Days Like This

by Alison Stewart

  They crept down the carpeted hall and listened at the door. There was no sound, but something about the waiting silence made Lily sure her little sister was inside.

  ‘Alice?’ she called softly.

  Greta pushed Lily gently aside, turned the key and carefully opened the door. A huge bed dominated the room. It had four posts with cream satin draped over the top. Pillows were arranged neatly underneath some fluffy toys that Lily recognised. The only signs of disorder were the chunks of plaster and debris scattered across the room.

  Alice stood beside the window, pressed against the curtain.

  ‘Alice,’ Lily called, but her sister didn’t respond.

  ‘Alice!’ Lily moved right up to her, gazing at the familiar profile.

  ‘Go away,’ Alice whispered.

  ‘But it’s me, Alice. It’s Lily.’

  Slowly the girl turned, reaching out to touch Lily.

  ‘Is it really you, Lilla?’

  ‘Yes, Alice, it’s me.’

  ‘Why didn’t you come back for me?’ Her expression was first bewildered, then distressed. She looked so fragile Lily wanted to cry. She hugged her and felt the sharpness of Alice’s shoulder blades, also the very slight bulge of her stomach that could only mean … Lily gagged, sweat prickling across her body.

  ‘You should have come for me, you promised,’ Alice whispered.

  Before Lily could answer, a great roar shattered the cotton-wool silence. It started in the distance but quickly came nearer and louder. Greta and Kieran joined them at the window.

  ‘Oh, no,’ Kieran said. ‘It’s much bigger than last time. This is a proper tsunami. We have to go.’ They didn’t move, though. What they saw outside was too mesmerising.

  The giant wave came from the direction of the headlands. Even though it was some distance away, it was clearly visible as a great surge of deep blue-green water that must have burst from the open sea into the harbour and now spread out, travelling in what seemed like slow motion across the water towards them.

  ‘We’ve got to go,’ Lily screamed, but she knew it was too late.

  The wave surged over the barricades in front of the house. It rushed across the garden and smashed into the house, bearing a chilling cargo of debris, boats and vegetation.

  Alice clung to the curtains, Lily clung to Alice and Kieran and Greta hung on to Lily as the water crested the balcony in front of them and battered through the French doors, showering them with glass. Cuts ripped open along Lily’s arms. The water punched her off her feet and slammed her into the door, which splintered. Alice was no longer with Lily, nor were Kieran or Greta.

  The mass of water swept Lily out through the door. She choked and spluttered, struggling for breath. The water was solid, like steel, bruising and mauling everything in it’s path. Lily bumped up against something and clung to it with all her strength as the might of the water rushed around her. It poured through the house, down the stairs, swirling and roaring, gathering up splinters of furniture. Lily dug her fingernails into what must have been a banister. She thought she heard someone screaming, the sound filtering through from a long way away.

  The water kept coming as if the entire southern ocean was emptying into Sydney, into this grand house that stood behind it’s now useless barricades. Lily waited for the house to fold like a pack of cards, trapping everyone inside.

  It was almost impossible to breathe. Lily squeezed her eyes shut and wrapped her legs tightly around the puny banister. It shuddered and swayed, on the verge of snapping and carrying her down the stairs. She was choking and her fingers and arms were sliding off the railing. Objects crashed into her. She let go and the relentless flood upended her against something solid.

  Lily opened her eyes. Her entire body ached, but she was grateful to be alive. The water had receded, leaving behind a scene of devastation. Lily lay half way down the stairs. Above her, the banister had gone.

  The most shocking sight for Lily was that of her mother crawling towards her.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Megan whispered, as if Lily had never left. Megan’s right arm bled from a deep cut below the elbow and Lily saw one of her ankles was purple and swollen.

  ‘Pym,’ Megan cried out, ‘Pym!’

  ‘Here.’ His voice came faintly from downstairs. ‘There’s probably more waves coming. We have to get out of here. Can you walk?’ he said.

  ‘I’ll try.’ Megan had forgotten about Lily and was pulling herself up against the wall, half hopping, half dragging her body along.

  ‘Come on, Alice, we have to leave the house, get to higher ground,’ Megan said. ‘You heard your father. Hopefully one of the vans still works.’

  ‘Mum, it’s not Alice, it’s me, Lily.’

  Megan had reached the bottom of the stairs and she turned around.

