Days Like This

by Alison Stewart

  ‘No, no, not over the Wall, never.’

  ‘It’s safe there,’ Kieran said calmly.

  ‘No.’ She gathered the doll against her and backed away.

  ‘Well, then tell us where Megan went and we’ll pass on your message,’ Kieran said quickly.

  Mrs Tantallon looked at them suspiciously before finally saying, ‘They went to a better house, by the water, where the air is cool.’ She paused and then whispered, ‘I have the address in my head. Megan told me. it’s 25 Crescent Avenue, Point Piper. Across the harbour, by the water. Will you tell her what I said?’

  ‘Yes, now let’s take you back to your house.’

  ‘No. I’m not going anywhere with you.’ The old woman moved away surprisingly quickly, shoulders hunched, bare feet scraping along the ground. The front door swung slightly on it’s hinges and then she was gone.

  ‘Completely bonkers,’ Sal said. ‘Let’s get going.’

  ‘Hang on,’ Greta said. ‘We need a plan. We have to cross the bridge and get to the east of the city.’ She looked at Lily. ‘Where your parents have moved is near the place I was taken to,’ Greta explained. ‘We don’t know yet whether your sister is still at that place or back at your parents’ house in Crescent Avenue.’

  ‘We’ll have to get down to the harbour,’ Kieran said. ‘With any luck we’ll find a boat to take us across.’

  ‘No, it’s far too dangerous going across the harbour to the east,’ Sal said. ‘That wasn’t our plan. We were going to come to her house and then go and find her brother at the draining facility. Why didn’t you tell us before that the breeding place was across the harbour?’ she snapped at Greta.

  ‘You wouldn’t have let me come. Or her,’ Greta said, nodding towards Lily.

  ‘Well, we’ll just have to abandon the plan to get her sister. You should’ve told us, Greta. So we’ll just go to the facility that’s nearby and then get back over the Wall,’ Sal said. She spoke dismissively and with such finality, as if Alice and Daniel were just wisps of nothing.

  ‘No!’ Lily protested, leaning slightly forward and clenching her fists. She was certainly not about to let Sal bully them into abandoning Alice or Daniel. She would find her own way; alone, if necessary. She took a deep breath.

  ‘We’re going east to my family’s new house and we’re going to find my sister, either in the house or in the place where Greta was. Then we’ll go to the facility where I’m hoping Daniel is.’ She stopped and glared at Sal.

  ‘How does Greta even know the directions to the place they took her to?’ Sal said, her voice rising. She turned to Greta. How would you know? Weren’t you drugged or taken in a closed van or something?’

  ‘I know exactly where it is,’ Greta said. ‘My parents took me back for regular check-ups when … it … was inside me. They didn’t bother to hide where they were taking me by then. They didn’t need to.’

  ‘For heaven’s sake, Sal,’ Ingie said in a low voice.

  ‘We can cross the harbour first and then come back for Daniel,’ Lily said.

  ‘No, that’ll take too much time,’ Luca interrupted. ‘I’ve got a better idea. We find your brother first. The draining facility is nearby anyway. Once we’ve found him we split up. No, wait,’ he said when Sal started protesting. ‘Some of us can take the floaters and go back over the Wall and the others can go on to see if we can find the sister.’

  Everyone looked at one another.

  ‘But we said we shouldn’t split up,’ Sal said dubiously. She’d taken hold of Luca’s arm.

  ‘Sal, I can’t believe you of all people would abandon the search for the girl,’ Luca said.

  Sal looked down, blushing. There was an awkward pause.

  Lily jumped in impatiently. ‘It’s a good idea, Luca,’ she said.

  Ingie and Kieran nodded and Sal shrugged.

  ‘Okay, well let’s get on with it then,’ Luca said. ‘No point hanging around here.’

  ‘Yeah, that mad old bat might have contacted someone by now,’ Sal said.

  ‘She seemed too scared,’ Lily said.

  ‘How would you know?’ Sal said sharply.

  ‘Shut up, Sal,’ Ingie said. ‘Everyone needs to stay positive. Are you okay with this, Greta?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘The battery still seems okay,’ Kieran said. He glanced at the jamming device that hung off his belt. ‘Let’s go.’

