‘Guess they get tired of the taste of fish around here,’ I said.
‘Yeah, and them out there get tired of eating beef and mutton every day.’
‘Why don’t you bring some cows here then?’ Else piped up from her corner of the freight-car.
‘And what would you feed ‘em on?’ Harris let Else think about this for a second. ‘Cows eat a lot of grass girl. They need space to graze. Not much space around here.’
‘Ya know, I once saw a cow on top of a skyscraper in Sydney,’ I offered. Harris shot me a look.
‘No shit, it was pretty thin, and I dunno what they fed her, but she was up there.’
‘City people,’ Harris muttered shaking his head.
Daisy-Mae stuck her head in the train car. ‘Smoko,’ she said.
We hopped down and I explained to Else what smoko was while we walked across the dusty ground of the train yard. A gate swung open and we went into town.
Most of Port Germein turned out to meet us, men, women and lots of children, over a hundred people in all. Else relaxed and let go of me to talk to the kids who asked as many questions as she did.
We sat in the warm shade of a pub surrounded by watchful locals and drank fresh water that was almost cold. I felt weird being the centre of such attention. Daisy-Mae waited till I’d drunk my fill and then she started the questioning.
‘Where have you come from?’
‘Sydney.’ A hopeful murmur went through the crowd and Daisy-Mae shut them up with a glance.
‘What’s it like over there?’
I took a deep breath. ‘It’s okay. It’s not easy. We scavenge what we can and do what we must to survive.’ I could feel the disappointment, the despair and the hopelessness coming off the crowd in waves.
‘Is there any government? Anyone running things?’
‘Not really. The evols run things mostly. And they don’t have any kind of government. There’s a group based in the Opera House, they produce Tankbread and that keeps the dead happy so we get on with them okay.’
‘Tankbread?’ Daisy-Mae asked.
‘Yeah, uhh… like people, but bodies, grown in tanks. They feed them to the evols, and the evols don’t eat us.’ The murmuring started up again, with a pissed off tone to it.
‘You’re kidding?’ Daisy-Mae said.
‘Nope. Look I don’t know the high tech details. But in Sydney the dead rule. They tell us what they want and we do it. Or we stay out of their way as much as possible.’ Someone in the crowd laughed. I looked them over and could see they weren’t taking me seriously.
‘The dead don’t talk.’ Daisy-Mae spoke with authority.
‘There’s two types of walking corpse. There’s your local kind, we call them Ferals. They’ve been starved of human flesh for so long they’ve gone stupid. Turned into savage, mindless shambling, killers. Then there’s the city evols. The ones who get a regular feed of Tankbread. They talk, think, and act like you and me. Only a bit slower and well, they’re dead.’
The crowd erupted into angry accusations then. I’d been out in the sun too long. I was lying, crazy, fucked in the head. Daisy-Mae let them vent for a minute and then stood up and waved them to silence.
‘You feed people to the zombies and they act like the living?’ Daisy-Mae said, looking me right in the eye.
‘Kinda. Tankbread aren’t people. They’re just mindless human bodies. Grown in big bottles near as can tell.’
‘Growing people for zombie food like some kind of livestock?’ Harris looked disgusted at the thought.
‘Yeah, I guess.’ I’d never thought of it like that. Tankbread kept us alive, it saved humanity. Before the end of it all, I bet most of us never used to give much thought about where our T-bone steaks came from either.
The last hope faded from the faces around me. Way out here they had kept a dream alive, a wishful expectation that in a big city like Sydney things would be under control. Over there someone was in charge and in time, help would come as far west as their town. Instead they got me telling them about human sacrifices to undead overlords. I wondered if Daisy-Mae’s next order would be to lynch me.
‘Why did you leave?’ Daisy-Mae sounded more like an interrogator than an interviewer now.
‘I got in some trouble. We’re heading towards Woomera.’
‘Nothing up there but desert and nutters.’ Daisy-Mae sat back and folded her arms, daring me to challenge her wisdom.
‘I got told that’s where Tankbread came from. The idea of them anyway. There’s an old military base up there.’
