The Big Shift (2022) Chapter 7. Resistance

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Chapter 7

Resistance

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'Are you sure it's a viaduct and not a drain?' said Baz, as he led the way through the graveyard towards the back door of the church. 'I thought a viaduct was a kind of aqueduct, but on stilts, like the Romans used to build.'

'That's what I thought too', said Greta.

'Maybe it's a conduit?' suggested Jerry.

'Don't you mean a culvert?' said Baz.

'I don't think so', said Jerry. 'I've never even heard that word.'

'Haven't you? I'm pretty sure I didn't make it up. Anyway, if you ask me, it's a drain', said Baz. 'Nothing wrong with that.'

'I like the word viaduct best' said Queenie. 'Anyway, it's a lovely drain, or conduit, or culvert.. or whatever it is.. don't you think? Did you stop to look at the brickwork? Unbelievable that they dug all those underground tunnels by lamplight, with picks and shovels. No machines in those days, eh.'

'Good old days!' rejoined Baz wistfully. He was all of sixteen years old, but there was something of an old man about him, even with his bright red mohican.

'When did you get out?' Queenie asked.

'Three months ago', Baz answered. 'I could have waited another half a year and just walked out with O's blessing, but I thought.. nah, why should I? I don't need it. I'm not a number, I'm a free man, you know what I mean? Once I heard about your drain.. sorry, viaduct.. well, that was it.. I just knew I had to get out that way. Just to stick it to O! I couldn't get it out of my mind that there was a way out.. a way out that O didn't know about! I just had to find out if it was true, you know what I mean? Because if it was true.. well that just changes everything, doesn't it.'

'What do you mean it changes everything?' asked Greta. 'What does it change?'

'You're not from the city are you?' said Baz, looking her up and down. 'I can tell. The thing is, when you live there.. in the Hives.. you just have this.. feeling.. well, it's more than a feeling.. it's like something you just know.. in every part of your body.. that O is everywhere. That whatever you do, or say.. wherever you go.. even whatever you think.. O knows about it. O's watching.. taking note..'

Greta shuddered involuntarily as a cold shiver ran down her spine. 'That's awful', she said.

'Well, obviously when you look at it from the point of view of an outsider, it sounds really bad', said Baz, 'and it is really bad in loads of ways.. but it's not something you can ever really question. It's just something that is.. you know what I mean?.. like the moon.. or water.. or gravity.. it's hard to explain. It's just something that's always there. Point is, when I found out there was a place that O didn't know about.. that O wasn't watching.. right there in the city.. it was like.. aha! So O's not so all powerful and omnipotent as they'd have us believe. It was a chink in their armour. Not a massive one, but still, it changed everything for me, just to know it was possible.'

'That's just what I felt', said Queenie. 'It was just like that for me when I discovered it. Like a door opened up. I couldn't get it out of my mind. I had to go through it, just to know if it was real.'

'What would have happened if you'd waited six months?' asked Greta.'Why would O have given you their blessing?'

'Because then I would have been sixteen years, six months and six days old. That's the age you don't need permission to go out of the city. If you've got parents, they need to give permission. For us lot in care, it's O that needs to give permission.'

'That's a funny age. Why is it like that?'

'Don't ask me', Baz shrugged. 'That's O for you. Protocols that make no sense. I think O just picks them out of a hat, or randomly generates pointless rules for no reason at all, just to keep people on their toes.'

'No, it's all based on complex, deep-future-modelling', said Jerry. 'It's totally scientific.'

'Yeah right!' Baz laughed. 'Of course that's what O wants you to think, but I'm telling you, it's all totally random, or at least half of it is. Here, we can go in this way..'

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A small side door, which was so low that they had to bend to get through it, led directly into a large kitchen with a big old iron cooking range, two deep kitchen sinks side by side, and a big, solid oak table in the centre of the room. The floor was paved with stone slabs which had been worn smooth over centuries. At the table were four people cutting vegetables to put into a big pot on the table between them. The oldest was about Queenie's age. She had a serious, boyish face and short blue hair. The younger three all looked very similar and had straggly mops ginger hair. They all turned around as Baz came in, followed by Queenie, Jerry, Greta and Captain Toast.

'O..M..G.. P.. T.. 3!!! Bruce?!?' screamed the blue haired cook, jumping up from her seat.

'O..M..G..P..S..I!! Clair?', shrieked Queenie, as Clair ran to her and threw her arms around her old friend. 'And who's that there? Is it the three amigos? It can't be! I don't believe it!'

