Fallout

by Chris Morphew

  There was a keypad next to the entrance. Amy hammered in Reeve’s code. The double doors edged slowly apart, trundling away into the walls. Amy leapt back in case anyone decided to come at her from inside.

  ‘Go!’ said Reeve, vaulting over the fallen tree in front of him. We sprinted into the clearing.

  Amy shifted from foot to foot. We must have seemed torturously slow to her. ‘Hurry! Hur–!’

  Another blast of gunfire ripped through the clearing, and she fell to the ground, screaming.

  Chapter 14

  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5

  8 DAYS

  I spun in a circle, heart hammering. Where were they shooting from?

  Soren froze. ‘Back! Go back!’

  ‘No! Get her inside!’ Reeve pointed his rifle up above our heads and any argument from Soren was silenced by another roar of weapons fire.

  Then I saw it. An open window on the top level.

  ‘Jordan!’ shouted Kara, wrenching my attention away. ‘Over here! Now!’ She was stooped over Amy, stretching out her leg. Kara dug her fingers into an already-tattered patch of Amy’s jeans and pulled, ripping them open at the thigh. Amy cried out again, a strained, accelerated sound, way past controlling the speed of her voice. Her right leg was a mess, torn open and glistening with blood. The rain spattered against the wound, trailing pale red streaks across her skin.

  Kara tore the jeans down to the ankle and pulled the shredded fabric aside. ‘Take that off,’ said Kara, nodding at my jumper. ‘Give it to me.’

  I pulled it over my head as Reeve let off another spray of bullets. Amy groaned, clutching her leg.

  ‘Calm down,’ said Kara, squeezing the worst of the water out of the jumper and knotting it around Amy’s leg. ‘You’re going to be fine. Hold still and let me stop the bleeding.’ She pulled the knot tight and Amy gasped.

  I glanced over my shoulder at Luke’s dad, who was standing guard at the door, rifle in hand. Luke was with him, staring at Amy with wide eyes. It looked like Soren had already run inside.

  ‘Can you stand?’ I asked Amy as I hefted her up.

  ‘I – I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I think –’ She broke off into a shrill scream and slumped down again.

  ‘Here,’ said Luke’s dad, scooping her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. He ran through the door just as Reeve came racing up behind us.

  ‘Quick as you can, guys,’ Reeve said, forcing himself to stay calm.

  We followed the others inside, and I realised the firing from upstairs had stopped. ‘Did you…?’

  ‘Hurt him?’ said Reeve. ‘No. Just a warning. Not the best way to start a conversation, but he didn’t give me a whole lot of choice.’

  ‘Idiot,’ said Soren, appearing in the doorway with a rifle he’d found inside. ‘You are here to end a conversation, not –’

  ‘Quiet,’ said Kara tersely, and Soren shut up.

  The ground floor of the armoury was one huge, open room divided up by row after row of racks and shelves and storage units. A department store for dictators. Reeve moved to the front of the group and led us down the nearest aisle. ‘Stay low, everyone.’

  We passed by racks of rifles like ours, followed by shelves piled with hundreds of boxes of what I assumed was ammunition. Reeve stopped. ‘Somebody grab some of these.’

  Luke started piling boxes into the empty bag on his dad’s back, careful not to bump Amy, while Kara and Soren stopped to load their weapons. I dug my nails into my bare arms, wanting to go over there and rip the rifle right out of Soren’s hands.

  ‘Good,’ said Reeve, as Luke tugged the zipper closed. ‘All right, this way.’

  We moved off again. Kara and Soren stayed back, still stuffing around with their weapons. I hissed at them to hurry up.

  Reeve led us down the next aisle, past big stacks of boxes with labels I couldn’t make any sense of. Reeve seemed to know what he was looking at though, because he shook his head and said, ‘No. None of this.’

  I looked around at the ceiling. According to Reeve, there were two more guards. So what were they –?

  Reeve spun around, signalling us all to stop. Kara and Soren scurried to catch up. Reeve put a finger to his lips, and they stopped moving. Amy’s ragged, rapid-fire breathing continued for a second longer before she bit down on her fist, holding her breath.

  Silence. Almost. All except for the faint footsteps padding on the concrete floor, maybe a couple of aisles over.

