The Survivors Book IV: Spring

by V. L. Dreyer

  On the second morning after we left Pukerua Bay, we reached another major milestone on our journey: we entered the outskirts of Porirua, the first place that we could rightly call a city instead of a town. At least, it had been. Skylar and I were scouting ahead of the convoy when we arrived. What we saw left our faces grim.

  "What happened here?" Skye asked softly, staring at the blackened shells that had once been homes and schools and businesses.

  I looked down at the ground and traced my eye towards the edge of the road, where I saw human bones hidden amongst the debris.

  "A fire," I said, my voice just as low as hers. Something about the sight made us both want to whisper, even though there was no sign of life. "After the riots, I guess. There was no one left to stop it." I pointed past the ashen husks by the roadside at the hills beyond. "It must have happened years ago. Look, nature's already begun to reclaim this area. One day, this whole city will be forest again."

  "Huh." Skylar guided her mount over to the edge of the road to get a better look. "You're right. It looks like there used to be a lot more buildings, but now it's all bush." She glanced at me, and a smile blossomed across her face. "Perhaps we should come back here once we're settled, and see if we can break up those concrete parts that are inhibiting the growth. Give nature a little helping hand."

  "Maybe we will," I said, returning her smile. "But for now, we're going to have to try and figure out where our turn-off is in this mess. We're supposed to leave the highway now, and head up into the hills."

  "I'll race you!" she shouted suddenly, putting her heels to the horse's sides. They raced off, leaving Boudicca and me in their wake. I guided my horse up to a brisk trot and followed after her, but I did so at a more sedate pace. I was comfortable in the saddle now, but there was no way in hell that I was going to put my baby's life in danger for the sake of a little fun.

  ***

  We found the turn-off without too much difficulty, and then the convoy began its long, slow, painful climb up into the hills that the Wellington region was famous for. For those of us with horses and trucks, it wasn't so bad. For those on foot, it was a miserable and draining trek that seemed to go on forever. We packed as many people as we could into the vehicles and even broke out our quad bikes again, but we still had to stop regularly to switch out the exhausted walkers during the climb. Some parts of the road were so steep that even our four wheel drive trucks struggled with them.

  By the time we made it to the top, it was almost sundown and we were all stressed and tired. Thankfully, we discovered that the fire hadn't made it far up into the hills, and we were able to find a few houses intact enough to accommodate us for the night. We turned our animals loose in their overgrown back yards, and slept soundly in our borrowed accommodation.

  When morning came, we awoke to a thick sea fog clinging to the hillside around us. It didn't bother us much, though; we were the children of Aotearoa, the Land of the Long White Cloud, and we were used to living in perpetual fog. We reached the peak of the hills in good time, and once we were over the crest it was all downhill. Suburbia gave way to small farms and the occasional lifestyle block perched on the hillside. Rain came again in the afternoon, but it wasn't as cold as it had been before and it didn't hinder our progress.

  For nearly a week, we followed the road eastward around the rim of the Porirua harbour, following the old green signs that directed us towards the Hutt Valley. With each passing day, excitement grew in my little group. Not only were we getting closer and closer to our goal, but we could sense the change in the seasons. We'd survived another winter and spring was getting nearer with every passing day. We passed many beds of wild daffodils, and the sight of their bright little faces sent a wave of joy through the entire group.

  One day while we were breaking camp and getting ready to move off, Michael came galloping up on his favourite horse. He dismounted dramatically, and bestowed upon me three things: a bow, a goofy smile, and a single white daffodil. Before I could find the words to thank him, he'd leapt back on his horse and galloped off again, leaving me blushing furiously and holding that flower.

  My sister took the flower from my hand and slipped it behind my ear. Everyone saw, of course, and a flurry of flower-giving and receiving began soon afterwards. A new tradition bloomed, with men and women of all ages presenting a single flower to the object of their affections to display their love proudly to the world.

