Disaster never gave notice ahead. A bright and sunny day could end with thousands of dead people and a rainy and grey day with laughter and declarations of love and devotion.

This morning was average. It was neither sunny nor rainy and not particularly cold or warm either. Quinn had had the graveyard watch and now lay wrapped in two blankets in his bed and waited for sleep to come. The side of the bed he was lying in was still warm with Creedy's leftover body heat and the night had been quiet, with winter approaching fast the dragons stayed in more and more.

But even in near sleep, Quinn's mind busied itself with questions: the new whole in the fence, how to ration the food so that everyone would have enough, who would join the groups that ventured out in the abandoned settlements to secure whatever was left, the unusual silence from Edinburgh…

Quinn stretched out and tried to block the questions. Undisturbed sleep without a bed partner with annoyingly sharp elbows and cold feet was a luxury that Quinn wanted to take advantage of.

In the meanwhile, said bed partner with the sharp elbows and cold feet was out in the open with Eddie and a few others while trying to stay in contact with Ajay over the radio.

Ajay had picked up an emergency signal not too far from the castle, probably coming from a group of marauders or travellers that had been attacked by a dragon.

Quinn's orders in such a case where clear and approved by the Council and therefore there had been no need to wake him up.

"Ask him if he's still getting the signal", Quinn ordered Lin, who was in charge of the radio, mostly because she was the only one beside Ajay who was able to make the damn thing work.

Lin did and listened to Ajay's answer before she nodded.

They reached the hill comp and saw the wreck. It had been a tent settlement, most likely a few families trying to survive by staying on their feet until their luck had run out.

"Lin, you stay here and watch out. Stay in contact with Ajay and tell him to stay in contact with Barlow. The rest comes with me."

They climbed down, everyone with their eyes on the sky. It was unlikely that the dragon would come back after having fed but one could never know.

There was not much left. Dragon's ate ashes after all.

"We have something!" Chris called. It was a metal box, big enough to hide two or three humans. They could withstand the dragon's fire usually but more often than not they killed the people they contained with lack of oxygen because the opening mechanism was tricky and often failed to work.

"Hello?" Sam knocked against the box, "Anyone there?"

They could hear muffled sounds from inside.

Creedy and Eddie both took an axe and began to work on the seams of the box. It was difficult work, one rushed move could likely cut through the metal too deeply and injure one of the people inside.

Finally the seams gave out and they pulled the top off. Four people were inside: a man, a woman and two boys. Creedy and Eddie helped them out and Samira, the closest they had to a proper doctor, examined them.

"Thank you", the man wheezed, "I'm Paddy, and this is my son Willem. These are Claire and Liam."

"You're travellers", Creedy said. It wasn't a question.

"No, not really. We lived in Sandhoe until we ran out of food. There were rumours about a settlement for a few years, so we decided to take the chance before we would starve to death."

"You found us", Eddie said impatiently, "Creedy, we need to move."

"Right, Samira?"

"They seem fine enough. Were any of you ill when you left your hide?" She asked Paddy. The other three seemed to be too dazed to answer any questions.

"No one. We lost or people to infected wounds and dragons, not to illnesses."

"Good. You can walk?" Paddy nodded at Creedy's question. He took his son while Chris carried Liam and Creedy helped Claire. She was pretty, especially by their world's standards with the general lack of soap and other utilities for personal hygiene.

Lin joined them. Creedy could hear her speak to Ajay, "They found four: a man, a woman and two boys." Ajay answered something which Creedy couldn't understand. "You wouldn't." She laughed. Then she caught Creedy's look and said, "Sorry, batteries, you know. See you later."

"Quinn! Quinn!" Was Quinn's only warning before Jared barrelled through the door and jumped onto the bed.

"Quinn! Creedy's back! And Barlow said that they found someone!"

Quinn was awake instantly. Sixteen years of living in a burning world had seen to that. He grabbed a jumper, which turned out to be one of Creedy's, and pulled it over his head while running upstairs.

