InLaurie Penny ’s new novella , Everything Belongs to the Future , a miracle drug can extend the human lifespan by one C — but only the plenteous can yield the discourse . It ’s a skill fiction thriller that feels like an only slightly tilted adaptation of our own realism , and we ’ve got an undivided extract to share .
Here ’s the prescribed summary :
metre is a artillery wield by the rich , who have surplus of it , against the residue , who must trade every breathing place of it against the hope of another day ’s solid food and tax shelter . What kind of world have we made , where human beings can hold up centuries if only they can afford the fix ? What kind of creatures have we become ? The same as we always were , but keener .
In the ancient bosom of Oxford University , the ultra - rich celebrate their immensely extended lifespans . But a few surprisal are in store for them . From Nina and Alex , Margo and Fidget , scruffy anarchists sharing living infinite with an ever - shift hurl of gruff goon and lost kids . And also from the scientist who fabricate the longevity discussion in the first place .
Laurie Penny’sEverything belong to the Futureis a bally - disposed taradiddle of time , treason , despair , and Bob Hope — useable October 18th from Tor.com Publishing .
Get more of a taste in this tight - paced excerpt , which spread out quite a turn onthe Thomas Nelson Page antecedently posted by publishers Tor.com :
There was a wall . It was tall than it seemed and set back a little from the street , so the ancient trees on the college side provided a well of darker shadow , out from the street lamp .
The wall was old and approximate , ancient sandstone filled in with reinforced cement to keep out intruders . The cliff on the other side landed you in deep grass . Still , Alex was afraid of the wall . Of the idea of it .
Nina was the first to make the acclivity . She crouch on top of the wall , an implike affair in the dark . Then she plough and held out her hand to Alex , beckoning .
“ You have to see this , ” she said .
Alex started to climb the paries between the worlds . The quondam stone bit at his manus . Halfway up , he heard Nina make a niggling sound of disappointment in her throat . He was never fast enough for her .
The approach to Magdalen College was across the deer park .
That was where they were going : through the ballpark , void the dogs and the security light , into the college , into the ball all sparkling under the starlight .
It was four of them , Nina and Alex , Margo and Fidget , and they were off to rob the rich and fee the poor . An exercise , as Margo put it , as important for the emotional welfare of the autonomous individual as it was for the collective . Margo was a state therapist before she came to Cowley , to bunker down with the rest of the strays and degenerates clinging to the undersurface of Oxford metropolis . Five years of living off the grid had n’t cured her of the talking .
At the top of the wall , Alex unfold himself for an instant , and then he saw it — what Nina had been examine to show him . The older college light up from behind with a hundred moving lights , butter - voiced and pinkish and pretty , a bubble of smasher floating on the hide of time .
“ It ’s beautiful , ” he say .
“ Come on , ” articulate Margo , “ get moving , or we ’ll be seen . ”
Margo was beside him now , the great bulk of her making no strait on the ascent . Alex ’s mouth had been dry all night . He licked his teeth and listened to his heart shake the bars of his rib batting cage . He had promised the others that he was good for this . He was n’t drop dead to have another anxiety attack and ruin everything .
“ As your therapist , ” say Margo , ennoble her voice , “ I should remind you that God hat a Sir Noel Pierce Coward . ”
Alex jumped before she could crowd him , and hit the grass on the other side of the wall without recollect to bend his knees . His ankles cried out on encroachment .
Then Nina was next to him , and Margo , all three of them together . Fidget was last , dropping over the wall without a sound , dark-skinned on dark in the moonlight . Margo held up a hand for assembly .
“ protection ’s not going to be tight on this side of the college . Let ’s go over the drill if anyone gets caught . ”
“ We ’re the hired amusement and our passes got lost somewhere , ” said Nina , stripping off her coverall . Underneath , she was wearing a series of elaborately knotted bedsheets , and the overall effect was somewhere between appropriative and indecent .
Alex liked it .
“ Alex , ” said Margo , “ I want to hear it from you . What are you ? ”
“ I ’m a stupid drunk entertainer and I ’m not being pay off enough for this , ” Alex repeated .
“ Good . Now , as your therapist , I apprize you to run very fast , encounter us at the fountain , take nothing except what we came for , and for shtup ’s sake , do n’t get catch . ”
Fireworks blossom and snickered in the sky over the cervid park . quiver fingers of igniter and laugh uncurl from the ancient college . They moved off individually across the sullen field to the perimeter .
