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Greta, Nina, Jerry, Queenie and Captain Toast walked quietly through the forest, as they followed the river up into the hills, each absorbed in their own thoughts. Every now and again, one of them would stop to point out some interesting plant or animal. Greta knew most of them by name. She told about their character, their folklore and the part they played in the balance of nature. Most of the plants had some use or other, whether it was being made into pigment or into medicine, eaten as food or made or rope. It seemed like abundance was everywhere, if you knew where to look and what to look for. Mostly they walked in silence.
Around midday, they stopped by a pool of clear water for a rest and a picnic of fuitcake, apples, nuts and raisins that Granny Mae had sent with them. Shopping Village seemed miles away now. Everywhere did. Dragonflies were hovering around over the surface of the water, frogs were croaking from among the rushes. Cold, fresh, mountain water was cascading down into the pool over moss covered rocks. Ancient, overhanging trees cast a dappled shade over the patch of soft grass where our adventurers sat down.
‘It’s so beautiful’, whispered Nina. ‘It’s magical..’
‘It really is’ Queenie agreed, also in a state of reverie and wonder. ‘It’s like a dream..’
Greta nodded her head solemnly. Jerry looked around, nodding his head, smiling. ‘By the rivers of Babylon, where we sat down..’ he sang. Captain Toast ran around excitedly, poking his nose into the rushes, trying to root out a frog. The frog hopped out of its hiding place and into the water, making a tiny splash. Captain Toast leapt in after the frog, making a huge splash. He sploshed around in the water, trying to find the frog, but without luck. Jerry laughed. ‘Funny Captain Toast! Anyone else fancy a swim? I’m going in..’ At that, he stripped down to his underwear and dived into the water.
The others followed suit. Soon, all five adventurers were laughing and splashing in the cold, clear water, like happy children without a care in the world. Afterwards, they lay on sun-warmed rocks to dry off. Feeling refreshed and revitalised, they picked up their bags and continued upstream, through the forest , into the hills.
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Freddy and Aretha waited for Roop and Mabel to catch up, by the sign to Eastwell, or Malawack Free State as it was now called. Sydney ran around, exploring the woods either side of the old A33.
‘How did you and Roop meet?’ asked Freddy. ‘Did he used to work in hi-tech too?’
‘Roop? In hi-tech?’ Aretha laughed as if was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. ‘That would be something. No, I met him after I left the company. I joined a protest movement. Animal rights. I felt like I had to make up for what I’d done.. what I’d been involved in.. so I became an activist. I met Roop at a protest. We were stopping trucks going in and out of a dairy farm. It was really muddy and rainy.. the middle of winter.. and he went and laid down in front of this truck full of cows, right in a muddy puddle.. more like a swamp actually.. in the middle of the road. That’s Roop. It took six police to drag him out and by they time they managed, they were all covered head to toe in stinky mud and cow dung. I’ll never forget that.’
‘Wow.. that’s really.. brave’, said Freddy, trying to find the right word, other than mad. ‘Heroic. Really heroic.’
‘Yeah..’ said Aretha, thinking back to Roop in their younger days. ‘And he was a singer too. He sang protest songs. Old ones, but also ones he wrote himself. When I first saw him playing guitar and singing those songs.. you know.. songs with a message.. it wasn’t about ego with him, he just wanted to connect with people.. he’s got a way of connecting with people.. I don’t know how he does it, but he’ll find common ground with anyone. Well, I just fell head over heels in love with him. What can I say? I’ve always had a thing for guitar players. It can’t be helped. Do you play guitar?’
Freddy blushed. ‘Er, no. I don’t play anything. I’m not really musical. I like music.. I appreciate music.. I just can’t play it.’
‘Oh well..’ Aretha shrugged and turned her head to gaze back down the road. ‘Probably best. Guitar players are a pain in the.. oh, speak of the devil! Here he is..’ Roop and Mabel came riding around the bend smiling. They waved and rang their bells as they approached.
‘You look happy’, said Aretha
‘I was just telling Mabel about our biking adventures’, said Roop, with a whimsical look. ‘We had some funny times didn’t we? Some mad times.’
‘We had some good times’, Aretha nodded.
‘I love it!’ said Mabel. ‘I want to travel round the whole world on a bicycle and never stop. I want to go everywhere!’
‘Good idea’, Aretha agreed. ‘What do you say, Roop?’
‘Well..’ said Roop, stretching his arms and taking a deep breath. ‘I must say, it’s good to be on the road again.. and there’s nothing to stop us.. and since we’ve come this far.. and there are a few places I wouldn’t mind visiting again.. so.. I don’t know.. maybe..’
‘You and your maybes!’ laughed Aretha, shaking her head.
