Days Like This

by Alison Stewart

  NINETEEN

  Lily shook her head, unable to clear her ears which were blocked with water. The wave had deposited her high on the unstable parapet of a partially demolished building. Two walls at right angles supported the parapet and it was on this precarious outcrop that she was balanced. Kieran was nowhere to be seen.

  She drifted in and out of consciousness, the world around her hazy. She remembered Kieran steering the bike to the Wall, both of them scrambling over it. Lily hated to think that he might not have survived. The very last thing she remembered was the huge wave sweeping her away. She thought about everything that had happened. Alice was more than likely dead. She had failed to rescue her sister. And Greta, with the extent of her injuries and the savagery of the water, had surely perished, too.

  Lily’s throat burned from the saltwater. She looked back towards the city enclave. The Wall was gone. Lily remembered seeing the wave smash into the Wall before she lost consciousness, but it had been such a solid structure, Lily found it’s almost total destruction hard to comprehend. All that remained of the gleaming white Wall were mud-coated blocks and chunks littering the landscape.

  Lily seemed to be a long way from where the Wall used to stand; she must have been carried at least a kilometre inland, perhaps more. She squinted towards the city that had once hugged the harbour. It was a wasteland. The waves hadn’t smashed some buildings and spared others. There was nothing left at all, but mud and rubble. Lily knew her survival was nothing short of a miracle and she was thankful. But what about Kieran, Alice, Greta and all the others? Was it possible that anybody remaining around the waterfront had survived those last waves?

  Gingerly, Lily moved to the edge of the parapet and, in doing so, destabilised the entire structure. It tipped her off and she crashed down painfully among loose wet bricks and muddy debris. Her right side stung with pain. She hoped nothing was broken. Breathing caused a stabbing pain in her chest and blood poured from a slash on her thigh, but she quickly forgot her injuries because now she was hearing something far more awful – the groans of seriously injured and dying people. Lily was overwhelmed by the bodies. There were hundreds of them, maybe thousands. They were blackened with mud and barely recognisable, lying so peacefully now the water had finally gone. Underneath the sounds of shattered people, the air was empty of the Earth’s tension. The waves had come and washed the pressure of the world away. The air felt different and Lily didn’t think there would be any more waves for the moment.

  Lily tried to focus on her immediate surrounds. A few trees remained; muddy, leaf-stripped skeletons in a slick black landscape of bodies and slimy lumps that might have been bodies. Again she thought how incredible it was that anyone at all had survived; incredible that she had.

  She dragged herself upright and tried to walk, gritting her teeth against the pain. A few other people stumbled around her. Lily saw confusion and hopelessness on their faces. Many wandered aimlessly, groaning or crying out. Lily knelt down beside an injured woman. She had no water to offer and nothing for the woman’s injuries.

  ‘It’s all right, help will come,’ was all Lily could say. ‘I’ll tell them you’re here. Help will come. Just hold on.’

  Every now and then, Lily stepped on someone accidentally and her foot slid across skin. Gagging, she forced herself to keep walking, stopping only to hold a person’s hand or to try and make people more comfortable. Eventually the numbers of bodies and injured people diminished and Lily began to recognise landmarks leading to the cave system. She didn’t want to look behind. The best thing she could do, the only thing, was to find help for the injured and suffering.

  ‘Where do we go?’ people cried out. Others limped near her, bewildered, sobbing, all heading away from the ruined city.

  ‘This way,’ she said to whoever was near, ‘follow me.’

  Fixing her eyes on the line of blue-ridged hills rising in the distance, she placed one battered foot ahead of the next. They walked for hours in the heat. Often people lay down where they had stopped and would not be persuaded to get up. At last, Lily recognised some of the people from the cave community walking towards her. She waved her arms, pointing back to the city.

  ‘Hurry,’ Lily called. ‘They need help.’ People from the cave were streaming out across the landscape, carrying water, medical supplies and makeshift stretchers.

  Lily was nearing the gully when she heard Rosemary calling out. ‘Thank goodness. I thought you were dead,’ Rosemary said.