  ‘Get up, Alice, we’re going.’

  ‘It’s me, Lily. Mum, where’s Alice, you can’t go without Alice.’

  ‘Get up.’ Megan’s voice rose a little. ‘You have to come.’

  ‘No, Mum, we have to find Alice.’

  ‘Pym, Alice won’t come! What shall I do?’ Megan cried out.

  ‘Make her come. I’m injured, I can’t come up. We have to go, right now The garage survived, so did the vans, but there isn’t much time,’ Pym said.

  ‘No,’ Lily said again.

  ‘Why, Alice, why?’ Tears streamed down Megan’s face; her voice rising, close to hysteria.

  Lily started to crawl back up the stairs, ignoring her mother’s cries.

  Megan stared after her, before turning away. Lily could hear her struggling along, the rasping of her breathing.

  When the sound of her parents’ voices had faded, Lily dragged herself upright. Her body ached, but she didn’t think she had any broken bones. She climbed over the debris to get back into Alice’s ruined room. Her sister was lying against the far wall of the bedroom, surrounded by wreckage. Greta was with Alice, who was crying, her face buried in Greta’s shoulder. Alice was shaking her head over and over, her eyes tightly shut.

  ‘We have to go, there are more waves coming,’ Lily called out to them.

  ‘She won’t leave,’ Greta said. Her voice was hoarse and her eyes were strangely glassy. ‘She’s terrified. I can’t convince her.’

  Alice had wrapped her arms tightly around Greta, though Greta lay limply. It was then that Lily saw Greta’s leg. It was twisted at an impossible angle and Lily was sickened to see a shard of bone protruded from it.

  ‘Take her,’ Greta said. ‘Make her go.’

  ‘I can’t, I can’t, I’m not allowed.’ Alice’s voice rose. ‘We’ll be safe if we stay here in the house. It’s safe.’

  ‘No, it isn’t,’ Lily said. She tried to prise Alice’s fingers away from Greta. Her sister was shaking; great jolting tremors.

  ‘Come on,’ Lily said desperately. ‘Don’t be stupid. No one is stopping you from leaving. I’ll help you both. Let me lift you, one on each side. Please!’

  ‘No, no, no, no, no,’ Alice howled. ‘Don’t make me, I won’t go, I’m safe here. Mum and Dad will come. Leave me alone.’

  ‘They won’t come, Alice. They’ve already gone. Oh, God, listen, I can’t help you if you won’t help me. Let go of Greta. No one will survive the next waves. Don’t you understand? it’s a miracle the house is still standing. There’s a van downstairs in the garage. We can all get away before the next wave comes.’

  The words were barely out of her mouth when Lily heard the next chilling sound of water swelling into an all-encompassing reverberation.

  ‘Listen, Alice, it’s coming again,’ Lily screamed, but Alice just squeezed shut her eyes, pressed her mouth tightly and clung to Greta.

  ‘She’s shocked out of her mind, Lily,’ Greta whispered.

  Greta’s face was ashen and blood pooled beneath her shattered leg. ‘Go, Lily. You have to. I can’t walk. Leave us and save yourself,’ she said.

  ‘I … am … not … leaving … you!’ Lily tried again to pris
e Alice off Greta, but it was hopeless. Trauma had given Alice an almost inhuman strength.

  ‘Alice!’ Lily was frantic.

  The next wave came first as a great shadow, then as a solid fist of water. Lily was flung end over end in choking darkness, totally helpless.

  So this is what death is, she thought, amazed at her own composure.

  The next thing she knew she was retching up burning seawater and desperately gulping air into her lungs. Dazed, but alive. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious. She lay at the bottom of what remained of the staircase. Looking up, she expected to see the top storey of the house, but there was just sky and the ragged silhouette of broken walls. The wave had taken a huge chunk out of the first floor.

  ‘Alice,’ Lily gasped. ‘Greta.’ She couldn’t move her legs. They were jammed beneath smashed up bricks and rubble. There was water and mud everywhere. Lily tried to wriggle out from under the debris. She knew more waves were coming.

  ‘Help,’ she screamed hoarsely. ‘Help us here.’

  Kieran came lurching over the wreckage. His face was covered with blood and one eye was puffed and bruised.