‘Well yeah,’ Harris scratched his Santa beard. ‘They used to test weapons out that way. Nukes and such.’
‘What do you want with Woomera?’ Daisy-Mae’s eyes stared hard into mine and I felt a warm blush creeping up my neck.
‘If I don’t get there soon, Else’s gonna die.’
‘Why, is she sick?’ This question sent the crowd pushing back and chattering in alarm.
‘No! She’s fine! We’re both fine. But they are the only ones who can save her.’
Daisy-Mae watched me for a long moment. ‘Any word on the rest of the world?’
‘Nothing I can be sure of. Never met anyone who made it out of Asia, Europe or the States.’
Across from me Daisy-Mae nodded slowly. Turns out the great white hope was no help at all.
‘You can stay here if you want, train leaves tomorrow morning. If you’re on it, that’s up to you and Bernie,’ she nodded at Harris.
‘What happened in Crystal Brook?’ I asked. ‘We saw a lot of real dead people.’
‘Killed themselves,’ Daisy-Mae scowled and the crowd muttered in a dark undertone. They saw the mass suicide as a weakness, and yet there was some envy in their eyes even while they shook their heads in disapproval.
‘Alright you lot, enough of the questions, it’s movie night and I don’t wanna miss the coming attractions!’ Daisy-Mae, slapped her thigh and guffawed in time to the dry laughs of the crowd. I could see why she was the mayor. She had a way with people, like a mother. Comforting and caring, but also firm when they needed it.
We joined the procession of people going to the movies. The venue turned out to be an actual theatre. Inside we stood in line with a short queue of kids and adults as each child was given a small plastic cup holding a single piece of canned peach and a spoonful of juice as a treat. The kids took the front two rows of the bench seats in front of a low stage hung with a curtain of blankets and lit by fish-oil lamps.
I let Else go and sit with the young ones while hanging back myself. The audience whispered, the kid’s were chattering and looking forward to the show. What we were going to see, no one said.
Off stage someone beat a passable drum roll and the lights went out. only the swish of hand-fans stirring the warm air and the hiss of children shushing each other broke the silence. We waited as two figures came on stage, they introduced themselves as the Port Germein Players. We applauded as they lit oil lamps over the stage and the kids in the audience went still in anticipation.
I recognised the film as soon as they started on the dialogue. Sure it wasn’t an exact script, more a highlights reel, the remembered moments from a movie. The sort of thing we took for granted not so long ago. But not these kids. They were growing up in a world were real films were rare. The cast on stage changed roles with simple shifts in props and costumes. They used vacuum cleaners as Proton Packs and the ghosts were played by a third guy under a sheet. All of which had the audience screaming in mock terror. The kids laughed on cue, and I found myself grinning as I recognised moments I thought I’d forgotten.
As the show went on, I joined the kids in repeating the famous one-liners. By the climactic scene, when the demon Gozer asks Ray if he is a god, we shouted Winston’s famous follow on punch line as one. ‘Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!’
I glanced around the audience. Most of the adults were quiet, they’d seen this all before. One guy looked away from the stage
, his face wet with tears. I stopped grinning, seeing the anguish on his face reminded me of how much we had lost for ever.
CHAPTER 15
Daisy-Mae organised Else and me a place to sleep, a room in a house occupied by a family of three women. Jen her partner Lynne and Jen’s daughter Lisa, who introduced herself by announcing she was four years old. We left our weapons outside, leaning against the wall next to a loose pile of discarded shoes.
Else didn’t ask any questions about the two mums, which I appreciated. Each to their own, but having to explain their obvious relationship felt like too much work at this time of night. Harris didn’t stay with us. I figured he had his own place to sleep, probably next to Daisy-Mae.
Jen left at dusk, heading out to for a shift as a guard on the fences, leaving Lynne to prepare a meal from the supplies we provided.
Else and Lisa sat on the floor in the light of a fish-oil lamp and played with Lisa’s doll, which fascinated Else. I lurked at the front door step, dead tired, but too wired for sleep. ‘How old are you?’ Lisa asked.