'Hi Bruce! Yes it's us!' the triplets said in unison.

'Wow! Last time I saw you, you must have been, what, ten years old? Now look at you, all grown up! I can't believe it. How did you get here? When did you all get here?'

'We came down the drain', they all said at the same time, and then looked at one another and laughed. 'You tell her', 'No you tell her', 'No, you tell her..' they prodded each other. 'We came out with Clair', they all said together.

'About a month after you got out', said Clair. 'What can I say? It was just boring there without you. Also, the three Amigos here discovered that O was going to send them all to different hives.. maybe even different cities in other parts of the world. To separate them. So we all decided to escape.'

The three amigos all nodded their heads in unison.

'How did you know that O was going to separate you?' aksed Queenie.

'We had a dream', they all said together. 'The same dream.'

'Do you always say everything at the same time?' said Jerry.

'Not always', said one. 'Sometimes', said another at the same time, while the third amigo shrugged and didn't say anything.

'They're telepaths', said Queenie to Jerry.

'No way! Far out!' said Jerry. 'I've heard of telepaths but I didn't know if they were real or just another story.'

'Yes, we're real', they all said together.

'Excellent!' said Jerry. 'Good to meet you. I'm Jerry and this is Captain Toast. We're from Shopping Village. This is Greta. She's from the forest.'

The three amigos stood up, shook Jerry's hand and introduced themselves as Nancy, Sylvester and Billy. They weren't identical but all looked very similar, particularly in that they all had the same curly ginger hair, a green left eye and a blue right eye.

'Are you triplets?' asked Greta. 'I've got a twin sister, but I've never met her.. not yet..' It felt strange for her to say it. The idea was still so new to her, that she really had a twin sister. Surely she would have felt something? Surely she would have known? 'Is that how come you're telepathic?'

'Sort of', said Billy. 'We're genetically modified.'

'O made us with enhanced E.S.P.' said Nancy.

'We're an experiment', said Sylvester.

'What?!' said Greta, aghast. 'What do you mean that O made you with ESP?' asked Greta.

'O made us', said Sylvester.

'In a lab', said Nancy.

'With extra ESP', said Billy.

'What? I don't understand. What do you mean O made you? Why? How?' Greta gasped in horror.

'You don't really know O, do you?' said Clair to Greta. 'Some people call them the Great Leader, but others call them the Great Scientist. Everything O does is an experiment. Every hive is one big laboratory. Most people who live there don't even realise it, or if they do, they just don't care. They're even happy to be a part of it.'

Greta pressed her lips together, clenched her fists and turned red in the face. 'The closer I get to the city, the angrier I get', she said. 'I'm scared that when I get there I'm going to want to burn the whole place down.'

'Yeah, I know what you mean, sister', said Clair. 'But our time will come. It won't be long now. This is just the end of a long, dark age. In dark times, things are bound to get.. well, you know.. dark. The real Big Shift hasn't happened yet, but it will do.. soon.. you'll see. People are starting to wake up.'

'I hope so', said Greta.

'So, can you tell what I'm thinking?' Jerry said to the triplets. 'Can you read my mind?'

All three turned and looked at Jerry sideways, narrowed their eyes and raised their left eyebrows.

'You don't want to ask them that', said Clair. 'They don't like being tested.'

'Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to be rude', said Jerry. 'I've just never met a telepath.'

'I once met a fortune teller', said Greta.'Well actually I didn't meet her. I ran away. I was scared to hear what she saw.'

'My mum used to think she could see the future, read minds, that sort of thing', said Queenie. 'I don't know if she really could or if she was just projecting. Or hallucinating. I think everyone's got ESP anyway. We're all a bit psychic.'

The amigos all exchanged looks, seeming to hold a brief conversation without words.

'Did you all live in the same place, back in the city?' asked Greta. 'Is that how you all know each other? What was it like?'

'Me and Bruce shared a room', said Clair. 'The amigos were in a different area because they're younger, but we all saw each other at mealtimes and at the pool or in the playzone.'

'You had a pool?' said Jerry. 'That sounds allright. You never said you had a pool, Queenie.'

'Oh yeah, we had a great pool. Water slides, wave machine, diving boards, floatables.. you'd love it there. If you don't mind O watching everything you do and telling you when to do it, or stop doing it.. it's just heaven.'

'What about the experiments?' asked Greta. 'That must have been awful.'

