by DB Daglish
“Did what? I don’t…”
At that moment a dull thud split the air and a cloud of dust along with shattered glass suddenly ejected from within the building toward the harbor. A split second afterward a bright flash of orange erupted from the lower front of the building, which seemed to jump slightly as a louder more definitive ‘whoomph’ reached their ears. A huge plume of grey, white and orange lit up the water and the surface reacted as if a heavy hail was falling; concrete, glass and pieces of internal fittings were discarded high into the air and all over the waterfront. Even as Samantha screamed in fright, her voice was lost in the third detonation which was further into the building and designed to weaken the main supports. This time not only the sound but the shockwave was felt underfoot and more debris sprayed out the eastern end and across behind the building that obscured their view
While women screamed either in fright or surprise, the men were hooting and hollering like they were at a football match. Even something the size of a football hitting the water not far from where they were did not concern the men, but the women were already running for cover under edge of the higher step of the wharf.
Ricki then appeared from the eastern side with his fist high in the air in celebration, and as the sound and debris settled down and a huge cloud rose into the air he joined the rest where they could see the building begin to burn furiously.
“Hey, you’re cut,” Ryan observed as he saw small bloodstains on Ricki’s back.
“Yeah, I got pelted with glass from the third explosion, even as I was running away. It is not too bad though is it? Karen will kill me if it is!”
“Yes, I just might!” she called as she saw the blood and heard his description of the events.
Once everyone had gathered themselves from the shock, the men congratulated each other and the women scolded them as they tried to explain it was safe. Those under thirty years of age had never seen such a thing and they were delighted, none more so than Ho. He loved fires but this was beyond words and he excitedly leaped around the place as he watched the flames climb higher up the building as the internal fire took a solid hold.
“But where did you get the explosives?” Janie asked.
“Found them at the storage unit a few streets back!” Lenny explained to his partner.
“Where you found the stuff for Tyler?”
“Yeah.”
“But they don’t store explosives in facilities like that?”
“We’ll only the person hiring the unit would have known what was in those boxes. We went back and Ricki set up a demo job. But I didn’t think it would be that big!”
Karen had Ricki’s shirt off and they picked out two or three shards and carefully rubbed their hands over his skin to see if he or they felt anymore. By this time Rita had been to the yacht and returned with some bandages and alcohol solution.
“Can’t understand why it didn’t drop?” he said to Don as he was being attended too.
“Well with the old fuel drums, I expected they would have helped. That building must have been well built?”
“Darn it Ricki, we aren’t going to see it fall so we may as well get set to leave,” and he asked Chris to organize the rounding up of everyone to board and prepare for departure.
The intent was to drop anchor near the heads, assess the weather and sail south east to the bottom of New Zealand for as long as it took to get there. If the weather was favorable, it should only take ten to fourteen days. Out on the open ocean again, if anything went wrong there was no safety until land appeared some twelve hundred miles into the voyage. Knowing no one lived at the old city where Don, Ryan and Karen had begun their new life in; they decided to see how twenty five years of neglect had affected the place. After doing this they could contact the communities about their plight before any survivors sailed away back to Oz again.
They had not long left the safety of the sheltered dock when a groaning sound filled the air. Someone yelled and pointed behind them as the shorefront building seemed to move, but oddly did not collapse. Their eyes and minds only took a second to realize that the entire building was falling into the ocean. Smoke billowed from the tower as the still burning concrete structure fell forward and exploded upon the water, sending more concrete debris to skitter across the surface. As it buried itself deep within the harbor depths a huge wall of water rose up some twenty feet high and once again the women screamed, aware they would be hit by this enormous wave.
Shouts from the men to hold on, had everyone grabbing something awaiting the impact. The loud hiss of steam from an extinguished fire reached their ears as the wave sped toward them. Harry looked across to Don in the boat alongside and he grimaced to reveal his thoughts. But although the wall of water sped toward them, it did not break and it quickly reduced as the depth of the seabed absorbed the force of the wave. In spite of this, all four vessels were lifted higher than the wharf, and to their amazement they could look down upon it, watching the waves smashing under the boardwalks and destroying what they had been tied to some three minutes beforehand. The backwash from the wharf threw them sideways throwing them around violently, a few getting hurt in the process, with two falling overboard. Just as quickly the sea subsided, mainly due to the depth of the harbor. Nim managed to climb back aboard but Bryce needed help and was dragged aboard with an injured wrist.
They drifted in silence, observing both the damaged dock and the semi-submerged building, still steaming away from underwater and still on fire on the back side which remained still exposed to the air. Around it the ocean was brown with disturbed silt, sand and dust.
A few began to laugh, either from nervousness, relief no one was hurt or the sight they had just witnessed.
“Woo-hoo!” Geo yelled at the top of his voice. “This is the best thing I’ve seen all trip. Heck, maybe all my life?”
With some cold stony stares from many of the women they set sail, following the line the old ferry would have taken. Bryce found some charts back at the terminal, and as the tide was low they decided to keep to the marked channel which brought them close to shore before tacking to starboard and around the mudflats. Ahead they could see a jetty and some movement upon it.
