Chương 50: [Jake and Olly]

The front door clicked shut behind him. Rika had already crossed the room and was standing in front of the television with her nose about three inches from the screen.

"Is this a mirror?" she asked.

"Nah, it's a tv screen."

"It's reflecting me."

"That's just what they do when turned off. When it's on it shows moving pictures. Like the Game Boy but massive. Full size people, basically."

"How does that work?"

"They're filmed somewhere else and it plays back. Events, stories, performances. You can watch it all back whenever you want." Torren had moved further into the room. He stopped at the fireplace, crouching slightly to look at it. A neat surround, tile work, a grate with nothing in it. Clean. Completely clean. He pressed a hand to the back of it and looked up at Leo.

"This has never been used."

"It's decorative. A lot of houses have them. The actual heating came from pipes in the walls, radiators, fed by a boiler running on gas. That's all gone now but the fireplaces stayed because people liked the look of them." Torren looked at it for another moment.

"A fireplace for looking at."

"Aye." He straightened up and moved to the window. Rika had already lost interest in the television and found the mirror on the wall beside it. She turned her head one way, then the other, watching herself. Her wings shifted.

"This is the best mirror I've ever seen, it's so clear," she said.

"No idea how they make them but it's mass produced. Same as most things here. You'll find ones like that in a lot of houses. You always find them in public bathrooms." She leaned in close to her own reflection.

"You can see everything." Shai had moved further into the room. Her boot found the carpet before she'd registered what was different and she looked down at it, pressing her foot into it once.

"Is this a rug?"

"Carpet. It's on most of the floors here. Not quite the same as a rug, it's fitted to the whole room, wall to wall." Two couches sat at a right angle to each other, both facing the screen in the corner. A coffee table between them, a mug someone had left behind still sitting on it. Under the television a games console and a DVD player sat in a low unit, cables trailing behind them.

"There's these things underneath the TV as well," Rika said, already crouching in front of them.

"What are they?"

"The black box is a games console, like the Game Boy but more modern and for the TV. The other one plays films, same idea as the TV but you put a disc in and it reads it." He nodded at the shelf beside it where a small stack of DVD boxes sat.

"Those discs are in those." Rika picked one up, figured out how to open it, took out the disc and turned it over. She looked at her distorted reflection in the back of it. Torren had his head close to the ceiling again. He ran a hand along it.

"How many people lived here?" he said.

"Usually a family. Maybe two adults, couple of kids." He looked at the ceiling again.

"I will need to be careful."

"We've got taller doors and ceilings in our flat," Leo said.

"Some of these older houses are compact."

"Just a bit," Torren smiled. Shai had stayed near the door after the carpet. Her eyes moved across the room.

"It's smaller than I expected," she said.

"From outside the buildings look much bigger." This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"They're narrow. Long though. Kitchen's through the back, stairs up to bedrooms and the bathroom. More space than it looks."

"You all lived like this?"

"Pretty much. Some people have bigger houses, depends on money. These are standard terraces, nothing special." He glanced around.

"Mine back home's about the same size actually. Maybe a bit smaller." Shai looked at him.

"You live alone?"

"No." He looked at the mug on the coffee table.

"I've got two boys. Olly and Jake. They were at my mum's in York when all this happened." He paused.

"Start of the summer holidays. Only supposed to be there a few days." Nobody said anything for a moment. Rika had turned away from the shelf.

"They don't know where you are?"

"They don't know if I'm alive." He picked up the mug, turned it over in his hands.

"Nobody back home does. Far as they know the town just vanished." He set it back down.

"Jake's fifteen. Olly's fourteen. They're with their grandma so they're safe, I know that much. But they don't know anything about us here. They probably think the worst." Torren looked at him for a moment. Then at the room. The two couches, the low ceiling, the space that had belonged to someone else's family not long ago.

"Kitchen," he said quietly.