  ‘That you, Webb?’ Reeve called out.

  No answer. The footsteps stopped.

  ‘Yeah, I thought so,’ said Reeve grimly. He raised his voice. ‘We’re not looking for a fight, mate. How about you just sit tight and let us get what we came for?’

  Still nothing. Reeve nodded down the aisle and we kept walking. Soren fell back again, muttering something about Reeve giving away our position. He pointed his weapon behind us, ready to open fire on anything that moved.

  Down the next aisle, still no guards in sight. Reeve brought us to a stop again alongside a cabinet filled with bricks of grey-white plasticine-looking stuff that I recognised from a hundred different action movies. C-4. Plastic explosives.

  Shackleton really had planned for every contingency.

  Reeve smashed the cabinet open with the butt of his rifle. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, catching the look on my face. ‘Not going to use it on people. Stick some in my bag, will you?’

  Luke eyed Reeve nervously as I piled the bricks into his backpack. ‘Is that safe?’

  ‘Should be,’ said Reeve, picking up some other wires and stuff and passing them back to me. ‘This stuff doesn’t detonate on physical impact. You’d need –’

  A volley of gunfire cut the conversation short. I looked back to see Soren clutching his rifle with jittery fingers and Officer Webb ducking for cover at the end of the aisle.

  ‘Stay back!’ Soren yelled. ‘Next time, I will not miss!’

  ‘You really want to do this, Webb?’ called Reeve, shooing us all away to the other end.

  ‘You shouldn’t have come here!’ said Webb. ‘You know we have to defend this place.’

  ‘She’s only sixteen, Webb. The girl you shot –’

  ‘That wasn’t me! It was Reynolds!’

  ‘And what about you, mate? Coming up behind us with a –’

  ‘They have my kid!’

  Soren opened fire again, knocking something loose at Webb’s end of the aisle and sending a pile of boxes crashing to the floor.

  ‘Soren!’ I snapped.

  He glared back at me. ‘No more talking!’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Reeve. ‘He’s made up his mind. Come on.’

  We raced to the end of the aisle. All except Soren, who stayed planted to the spot, aiming another spray of bullets down at Officer Webb.

  ‘Soren!’ I yelled again. ‘Get up here!’

  ‘Jordan,’ said Reeve from around the corner.

  I darted around the end. Reeve was up at the back wall, hefting what looked like a gas canister down into Luke’s arms. ‘I think we’ve found what we’re looking for.’

  Luke grunted under the weight. Kara had slung her rifle over her back and was lugging a second canister. Reeve brought down a third and handed it to me. ‘Here.’

  ‘What’s this?’ I asked.

  Bits of concrete shot into the air as bullets tore up the ground only a metre or two away from us. We dived for cover, crouching low behind the shelves. I closed my eyes, forcing myself to stop shaking and breathe.

  Reeve pointed his rifle towards the ceiling, searching for the source of the gunfire. He shifted around, sights landing on a figure crouched at the top of the emergency stairwell in a far corner. ‘There you are.’

  Reeve fired up at him. The other guard – Officer Reynolds, I assumed – stopped shooting and hid.

  Luke’s dad crouched beside me, still lugging Amy across his shoulders. Her eyes were shut tight, tears streaming down her face. ‘Where is he?’ asked Soren, appearing next to us. �
��Where is the other guard?’

  Reeve ignored him. ‘Time to get out. Let’s head up top. Lift’s just a bit further along. Everyone stay low and follow my lead. Ready? Now.’

  We sprinted along the back wall of the armoury. Somewhere in the middle of our thundering footsteps, I was sure I could hear Officer Webb off to our left, running to catch up.

  We reached the lift and I hammered the button until the doors slid open. We piled inside and I turned back to see Officer Webb sprinting up the aisle towards us.

  Soren fired at him through the closing doors, drowning the whole world in the sound of it, the force of the weapon knocking him backwards into me. His backpack crunched into my chest and I made a mental note to take it from him as soon as we got back.

  Something exploded between us and Webb, detonated by Soren’s haphazard gunfire. Flames swelled into the air. Then the doors slid shut, sealing it all away.

  ‘You moron!’ I said, as the lift trundled upwards. ‘You could have –!’