Nearly everyone crowded the hall when Creedy and his group came back in. Four survivors were not much but at least it meant that there were still people out there, that the four settlements they knew of where not the only ones.

Ajay joined Quinn and before Quinn could even open his mouth Ajay said, "Don't worry. Michael's taken over the radio for me."

"You heard anything from Edinburgh yet?"

"Not since they said they were going to send Abby. But you know that doesn't have to mean anything." No it didn't, communications were shaky at best. That's why they had the messengers schedule and the scout teams. Prolonged silences were nothing unusual but still unsettling.

"She would have checked the stations on her way here," he argued but Ajay just shrugged.

"You know how it is out there, she probably had to take a detour or she would have been here already." Quinn opened his mouth to respond but Ajay pre-empted him by saying, "Well, I'll check up with Lin on our equipment, make sure it runs properly", before he left.

Instead Quinn got joined by Barlow as company who had apparently decided that today was a nice day to leave his tower.

"The woman looks like trouble", he muttered and was gone again.

Quinn squinted down. The young woman that leaned against Creedy looked pretty and young if a bit shell-shocked but not like trouble.

From downstairs Creedy looked up and grinned. Quinn felt himself relax. He knew it was necessary but he still hated whenever Creedy went out there.

The buzz died down fairly soon. They would all see more of the new inhabitants of the castle than they would like.

Quinn's thoughts wandered towards one of the boys Creedy brought in, the smaller one, standing alone. If Quinn was right then he was an orphan. At least it didn't seem like he belonged to either the man and the other boy or the young woman. Orphans were unusual. Kids without parents normally died or were adopted by someone, like Jared, Quinn thought and smiled.

"I could hear you think from down there", Quinn turned around and found himself face to face with Creedy.

"It was nothing."

Creedy sighed and wrapped an arm around Quinn's shoulders. "It's always nothing with you and in the end we run up and down the mountains of Scotland."

"That was one time!" Quinn protested, "And it was ten years ago. You always come up with this old story."

"It's a good story. Jared likes it."

"Jared likes every story you tell. Even though you always seem to be the hero of the story."

"Hey, you came up with the Star Wars play."

The first time he had told Jared this story had been when they had still lived on the road. Creedy, who had lain behind him, had snickered the whole time when he hadn't interrupted Quinn's tale with details that Jared really hadn't needed to know.

It was still one of Quinn's favourite memories.

"Yes and I'm still not clear on why I let you take the part of the hero."

Creedy leaned close and whispered into Quinn's ear, "Maybe because I can be very, very persuasive."

"You need some new lines", Quinn grinned and blushed as Creedy used his position to press a kiss behind Quinn's ear. He had never gotten used to Creedy's public displays of affection that Creedy loved so much. Although Quinn suspected that he loved it especially because they made Quinn blush.

"Quinn, Creedy", it was Jerry who greeted them. Quinn immediately let go of Creedy. He and Jerry wanted to go over some plans for a sprinkler system in the shelter. The council had already approved of the plan. They all knew it was better to be prepared for the worst case scenario. It would take time, of course, rare materials and lots of careful planning and hard work but it could make the difference between life and death in case of a direct attack on the castle.

Creedy nodded at Quinn and Jerry, "I'm going to check on the new guys, give them a tour around. See you for dinner, right?"

"Sure."

He found Paddy and Claire in the mess hall. Claire looked even better cleaned up if a bit shy but he could appreciate her big blue eyes which made her ridiculously pretty for the world they lived in. The boys had apparently been found by the other children and taken off with them.

In contrast to the adrenaline rushed morning the afternoon shaped out to be pretty normal. He showed Claire and Paddy around and told them a bit of how things worked here (watch schedules, the school, some of the projects they had around here which meant mostly maintaining the castle and the tending to the fields and the scout teams).

Afterwards he and Paddy joined Matt, Michael (Eddie's son, not Michael Ajay's best friend and their best scout, Creedy explained to a slightly bemused looking Paddy) and Lin to store away their harvest in the new store rooms.

"You have fresh tomatoes", Paddy's eyes widened.