‘Where’s Sydney?’ asked Mabel, looking around.
‘Oh he’s just having a runaround’, said Freddy. ‘I’ll call him. Sydney! Sid! Sid! Come here boy!’ Sydney came running out of the woods and jumped around excitedly.
‘You should probably put him back on the bike, undercover’, said Roop, looking up ominously at the giant sign which read "Welcome to Malawack Free State" with the cryptic question posed underneath, "Are you awake?"
‘What does that sign mean?’ asked Mabel. ‘Am I asleep? Is this a dream? It feels like a dream..’
‘Maybe it is, Mabel. Maybe it is..’, said Roop.
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On the other side of the ridge, deep in the forest, Nina, Greta, Queenie, Jerry and Captain Toast marched onwards and upwards.
‘It feels like a dream’, Nina said in hushed tone to Queenie who was walking by her side. ‘It just goes on and on..’
‘Yeah, it really does..’ said Queenie, almost in a whisper.
‘And everywhere you look, there’s so much detail in everything. It’s like.. nature just knows what to do.. it organises itself so perfectly.. it makes me wonder..’
‘What does it make you wonder?’
‘Well, I’m thinking about O. About the cities.. the hives.. the way of life there.. it’s so complicated. It takes so much energy, so much technology, so much organisation, to keep everything running smoothly.. just to support the humans who live there.’
‘That’s true’, agreed Queenie, thinking back to her old life in the hives. Right now, she never wanted to go back to there or to ever see the city again, or hear the name O. ‘What are you thinking about O?’
‘Well, why did they do it? It would have been much simpler for O to just get rid of all the people, if saving the planet was their aim. It would have solved the problem overnight. The planet doesn’t really need us. It can get on just fine without us.. so why did O do it?’
Queenie looked at Nina sideways. ‘You don’t get it do you? Without the people, O would be nothing but a fancy calculator, an adding machine, an overdeveloped abacus. That’s the thing about O. It’s got no imagination of its own. It can’t ever come up with any new ideas.. not without people. It takes all the ideas that humans have.. all that creativity, the sense of beauty.. the unpredictable, the unexpected, the mysterious.. everything that makes us human.. the dark and the light.. and it turns it into numbers. O doesn’t create anything by itself. All it can do is crunch numbers, analyse data, solve equations. The planet doesn’t need us, but O does. It feeds on our dreams.’
‘That’s like what my dad says.. apart from the bit about feeding on our dreams..’, said Nina, thinking about her dad, as she had been ever since leaving without saying goodbye. He must be going out of his mind with worry. She hoped he wouldn’t do anything rash.
‘It’s true.. it feeds on your dreams’, said Queenie, tapping the side of her head and giving Nina a serious look. ‘The ones when you’re asleep and the ones when you’re awake.’
‘That sounds really scary’, said Nina. ‘Like O is a sort of vampire.’
‘Yeah, that’s exactly what it’s like’, nodded Queenie, looking darkly ahead. She hated talking about O. She’d left all that behind a long time ago and didn’t want to think about it any more. The image from her dream came once again to her mind, as it had been all morning. The old stone cottage, deep in the woods, in the dark of night. Her mum standing in the doorway, dressed in black, becking her to come inside. What did it mean?
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With Sydney wrapped in a blanket and strapped back onto Freddy’s bike rack, the four cyclists continued on their way into the Malawack Free State. Freddy and Mabel rode ahead, gliding along effortlessly, thanks to the improved condition of the road. Being next to Mabel reminded Freddy of Nina when she was little. Where had the time gone? It seemed like only yesterday that she’d been ten years old. He’d tried to give her everything, but also to keep her safe. Now he wondered if he’d done right by her at all, keeping her locked up in the hive for sixteen years like some modern day Rapunzel. Now she’d run away. If Freddy had the time again, he’d do everything differently. But alas, time doesn’t work that way.
Mabel chatted away, keeping Freddy distracted with questions. ‘Do you think this is a dream or real life? How could we tell? Is it your dream or my dream? If it’s a dream, does that mean I can fly if I want to? Do you think dreams are magic? Do you think dreams can see the future?’
‘It’s all possible’ said Freddy. ‘In fact, there’s a lot of evidence for dream premonitions.. dreams that tell about the future. It’s actually one of the things that O is researching quite seriously. It’s only now that we’re able to collate enough data to give any meaningful results.. but we’re still a long way from really understanding the phenomenon.’
‘What’s a phenomenomenon?’
‘Well.. It’s something that we can observe, but that we can’t necessarily explain.’
‘Like the moon?’
‘No, not really. We know what the moon is.’
‘But it’s sometimes there and sometimes not. And sometimes only half there.’
