Days Like This

by Alison Stewart

  The houses had eventually petered out to just a few tumbledown wrecks. Now the landscape was littered with odd pieces of rusted equipment, cars with no tyres, and bits of sagging fences and ruptured asphalt. Lily started to wonder if they would ever reach shelter.

  The sun finally began to slide down the sky ahead of them, its colour deepening to ruby. Lily thought they must be moving more or less westwards. The unease radiating off her two rescuers unsettled Lily, but she didn’t want to waste energy with more questions. Scraps of clouds filled the sky, their tops black, their undersides red and gold.

  They all heard the vehicles at the same time. Kieran and Ingie pulled Lily down behind a tractor that had rolled into a ditch. ‘Stay there,’ Ingie said, as Kieran peered around the tractor’s metal body.

  ‘An armoured car,’ he said. ‘It’s heading north-west.’

  ‘If they change course they’ll cut us off,’ Ingie said anxiously. ‘Should we wait till nightfall?’

  ‘No point,’ Kieran said. ‘They’ll track us with night vision.’ He jerked his head at Lily’s wrist. ‘Lily needs medical attention and we all need water. And if one of us breaks an ankle in the dark, we’re stuffed.’

  Ingie nodded. ‘Okay.’

  Lily pulled herself up to look. The armoured car was closer than she’d expected. She ducked down again, but not before noting it was one of the bug-like Blacktrooper vehicles. it’s thick tyres allowing it to go straight over the top of obstacles.

  ‘They’re stopping,’ Kieran said. ‘Bloody hell. Okay. If we head south-west and then approach the cave from the east, we’ll avoid them,’ he instructed.

  The cave? Lily thought, but figured she would find out more soon enough.

  Kieran looked behind them. The last of the light was creeping across the eastern sky.

  ‘We’d better go,’ Ingie said. She sounded dubious.

  Lily took another look. ‘They’re getting out of the car,’ she whispered. ‘They’re spreading out.’

  Two Blacktroopers were heading in their direction, another two moved away from them and two more stood by the vehicle.

  ‘Stay low,’ Kieran said. ‘We’re going to have to crawl and use whatever’s between them and us for protection.’ He grabbed handfuls of the thick dirt that carpeted the gully and started rubbing it on his face and arms.

  ‘You too,’ he said to Lily.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Kieran whispered once they’d covered themselves with dirt. ‘We head for that car, okay? Between the clump of scrub and that rocky outcrop. Keep your head down, stop when I stop. Lily, you go between me and Ingie.’ Kieran slipped his knife out of his belt. Lily saw Ingie was already holding hers.

  ‘I should have something, too,’ Lily said.

  Kieran paused and looked at Ingie, who shrugged. ‘Take this then.’ He unhooked the gun from his belt. ‘Don’t use it unless you have to, but if you do need it, don’t hesitate. Pull back the hammer, aim and shoot to kill. Got it?’

  Lily nodded unsteadily.

  The Blacktroopers who were heading their way had stopped and one of them was talking into a two-way radio. Lily couldn’t hear anything specific, only a low rumble. Kieran set off, using his elbows to pull himself forward. Lily copied him, grinding along awkwardly on her stomach. Sharp stones and spiny shrubs cut into her. She could hear Ingie close behind. Lily’s arm throbbed and her headache had returned. Splashes of light danced across her vision.

  Don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop. She told herself.

  The gun felt heavy but comforting in her palm. She grasped it by it’s short barrel, her finger nowhere near the trigger. Down here in the dirt, between the spinifex, rocks and rubble, she could no longer see the troopers. She could only hear the faint static of their radio.

  ‘Keep moving,’ Ingie hissed. Lily looked up and realised she had fallen way behind Kieran who had already reached the car. She sped up.

  They crouched in the paltry shelter of the car. The two Blacktroopers closest to them were no longer using the radio. They spoke to each other and then one of them turned and jogged back towards the vehicle. The remaining trooper started walking purposefully towards them.

  ‘Down!’ Ingie said. They flattened themselves against the vehicle. Rust had eaten holes in the doors and the glass had long ago popped out of the windows.

  ‘Don’t use that unless you have to,’ Kieran said, pointing to the gun. ‘Too noisy.’