  SEVENTEEN

  ‘Everyone, be alert and keep close together,’ Ingie said. ‘If you hear anything, pipe up.’

  They had negotiated the streets from Lily’s old house, moving roughly parallel to the Wall. Kieran led them, but the others seemed to know exactly where they were going, too. The streets were lined with trees, which gave them some welcome protection.

  Thank goodness for the water moon, Lily thought.

  The draining facility, on the other hand, was built on a treeless plateau that rose out of the surrounding suburban neighbourhood. The main building was in the middle of a flat concrete expanse that provided little cover. The concrete was bordered by scrubby bush that dropped down to where suburban homes began.

  The Wall had dramatically reduced Sydney’s liveable area. Lily knew non-residential buildings like the draining facility, and no doubt places like Committee buildings, Blacktrooper barracks, food-production complexes and power and water plants had to co-exist within the suburban environment. Still, she was shocked by how close the draining facility was to her old home.

  They crouched at the perimeter of the facility, amidst the scrubby bushes. Lily recognised the smaller building where Kieran and Ingie had attacked the Blacktroopers on the day she’d been rescued. She looked across at the big main building, with it’s blinding, windowless walls. She shuddered. Please let Daniel be here and be alive.

  Lily noticed that there was a hangar-like building with sliding doors adjacent to the facility. A short, covered walkway linked the facility to the hangar building. Lily squinted to see inside the open doors of the hangar. There were two armoured cars parked inside, as well as a row of what looked to Lily to be motorbikes.

  Strangely, there was no sign of Blacktroopers. An eerie stillness hung over the whole place.

  ‘We should make our move; it’s dangerous hanging around here,’ Kieran said. ‘The troopers can’t be far away.’

  Sweat streamed off all of them.

  ‘Wait,’ Luca grabbed Kieran’s arm. ‘Listen.’ They all heard it – the faint but unmistakeable tramp of Blacktroopers.

  ‘Get down flat,’ Ingie hissed. ‘And turn the jammer on.’

  ‘I already have,’ Kieran replied, holding up the screen with it’s glowing numbers.

  Lily pressed her body into the dust beneath the bushes. They were sparse, leaving them exposed, but it was too late to retreat back down to the surrounding houses. In their favour, the sun would be shining directly into the eyes of anyone looking outwards towards the perimeter.

  A group of Blacktroopers, moving in single file, emerged from behind the smaller building. There were about eight of them, hugging the wall of the facility, marching parallel to where Lily and the others waited. The troopers held their weapons at the ready. It was hard to see from this distance, but the leader also seemed to be scrutinising some kind of hand-held screen.

  ‘Surveillance patrol,’ Kieran whispered to Lily. ‘We’re not showing up on their system – for now If they don’t double back when they reach the corner of the building, we go. We have a small window while the jammer’s still working. We’ll all head for the loading dock except you, Luca. You know what you have to do, okay?’

  Luca nodded.

  ‘Everyone else, keep together; weapons out!’

  They watched as the troopers rounded the corner.

  ‘One, two, and three …’ Kieran counted softly. The troopers didn’t reappear. Lily estimated they had about a hundred metres to cross before they reached the facility wall, with only the smaller building providing a poor kind of cover halfway there.
They would be in full view of anyone looking out of the hangar building as they crossed. She had no idea where the loading dock was.

  ‘Stay beside me, Lily. Now!’ Kieran said.

  He sprang up and set off across the concrete, moving steadily. Luca peeled off, heading along the perimeter bushes, Sal followed. Lily looked after them, confused, but there was no time to ponder what they were doing. Ingie and Greta joined Kieran and Lily and they headed directly for the side wall of the facility. They passed the smaller building without pausing and headed back into the open. Directly to their left was the hangar.

  Like the others, Lily held her metal pipe. Her hand was slick with sweat and she wiped it repeatedly on her shorts to try and get a better grip on the pipe.

  Finally they reached the side of the main building. Kieran and the others crowded so closely around Lily now that she could barely breathe. The heat bouncing off the tall white wall sucked the breath out of her lungs.

  Get it together. Daniel is here and you have to help him, she told herself.