  ‘Up against the sides,’ Reeve ordered, crouching low and aiming his weapon at the doors. ‘We’ve still got Reynolds to worry about.’

  We all did as we were told, except Soren, who got down next to Reeve, rifle raised. The lift slowed to a stop, and the doors edged open again. Reeve and Soren leapt out, scanning the room. But if Reynolds was there, he wasn’t giving himself away just yet.

  I crept after them onto another open floor, dimly lit, all laid out with neat rows of security vans, skid units, big chunky things that looked like missile launchers or something, and –

  ‘Whoa – Jordan!’ said Luke. ‘Over there!’

  ‘Yeah,’ I breathed. ‘Yeah. I see them.’

  There were three of them, side by side in the very centre of the room.

  Glimmering black helicopters.

  Chapter 15

  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5

  8 DAYS

  A sudden, reckless hope flared inside me, threatening to cloud out my brain altogether.

  ‘You didn’t feel it was worth telling us there were helicopters in this facility?’ said Kara, spotting a toolkit up against the wall and shoving it between the lift doors with her foot to keep them from closing again.

  ‘Might have mentioned them if I’d known,’ Reeve whispered, eyes brightening. He started across the floor, sticking close to a row of parked trucks.

  I fell into line behind him, one hand slipping from the gas canister in my arms to the little rectangular bulge in my pocket. Georgia’s camera.

  This was it.

  This was what it was for, why I’d been gathering footage all this time. We were getting out.

  ‘Look up there!’ I said, mind buzzing with nervous energy. The middle third of the ceiling was different. Long, interlocking plates instead of the seamless steel on either side. ‘That looks like it opens up.’

  ‘Sure,’ said Reeve, stepping out from the last truck in the line. ‘But we’re not talking about driving a car here. Unless one of you has a secret pilot’s licence you haven’t told me about –’

  He reeled back as a guard opened fire from off to our left. Glass shattered above his head, and the whole truck shifted as a bullet blew out one of the tyres. Amy gasped, and Mr Hunter ducked lower, pulling her clear of the windows.

  ‘I can fly them,’ said Kara. ‘If those helicopters are open and fuelled, I can fly one of them out.’

  Luke twisted around, like he thought he’d misheard. ‘Really?’

  ‘How do you think we came and went before the Co-operative arrived?’ she asked.

  ‘You’re talking out out?’ said Reeve. ‘Civilisation out?’

  I could hardly take it all in. It was too big. I was dizzy, my whole body and brain charged with a kind of wild electricity.

  But then another stream of bullets pelted the far side of the truck, dragging me back to earth. Mum and Georgia were waiting back at the Complex. This was no time to get stupid.

  Reeve pointed to a big metal box near the choppers. ‘We’re going to make a run for that storage unit. I’ll do what I can to keep our mate over there busy. The rest of you, don’t stop until you’re under cover again. Ready? Three, two, one –’

  He leapt out, firing in the direction of the guard. I bolted past, hefting the gas canister up against my chest. I looked left. The guard was out of sight again.

  Luke and Kara sprinted along on either side of me. Ten metres to the storage unit. Five.

  The guard fired again, his rifle flashing in the corner of my eye. Someone shouted behind me. I dived for cover, the canister crushing against my arm as Luke and Kara dropped to the ground next to me.

  ‘Everyone okay?’ panted Luke’s dad, lowering Amy to the ground.

  ‘Y-yeah,’ I said, jumpy with adrenalin. ‘I think we’re – Wait, where’s Soren?’

  I glanced back to see Reeve tearing towards us, rifle firing with one hand, dragging Soren along with the other. He pulled him down behind the storage unit. ‘Haven’t got time for heroics, mate. If I want backup, I’ll ask for it.’

  ‘It won’t be a pleasant takeoff,’ said Kara grimly. ‘That wind might not have seemed like much from the ground, but –’

  ‘We can’t go,’ I said, holding onto one little part of me that was still capable of being pragmatic. ‘Not all of us. We need to keep fighting here too.’

  I peered out between the choppers to the skid units, way over on the other side of the building. Only sporadic bits of cover between here and there, and even when we reached the skids, we’d still need to figure out how to open that door at the top of the ramp.