"Don't get too used to them", Michael grinned, "Sooner or later you'll be sick of them, promise."

"I haven't seen a fresh fruit in nearly 8 years", Paddy told them. "If you're sick of tomatoes then imagine how soon you would be sick of vitamin pills."

"You win", Michael conceded gracefully.

"Lin said that you had an emergency call transmitter", Matt said while carefully placing tomatoes into the shallow bowls they kept the ones that they wouldn't dry. "Why didn't you try to build a radio?"

"We didn't know how", Paddy replied. "Could you build one?"

"No, not me, but Lin here and Ajay could probably take a computer", he pronounced the word with the care of someone who didn't use it often and had actually never seen a computer work," and rebuild it into a flying pot or something like that."

"A flying robot, Matt", Lin rolled her eyes, "Ro-Bot, not a pot. And we won't know that until you bring me a computer with enough parts to build one."

Matt muttered something under his breath that the rest of them couldn't understand but Lin had apparently heard enough to hit him on the arm, "Shut up."

"You know it's true."

"No, it's just your stupid, misaimed jealousy talking", Lin hissed.

"Hey, kids, play nice while Paddy and I are out", Creedy reminded them. Outside he said to Paddy in a conspirational voice, "Teenagers. I can't remember being like that."

"It was another world", Paddy agreed and smiled back. He had laugh lines around his eyes and Creedy was pretty sure that he was going to like him.

When they came back Michael stood outside of the store room and loud voices could be heard from inside.

"I really wouldn't go in there now", Michael said as soon as Creedy and Paddy came around the corner, and took a potato sack from Paddy.

"It's like Lucknow all over again", Lucknow, humanity's last battle against the Dragons- afterwards everyone had been left on their own.

"What happened?" Creedy asked just for the sake of it. He could guess well enough.

"Ajay came by."

"Ajay is the…" Paddy trailed off.

"…radio operator. Studied engineer, he and Lin are friends and Matt is jealous." Michael explained the, at the moment, castle's most entertaining melodrama. "I would really prefer not to go in there again."

They didn't have to because at this moment the door opened and Lin stormed out with an expression on her face as if she would only be too glad to give in to her homicidal urges at any moment now. With a hurried, "I'll be with Michael." (The other Michael obviously) she ran upstairs and out of sight.

Matt emerged from the storeroom, looking no less angry than Lin had. Michael glanced sideways to hide his grin and Creedy unceremoniously handed Matt the potato sack.

The news that Lin and Matt had broken off this afternoon made their way through the castle fast. The last ones learned it at dinner when Matt sat with his family and Lin on the other side of the hall with Claire, Paddy and the two boys at Quinn's and Creedy's table.

Dinner was scarce as usual but it was warm and there were far worse things than mutton, potatoes and tomatoes.

Someone had helped Claire to wash her hair of the grime and now it glinted golden and curly in the firelight. For a post-apocalyptic world devoid of any make-up and other beauty aids she was breath-takingly beautiful.

Quinn, who was as usual silent and focused on his meal, looked up when Creedy leaned close, "Look at that." He pointed more or less discreetly at Ajay, who sat at the next table. His meal was nearly untouched, mostly because he was too busy watching Lin with wide, hopeful looks and glaring at Paddy for the impudence of sitting next to Lin. He also didn't notice the amused glances between Michael and Jerry behind his back. "Think he'll ever make a move?"

"Ajay and Lin?" Quinn sounded as if the very idea had never crossed his mind before and voiced his surprise quite loudly. Luckily Lin was too distracted by Jared's story of what he had done today with additional comments from Liam and Willem.

"He's totally smitten with her", Creedy explained amused, "What do you think was the reason why Matt was fought with Lin today?"

Quinn shrugged, "Lin broke up with Angus after a week without any reason. Maybe she doesn't need a reason."

"Now you're being unfair. Her only reason to be with Angus was because they're friends and he wanted to make Samira jealous."

"You seem to know much about the people in this castle", Claire chimed in, her big, blue eyes trained on Creedy.