'Not so bad' said Sylvester. 'Mainly it was just playing games, like the other kids.'

'O would just watch', said Nancy.

'It was the other kids that were worse' said Billy.

'They used to bully us something rotten', said Sylvester. 'Because we're.. you know..'

'Different', said Billy.

'Sensitive', said Nancy.

'When it's the three of us together, we're allright', said Sylvester.

'It's good you all got out of there together', said Greta. 'I'm really glad you made it.'

'So Bruce, where have you been?' said Clair. 'It's been so long. Four years! I thought I'd find you round here somewhere, but no one had seen you. I'd just got to thinking I'd never see you again.. that you're probably somewhere out in the wilderness by now.. and then you walk in here! I can't believe it!'

'Well, when I got out of the tunnel.. I looked up found myself in that graveyard with that stone angel looking down at me.. can you imagine? Yeah, I guess you can. Well I just ran', said Queenie. 'I ran as fast as I could, away from the city and didn't stop till I got to Shopping Village. Then I just collapsed. Jerry and his old man, Jack picked me up and got me sorted. Helped me build a place there on the roof of the Mall. You should visit. It's not quite the wilderness, but it's a good place.'

'No way! That's not far from here. Of course I'll come. Wait till the others see you. They won't believe it. You're a legend, did you know that?'

'Yeah, Baz told me' said Queenie. 'Freedom Drain. I like it. It's really catchy.'

'Thanks. I thought of it' said Clair proudly. 'Come and see what's going on here, you'll like this place', said Clair, going to the door across the room.

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The door opened into the main hall of the old church, a cool, cavernous space which was filled with soft light from the the stained glass windows.. The high ceiling was supported by tall pillars running the length of the aisle, which had once been lined with rows of church pews, but which had been cleared to make space for other activities. People were milling about. In one corner some people were painting banners. Others sitting or standing in groups, deep in earnest conversation. They seemed to be mostly young people, in their late teens or early twenties, but there were also a few older people and some young children who were running around between the pillars, in and out of the shadows.

A wooden balcony ran around the edge of an upper floor. The sound of a band rehearsing in a room upstairs bounced around the old stone walls. Distorted electric guitar wailing, drums and cymbals crashing out of time, bass guitar turned up full volume, each band member trying to drown the others out. A trapeze was suspended from the old beams of the high, vaulted ceiling and a couple of agile acrobats, dressed in black were swinging back and forth, practising some dazzling swings and somersaults above a big net which was stretched out between the stone pillars.

'Wow, this place is so cool!' said Jerry, transfixed by the couple on the trapeze. 'Do all these people live here?'

'Some of us do', said Clair. 'There are more rooms upstairs, but some people just come to hang out and get involved, join in our mission.'

'Excellent!' said Jerry 'I wouldn't mind getting involved too. What's your mission? Can I ask that, or is it a stupid question..?'

'Resisting', said Clair. 'That's what we're doing. That's our mission. And getting people to wake up.'

'Resisting O, you mean?' asked Jerry. 'On a trapeze? How does that work?'

'Oh yes', said Clair seriously. 'On the trapeze. On the electric guitar. In the kitchen. Even just sitting round talking, like those guys there. It's all resisting. Here look, these guys are making banners. They're going out to protest in a bit.. down at the city limit.'

'Cool, maybe we'll join them. We're going that way ourselves. I don't know about bringing down O though. Bit of a long shot..' said Jerry and he wandered over to see what they were painting.

'Don't mind Jerry' said Queenie to Clair, once Jerry was out of earshot. 'He just loves O. No point trying to talk sense to him on that front, but he's a good guy. One of the best.'

'Is he your boyfriend?' Clair asked, turning to face Queenie.

Queenie made an ambiguous head movement.. the sort that Jerry often made. She blushed slightly but didn't answer.

'He's tall and not so bad looking..' Clair said.

'Sounds like you're interested..' said Queenie.

'Nah, not really my type', said Clair, looking into Queenie's eyes searchingly.

'I think he's a loner anyway. A lone wolf' said Queenie. 'Like Captain Toast here.' Captain Toast who was walking alongside Queenie pricked up his ears at the mention of his name. She stroked his head and he looked up at her lovingly and rubbed his cheek against her leg.

'Ooh, a lone wolf eh? Mysterious and romantic..' teased Clair.

'Shut up you!' laughed Queenie and elbowed her old friend in the side.

