by Matt J. Pike
I could hear the penny drop and his goonies start to organise.
Once I’d dowsed most of the petrol on the rig I turned, ducked and ran. I made sure the remaining dregs of liquid formed a trail in the ash as I went. The sound of shots started filling the air around me. I just prayed and ran, ran and prayed. I dropped the jerrycan as I made the final slide to my tree stump cover. I reached for my flare, lit it, then dropped it onto the pool of liquid near the jerrycan.
I watched as the flames danced along my trail and I turned and bolted before it reached the truck. When it did, I heard the ferocious woof of flame then, shortly later, felt the searing heat on my skin.
More shots came my way – nothing connected. I don’t even think I was in visual range anymore. I’m not sure really, I’d lost all sense of distance by that point and sure as shit wasn’t looking back.
Panic set in behind me – yelling, swearing and the barking of instructions.
I just ran.
I knew they were going to follow me.
*
I was gasping for air when I reached the Wakefield St lookout again. I could hear the voices of a posse behind me and they weren’t too far away. This was a problem given how much better the visibility was outside the ashfog. I knew I didn’t have long.
I came to a stop where I’d left the bucket of fuel and sucked in as many mouthfuls of air as I could while I poured the liquid over the base and side frames of the trebuchet. Then I trailed a small river of it out for about five metres. I flicked a lighter from my pocket and set the flames in motion.
Then I bolted for Phoenix. I could feel the warmth on my back as I ran. I could hear the voices gathering behind me. If they’d lost track of me in no-man’s land, they’d definitely have a calling card to find my scent again now.
I could hear their voices raise in urgency as they reached the burning trebuchet. I hit the corner and was out of sight an instant later. I traced my way back to the alley where I’d parked Phoenix, fired her up and left.
I also fired up the radio and soon realised all hell had broken loose down south.
*
It wasn’t long after Joyce’s last communicae that things went south down south. They had been slowly losing the arm wrestle as the ash sweeper kept inching forward despite Jonesy’s team unloading everything they had at it.
We had everything invested in winning that arm wrestle at that location – the ash sweeper, big rig and fleet of SUVs simply could not enter our lands. The problem was, the enemy weren’t all-in. In the end, it was their biggest strength they used against us to change the game – numbers.
They’d spotted that our death star surface was made of 2m exhaust ports.
Somewhere along the line, they’d sent a group out on foot. A small team must’ve flanked the two active trebuchet stations out of sight. It seems they circled further west, climbed the wall and approached from the other direction inside our territory.
They moved on the Pulteney St team – Ashleigh, his eldest Jacob and Jonah – and must’ve positioned themselves in wait for the right moment. When our team was loading the trebuchet, they fired. It all happened too fast for anyone to respond. It was over in seconds.
Jessie was heading to their location with a message from Jonesy and saw it all unfold – his own dad and brother. After the gunfire stopped, bodies lay around the base of the trebuchet. He ducked for cover to see if there was any way he could help. There were cries of pain and some movement he could make out in the dark.
The movement was one of our team inching away from the enemy. Jessie thought they were trying to escape. As he started moving in to help, the survivor called out – it was Ashleigh. “Jessie! Run!”
The commotion had enemy guns on Ashleigh again. As a second series of bullets hit him, a line of fire stretched out from his prone body. It snaked it’s way to the trebuchet and sent it up in flames.
Jessie ran.
Poor Jessie.
*
This must’ve been around the same time I was setting fire to the big rig. So, while the battle was swinging one way east, it was heading the other way down south. But Shane, Lana and everyone else were oblivious to all that.
They just saw that big beast of a truck go up in flames fast. The Fat Man and those in firing positions on the rig’s side ran for their lives as the flames took over fast. The fire grabbed some as they fled, leaving them to roll in the ash to stay alive.
Not only did those flames destroy the enemy’s biggest weapon, they lit up the battlefield and silhouetted out other main target – the ash sweeper. There was nowhere to hide now.
The damaged beast also entirely blocked the path created by the ash sweeper – no other vehicles were getting past.
The ash sweeper was already wounded. Norwood had managed to get another driver at the controls. He’d thrown the corpse out the door and got the truck under control. With the rig on fire behind him, he never got a chance to dig forward. Instead, he began manoeuvring to the side – trying to create a bypass lane around the big rig’s wreck.
The move didn’t last long. A rifle shot ripped through the now completely absent front windshield and must’ve struck the new driver. The vehicle stopped moving – again. A spear followed soon after and a load of trebuchet blasted rubble finished it off for good.
*
Somewhere around that time, Kent swapped the hovercraft for a thunderbird at Hutt St and headed to King William St to collect the trebuchet. No one had seen him make the exchange. So he had no idea about the enemy on our territory.
*
With the ash sweeper neutralised out east, Shane directed the siege teams to focus their fire on the SUVs. Conditions had changed significantly in a few minutes. Not only had we destroyed their two biggest vehicles, the gunfire, which had been sounding out at one level or another since the battle began, had gone altogether. It left an eerie dark silence in no-man’s land.
