by DB Daglish
They appeared from the streets to find many people on the waterfront; a blackened peninsula further behind as result of the recent fire.
Chapter 7
It took six days to sail up the coast. The winds were not particularly favorable on day three, and they sheltered in a nice looking harbor and finally moored at the marina while they explored the town.
“This is Coffs Harbor,” Ryan said.
“How do you know that?” asked Samantha who had just jumped off the Taranaki and onto the wharf.
Ryan turned and pointed to the sign on the building they had walked past a moment before.
“Oh,” she said, embarrassed at the lack of her own observation. “I thought you recognized the place!”
“No. I have never been here. But with age brings experience Sam. Quick observations are helpful. For instance…ahead of us…what do you see?”
“Buildings. The rail line and sign with pigs on it!”
“Nothing else?”
“No!” she said.
“That building with the pig sign…there was someone watching us and is now hiding to the left of the far left window. Can you see them?”
“No!” she said.
“That is because they have ducked down as we talked. But there is a person there. If they are hiding, they can come to us. But notice anything else?”
She looked around and as her gaze moved the apartment buildings two things caught her attention. “The garden there is not over grown and I can see a cat!”
“Well,” laughed Ryan, ‘That’s one thing I didn’t see. So if there are cats, that is a good sign compared to Newcastle. But a kept garden means what?” he asked.
“People!” she said. “So even without actually seeing someone, there is evidence of people here!”
“Yes, but they are shy…” and he turned and put this hand up so those following would stop. Ryan and Samantha had walked faster than the others and were some way ahead.
“What’s up?” asked Ricki as the others caught up. “There are people here but they are hiding. Should we withdraw, sit down and wait, or just explore and see what happens?”
Ricki saw the problem and his answer was quick and logical. “This is their town, how would we feel if a huge number of people walked into New Haven unannounced. Especially when we weren’t expecting them? You stay here and keep everyone back behind the railway line. Keep an eye on me,” he instructed, walking into the middle of the intersection before sitting down with his legs crossed – well, as crossed as a fifty five year old could manage anyway!
A long time passed until the cat Samantha had noticed tentatively crossed the road and finally rubbed its head against up and down Ricki’s back. Finally a young woman came out of the building in front of him, crossing the road slowly and cautiously. From his right Ricki perceived movement from the apartment building, but he kept his gaze focused on the young woman.
She raised her palm to her left, stopping the others approaching and then sat down in front of Ricki.
“Is this how it’s done?”
“Is this how what’s done?” he asked, a little confused.
“New contact!”
He looked puzzled then it hit him. “Oh, you mean sitting down?” he said as he laughed. “No. I just didn’t want us to appear threatening - because we aren’t! We are just travelers on our way north!” and Ricki turned his head sideways to where a small group of younger people stood, one with a rifle.
“Do you feel threatened by us?” he asked.
“Not really…not now. At first…it’s just that we haven’t seen anybody for many years, that’s all!”
“Can I stand up?”
“Of course you can,” she said as she stood to her feet and offered Ricki her hand by which to pull him up. “I’m Jade. I’m the leader here.”
Ricki looked toward the small group. They were all young and three of the seven were under five years of age he guessed.
“That’s a pretty serious looking rifle you’ve got there?” he said to the tall one.
“Yeah!” was his only reply.
“Is it sighted?”
“Well enough!”
“Can I show you something with it?” Ricki asked.
The boy looked suspicious but Jade took a risk. “I don’t think they’ll hurt us?” she said. “Give it to him!”
Reluctantly the weapon was handed over. Ricki pulled out the cartridge case, checked it, and whacked it back in. Raising the rifle to his shoulder he took aim and within three seconds a shot rang out. The street lamp four posts up the street shattered, glass tinkling as it fell and hit the road below. Quickly he aimed down and left, and shot at the speed restriction sign at half the distance.
“Someone go and check the sign,” he said.
“Why?” Jade asked. “I can see from here. There is a hole inside the zero!”
“But not in the middle of it. I must be getting rusty in my old age,” and he handed the weapon back. “Thanks…?” and he paused for the name.
“Rick!”
“No shit. I’m Ricki. Can you shoot like that Rick?”
“Nah, not that quick anyway.”
In handing the weapon back, a trust was instantly gained and Ricki motioned his friends up to meet the residents of that place.
Their story was a sad one. Two had survived the death in that place all those years ago. They knew each other, but as he was forty years old and she only twenty, it was an awkward few months. They took some time to connect but eventually they had children – five of them in fact. When Jade - the oldest, was five, Barry died. It was sudden and probably a heart attack her mother had said. At that part in the story Rita asked a question.
“Jade, where is your mother? She would only be about forty seven wouldn’t she?”
“She died about ten years ago,” she replied quietly as her eyes dropped.
“So you’ve been all alone since then?”
“Yes. But we cope well enough.”