They followed Jerry over to where the group of people were busy painting signs with bold statements written in capital letters. On one was written 'O - THE GREAT MISLEADER!' Inside the letter O had been painted yellow and given an angry emoji face. Another placard simply read 'WAKE UP!!!' written in bold script, each letter painted in a different colour. About five people were all painting and decorating a long banner with the message 'RECLAIM YOUR MIND!' written across it. A middle aged man dressed in a tweed suit and bow tie was sitting on the floor, absorbed in painting a board with very neat lettering, perfectly spaced, with the message 'The Sheep Spends Its Whole Life Fearing The Wolf, Only To Be Eaten By The Shepherd (Anonymous)'

'Wow, that's really deep, man', said Jerry, looking over his shoulder. 'Did you make that up?' The man didn't look up.

'He can't hear you' said Clair. 'Ozzy's deaf.'

Ozzy, sensing that he was being talked about, looked up and was slightly startled to find himself surrounded. Jerry gave him a big friendly smile and thumbs up with both thumbs, which Ozzy then returned to Jerry and his friends, who all gave him thumbs up in return, until everyone was grinning and giving thumbs up all round.

'Look who's here, Ozzy', Clair said in a loud voice, making hand gestures and exaggerating her lip movements for Ozzy to read. 'It's Bruce! My old friend from the hive. This is Bruce who discovered the Freedom Drain!'

On hearing Clair's announcement, everyone looked up from their sign painting and there were gasps of amazement and joy that the famous Bruce had made an unexpected appearance. Within minutes, Queenie was surrounded by people wanting to shake her hand, give her a hug and thank her for discovering the Freedom Drain. A festival atmosphere ensued in the old church and very soon, Queenie, Jerry and Greta knew and were known by everyone in the place and had made many new friends.

Greta's story was told. Everyone had suggestions for the best way to get into the city, avoiding detection and rescue her sister from O's evil clutches. After weighing up the pros and cons of many increasingly outlandish plans, in the end it was generally agreed that the best plan was Queenie's original idea of sneaking into the city inside Jerry's cart. It was decided that Greta, Jerry and Queenie would accompany the protesters to the city limit, with Greta and Queenie inside the cart, as they had planned. The protesters would create a distraction, while Greta and her friends would slip into the city unnoticed. To Jerry, all these deceptive, evasive measures sounded completely over the top and quite pointless and unnecessary, but that sort of thing didn't really bother him. It was all good fun and he was quite outnumbered by people who obviously took resisting O very seriously indeed.

Baz warned that there were often drones flying about close to the city limit , so it would be a good idea to get inside the cart before they set off from the church. Greta, Jerry and Queenie, along with Clair, Baz and the three Amigos went out of the side door to where they had left the cart. With fond farewells, wishes of good luck and shouts of 'Viva la Revolution!' Greta and Queenie squeezed themselves into the wooden box and the lid was closed. Jerry and Clair pushed the cart down the side alley of the church and out to the front where all the protesters were assembled with banners and signs, drums, whistles, and trumpets. Some were dressed in circus costumes and had their faces painted and they made a raucous, joyous procession as they set of towards the city limit, banging drums, singing and chanting.

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The group of about thirty protesters marched and danced their way towards the city limit, picking up more people as they went along. The two acrobats cartwheeled and tumbled along the middle of the road, clearing the path for the green painted trolley, while a woman dressed as a clown stood on top of the cart, juggling oranges and lemons. People clapped and cheered as they marched by, making way for the noisy procession.

The three amigos spread out. Nancy went to the left side of the procession, Sylvester went to the right. Billy walked alongside the cart, relaying messages from the other two. 'Drone spotted to the right' he said. 'Keep your head down, look left.. act normal.'

Jerry laughed and looked around at their colourful, noisy, ragtag group of punks and outcasts skipping and reeling down the middle of the busy thoroughfare, banging drums and blowing horns. 'Act normal? That's a good one! So much for not drawing attention to ourselves, eh!' Captain Toast danced and skipped alongside the trolley, barking and jumping, hoping to catch the juggled fruit.

'Devil dog approaching from the left', said Billy. 'Just ignore it if it comes this way.'

Inside the cart, Greta was paralysed with fear. She peered out through a crack in the boards, trying to get a picture of what was going on around them. She dared not make a sound. Queenie put a comforting hand on her arm. 'Don't worry', she whispered. 'It won't do anything. O doesn't interfere outside the city limit. Not unless they really have to. That's the second protocol.'