  By that evening, Skylar had one flower behind each ear. We didn't talk about it, but we didn't have to. I could see her radiant smile as while she went about her work, and I saw the way both Ryan and Hemi were looking at her. The three of them had found a balance that made all of them happy, and that was all that mattered to me.

  The next morning, we began our descent into the Hutt Valley. The road was long, straight, and in perfect condition, flanked by rolling hills covered in dense bush on one side, and the sparkling expanse of the Hutt River on the other.

  "There should be a bridge coming up in a couple of minutes," I said into my radio, then I put it away and glanced around. My family and several of my dearest friends rode around me: Michael, Priya, and Anahera were on my left, Skylar and Gavin on my right, and Alfred was dancing along happily between us. None of them had wanted to stay back with the convoy, and I wouldn't have tried to make them.

  "This is it," Michael said quietly, his voice husky with anticipation. My heart was hammering in my chest at a mile a minute, so I could only imagine they all felt the same tension. I just nodded, swallowed hard, and guided my mount onward. The road ran parallel to the shimmering ribbon of the river, but on the far side there wasn't much to see beyond bush, trees, and the occasional flash of a building.

  A few minutes later, we saw a sign guiding us to the bridge which would take us to our promised land. Miraculously, both the bridge and the sign were still intact. We guided our mounts out onto the bridge, heading towards the far side and whatever lay beyond.

  "The river is so beautiful," Skylar said in a voice filled with awe. "If it looks like this now, I can only imagine what it's going to look like in summer."

  "Even more beautiful, I think," I replied, struggling to keep my emotions in check.

  "Look!" Gavin said suddenly, pointing at the side of the bridge. I looked and my eyes widened. There was a fallen signpost, emblazoned with a word that I'd started to think I would never see anywhere but my own imagination.

  "Avalon," I said softly, reverently. "One hundred and four days on the road… and we made it. We finally made it."

  Michael gave me an odd look. "You were counting?"

  "Of course I was counting," I said, quickly making up an excuse to divert him from the truth behind why I'd been counting the days. He'd find out soon enough. "This is going to go down in history one day. Weren't you counting, too?"

  "Oh, I didn't think of it like that," he admitted, shrugging sheepishly. "Well, I guess it's good that one of us was countin—"

  "Mama, look!" Priya cried, pointing at something her sharp young eyes had managed to spot that we hadn't yet. A second later, Alfred let out a bark, but it wasn't one of warning. It was one of greeting. I looked straight ahead and saw a human figure standing on the bridge, waving frantically at us.

  Anahera gasped. "That's Simon! It's been so long I barely recognised him, even after seeing him on television."

  "Well, then," I said, glancing around at the group. "We better go and introduce ourselves, don't you think?"

  Chapter Nine

  A few more people appeared out of the buildings on the far side of the road while we were dismounting and walking our horses the rest of the way across the bridge. They gathered in a little pack as far away from us as possible, watching us with tense, nervous expressions. Anahera obviously felt no such reservations; the moment she was close enough, she tossed her reins to Priya, raced over to Simon, and hugged him fiercely.

  "It's so good to see you," she said, her voice earnest and full of emotion. "I should have come sout
h sooner, but I had my own group and the journey was just too far for us."

  "No, I understand," Simon replied, shaking his head. "It's been so hard…" He paused for a second and glanced at the rest of us. "Well, you two are obviously the McDermott sisters I've heard so much about, but I'm afraid I don't recognise the rest of you."

  "I'm Sandrine, and this is Skylar," I said to clarify which of us was which, then I pointed at each of my companions in turn. "This is my husband, Michael Chan, former police officer and our security chief. That's Gavin over there, our expert in communications, and this is Priyanka, my foster daughter." I looked back at him and grinned. "You know, this is really quite eerie. I've been watching you on the telly for so long that it was starting to feel like you weren't even a real person, just a fictional character or something."