Alex squinted to make out the deer , but the herd was elsewhere , shelter from the revelry . The last wild deer in England . Oxford guard its treasures , pulp and Isidor Feinstein Stone both .
Alex maintain humbled , and he had almost made it to the bulwark when a searchlight swung around , pinning him there .
Alex was an louse frozen against the sandstone .
Alex could n’t call up who he was supposed to be .
Alex was about to fuck this up for everyone and get them all sent to jail before they ’d even got what they fall for .
bridge player on Alex ’s neck , piano , desperate , and a humble steadfast body pinning him against the wall . Fidget . Fidget , kissing him sloppily , fumbling with the buttons on his shirt , both of them catch in the ray of Light Within .
“ work along , ” Fidget hissed , and Alex sympathise . He groan theatrically as Fidget run severe hands through his tomentum and kiss his heart-to-heart sassing . Alex had never osculate another man like this before , and he was too diddlyshit - frightened to wonder whether he liked it , because if they could n’t convince whoever was on the other end of that searchlight that they were a distich of drunks who ’d leave the company to fuck , they were both hold out to poky .
The searchlight mess about .
Fidget run for a acuate , scoundrel natural language along Alex ’s cervix . A spike of anger stabbed Alex in the base of his venter , but instead of plug Fidget in his pretty face , he take hold of his head , wrestle it up and kissed him again .
The searchlight lingered , trembling .
Fidget fumbled with Alex ’s belt heave .
The searchlight moved on .
Fidget sigh in the merciful darkness . “ I thought I was going to have to escalate for a 2nd there . ”
“ You seemed to be having a full sentence , ” said Alex .
“ Do n’t blandish yourself , ” said Fidget . “ The word you ’re reckon for is ‘ thanks . ’ ”
They were almost inside . Just behind the last fencing , Magdalen chunk was blossoming into being . Behind the fence , airy euphony from somewhere out of time would be rising over the lacquered heads of five hundred guests in suits and rented ballgowns . Entertainers and waitstaff in themed costume would be circling with trays of Champagne-Ardenne flutes . chocolate and cocaine would be laid out in intricate line on silver dishes .
Alex and the others were n’t here for any of that .
They were here for the mess .
Instead , she got bike out to these things like an raging puppet to plunk at ridiculous miniature solid food and talk to brainless , braying rich kids and their parents , who were all just so thankful for her research . At least , the parent were . The kids probably hated her — sure , they get to be young and healthy for an spare half - C , but Mummy and Daddy got that same half - century to spend the inheritance . Without that , they were having to notice other room to maintain the life style to which they had become accustomed .
“ It ’ll be skilful for you . ” That ’s what Parker had say . Parker was Daisy ’s supervisory program , although she think of him as her handler . What he have in mind was “ it ’ll be good for us . ” The work she had done back in the twenties was essential to the base formula of the fix , and that made her substantive to the company . An significant resourcefulness , they say . Like all the other geniuses who got the life - extension grant .
Daisy did n’t take it as a compliment . She jazz what multinationals did with important resources .
Still , she put on the stupid dress with the ruffles that neither suited nor fit her and got in the limo , and now she was hanging around the spring , eating umber - covered marshmallows and trying to avoid the undergrad in their prom gown and penguin courtship . Parker want her to show her face . He never intend that there should be a smile on it .
Daisy hat parties , and this one was particularly hateful , a didder Baron Snow of Leicester globe of opulence just begging to be dashed on the base . The theme was “ The Fountain of Youth . ” It was based on a weird previous antiblack novel where some British IE went to darkest Africa and discovered a kinship group of savages ruled by an immortal queen who was for some understanding as white as they were .
Rich the great unwashed , mostly , and anyone deemed socially useful enough that their continued existence was deserving shop at , although that too was up to the manufacturers to decide . Artists , musician , scientist . Even the occasional author . Meritocracy in action mechanism .
Daisy had never wish party , though — even when she was unseasoned , really young , not just young - look . Not that she ever got ask for to many party back in shoal . Not that she had care . More time to drop on the net , talking to prof three time her age about factor splicing .
Daisy had been support at the turn of this millennium , on the exact twenty-four hour period that the completion of the Human Genome Project had been announced to the world . She had control it in the honest-to-god stills — the administration scientist and the speculation capitalist standing on either side of the president at the time , one of the Clintons or one of the Bushes , all their divergence inhume in public , a new dawn for the future of biotechnology .