  They turned right and ran along the side of the building, keeping close to the wall. Ahead, Lily saw a ramp. More armoured vehicles were lined up near it, alongside the Wall. There were also a few smaller, less military-looking cars.

  ‘Side entrance,’ Kieran pointed, ‘and loading dock.’

  He was holding the jamming device at waist height as they ran. Lily hoped it lived up to it’s promise to conceal them from security scans. Her heart thumped, not just from the exertion and the fear of detection, but also from the possibility that Daniel would be inside.

  Kieran held up a hand and stopped abruptly. They had reached the armoured cars that were parked up against the wall. They crouched down behind the first one. From this vantage point, they had a good view of the stairs that led from the parking area up beside the loading ramp. Lily stared at a small carefully polished brass sign bolted to the wall: Centre for Scientific Rejuvenation No. 2.

  The alarm went off at the same time Lily spotted the tiny closed circuit cameras fixed above the dock and the stairs. Two were already swivelling towards them.

  ‘Damn.’ Kieran looked at the jammer. The light was red and the screen was fading in and out. A volley of bullets pinged off the car and the stairs.

  ‘Run,’ Kieran yelled, taking the stairs four at a time and leaping up onto the dock. Lily didn’t have to look around to know that Blacktroopers were sprinting along the facility wall towards them. She had no idea how many. Goosebumps rising on her skin, Lily scrambled after Kieran, Greta and Ingie, who had already disappeared.

  Lily reached the top of the stairs and ducked behind the protective front wall. Huge metal doors sealed the loading dock at the top of the ramp so there was no entry there. There was a smaller glass-fronted door beside the dock, but Kieran didn’t stop there. Instead, he sprinted across the ramp and vaulted down the other side. As Lily followed, she heard the thud of boots on the stairs. Holding up the jamming device, Kieran frantically typed numbers into a keypad that was next to a small door underneath the ramp. He yanked on the door. Nothing happened. He hit the device against the palm of his hand, punched in the numbers again and the door swung open. They all slipped through, pulling the door behind them. Ingie shoved her metal bar through the handles.

  ‘Should hold for a minute or two,’ Ingie gasped. ‘They bring the dead floaters out this way.’

  Lily followed the others up a sterile corridor, her heart thumping. She didn’t see how they could escape the Blacktroopers this time. But she had to find Daniel. They burst through automatic sliding doors into the main draining area. A quick glance told her there were no Blacktroopers inside the facility, not yet. She had never seen one during her time here, only carers.

  She saw a huge windowless cavern lit by arc lights. She recognised the blaring video screens. The noise of the screens muffled the alarm, but Lily saw the uniformed carers darting anxiously between the people being drained.

  The people lay face down, as she had, on trolleys with tubes and draining equipment suspended above them from rectangular metal boxes. Every so often there was an empty station, it’s tubes and wiring coiled.

  ‘This way.’ Ingie was bent over, using the trolleys as cover. Lily followed, dropping in behind Kieran and Greta.

  Lily had no idea what had happened to Luca and Sal; she only hoped that it hadn’t been their capture that had alerted the Blacktroopers. Kieran and Ingie were checking the nametags attached to the trolleys. Kieran grabbed a syringe from a metal tray.

  ‘Antidote to the stuff they inject to cause paralysis,’ he said.

  ‘Over there,’ Lily said.

  ‘What?’ Kieran looked around.

  ‘He’s there.’ Lily pointed across two rows. The stations around him were empty, their cords and tubes neatly coiled up and the trolleys gleaming silver. Daniel lay alone.

  ‘How do you know it’s him?’ Ingie asked.

  It was a good question. Lily couldn’t say exactly how she knew, she just had a feeling. Keeping low, because Lily was certain the Blacktroopers were in the facility now, hunting them, they dodged between the trolleys.

  ‘Daniel,’ Lily said, peering down at him.

  He was trying to move his head. His eyes were terrified.

  ‘It’s okay, Dan. It’s me, Lily…’ Kieran pulled the tubes out of Daniel’s body and injected him with antidote that relaxed the muscles and allowed movement. Daniel’s eyes widened in pain and Lily knew how he felt.

  ‘It’s okay, Dan, we’re taking you out of here,’ she said softly. He locked eyes with her and nodded slightly. Lily could hardly believe she had found her twin, alive. A great rush of love and relief flooded her body.