'What's the first one?' whispered Greta, her eyes wide in terror.

'That inside the city limit, O makes the rules.'

Captain Toast spotted the robot dog and made chase, barking and growling. The robot dog turned around and ran the other way, almost tripping Ozzy over. Ozzy shouted and gave it a whack with his sign, causing the robot dog to stumble, but it didn't fall. Captain toast chased it around the edge of the procession, but couldn't catch it, it remained always three steps ahead. The two very different kind of dogs ran around and around, in and out of people's legs, adding to the general atmosphere of chaos and mayhem.

So far so good, eh!' said Jerry, grinning to Clair, as they both pushed the cart along the road. 'O'll never see us coming.'

'Sometimes the best hiding place is in plain sight', said Clair, straight faced, looking tense.

'Yeah, I guess', said Jerry, unconvinced. 'Are you all going right into the city or just to the city limit?'

'We'll go to the city limit, then some of us will go across the line and some will stay on this side. Billy and Nancy and Sylvester will stay on the outside. If they go past the city limit, O will pick them up and take them back to the hive. Baz will stay outside too. He's still under age. I'll go just inside the city limit. O won't do anything to me now. I'm going to give out some leaflets we made.. let people know what's really going on. O controls all the information in the city. People never get to hear the truth.'

'Well..' said Jerry. 'I don't know if that's strictly true. I mean, all the information is there. There's more information available now than ever before. Anyone can access it if they want.'

'But they don't, do they?' said Clair. 'Do you ever wonder why that is?'

Jerry laughed. 'You sound just like my Granny Mae. You should meet her. You'd get along.'

'Well, I guess I should take that as a compliment', said Clair with a quizzical expression. 'Anyway.. basically, the idea is that by protesting on both sides of the city limit, we're drawing attention to the inequality and injustice of O's system and how it divides and separates people. It's symbolic. Can you see that?'

'Oh right..' said Jerry, nodding slowly. 'Like it's conceptual, or something? Yeah. I like that. But you don't really expect O to see this little protest and then just give up, go away, switch off? O wouldn't do that, you know..'

'This little protest', said Clair, irritated by Jerry's attitude, 'is just the tip of the iceberg. There are people protesting all over the world. At the limit of thousands of cities. And inside cities too, people are resisting in all sorts of ways. And outside the cities, people are getting organised. It's just a matter of time, Jerry. And numbers. There are more of us that you think. We're not asking anything from O. This little protest isn't for O at all. It's for The People. All it takes is for enough people to wake up, then O won't have any power at all. It's as simple as that.'

'Ok, right..' said Jerry. 'But you know, you can actually ask O for things. If you've got a complaint, you can go to O and tell them and then they'll take it on board and make the necessary changes. Especially if lots of people ask for the same thing. That's one of the reasons the protocols keep changing all the time. It's actually very democratic.'

Clair looked at Jerry like he was mad. 'Either you're completely brainwashed or you're one of O's agents', she said, giving him a very hard stare.

'Woah, what are you talking about?' said Jerry, very much taken aback. 'You think I'm a secret agent? Are you serious?'

'You could be', said Clair. 'I've never met you before you walked into the church. Never heard of you either. We've had infiltrators before.'

Jerry shook his head in disbelief. 'Did you hear that, Queenie?' he shouted into the cart. 'Clair thinks I'm a spy for O. A secret agent.'

Queenie let out a loud laugh. 'Well, I can see why she might think that', she shouted from inside the box. 'Are you? I never thought to ask.'

'Queenie! Bruce! Come on!' shouted Jerry. 'You know I'm not a spy. Tell her!'

'Allright allright' Queenie laughed. 'Jerry's not a spy, Clair. He'd be useless at it anyway. He always says exactly what he's thinking. He's got no filters. He's the most honest person I know.'

'Thank you', said Jerry to the lid of the cart, then turning to Clair, he said, 'See?'

'OK', said Clair, looking at him with narrowed eyes. 'But only because you're a friend of Bruce.

'Are you like this with everyone you meet?' asked Jerry. Nobody had ever accused him of being a spy or an infiltrator before. It hurt his feelings, particularly because there was no way to disprove the allegation.

'Sorry', said Clair. 'Yes, I am like that with everyone. At least with people I don't know. It's probably a defence mechanism. I've got trust issues.. that's thanks to O. Also.. what we're doing here.. I know to you it looks like it's all fun and games.. but it's really serious. I mean, some of the other stuff we do.. getting people out.. hiding people.. we need to be careful.. really careful. People's lives are on the line. People's freedom. We can't afford to make mistakes or slip ups.'