None of these kid necking liberal cocktails would call back . Even the ones who were already fixing — and Daisy could tell , she could always tell ; there was an uncanny smoothness to the skin , a ghastly glisten that made them doll - like . They would n’t be old enough to think a time when money could only purchase , at good , the appearance of youth .
The fountain was the centerpiece . The one-time gem sprinkler with its constipated - looking cherubs had been decked out as the Fountain of Youth , but it was only run cheap champagne , cut with Prosecco .
Daisy was alone .
These day , she was always alone .
She opened her tablet and called up an old television . scrub from the profit now , but she had a copy . Pixelated , seventy years onetime , but the sound was unclouded .
A coloured stagecoach . A quiet hearing of pro . A single podium , and there she was — a much younger , monovular - looking Daisy , giving one of the last unscripted ethics talks she had ever get away with .
“ The mold strain Aspergillus aevitas is aboriginal to Orkney in the Republic of Scotland . Since its find and cultivation by my department , the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford , and following development by TeamThreeHundred , this fungus has made the aspiration of significantly extending not just human life but human younker a realness .
“ Thank you . In the path of my research for the company , complete with my coauthor Doctor Saladin Hasan , I was an early recipient of TeamThreeHundred ’s extension political program . At forty year old , I have the vital statistics of a somebody less than half my age . With regular treatment , I can expect to survive well into the next hundred without any impairment in quality of spirit . ”
Applause from the interview , most of whom , Daisy reflected , would be long deadened by now , except those with ship’s company health programme .
“ Anyway , it rest to be seen what the effect of this providential engineering will be on the worldly concern our grandchild inherit — although perhaps I should n’t use the word ‘ inherit , ’ since I fully intend to be around to see it myself . ”
More hand clapping from the audience of ghosts .
“ give thanks you . I ’m here today as a technologist , but also as a scholar of the history of science . History shows us that the ramifications of any new technology have as much to do with how we choose to disperse it as they have to do with the engineering science itself . I am not a politician , nor am I an economist . I am a scientist . But it seems appropriate to hypothecate here that a future where life - extension engineering is available only to those who can afford it , or to those whom beau monde considers utilitarian , will look very different to a future where life history - extension phone technology is more broadly usable . I ’m sorry —
“ I ’m sorry , something seems to have gone amiss with the speech sound . . . ”
A noise behind Daisy . Parker Tremaine walked heavily across the damp Gunter Wilhelm Grass , carrying two specs of champagne . Knowing Parker , it ’d be the good stuff .
She darkened her tablet quickly , and the ghost of her younger ego disappear , too previous for him to omit . Aside from being the closest she still had to a verbatim boss , Parker was the one person in the entire company who had been been repair for as long as she had , back when he was an entrepreneurial prodigy in the early days of T3 , in what later became the Free State of California .
They experience each other too well for her to hide things from him .
“ Memory lane ? ” he require . He still had the lazy West - Coast speech pattern . “ Here . I brought us some champagne . We ’re due a chat , you and me . ”
“ No , thanks . ” Daisy chuck her hip flaskful . “ Whisky only . ”
“ Suit yourself . More for me . ” Parker down one glass in a single fizzing gulp and fling it away over the lawn . He was already intoxicated .
They depend out together over the college lawns , toward the hills of Headington . A small forest of turbine churned out on the celestial horizon . There were hardly any in the erstwhile metropolis .
“ It ’s amazing , when you call up about how it used to be , ” say Parker quietly .
Daisy took a swig . “ Not cash in one’s chips to indicate with you on that . ”
It was always somebody else ’s apocalypse . Until it was n’t .
The end of the existence was an endless dark tomorrow : always go far but never really here . For generations , the elect and unelected leaders of the world had weigh the cost of averting drastic mood change via collective , straightaway and long-lived technical investment against the considerable worriment to their personal life style , done some calculations on the back of a napkin and make out up with the answer that it was somebody else ’s problem . Somebody who credibly had n’t been born yet . If all else failed , their own children and grandchild would in all likelihood be able-bodied to open a place on the last helicopter out of the drowning lands . So , that was alright .
The repair changed everything .
of a sudden , the same people had to project for a future in which they ’d actually be around to see London and New York swallowed by the hungry sea . of a sudden , the end of the world was a story about them .
The root occur tight . But not fast enough to save Bangladesh . Or Venice . Or San Francisco .
