And then she’d realised what this was – the first meeting between different universes. This might be a version of Earth, but she was here from somewhere else. Jonah had said It’s exactly where we are and a trillion light years away. Holly had felt the muscles in her legs turning to water.
‘Thank God,’ she’d said. ‘Thank you. My name is Holly Wright and—’ She’d seen the look passing between the man and woman – shock, surprise, fear – and then . . . a faint whistling, like something sweeping quickly through the air. Then nothing else.
As if inspired by the memory, another wave of pain passed through her head. She groaned, lifted her hand and touched the tender bump just above her right ear. It was like setting a burning brand against her scalp. She winced and shivered as the pain lanced into her back and right shoulder. Closing her eyes, she wished it away. Hit me over the head, she thought, and she wondered how indifferent they were to hurting or killing her. Here I am in another world, and—
There was a slight change in the light beyond her eyelids. Someone was squatting beside the stretcher, she sensed them there, and when she looked a woman was kneeling beside her. She was maybe thirty, black, short and muscled, attractive in a wild sort of way, and Holly’s first thought was a surprising Vic would love her. That made her smile . . . and the woman smiled back.
‘Wh—?’ Holly began. But the woman moved quickly, pressing two fingers to Holly’s lips and shaking her head.
Holly nodded her understanding and the woman took her hand away. She made several simple hand signals, one eyebrow raised. Holly shrugged and shook her head. The movement set the pain roaring once again. She cringed. The woman, appearing confused, pointed to the stretcher and to Holly. Then she stood.
Four of them lifted the stretcher and carried Holly across the top of the hill.
For the first time she was able to take in her surroundings. The tumbled building with Exit carved on one stone was gone, but it was possible that she was now further along the same ridge. She remained propped on both elbows, and they seemed unconcerned at what she saw, only what she said. Maybe they’re mute, Holly thought. Haven’t ever heard anyone speaking. It seemed likely, and that produced a feeling of disappointment that she could not shake. Had they really breached into a primeval world where language had barely advanced beyond a few hand signals? But she thought about the way the man had been shaping his hands again, the fingers splayed and clicking, and it seemed easily as advanced as sign language back on her own Earth. The stretcher was rough but serviceable, and their weapons had proved their effectiveness. Surely they were as developed as her.
Holly looked beyond the people to the landscape they were travelling across. The sun was fully up now, and if seasons matched between the worlds she judged it to be early afternoon. There was a light cloud cover that smudged the sun into a yellowed pastel shade, and streaks of colour hung low to the horizon like a forgotten sunset. They were beautiful, but disquieting.
On a hillside far across the valley, picked out by diffuse sunlight, she saw more ruins.
Holly squinted and shielded her eyes, her right eye throbbing with pain. She tried to work out exactly what she was seeing. It could have been an exotic rock formation, limestone corroded by wind and rain into elaborate and misleading shapes. But she thought not. There was an intimation of regularity, though some of the higher structures had obviously fallen, the remains of their walls pointing skyward and piles of broken masonry at their bases. It looked like a collection of structures that had been smudged by a giant hand, their sharp edges blurred and order destroyed.
Close to one wall sat the skeleton of what might once have been a car.