‘Well, that’s due to its rotation around the Earth and the way sunlight is reflected from its surface at different phases of its orbit.’
‘I see..’ said Mabel, though she didn’t really. ‘You’re clever, Freddy. Do you know everything?’
Freddy smiled sadly and shook his head. ‘Far from it, Mabel. Far from it.’
The road leading into the town was in better repair than any of the road they’d travelled so far. Many of the potholes and cracks had been filled and the edges of the road neatly trimmed. Either side of the road were fields, ripe with corn, wheat, hemp and other crops. The fields were interspersed with big farmhouses and little old cottages with windmills and solar panels on their rooftops and surrounded by lush gardens.
Nearer town, the houses became closer together. Whole rows of terraced houses were painted with bright, joyous murals, people were out in the streets, dressed in bright, loose fitting clothes and robes. Most stopped to smile and wave at the bicycle travellers as they rode by, calling out to ask where they came from and where they were going and to welcome them to Malawack.
The main road led into an old market square in the centre of town. Freddy and Mabel stopped there to look around and wait for Roop and Aretha to catch up. There were lots of people in the square and something of a festival atmosphere. Cafes, juice bars and eateries occupied most of the shops around the four sides and spilled out onto the pavement. In the wide, cobblestoned concourse of the square, there were market traders. One was selling handmade wooden bowls, another displaying incense, candles, lucky charms. There was a stall selling tie-dyed scarves next to another with all kinds of hats. Someone was offering Tarot card readings. Someone else had all manner of devices to align chakras. In one corner of the square, a blind man in a dark robe sat on the steps of the old bank, playing a hurdy gurdy while his friend, a woman dressed as a medieval court jester danced around to his strange, hypnotic music, ad-libbing poetry to a group of onlookers.
‘I love it here!’ cried Mabel excitedly as they stopped to listen to the buskers. She looked around in wonder at the great, stone buildings all around the square. So tall and old and solid and majestic, compared the buses and trucks, tyre houses, tents and the concrete Mall of Shopping Village. ‘I want to live here.. in Malawack! It’s such a funny name too, but I like saying it. Malawack! Malawack! Do you love it here in Malawack, Freddy?’
Freddy looked around uneasily. He was having difficulty being among so many people and yet being unable to see any of their stats. None of these people had stats. How could he tell how he was supposed to interact with people when he didn’t have the slightest idea who they were or how they were feeling? It made him uncomfortable and scared. There was something primitive about this place and these people. Something superstitious. And that made them dangerous. ‘Yes, it’s a nice place. Lovely architecture’, said Freddy, looking back down the road to see if Aretha and Roop were catching up yet. ‘I don’t want to stay too long though. I’m hoping we can get to Skyward by tonight.’
‘Oh yes! Skyward!’ sang Mabel, clapping her hands. ‘I can’t wait to get to Skyward and sleep in a tree house!’
A bit further back down the road, Roop and Aretha were riding into town, enjoying the feeling of being on the move and seeing new places after so many years spent in the same place, building their home and raising their daughter.
‘I remember this place’, said Roop. ‘Do you? We came through Eastwell on our way to Shopping Village.. must have been.. what.. eleven years ago now..?’
‘Yes, I was already pregnant with Mabel, but I didn’t know it yet. I had a feeling though. Wasn’t Eastwell that weird town with that crazy guru, or whatever he was. What was his name..?’
‘Didn’t you see the big sign on the way here? Malawack. Humpty Malawack. He was famous on the internet, before the Big Shift. Don’t you remember? Afterwards, a load of his followers came to Eastwell and set up their so-called free state.’
‘Oh yes! I remember now. They were all staying up at that huge house on the hill. They had that commune there. We spent the night there. It’s all coming back to me now. Oh my God, that was a mad night!’ Aretha laughed. ‘I can’t believe I forgot about that.’
‘Well, so much has happened since..’ said Roop, lost in memories. ‘I wonder what happened to them. I suppose they must still be there..’
‘Remember they wanted us to stay? I probably would have done, but you didn’t want to..’
‘I probably would have done too, if they weren’t such a load of conspiracy nuts. Nice bunch, but there’s only so much of that nonsense I can take. Even I’ve got my limits.’ Roop shook his head and rolled his eyes.
Aretha looked at Roop as they rode their old bikes down the long untravelled, almost forgotten road. ‘We’ve come a long way together, haven’t we?’ she said after a while.
‘Yes, we have’
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In the forest, Greta and Jerry were walking ahead of Queenie and Nina, following Captain Toast, who had a way of finding the best path.
‘So, did your time in the city change your mind about the Great Leader? Do you still think O is evil?’ asked Jerry.