  ‘Thank God you’re alive, Lily. Are you okay?’ He fell to his knees, wrenching away the debris from her legs and tossing it aside. ‘There’s another wave coming. The garage survived. Your parents have taken one of the vans but there’s another. Sal and Luca are seeing if it works, but we have to hurry.’

  ‘Greta’s badly hurt and I can’t get Alice to come, Kieran,’ Lily said.

  ‘Crap.’ He yanked aside the last obstruction and hauled her upright. She tested her legs then stumbled up what remained of the stairs. It was as she had feared – there was nothing left except a few sodden and broken walls opening to the sky.

  ‘I’ve got to look for them,’ Lily said, coming down the stairs.

  Kieran grabbed her, not just by the arm but by the whole body and shoved her forward.

  ‘They’re gone, Lily, we can save ourselves, there’s no point staying and dying,’ he said.

  ‘No, I’m not leaving,’ Lily said obstinately.

  In one swift movement, Kieran lifted her and threw her over his shoulder.

  ‘Alice,’ she called. ‘Put me down. Alice!’ She thumped at him with her fists but he held on, stumbling over the rubble.

  Lily squeezed shut her eyes to try and block the image of what must have happened to Alice and Greta when the last wedge of water had wiped out the light and swallowed them and the child inside Alice. Then she was retching and vomiting uncontrollably.

  Outside, the landscape was unrecognisable. There was mud-coated rubble scattered everywhere.

  ‘Luca and Sal have gone,’ Kieran said in disbelief. ‘They’ve taken the van and left without us. The bastards have left without us.’

  Lily struggled, but still Kieran held onto her firmly, almost hurting her. He barged out through the hole where the gate had once stood and began to lumber down the road. Everything was thick with mud and the receding water swirled and sucked at Kieran’s legs. There was stuff everywhere, including bodies. Lily looked with horror at the corpses, terrified of seeing Alice or Greta.

  People were streaming out onto the streets – bleeding, ripped-up people.

  ‘We have to keep moving,’ Kieran panted.

  ‘Put me down!’

  ‘No, you’ll only go back.’

  ‘Put me down!’

  Blood ran down his leg. It had soaked into his jeans and was dripping onto the road.

  ‘You’re hurt!’

  He was beginning to stagger.

  ‘Please let me go,’ Lily begged.

  ‘If I put you down, Lily, and you go back, I’ll come back with you and then we’ll both die. You won’t find them.’

  ‘You don’t know that,’ Lily argued.

  ‘Yes, I do know that. I think you do, too. They’re gone. Now we have to get away from the harbour. The next wave will be bigger and the next bigger still. This is huge, Lily.’

  Lily couldn’t leave her sister and Greta, but if she went back, she’d kill Kieran too because she knew that he’d follow her.

  ‘Put me down and I’ll come with you,’ she sobbed.

  There were even more people now, all hysterical, all heading uphill, towards the Wall. It loomed above them, white and sinister.

  ‘Wait.’ Kieran put his hand on her arm. ‘Look, down there.’

  Inside a garage, which had been half demolished by the water, was a motorbike. It was lying on it’s side. Kieran ran down to it and Lily followed, still sobbing, still reluctant. The bike was undamaged, but a man was sprawled beside it, his body twisted at a strange angle. He was obviously dead. Kieran wrenched the bike upright. He turned the key in the ignition and the engine sputtered to life.

  ‘Get on,’ Kieran shouted over the noise.

  Lily hesitated.

  ‘Now!’

  The ominous roar of the next wave finally convinced her. She leapt on behind him and clung on as he sped off, swerving in and around the huge wash of people that was pouring onto the streets and running for the Wall.

  Lily and Kieran broke free of the mass of people and sped along, swerving and skidding; navigating around the rubble. Kieran struggled to keep the motorbike upright as the road bulged and shuddered beneath them. The people they passed looked terrified. Many covered their ears to try to block out the noise.

  They were swept up in the surge of people scrambling away from the foreshore. Lily caught another glimpse of the Wall as the noise intensified and the earth shook. Kieran unexpectedly veered off in an odd direction, not straight for the Wall as he should have done. Lily was about to shout a question, but then she saw something that made her forget everything else. In the distance rose a fresh wall of water, far bigger again than the first or second waves. This one swirled and crashed between the trees and the houses, gathering a solid wedge of debris along with it. People trapped within this vicious washing machine were tumbled and flung around.

