After standing in a queue for nearly an hour, sweltering beneath the hood and the heavy overcoat, she was finally handed a plastic tray laden with food. Then she made her way down the long rows of mass-fabbed bunks and squeezed into one next to a wall. There she ate silently, always keeping an eye out for anyone who looked as if they might be searching for her.

She presently overheard a conversation about an Accord military base located a few hundred kilometres further inland. She had no idea what the Accord was, but it was easy enough to infer from what she could hear that it offered a real chance for her to get off-planet and as far away from the Demarchy as she could go.

This was a slim enough straw to grasp at, but it seemed to be all she had. So, with a full belly, she drifted off to sleep, trying hard not to think about what the next day might hold.

The following morning she made her way alone along a canal bank, as dawn crept up behind the Magi ship, stranded on its hill. She had seen armoured patrols racing along main roads, and uniformed soldiers setting up roadblocks, but it was clear that the soldiers out in search of her were overwhelmed by the sheer flood of pilgrims.

Unlike the streets, the canal appeared to be unguarded. She encountered boats racing by occasionally, but they were easy to hide from.

She followed the canal, away from the river, until she reached the city limits. The inland continent spread out before her, a far-off range of mountains visible beyond a vast river plain. As it got dark again, she made her way back to the main road, rejoining the masses of pilgrims now making their way out of the city on foot, and heading towards another of the municipal shelters nearby. That night, she fell asleep on coarse matting, her coat thrown over her head and shoulders, and surrounded on all sides by thousands of warm bodies.

When the old woman sleeping next to her asked what her name was, she said it was Megan, though still carefully keeping her face hidden.

Out of sheer desperation and the urge to put as much distance as possible between herself and the city, she managed to talk her way on board one of a flotilla of vehicles provided to carry several hundred pilgrims at a time to the settlements further inland. It proved surprisingly easy. Whatever security checks were in place, it was clear they were struggling just to cope with the sheer number of people on the move.