Greta thought about it, as she had been a lot since leaving the city. ‘I don’t know’, she said at last. ‘I think Granny Mae was right. O gets into your head, even if you don’t have a noodle. When you’re there, everything.. the hives, the vips, the robots, the stats.. it all just starts to seem normal. You get used to it. And then you forget that the world outside exists.. I mean, you know it exists, but somehow it doesn’t seem real..’
‘Yeah, I know what you mean. Techno Terry used to say that we’re probably living in a simulation, like in that old film, the Matrix. Have you seen it? You should.’
‘No, I haven’t. I’ve heard some of the old people in our village mention it, but we don’t watch films except when the travelling cinema comes through, about once a year.’
‘A travelling cinema? Far out! I can’t wait to see your village. It sounds like a mad place.’
‘No, it’s not a mad place. If anything, it’s the most normal place I know. I can’t wait to get there either. I think we’re getting quite close now.. just beyond this hill. We should see it when we get to the top.’
The hill became steeper and more rocky the higher they climbed. By this point, the river they had been following had become a stream, bubbling down between the rocks. Greta and Jerry walked mostly in silence, conserving energy for the climb, occasionally stopping to drink from the cold, clear water.
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Roop and Aretha caught up with Freddy and Mabel at the corner of the market square, by the old bank.
‘Oh excellent, a hurdy gurdy! You don’t see or hear many of those in this day and age’, said Roop excitedly.
‘That’s a funny name. Why is it called a hurdy gurdy?’ asked Mabel.
‘Because that’s the sound it makes’, explained Roop. He looked around the crowd gathered there and nodded and smiled to everyone who caught his eye. It was not long before a friendly group had gathered around our four bicycle travellers, admiring their bikes and their spirit of adventure, asking where they had come from and where they were going.
It was generally agreed that Skyward Village was a strange and special place, worth visiting, though the road leading in that direction, the old B420 was in a bad state of repair. They would be unlikely to get there by nightfall and would be better off staying in Malawack for the night. There were many kind offers of hospitality and also recommendations for cheap guesthouses around town.
‘What do you think, Freddy?’ said Roop. ‘It’s already afternoon. Maybe they’re right. This seems like a good place to stop. What do you say, Aretha?’
‘I guess we could..’ said Aretha uncertainly. ‘But remember the last time we stayed here?’
‘Yeah.. well.. some of it’, grinned Roop.
‘I.. I don’t know’, said Freddy, his heart sinking. He just wanted to find Greta and Nina, even if it meant riding through the night.. but he couldn’t expect Mabel to do that. Maybe he should go on alone. ‘Maybe there’s somewhere around here we can get some more information..’
At that moment, the blind hurdy gurdy player stopped abruptly and put his hand to the side of his head in pain. His companion, the poet-jester stopped mid-sentence and turned round to look at him, worried. ‘What is it Alfie? Are you ok, hon?’
Alfie unsteadily set down his hurdy gurdy beside him on the stone step and picked up his white stick. He got to his feet and staggered into the group of people who all jumped out of the way as he waved his white stick from side to side. He headed straight towards the bicycle travellers and stopped just in front of Freddy, with his hand over his eyes, wincing. Freddy was staring at him, full of fear and confusion, his mouth opening and closing but no words coming out. Eventually he managed to stammer, ‘Sorry, can I help you?’
Alfie lifted his white stick into the air above his head and then brought it down with a crack upon the back of Freddy’s bicycle. Mabel screamed, ‘No! Sydney!’
‘Spies among us!’ cried Alfie. ‘Spies for the new world order! Look here! A robot!’
Sydney lifted his head out from beneath the blanket covering and looked around, left, right and up at Alfie. Everyone in the crowd gasped. Some screamed. They all backed away, some covering their faces, others turning their backs and making superstitious hand gestures over their shoulders to ward off evil. Alfie lifted his white stick again and was about to bring it down on Sydney’s head when Mabel jumped in front of him and cried ‘No! Don’t hurt Sydney! Please don’t hurt him! He hasn’t done anything to you.’
The blind man’s companion ran forward and grabbed Alfie’s hand before he struck again. By now, everyone in the crowd had retreated to a safe distance and were watching through the gaps in their fingers to see what would happen next. ‘There’s a little girl there, Alfie’, she said in his ear. ‘Put your stick down.’ Alfie lowered his white stick.
Some of the people in the crowd had taken out old fashioned mobile phones, the Star-Trek kind that flip open, hurriedly dialling numbers, speaking urgently into the mouthpiece. ‘What?! What’s going on here?’ cried Freddy, looking around in panic, from the blind man to the jester to the crowd of people surrounding him and his friends. Sydney calmly scanned the scene, taking it all in, his glass face showing nothing but a reflection of all the people gathered around in fear and anticipation of what he might do next..