“So you are all her children? - no, hang on, you can’t be!” Rita said realizing the answer herself.
“No. Some of us have had our own.”
“But you’re all brothers and sisters. That…is not right…”
“What choice did we have? If we don’t do this we will all die and for all we knew we were the only ones left alive!” she challenged.
“Hey. Easy, I was not meaning to judge,” Rita calmed her down.
Don now cut into the conversation.
“So, am I right in assuming none for you have seen anybody else, nor traveled anywhere to find anyone else?”
“We did see one years ago when Josh was little. I don’t know what happened to him. Dad took him away and we never saw him again.”
“Did your Dad say where he went?”
“No. And we never asked.”
“So we are the first group of people you have seen since you were born?”
“Yes!”
“Wow. And none of you have even tried to get to other places to see if others exist?”
“No. Why would we? There is no way of knowing, it could be dangerous and we are comfortable here.”
“Yes. Fair enough. Now - would you feel comfortable hosting us for a night?” and she gestured her hand at those behind her.
“I…we…I’m not sure if we have supplies enough to feed you all,” she said as her shoulders dropped.
By now Tia had drawn near. Being as young as they were, she assumed they would not feel threatened by her approach.
“Hi, I’m Tia,” she said. “I’ve heard what you said. So how about we feed you guys tonight? We can always get more supplies elsewhere, but if you don’t leave this town your own stocks are limited.” She turned back to the others. “How about it guys, we feed them tonight?”
Most nodded and Tia took over from that point on, greeting them all one by one and putting them at ease. The quarters these young ones lived in were well set out. They had good cooking gear and open brick fires covere
d by old steel plates. The cooking site was a bit primitive - but it worked. Food was brought from the boats and they decided to treat them some meat. The guys went behind the town with Rick, shooting some roos and rabbits to put over the fire. The lamb was also slaughtered and that meat was given to those they had met.
These young second generation survivors, had no real weapons other than the one rifle, fishing spears and two old hunting bows, one with its string about to break. Seeing that, Josh returned to the Southern Spirit and brought back a near new one and some hunting arrows and presented them to Will, the third oldest. He willingly accepted it. There was nothing reserved about his display of joy at receiving it, and immediately he went across the rail tracks to try it out.
This young family appeared self-sufficient, and there was no point in explaining the dangers of family genetics as they probably had no notion of it. They had been brought up well by their parents before they died. Whatever education they had, seemed to serve them well, but it was obvious they were ignorant of many other things. However, in this new world, how could they use that knowledge and by the fourth generation it would have disappeared anyway.
The four yachts left the following morning as the family waved goodbye from the headland. Once again this small family were all alone; and they were happier that way.
Coffs Harbor was only about two hundred nautical miles up the coast from Sydney. As they continued to sail close to shore, they could see numerous small harbors, yet their entrances were narrow and there was no need to explore uninhabited places so the risks were not warranted with a strong swell. Smoke from a fire far inland was spotted at one point, but they decided not to investigate.
Sailing by one final headland they could see the mass of tall buildings of what was once the Gold Coast. Passing a river, they could see it was high tide and with the wind being onshore, they decided to attempt to gain shelter here.
Harry radioed to say he would try first and he easily cruised under sail into the river and into a sheltered but shallow bay, just inside the entrance.
“Easy as guys. Go next Tia - over,” he called.
First Tia, then Geo with the Taranaki entered the small bay and tied up at the jetty. All went ashore and waited for the schooner to attempt the entry. As it did the tide seemed to change, as well as the wind, which unusually swung off shore. Therefore they had no option but to stay out at sea until the next morning on the incoming tide.
“First time we’ve been separated all journey,” laughed Bryce as they finally tied the yacht up. “It felt weird being just out of reach of everyone else.”
Bryce didn’t mind daytime sailing, but he wasn’t all that keen on sleeping inside the yachts while on the open ocean. Why he agreed to come in the first place, no one knew for certain.
Those on the schooner were introduced to a group of seventeen who lived there. They reported there were four groups in the Brisbane area. Being the most southern grouping, they had little contact with anyone from the city. A smaller group of twelve or so inhabited the canal areas of the Gold Coast, a group of similar size existed at Redcliffe in the bay, and they mainly existing from fishing. But the most amazing revelation was the main city group, and Jackson explained how it was.
“I’m thirty-seven,” he began. “I was living in an inland suburb when the virus hit. It took me a week to recover, but when I did I found someone else from my neighborhood alive. Ha!” and he laughed as he pointed to a very attractive woman. “To find it was a girl I went to school with was amazing. The odds of that happening…” and he shook his head. “Taylah and I have been together since then and have three kids of our own now.” He looked around the shoreline of the lagoon. “Yep, that’s them over there with the others.”
“So you said the central city was different?” Ricki asked.
“Hey are you Maori?”
“Yes, why?”