"Show us the kitchen." Leo nodded and headed through. The kitchen was narrow, units running along both walls with a gap down the middle. A gas hob sat built into the counter on one side, an electric oven below it. Opposite, a fridge, a kettle, a microwave. A window above the sink looked out onto a small back yard, a wooden fence, the back of the houses behind. Torren stopped in the doorway. His eyes moved along the units, the hob, the oven, the microwave.

He stepped in and opened the oven door, looked inside, closed it.

"Electric," Leo said.

"That one works. The hob doesn't, that runs on gas which we don't have anymore. There's a portable one that runs off the solar if you need it for actual cooking." Torren opened a cupboard. Plates, mugs, glasses, all still there. He closed it and moved to the microwave, looking at the buttons without touching them.

"That one heats food up fast," Leo said.

"Very fast. You put something in, shut the door, tell it how long and it does the rest. Never put metal or plastic inside, it fucks the microwave, could cause a fire. Plastic is this sort of thing." He picked up a plastic spatula.

"This would probably melt if you put it in there."

"How does it work?"

"Waves. A type of energy that heats the water inside the food itself. Food is preserved with microwaves in mind. You could put a full meal inside, ten minutes later it goes from a lump of frozen food to a meal ready to eat." Torren looked at it for a moment.

"Strange and remarkable at the same time."

"Yeah exactly." Rika had gone straight to the sink and turned the tap. Water came out immediately and she pulled her hand back. She turned it off, then on again.

"It just comes out," she said.

"Water treatment plant came with us when the town moved. It's solar powered so it's still running. Pumps it through to every house." She turned the other tap. The water ran cold. She looked at Leo.

"Hot water's gone," he said.

"That needed the gas boiler. Heat it on the stove the old way for now." She turned the tap off. Shai had been looking at the back yard through the window. A small square of concrete, a few plant pots, a washing line strung between two posts. She watched it for a moment then turned back to the room.

"It'll do," she said. Upstairs the landing split into three doors. Leo pushed the bathroom open first. Rika walked in and looked at the bath, the shower above it, the toilet, the sink with its mirror above. She pointed at the toilet.

"Indoor toilet," Leo said.

"Just flush that handle when you're done. Toilet paper is there and in the cupboard under the sink." Leo explained the shower, the cold water, where the towels were. Rika turned the shower on, got her hand wet immediately, turned it straight off again.

"gods, that's cold," she said.

"Aye." Leo grinned.

"We used to be able to turn that dial there, and it would change the temperature however we wanted."

"The kettle works if you want to take a bath with warmer water, just takes ages to get the bath hot enough. People are managing though." She looked at the shower for another second then stepped back out onto the landing. The two bedrooms sat opposite each other. Both had a double bed, a wardrobe, curtains still drawn from whenever the last person had left. Leo pushed both doors open. Rika looked between them. Then at Shai.

"We can share," she said.

"Torren should have the room to himself." Torren looked at the bed from the doorway.

"Thank you." Leo pushed the curtains back in both rooms, letting the afternoon light in. The rooms weren't large but they were clean. Someone had left a book on the bedside table in one of them. Rika picked it up, looked at the cover, set it back down.

"We'll sort bedding and anything else you need," Leo said.

"If there's anything you're missing just say." Shai looked around the room that would be hers and Rika's. Her tail moved once, slowly.

"Thanks Leo," she said. They came back downstairs and out onto the pavement. The street was quiet, the other houses further along all shut, no movement yet from the other groups. Leo leaned against the wall. Torren stood beside him, looking up at the rooftops. Rika sat on the front step with her arms on her knees. Shai stood at the edge of the pavement, watching the street. After a moment Rika said, without looking up, "Jake and Olly are lucky to have you." Leo looked at her. She shrugged.

"The way you talked about them." He didn't say anything to that. Across the street a curtain shifted in a window, someone getting a look. He watched it settle. A door further down opened and Phil leaned out, grinning.

"Whoever owned this house would be mortified if they knew what we just found in their bedroom. Whoever cleaned the place up must have missed a few bits."

"Missed what?" asked Rika. Phil's face froze.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. How was the tour?" Leo laughed.