The trebuchets started firing blind into the space beyond the big rig, now fully engulfed in flames. Within seconds of the first shots launching long, you could hear the sounds of vehicles clicking into reverse and getting gone.
Although I wasn’t witness to the moment, once realising the enemy were retreating, apparently Shane flipped them the bird and told them to, “Piss off back to where you’ve come from.”
Then he jumped on the radio and spread the word about the enemy’s withdrawal, called us to down weapons and let out the biggest whoo-hooo! of all time. The celebrations spread across the entire eastern front.
*
Lana let the cheering and praise on comms continue for a few moments before raising a morale dampening concern. No one had heard from Joyce in a long time.
*
Jessie reached Jonesy’s team on Hutt St. They had already heard the gunfire and seen the flames coming from the Pulteney St site, and were bracing for bad news.
*
Down south Jonesy ordered the retreat. They destroyed any potential intel, gathered anything of value they could carry then put the trebuchet to the torch. They headed for the vehicles and were gone from the place within a couple of minutes.
There were two hovercraft and a car waiting to ferry them north. I can only imagine the mood among the group. Jessie without his brother or father, Marci without her partner and Angie feeling their pain. And Jonesy, I knew he would’ve been hurting.
Once they reached the first fallback engagement point, Jonesy got out and ordered the others back to the final engagement point – the one Joyce was using for comms. He told them to update Lana on the state of play and follow her instructions. Marci got out as well. Jonesy ordered her back in the car, but she wasn’t in the mood for taking orders.
The two made their way up to the first engagement point lookout and lay in wait for the enemy to roll through. Joyce, Angie and Jessie convoyed the three vehicles to the relay point and Joyce called in the update - something none of us would ever forget.
*
Her voice �
�� her spirit – both broken. She tried her best to keep herself together as she relayed the events in the south for Lana and the rest of us to hear. She relayed the names of who was with her, then added no one else made it.
The weight of those words fell out of the other end my radio.
That feeling must’ve stretched from the oval to the Grenfell St lookout and everywhere in between – the only sound on the radios for several seconds was silence.
It was almost like it was too much for everyone to process. We had lost a lot of people. Our defences had been breached. The grounds we failed to defend with 30 we now had to protect with 24... with the enemy moving inside our walls.
It all seemed so overwhelming to comprehend and a good outcome from all this... just impossible.
And things were about to get a whole lot worse.
*
Lana ordered Joyce, Angie and Jessie to return to base, then myself, Ye-jun and Kelly out to their current location at the last fallback point.
We could not let them get past or the city would be gone. Three people didn’t seem enough. Even if you added Jonesy and Marci it was not enough. Shane volunteered himself, but Lana pointed out the number that would remain east – it was grim. It was grim all around. A series of affirmatives sealed the plan.
*
Out east we said our goodbyes.
Shane and I shared a determined glare before we hugged. Then I turned my attention to Alyce and pulled her in tight. I remember the moment well. Everything had changed around us, we were all scared, but we still had work to do.
You can’t even scratch the surface of that in a moment, so you don’t dare. Instead you just do what needs to be done. And hope.
*
We had only just reached the bottom of the stairwell when Lana came through again. “Whoever is crossing the oval right now, please identify yourself. Over.”
This wasn’t one of her usual orders. I could hear the doubt in her words. Everyone could.
“Whoever is crossing the oval right now, please identify yourself. Over.”
We worked our way over to Phoenix and shared one look to acknowledge we all thought this was weird, and another one so we all knew we weren’t leaving until we had a resolution.
When Lana said, “Kent, is that you?” it sent the freakout levels into overdrive.
“Everything OK down there?” Shane replied.
“I think we have a problem,” she finally admitted. “I now see five people on foot inside the oval.”
“Shit!” spat Shane before repeating the word a few times while he thought. “OK. Jack – you lot head back home and get eyes on what’s happened. Over.”
“Will do, Lana – we’re on our way.”
Shane started rolling out instructions about making sure we approached from over Morphett St bridge where we’d be out of sight. To travel quiet and focus on getting intel, not getting into a fight until we’d worked out what we were dealing with, and, if it was too big to handle, grab Lana and get going. Then he turned his attentions to those out east, telling them to gather everything and be ready to roll ASAP.
This time I shared similar looks with Ye-jun and Kelly. It was our ‘this is it’ moment. The one we knew would come one day and the one we might not all come back from. I remember the looks we shared. They were love and trust and all the other things you don’t say. And they were looks I wish I could’ve shared with the rest of the New Adelaide crew at that moment – and all those we’d lost earlier.
We were in Phoenix and on our way. Shane heard the fans whirring and updated Lana. “They’re heading your way. Keep us updated if anything changes and don’t leave the war room. Over.”
“Roger that Shane. I can see at least 10 now. They’re moving in from the north east.”
“North east? They Norwood?”
“I... I don’t know.”