“ In all the world , we ’re the only two creatures quite like us , ” said Parker after a while . He lifted his second spyglass of bubbly and looked at Daisy . “ cue me again why we ’ve never fucked ? ”
“ That ’s well-to-do , ” state Daisy . “ It ’s because I do n’t fancy you . ”
For an instant , a flicker of genuine , childlike wrath chased across Parker ’s cherub face , and was gone . He run his fingers through his sodding blond hair and smiled .
“ Ever considered lesbianism ? ”
“ Thoroughly . And regularly . You know I prefer dicks when they ’re impound to cleaning woman . ”
This was a complete and utter lie . Daisy had not had sexual practice in ten years . Daisy had not had fun of any form since she could recollect , but peculiarly not horizontal fun involving other humans . keep her appearance static at awkward mid - pubescence helped with that . It was one of the few conclusion she ’d never regretted . Plenty of people might like the idea of an eternal fourteen - yr - quondam , but they changed their tune when they encounter her , all gangly limbs and acne scar and flashes of anger .
A long clock time ago , there had been someone who ’d encounter past her defenses . Someone who ’d made her finger that she was more than a brain trapped in a twisting of preserved bod , a specimen suspended in amber . Someone who had loved her — actively , he always say , because sexual love is not something you feel but something you do .
But he had been beat these forty class .
Daisy picked at her fingernail and glared at Parker .
“ Actually , ” she said , “ talk of hawkshaw attached to women , where ’s your better one-half ? Lila , was n’t it ? I liked her . She was funny . ”
Parker went hushed .
“ We had different life goals , ” he order finally .
“ She would n’t fasten , would she ? ”
Parker ’s expression twisted and flushed . There was something in truth redoubtable , Daisy thought , about check extremely skilful - look people trying not to yell , like seeing a beautiful painting slashed and mangled .
“ Bitch , ” said Parker .
He took a deep hint and put his face back into his champagne . Daisy swig from her hip joint flask .
“ I recognise what you ’re up to , ” he order quietly .
“ If you did , you would n’t say so , ” she said .
“ You want to be careful , ” he said . “ You have n’t got many friends in this caller , you recognise . If it was n’t for my vouching for you — ”
“ I have n’t bewilder any friends in this company , ” tell Daisy . “ ‘ Friend ’ is not the right word for what you are to me . Friends do n’t veto friends ’ inquiry proposals . Or scan acquaintance ’ home post . ”
“ Alright , ” said Parker . “ Alright . I tried . Do n’t say I did n’t try out . ”
“ Nice catching up , ” tell Daisy . “ permit ’s do it again in a tenner or so . ”
Daisy watched him leave .
When she was trusted he was out of sight , she went back to glance over the crowd .
Somewhere here , somebody else did n’t belong .
She would find them . She was waiting .
By one in the break of the day , the formal had take on that manic edge every political party spring up when hoi polloi have accepted that it ’s going to ache tomorrow and only wish about delaying the pain as long as possible . Even the hired entertainer , arrange up in janky rags and ooga - booga tribal outfits , circulating among the undergrad in their dinner jacket and ballgowns , were get under one’s skin slapdash . One of them even dropped a tray of little blue pills .
Fidget and Nina saw it happen and stimulate in to clear up the mess , sweeping most of it into the padded pockets sewn into their costumes . They were here , after all , to slip as much as they could .
Alex watched them move , wondering what it would be like to move like that , with such bold , free-and-easy grace . peradventure you had to be conduct an creative person . He mishandle for a coffin nail .
A sharp suck and a slow burn at the back of his throat . A rush of dope cool from the lung , slow - trickle over the teeth , the scrag of rolled tobacco combat in the sass and this is the way the world ends — not with a flush but a balefire .
Nina was suddenly behind him , winding her arms around him , sweet and dissolute . Her pockets already packed with contraceptive pill .
“ When are we distributing all these , again ? ” Alex brought his mouth down to Nina ’s story so he could murmur in her ear .
She just giggled . “ call for to know , ” she articulate .
“ You never secern me anything anymore . ” Alex squeezed her arm . “ I ’m starting to think you ’ve gone off me . ”
“ Never - not - ever . ”
“ Or peradventure you cerebrate I ’m police . ”
Alex say it nonchalantly , teasing her . pester himself . Made it a joke , deflecting her attention . And it was n’t exactly a Trygve Halvden Lie — he was n’t law ; the company employed him to spy on militant . In three class doing this line of work , he was sure Nina had n’t suspected a thing .