‘I don’t know. Younger than you though,’ Else replied, stroking the impossible blonde hair of the doll in her lap.
‘Nuh-uh,’ Lisa shot back. Else lifted her head and frowned.
‘I wasn’t born like you. I got born like this.’
I readied myself to interrupt if the kid pushed it. Instead, Lisa changed the subject.
‘Missus Wilson has kittens. I’ll show them to you tomorrow if you want.’
‘What’s kittens?’ Else asked.
‘Baby cats. They grew in their mummy’s tummy. Just like I did.’
‘Missus Wilson had baby cats in her tummy?’ Else sounded startled.
‘No silly!’ Lisa’s laughter tinkled like the high end of a piano scale. ‘Her cat, Leo had babies.’
Else put the doll down, and Lisa immediately picked it up, having her turn at fussing over the small figure.
‘You grew in your mummy’s tummy?’ Else said quietly.
‘Uh-huh,’ Lisa’s attention now focused on changing the doll’s outfit.
‘I didn’t have a mummy. I got grown,’ Else said and the sudden grief in her voice made me shiver.
‘Everyone has a mummy,’ Lisa said firmly.
‘Not me,’ Else gave a sigh.
‘I have two mummies,’ Lisa put the doll down, stood up and wrapped her arms around Else’s neck in a gentle hug. ‘We can share.’
Lynne came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. ‘Lisa, time for bed sweetheart.’
Lisa gave an exaggerated sigh and pulled away from Else. ‘I have to go to bed now. It’s the rules,’ she said.
Else nodded and wiped her face. I’d only seen her cry once before and I think it still freaked her out a little. Like maybe her sadness had caused a physical injury.
Lisa gathered her doll and Lynne swept them both up and carried her off to another room.
I took a deep breath. ‘How you doing kid?’
Else sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
‘What?’ She wouldn’t look at me directly.
‘You’re crying,’ I said from the doorway.
‘I don’t like it. Make it stop!’ Else snapped.
This felt like one of those times when I knew that anyone but me would have been a better choice to guide her through the world.
‘You’ll stop when you’re done. Till then just let it happen.’
‘It-it hurts,’
I stood up, came over and got down on my knees. I hugged her like Lisa did. Else buried her face in my shoulder and cried. She wept in a different way than last time when she’d cried like a baby with primal fury. This was a welling up of deep sadness from somewhere in her core and I didn’t know what brought it on.
‘Shhh,’ I soothed. ‘You’ll be right.’
‘I don’t know who I am,’ she cried into my shirt.
‘Hell, none of us know who we are girl. Some people go their whole lives trying to work that out.’
Else lifted her head, gripping my shirt she shook me. ‘I’m not people!’
‘You’re as near as. Remember how I said you were special? I wouldn’t bullshit you Else.’
She stared hard into my eyes, searching for deception. I didn’t dare blink.
‘Will I have babies? Like Lisa and Leo’s kittens?’
‘Sure, I guess. If you want. You just have to finish growing up and meet the right guy.’ The blush rising on my face reminded me we weren’t so much straying into difficult-to-answer territory as hurtling into it with the same inevitable sense of catastrophe as an asteroid on a collision course with the earth.
Else sniffled. ‘Why aren’t you the right guy?’
‘Because you’re just a kid,’ that came out sounding harsher than I meant. She got to her feet and glared at me, defiance flashing in her eyes.
‘I’m just as grown as everyone else. And they can have babies.’
‘Yeah, you’re physically a woman, but you’ve got a lot of growing to do in here.’ I tapped the side of my head.
‘What does that mean!’ her hands curled into fists in frustration.
‘Just that. You’ve only been out in the world for a couple of weeks. You don’t know everything. You know a lot more than you did when we left Sydney, but having a kid is a big deal. It means being able to feed and take care of it until it’s grown. And that takes a long time.’
‘You will help me,’ she said with complete conviction.
‘Of course I will. But now, it’s just not the right time. Trust me on that.’