“Shit, well, stay put! There’s no way anyone would know to look there. Jack’s crew will be there soon.”
We listened in as we raced down North Tce. I was at the controls but Ye-jun and Kelly had their ears burrowed in as close to the radio’s speaker as possible, making sure they heard every word over Phoenix’s engine. Then they’d repeat it for me.
When we hit King William St, I told them to pass our location status and Kelly did so. On the other end of the line, Lana said, “Thanks. Over.”
We’d nearly hit the Morphett St bridge when Lana’s voice came again. This time she swore. She doesn’t swear. “They’re here.”
She had lowered her voice. “They’re at the door.”
You could tell in her voice she was scared... probably hiding as best she could. I’m not sure if no one knew what to say next or everyone was too concerned saying something would compromise Lana.
“Oh shit!” she said next. You could hear the fear in every syllable.
“It’s Duncan,” she whispered.
A sickening feeling washed over me. One that I will never forgot. A million thoughts smashed through my mind – none good. I have never hated a person more than I did Duncan in that moment – not even the Fat Man, not even Josh.
“Abort,” whispered Lana.
*
Shane chimed in on the radio at some point soon after and said, “Going dark, repeat, going dark.”
That meant we were going radio light on our communications – only to be used in an emergency. And if we did use the radio, no names, locations or any other sensitive information was to be discussed.
The timing was horrible. We had people scattered throughout the city – some in grave danger. We were facing two enemies (or possibly one combined enemy) on two fronts and our biggest advantage had just been taken away from us.
Shane had to make the call though. Duncan was in the war room. He knew where the spare radios were – he knew where everything was.
Rage welled within me as I thought about his betrayal again. We took that fucker in and made him one of us despite what he’d done to me. And now this.
I thought about the possibilities. This was either an allegiance with Norwood or the TTP crew heard the sound of battle over the last few days and decided to make their own move. Either way, I wanted to vomit. Worst of all, this was a move they would’ve had little to no chance of pulling off without Duncan’s intel.
*
We were just crossing the Morphett St bridge when the abort call came through. It was the first time in this world I really didn’t know what to do. Advance? Stay put and wait? Abort as Lana ordered? And do what? Head back east to get to the others out east? Continue south to protect the fallback crew? Head to the bug-out location?
I looked at the others. Their expressions said it all – we weren’t going to leave Lana alone. There was no way we were leaving her behind after everything that’d already happened. A short conversation later and we decided to leave Phoenix on the bridge and get closer to the back of the oval on foot.
*
On King William St, Angie pulled over in the car in front of Jessie in his hovercraft. She had the radio and passed on Lana’s updated order. Jessie wanted to head to the oval to rescue Lana. At that point Ange lied to him and said they were already sending a posse in. It was Jessie and Angie’s job to prep the jail for the arrival of the others, she added.
The two headed to safely.
*
Out east Shane split the team into two. One car loaded up all the supplies on hand and headed to the jail with a trebuchet in tow. Shane was in the car with Nate, Asha, Trent, Trav and Steph. Once they crossed King William St, Steph and Nate would drop Shane and the others off to go and find Lana while they would dump the trebuchet in the never hospital, then head to safety.
The second carload – Alyce, Laura, Mark, DC, John, Jenny and Jan – would grab the rest of the valuables/potential intel and tow the second trebuchet straight to the jail.
*
By my calculations we were in as many as eight separate locations by that point. We were spread over a fair percentage
of the square mile of the CBD and we had enemies breeching our walls all over the place. All of this with no contact – just a bug-out plan.
I remember thinking about Alyce – if I was going to survive this night, I needed her alive. I don’t think I could’ve come back from the place being alone again would take me.
I remember thinking about Fi, too. With Duncan’s stink over everything, I couldn’t help but go back there.
I wanted him dead.
And Shane, I remember knowing I needed him, too. He was my co-creator of this world. The one that was falling apart in front of us. I needed him.
But there was not much of that I could control. What I could control in that moment was making sure Ye-jun, Kelly and I played as smart as we could to save Lana and stay alive.
As we moved forward, I hashed out a plan. There was no way we could enter the oval now, we had no idea who or what was there – way too dangerous. And Lana was heading our way – if she was still alive.
Something told me she was.
We would all lie in wait near the oval-side entrance to the bridge. We would fan out a little to catch her whether she came in from oval No.2 side, through the tennis centre or from the main oval gates. Close enough to remain in eyesight of each other and to cast a collective eye over all potential Lana exits.
I told the other two I loved them and we embraced before we split. That was an easy love to offer out. Ye-jun and Kelly had been my sanity in this world for some time. Most of the ground I had covered across this city, they were by my side. They were there on most of my most amazing days. Those days were everything and that’s what they had given me.
Once we said our piece, we turned, separated and set our sights on finding Lana.
*
While I waited for my next story to pan out, many of my fellow New Adelaide citizens’ final stories will never be fully known. That will burn in me as long as I am in a state to think.