Alex was n’t a bad somebody . He drop a substantial amount of time feeling ugly about the whole affair . Especially since he ’d got unfeignedly fond of them all . specially since he and Nina had become a affair .
The problem was , erotic love turn out to be the staring cover . A white - hot ribbon of emotion was strung between them , and he spooled it out and pull it crocked , measured not to let it slacken . He did this day by day , diligently , with the practice of a professional , and the fact that he really did bonk her too only made the act more convincing .
He had n’t wait to fall in love , doing this job . Sex , yes , that was understood and even encourage as part of his screening . A tacitly understood perk . Forge strong relationships , his supervisor had told him after he was seconded to the companionship . Translation : bed whoever you like . But Nina — Nina was unlike . Some young lady you make out , and some missy you married , and some girls were different from all the others . You ’d find one of them in a lifetime , maybe , if you were golden .
Nina was a wonder . A pipe dream in the shape of a girl .
He was n’t run short to let go of her .
A breath , a beat . The euphony stopped .
Then the clapping , the whooping of undergrad who had been toast since noon .
Alex and Nina swayed together , find out the deb trip the light fantastic toe .
“ It ’s unlike for them , ” said Nina , after a while , “ these kids . They ’ll never have what we have . ”
“ What do you mean ? ”
“ opine about it . You only have a few years to be young , and you ’re spending them with me . Is n’t that fantastic ? ” She took both his hands and spun in them , wind herself in his arms . The feel of her belittled , tight physical structure warm against him .
“ You do n’t ever feel like we merit another decade or two ? ”
“ Everyone deserves it , ” say Nina . “ But I do n’t want it until everyone gets it . ”
Alex palm a couple of pill from his pouch . Little drear gem . He carry one up to the hollow of her throat .
“ expect , ” he state , “ I stole you a diamond . ” He lifted it to her backtalk .
“ Do n’t eat the fairy food , ” she said , smile a grin that did n’t reach her eyes . She was trying to be cunning , but it was still a warning .
“ Nobody would sleep together . ”
“ I ’d know , ” she read , swat his hand away . “ Be serious . ”
Alex was being serious . When Nina chamfer her brow in annoyance , which she did often , the lines took a few seconds to disappear . That was raw . Pretty before long , she would n’t be his girlfriend any longer . She ’d still be his , but she would n’t be a girl . He wish that did n’t affair , but it did .
“ I ’m cross with you now , ” said Nina . “ You ’ll have to kiss it away . ”
So , he kissed her . She smack of champagne and hormones ; the taut firm weight of her in his hands as he dipped her back , arrange on a show for the drunk undergraduates . A smattering of applause .
“ See ? ” she whisper into his mouthpiece . “ They wo n’t retrieve tonight . We will . When you have less clip , all of this matters more . ”
But Alex knew it weigh less .
Nina disappeared to charm some more fix from the fountain - stands . Alex watched her go , the roller and bounce of her walking , and think , without guilt feelings , of his wife . Ex - wife in all but name . Helen had asked for a divorcement three days before . After he took this job . After it became clear that the hush-hush work was going to be foresightful - condition .
“ You do n’t go here . ”
Alex turned around as slow as he could without acknowledging the statement .
“ I ’m correct , are n’t I ? You do n’t go here . ”
The speaker was a piffling girl in a garb that she was not so much wearing as occupying under objection . Her bony arms and branch dig out of a confection of pink gimcrackery and expensive lace that neither set nor suited her , and despite the copious champagne on offering , the little girl was swigging what looked like neat whisky , swirling in a modest roller . A slick of lip rouge threw her scowl into sharp embossment . She wait like an furious macaron .
“ I ’m with the entertainment , ” said Alex . “ My pass — ”
“ Got lose , right ? ”
The girl express mirth and pulled a lanyard from somewhere in her frills . The TeamThreeHundred logotype winked on the all - access pass , aristocratical and green and sickly .
“ I see the guest list , ” said the girl . “ You and your Friend are n’t on it . That ca-ca you the most interesting thing at this otherwise boring , shitty party . ”
Alex pronounce nothing . He made fist to stop his hired hand darting to the pouch of lozenge in the folds of his own rig .
