months. Rich finance types had once worked in this office, coordinating the stocks of people halfway around the world. Now it was all entombed in cobwebs, the computer terminals so much plastic.
Through the window, he could see for miles. Beyond the tower, London winked and sparkled under the afternoon sun. Forty years had given nature plenty of time to bring most places to rubble and rusted detritus. The other great cities in the north had suffered at the hands of warring tribes, and others still had been pulled apart by fledgling communities for materials. But here things were different; the capital looked much the same as before the End. The rising waters had flooded many of the low-lying areas, but some parts looked almost Saran-wrapped, preserved for all eternity, monuments to men and women long since vanished.
Many people had given London a wide berth. It was too large a reminder of what they had lost for most to stomach. And there was nothing for them here in any case. The city flooded more each year, its great river barrier stalled and useless, rotting the great bounty inch by inch. Already the food had been long looted, the clothes that had carpeted the streets had been hoarded by traders, and any motorcars people had managed to fix had once again become useless when the gasoline ran dry. Even the endless mountains of electronics were useless, their circuitry reduced to dust in the flash of the End.
But for Alexander, it held a special place in his heart. It embodied all they strived to save, and what they could be. So much knowledge, art, and culture lay hidden in its depths. They had chosen to make the council’s fortress here for that very reason. Here they could be seen as the last twinkling jewel of the Old World, residing in the dormant heart of their forbears’ domain.
Now a dark mark lay over it all. They were out there, somewhere, watching and waiting.
He wasn’t going to let this happen. All their work couldn’t come to nothing because of a few grudges. People had starved, but their sacrifice would live on in the Old World’s legacy.
He bunched his fists.
How can they not see that it was necessary?
The mindless rabble could put an end to a lifetime of work. The darkness already had a foothold in the North.
“Twingo’s been hit.” Evelyn’s voice washed over him like a wave from behind, shattering the silence.
He turned to her. “How bad?”
She was breathless from climbing the stairs. She looked old. That had been surprising him a lot of late, just how old they were all getting. They weren’t the young go-getters anymore. Soon Father Time would sweep them all away, and others would have to take their place. But there was still so much to do, so far to go.
Her wrinkled face creased further into a grimace. “It’s gone.”
He sighed, sinking into a nearby swivel chair, ignoring the great cloud of dust that puffed up around him. It creaked under his weight, but held, just. “I don’t believe it. They were a tough bunch of bastards. Vandeborn and Bates kept the northerners away from our gates for years.”
“It looks like they put up a hell of a fight. But it’s all ash now. A lot of them are missing … They must have been taken.”
Twingo had been a few miles away, a legendary trading post, a paradise for entrepreneurs and a nightmare for any unsavoury characters. It was the closest thing they had ever had to an army. With that gone, their last buffer against the north—and anyone else—was also gone. Hundreds of miles now separated them from their closest allies.
“They’ll try to turn them,” Evelyn said, coming to stand beside him. “The ones that they don’t kill. We’re going to be fighting our own flesh and blood soon enough.” Evelyn was a woman who held her head high even at the worst of times, but right now her regal veil fractured, and her shawled arm wrapped around him. “For the first time in my life, I don’t see a way we can win.”
Alexander folded his hand over hers. He had no words of comfort left.
Who could have known they would end up here? Of all their accomplishments and victories, the thousands of dedicated people across the land that had fallen under their banner, precious little remained. All they had brought to bear was on the brink of going up in flames.
It hadn’t always been this way. Once upon