“Dirk, bring up the binoculars will you,” Ryan called below. When Dirk appeared he asked him to check out the pier on their port side. But the Gloria had already tacked.
“Well, Tia has seen somebody I think. That’s why she’s heading that way. What do you see on the jetty Dirk?”
“There is someone there,” he said. “Yes, I can see a girl. Well, she has long hair anyway, could be a boy?”
Dropping the main sail on the schooner they signaled the others to go slow while they watched the Gloria pull up at the end the jetty; although they appeared to be having a little difficulty with the swift incoming tide. Using the binoculars they watched as the person jumped aboard and the yacht hoisted sails, tacking back and forth until they drew alongside the schooner. They could see a very thin woman on board. She appeared to be in her twenties and she smiled and waved at everyone.
“Was there anyone else with her Tia?” Ryan called.
Tia shook her head.
“She wants to be aboard the bigger boat. Come closer and we’ll have her jump over.”
Chapter 13
As the two yachts touched briefly, the woman took Lenny’s outstretched arm and was lifted aboard as the Gloria swung away again. A brief discussion followed as the schooner then hoisted full sail and followed the edge of the peninsula until the last old settlement could be seen before the entrance to the bay open up to the open ocean once more. By now the tide was nearly full, and preferring to exit on an outgoing tide they docked at the ‘L’ shaped pier and introduced the new arrival.
“This is Maddy,” Chris said. When they discovered her age they were most surprised. At the age of thirty four she was relatively short and very petite. It was this that had made them think she was younger from the distance they spotted her on the pier. Not only was she n
aturally thin, she was obviously undernourished, and they first suggested she eat something.
“Not too much though, I’m not sure if I could handle it?” she insisted. “Being the only one alive down here I have not eaten much at all, I was very scared being so alone.”
“Did you not see our fireworks recently, back up at the port?” asked Rita. “It went on for a long time!”
Maddy shook her head
“I must have been asleep and if in fact I had heard it, I’m sure it would have seemed like a dream. But today, I heard a loud boom and saw smoke toward the city. I climbed up the hill to get a better look and I saw the sails?” and then a pained look came over her. “You know?” she continued “I was so fearful that you would pass me by that if you hadn’t come close enough to shore to see me I had a bonfire back on the street ready to go!” and at that she burst into tears. Rita was the closest to her and immediately hugged her while she sobbed her fears away.
Maddy was a very social person, and the fact of being all alone was frightening for her. She had woken after recovering from the outbreak to find all those around her were dead. Leaving the city tower block she wandered outside and toward the bay. Having grown up down near McCrae, she drifted there over a period of days and began to live a solitary life. She was not one particularly fond of fishing but learned how to do so and also begin to fix up some gardens around the beach area where she decided to reside. Maddy may have been scared on her own, but she was resilient. At least she would see people coming and going on any vessel, if that were ever possible. And yet, even here, she had missed the yachts arriving some five days earlier, and would have again; had the explosions not occurred.
“So you blew up a whole building and it fell into the sea?” she asked incredulously
“Yep,” Ricki confirmed, still beaming from the memory of it.
“But why?”
Ricki shrugged. “Just a man thing I guess. A way of leaving the city that took one of ours…”
“And brought you two more!” Gloria added.
“Yes. And the demolition has now brought yet another. Remember that saying from years ago,” he said. “Something dies, something else is born…or something like that?”
Karen laughed at her Beau. Close, but not quite right. She enjoyed the times he said things that weren’t fully correct. It made her love him all the more.
“What?” he asked as he noticed her watching him with a smile on her face.
“Nothing my love. Nothing.” And Karen rubbed his hair and put her head on his shoulder.
“Well Maddy. It seems that if we had not blown that building up you would still be alone, and possibly for the rest of your life,” Don pointed out. “Now - just to clarify something though…you lived through the second death?”
“Yes. I hardly got sick at all. Bloodshot eyes and stomach cramps but that’s all I had. I watched my partner take his last breath sitting on his chair looking out over the city.”
“Whoa,” Willo said. “On the top floor of the new base building?”
“Yes, why?”
“I climbed up there and saw him…or what remained of him!”
“Oh Michael,” Gloria scolded. “She doesn’t need to hear that!”
“Sorry,” he offered.
“It’s ok, I did not have the strength to drag him down and bury him. I knew the birds and rodents would get to him. It is what it is!”
“I use to live with those guys till they shifted after the attacks. I can’t remember you though?” Willo stated as he rubbed his finger across his chin.
“But I remember you. Well - now I do. The day I arrived you had a bag slung over your shoulder. You were saying goodbye to Aaron and George in the foyer area.”
“One leaves - another arrives,” Ricki said smiling.
“Yes, so it seems,” she agreed. At that comment and for the first time, a smile that captivated them all suddenly burst across her face. Her eyes lit up and they could see the inner and outer beauty displayed as this guarded and shy woman finally revealed herself. For this is how they would forever know her; bright, positive, social, loving...and each day they remained together, the more she became one of them and a favorite of everyone.