A man from the crowd shouted, ‘Cover it up! Put something over its face! Tie it down! The guards are on the way!’
Three people ran forward and threw their shawls over Sydney. Someone else had some rope and set about binding the robot dog to the back of Freddy’s bike, looping the rope through the back wheel to make sure Freddy wouldn’t try to escape or cause more trouble.
‘Really, this is completely unnecessary’, Freddy was saying. ‘It’s all a misunderstanding, I can explain.. please, let me explain..’ But his pleas were ignored. Freddy’s anger burst out. ‘Will you.. just.. stop.. that! Stop it! Right now! That’s my property. You can’t do that!’
‘You’re a spy!’ a woman from the crowd called out. ‘Why else would you bring a devil dog here? And to hide it like that. And to think.. I almost invited you to my house!’
‘Oh for crying out loud..!’ Freddy shook his head and pulled his hair. ‘And you!’ he pointed to the blind hurdy gurdy player who was still standing in front of him with his white stick raised, ready to strike. ‘Why are you pretending to be blind? How did you see my robot dog? What’s going on in this place? How have people got telephones..?’
‘Oh oh..’ said the blind man in a cracked voice, lifting his dark glasses to reveal white, sightless eyes. ‘Can’t see, can’t see, can’t see a thing.. not with these, not with these eyes.’
‘I don’t understand’ said Freddy, recoiling in horror. ‘Then how did you see Sydney? The robot.. How did you see him.. it?’
‘I saws your devil dog with my noodle, didn’t I, didn’t I?’ said the blind man, tapping the side of his head and screwing up his face. ‘Saws it with my noodle.. cursed noodle!’
‘Wh..at?!’ stammered Freddy. ‘But how? That makes no sense..’
Before Freddy got any more answers to his many questions, the conversation was interrupted by the wailing of police sirens approaching fast, from beyond the crowd that had gathered there. The onlookers parted to let three guards, dressed in black, riding electric scooters, enter the circle. One of the scooters had a trailer with a metal box fixed onto it.
Roop shook his head, sighed and slightly smiled. ‘This brings back memories, eh Aretha?’
Aretha gave him a very serious look, shook her head and held tightly onto Mabel.
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The sun was sinking low by the time Greta, Nina, Jerry, Queenie and Captain Toast reached the top of the hill. The last part had been a hard climb and they all flopped down exhausted on a big rock. Even Captain Toast. Below stretched a deep, wide valley and beyond that, three round hills, side by side, going up in height.
‘Look!’ cried Greta excitedly, pointing to the three hills in the distance. ‘It’s the Three Bears! Skyward Village is on the middle one, Mummy Bear! We’re nearly there! Come on, let’s keep going.. while it’s still light..’ She picked up her bag and started marching down the hill.
‘Wait, Greta!’ called Queenie. ‘I need a rest. Let’s stop for a bit, ok?’
‘But we’re so close now’, pleaded Greta. ‘We can make it tonight if we keep going.’
‘But it’ll be dark soon’, said Nina. ‘Do you know the way across that valley in the dark?’
‘We can’t go wrong’, said Greta. ‘We just head towards Mummy Bear Hill. As long as we can see those hills, we can’t get lost. Anyway, I can feel it. The energy of the hill.. the ancient forest. I could find my way back there with my eyes shut.’
‘Do you think so?’ said Nina. ‘It looks like a long way from here..’
‘No, it’s not so far. Two or three hours.. that’s all. It looks further away than it is. It’s not nearly such a big hill as this one we just climbed. Come on Nina. We’re nearly there now.’
‘Well.. I don’t know.. maybe..’ said Nina. ‘We are nearly there, I suppose..’
‘What about you Jerry?’ asked Greta.
Jerry looked thoughtful for a while and chewed on a twig he’d picked along the way. ‘Here’s what I think..’, he said, and then gazed out over the valley and stroked his chin thoughtfully for a long while.
‘It would help if you’d say it, Jerry’, said Queenie. ‘We’re not mind readers.’
Jerry turned on his rock and faced his friends, like Moses on Mount Sinai after receiving wisdom from above. ‘I think, we should stop here for a little bit’, he said. ‘Then eat the hyper-sausages, then we carry on to Mummy Bear Hill.’ He raised his eyebrows and nodded his head, proud of himself for thinking of the ideal solution to their impasse.
Queenie took a bit of convincing, but since the others agreed, she also agreed. They stopped on top of the mountain for a short rest and had a hypersausage picnic. It was written on the wrapper that one quarter of a hypersausage was recommended. They cut it into four and took one piece each. Greta found the pink, gummy paste very unappetising. She had to force herself to swallow it and couldn’t manage the whole piece. She gave the rest of hers to Captain Toast who would happily have eaten a whole hypersausage by himself. Nina turned her nose up at her piece and sniffed it, but was happy to discover it tasted just like bubble gum. Queenie and Jerry chewed on their quarters and then they all stared out over the valley, basking in the warm evening sun, waiting for something to happen.