  But what about all these other people hanging here, helpless? They were someone’s brother or sister or child, too. Lily felt cold at the thought of how these people must feel, how she had felt; immobilised, terrified.

  ‘Can we take at least take a few more?’ she asked Kieran. ‘We can’t leave them here.’

  ‘No time,’ Ingie said. ‘If we wait any longer, we’ll all be toast. We’ve got to get out of here, fast. Follow me and Greta!’

  Lily was about to object when all at once the lights died and the screen noise and footage cut out. The only illumination came from the hundreds of floater stations, each lit by a green globe, transforming the sterile place into an eerie shifting tableau.

  Now that the screens were quiet, Lily could hear shouting. Not televised shouting, but real. It ricocheted off the cavernous ceiling and dissipated in the darkness.

  ‘Move, Lily,’ she heard Kieran say. In the faint glow of the green lights, Lily saw Kieran lift Daniel off the trolley like he was a bag of feathers and throw him over his shoulder, then he took off after Ingie and Greta. Daniel’s gown slipped open and his ribs shone through his pathetic, stretched skin.

  ‘Please be careful with him,’ Lily pleaded.

  With a last remorseful look at the nearby floaters, Lily followed Kieran, trying to call to Daniel and reassure him. His head and body bounced as Kieran ran, bumping between trolleys. Lily thought he would snap like a dry twig. Kieran twisted and turned, negotiating a path between the floater stations.

  Lily wondered why the Blacktroopers had switched off the main lighting. Whatever the reason, it meant she and the others no longer had to hunch to use the trolleys as cover. They could run properly now. They were in what seemed to be a central corridor and Kieran picked up his pace. Lily had no trouble keeping up. Now they had Daniel, her fear had gone.

  But there was a new danger. The ground was beginning to buck and shudder. Lily was used to earth tremors. They had hit frequently when she had been inside her parents’ house, but these seemed different somehow. Stronger and much more like the precursor to a big earthquake. Lily had experienced two earthquakes and she didn’t like the idea of another one. Kieran ran faster.

  They’ll stop soon, Lily thought.

  Far from stopping, the ground trembled more violently. It
felt to Lily as if she were running on a trampoline, struggling to keep her balance.

  A whooping siren replaced the alarm. ‘Evacuate! Evacuate!’ The broadcast instructions drowned the clamour. The bucking floor was throwing the trolleys sideways. Lily was sickened to see people being flung to the floor, tubes ripped savagely from their limp bodies. Now the green globes were flicking on and off, the metal boxes with their attached tubes swinging wildly. Lily peered down to see what looked to be medical instruments littering the floor, hindering their progress even further. The entire facility was almost in darkness.

  Afraid of losing Daniel and Kieran, Lily grabbed hold of her brother with one hand and Kieran with the other and they lurched and staggered on. Lily hoped Kieran could still see Ingie and Greta. People bumped and ricocheted against them. This was definitely a full-on earthquake. The carers also scrambled towards the side walls of the building, desperate to leave this dark, unstable space.

  Kieran, with Daniel still over his shoulder, slipped from Lily’s grasp and was pulling away. Lily peered ahead, but could no longer see Ingie or Greta. She hoped they were okay.

  ‘Kieran!’ Lily called out, but her voice was meagre and lost in the clamour. She could see the side walls now with the silent video screens, which were cracking with the earth’s movement. Lily didn’t think the building could stay upright for much longer. Very soon the whole place was going to collapse and there was nothing anyone would be able to do for the poor people who lay paralysed on their trolleys.

  A group of three uniformed carers elbowed past her and she followed them as they ducked down a passageway that looped around before joining another corridor that ran at right angles to it. People jostled behind Lily as she ran towards light, bursting through a swinging door into the glare of outside.

  The sun, lower now, shone directly into her eyes. it’s heat was still like a shockwave. She shaded her eyes. Lily was being shoved forward, but she pushed back to try to slow herself. People were sprinting away from the unsound building – carers, Blacktroopers, everyone equal in the face of nature. It was horrible being in such close proximity to those cruel creatures in their visors and helmets, with their weapons swinging from their belts.