Else’s face darkened and she clenched her fists so tight her arms curled up. ‘I could just take Lisa with us. You can teach me how to take care of her.
‘Shit, Else! You can’t do that! You can never take a kid away from their family. That’s really fucked up.’
‘Well how do I learn then?’
‘I dunno, I’ll get you a baby doll or something.’
‘What about animals? If we had animals, they could have babies and I could help take care of them.’
‘Animals are for eating. There’s no way we can take care of animals, not out there.’
‘We can stay here then. I want to stay here.’
‘We can’t stay here. We have to get to Woomera.’
‘I hate you!’ with that Else stormed out of the house and slammed the door. Lynne came out of Lisa’s room and silently closed the bedroom door behind her.
‘Trouble?’ she asked.
‘She wants to stay here and we can’t,’ I got up from the floor.
‘Like long term? Sure you can. We could use more help on the boats, there’s always work for people with skills.’
‘We can’t stay. We have places to go.’
‘Like Woomera? There really is nothing out there. Just the dead, and the desert.
‘There has to be something.’
‘What is it you are looking for?’ Lynne folded her arms and waited.
‘A cure,’ it sounded crazy even as I said it.
‘For what? The evol plague?’
‘Sure, why not?’
Lynne laughed, a short sharp sound. ‘Because that’s crazy. If there was a cure, they would have used it by now.’
‘Wouldn’t you do anything you could if it meant that Lisa could grow up in a world where she didn’t have the constant threat of zombies outside the walls? Always afraid that one day they would get in and tear her to bits, or worse?’
She stopped smiling. ‘Come with me, I want to show you something.’
Lynne led me to the kitchen, a small room with bare shelves and carefully hoarded morsels of food in recycled containers. I waited while she opened a cupboard and lifted out a heavy calibre rifle.
‘There’s one bullet left for this gun,’ she lifted a small jewellery box from inside the cupboard and opened it. The long brass cartridge gleamed with a dull polish in the lamp light.
‘If all else is lost, that bullet is for Lisa. I
t will be quick, it will be painless and she will never become like them or die at their hands.’
‘What about you and Jen?’
‘We will take care of each other, if there is time, and if it comes to that,’ she said with a calm certainty.
‘I’d better go find Else,’ I backed out of the kitchen and fled the house as Lynne put the weapon away.
CHAPTER 16
The streets of Port Germein were busy at night. People worked by lamplight and most were armed with sharpened blades on short poles. I’d seen a lot of variants on the sharp shovel as a weapon. It worked on one or two evols, but if a mob swarmed you – the calmness in Lynne’s voice came back to me in a wave of chill. Saving a round for yourself made sense, and saving your last shot for your child didn’t bear thinking about. The shotgun had its disadvantages too, but it would have to do as Else had taken the sword with her when she ran off.
I wandered the streets, nodding hello at everyone. They all knew each other of course, and my celebrity status meant that I couldn’t hide. I saw people working fish skin into leather. This stuff is soft and pliable, strong too. In a few years they’d be wearing it as the main material for their clothes. Some already were.
Two sounds filled the night and at first I thought they were the same noise. First the dull undulating moan of the massive evol horde at the walls, and then as I walked, I heard the distant hiss of the sea breaking in gentle waves on the beach. Somewhere out beyond the barricade that ran along the Esplanade, parallel to the shore.
Port Germein’s residents worked hard to keep themselves secure and the mesh fence was reinforced with scraps of metal sheet, rusting car bodies and building materials.
I asked if anyone had seen Else, and got shrugs in return. The fence guards kept their gaze on the ground beyond the fence. Zombies stalked the sand and desert grass out there. The onshore breeze carried the smell of the sea, and the stink of their rot.
‘Cute blonde chick?’ A boy dressed in fish-leather pants and vest crouched on a ledge high up the wall. ‘I saw her running down that way.’ He pointed further along the line, almost to the edge of town. Out there no lamps hung on the fence posts. Only one or two guards patrolled along that section and the evols seemed to ignore it, probably in favour of the brighter distractions closer to the living heart of Port Germein.
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