“Should we stay here, though?” Bibi said. “What about those footprints? Maybe the bushes outside would be, I dunno, less risky. Suppose whoever made those prints comes back?”

“Don’t we want to find people? Are we going to assume everyone we encounter means to hurt us?”

Bibi sighed. “We need to find the right kind of people. We need to control how we meet them, maybe watch them for a bit. Assess how strong they are. We need to avoid being surprised. These footprints could belong to anyone – Toplanders, Squaddies. Others we’ve never heard of.”

“Or Tribals who would take us in.”

Sorrel sat in the dust. “Someone’s been here but not all that recently. See, the edges of the prints are blurred. I think it’s worth staying here for a night. There’s no shelter that’s without some risk, Bibi. At least we’d be safe from ferals – they’d easily get us if we were under bushes.”

“One night,” Bibi said. “And we take it in turns to sleep.”

CHAPTER 11 – THE CABLE CAR

They ate their alganola bars and drank the warm water from their algaskins. They sat in adjacent aisles, their backs against the car, legs outstretched. The dust on the floor was thin; there was no softness to this shelter. Sorrel erased the human footprints in the dust with her foot.

“Now they’ll know someone’s been here,” Bibi said.

Sorrel didn’t answer. She was sure she would not be able to sleep.

Bibi met her eyes. “Dawn used to be hopeful,” she said. “Maybe you went to bed with a problem, maybe you had bad dreams but when you woke up, the light made you feel hopeful. I had my best sleep just before dawn. Now we’re on the run from the day.”

“Not just the day,” Sorrel said. Then she smiled. “Grammy used to say ‘darkest before dawn’.”

“Birds used to sing. It was called the dawn chorus.” Bibi hummed a tune Sorrel had never heard.

“What’s that?”

“Old folk song. Daylight come, and me waan go home,” her mother sang. “It was about banana pickers.”

“You sleep first,” Sorrel said. “I don’t think I can.”

Her mother’s expression was unreadable. “If anyone or anything is gonna attack, it’ll be soon. Before it’s too hot.” Bibi said.

“I know.”

Bibi lay down in the dust and closed her eyes.

They remained in the cable car throughout the third day. Sorrel let her mother sleep. She wished they had the use of the PlAK, but the battery was almost dead; they’d arrived too late to set-up the charger. She wanted to check her messages – what was happening in Bana? Had those who remained in the Lowlands drowned? Was there anyone left as witness?