“O-K.” Mayor Anderson stood in the middle of Mr Webster’s newly oiled floor, her hair drawn back in a straggly ponytail. “I’m not going to beat around the bush and do all that what have you learned over the summer rubbish. I’ll leave that to your teachers, eh?” She gave us a wink and got a few sniggers back from the audience.

Mrs Zimmerman closed her eyes.

“But what I am going to do,” the mayor went on, “is tell you we’ve heard reports of wanderers five miles south of the town boundary.”

Wanderers?

The sniggering stopped.

Mrs Zimmerman opened her eyes.

A shiver crept across my shoulders.

“Yep.” Mayor Anderson nodded. “Yesterday I was up at the city. Met with some colleagues. It’s been a while since we had wanderers in our area but their numbers appear to be increasing.” She took a slow moment to look from one side of the hall to the other, catching as many of our eyes as she could.

“So,” she carried on, “why do we not want wanderers nearby? Anyone?”

Trig stuck his arm up as high as he could get it. Pushed it even higher with his other hand. Mayor Anderson couldn’t miss him.

“Go on then – tell us, Trig.”

“They’re … er…” Trig looked up to the ceiling, the way you do when you’re trying hard to remember something. “Dirty, dangerous and … deceitful.”

“Dirty. Dangerous. Deceitful.” Mayor Anderson boomed the words back at us, counting them off on her fingers. “And to think,” she said, “that they’re supposed to be on our side in this war.”

She clasped her hands behind her and swayed backwards and forwards with her feet stopped still. “Our country is one of the few places – perhaps even the only place – that has kept the enemy at bay. Why is that, do you think?”

Trig stuck his hand up again.

“Our geography has helped, for sure.” Mayor Anderson nodded at Trig, like he’d given her the answer even though he hadn’t. “Along with our land’s wonderful capacity for self-sufficiency.” She nodded some more. “But the real reason our country survives is us. Our very selves.” She held her arms wide. “We are an adaptable people. Stoic. Brave. We understand the importance of hard work and sacrifice for a greater good. We have a long history of wartime resilience. It’s in our blood. And the bravest of us all, of course, are our eldests.”

She looked at Jed and Lindy. They nudged shoulders again.

“At camp,” said Mayor Anderson, “our eldests join the Quiet War. They fight valiantly. They fight heroically. They fight so that we, back home, can remain safe. My one and only child, Caroline, went to camp ten years ago this very month. I couldn’t be more proud.”

We clapped for Caroline.

The mayor held up a hand.