[R682]

"We're there now," his sister Hayley sighed. She may have, in reality, been a girl, but in many respects it would have been easy to mistake her for another boy, beside the first. She wore rough, featureless clothes in a loose kind of way, and tired shapeless trainers. Probably she should have dressed up a little more for this introduction, but there were few things she hated more. "Come on, keep a look out," she jostled him, "see if you can see Grandma on the platform."

She too felt sweltering and trapped in here, though she had so far kept on her enveloping woolen jumper, partly in defense against the eyes of the other passengers around her. Her long brown hair hid her further, covering one eye in the same way her brother's bandage covered his own, though also marking her out as feminine in at least one respect. Grateful at the thought of finally breaking out into the open air, she stood up prematurely as the train began to slow, carefully gathering both her own luggage and that of her brother. She wondered if she had time to nip to the train bathroom one last time before they disembarked, but decided not. Her brother would only make fun of her, going for the zillionth time since they boarded. Still, she should probably be grateful they'd thought to bring enough water to keep drinking. This journey would have been even worse without it.

The luggage collected, she turned back to her brother, and to stare out the window herself as the platform began to roll into view. There wasn't much to it; just a baking strip of dusty concrete and a tiny station office. There was no mistaking they were out in the middle of nowhere already.

"So..." she quietly encouraged Luke again, hoping he was going to come out of his heat-induced daze. "See anything yet?"