Rachel didn't know what she'd expected from her pronouncement, but the blank stares were certainly a little underwhelming. Even in her melancholic state, she still wanted a bit more of a reaction than that. Hadn't she given them what they wanted? It was a plan of some kind, even if it wasn't a very satisfying one.
"What do you mean?" asked Preston.
"They'll be coming for us. The livestream and the fire. I wouldn't be surprised if they're already on the way."
"Who?" asked Hector.
"The man," said Julian.
"Huh?" asked Natalie.
"An entire town vanishing off the map won't go unnoticed," Rachel continued. She slowly gained confidence in her words as she delved into one of the worst-case scenarios she'd prepped. Many of her nights in bed, listening to Will sleeping quietly next to her, were filled with disaster planning for every possible eventuality she could come up with. She hadn't ever quite considered this level of destruction, but she was starting to adapt to it. "This will escalate fast."
"She's right," added Jackie. "It won't stay at state level either. No matter what happens, they'll definitely take it federal. And if they find out about magic..."
"We're fucked," Josh finished. Jackie nodded.
"We're back to this again?" Joe asked.
"I was preparing for them to come and confront us here. If the town was still here, with everyone behind us and spreading out into the world, maybe we could have been large enough to stand on our own," said Rachel. "But only twenty two people? With the town burned to the ground and bodies everywhere? They'd disappear us."
"Come on, they can't just vanish us," said Julian.
"Yes, they can," said Yusuf.
"This few people? Undoubtedly so," agreed Lily. "They operate on the world scale. We could try to make a bit of noise, but ultimately we'd be captured either way. Unless she stops them," she added, nodding at Beverly.
Beverly shook her head. "I don't want to fight anyone."
"Nor do I, dear, and I wouldn't presume to ask. Loathe as I am to abide by this proposal, I concur with Rachel," said Kendra. "We should hide."
A minute of silence passed as they digested the words. With arguably the three most important people in the room in agreement, the rest of the group were slowly coming to terms with the future.
"How?" asked Makoto, the first word he'd spoken since leaving Cinza's home in the woods.
"You're not thinking we all pile into one of Kendra's little pockets, are you?" asked Julian uneasily. "Don' think I could sleep with those earthquakes every few minutes."
"Can you keep an entire dimension stable on your own strength?" asked Lily sharply.
Julian raised his hands in surrender. "Down, Xerox. I'm jus' tryin' to point out problems."
"That doesn't sound sustainable," said Cinza. "As impressive as her creations might be, she needs to close them every day, and it's not as though we could survive inside them either. Even Aaron's discoveries aren't enough to grow food in a void."
"So what, do we go live with you in the forest?" asked Josh.
"No way. I'm not going out into the woods for the rest of my life," snapped Malcolm. His wife nodded emphatically in agreement.
"As much as I'd love to host you all," Cinza said dryly, "I doubt we could sustain this many people. We were barely self-sustaining before, and we've lost half of the people who could cast the necessary spells. It would take a lot of time to train new people in the technique."
"We go out in plain sight," said Boris abruptly.
"...Great plan," said Joe sarcastically. "We walk right into their black vans."
"New identities, new lives," Boris went on, ignoring him. "As I understand it, many of you have methods to change your appearance in thorough, permanent ways. I can help you develop new lives to match. It won't be necessary for everyone," he added, glancing at the Silverdale couple, "but for the most notable among you, it could keep you safe."
Hailey nodded. "Jess and I know the ritual to use." Jessica looked up at her name, but after realizing Hailey wasn't talking to her, glanced away again. She seemed to be most interested with watching Beverly, but the grey-eyed girl was too busy watching Rachel to notice. Rachel wondered if she should find it threatening that Beverly refused to let her out of her sight.
"What if I can't do it?" Hector asked.
"You don't need to, Hector. He's talking about Kenni and myself. Cinza as well, as she was captured on film," said Lily.
"Me too, I think," added Joe. "You could see me in the back of a few shots."
