left him and approached Blanchfleur. The two began to talk quietly as they separated themselves from the rest of the group. Adam fell back gradually behind them until he was near Alice and Tish. They began moving then, following Blanchfleur and Ueland as they all stumbled carefully along the concrete and dirt floor between the three tracks. They slowly moved farther and farther away from their abandoned railcar and the destroyed city.

  Adam worked hard to avoid the two insiders opposite him, which wasn’t difficult as they huddled together in the damp darkness, just as anxious to shun him as he was to stay away from them.

  The two insiders and the young outsider moved in silence on opposite sides of the tunnel, happy to maintain that distance. The hollow tunnel was far from silent. Every footfall rattled and echoed within the concrete confines.

  The boy had muddled feelings toward Alice and Tish. Alice had once been Nora’s companion. She was also Mayor Blanchfleur’s only daughter. Nora had once lived a privileged life in Blanchfleur’s house and at their summer place. Tish was about the same age as he was. She seemed quiet and she was very pretty, as was her mother: same blond hair, same eyes. Tish had a smaller, turned-up nose, which he liked in spite of himself. But he knew nothing about her, except that she’d looked back and across at him several times, worried and curious. Alice seemed young, much younger than his mother, although they, too, must be about the same age.

  She seemed nice enough. And Mabon and Nora once told him they owed their lives to Alice because she’d stopped Blanchfleur’s Rangers from killing his parents as they fled the valley following Blanchfleur’s final battle against the old ones. He knew all this, but he still found it hard to like her. Sometimes she had been mean to Nora, though they’d been good friends. And he wished Tish would stop turning around and looking at him. It made him uncomfortable.

  Tish had overheard part of the horrible battle between the Rangers and the old outsiders. She had been outside the open door of her grandmother’s control room where the mayor monitored Ranger activities. Tish didn’t think it had been fair the way the Rangers were sent to attack the old people. She also knew about the fight between her mother and her grandmother.

  All her life she had been told of the evils of the old world before Aahimsa even existed, about how the outsiders had killed and mistreated insiders, making war all over the world, how the insider cities had brought years of peace and security for insiders in cities all over the world.

  This boy, this Adam, seemed small and ordinary, just like she was. And yet he had fought in the battle against the powerful Rangers along with some old men and may even have killed and injured enough of them to allow his family to get away. She turned around to look at him again, but this time her mother happened to glance over at her and told her to stop bothering the boy. Then her mother turned around to look at him for herself. Tish twisted around again and Adam looked away, focusing his attention up high on the walls of the tunnel.

  The air was getting harder to breathe and more and more rotten as they walked along. Adam wondered if the lack of power meant there wouldn’t be enough clean air. He was still worrying about that after walking what seemed another eternity since they had set out. He saw a small metal sign, caked with dirt, about halfway up the tunnel wall on his right. He stepped over close enough to see what it said. It read: “1 KM. NEXT RELAY STN.”

  “Doctor Ueland,” he called. “There’s a distance sign here.” He watched as everyone stopped and turned to him.

  “Can you see what it says, Adam?” Ueland asked.

  Adam told him and the doctor said, “Good stuff. One more kilomet
re to the station, where we should be able get a breath of fresh air and a bit of sunlight, maybe even some decent water to drink. Let’s pick up the pace.”

  “I’m getting tired,” said Alice. She was standing close enough to Adam that their eyes met. He could sense her discomfort at their eye contact. Adam held her gaze, growing more confident. He could see why his mother had been drawn to her. He could only think of how he owed her a lot for saving his parents from almost certain death at the hands of the Rangers.

  Ueland glanced at Blanchfleur and then turned to Alice. “Yes, we’re all tired, but I’d rather not sleep on this filthy rail bed tonight. We can get to shelter and comfort in fifteen minutes even if we go slowly. There should be water and plenty of clean blankets and a warmer place where we can probably be safe and comfortable for at least the next few hours. But if you really would prefer to camp here, we can.”

  “We’ll go on. It makes no sense to stop now,” said Blanchfleur. “You’ll have to toughen up, Alice. There’s a long, hard road ahead, if we’re lucky.”

  Alice looked unhappy. “And if we’re not?”

  Blanchfleur turned to Ueland, who said nothing. The mayor of the ruined city said, “Then there’s no rush, unless you want to stay alive. The only other option means surrender or certain death for all of us here, or perhaps both. In my opinion, we had better get a move on and be glad we have this choice.”

  Adam was pleased she was so decisive and was surprised at her tone of voice. The insider spoke with some authority, but it was the authority of a kind parent. It reminded him of Nora and Mabon. Her voice sounded just as his parents would have sounded if they were still at home in the Happy Valley. It didn’t sound like the voice of an evil murderer. She looked at him with interest. He thought for just a moment that she looked on him with a certain motherly kindness, but he was probably mistaken.