An evening off. " Joan and the Singletons were the last to go. They.

... white pattern evaporated - to be replaced by fine sand grey as moonlight and cold as ice. Strange and unexpected stars glittered overhead; on the horizon were low hills eroded not by wind or rain in this weatherless place but by the soft sandpaper of Time itself. No one else seemed to have noticed. No one else in fact seemed alive. Esk was surrounded by people as still and silent as statues. And ...