Maddy was quietly advised of the situation, with some of them being exposed to the second outbreak and expecting to show signs of it in a few weeks. It was also pointed out that at the very least, now she was among them, the yachts would have at least six people who would survive. The need to let their loved ones know of the predicament had formulated in the plan to sail home and then back to Oz, with whoever was still alive at the end of it.
The plan seemed a good one to her. Anywhere where people were, she was happy to be. Even if the voyage could be fraught with danger, the need to be with people outplayed that fear. So that afternoon they took to the open ocean on the outgoing tide and into Bass Straight, a dangerous stretch of water. They sailed slow that night, only hoisting full sail when daylight appeared and headed directly south around the western side of Tasmania. For two days the weather was fair, the winds strong and the swells moderate, but the third day saw a change and those of them that were seasoned sailors, were reluctant to venture out deep into the southern ocean with what they saw on the horizon. So, on Chris’ direction, the fleet swung west to seek shelter along the southern coast, throwing anchor at the first sheltered cove they could find.
The storm was from the southwest and sleet came with it. For two nights they hunkered down but the following day appeared bright and reasonably calm. There were no jetties in this quiet end of the word and it appeared they had stumbled upon an old remote holiday spot. A few old homes could be seen among the trees and along the beachfront; two with trees that had fallen upon them. Most came ashore that had not done so already and bathed in the creek, made fires or went exploring through the bush. For this paradise was like nothing they had experienced voyage.
“Where are you going?” asked Maddy as she caught up with Bryce walking up an overgrown road. “Exploring?”
“Yep!”
“Cool. I’ll come with you.”
Bryce had actually wanted a little time on his own but Maddy was so bright and bubbly, there was no way he could say no. Besides, if there had to be anyone with him it may as well be Maddy.
At the end of the road they found an overgrown area with a huge bronze sculpture of a whale. Clambering around the rocks they discovered a private beach and Maddy suddenly took off her clothes and ran into the ocean laughing like a school girl.
“Come on in,” she called.
“Oh, I…ahh…”
“Oh don’t be a prude. No one’s watching but me, and the water is lovely.”
But Bryce remained where he was, unable to figure out why his head and body seemed in conflict - but it was too late. Out of the water she walked and he saw the full extent of her small and perfect frame. ‘A little skinny,’ he was thinking as she reached him and began to pull his shirt off. He was speechless, but he didn’t protest either and then while she looked him in the eye she pulled off his shorts until he was as naked as she was.
“See?” she said a soft voice, “It wasn’t that hard was it?”
Bryce chuckled because now he was; and she had just noticed.
“Well, I meant the undressing, but never mind; and she turned and sprinted back into the water. Bryce stood there naked for a while, his mind not quite as engaged as other parts of his body. After a brief period of embarrassment, he charged into the water himself, tackling her and dragging her under as he went.
They surfaced screaming and laughing, both from the delight and the coolness of the water on their skin. For as long as they could, they swam and frolicked, but the temperature eventually began to chill them. Leaving the water they picked up their clothes and ran naked through the bush to what appeared to be a clearing within. She took his hand as they ran and burst into an open area where two old holiday homes stood. Much of the area was in re-growth but the trees protected them fro
m the slight breeze on their damp skin and they walked up to a balcony to dry off.
As Bryce turned away a hand slid around his chest and she pulled herself to him causing him to stand straight in surprise. Her hands moved lower and she fondled him until he became erect once more. She turned him around and pushed him back onto an old wooden chair, where she straddled him and kissed his unshaven face, getting more and more urgent in her passion as the seconds ticked by. And when she was ready she lowered herself onto him, both letting out a sound of release and pleasure all at the same time. In response she threw her head back with her eyes closed, then flipped it forward allowing her hair to drape over her breasts as she looked at him in the eyes, her breathing getting heavier as the second ticked by.
“Come on cowboy, nice and slow,” and she began a steady rhythmic pace until they finally thrashed around, almost breaking the flimsy chair before collapsing on the bare boards of the deck where weeds protruded everywhere.
As they lay in the sun resting she pinched something on his buttock under the skin.
“Oww,” he screeched in pain. “What are you doing?”
“Getting rid of an imperfection!”
He rolled over and straddled her. “Yeah, like you don’t have any imperfections on you?”
“But I do!”
“Where?”
“Sitting on top of me!” she teased.
“Oh, you need a good…” Suddenly he jumped up. “Quick, get up!” and he stood grabbing her arm. She pulled herself up, startled by the urgency in his voice. As she stood, she saw why he did so. A red-back spider crawled close to where they had been frolicking.
“Dang!” she said, “Imagine a bite on the bum from that?” They began to laugh, pulled on their clothes and had a brief explore of the small holiday cottage of whose deck they had climbed upon. Walking back they could see smoke rising from within the trees and she let go of his hand.