by Ged Maybury
I ran.
The adults’s rooms were a little bit apart from the bunkrooms, set closest to the main hall. I knocked on the first door I came to. No answer. I crept in. “Mr Prior?”
The outside light was on. Inside I could see three occupied beds. Each sleeper was tossing about and groaning. There was another giant packet of Zanodol on the table, so I figured someone else in the camp had a supply too.
So did that mean they’d all taken an extra dose?
I found Mr Prior, but couldn’t wake him no matter what I tried. He was hot, and his hair was a mess. I couldn’t help it. I had to check just behind the ears. Were those bumps? I couldn’t tell, because I didn’t know what his head was like normally. But they sure did feel like bumps to me.
“Wake up!” I shouted to the sleepers, “Please would somebody wake up!”
No joy. The groaning continued.
I turned, then spotted Mr Prior’s keys on the table next to the Zanodol. “Well,” I said to myself, “It’s the next best thing.”
I hurried with them back to the big main room. Mr Loti, sitting with Lucy asleep across her lap, took one look at the keys and shook her head.
“No. I’m not driving at night. Not in someone else’s car.” She glanced outside, “The rain’s easing off. Lucy hasn’t got a fever. So I’m just going to put her to bed. Everything will be better in the morning.”
There it was again. That prophecy of doom.
I pocketed the keys and watched as she lifted Lucy and headed off towards the adult’s rooms. I slowly went back to my bunkroom. Everyone was asleep. There was a peculiar smell in the air, damp clothes and something else. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Fish?
Not possible.
The groaning was too much. I went out again, back along the walkway, past groaning room after groaning room. The only room I knew of that didn’t have sick people in was the second adults’ room. (Well; if you didn’t count Lucy, who seemed to be way past the groaning stage by then.)
I tiptoed in. Ms Loti was asleep in a chair, with Lucy on the bed beside her. In the light coming in from outside I could see those strange horns clearly now, for Lucy’s hair had fallen back.
Three horns on each side, like fingers, curling towards the front.
The smell of fish was stronger here.
Easing myself onto one of the spare beds I tried to rest. Sleep crept up on me for a while, then took me in one quick swallow.
Ah, oblivion. Delicious oblivion!
CHAPTER SEVEN
Horror Dream
I THOUGHT IT WAS A dream. A bed creaked and I looked across the room. The outside lights were still burning. I could see something moving, a slender shadow, silently gliding to the door. Except the glide was odd, like the thing had short legs and long imperfect feet. As it went out through the screen door I saw it in silhouette, the horns much longer now, reaching around her face like some sort of face guard.
I rose and followed. It was a dream, so I had to do it.
She went into the next room, took the big packet of Zanodol, and spoke to the slumbering adults on their tangled beds. It was not English, but of course you can understand anything spoken in a dream.
“Take some more. It will make it quicker.”
They sat up, took their pills, and slumped down again.
She moved on, visiting the other rooms, always the same, “Take some more. It will make it quicker.” The others rose one by one, complaining about having to wake, took the pills without any water, and fell back again, sound asleep. Some of them rose up, their hair jutting out around their horns. Taylah. Amelia. Wyatt. Michaela. The list went on.
I followed this dream creature until she had done her rounds, and, as all dreams do, it led me right back to my own bed. As I lay down to return to my oblivion, the creature slipped the pool key from Ms Loti’s bunch and shuffling out the door.
Of course. The pool. That made sense. All dreams do.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Hoo-Whoop!
I WOKE SLOWLY, UNABLE to remember where I was. Sleepily I looked around the room. Ms Loti was asleep on one of the other beds. That’s right...
Bang! It all came back to me. I was really awake after that. I jumped up and looked at the time. It was seven o’clock. The sun was blazing outside and the birds were singing loudly. No rain. No kitchen noises. No complaining kids. No jeering or teasing or gossiping voices going past the screen door.
But there was something else instead. A kind of hooting noise, mixed with whistling and shouting and laughter and splashing. It sounded like the biggest pool party ever.
Ms Loti sat up too. We looked at each other.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know.”
She looked around. “Where’s Lucy?”
“I don’t know.” But straight away I knew that I did know. “The pool!”
We both ran out, across the courtyard, along the covered walkway, and around the corner. The pool was packed.
We went down, slowly, fascinated and horrified by the thought of what we were going to see. Imagine something halfway between a human and a seal, with beautiful multi-coloured spotty skin and bright little eyes and a happy cat-mouth, with three sausage-sized horns each side of its face.
Then imagine all your school mates dressed up like that. Then imagine them all in a swimming pool, leaping and dipping and splashing and spouting huge mouthfuls of water at each other as if it were the nicest thing you could possibly do to a friend.
Then imagine your whole body freezing up in terror.
I’M SURE THEY WOULD have noticed us, except for one thing. Coming down the hill were about ten more of them, the most human-like of the bunch, and in their midst they were carrying the caretaker. He was struggling and shouting and swearing but his captors just whooped happily and brought him closer, then threw him clear across the fence and into the pool. There was a huge frenzy of water spouting out in the middle. I saw the poor man struggle and gurgle and cry out.