  Kieran accelerated up a steep incline, away from the water with it’s gruesome cargo. They were travelling back towards the open sea and the exposed southern headland of the harbour. Lily hoped Kieran knew what he was doing.

  ‘Run!’ she screamed to the people flashing past. ‘Run!’ but the noise sucked away her voice. They knew what was coming because they fled with their bodies hunched over and their arms covering their heads. Twisting erratically, Kieran sped onwards, so fast that Lily’s head snapped back and forth. Water and mud, debris and sludge slicked the roads, making their progress perilous. On and up they went, with the noise closing in behind them.

  Eventually the water slowed. The roar became a growl, petering to near silence.

  Kieran pulled up and swung the bike around. Somehow they had managed to outrun the wave. But now it spat out broken bits of houses, trees, furniture and yet more bodies.

  And it wasn’t over. A rumble, this time deeper and more menacing than the last, told them the waves were coming more frequently.

  ‘I think it’s going to keep getting worse,’ Kieran yelled, twisting the bike around and speeding off. Keeping now to the high road, he steered them back the way they’d come and then turned sharply left. Again, Lily could no longer see the Wall. She hoped Ingie had got Daniel over and the others were safe, too.

  Masses of people ran towards the Wall. Some supported others; some clasped possessions, which slowed their progress. Some steered vehicles, many dangerously overloaded. Some of the vehicles battered through the gathering crowds, knocking people sideways or running them over.

  There were hardly any children and the few Lily saw were alone, huddled on the road, dazed and pale in the unfamiliar outdoors. Lily wished she could help them.

  The bike was buffeted by the traffic and Lily was almost dislodged every time it connected with someone or something. Tears streamed down Kieran’s face. Lily was sobbing, too. At last, the Wall loomed directly ahead, slick and gleaming.

  Beneath it, people
four or five deep reached and scrambled to get over, some hurling themselves over the heads of others. They threw rope and pieces of material towards the slanting top of the Wall, but mostly the ropes slid down again. With increasing desperation, for all everyone could hear was the roar of the next wave, people began to climb over one another. Some fell and were trampled or crushed. A few of the strongest managed to scramble onto the backs of others and vault towards the top of the Wall. One or two even reached the top, slithering over and disappearing.

  Kieran sped along the road that ran parallel to the Wall. Occasionally he slowed, looking around before launching the bike forward again. People continued to pour out of the side streets and run headlong at the Wall, throwing themselves against the backs of those already there. Lily thought that these panicking people, jolted out of their gorgeous safe houses, no longer looked quite so smooth and sleek.

  Finally Kieran screeched to a halt. Lily catapulted against his back.

  ‘Not so many people here,’ he yelled.

  They leaped off the bike and Kieran dropped it. The new wave was closing in, a gigantic roar. Someone pounced on the bike and sped off in the direction Lily and Kieran had come from. Working quickly, Kieran unwound the rope and material from his waist, attached the hook to it’s end and threw the rope up at the Wall. His experience paid off as the rope caught immediately. He yanked to make sure it held. Then, expertly, he flung the material up so it lay across the top of the Wall and near the rope.

  ‘Come on, quickly,’ he said to Lily, leaping up at the rope and hauling himself hand-over-hand. Lily followed, practically flying up in her haste. Already others, seeing this means of escape, were converging.

  ‘Leave the rope, let them come. Once you’re over, run,’ he said over his shoulder.

  They hit the ground on the far side of the Wall with a thud then sprang up, sprinting across the bleak, rubble-littered expanse, all injuries forgotten. As before, the part of the landscape closest to the Wall was desolate, buildings, roads, everything smashed. Thanks to the tsunami, the elite suburbs inside the Wall now looked almost as ruined as the landscape beyond it.

  Because they ran with their backs to the Wall, they didn’t at first see the fourth wall of water rising above it, it’s colossal translucence a solid block. Lily glanced around in time to see the wave smash the Wall as if it were made of sand. The great wash raced in, silencing the voices of all those now held in by a Wall that had once held others out. The water dislodged the chunks of Wall, scooping them up to join the rest of the flotsam. When it hit Kieran and Lily, the wave tossed them in the air like matchsticks, tumbling them over and over. Lily found something solid and clung to it, but it was near useless. They were helpless, drowning yet again. Lily’s head hit something hard. After that, she remembered nothing.