"I've no intention to return to society," said Cinza. "Our home is still intact, and we will remain there." Yusuf and Ruby nodded in unison at her words.
"Not to be a downer, but most of you lived here. I'm from Norwalk. My parents are still there," said Josh. "They'll be looking for me."
"You can't get in touch with them," said Rachel. "You're dead."
"I'm pretty sure they could keep a secret," Josh shot back.
"Enrollment records and flight records. If their son is alive and well in SoCal, when he should have been at school for the summer, you're screwed," said Hailey. "You gotta cut them out for now, Josh."
"Easy for you to say. You don't even talk to your folks."
Hailey glowered, but Neffie spoke up before they could get into it. "What about the rest of us? We can't use magic," she asked. "How are we supposed to hide?"
"I can teach you a few things," said Boris.
"And you're this amazing expert on hiding, are you?" asked Malcolm.
"Yes."
Malcolm faltered at his single confident word. His wife looked about to speak up, but Boris held up his hand to forestall them, to Alden's relief.
"I know you may have further questions, but I believe we shouldn't linger too long. We have some time, but they will come. The world communicates much faster now. Likely within a day."
"Maybe less," agreed Jackie. "Is this the plan, Rachel?"
"It is," she said firmly.
"All right then." Jackie cracked her neck slightly before continuing, taking a breath. "We'll have to figure out where everyone's goin', and who with. Boris, how many fake identities can you make?"
"As many as we need," he replied.
"Someday you and I are gonna have that drink I always promised."
"I look forward to seeing you handle real Russian vodka."
Jackie grinned. "Don't count me out."
"I'm surprised you don't want to turn this over to the authorities," Josh commented. "After all that about following the spirit of the law before."
Jackie shook her head. "There's a difference between a murder or two and a goddamn massacre. In the real world? This looks like a terrorist attack, or worse, and you all have way too many questions you can't answer."
"Twenty two people can keep a secret," Rachel said. "We're all that's left of Rallsburg. Maybe magic can come back again one day, but it won't be here. Rallsburg is gone. No one survived whatever happened here. It's just a ghost town now."
"Making us the Ghosts of Rallsburg?" said Ruby with a faint smile. Cinza gently nudged her, and she fell silent.
The rest of the group was quiet at Rachel's pronouncement. She wondered if she'd gone a bit too far in her description, but she wanted to impress the gravity of the cover they had to maintain if they were to make it out alive.
"What happens next?" said Cinza.
"What do you mean?" asked Josh.
"We go into hiding, but what happens next? I doubt that's the end of the story."
Rachel shook her head. "We hide and we wait. We stay in contact, but that's it. We have no idea how this is going to play out on the world stage."
"You're just gonna wing it?" Josh said incredulously.
"Yes."
"Kinda underwhelmed here, Rach," said Julian. She winced at the shortened name. "You're usually the one with the big plans. This is sort of disappointin'."
"Look where my big plans have gotten us," Rachel said quietly. "Twenty two people, Julian. Every single plan I had failed."
"Not the last one. We're alive, and he's not."
"No matter what else, Rachel, you saved us all," agreed Kendra. "In the end, you made the difference."
"It's twenty-three people," Alden cut in suddenly. "Rachel, you're not counting yourself. There's twenty-three of us."
Rachel was taken aback. He was right, she'd completely neglected to count herself. She wondered what that said about her state of mind, plowing through a half-dozen psychologists and theories in her brain before Ruby interrupted her thoughts.
"It's actually twenty-four," she spoke up, her red curls shining in the flickering light. "Rufus is still back at our camp, but he's alive too. Plus Nikki and the others that got flown out, so that's..." She trailed off as she realized everyone was staring at her.
"...Way to kill the moment," said Josh dryly.
There were a few chuckles around the group—and to her surprise, Rachel found herself among them.
It was strained and weak, but it was mirth where there had been none. It was a slight flicker of light in a broken town covered in ash. It was a collection of determined survivors unwilling to lay down and accept their fate just yet.
It was hope, and that was enough to keep them going.