I turned to Ms Loti, tugged silently at her shirt. She looked at me. I silently passed her Mr Prior’s keys, trying to send her my idea without saying a word out loud. She looked at me blankly. She wasn’t getting it.
I shook the keys. “We have to escape!”
That did it. There was a whoop from the pool. I turned. Lucy, or at least the thing that had once been Lucy, was looking at us intently. Then she spoke to the others, not in English. More like seal talk. They all surged to our side of the pool. “Come in!” the most human of them called to us, “The water’s lovely! Aww, go on Ms Loti! Come on, Nathan!”
I began dragging her away. The things in the pool were dipping their faces, lifting their heads, almost using those horn things like targeting sights.
I ran.
Water spouts started hitting the ground all around my feet. Next thing Ms Loti sped past me, dragging me with her instead of the other way around!
We ran to the car park. She fumbled with the keys in the lock of Mr Prior’s SUV. She got it open and we both piled in. The engine started first time.
“Go!” I shouted, “Just boot it!”
I looked back down the hill. The things had not chased us as I had expected. Instead the most developed of them had set off across the lawn towards the flooded creek in the valley, skidding across the wet grass like those trained seals do in those theme park shows.
Then I realised what they were trying to do.
“Please, Ms Loti, drive as fast as you can!”
Of course she didn’t. She drove very sensibly, and I was going mad with terror! I had no idea what those things were capable of, or how fast they could swim! They were trying to head us off at the bridge.
“Faster! Faster!”
There was no other traffic. Nothing. We had the road to ourselves. The flooding didn’t seem as bad. When we reached The Flat I shouted aloud with relief. “The road is clear!” At least it was on our side of the bridge. “Go! Go! Boot it!”
; We screamed along the straight and up the slope to the bridge. It was still there, a big solid concrete bridge, and as we went over the top I got ready to shout in triumph.
My shout shrivelled in my throat. The flood stretched clear across the farmland ahead. The road was still under water!
Ms Loti hit the brakes and we slithered to a stop. The engine stalled. She just sat, gazing in horror at the flood.
“Mr Prior did it!” I shouted at her, “it was about that deep yesterday behind us and we got this far! It’ll be okay!” Then I remembered: she was scared of water, just like me.
I could see the roadside posts sticking out of the flood so I knew how deep it really was, and all the posts were still there in a line which meant (I hoped) that the road was still all there between them. And the SUV was really high off the ground.
“Go on!” I pleaded, but she was winding down her window instead. I yelled at her like I did when I caught my baby sister using my expensive movie-theme toothpaste as hair-cream, “What are you doing?!”
“Trying the phone.”
“No! We’ve got to drive! Go on! You can do it!”
Then we heard it. “Hoo-whoop! Hoo-whoop!” Coming from upstream.
“They’re coming!” I screamed, “Go go go!”
She started the engine, put it in gear, eased out the clutch. We rolled forwards into the flood. She changed to second gear.
“Not too fast! Not too fast!” I squawked beside her. Water surged around the front of the RV but the engine kept humming away steadily.
It looked like we were going to make it!
“Hoo-whoop! Hoo-whoop!” It was getting louder. I looked upstream across the cabin, out Ms Loti’s side. I could see them now, dipping and rising in the muddy water, their horns making beautiful trails of water on each side of their alien faces.
Such happy-looking faces.
“Hoo-whoop! Hoo-whoop!” Getting closer, closer.
Then, with a cold shock of fear, I realised that Ms Loti’s window was still down!
“Wind it up! Wind up your window!”
She was moving much too slowly. Her hand was jerking on the winder, stopping at each turn of the crank, as if struggling with something unfamiliar. The window crept up. The aliens swam closer. Ms Loti turned towards them, trying to gauge their distance perhaps, or maybe just having to look at the scariest thing in sight.
I saw an alien face dip into the water, come up, the happy alien lips start to pucker up, then it came. Spout!
It came at us, so very accurate, hitting the final tiny gap at the top of the glass. Water sprayed into the cabin. Droplets flew across the dash-board. I saw a lot of it bouncing off Ms Loti’s hair.
She shook herself, sending off more.
I cringed away from it all, almost going right down the gap between my seat and my door.
Then her window shut. The next spout bounced harmlessly away. The SUV surged forwards. The creatures fell behind. The floodwaters thinned. As the wheels momentarily edged off the tarseal we lurched about inside, then Ms Loti got us back on line. We were picking up speed. The water was thinner. We were out of the flood!
Third gear, then fourth! The road rolled under our wheels, faster and faster. Ms Loti was saying nothing. I was slumped like a nervous wreck in my seat, my breath heaving like I’d just run a thousand metres.
It was over!
We were safe!
CHAPTER NINE
Our Empty World
MS LOTI HAD GONE VERY strange. She drove like a woman possessed, going much faster than before. There was evidence of flooding on every side of the road. Every waterway was full. There was flood debris all over the road. Every road! And there was not another car in sight, all the way back to civilisation.
“Where are we going?” I finally asked. She didn’t reply.
