London moved. Slowly, almost imperceptibly. And as it moved, Chicago drew closer. Home, drifting towards me.

I stood on the edge of London with Lord Asterly and the General. We were about a hundred feet beneath the surface of the city, in a narrow subway tunnel, looking out at Chicago across the Void.

It had taken Scavengers almost two days of searching the Tube to find this particular outlet; wherever the Tube left London's three mile radius, the tunnels opened up into the Void, ending as if they were chopped off. The sewers did something similar, which created a sort of open-air underworld accessible from the outside of London's Rock. As such, this particular subway tunnel put us almost at surface level with Chicago. If Lee managed to pull the two cities together using gravity, we could theoretically rappel from the London subway onto the edge of Chicago.

Ahead of us, Lee's plan was going into effect.

And it was working.

We could see the bridge cable London and Chicago had set up between the two islands slowly bend. On the Chicago side of the gap, Construction Squad released another block. Their plan - Lee's plan for being "careful," - was to choose blocks of concrete of remotely the same size and weight, and methodically release them until their weight accumulated in the middle and drew the two Rocks together. It took a lot of guesswork - no one knew how much, exactly the Rocks "weighed" (thinking about the physics of it was mind-boggling) so they started small and worked up.

As it turned out, the cities were shockingly easy to move. They glided towards each-other like lily-pads floating on the same pond. Within a day, London and Chicago were halfway to contact.

Now, I was standing so close I could make out the fine sheen of Lee's hair.

The final stage of the process was a little more brutal - and costly - than letting gravity do the work for us. The Chicagoans had embedded a second harpoon in the bedrock of London and had attached it to a fleet of vehicles - construction equipment mostly, loaded down with support weights. Once the cities were close enough, the forklifts and bulldozers and semi trucks began their slow march to close the final gap between the cities. It was an impressive orchestration of engineering and teamwork, but incredibly costly in terms of gasoline. Once food and water were secured, energy would be the most valuable resource.

I had a hunch that Russia's little practice flight with their fighter jet had set them back in terms of fuel, and they were waiting for the right moment to use the rest of it. They wouldn't waste it on a probing mission or a senseless attack. As long as they had the jet, they had the upper hand.

London ground closer. I could see, maybe thirty feet below me, the Construction Team calling orders to their subordinates. A small crowd of Chicagoans had gathered to watch.

The bedrock of London slowly crunched into the edge of Chicago.

Landfall.

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The crowd erupted in cheers. I could see Lee and Briggs high-fiving and hugging the rest of the Construction Team. Above us, on the surface of London, thousands of Londoners screamed for joy.

A team of scavengers appeared with an enormous, patchwork ramp made of found wood and metal. They rolled it towards us, fastening it into place before the entrance to the subway. A team of Londoners worked to fasten the ramp to the edge of the subway tunnel, and just like that, King Asterly the First of London stepped from England to the United States.

"One small step for man," I said.

"One enormous headache for mankind," the General grumbled.

Moira appeared at the bottom of the ramp, flanked by armed Guards. It appeared Moira's military had become better equipped in my absence. They all wore Chicago P.D. bulletproof vests and sported semi-automatic weapons. Moira, also, had dressed for the occasion: a sharp black suit and a Chicago sheriff's badge, apparently to signal her status.

"Your majesty," she said, bowing.

"Moira," Asterly responded.

Moira frowned slightly. "We've fulfilled our part of the bargain. Now it's time to fulfill yours."

Asterly looked grim. He considered for a moment, and then gave a subtle signal with a nod of his head. Two small trucks began rolling out of the subway tunnel and on to the ramp. They stopped in front of Moira for inspection, but she kept her eyes on Asterly.

A Guard uncovered the back of the truck and revealed a stockpile of weapons; guns, grenades, knives, even swords and medieval armor. Moira approved it with a wave, and several other trucks, humvees and other military vehicles followed. All of them were stocked with weapons.

"Excellent," Moira said.

"And our food, Moira?" said Asterly.

"Of course. And that's Madame Executive, actually, Asterly." Moira waited expectantly.

Lord Asterly frowned. "Of course, Madame Executive. My apologies," he said. It came through clenched teeth.

Moira smiled. "Oh, and one more thing. Your guard's weapons. Turn them over."

Lord Asterly stared at her, fists clenched. His guards waited on his order, some raising their weapons as if preparing for a fight. Lord Asterly nodded, ordering them to release their weapons. Reluctantly, they put their rifles on the ramp and slid them forward. Moira's guards picked them up and added them to the other stockpiled weapons.

"Our food," Asterly said, "please."

"Of course, your majesty," Moira said. She waved a hand and her guards uncovered wagons of canned food, ready for shipment into London.

Up above, the crowd of gathered Londoners cheered at the rocky edge of their city. Someone handed Moira a microphone.

"People of London!" she shouted. More cheers from above. "Welcome to the United Cities!"

The guards began rolling crates of food into the subway tunnel, past Lord Asterly, as if on queue. The screams from above became maddening. Moira was setting herself up as a hero.

And now that the standing government of London had been disarmed, there was no question about who was in control. I hadn't known about the deal with the weaponry - it seemed a small price to pay for some of the only food that existed in the Void - but I could have warned Asterly that Moira was up to something.

Soon, Asterly offered up 3,000 women and children to begin Moira's much publicized resettlement scheme - Chicago was going to provide for London's vulnerable women and children and simultaneously fight overcrowding in London. But as they marched out of the subway tunnel and into busses flanked by Moira's guards, I couldn't help but see them as hostages.

I watched Moira make her speech to these new citizens of the "United Cities" and couldn't help but think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

And I wondered if I'd just helped create a monster.