And All the Stars by Andrea K Höst Read Free Book Online Page A

as Pan hovered
at her elbow. "He at least reacts
to the antiseptic, and there wasn't that much bleeding. Is he a good friend of yours?"
    "Fish? Never even
spoke to him before Friday. I think I
might have seen him once or twice, but he's in year eleven – Nash and I are
year ten – and Fish is a day boy."
    "Then why was he still at the school?" Madeleine asked, reasonably. School was the last place she would have
wanted to hang out.
    "Microscopes. Rushies is big on Theatre and Science, so the school's all
auditoriums and laboratories. Fish
stayed up Thursday night studying himself. Then he moved on to everyone else. Did I tell you I went off at him, Nash?"
    "It does not surprise me, temper-boy," Nash said,
brows lifting.
    "After he recovered from the surge, he divided everyone
up," Pan explained. "So now we
have Greens Dorm, Blues Dorm, and the big one for those who didn't make it. Fish broke the Greens up into groups and tried
different things on them. Aspirin, heat
packs, cold packs, sugary drinks, water only. Teddy – Teddy Rasmussen from 10B – he was doing so bad, and Fish told me
to switch him from hot packs to cold packs and keep checking his pulse and
writing down all the changes and I just started shouting. Told him I never knew anyone better suited to
their name, that fish were warm in comparison. He just waited until I wound down and then asked me if I knew the best
way to take out a zombie."
    "Head shot," Noi said promptly.
    Pan nodded at her. "And wooden stakes for vampires, and silver bullets for
werewolves. And penicillin for
bacteria. But we don't have the
slightest idea what to do about dust and starry towers. Information is a weapon, a defence, a first
step to everything according to Fish, and we need to gather as much as possible
before the next wave of infections, so we can act rather than react. He and the other big contributors on BlueGreen even think they've found a way to increase
Green survival rates. So I've wanted to
punch him a few times, but I'm feeling a bit 'Oh, Captain! My Captain!' at the
moment as well. All the teachers left, y'know ? Had their
own families to look after, though I guess some of them meant to come
back. Fish stayed, and now he's gone and
fallen down some stairs. Which is
distinctly uncool of him, really."
    Nash reached out and put a calming hand on the shorter boy's
shoulder, and Pan let out his breath.
    "End soliloquy," he muttered. "But, damn, it would be stupid to die
from falling down, after all this."
    "Seriously, I don't think he's that bad," Noi said,
snapping the kit shut. "His heart
rate and breathing seem to be normal, anyway, and that's as far as my basic
first aid is going to take us. We'll put
some ice on the lump, see if that helps. How many are left at that school of yours? Do you need food to take back?"
    They moved to the kitchen, discussing the boarding school's
catering resources, and perishable food which should be eaten first. Of the three hundred boarders at the school,
sixty-two were still alive. Twelve
Blues, and the rest Greens not ready to look after themselves. The Fish boy had probably collapsed from
exhaustion, rather than hunger or mystery attacks.
    "Is your name really Pan?" Noi asked, hunting out a
box to hold milk and meat while Madeleine wrapped ice in a cloth serviette.
    "Lee Rickard, at your service," Pan said, with a
little bow.
    "Then why Pan?"
    "Can't you guess? Should I go find some green tights? I've played him three times – totally typecast." He mimed a quick sword fight, dancing around
the cramped kitchen. "And this is
Avinash Sharma. Gav is Gavin Wells, and
sleeping beauty out there is Fisher Charteris."
    Madeleine glanced through the one-way panel set in the
kitchen door and started, because 'sleeping beauty' was gone. She pushed the door open, and spotted him
standing in the outdoor eating section. As she watched he lifted a shaky hand to his head, and sat down on the
nearest chair.
    Fish – Fisher – didn't react as she