'Right', nodded Jerry seriously. 'I get that. It is really important stuff you're doing. Sorry if you thought I was making fun of you. I'm really not a spy though. Honest.'

'OK, thanks', said Clair. 'I believe you.'

'Anyway, I don't think O needs spies. I mean, O can already see everything and hear everything and know everything that they want to', said Jerry. 'What would be the point? It would be easier to send out a swarm of robot mosquitos to spy on you.'

'Oh, don't talk to me about robot mosquitos', said Clair, cringing. 'I hate them. They're the worst.'

'I think they're amazing actually', said Jerry. 'And they're so small, you can hardly tell the difference between a robot mosquito and a real one, unless you catch it and look at it with a magnifying glass. The amazing thing about them is that they're actually cleverer than we are. They're a total miracle of technology.'

'Hmph!' snorted Clair. 'You ever been stung by one?'

'No, I haven't actually', said Jerry. 'I didn't know they sting.'

'I think there's probably a lot of things about O that you don't know', said Clair.

'Yep, that's probably definitely true', said Jerry.

'Here we are, this is the city limit' said Clair, stopping. A tall metal archway spanned the road and two lines were painted on the ground, a red line and an orange line. 'Across that line is the Orange Zone. That's inside the city limit.'

'Yeah, I know what it means', said Jerry. 'I come here a lot. Trading, see.' He pointed to the cart with J & J Vintage Machine Revival painted on the side.

'Oh, I didn't realise', said Clair. 'I didn't know you'd been here before. Trading eh?' she eyed him suspiciously. 'Not spying though?'

'Come on Clair, don't start that again', said Jerry rolling his eyes and shaking his head. He let out a whistle and Captain Toast came running to his side. 'Stay close Captain, we're going into the city. Don't go running off now.' Captain Toast looked up at Jerry and with his eyes registered that he understood, but he didn't make any promises.

'Here's what we'll do' said Clair. 'I'll start a chant.. see if we can get everyone around to join in. We'll go both sides of the line and hopefully stop up the whole gateway for a bit, maybe cause a bit of a scene. Then you can just slip away. Got it?'

'Ready when you are', said Jerry, lowering his sunglasses to look her in the eye. 'And thanks for what you're doing and for helping us out. Good luck with the resistance and all.' He put out his hand.

'Thank you brother', said Clair, shaking his hand. 'Take care in there and good luck.' She knocked on the lid of the cart and spoke through a crack in the doors. 'Take care Bruce. Come and see me when you come out. Good luck Greta! I hope you find your sister. If you need to use the Freedom Drain to get out, we'll all be waiting to welcome you at the other side.'

'Thanks Clair!' Greta and Queenie shouted from inside the cart. 'See you again soon.'

Clair stood up to her full height, raised her fist in the air and shouted at the top of her voice, 'The People! United! Will never be defeated! The People! United! Will never be defeated! The People! United! Will never be defeated!'

All around, people took up the chant until the high walls of the buildings around echoed with the sound of about two or three hundred people who had joined the march. The acrobats had climbed up the metal arch and suspended a trapeze from the cross beam and begun their well practised routine to the amazement of onlookers. A barefoot man with long dreadlocks lit up a fire-stick and began dancing on the boundary line, twirling it faster and faster with wild abandon. Trumpets, drums, tambourines and whistles accompanied the chanting. The crowd became bigger and more dense now that the whole road was blocked. Traders and day-visitors found themselves part of a protest they'd had no intention of joining. Some were angry and tried to push their way through, while others joined in the chant, even if they didn't know what exactly they were protesting about. A swarm of little egg-shaped drones appeared and began circling overhead.

'I think it's time we were on our way', said Jerry, looking up.

'Don't look up, Jerry', said Clair, pulling his head down. 'Keep your head down and keep your wits about you, ok? You all take care in there, ok? Take care of Bruce too. I don't want to lose her again now that I've only just found her. And come back soon, ok?

'OK, Clair. Will do', said Jerry and saluted to her like a soldier with long hair and pink John Lennon sunglasses. He leaned down to the lid of the cart and spoke into the crack between the doors, 'Are you ready? Here we go!' and with a final wave to his new friends, he pushed the cart over the red line and into the Orange Zone.

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