  Simon laughed and nodded. "The feeling is mutual. One of the locals picked up on your radio broadcasts a few months back, and we've been following your exploits ever since. It took you so long to get here that it was starting to feel a bit like The War of the Worlds. You remember that?"

  "I never heard it but I know the stories," I replied. I caught Skye and Priya looking confused, so I took a moment to explain the story to them. "The War of the Worlds was a classic novel about aliens invading Earth. In the 1930's, a company in the United States adapted it into a radio show, but they did it in a manner that made some people think it was a real news broadcast. It caused mass hysteria."

  "Really?" Skye wrinkled her nose, looking doubtful. "People believed aliens were invading Earth?"

  "’Mass hysteria’ is a bit of an overstatement," Anahera said, her dark eyes twinkling with amusement. "Only a few people genuinely believed it was true. Most people worked out that it was fiction, even back then. They were less worldly than we are now, but they weren’t stupid."

  "I’m not sure anyone counts as worldly these days," I said. “I mean, when was the last time any of us communicated with a person outside New Zealand? We don’t know if the United States exists anymore. It could have sunk into the sea and we’d never know. Hell, we don’t even know if there’s anyone alive in Australia these days.” I sighed and shook my head, then I glanced at Simon. "So I guess you know why we're here, then?"

  "I do, and we've already started working on it," he replied. He turned towards the group of people hovering nearby and waved at them. "Come on, you lot! Let's show Sandrine what we've been up to while we were waiting for her."

  The people nodded and vanished without a word. I raised a brow. "That was weird. What's up with them?"

  "Don't mind them, they're just not much on talking," he replied. "They showed up here a couple of weeks ago, and told me that they wanted to help build the city. From what I've managed to piece together, they're from some type of religious community that lived up in the hills, but beyond that I don't know much. There are a few other folks scattered around between Wellington and Upper Hutt that I see on occasion, but these guys are definitely the weirdest." He glanced in the direction they'd gone and shrugged helplessly. "Still, they're good workers and never complain. They've helped a lot so far."

  "Then you'd better show us where we're at," I replied, gesturing for him to lead on.

  "Follow me," he said. He turned and led us down the road, looking about the happiest I'd ever seen him. The Anchorman I'd become so familiar with over the years was generally a miserable soul, rumpled and worn with haunted blue eyes that seemed to reflect the sadness of the world all around him. Today, he was smiling, loquacious, well-dressed, and clean-shaven. My grandmother would have been so proud.

  "I have no idea how you knew, but Avalon Studios is the perfect location to build our new city," he said. "The river is teeming with trout, so we've got a nearly unlimited source of food right on our doorstep, plus it's right beside the park. If we put fences up, it'll be perfect for grazing livestock. The studio itself is a huge complex that already has fences all the way around, so we can all stay inside the grounds without worrying that we're going to trip over one another. See that big tower over there?"

  I looked in the direction he was pointing and nodded. "The office block with the—is that solar panels I see on the top there?"

  "Yes!" he replied proudly, his smile widening. "One of the locals helped me hook those up years ago, to keep the news broadcasts going. The national grid is pretty much non-existent down here."

  "That's quite brilliant, actually," I replied, studying the lay of the building in the distance. "I wonder if we can hook up enough to keep the whole city going indefinitely."

  "We can," he said with absolute confidence. "I know where to find more panels, and I know how to install them now. We'd probably need a car or a wagon to bring back enough panels to light up the city, though."

  "We've got trucks, no worries," I replied. I handed Boudicca's reins to Michael, then pulled my notebook out of my pocket and flicked to the back page to start making notes about what needed to be done. "Let's prioritize that fairly high. We don't want to live in the dark more than we absolutely have to, and fuel for the generators is limited. Now, you were saying something about living inside the compound?"