They’d been sitting for about five minutes, wondering if they’d taken enough and what, if anything was going to happen and when, when Captain Toast suddenly jumped to his feet, barked three times and ran at full speed, away down the forest path, towards the valley.
‘Hey, Captain! Come back!’ shouted Jerry, jumping to his feet. The others got up too.
‘Wait for us, Captain Toast!’ Queenie called. Captain Toast’s deep, resonant bark came back from somewhere deep in the forest, far below. ‘Well, I suppose now that we’re all up, we may as well get moving. I’m actually feeling.. not tired any more.’ Queenie found that she was hopping from one foot to the other on the rock where she was standing.
‘Yeah, come on, let’s get moving’, said Jerry, wide eyed, rubbing his hands together. ‘Enough sitting around.. Mama Bear Mountain isn’t going to come to us, eh!’
And so it was that in the last of the day’s sun, our brave adventurers hopped and skipped down mountain and into the wild, Eastern Forest that filled the valley between there and Skyward Village.
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‘You’re under arrest! Stay where you are and put your hands where I can see them!’ barked the first guard, reaching for his fighting stick.
‘What?!’ cried Freddy. ‘On what charges? On who’s authority?’
‘In the name of the crown of King Humpty Malawack, I’m arresting you on suspicion of spying, infiltrating, espionage and treason. You don not have to say anything but anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law.’
‘A court of law? The crown of King Humpty Malawack?’ Freddy retorted. ‘Are you serious?’
The guards all drew their long sticks from their holsters to show that they were very serious. ‘Resisting arrest is a felony. We are authorised to use force and I warn you, we’re all trained in Bojutsu, so don’t try anything’, said the guard menacingly.
Freddy, Roop and Aretha decided it was best to go quietly. Even if they could have evaded the guards with their hardwood fighting sticks and high speed electric scooters, it was unlikely that the crowd would have let them escape now that they had been identified as spies.
Mabel cried and wailed as Sydney’s legs were tied together and he was locked inside the metal scooter trailer. A woman in the crowd turned to her neighbour and said loudly enough for Aretha to hear, ‘I feel sorry for that little girl. Poor thing. It’s disgusting how they recruit children to make themselves look innocent..’
The prisoners were led through the market square, which was now feeling much less festive. People whispered, pointed, shook their heads and wagged their fingers as the criminals were paraded past, flanked by the guards. A man on a market stall selling handmade wooden bowls and spoons shouted, ‘Long live the King!’ and others joined in the call. Soon, the market square was filled with shouts of ‘Long live the King! Long live King Humpty!’ and the festival atmosphere soon resumed.
The seven riders rode out from the market square. In front, the guard with the trailer containing Sydney. Behind him, the captive bicycle riders. At the rear, making sure the prisoners didn’t try to escape, the other two guards on their electric scooters. They rode through streets of brightly painted houses, out past the other edge of town, towards a big old stately house on a hill overlooking Malawack. The house was painted bright orange and shone like a beacon in the late afternoon sun.
Roop decided to go and try to strike up a conversation with his captors. He rode up ahead, pulling up alongside the guard with the trailer. ‘Hey, isn’t that old Eastwell Manor? I stayed up there one night, years ago, a couple years after the Shift. There used to be a sort of commune there. Is it still there? Is that where we’re going? When did they paint it orange?’
‘That’s Malawack castle’, said the guard. ‘The King’s residence.’
‘When did they make him a King?’
The guard looked at Roop sideways, deeply suspicious. ‘He was always the King. They tried to keep him down, but a true King can’t be vanquished, not by man and not by machine.’
‘Oh right, cool, I get it’, said Roop, not wanting to sound too skeptical. ‘He wasn’t here when we were here last.. about eleven years ago. His followers were. They said they were waiting for him to arrive, I remember that now. When did he get here?’
‘Seven years ago. He had to find his way back here over two continents and three oceans after the so-called Big Shift’, the guard spat on the ground at the mention of the event. ‘But we knew he’d come. This place is the heartland. We knew he’d return.’
‘Amazing’, said Roop and whistled. ‘You know, the only thing I can remember about the night we stayed here.. it’s all coming back to me now.. there was a ceremony.. some kind of ritual.. lots of fire, outrageous costumes.. I remember there was a giant owl.. huge, it was.. the size of a house.. A giant, talking owl!’ Roop laughed. ‘At least that’s how I remember it. Does that ring any bells? Not sure if any of that really happened to be honest.. It was a mad night..’
