by Geoff Palmer
‘How do you deliver a microwave if you can’t go outside? They must have machines and stuff to do things for them.’
‘How do they know where he is? Where he go?’
Coral shook her head and they lapsed into silence.
‘He must be lost,’ Tim said, though he wasn’t totally convinced. ‘Look, we’re all pretty tired, and we can’t mount a search in the dark, so the best thing to do is get some sleep and start first thing in the morning. He’ll probably be back by then anyway.’
‘You are right. We can do nothing now.’
Alkemy and Ludokrus got to their feet and retrieved their raincoats.
‘Maybe he return while we are gone,’ Alkemy said, forcing a smile, ‘and now he worry that we are lost.’
‘Yeah, maybe.’ Ludokrus patted her shoulder and adjusted her hood, but when he looked back at the others his face was grave.
17 : Only Two
Alkemy woke several times in the night thinking she sensed Albert returning, but it was either the wind in the trees, the intermittent rain or shifting patterns of light and dark as heavy clouds scudded past the moon. Between each hopeful start she somehow drifted off again, sleeping in spite of her worry and disappointment. Now, studying the empty awning in the light of dawn, those snatched moments of rest felt like a betrayal.
The rain had ceased, but the sky was as grim as her mood. She retraced the steps she’d seen Albert take the night before. Walked past the Cadillac and headed up the grassy knoll on the reserve’s south-eastern boundary. At the top, she paused to look around. Here, after a short flat stretch, the ground dropped away into a shallow valley that formed the resource pit. Humans called it a rubbish dump because they hadn’t yet mastered the technology to allow them to reuse discarded things.
She surveyed the piles of junk, half-expecting to find Albert studying some piece of primitive technology, careless of the time and bemused by her concern, but all she found were gulls fighting over scraps.
To the left was the gravel track that led back to Rata Road. To the right, a long stretch of gorse that eventually gave way to rocky coastline. In between, just beyond the dump itself, lay a succession of bush-clad hills, misty and still in the morning drizzle.
She thought of his last words — ‘Won’t be long Alkemy’ — words she’d barely paid attention to. Now he was out there somewhere, lost or injured or ...
‘Hey! Hey!’
For a moment her heart skipped a beat. For a moment she thought ...
She turned to find Ludokrus running up the slope behind her.
‘What you think you do?’ He shook her shoulder, still breathless, still in his pyjamas. ‘I wake and you are gone also.’ He stood there gasping, staring at her angrily.
‘I just come to look.’
‘No. No, you do not. You do not go alone. We are only two now. Understand? Must always wait for other. Must make plan first, go careful. Not alone. Never!’
Tears started. She looked away. Ludokrus put his arms around her.
* * *
Frank was hosing down after the morning’s milking when he spied Em leaning on the rail that ran around the holding yard. ‘Gidday stranger. Been there long?’
‘Long enough to see you missed a bit by the milking parlour.’
‘And there I was, thinking you were here for the pleasure of watching a craftsman at work.’
‘Tricky is it,’ she said, ‘aiming that hose?’
‘Wouldn’t want it to run away with me.’ He gave it a flick in her direction. ‘These high-pressure things can easily slip out of your hand.’
Em narrowed her eyes. ‘So can carving knives.’
He grinned and shut off the valve. ‘Did I just see the kids heading off to the reserve?’
‘They’re getting an early start. Meeting the others at the caravan then doing a walk to Fantail Falls.’
He checked the sky. ‘Good day for it. It’ll be spectacular after that rain last night. The country air really is getting to them.’ He looked at his wife. ‘But something tells me that’s not what brought you out here. What’s on your mind, my sweet?’
‘Alice,’ Em said with a sigh. ‘She’d like a word, she says. With both of us.’
‘This isn’t about the other night is it? When she came back babbling about spaceships in the reserve and alien mice being held prisoner?’
‘I hope not. But she’s got a bee in her bonnet about something.’