  He nodded enthusiastically, and led us off the road into the long grass of what had obviously once been a park. "There are a bunch of really nice houses just outside the fence that we should be able to do up eventually, and also a few inside that used to be used for filming, but in the meantime we've got the tower." Simon glanced back and gave me a wry smile. "We used to call it that as a joke. It's only ten stories. I've seen stacks of pancakes taller than that."

  We all laughed at that. Once the levity subsided, he continued. "The inside of the tower is divided up into a mixture of offices, film studios, sound studios, and equipment rooms. There are toilets, showers, changing rooms, and small kitchenettes on every level. Once we get a few more solar panels up, we should have no trouble powering the whole building, including the elevator."

  I grinned at him, suddenly understanding. "So what you're saying is that we turn the tower into a bunch of apartments?"

  "Bingo!" he said. "There's a full cafeteria on the second floor, and it's set up to feed twice as many people as this. I haven't used it in ages, but it'll be fine once we give it a good dusting and a scrub."

  "Excellent." I scribbled another note and nodded to myself. "Do we have a basement? A parking garage or something?"

  "No," he replied, "but there are a bunch of big buildings around that we can use for storing vehicles."

  "I was thinking about stuff like our food and medical supplies," I said. "We're close enough to the river that I'm slightly concerned about flooding."

  "There should be plenty of room on the second floor," Simon said reassuringly. He reached out and clapped me on the shoulder in a friendly fashion, an unexpected gesture that almost made me jump out of my skin. "Don't worry, I've got this all planned out. Didn't Ana tell you that I was studying to be a city planner before I changed my major to journalism?"

  I glanced back over my shoulder at her, but she just laughed and shrugged. Who could tell if he was being serious? It didn't really matter, anyway. We'd arrived, and it was time to break ground on our new home.

  ***

  "Well, I don't know about you but I like this one," Michael said, glancing around the little suite on the third floor. It was nothing more than a lobby with an office off to one side, but it was bright, airy, and the afternoon sun poured in through the west-facing windows.

  "You're just saying that because this is the lowest floor we’re turning into apartments and you know I don't like heights, but I appreciate the sentiment," I teased. I gave him a playful pat on the rump, then went over to stare out the wide-glass windows at all the people milling about in the parking lot. The convoy had arrived not long after we had, and now everyone was in the process of exploring the building.

  "Maybe," he said with a grin, "but it is perfect for just the two of us. Priya told me she wants to bunk down in the girls’ dorms, so we don't have
to worry about her."

  "The girls’ dorms?" I asked, shooting a curious look back over my shoulder. "This is the first I'm hearing about it. Since when are we setting up dormitories?"

  "It was Ana's idea," he replied, wandering up behind me. He put his arms around my waist and stared down at the parking lot over my shoulder. "It's nothing formal at this stage. She suggested that we give the older kids the chance to live in communal dormitories, so that they can socialise with one another and we know where to find them if there's an emergency. She said it'll also make it easier to organise their classes and apprenticeships."

  "Huh, I had no idea," I admitted. "I guess she's taking the whole headmistress thing pretty seriously. Glad someone is. What about the younger kids?"

  "They can sleep in the dorm or with their parents, whichever they prefer," he replied. "Like I said, it's nothing formal. The kids don't have to stay there if they don't want to. Ana said that the teens she's spoken to are all excited about the idea, though."

  I turned within the circle of his arms and rubbed my face against his chest. "I can't say I blame them. They've been alone for so long, they're just starting to learn how wonderful it is to have friends around them."

  Suddenly, a voice spoke up from the doorway. "What's really funny is that Melody just proclaimed herself 'Queen of the Girls’ Dorms, and now she's prancing around the place in a plastic tiara."

  I pulled away from Michael, laughing. "Oh, hey Skye. Didn't hear you sneak up."

  "That's 'cause I'm a ninja," she replied without missing a beat, a giant grin on her face. She wandered into the room and looked around curiously. "So this is you guys, huh?"

  "I think so, yeah," I said, glancing up at Michael. "You sure you want this one, honey? Last chance to change your mind."