The guard gave Roop a very long, hard look, then turned to stare fixedly ahead, determined to say no more, hoping he hadn’t said too much already. These spies already seemed to know too much and would doubtless be fishing for more information.
Aretha, Mabel and Freddy rode behind, side by side. Mabel was in tears and very frightened. ‘Why did they take Sydney? What are they going to do with him? Where are we going? What’s going to happen..?’
‘Don’t worry Mabel, it’s going to be all right. You’ll see’, said Aretha, trying to believe it herself.
Freddy was riding with one hand on the handlebar and the other pulling his hair, very anguished. ‘I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. Why did I bring Sydney with? I should have listened to you Aretha. It would have been fine if not for Sydney. Oh why didn’t I send him home when I had the chance? I feel such an idiot. I didn’t think.. I didn’t think people would be so backwards, so primitive, so superstitious. I should have known it would come to this. Oh why did I bring him?’
‘Hey, don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll be able to reason with these people’, said Aretha, hoping it was true. ‘Once they hear our story, they’ll know we’re not spies. Worse comes to the worse, they can keep the robot.. do what they want with it and let us go on our way.’
‘No!’ cried Mabel. ‘We can’t let them take Sydney!’
Aretha gave Freddy a very hard look, nodded and raised her eyebrows, sighed and shook her head.
‘You know, Mabel’, said Freddy. ‘Sydney.. he really is just a robot. All of his memories, all of his personality, everything that makes him Sydney.. it’s all stored on O’s databanks. I could easily have him replaced with another robot body, just the same and it would still be the same Sydney.’
‘No, he wouldn’t be the same Sydney’, wailed Mabel. ‘What if they hurt him? What if they kill him?’
‘They can’t hurt him or kill him, Mabel, don’t worry’, said Freddy.
‘Really?’ said Mabel, hope rising. ‘Is Sydney immortal? Can he not die?’
‘That’s about right’, nodded Freddy. ‘At least not any time soon. You see, the thing is, Sydney’s not really there.. not in that box. That’s just a robot body.. a machine.. just like these bicycles we’re riding. A bit different and more sophisticated, obviously, but still, just a machine.’
‘I don’t understand’, said Mabel. ‘If Sydney’s not in that box, where is he?’
‘Well, it’s not so easy to explain, but essentially he’s everywhere, all at the same time.. but at the same time, no-where at all.. just numbers stored on a server, pulses of light in a cable.’
‘I don’t understand even more now’, said Mabel.
‘He’s just trying to say, you don’t need to worry about Sydney’, said Aretha. ‘Sydney will be ok.’
The road led out past the edge of town, through a long, shady avenue of ancient oak trees and then up the hill towards Malawack castle. A tall brick wall marked the perimeter of the grounds of the grand old stately house. A large metal gate between stone pillars was set into the entrance. Above the closed gate, in ornately forged letters of wrought iron, were the words ‘Stay Free’.
Roop looked up ominously at the gate. ‘That wasn’t here when I was here last..’
The guard pushed a button on the console of his scooter and the gate swung open majestically. He spoke into a radio attached to his lapel. ‘Entering the castle grounds with the suspects now. Stand by.’
A long, wide, gravel driveway led directly towards the castle. On either side were green lawns on which groups of people in regimented rows were practising bojutsu and other martial arts, perfectly synchronised. The all cast their eyes towards the convoy of bikes as they passed by, but didn’t pause their practice or miss a swing, lunge, vault or swoop. Just before getting to the castle, a smaller road led off the the side towards a smaller but still sizeable old house with its own wall around it. Two guards stood either side of the entrance gate there, with two fearsome looking guard dogs on leashes. Mabel looked around in helpless confusion, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘I don’t like this place’, she cried. ‘I want to go home.’
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In the forest, spurred and energised by the thought of being nearly there, as well as by the hypersausages they’d eaten, our adventurers reached the bottom of the hill in almost no time at all, even though the forest was much denser and more tangled on that side of the hill. In the valley, giant prehistoric looking trees towered above the swampy ground, their canopy blocking out all but a fraction of the late evening light. The path was impossible to see, everything was overgrown with impenetrable thorny bushes.
‘Oh no! What do we do now?’ said Nina, pulling her foot out of a muddy hole.
‘We must’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere back up there’, said Jerry. ‘Maybe we should go back up a bit and try a different path..’
‘That’s what you get for giving hypersausages to a dog and then following his lead’, said Queenie. Captain Toast seemed to be the only one there who was unbothered by their predicament and he happily rolled around in a patch of mud.
‘Maybe if we can get through this patch of thorns, we’ll come to a path. There’s usually paths that the animals use.. wild pigs, deer..’