"Well, someone has to since this one is too busy building tunnels", he ruffled Quinn's hair roughly which got him a nudge in the ribs and a sheepish smile in return.

Claire opened her mouth but before she could say anything, Willem asked, "Mr. Quinn, did you really outrun a dragon in a cave?" Six pairs of eyes suddenly focused on Quinn, even Lin, who had heard the story about ten times from Jared already.

Creedy on the other hand, dropped his head and muttered sarcastically, "Yeah, as if we haven't heard that story yet."

He listened how awkwardly Quinn tried to tell one of their near-death-experiences with a few sentences that consisted mainly of 'we went in, we got lost, I got us unlost, we escaped.' No wonder they played the stories for the children. Quinn was a much better as an actor than he was as a storyteller. Creedy still vividly remembered Quinn's first re-telling of Star Wars and cringed internally.

"What Quinn really wanted to say was…", he interrupted the scene in front of him by putting an arm around Quinn's shoulders. And told their spellbound audience a mesmerizing tale of two dashingly good looking survivors of the greatest disaster that had ever hit humanity accompanied by a cranky old man and the last bird of earth and how this ragtag bunch escaped a fire-breathing monster when the brooding one of the two young heroes lead them through a dark and dangerous system of caves and tunnels that lay in the misty hills of Middle England. An adventure that was only surpassed by the one where the other hero had rescued his friends in the royal and magic mountains of Scotland.

"You're a shameless show-off", Quinn accused Creedy the same night when they finally lay in bed together. Creedy didn't used to be a cuddler but Quinn, first as a possibility to share body heat and later as a sign of affection and trust, had broken him into it.

"No, I was just polishing the truth. What do you supposed King Arthur and his Knights did? Come home and stumbling over an encounter with three rogues with bad teeth and a club as their only weapon? No, they told lavish tales of foreign armies, evil witches and wizards and monstrous beasts they fought off single-handily to rescue a beautiful maiden and, if said knight was already married, saw her off safely to her rightful husband."

"We never rescued any maidens."

"I rescued Claire today. I think she qualifies as a beautiful maiden."

"So you're going t marry her?" Quinn yawned widely.

Creedy grinned. "No, I've already got my beautiful maiden. Only he's not a maiden. Not anymore at least", Creedy smirked and then yelped when Quinn pinched the naked skin of his stomach where his shirt had ridden up. "But he's very beautiful."

"You didn't rescue me", Quinn pointed out to change the subject since he could feel that he was blushing. "That was Barlow."

"And Barlow promptly handed you over to me since he had no use for you."

"You make me sound like a piece of lost baggage", Quinn protested.

"I'm not sure I want to know what goes on in that head of yours", Creedy mused while stroking Quinn's hair, "But that's an, while unusual, apt description of your rescue."

Quinn's graveyard shift began with a dragon alarm, filled with 30 minutes of undiluted terror until Barlow gave notice that the beast had passed, and ended with Abby's arrival at Northumberland. Abby was the designated messenger of Edinburgh. Before the war she , well she had been a teenager, but like Creedy she had been old enough to get a proper army training. It qualified her for the most dangerous job that their four communities knew and it was the same reason why Creedy had the same job, no matter how much Quinn hated it to send him out there for weeks and weeks on end in the wild, unprotected from marauders and dragons.

Quinn greeted Abby at the gate but as soon as he saw her he knew that something was wrong. Her clothes, her face, the gauntness and exhaustion and grime that clung to her like the smell of ashes to the air told him that something horrible had happened. That and the group of equally exhausted looking people that came with her through the gate. Quinn recognized two of them as Aamira and Tarka, who had moved from Northumberland to Edinburgh.

"Quinn", From near he could see dried tear tracks on her face, "Quinn, we were ambushed. There were dragons and-", she had to take a deep breath. "They burned everything. There were four of them. I couldn't…I was outside when it happened. Some came running ", she gestured to the other survivors, "but no-one else survived. We waited until we could check the caves but no one was there. I think no one saw them coming."

Quinn grabbed her shoulders, "Are you sure?"

She nodded, hanging nearly limb with exhaustion in his grip. "We looked for them for days. There's just us."