  ‘Is Daniel here?’ Lily said at once. ‘And Ingie?’

  ‘Yes. They made it back safely,’ Rosemary said. ‘Ingie got Daniel over the Wall and away before the waves hit. She carried him in. She was exhausted. She’s a very brave girl.’

  Lily sagged against Rosemary, who tried to smooth the mud off Lily’s face, pushing back her caked hair, dabbing clumsily at the streams of tears.

  ‘It’s okay, they’re safe,’ Rosemary repeated.

  ‘I’m sure Alice is dead, and Greta,’ Lily sobbed. ‘We had to leave them.’

  ‘I know,’ Rosemary said. ‘Kieran came in. He told me.’

  Lily felt happiness surge through her. She’d been dreading more bad news.

  ‘Thank God he’s safe. Daniel, too. It’s such a relief.’ She scrubbed at her eyes and took a deep breath. ‘It was awful, Rosemary. I have to go back to the city. There are people who’re terribly injured. And so many dead.’

  Rosemary carried a bag with medical supplies and another full of water bottles.

  ‘Have some of this,’ Rosemary said, handing Lily a bottle of water.

  Lily gulped it.

  ‘Can you carry the rest?’ Rosemary handed her the bag.

  ‘Did Luca and Sal come in yet?’ Lily shouldered the water.

  Rosemary shook her head.

  ‘Not yet.’ She paused. ‘Kieran told me they took the van and left you.’

  ‘Yes,’ Lily said.

  ‘Shall I look at your leg?’ Rosemary offered.

  ‘Later.’

  ‘Well, at least let me tie up that wound.’ Rosemary stopped Lily and lashed a clean piece of material around a large gash on her arm.

  ‘Did the cave survive?’ Lily said as they trudged on.

  ‘Thank heavens, yes.’ Rosemary drew in a deep breath. Her face was dark red from exertion and sun. ‘There were some rock falls and we lost quite a lot of the light globes, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed. The water’s still running, which is a blessing. The quake could so easily have stopped the flow.’

  They walked in silence. After a while Rosemary stopped.

  ‘We’re not thinking straight, Lily,’ she said. There’s no point going all the way back to the city. There are people arriving here who need us.’

  She looked around, selecting a patch of shade in the lee of an overturned truck. She was right. A steady stream of people was passing. Some kept walking, others stopped, laying the injured alongside the truck. Many were barely alive. Aside from injuries suffered in the earthquake and the waves, in many cases the bracelets had severed the hands of teenagers and they had collapsed and bled to an agonising death under the blazing sun. Lily wondered who was activating the bracelets.

  ‘It’s more than likely a technical or mechanical malfunction, something like that,’ Rosemary said and Lily shrugged because in the end it didn’t matter. What mattered was that it was happening and all they could do was try to help.

  Rosemary and Lily did what they could to ease people’s suffering. Often it was merely giving water and some comforting words, for the injuries were usually far too great for them to deal with.

  ‘Rosemary!’ It was Hatty. Lily recognised the girl she had met at the drying place. Hatty was now driving an armoured car which looked as if someone had taken a giant can opener to it’s side. The tyres were completely shredded and she was bumping along on the rims. Hatty stopped the car with a jolt.

  ‘They need you back at the cave,’ she said. ‘People are arriving there all the tim
e, lots badly injured. You’re better off getting back and helping there.’

  When Rosemary looked uncertain, Hatty added, ‘I’ll load these people on.’ She indicated the injured lying by the truck. ‘I won’t be able to fit you two as well. Can you make it back on foot?’

  ‘Yes,’ Rosemary said. ‘We’ve run out of first aid supplies anyway.’ She looked exhausted.

  ‘And I’m out of water,’ Lily said.

  The sun had set by the time they reached the gully, threading down the slope in the company of many others. Lily was limping badly but still she moved quickly, desperate to see Daniel. She noticed that the land here hadn’t escaped unscathed – it was topsy-turvy in places with rifts and tumbled trees. The outer cave had been turned into a makeshift hospital and the injured had spread out into the shaded gully under improvised shelters erected to shield them from the relentless heat.