‘Remind me again of the difference between having bees in your bonnet and bats in your belfry?’ Frank said as they walked back to the house.
Alice was at the china cabinet in the far corner of the kitchen when they entered. The glass door was open and she was checking and replacing the willow-pattern dinner plates one by one. When she was done, she closed the door and turned to face them, frowning.
‘Tea?’ Em said.
‘What? Oh, no. No, thank you.’
‘What’s on your mind, Alice?’ Frank said.
Alice took a moment to compose herself then settled at the dining table, gesturing they should do likewise. ‘I know you think I imagined what happened the day before last. I know you think I fell and banged my head or something. I started to think I must have imagined it too. Like an unusually vivid dream. But then other strange things started happening.
‘First there was that explosion, or meteorite, or whatever you want to call it. What a coincidence! Hours after I tell you I saw a spaceship at the reserve — poof — it’s gone. Almost as if someone was trying to cover something up. You heard what they said on the news last night. The experts reckon the chance of three meteors landing the same area in a short space of time is a billion to one.’
The kettle boiled and clicked off. Em made no move towards it.
‘The second odd thing happened yesterday morning. I come down to visit you two at least once a year, but I hardly ever go in to Rata. I haven’t been there for years. And I haven’t seen Norman Smith since he was running around in jodhpurs. And yet when I saw him yesterday, sitting out there on the back lawn, I recognised him at once. Do you know why? Because he was there too. Standing by the spaceship with the others. In my “dream”. All grown up. Exactly as he is now. That same unruly hair, the same T-shirt, everything.’
‘So ... what are you telling us all this for?’ Em said.
‘Because I’m going to speak to that reporter. I thought about it all last night. I thought about what she said about the meteorite mystery and that Latitude 51 business, and I think it’s important that people speak up and tell what they know.’
‘Well don’t involve us,’ Em said.
‘But you are involved, Em! You were the people I first told about the spaceship. Before it got blown up. Before there was any talk about meteorites or mysteries. I want you to back me up about what I said I saw. And when I saw it. Remember how I told you about it? I was standing right over there.’
‘You told us a lot of things, Alice. You were in a frightful state when you got back here. And no wonder. You must have got lost in the bush and somehow found your way out again. To be honest, the way you were talking, we thought you were a bit hysterical.’
‘I suppose you think I’m being hysterical now.’
‘Not at all.’
‘So does that mean you’ll back me up?’
‘No, because it really doesn’t prove anything. What about the other things you said?’
‘What other things?’
‘I noticed you were checking the willow-pattern plates when we came in. Those heirloom ones of Mum’s. You said one of them got broken at the reserve. That that was one of the reasons you ran off into the bush.’
Alice said nothing.
‘Did you count them?’
‘Yes.’
‘How many are there?’
‘Eight.’
‘Just like always. And do you know how I know? Because Coral returned it yesterday, with thanks from Albert and the children. It got overlooked in the subsequent excitem
ent. I rinsed it and put it away myself. There wasn’t a mark on it.’
‘I ... I can’t explain that, but I did tell you about the ship, didn’t I?’
‘You did, yes, but it was one story amongst several. You must see how this plate business makes it look. We just don’t want to get involved.’
‘How would it involve you?’
‘I’ve seen the sorts of books you read, and I know the sort of people that follow those ... ideas. They’d be pestering us for ever and a day. We don’t want that. We just want to carry on with our quiet lives here.’
Alice pursed her lips. ‘I won’t be put off, Em. I’m going to talk to that reporter anyway.’
‘You’ve always did have a stubborn streak, but you’re a free agent. You can do as you like. Just don’t involve us. Or the children.’
‘But they are involved. They were there, standing round the spaceship.’
‘They’re still children. And they not our children. Or yours. I don’t want them caught up in this. Is that clear?’
‘But—’
‘No buts. You do whatever you see fit. But you do it on your own.’
18 : Leaping Frog
Tim saw Alkemy’s pinched face at the caravan window as they crossed the circle of grass. She was brushing her hair and fastening it back with hair clips. She glanced up, saw them, and came out to greet them.
