Andrea Höst - And All the Stars

While the Southern Sky had four restaurants, it had proven to own only three walk-in refrigerators, with both ground floor restaurants catered out of the same kitchen. Fisher was in the top floor restaurant’s refrigerator, and Min in the one on the Mezzanine level, while Pan and Nash were stuck with the biggest freezer at its warmest temperature setting. Since the warmest temperature setting of the refrigerator was still making Madeleine wish for another hot shower, she hated to think how they were coping with the long night.

"Do you feel sleepy?" Noi asked. "I’m tired, but it might be because I kept waking up and stressing."

"Not sleepy," Emily murmured.

"Cold aside, I’m fine," Madeleine said. "Energetic, even. I usually wake up feeling good after feeding Nash. Don’t know why."

She dusted away crumbs, and they packed their leftovers, then took turns using one of the large lidded buckets Noi had found and emptied during their hurried preparations. For all they’d thought they would have plenty of time between arriving and their deadline of an hour before the challenge, they’d barely been ready. With no password for the hotel’s computers they’d been unable to code the card-keys to access the higher floors, and had been limited in their movements until the discovery of an unlocked security room on the Mezzanine level which, along with master keys, had provided camera views of much of the hotel.

Fisher’s hunt for wheelie bins and caustic soda had taken even longer, and dumping entire containers of bathroom cleaner in after they’d been filled had produced an eye-stinging reek, which thankfully had lost its edge by the time they’d rearranged their hiding places enough to fit both the bins and mattresses hauled down from the hotel rooms, along with some wilting pot plants from the foyer. How much difference the bins would make to carbon dioxide levels was something Fisher hadn’t been willing to guess, beyond insisting that in theory they should help.

She’d wanted to kiss him before they locked themselves away. She’d planned on it. And hadn’t even managed an exchange of meaningful glances, though she’d known it could well be the last time she would see him. Too tired after the long night, and having Nash drain off much of her energy. Too new at all this to seize the right moment.

"Noi," she said, after they settled back down under their quilts, "did you see if any other Sydney Blues had been captured?"

"I figured looking at that can wait till we’re out of here."

Madeleine sighed, and curled against Emily, working hard at not feeling guilty. Unless they’d gambled wrong about the length of the challenge, it looked as if she would have another chance to see Fisher.

How many chances had she stolen from other Sydney Blues?

The clunk-clack of the latch broke through the refrigerator’s steady hum.

Emily, quickest to react, flung quilts back in time to throw a force punch at the door as it opened. There was a gasp, and Madeleine caught a glimpse of Fisher as he was knocked backward by the impact against his shield.

"Someone not a morning person?" Min said, poking his head cautiously around the side of the doorway.

"What are you–?" Noi began, then stopped. "It’s over."

"The time limit seems to have been dawn," Fisher said, from his new horizontal position on the floor. "They were all gone by the time the sun touched the horizon, but I gave it another half hour."

"I’m sorry!" Emily struggled to her feet. "Did I hurt you?"

"My fault," Fisher said, sitting up. "It would have been sensible to knock first." He moved arms and legs gingerly, then smiled. "Not to mention polite."

"Let’s see if polite works on Nash and Pan," Min said, and rapped on the freezer door. "We should have thought up some kind of secret knock."

"That’d only be useful if none of us were taken," Noi said, and crossed to pull the freezer door open. Worried, Madeleine realised, as they probably should all be.

Nash and Pan did not force punch at the door, or shift on their mattress pile, though they did stir in response to Noi’s urgent shaking. Flushed and lethargic, they were slow to sit up, blinking with confusion.

"Let’s get them to the foyer," Fisher said. "Without an oxygen mask, all we can do is give them space."

Out in the soaring, glass-and-excessive water features foyer, Madeleine found herself analysing the changes to Nash and Pan’s skin tones, struggled with herself for a moment, then accepted. This was part of who she was, and she could only be relieved that the shift she was watching was a return to healthy shades of brown and pink.

"Were any Blues captured?" she asked Fisher, noting that he, too, was returning to a normal colour, though for different reasons. Would he have nightmares about Nash and Pan, a plan almost gone wrong?

"Yes." He met her eyes directly, not cushioning the statement. "From the leader board changes, just over thirty."

"Thirty!" Noi spilled some of the water she was offering Nash. "There were thirty Blues still free in Sydney?"

"In and around it. It was a good decision to let Madeleine warn her parents. At least five dragons were sighted in the Armidale area."

With a news channel unhelpfully broadcasting their location, speculating on whether she was hiding with them, Madeleine had insisted on emailing her Mum and Dad. Thankfully they must have taken her grandmother and gone in time. But thirty other people had paid the price for this hunt.

"So, what now?" Min asked.

"Errol Flynn marathon."

They all stared at Pan, propping himself against the legs of a low chair.

"One of the symptoms of CO2 poisoning is delusions, right?" Min picked up a brochure and used it to fan in Pan’s direction. "More oxygen required."

"If you’d read that brochure you’d know there’s suites with mini-theatres." Pan was working on a wall-to-wall grin. "Not to mention a gym, three swimming pools, spa baths in the suites, huge vats of ice cream, and a chocolatier. We just outsmarted our alien invaders, people! We’ve learned more about what they can’t do, we’ve kept our hides our own, we’ve lived to fight another day. Time to celebrate with some quality swashbuckling and strangely sped-up repartee."

Min wrinkled his nose. "Couldn’t we at least watch something released this century?"

"Without a password to the hotel computer system, chances are we won’t be watching anything at all," Noi said, her eyes giving away the smile she was trying to suppress.

"Some drip always writes their passwords down." Pan waved a hand airily at the glassy grandeur of the foyer. "There’s sure to be an administrative office with some actual paper files, or a post-it note stuck to the bottom of a drawer, or a computer left on when they all ran away in the dust."

"That would be on level two," Nash murmured. He was not recovering as quickly as Pan, but his finely-moulded features had lit with quiet amusement. "A two-day celebration, I think. Today for living, tomorrow a not-fully-surprising birthday, and then we will be serious again."

"Hey, you told them!" Pan only succeeded in looking gratified. "Do I get cake? Can we dress up?"

His enthusiasm bubbled over them, and though they decided partying would need to be postponed until they’d established escape routes, checked for ways to detect and avoid any alarms, and seen to preserving their food supply, it was hard not to enjoy the idea of a 6 star hotel as a hideout.

As they discussed what needed to be done, Madeleine spent her time watching Fisher, who was watching her in return. A silent shared awareness of a first step already taken, of something which had moved on to a question of when.

Later.

Two men fought, the music flaring into dramatic highlights as they danced across the deck of a ship under sail. Madeleine watched with vague interest, studying poses, but most of her attention captured by the warm fingers tangled with her own.