  ‘By the look of it, we won’t be able to cope with many more,’ Rosemary said. ‘We only have a few medical people and we have no means to operate on those who need it. We’ll have to send some of these to other communities. Maybe they have better facilities.’

  ‘Other communities?’ Lily said, surprised.

  ‘Yes,’ Rosemary said. ‘We aren’t the only ones who’ve survived coming over the Wall. We just have the largest group, maybe because we have the cave system and we’re quite close to the city on the main highway. Although it doesn’t feel very close when you’re walking in the heat, I know.’

  ‘Lily! Hatty said you were okay,’ Kieran pushed himself up from where he’d been assisting someone and threw his arms around Lily.

  Lily hugged him back. Eventually she pulled away and held him at arms length. He was badly battered. Both his eyes were blackened and one side of his face was scraped raw. Like her, cuts and grazes covered his body.

  ‘How did you get away?’ Lily asked.

  ‘I was lucky,’ Kieran said. ‘That last wave really chucked me around. It’s a long story, but I made it. You were lucky, too. I think the Wall did us a favour and slowed down that last massive wave. People on the north side of the harbour and near the water’s edge weren’t so lucky, I don’t think.’ He shook his head. They were both thinking of Alice and Greta.

  ‘Have you seen Daniel and Ingie?’ Lily said.

  Kieran nodded, looking sombre.

  ‘Daniel’s doing all right, considering,’ he said.

  ‘Considering what?’ Lily said, alarmed.

  ‘I’ll take you to him,’ Kieran said. His eyes were red-rimmed. ‘Come on. Daniel’s in my room. So is Ingie. Mary’s been looking after them, among others.’

  ‘I’ll stay and help out here,’ Rosemary said. ‘I’ll catch up with you later. it’s good to see you both home safely.’

  Lily bent down and kissed her quickly. ‘Good to see you too, Rosemary.’

  Kieran’s alcove was in the same passageway as Rosemary’s, only deeper into the cave system. Grass matting hung over the doorway and Kieran held this aside for Lily. It was much smaller than Rosemary’s room, made even more cramped by the three beds crammed in side-by-side. Daniel lay in a bed against one wall and Ingie in a bed against the other. Both were asleep. Mary nodded and smiled at Lily, then went back to packing up her medicine bag.

  Lily gazed at her brother. Until now, she almost hadn’t let herself hope that he’d survived. She knelt by his bed. She could finally examine him properly. Tears filled her eyes. His face was skeletal. Most of his hair had gone and his eyes were deeply sunken. He wore a T-shirt, but she could see how sharply his collarbone protruded.

  ‘I have to go, but I’ve sedated him,’ Mary said gently. ‘He’s all right but it’s better if he stays out of it for a little bit, until he’s stronger.’

  ‘Why?’ Lily reached out and ran her finger down Daniel’s cheek.

  ‘His pituitary is still swelling but it’s not being drained,’ Kieran said, crouching down and putting his arm around Lily’s shoulders.

  ‘Will he be all right?’ Lily said shakily.

  ‘We’ll know in about three days,’ Kieran said. ‘It happens to all the floaters. The brain can’t cope with that much swelling because the skull is not elastic. Some survive and some don’t. I’m sorry, Lily.’

  ‘But Daniel will be okay, won’t he?’

  ‘Only time will tell,’ Mary said. ‘It depends on the individual. It depends how long they’ve been in the draining facility and how weak they are. Daniel was in a resting phase so we’re hopeful the gland will reduce quickly. He wasn’t being drained but he’s still not receiving the drugs they give to the resting floaters that protect the gland.’

  ‘Is he in pain?’ Lily was crying now.

  ‘He is, Lily,’ Mary said softly. ‘That’s why he’s sedated. We can only comfort him and hope that he pulls through. You have to know that if the gland continues to swell, he can’t survive. You must be prepared for this, Lily. There are others here in the same boat. I have to go, but I’ll look in later.’