‘Still no sign?’
She shook her head.
He eased off his backpack and set it down. ‘Well we’ve got all day to help look for him. We told Aunt Em we’re going on a tramp to Fantail Falls.’
‘She’s given us enough food for a month!’ Coral groaned, dropping her own pack.
‘Well, maybe a week,’ Norman said. He was carrying a shoulder bag as he didn’t have a backpack. ‘We could use some of it for an after-breakfast snack.’
‘We’ve just eaten!’
‘It’ll lighten the load.’
Ludokrus came from the awning. Coral greeted him warmly but he looked distracted and gestured to the trestle table in the corner where the calculator was completing a collection of ropes, torches, compasses, first aid supplies, energy biscuits, whistles and waterproof markers.
‘Hey, nice work.’
‘Should divide between. Share the load.’ He began separating the things into four piles.
Tim picked up the receiver. ‘What happened to this? Someone leave it out in the sun?’
What had once been a flat black rectangle was now dish-shaped. It looked like a fancy rectangular fruit bowl.
‘Albert remake her yesterday,’ Alkemy said, ‘when he make more scanner block.’
Tim touched the power switch. The screen lit up. The same display as before, except the lines of the spreadsheet now bowed with the bowl shape. ‘It’s no improvement. It’s actually harder to read now. And still nothing since 14:22 yesterday.’ He turned it off again and put it aside.
Norman was watching Ludokrus separate the search supplies. ‘You’re only making four piles There’s five of us.’
‘Only four must go.’
‘What? Why?’
‘Because we must work in pair, like the soldier. Two pair of peoples, two group. Go two-by-two. First group move ahead while the second watch from behind. Then stop and swap. Like leaping frog, yes?’
‘So ... who gets to stay behind?’
‘Behind person is important also. In case Albert come back. Or we do not.’
‘Couldn’t we just leave a note?’
‘Also to watch receiver in case the Sentinel again begin the broadcast.’
‘We could take it with us.’
‘Should not put all the egg in one basket.’
‘So who ...?’ Norman’s repeated, his voice trailing off.
Ludokrus continued sorting the supplies. Coral fiddled with the straps on her backpack. Alkemy picked up the calculator, tucked it inside her pink school backpack and put that inside her larger backpack. Tim looked away across the reserve.
‘What are you telling me here?’ Norman said.
‘You’ve only got a shoulder bag,’ Coral said. ‘And you do know how to work that receiver thing.’
‘Yeah, like an on-off switch is really complicated. You could always make another backpack, you know. With the nanomachines.’
‘Still, someone must stay. Like command post, yes?’
‘No,’ Norman said, ‘I want to help too.’
No one spoke.
It’s not fair.’ He snatched up the receiver and stomped off into the caravan.
‘This is also help,’ Ludokrus called after him.
There was no reply.
‘OK.’ He turned to the others. ‘We make two team. Brother, sister. Yes?’
‘Better to mix and match,’ Coral said. ‘The Sentinels are after you guys. If you travel together, you make a single target. Besides, you should go with someone who walks about the same speed you do, so it should be Tim and Alkemy, and me and you.’
Ludokrus shrugged.
Coral looked puzzled. ‘Don’t you want to walk with me?’
‘Do we need that?’ Tim pointed to Glad’s map book lying on one side of the table.
‘Too heavy. Take only essentials.’
Tim called goodbye to Norman as he and Alkemy followed the others, but Norman didn’t answer.
* * *
The day was clear and fine. The night’s rain was now a misty memory on the northern horizon and they could already feel the heat building as they climbed the grassy knoll and skirted the perimeter of the rubbish tip. They proceeded as planned; one party leapfrogging the other with what Tim at first thought was unnecessary caution. But even here, out in the open, it had its advantages. Four pairs of eyes — two looking ahead, two scanning from behind — meant that the intervening territory was thoroughly surveyed. If it hadn’t been for that, he might have missed the first clue.
