Diary of a Survivor (Book 3): Apocalypse

by Pike, Matt J.

  That’s what we’re on the search for – a place that can house all that and keep us safe for however long we need it to if the worst happens. So, while it was great to have Ye-jun back out with us looking at New Adelaide in a new way again, there was a very sombre overtone to it. We were making plans for when things fell apart. While we busied ourselves in the details… you couldn’t help but having the why of the whole exercise in the back of your mind.

  Our first stop was the convention centre. Well, it wasn’t really a stop as such, we gave it a slow hover past, recognised it was just way too close to the oval and moved on.

  Over the next couple of hours we snaked our way through the remaining buildings from Morphett St to West Tce – looking at the strip between North Tce and Hindley St. From the recon, the best candidate was the remains of the Uni SA campus. We found enough there to feel we could stow our goods. We could build a protectable stronghold for however long we needed to stay and we had plenty of exits out should we ever be discovered. Big potential.

  Next we shifted back across North Tce to the site where the new hospital was being developed. Actually, it seems odd calling it the new hospital site because, well, no hospital will be finished there. Maybe we should just call it the never hospital. Anyway, it was not secure enough to be storing valuables such as food, and it was way too exposed to the road along North Tce. Hell, you may even be able to see signs of activity from the Morphett St bridge, which may as well be on oval grounds.

  It’s a pity really, because it had a lot of things going for it. But we couldn’t waste any more time exploring a definite no location, so moved on.

  We had explored as far west as North Tce went and were about to head back and proclaim the uni campus as our bug-out base, when Ye-jun said, “What about Adelaide Gaol?”

  As soon as he did, we all knew it was a good idea. Worth checking out at the very least. It’s funny that it hadn’t occurred to any of us until then. I guess it’s where it’s located… it off the city grid, away from any main roads and, until that moment, completely unnecessary to our survival needs. It just wasn’t relevant. And in this world, you have you mind so full of information that is relevant, other things just… drift.

  Adelaide Goal. The moment I heard it I knew. I mean, if… and this is a big if in our world… if it was close to being in one piece, it was the perfect spot.

  We piled into Phoenix as quick as I’ve ever seen. It was only a couple of minutes until we were heading down Goal Rd and squinted through the ash to try to claim first sight on the prize.

  Before I go any further, I want to get one thing off my chest. Who spells jail with a G? What were they even thinking? It’s just, well, wrong. Wrong doesn’t even do the scale of that spelling choice justice. If I had my chance, I’d send the inventors of that spelling and those who decided to use it for Adelaide’s first penitentiary straight to jail – with a J – do not pass go, do not collect $200.

  I would also ensure those who kept the convention going in naming the associated road did some quality hard time as well. I mean, they had a chance to send a message that the G spelling is NOT OK! But they did nothing but be enablers.

  OK… rant over… for now. Every future reference to the place that occurs in the pages will be spelled the normal English-speaking-human way.

  The jail had been retired from its designed purpose decades ago and pre-rock was just a tourist attraction (Kelly reckons they did ghost tours there). Anyway, it was somewhat obscured from the city grid, tucked away by the river in a secluded part of the parklands.

  I wonder if the same guy who spelt jail wrong in the name also gave Adelaide’s first prisoners a prime riverside place to think about their dirty deeds? Probably. He gets two life sentences.

  So there we were, nearing this potential awesome find, when something amazing happened. I’m talking world-class amazing… the stuff of dreams.

  It took me a few seconds to process the strange ash-shaped dome passing by our left, but as soon as I did, I brought Phoenix to a stop. We were still well over 100m away from the jail, so the others were asking me what the hell I was doing. But I knew.

  A few seconds of rubbing and removing ash with my sleeve at the top of this dome soon revealed what I was hoping for.

  The second Malls Ball!!!

  I had been searching for this thing since I found its brother in my very first trip into the city all those months ago. Everywhere I’ve been, everything I’ve done – everything – I have always kept my eye out for him. And, although my faith has been tested as time went on and hope seemed lost, I never gave up on dreaming about this moment. And now it was here.

  I let out a cry of elation and triumph into the sky above.

  Ye-jun and Kelly soon joined me in the celebrations and we just formed an impromptu hug circle and danced around like idiots.

  They knew what it meant to me. In fact, they humoured me enough keep an eye on the landscape with each mission we took. As to what it did actually mean to me, well, I’m not sure if I can quite explain it. At one level finding B2 (yes, he has a name) (yes, it was a he), was just a meaningless game – a way to while away the hours. As time went on though, and the puzzle got more and more complex, the mission just kind of grew a life of its own. It became bigger than it was.

  I mean, there was a tear in my eye. Happy crying was on the verge of happening… over a large metal ball! I know this will probably read as the bizarre actions of a crazy person… hey, maybe it is. But right then, I knew I would never forget the moment I danced around with Ye-jun and Kelly like school kids who’d drunk the entire classroom’s supply of red cordial.

  After we were nearly emotionally exhausted from celebrations we took a moment of quite reflection (so, if I didn’t sound crazy before, I definitely do now). But it’s true, we did. The significance of this moment, and how long it had taken to achieve, was not lost on us.