“I had a Maori family living next to me when the deaths occurred. They had only just arrived from New Zealand…ahh…Taronga or something like that?”
“Tauranga!” Ricki corrected. “That’s where I’m from. My best mate shifted over here the year before…” and he stopped.
At the same time Jackson had the same thought. “My friend was called Tama.”
“And his dad was called Rongomai?” asked Ricki.
“I only knew him as Mr Hetaraka!”
Ricki sighed loudly and gave Jackson a man hug. “You know…” he said stepping back. “You are the only one person I’ve known since the deaths who has any family connection. You probably don’t know how special that is to someone like me?”
“You’re welcome mate.”
“Haere Mai.”
“Yeah,” Jackson exclaimed. “That’s what Mr. Hetaraka would say to me every time I came over. He was a nice guy.”
“He most certainly was,” Ricki said sadly.
“What did it mean?”
“What did what mean?” Ricki asked.
“Those words?”
“Haere Mai?”
“Yeah!”
“Welcome, come in!”
“Well Ricki, you and all these people are all certainly welcome here.”
“Thank you,” Harry cut in, “But you were saying about the central city?”
“Oh yeah! After Taylah and I had recovered the shock of it all we began wandering, going from suburb to suburb looking for others on our bikes. We couldn’t drive and I didn’t want to try; with no one left to help us if we got hurt. Anyway, we finally got to the city center after a few days. We found about a hundred or so people gathered downtown near a big apartment block. They were all Japanese!”
“Just Japanese? All alive?” exclaimed Angel. She was of Taiwanese decent and the fact that so many of one race, similar to the own were in one place, was startling.
“Weird aye! Most of them knew each other as it turns out they were from one of the southern islands. It was strange as they had no idea why they lived and others didn’t.”
“Maybe it was diet or something that gave them immunity?” suggested Mik who rarely said anything.
“But if it was a general diet all Japanese would be alive,” Ricki noted.
“What about a local diet? Jackson just said they were all from a local area. What if there was something specific to that place they drank or they ate. Would that explain it?”
“Yeah maybe?” Jackson agreed. “Hey, how long are you guys here for anyway?”
“Oh, no specific time frame really. We are just exploring to see how others are coping and then return home,” added Chris.
“Well, let’s show you our friends. The others saw them last night.”
“There are more of you?”
“Not the human kind!”
A friendly dolphin population often visited the bays. These were the descendants of the dolphins that used to belong to the aquatic park. They were now very tame, just like back at New Haven. Everyone spent a day frolicking in the sea with them, much to the delight of Faith, Dirk and Rosa. Although having dolphins on Lord Howe, they had never seen so many that were unafraid, and sought out human attention.
The following day was dark and gloomy. Thunderclouds threatened over the hills and a lightning storm further inland could be seen lighting up a wide expanse of the horizon. They had planned to sail up into Brisbane proper but waited to see if the storm would ease or intensify. It slowly rolled north, the winds increasing with it and eventually the rains came, and they came with an intensity few had seen for a very long time.
It was evening before the winds died down and the sky had finally emptied itself on the coast. The creek than ran through the town was now full, and the edge of the sea had turned brown as a result. They sat in the buildings all that day and talked with the community, and discussed more about the ‘Asian mystery’, they called it.
A cloudy day greeted them after dawn, and the winds had abated enough for a decision to push on to Brisbane city itself. They were tempted to try access to Moreton Bay
from between the islands, but had been advised, by one in the know at Coolangatta, to take the safer route to the north and this they did. Both the tides and the winds were favorable and by evening they were hosted by those at Redcliffe.
This group consisted of just nineteen people, including children, and as described the day before, they existed essentially as fishermen. This group often traded fish to the Japanese for items they scavenged and rebuilt in the city, but it was becoming obvious to those at Redcliffe that they did not need the city community as much as they needed them. That was a secure position to be in, and those in the city sometimes seemed begrudging of it.
The schooner was chosen as the single vessel they would use to sail up the Brisbane River. Its usual crew would take it to the botanical gardens, a triangular peninsula of land in the center of the city. A few decided to use the six bicycles that the community offered and three horses would also go with them. That journey would take about two hours and they would probably arrive at the ‘Asian Arena’ first. This is what Riley, one of the twenty year olds at Redcliffe called the area in which the city ones lived.
A single narrow longboat was loaned also, and six took this down the harbor and up the river. They would share rowing duties along the way, even swapping with those from the schooner if needed. One of the portable radios that still worked was charged from the communities windmill power. It was taken on the one of the bicycles so they could communicate with the schooner should anyone need any warning. After all, these city dwellers had never seen a group of twenty four descend on the city at once, let alone unannounced. Only Josh and Rita stayed behind. They loved fishing and volunteered to help with the days catch.
The crackle of the radio interrupted the banter on the schooner and Tia’s voice filled the cabin.
“Got your ears on? – over.”