The boundary of the rubbish tip was marked by a pyramid of appliances piled haphazardly on top of each other. Old stoves, fridges, freezers. Discarded whiteware that was rapidly becoming rustware. Pausing to beckon the others, Tim adjusted the straps on his backpack, glancing up as he did so. Something caught his eye in a V-shaped hollow near the top and he immediately took off his pack and began to climb.
‘Hey, this is no time for—’ Coral said as she and Ludokrus brought up the rear, but she stopped mid-sentence when he dropped to the ground and held out a scanner block.
‘Ah ...’
‘We do not place this,’ Ludokrus said.
‘Nor did we,’ Tim said, ‘so it looks like we’re heading in the right direction.’
He slipped it in his pocket and they moved on.
Beyond the resource pit, things got more difficult. There was no boundary fence, but past the appliance pyramid the ground became rougher and the weeds thicker till they finally gave way to a stand of kanuka at the base of a steep hill. Tim sighted back along the way they’d come. It seemed logical to continue up the hill, but there was no clear path. If Albert had left any tracks, the overnight rain would have washed them away.
They moved into the forest. The bright day disappeared beneath the dense canopy overhead, and five metres in, the distant sound of the sea vanished, muffled by thick bush. They found themselves in a dense, green, twilight world.
Travelling in a straight line became impossible. They had to skirt, climb over or clamber under obstructing branches, and fight their way through tangles of supplejack and kiekie. There were fallen trees, rotted and damp, and broad ponga fronds that brushed past their faces like gigantic fans. It was like negotiating a complicated three-dimensional maze. Only the rising angle of the ground told them they were moving in the right direction.
Fifteen minutes later, they struggled to a small clearing at the top where a gap in the trees showed an endless progression of similar hills ahead, all as densely wooded as the one they were standing on.
‘This is hopeless!’ Coral dropped her pack to the ground and slumped
down on it.
‘I have no idea would be so thick,’ Ludokrus said. ‘Good job we have the compass.’
‘You’re not seriously thinking of carrying on, are you? Look at this place! He could have angled off in any direction. He could be lying unconscious a couple of metres away and we’d walk right past him. What did Norman reckon? Three hundred square kilometres? Of this? We’ve travelled about three hundred metres. We’ll end up getting lost ourselves. In fact, I’m not sure we aren’t already.’
Tim and Alkemy came up behind them and took off their packs, staring glumly at the view. No one spoke as they pulled out their water bottles. Tim handed round some snack bars. At length Alkemy said, ‘He say he will not be long.’
‘How long, not long?’ Ludokrus said gently. ‘Ten minute? Half one hour?’
‘One hour. He say one hour only.’
‘He can go fast. You know this. Even in this he maybe cover five, ten kilometre. But which way? We do not know. Maybe we already pass. As Coral say, bush so thick we would not see.’
‘We could spend all day just searching this hillside,’ Tim said.
Alkemy lowered her head. A tear ran down her cheek. ‘We cannot give up.’
But what else can we do? Tim thought. Search parties — proper ones — involved dozens of people, sometimes hundreds. And even specialists like Search and Rescue — highly organised and properly equipped — might spend days or weeks and still turn up nothing. What could four kids hope to achieve in terrain like this?
‘What was that?’ Coral cocked her head. ‘I heard something. Listen.’
They listened, straining their ears. There was nothing but a distant bird call. The dense bush seemed to swallow sound. Then they heard a snap and crack and rustle of undergrowth somewhere on the hill below them.
‘Someone’s coming,’ Tim said.
‘Or some thing.’
Alkemy got to her feet. ‘Maybe is Albert.’
Tim put a hand on her arm. ‘And maybe it isn’t. We should be careful.’
‘Whatever it is, it’s coming this way,’ Coral said.
They stared at the wall of undergrowth around them. The sound was getting louder, which meant that whatever was making it was getting closer. Fast.