  Lily nodded.

  The Blacktrooper was so close they could hear the crunch of his boots. He coughed hoarsely and spat in the grass. Then he walked around behind the car, beginning to unzip his fly.

  Ingie leaped at him. Lily couldn’t believe how fast she moved. Taken by surprise, the trooper let out a shocked snarl. Kieran sprang up too, lashing a length of cloth around the man’s mouth. The trooper went down. Blood gushed from his throat, but he was a huge man and he was fighting back, scrabbling for his gun. Kieran and Ingie were on top of him, Kieran pressing his knee into the man’s face, desperate to stop him from shouting out. The trooper punched and kicked, rolling sideways, out from behind the car. If anyone from the armoured vehicle was looking in their direction, the struggle would be clearly visible. The trooper’s helmet slipped and Lily could see the veins straining behind his ear. He wrenched his arm free and pulled away the gag Kieran had jammed in his mouth. Lily acted instinctively. She swung her arm back and hit the trooper as hard as she could on his exposed skull with the handle of the gun. He stopped struggling. Ingie’s blade flashed and he lay still.

  ‘Quick,’ Ingie said, wiping her knife. She and Kieran dragged the trooper back behind the car. ‘We’ve got to go. They’ll come looking for him.’

  Sickened, Lily avoided looking at the dead Blacktrooper. She looked instead towards the armoured vehicle. Only two of the troopers were visible, standing with their backs to Lily, but she knew it was a temporary reprieve.

  Kieran and Ingie took off, running crouched over. Lily followed them. She saw that they were trying to keep the bulk of the car between them and the Blacktroopers. She fumbled and dropped the gun and had to scuttle back to retrieve it, cursing herself for losing valuable time.

  Kieran and Ingie were heading for a scrubby stand of trees. It was poor cover but better than nothing. They reached the trees and threw themselves down, lying flat and peering back the way they had come. From here, the dusty tree trunks partially obscured their view of the troopers. One of them had moved to the back of the armoured car; the other was turning towards Kieran, Lily and Ingie.

  ‘Get through the trees and then run,’ Kieran said. He rolled onto his stomach and took off, half crawling, half sliding, the dry leaves crackling noisily beneath him.

  Ingie went next, then Lily. When the trees straggled out into dusty plain again, Kieran got to his feet and started sprinting, not bothering to crouch. Lily hauled herself up and followed, tripping and stumbling, but keeping the others in sight. She was determined not to be left behind. The headache with it’s flashing lights had moved across the front of her left eye so she could barely see where she was going. As she ran, she gagged, her throat parched, her nostrils dust-caked and her breath scorching her lungs. She fully expected a bullet to slice into her back, or to hear the roar of the armoured vehicle coming up behind her.

  After what seemed forever, Lily caught up with the others. Kieran and Ingie were waiting impatiently, looking back the way they had come. Lily looked, too. There was no sign of a pursuit, only the harsh, dirty landscape riddled with broken-down houses, rusted metal, scrubby trees and lengthening shadows. Ahead of them, the sun was a red shimmering disc, already touching the dark range of hills. Kieran’s flat-out sprint had taken them on a loop until they faced west again.

  ‘We’re okay for now,’ Kieran said.

  Lily hadn’t noticed it when they’d first stopped, but now she saw the land directly ahead dipped slightly. As they approached this depression, a gully became visible. The bushes and straggly trees were slightly thicke
r here than on the level ground, though this hadn’t been at all obvious from a distance.

  Glancing quickly behind and appearing satisfied, Kieran hurried them down between the trees. There wasn’t a path, but Kieran and Ingie ran without hesitation, twisting lithely down and across the slope of the gully until they hit the bottom. Lily smelled dampness and wondered where it was coming from. Kieran turned left and they hurried along the base of the gully. It was weird that such a steep gully remained hidden from the flat plains. The walls of the ravine steepened even more as the channel at the base narrowed. And the trees, though sparse and scrubby, had almost closed above them, the trunks crowded so densely, they partially blocked out the light.

  As they moved further into the gully they heard the sound they’d been dreading – the distant rumble of a large vehicle. A burst of adrenalin gave Lily the energy she needed.