‘What about wolves and bears?’ said Nina, afraid.
‘Well, hopefully we won’t meet any of those..’ said Greta.
‘Oh that makes me feel much better’, said Queenie, scanning the dark forest nervously.
‘Let’s go back up a bit’, said Nina. ‘There was that nice place by the stream. We could camp there for the night and then try and find our way in the morning. It’ll be easier when it’s light.’
‘That’s not a bad idea’, said Jerry.
‘No, we’re nearly there, Nina’, said Greta. ‘It’s just across this valley. It’s only a couple of miles across. When we get to the foot of Mama Bear Hill, I can find my way up with my eyes closed. I know all the paths there. We’re so close now.’
‘But which way, Greta? There’s no path..’ said Nina.
‘You know what?’ said Queenie, sitting down on a log and reaching for her pouch that she kept on a string. ‘I think this might help..’ She took out the little silver vape.
‘Oh, my dad uses one of those’, said Nina. ‘Says it helps him relax. I can’t stand the smell.’
‘Me neither’, said Greta. ‘I wish he’d stop. It’s like a baby sucking their thumb.’
Queenie laughed. ‘Yeah, that’s just what it’s like. A pacifier for grown ups.’
‘So why do you do it?’ asked Greta.
‘I don’t know’, shrugged Queenie. ‘I like it. It works. Maybe I need it.’
‘What does it do? I remember you offered it to me when we first met. You said blue makes you dream, red wakes you up..?’
‘Yeah, and purple makes you fly’, said Queenie. ‘Want to try it?’
‘I don’t think so’, said Greta. ‘What even is it? What’s in it?’
‘Vision vapour’, said Queenie. ‘It’s a blend of synthetic psychotranquiloids.’
‘Where’s it from?’
‘O makes it’, said Queenie, taking a puff. She held it in, closing her eyes and then breathed out a cloud of dense purple vapour. ‘It’s good stuff.’ She proffered it to Greta.
Greta shook her head. ‘No thanks.’
Queenie offered it to Nina. Nina thought it over for a bit and then said, ‘No thanks. Maybe later.’
‘Jerry?’ said Queenie.
‘Not for me thanks Queenie. I tried it once and didn’t like it.’
‘Oh yeah, I remember that’, smiled Queenie, taking another puff.
‘Yeah, I think I’d better keep my feet on the ground.’
‘How can you smoke something that O made?’ said Greta. ‘How can you put it in your body? Where do you even get it from?’
Queenie gave Greta a long, strange look and then shrugged. ‘Shopping Village. All your shopping needs under one roof, eh’, she smiled. ‘You can get everything in Shopping Village.’
‘That’s pretty much true’, nodded Jerry, reaching into his bag. ‘Does anyone want some more hypersausage? I think mines wearing off.. oh I’ve still got a whole fruitcake here too.. does anyone want a bit?’
‘I’m not really hungry. I’m allright’, said Nina, anxiously scanning the forest for bears.
‘No thanks. I’m not hungry either’, said Greta, watching Queenie become enveloped in a cloud of vapour, her nose recoiling at the synthetic smell filling the forest air. ‘What does it do, Queenie?’
‘Kind of hard to describe, sister’ said Queenie, looking around the forest with new interest and curiosity, as if she were searching for something hidden there. ‘Sometimes it can help you find the way. Sometimes it can get you completely lost.. but I think in this case it might help, since we’re already quite lost..’
‘Not sure it really works that way Queenie’, said Jerry.
‘There it is!’ said Queenie, triumphantly, standing up on the log and pointing to gap between two bushes. ‘Follow me!’ She jumped down from the log and marched off into the bushes. The others watched her disappear, then exchanged puzzled looks. ‘Come on, it’s this way. There’s a path here’, came Queenie’s voice from beyond the bushes.
Jerry shrugged. ‘I guess we’d better go after her’, he said and the others agreed.
On the other side of the bush was more dense forest and thorny bushes. ‘Where’s the path Queenie?’ asked Nina. ‘I can’t see it.’
‘It’s here, look’, said Queenie, pointing ahead into the undergrowth. ‘Come on..’ and she disappeared again between the bushes.
‘Wait for us Queenie’, called Nina, following her through.
After a little while, navigating a few more gaps between thorny bushes, following Queenie’s lead, they came to a proper path, fairly well trodden, less muddy and wide enough for them to walk single file. ‘You see?’ said Queenie. ‘You were right, Greta. There was a path here.’
‘Amazing’ said Greta.
‘Good old O and their psychotranquiloids!’ said Jerry.
‘Shut up Jerry!’ said Queenie, and strode off ahead into the deep forest twighlight with Captain Toast at her heels.
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