  As the backslapping faded, our attention returned to the reason we were there in the first place – the jail. It also didn’t take long for all of us to collectively decide the ball was a sign. The jail was meant to be our bug-out location.

  Of course, we hadn’t seen it yet and we had no idea what to expect, but even before we jumped back into Phoenix for the last tiny leg of our mission, we had already decided it was going to be successful.

  We were soon parked by the front entrance. The building looked in really good condition on first inspection, with the main building looking as unaffected by the tsunami as the stone walls that peeled off from it in on both sides. It was pretty exciting to think this place might be everything we were looking for. In fact, at that point it seemed our biggest problem was working out how to break into the jail in the first place. Yes, this did get some ironic laughter.

  We decided to take Phoenix on a lap of the exterior to see what we were dealing with and whether they may be any easier entry points.

  The walls were high. Even after the tsunami and ash deposits had been laid, they still stood well above ground level. They were strong, thick and stone. With the two guard towers as they were, the structure looked like some eerie mythical castle floating on a cloud of ash.

  But for the walls – as strong as they were – to have survived the tsunami waters, well, it was quite a feat. The western exterior gave us a bit of a clue as to why. There was a ramp of debris climbing to within a metre of the top. We reckoned that debris went a fair way to dispersing the direct impact of the waters on the side that would have taken the bulk of the force of the water.

  Either that or B2 protected her for this moment.

  The prison itself seemed to be in two sections. The main space, a massive half-hexagon shape riverside of the main building, and a walled courtyard on the North Tce side.

  Apart from the western wall, the exterior stood at least 2.5m above the waste and ash. While there was damage to some sections – there was a massive ‘v’ shape missing in the eastern most part of the half hexagon and a chunk missing from the western cou
rtyard area – it was remarkably intact.

  We decided to enter via the ash ramp on the west. It took a bit of effort to climb. The ash and debris had a give and unsteadiness that meant each step had to be a careful one. Once at the top, we had a great view of the prison proper – and it was good.

  A second internal wall followed the path of the external wall, a few metres in. Inside the secondary wall, six wings spanned out from a connected point at the base of the half octagon – like spokes on a tyre.

  At that moment, we just knew. The jail had everything we were looking for – and more. It was secluded, defensively strong, large enough to house our community, on the fringe of the CBD and the ideal gateway to the west. We sat alongside each other on the edge of the wall, collectively planning what could go where if we had to fallback from the oval. Below us our feet dangled into a sheer drop to the ash in between the two walls.

  We decided to revisit soon – hopefully tomorrow if all is quiet – and begin to prep the place as our bug-out location. We reckoned the best access point to the interior was via the v-shaped break in the wall on the east. There was another break in the interior wall not too far around from that on the riverside.

  This place could absolutely work..... if we needed it. If we could get safe access to the interior tomorrow, we could be ferrying things in there the next day. Hell, even if we don’t end up needing a bug-out location, I can foresee it playing a role for us in the future regardless. It’s just got that much potential.

  What a memorable moment in a memorable day.

  *

  We reported back the day’s findings at the feast that night. We’re going to take a larger group down with us tomorrow. Different people with different focuses will hopefully see a whole bunch of different potential uses for the space.

  The fact we had found a place that was almost exactly what we needed, plus potentially offered us a lot more in other circumstances means just about everyone is interested.

  It also has minds focused away from the gathering fight.

  *

  Playing through the what-if scenarios was important for us to guide our next movements and plans. For example, we are pretty much trebucheted out. By that, I mean we have enough of them to cover every significant point of entry Norwood might use. Not only that, we have seven weapons – seven! Ideally you want four people operating one – it just makes the reloading so much quicker. You can get away with three, perhaps even two – if they are both really strong (it takes a lot to wind that counterweight into position). That means, we’ve nearly got a trebuchet for everyone – and that’s not even taking into account the fact we’d need at least one lookout with each engine!

  True, the way they are placed throughout the key entry points into the city means there’s no way we’d be operating all of them at the same time – that would mean we’re defending the entire East Tce front and three points along South Tce. I guess the point is, constructing another trebuchet will have little impact on our overall defences now, whereas something else could have far more dramatic positives.

  We’re thinking on a few fronts here as well. Defence is obviously no.1, but now that we have the jail as a potential option in the playbook, we can perhaps start to consider the worst of the what-ifs a little more.

  Almost all of us are of the opinion we can hold them off even if they breech the walls on foot. And we’ve considered their numbers – even if they have double what we saw out at Norwood that night, we still think we can do it. Let’s face it, we didn’t have to kill all of them to win. If we do enough damage, they’ll start to realise they’re risking more than they’re gaining. Then they’ll retreat – just like last time. We know the ground like the back of our hand and we have multiple fallback defensive points between both fronts and the oval. All of these give us a massive tactical advantage.

  The one thing we need to do is make sure we stay oval side of any attacking force at all times. If we lose position to them we lose our entire strategy. Although an attack on foot is unlikely, as it would risk a lot of their lives, it is still possible, so we have to consider it.