"Quinn", Eddie stepped nearer, "Norwich and Pembury need to know this."

"First we bring them inside and get them something to eat", Quinn answered gruffly. Eddie made a face but said nothing.

Quinn felt very much like sitting down for a moment but he couldn't. There were things to do. They had to accommodate another twenty people and they had to send out the scouts to inform Norwich and Pembury since the radio was down again.

An hour later the Council was listening to Abby's story. The Council was an assembly of every adult in the castle; every important decision was made here even though most people were content to let Quinn handle the everyday stuff.

The crowd was silent while Abby spoke. Edinburgh had been their closest ally, tied to them by the close geographic and some family ties. 200 dead that was the largest number of deaths in Britain since the Last Battle of Meryton.

Creedy only listened with one ear. His gaze swept over the people in the hall, silent yes but some were crying, others, like Eddie, looked determined. The only one who wasn't there was Barlow but then Barlow was never anywhere but in his tower and still knew everything. Maybe Ajay told him or maybe his bird or maybe he was psychic. Creedy had long since given up to figure out how Barlow's mind worked.

Ajay sat between Michael and Lin, looking worried. He knew that if the Council decided then Michael would have to go out there just like Creedy. Losing your friend was the risk you took when you were friends with a messenger. Of course, Quinn had become his friend long before they had reached Northumberland.

Quinn hated him going out there, Creedy knew it even though Quinn had never said a word. Necessity before everything else was Quinn's creed. They wouldn't have survived this long otherwise but the prices they had paid were high: Lin's parents, two of Eddie's children and his first wife, Malcolm the chemicist and hundred others who now rested in the graveyard.

The Council's vote was decided unanimously and the decision of any possible action was forwarded to the Higher Council which meant Quinn, Noel, Tarek and Aamira, the respective heads of their communities, even though Quinn hated it fiercely when someone called him 'leader'.

Creedy saw Ajay hug Michael and felt Quinn hovering close over his shoulder. Erasing about 99% of world's population had also erased a lot of prejudices and traditions. Everyone was free to touch because they all knew too painfully well that there would be a time when they couldn't anymore. Death was always looming, above them in the sky and among them. Infections had taken as much of them as the dragons had.

Michael gave Creedy a sign that they would meet in ten minutes so that they both had enough time to say goodbye, before he cleared the room together with the rest of the Council except for Creedy and Quinn.

There was nothing to say and Quinn didn't. He simply sat down next to Creedy and when Creedy wrapped his arm around Quinn's waist, he leaned his head on Creedy's shoulder.

They sat like that for a little while until Creedy said, "I'll better go and say goodbye to Jared."

Quinn let go only reluctantly but he knew that there was no choice.

Saying goodbye to Jared was almost harder than saying goodbye to Quinn. At least Quinn wasn't crying and clinging to his coat.

"Don't go", Jared sobbed, "please don't go."

"It'll be alright", Creedy promised him. "I'll be back in couple weeks."

"You don't know that", Jared answered stubbornly.

"Yeah, well, but you got to look after Quinn for me, will you?" Creedy kneeled down and took Jared's face in his hands. "But don't, don't let him tell you any stories."

That made Jared smile a little, "You promise you'll be back?"

"There's no dragon in the whole wide world that could keep me away from you two", Creedy said solemnly and kissed Jared on the forehead. He waved Quinn to come closer.

"Now, remember, what do we do when wake?"

"Keep both eyes on the sky", Jared replied dutifully.

"What we do we do when we sleep?" Quinn joined in.

"Keep one eye on the sky."

"And what do we do when we see him?"

"Dig hard. Dig deep. Run for shelter. Never. Look. Back."

"Good", Creedy kissed Jared once more before pulling Quinn into a tight embrace. "Take care of yourself"; he whispered. He held on for a few more moment but let go eventually, only pressing a quick goodbye kiss on Quinn's lips.

He and Michael stopped at the front gate for one last look back and Creedy winked at Quinn and Jared with an ease he didn't feel before heading out on the road.