  They sprinted around a bend and hit what looked like a dead end. A hill rose in front of them. Lily could hardly believe her eyes. A mass of foliage formed an impenetrable barrier. The car’s noise drew closer.

  ‘We’re trapped,’ Lily said, her voice panicked.

  Kieran shook his head, grabbing her and dragging her through the foliage until they burst out the other side, directly at the base of the rock face. In front of them was an opening to what looked like a small cave. Lily hesitated, but Kieran and Ingie pushed her inside. She was immediately engulfed in darkness, as if someone had thrown a switch. Lily opened her eyes wide to adjust.

  ‘Keep going,’ Ingie said.

  At the very back of the little cave was another far smaller opening that Lily had not at first noticed. Beyond it, yellow light glowed. Lily bent and slipped through the rocky opening. Kieran and Ingie followed. Lily gasped. They stood on a rocky platform. An enormous cavern opened before them, lit by hundreds of tiny globes that were either set into the rock or suspended from it. In front of them, shallow steps led down to the floor of the cavern.

  ‘Blacktroopers!’ Kieran yelled. Instantly, three men and two women appeared and raced up the stairs. They lifted a flat stone and slotted it like a jigsaw piece in to the narrow opening between the entry cave and the cavern. If it weren’t for two handles that had been screwed into the rock, Lily wouldn’t have been able to detect where the door fitted in to the cave wall.

  ‘The battery’s died,’ Kieran said to one of the women as he unhooked the jamming device from his belt. The woman grabbed it from him, slid the plastic back off, flipped out the flat, rectangular battery and slotted in a replacement. She keyed in a series of numbers and waited a few seconds until something glowed on the screen of the device. The woman’s thumbs moved frantically over the keyboard and the light turned from red to orange and then green.

  She let out a sigh of relief. ‘It’s working. How many?’ She said, jerking her chin upwards.

  ‘One armoured car, about six Blacktroopers,’ Kieran said. ‘Actually, five,’ he corrected himself.

  ‘I’ll recharge this,’ the woman said, turning to head back down the stairs with the flat battery.

  ‘Did the others make it back, Maeve?’ Kieran said.

  ‘About two hours ago,’ the woman answered.

  ‘Are they okay?’ Ingie asked.

  ‘Merrick’s injured,’ Maeve said. ‘They shot him in the arm, but it went through a fleshy part. He’s lucky. He’ll be all right. Mary’s looking after him. Sal brought him in plus one from the drainage facility. And Taddy’s all right, too.’

  ‘Thank God,’ Kieran said.

  Maeve looked at Lily’s bloodied arm and lifted her eyebrows. ‘Bracelet?’ she said to Kieran. He nodded and Maeve went off down the stairs.

  Kieran let out a big sigh. He placed the jamming device carefully on a small wooden table beside the stone door. ‘With a bit of luck, that should put them off the scent,’ he said to Lily.

  She nodded. She was relieved Merrick and the others had made it. Lily shrugged her shoulders, trying to relax the muscles in her neck and ease the pain in her head. She looked down at her hand. The bandage must have dropped off somewhere and she could see the full extent of the damage from the bracelet. The skin was charred and dark blood oozed from the fissures that ran vertically up her wrist. Her knees gave way and she slumped to the ground. Kieran and Ingie sprang to help her, but another woman came running up the stairs and pushed them gently aside.

  ‘Here, let me,’ the woman said. She squatted beside Lily, deftly wrapping a fragrant wad of something cool and slightly oily around Lily’s wrist. Lily’s nausea eased. The woman examined Lily’s feet and then swabbed and bandaged them too, followed by her arms and face. She called for someone to bring water for Lily, Kieran and Ingie.

  ‘Better?’ the woman asked.

  Lily nodded. ‘Thank you. What is it?’

  ‘A combination of things like tea tree, eucalyptus, aloe and a variety of other ingredients, all designed to disinfect and to take away some of the pain,’ the woman answered. ‘Lean forward so I can put some where the tubes were, too. They’ve inserted a sophisticated stent device that seals itself when the tubes are removed. I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do about that. It will remain. But we can at least treat your flesh wound. It’ll heal eventually but we want to avoid infection. What’s your name?’

  ‘Lily.’

  ‘Lily, Lily, Lily.’