  ‘Right,’ said Reeve, peeking out around the side of the storage unit again, ‘we’ve got work to do. But I don’t think Kara should be heading out on her own, either. Someone else needs to go with her. Someone with firsthand –’

  ‘Me,’ said Soren.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘How about Luke?’

  Luke gave me a weary look. ‘Jordan, don’t even – You know I can’t.’

  ‘Amy then,’ said Mr Hunter. ‘Get her to a hospital before –’

  ‘No…’ Amy murmured. ‘Not without my mum and dad.’

  ‘Not Amy,’ said Reeve. ‘Look, I hate to be cold about this, but she’ll heal fine and we’re going to need her. We can’t afford –’

  Another round of gunfire spattered the storage unit behind us. Reeve jumped up and returned fire. The concrete shook with the sound of it.

  The guard fired again. Reeve cried out, lurching. He landed on top of me and I felt something warm against my arm.

  ‘No!’ Luke shouted.

  Reeve rolled off me, landing on his back. Blood dribbled from his side. Kara rushed over to him, but Reeve weakly shoved her away. He winced and pulled the jumper up to reveal a ragged gash at his hip.

  ‘Just – a graze,’ he grunted, struggling to sit up.

  ‘Reeve, don’t – don’t move,’ I said breathlessly, eyes darting in search of the guards. ‘You shouldn’t be –’

  I broke off. The blood flow had stopped. As I watched, the wound dried and scabbed over. In a few seconds, he was on his feet like nothing had happened.

  ‘Reynolds is coming around the side,’ he reported, as I gaped at him. ‘If we’re doing this, we need to do it.’

  ‘Dad,’ said Luke, pulling his eyes away from Reeve. ‘I think it should be you.’

  ‘No,’ said Mr Hunter. ‘No, Luke. I’m not leaving you out here on your own again.’

  ‘You won’t be. I’m not on my own. And I don’t want you to go, you know I don’t, but –’ He broke off, swearing, as someone opened fire right behind us.

  Soren. He was backing away from the storage unit, shooting erratically in Officer Reynolds’ direction. Reynolds fired back, but stopped instantly as Soren rolled behind one of the missile launcher things.

  ‘Going to get himself killed,’ Reeve muttered. Then, to the rest of us: ‘That security van over there. Ready? Go.’

  We ran, weaving between the helicopters. Ree
ve hung back to cover us. Gunfire exploded all around me, but I had no idea where it was coming from. It was all just noise. I didn’t stop running until I was around the other side of the van.

  Amy moaned again as Luke’s dad slammed into the passenger door beside me.

  Luke flew after them, breathing hard. ‘It’s – open!’

  I saw where he was pointing, risked a look around the van and felt my heart skip a beat. Kara had just tried the door on one of the helicopters. And she was climbing inside.

  I couldn’t believe they’d left it unlocked like that. But I guess if you keep your secret helicopter inside a secret armoury protected by guards armed with semi-automatic weapons, you probably figure you’ve got security covered.

  Kara jumped out of the chopper again. She did a frantic circuit, yanking a bunch of red plug things out from the engines and exhausts and throwing them aside.

  Reeve leant out to lay down some covering fire. He swore under his breath at the sound of bullets tearing through glass. ‘What in the world is Soren trying to –?’

  A giant, echoing groan boomed down from the roof of the armoury. The ceiling was moving, splitting apart. Rain streamed through the gap like a waterfall.

  I peered around again. Soren was way over the other side of the armoury, half-hidden in shadow. His hand hovered over a black control panel. He pressed another button and a metallic clattering sound joined the groaning of the roof. At the far end of the room, the door at the top of the ramp had just started rolling open.

  ‘I take it back, kid,’ Reeve grinned, sticking out a hand to let Soren know where we were. ‘We’ll make time for all the heroics you want.’

  Chapter 16

  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5

  8 DAYS

  Soren weaved through the vehicles, firing an occasional burst from his weapon. Then Reynolds must have caught sight of him, because he stopped running and hit the ground behind some machinery.

  The rain hammered down louder and louder as the roof split further apart, drenching the concrete behind us, then the top of the van, and then pouring down on our heads. The sky outside was growing dark.