“ We ’ll do a deal , ” said the girl . “ You tell me why you ’re really here , and I wo n’t call security right now . ”
“ That ’s really not going to figure out out well for you , ” said Alex . Whoever this girl was , she had enough admission to see the guest list but not enough to have sex that the company engage independent undercovers .
“ Oh , yes ? Why ’s that ? ”
Just as Alex open up his sassing , he feel Nina drop away a handwriting into the crook of his elbow .
“ Is there a trouble ? ” enounce Nina , putting on the scented - and - probably - a - bit - stupid smile she book for office figures who got between her and a uncontaminating getaway . “ We ’re with the entertainment . ”
Alex groaned inside . Nina ’s odorous - and - stupid - grinning trick worked on everyone except other young women .
“ Please , ” said the girl , “ let ’s not patronize each other . I have a proposal of marriage you ’re expire to want to hear . ”
Nina dropped the grin like a live cup of tea .
“ Do we have a choice ? ” she said . All job now .
“ Oh , yes , ” said the fille . “ you could take to help me have a less tiresome evening , or you could take to explicate to college surety and to my employer why you invaded this party , because it was n’t for the gratuitous spirits . ”
The girl sat down and pat the bulwark beside her . When Nina sat down , the girl nod and knock back the repose of her whiskey , and tossed aside the roller . It shattered on the flagstone with a satisfying crash .
“ Are n’t you too untested to drink ? ” said Alex .
The little girl pinned him with a look that made Alex think of dissection table . “ I ’m ninety - eight years old , ” she say .
Alex stared .
“ That ’s not potential , ” he said , doing the calculations in his head .
“ The first fix only get FDA approval seventy - six years ago , ” say Nina .
“ I bonk , ” said the young woman , “ I help compose the patent . You ’ve got some moderately specific noesis for a employ striptease . ”
“ That ’s a mo sexist . ”
“ The human race is a scrap sexist . I ’m Daisy . Professor Daisy Craver , presently for TeamThreeHundred . ”
She retain out a tight fitting , nail - bitten hand . Nina shake it carefully , like a packet that might burst forth .
“ And what should I call you ? ”
Nina shake off her head . “ Call security , if you ’re going to , ” she said .
“ No , I do n’t opine I will . Not yet . Nice turnout , by the fashion , ” aver the girl .
“ Thanks , ” tell Nina . “ I care yours . ”
“ Do n’t lie . Liars are deadening , ” suppose the girl . “ assure me what you ’re steal the product for and I wo n’t tell on you . ignominious food market ? ”
“ No . ”
“ Personal use ? ”
Alex moistened his back talk . It had not miscarry to pass to him that the pills Nina was carry could , in hypothesis , give them both an extra three years if they rationed them all for themselves .
“ Now , that is interesting , ” said Daisy . “ What would you say if I say you I could get you as much as you want , without you have to nobble around in a two-piece ? ”
“ I ’d assume you were wired to the tooth . ”
“ You ’d regret it . Now , security will get wind of you presently , so I intimate you and your furry acquaintance clear off sharpish . If you want to find out more , fill me in three day at Rose Hill Cemetery . Come alone , no backup , and so will I. ”
The girl had clear practice that part of the delivery . She fired it off all at once .
Alex was connive . His contacts would be intrigued too .
“ We ’ll meet you , ” he tell . “ Where ? ”
“ Can I have a fag before you go ? ” asked Daisy .
Smoking was an mannerism shared almost exclusively by fixers and dirt - poor anti - gerontocracy activists with nihilist leanings . Fixers and wannabe fixer because it did n’t offend them and was therefore a way of showing off . nihilist because have it away it , were n’t they all going to expire new anyway ?
But Daisy Craver smoke in a unlike room . The same way Alex remembered his mother smoking after she got her final diagnosing . Sucking down each cigarette like it was her first and last .
She exhaled slowly through her nose .
“ Fuck , ” she said . “ That ’s pleasant-tasting . okay , go now . Rose Hill Cemetery , in three days . Bring bags like you ’re forage . If there ’s anyone with me , keep walk . Now run aside . ”
They ran . Margo and Fidget saw them and ran too . The tall , thick weed of the cervid common snatched at their limbs , like when you seek to run away from a nameless enemy in a incubus .
Alex would have a lot to report next meter he saw Parker .
Laurie Penny ’s Everything Belongs to the Future is out October 18 . If you ’re in New York City , she ’s doing a leger reading tonight at McNally Jackson Books;check out the Facebook event for all the details .
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