Coldbrook

It was time to prepare her own measures.

Holly had seen these bodies before. At least she knew for certain that they were dead, though she was still unsettled as she edged past them, stepping over an outstretched arm. The repair she’d made days before was holding well, but she bypassed it and mounted a small vertical ladder set into the core housing. She shone her torch down into the space beneath her — the space surrounding the core — and even after everything she had seen the science of this place still gave her the shivers.

In the depths of Coldbrook, the core was rooted into the mountain itself.

Holly descended the ladder, and when she almost slipped and fell she held on tight, wondering what a pointless death down here would change, how many lives it might put in jeopardy or destroy. Coldbrook had always been an amazing place, which was why she’d always loved working here, with people who saw the awesome potential and importance in what they did. And now they were all important.

As she went deeper, so the pressure of the core impressed itself upon her. She could not feel or hear it, yet it sang in her bones. It was only when she reached the narrow platform at the deepest part of Coldbrook that she realised why that sensation was familiar — it was the same as passing through the breach.

Perhaps the multiverse was laughing at her.

Holly had no time to rest. She opened her tool pouch, flicked the torch’s beam across the mess of control panels and boards, and found what she had come looking for. Even here, she felt realities hinging on one act or object. If this screw failed, realities might change. If this capacitor was faulty, stars might crumble.

She got to work.

An hour later, after Holly had showered, she stood inside the doorway to the garage area, listening again to the sound from behind the plant-room wall. If she didn’t know what was in there, she might have imagined a thousand doves cooing softly in the darkness. The Hummer was still parked tight against the door. There were two people from Gaia standing watch with Hitch and another Unseen, chatting quietly, their fascination obvious.

‘We’re cool,’ Hitch said when he saw her watching. ‘No movement from there, just that fucking awful noise. We need some Springsteen in here, drown it out.’

‘Springsteen?’ one of Drake’s people said.

Hitch’s face fell. ‘Dude.’

Holly left the garage knowing that they could never be safe, and that it would take more than walls to separate them from the chaos that had smothered her world.

But she felt happier now, because she had a secret.

6

Vic snapped awake at the screeching alarm, and deja vu screamed in with it.

Olivia sat on the bed wide-eyed, her arms hugging her knees. Lucy sat up, face grim, hair awry.

‘Oh, shit,’ Vic muttered, standing, tripping over his discarded boots, sitting to slip them on again, and all the while his family did not speak. The alarm thrummed into them, that awful repeating tone that could mean nothing good.

His satphone rang. ‘Yeah.’

‘Vic, they broke in,’ Holly said. ‘The garage, the plant-room wall, it was just blockwork, and it cracked under pressure. Weakened by the Hummer impact, maybe. I was there an hour ago and it was all fine, but. . Hundreds of them. I’m in Secondary, I can see them on the camera. Being held back in the common room right now. But I can’t reach Sean, he’s in Jonah’s room, you need to get there and-’

‘What are you doing in Secondary?’

‘Trying to adapt the breach. Doesn’t matter — you need to protect Jayne, Vic. It’s all about her now, and Marc.’

‘Where’s he?’

‘Here with me. Drake’s here, too. He said Moira and others are going to take the kids through.’

She means through there, Vic thought, and his spine tingled at the thought. ‘Right. I can pick up Jayne and Sean on the way.’

Gunshots, and he wasn’t sure whether they were from outside the door or had sounded over the phone. Olivia and Lucy looked at the door, startled. Outside.

‘Holly, gotta go, see you in Control in three minutes.’

‘Wait!’

‘Holly-’

‘Loved you, Vic.’

‘I’m not going through without you,’ he said. ‘We’ll wait in Control.’

‘Okay. Now go.’

‘Holly. .’ I loved you, he wanted to say. But he didn’t, because he still loved her, and to say that in front of Lucy would have been too much. Holly disconnected and he pocketed the phone.

‘They’re in,’ Lucy said.

‘Yeah. Okay, listen. We have to get through the breach.’

‘With Jayne,’ Lucy said. ‘She’s our hope.’

Vic grabbed his pistol; reloaded now, and with three spare magazines.

‘But won’t they follow us through?’

‘Holly’s doing something to the breach, I guess to prevent that. And we’ll be ready over there when it opens again. Defend it until we’re ready to come back through with a cure.’

‘And what’ll be left?’

Vic couldn’t answer that, so he didn’t try.

‘Ready, princess?’ he asked.

‘I’m scared,’ Olivia said.

‘You follow close to me, keep your eyes on my back, turn when I turn. Remember how you’d follow my steps in the snow?’ His beautiful daughter nodded. ‘Pretend we’re doing that now.’

He pulled on his boots and stood by the door. Last time I ran from here, I turned right.

Vic opened the door, paused at the corridor junction, checked both ways, and headed left.

7

‘We’ll take Marc with us,’ Drake said.

Holly nodded, her heart thumping, looking from Drake to Marc. I can’t say goodbye. It might slow them down.

‘I need everything,’ Marc said, picking up piles of printed material. He glanced at the laptop and satphone, frowned.

‘No use over there,’ Holly said. ‘You need to go.’

One of the screens showed the garage, block wall tumbled from the pressure of zombies massed in the high duct behind it, hundreds of them now pressing forward against the wall below the camera where the short corridor to the common room began. Earlier, Holly had caught a brief glimpse of Hitch’s slack face in the mass. The middle screen showed the common room. It was empty of kids now, and a tide of zombie bodies was flowing through the door like a slow wave. Several people — from Holly’s Earth, and from Gaia — were systematically shooting any new one that managed to force its way, through, adding to the pile of cadavers. Gunshots flashed, crossbows whispered, gun smoke hazed the air. It could not last.

The fourth screen showed hundreds more zombies gathered around the parked bus and open duct. If she watched long enough, Holly knew that she would see them drop out of view on one screen and appear again,