  Lily looked up to see the stone platform around her was now filled with people and her name was being repeated from person to person. The effect was strangely haunting.

  ‘I’m Rosemary,’ the woman who was tending to Lily’s injuries introduced herself. ‘Let’s get you properly cleaned up and into a bed. You’re probably well enough to walk down now.’

  Lily smiled gratefully at the woman, who had fine lines covering her face. Her hair hung down in white swathes, though the original brown still threaded through in parts. Rosemary rose so awkwardly as she helped Lily to her feet that Lily, despite her injuries, ended up helping the older woman as well. For some reason, this made Rosemary laugh.

  ELEVEN

  The crowd parted as Rosemary guided Lily towards the stairs. Thankfully the pain in Lily’s hand was dissipating, as was her headache. Lily glanced around for Kieran and was comforted to see him a few paces behind. He grinned at her and gave her a thumbs up.

  ‘We need to talk about my brother,’ she called to him. He nodded. Sweat had left streaky trails in the dust on Kieran’s face. Lily realised she probably looked just as bad.

  ‘I’ll come back and talk to you soon,’ Kieran said. ‘I’m going out again now to see where the troopers are.’

  I’ll come, too,’ Ingie said, walking beside him.

  ‘Careful, you two,’ Rosemary said.

  It was much cooler in the cavern. The temperature had dropped when they’d left the heat of the plains and moved down into the gully. And it had dropped again when they’d entered the first little cave. Now, standing on the rocky platform with the opening sealed behind them, the coolness was striking. The cavern had a watery freshness that Lily thought might have something to do with the protective rock layers.

  Lily looked shyly around at the people crowded into the cavern. They were all different ages. There was none of the homogenous youthfulness apparent in the people on the other side of the Wall, like Lily’s parents, the Blacktroopers, Max and the carers at the facility.

  ‘Welcome to our community,’ Rosemary said.

  ‘Welcome’, the crowd on the platform echoed, the stone walls amplifying their voices. More people were ranged down the stairs. Lily had never seen so many people, not since the early days just before the Wall and perhaps not even then. Looking down onto the floor of the cavern, Lily saw another group at the foot of the staircase. She blushed because they were all looking at her, some of them with open hostility.

  ‘Don’t some of them want me here?’ Lily said softly.

  ‘Don’t worry, it’s not personal,’ Rosemary said. ‘Some people just don’t like newcomers. There’s som
e debate about bringing strangers here. It’s understandable, if the Blacktroopers track you here it puts everyone in danger.’

  Rosemary patted Lily’s arm and then stepped forward.

  ‘This is Lily,’ she called out. ‘Kieran and Ingie brought her to us. Please help her settle in. She’s had a rough time.’

  A murmuring filled the cavern as Rosemary guided Lily down the long sweep of staircase towards the floor of what seemed to be a massive cave system. Weirdly, people reached out and touched Lily as she passed them. Lily’s first instinct was to recoil from this unfamiliar contact. She noticed lots of them had only one hand.

  ‘How many people have died from the bracelets?’ Lily said softly.

  ‘Too many,’ Rosemary said. ‘The ones you see here with the terrible injuries are the people we’ve got back before they’ve bled to death. They’re lucky. it’s far better to lose a hand and be outside than in one of those draining facilities or even just living inside the Wall.’

  Hearing this made Lily’s heart beat faster. She grabbed Rosemary’s arm. ‘I think my brother’s in the draining place. I need help to rescue him,’ she said.

  Rosemary stopped and looked at her. ‘I’m sorry to hear about your brother, Lily. What’s his name?’

  ‘Daniel.’

  ‘We will help you. But first we need to get you cleaned up and healthy. No point going back over the Wall with your injuries. You’d just hold up others and endanger them.’

  Lily frowned and started to protest, but Rosemary shook her head firmly and took Lily’s arm.

  Lily scrutinised her surroundings as they descended the staircase. The cave looked to be an enormous grotto. The high, light-studded rocky roof meant she could see quite a way into the cave, though she couldn’t tell where it ended. She figured the cavern must be massive. She was curious about the series of long pipes that were attached seemingly randomly to the walls. She had no idea what they were for. It was going to take a while to understand this remarkable underground environment.