  There is one path into the city that avoided no-man’s land altogether – and it was in the east. Theoretically, they could choose to cross at the wine centre, which could see them sneak through the Botanic Gardens and the Royal Adelaide Hospital site – all without being detected with our current setup. There are no roads through this part of the parklands. Just some pathways and a vehicle loop around Botanic Park. But all of those roads are beyond repair, so this is an access-on-foot area only.

  We need to do something to plug this hole. Even if they don’t use it as a main point of attack, they could use it for recon, or moving people on to our territory in general. It’s a big blind spot at the moment.

  We’re going on a reconn tomorrow with Jonesy. Looking at our map, we reckon we may be able to get full visual coverage with only one (at worst, two) lookout points. This will leave us with pretty full coverage south of the Torrens. Anything north of that point, will mean they are coming down from the same side as any attack from the north – through North Adelaide. We feel we are heavily protected on that side now through our wall defence system (although that is virtually unmanned at the moment). It’s also highly unlikely they’ll work that way if they want to keep their main advantage – vehicles. Jonesy is also going to go all-out booby trapping the entire Botanic Gardens area, so if someone is trying to sneak through, they’ll light up the world with flares.

  Anyway, like I said, it’s far less likely than a vehicle attack, but we need to consider it.

  It’s the worst-case scenario of their fleet breeching our perimeter that should always be the main concern. That will more than likely sink us. We haven’t dwelt on it too much, until tonight, with the jail now in our bag of tricks. We can afford to think about losing and bugging out because we can plan around something real now.

  So, apart from sending a delegation down there tomorrow to see what we can form as a plan of use for the place, it’s also opened up strategy options in the now. Jonesy is going to use the surplus wood and materials from the trebuchets to design and build a ballista (I don’t think that guy sleeps). It’s essentially a giant crossbow that can shoot epic arrows – more like spears – that could pierce car panels. Or it’s probably better to put it how Jonesy did earlier – if you lined up half a dozen humans, it could skewer them all like a shashlik. Nice one, Jonesy.

  I chose not to be concerned by the glint of excitement and pride in his eye when he said this. I think he’s already been working on plans for the thing actually – this is Jonesy after all. He’s actually going to help Jonah drive that project, while he sinks his time back into finishing Phoenix 2 and 3 and continue to revive mayhem cars 4-6.

  This is where finding the jail helped us plan our route forward. If Norwood do set tyre rubber on our turf, what good is our small mayhem of cars against their far more epic fleet, with trucks included? If it’s worst case, more hovercraft will be far more valuable.

  *

  Also, we won’t be digging roads to the jail. That place is staying completely off our excavation grid. It’s only to be accessed by foot or on Phoenix. It will be our secret as long as we can keep it that way.

  *

  Along with every other problem we’re facing, our ammo situation is quite depressing. Joyce has done a stocktake, which we also discussed tonight. While the numbers don’t seem too bad on face value, they are. Sure, we’ve still got well over half the rounds we started with when Shane and I hit guns-and-ammo-paydirt at the Adelaide Gun Shop all those months ago. The thing is, the bulk of those used so far were done so during the battle of the oval. In one night... probably in an hour or so. We all know what’s coming is going to dwarf that.

  Nothing would be more soul-destroying than out-strategising, out-manoeuvring and out-fighting a much larger force, only to be undone because we ran out of bullets. That’s a real probability right now.

  The only solu
tion we can come up with – in fact, the only hope we have at all of getting more – is to revisit the site of the gun store. We scavenged that spot pretty well initially, but our prize that day was the guns. We found plenty of ammo for our needs at the time... but we have different needs now.

  So, we’re going to head back out there when we get a free moment (I’m so funny), get down on hands and knees, with sieves if we have to, and suck every last bullet from the ash around the site. Then we’ll try again at the Marksman Firing Range for good measure. We never really did find any love there... and we know there is love to give.

  *

  Gotta go – Alyce is here.

  ***

  February 8, 2015

  So… that happened.

  Still spinning.

  I had walked her back to her room just as I had the previous night. I floated home and started on my diary. Just under an hour later there was a knock at the door and it was her. She didn’t even say anything when I opened it, we just connected. It was intense. Not just it – the moment – everything. I can’t really describe it, other than to say it was different than anything I’ve experienced before. Ever.

  Even different to the moment with her on impact night. Completely different, actually. Totally opposite is probably more to the point. That was a what-the-hell moment in the chaos of possibly our last day, this was, well... I don’t entirely know. But it was totally connected. And that history, like, knowing each other from before everything changed... I could feel that in some strange way.

  Anyway, it’s the morning after and I guess I’m trying to process something I know I’ll never forget. Maybe I shouldn’t, maybe I should just let it be something WOW that happened without trying to find a why behind it all. I can’t help myself, can I? Oh well, it happened, it was amazing and I’m smiling. Maybe that’s all the understanding I really need.

  *

  So, between last night, the jail discovery and all the focus on bugging-out and plan B, I think the Norwood situation is as far from my mind as it has been in, well, a long time.