  ‘After everything he’s been through,’ Lily said. She rested her head gently against Daniel’s chest. ‘Come on, Danny,’ she whispered. ‘Work hard. You must get well again.’

  ‘He will.’ A tiny voice came from behind Lily. Ingie had woken and was smiling at Lily. ‘Have faith in him.’

  Lily went around the bed and bent to give Ingie a huge hug.

  ‘You saved him, Ingie. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you.’

  ‘Anyone would have done the same,’ Ingie said.

  ‘She’s being modest,’ Kieran said. ‘She hauled him over the Wall. Someone knocked them back down, but she dragged him over again. She took his weight and cushioned his fall, then she picked him up and ran back to the cave. She ran, carrying him, can you believe it? When she got to the gully, she collapsed. They both had to be carried inside.’

  ‘Thank you, Ingie.’ Lily didn’t know what else to say. ‘it’s my pleasure, Lily.’ Then she rolled her head to the side, her eyes closed, and she went straight back to sleep.

  Daniel struggled in those first days. Lily spent the nights sitting with him, taking catnaps on Kieran’s bed. Rosemary had offered Kieran her spare bed for the time that Lily needed to be with Daniel.

  Daniel floated in and out of consciousness, groaning when the sedation wore off, so that Mary Rosemary or Lily would have to quickly administer more. Lily held his hands and comforted him until he slipped under again, otherwise he would thrash and groan, clawing at his face and head.

  On the third day, Lily woke from a broken nap to see that he was sleeping peacefully. She ran to wake Rosemary and Kieran and bring them back to see Daniel.

  Rosemary examined him. ‘It’s good news, Lily. I think he’ll pull through,’ she said. ‘He’s not as feverish and he hasn’t had sedation since, when?’

  ‘About ten last night,’ Lily said.

  ‘Looks like he’ll recover,’ Rosemary smiled, turning her attention to the sleeping Ingie. ‘And look, Ingie’s got a bit of colour for the first time since she brought Daniel back. It’s all good news.’

  On the fourth day after the waves had struck, Peter, Maeve, Kieran and a group of others returned to the ruined city to investigate whether anything remained of the power structures within the Wall. It was unlikely, but the group’s mission was to find out if there was any sign of surviving Committee or Blacktrooper members. If any had survived, it was imperative they did not have the means to re-create their world.

  The group returned filthy, haggard and exhausted that evening and Peter called a meeting. He chose the rock platform at the top of the main stairway to address the community. People crowded out from the passageways and living areas. They stood shoulder to shoulder and his words were relayed to those deeper inside the cavern and to those outside in the gully. Only about half the globes worked and the light was poor, so candles were set up along the rock ledge.

  Peter was a small man, but his voice was resonant and it echoed through the main cavern.

 
‘I want to address the rumours that have been going around about the injured who have come into our community,’ he started.

  A low buzz began and Peter held up his hand. ‘I also want to talk about the tsunami and the earthquake. Please listen because everyone should know the facts. Kieran, Maeve, Tamara, Shah and I went back to the city today to assess the impact of the tsunami and earthquake.’ Peter indicated the people standing beside him. ‘We were particularly interested in learning how the Committee and their infrastructure had fared.’

  The low buzz had become an angry hum.

  ‘Please. You should know that all structures within and including the Wall have been totally demolished,’ Peter called out.

  A loud cheer went up, though Lily, who was standing off to the side of the platform, saw that a number among the injured shook their heads and some dropped their faces into their hands.

  ‘You should also know,’ Peter continued, ‘that the barricades and foreshore are gone. The houses and gardens in the water moon allotment area are gone. The Committee buildings that sat behind the high barricade of the Cahill Expressway are gone. So are the Blacktrooper barracks, the two drainage facilities, the food production complex and the power generation complexes.’

  He paused. ‘You should also know that the Harbour Bridge has collapsed.’

  A gasp greeted this last piece of information.