I began to get a terrible sinking feeling right then. It was all I could do to stay in the car and keep hoping for the best.
I wanted to see my mum and dad again. Even my baby sister. I would have even been glad to just see people walking around in a shopping mall. Something familiar! But no. The world already looked strange. There were no cars. There were no people. And on the side of the roads, everywhere I looked it seemed, were those big billboards for Zanodol.
She drove us all the way back to school, parked in her usual spot, and shut off the engine. There were only about three other cars there.
“Now what?” I asked nervously.
She said nothing. Just got out and headed towards the school office. I followed. She went in. The office lady was there, and everything looked normal. For one brief moment I got it into my head that it had all been a dream.
“Bronwyn!” said the office lady in surprise, “Back so soon?”
“Yes,” whispered Ms Loti, “We survived.”
“How was the camp? Did you get that terrible storm as well?”
“Yes.”
“Wasn’t it wonderful! So good to get the rain! The guys on the radio, you know: Tim and Tam? They told us all to go outside and open our mouths! Drink some fresh rain!” She laughed. “Crazy, I know, but you know thousands of people did it! Even my husband!” The office lady smiled strangely and rubbed at her head just behind her ears.
“Have you got a headache?” asked Ms Loti, her voice sounding strangely empty.
“Odd you should mention it, but I did have one this morning!” said the office lady cheerfully, “But you know: than new stuff on the market: Zanodol? Works wonders!” She took up a large box of it she had on her desk and offered it to us. We slowly backed out, shaking our heads, smiling politely.
Outside it was strangely silent. There were no planes in the sky. No school noise. No sound of traffic. The air was clean. The wind blew warm and damp. More clouds were piling up over the hinterland. It was getting set to rain again.
“Now what?” I heard myself asking hollowly.
We were back at Mr Prior’s vehicle but I guess neither of us could think of what to do next, or where to go. I climbed up and into my seat and for some reason I opened the glove box. Out rolled a plastic water bottle. It landed in my lap.
On it was written:
“DRINK UP! [Love-heart] - LUCY.”
CHAPTER TEN
Lucy Re-Made (Sort-of)
WE DIDN’T, OF COURSE. After about twenty minutes the office lady came out, her hair all puffed out at the sides and hurried away saying, “I’ve just got to get to the pool!”
We waited another five minutes, then went in. The school was now deserted.
Ms Loti tried ringing all sorts of people, even her cousins in New Zealand. No replies. Nothing. No police. No power company. Nothing. Her parents didn’t answer. Neither did mine.
I was terrified about going home: terrified of finding my mum and my dad and my baby sister, all in the pool, going, '‘Hoo-whoop, hoo-whoop!’ I couldn’t bear the thought of seeing them like that: fat alien seals with sausage-horns like three cartoon fingers curling around their cheeks.
So anyway we came in here to hide and we’re still here two days later. And that’s pretty much the end of the story. We’ve still got power on so I’m going to print this out while I can. Then we’re going to leave it in the middle of a table, on top of another table, tightly wrapped in plastic to keep it dry. Ms Loti’s already done a whole heap of books like that. Been at it for two whole days. She reckons this building will stay up for a thousand years easy.
Maybe people on some other planet will read this one day, far in the future.
Maybe.
So anyway, Space Dudes, that’s it. See ya.
MS LOTI STOOD ON A chair and put the plastic-wrapped print-out on the top of the stack, wedging it securely between a big atlas and a fat encyclopedia. On its cover, at Nathan’s request, were the words ‘ATTENTION SPACE DUDES!’ in thick black permanent marker pen.
As she came down again the lights dimmed, then went out.
“That’s it then,” said Nathan, “They’ve won.”
She stepped out, listening, then turned to him, looking sad and tired.
“Sorry Nathan,” she said, picking up Lucy’s farewell present, “but I’m just too damn lonely. I’ve got to find my family. I don’t care what they look like any more.”
She paused to swirl the water then lifted it to her lips, but right then a voice shouted, “Stop!”
They both turned to look, and they both spoke at the same moment.
“Lucy?”
It was Lucy, plodding towards them. She looked rather wobbly and fat, but her face was normal again. Also she looked worried and urgent as she came the last twenty metres, but slowed down when she saw that the bottle was still full.
“Phew! Just in time!”
They backed away from her, alarmed.
“It’s alright. I’m back to normal, almost.” Lucy glanced down at herself, looking in particular at her hands that still looked vaguely like flippers. “You see, we had to try. We didn’t know any other way to do it.” Her voice was quite normal, but it was saying the weirdest things.
“ ‘We’?” asked Ms Loti.
Lucy glanced up at the sky. “Yes.”
There was a metallic glint up there, just for a moment.
“The aliens?” asked Ms Loti
“Yes.”
“So are you an alien or not?” asked Nathan.
“No. Yes. Sort of. It’s complicated.” She took the bottle from Miss Loti, swirled it and looked at the faint blurry streaks inside. “You see, it didn’t go quite to plan, but I think you’re all going to be okay now. I mean, look at me!”
She laughed, very much like the old Lucy would.
Nathan looked at the sky, frightened. “So what’s going to happen next?”