Apocalypse [Book 2]

by Matt J. Pike

Not sure how to sum that all up really.

  *

  Day three on the dig site. Dig site – I’m really trying to sound like a try-hard palaeontologist right now!

  We organised some extra reinforcements today. To be honest, it wasn’t hard to get help; everyone is smelling another win for the Phoenix team and they want to be a part of it for the community. It really is a big moment if we can pull this off. And we still smell of fish (in a good way) from our trip out west... that smell is working.

  Anyway, the evening shift lookout folk are helping us in the morning, before the morning lookout folk will repeat their work from yesterday. We’ve also got another couple of wheelbarrows packed and ready to go, as well as all the ropes and whatnot Jonesy reckons he needs to rig car no.2 up to get it down to ground level safely.

  I’m going to smash a big breakfast.

  *

  We were up at the dig site early this morning – around 7.30am. Well, that’s according to the time we keep at the oval, which is based on an almanac someone found on one of the city raids. That book had all the sunrise and sunset times through to 2016, so if we assume our measure of the date is correct – January 26 – then it was 7.30am. Anyway, whether it’s entirely accurate or not, is it the standard time in our world.

  It’s hard to believe no one in this community thought to wear a watch during the apocalypse and keep it with them. Not one. Me included. And I was planning for all sorts of scenarios... not one part of my mind thought of something as simple as, keep a device on you that can tell the time and date.

  I mean, that’s prepper-101 stuff, right? I guess, you just really don’t think at that basic level when you’re facing being pancaked by a mountain-sized chunk of dark rock heading in your direction at way too many kilometres a second. You don’t really process far enough ahead to think it would be kind of handy to know how many years, months and days since Jesus came into the world. You think about living and dying, then food, shelter and family... but time... that’s like a really basic life system you just somewhat take for granted. Until you don’t actually have it any more, that is.

  Anyway our 7.30am can’t be too far off the mark, with our date guess and almanac and all. All I know is that I was tired and sore from yesterday, standing in front of a mess of ash, car bits and hotel, dreading, yet excited by, the day ahead.

  Ye-jun and a couple of the nightshift guys helped Jonesy rig the ropes to car two, while the rest of us spent our time widening the trench, Not only did we have to make it wide enough for the car, we also had to allow room for us to work around it, too. We angled the direction of the trench expansion towards where they’d be digging out from the oval as well.

  That killed nearly the first two hours of the day – digging and rigging.

  Once car two was set and its weight supported by the ropes, we got in and under and dug out the front of the car. Once we knew it was free and ready to move, we had three people on the ropes, taking some of the vehicle’s weight, while the rest of us pushed the car up to ramp level, then eased it down the ramp to the trench.

  Queue celebrations.

  And queue more after Jonesy gave the entire frame a once over and said, “I think I can do something with this.”

  After a reenergise break, Jonesy went to work on cleaning car two – a Toyota, while the rest of us turned our attention to digging out car one. It was at ground level, as were cars three and four behind it, which meant a whole lot of hard work for us. Basically, everything from the base of the trench wall back to the hotel wall some 8m away, including all the remains of the ramp, had to go.

  So that’s what the rest of our day looked like. Shovels, wheelbarrows, sweat, ash everywhere, Jonesy getting annoyed we were getting said ash on his newly cleaned Toyota – step and repeat.

  By mid-afternoon we had car one free – a Ford Escape. Again Jonesy went to work on the clean, while we continued excavation. Cars three and four were on the hotel side of car one, which opened up another world of digging hurt. We decided to call it a day an hour or so later, having made a small dent in tomorrow’s work.

  We also discovered another two cars – one either side of three and four. It was a huge momentum lifter for tired afternoon minds and bodies. We had really hit the motherlode.

  Such a great way to head back to the oval in the late afternoon. On the way back we passed the front end loader crew. They had made it all the way to the Ward St intersection, which was halfway to Wellington Sq – well ahead of schedule.

  *

  Massive day. Exhausted. Will sleep like a champ tonight.

  ***

  January 27, 2015

  I don’t know if my muscles have the will to live any more. I just want to lay here all day and do absolutely nothing. Maybe eat, but that involves moving my arms and I’m not entirely sure they’re capable of performing that task at the moment. They may as well be flesh-coloured shoulder tassels for all the strength they have in them.

  So, for today, I’m going to need someone to feed me. Actually, a therapeutic massage would be fantastic as well. Followed by a spa, yeah, a spa. Probably another massage at that point, followed by some more food, ideally pizza for this course. Then, if they could generally look after whatever whim I have, that’d be great.

  If that’s OK life, if you could just arrange that for me, like now... without any further effort required on my behalf... I’d appreciate it.

  *

  Quick update: life failed to deliver my ONE SMALL YET SPECIFICALLY MULTILAYERED REQUEST!

  I will remember this, life.

  *

  It was a boost rocking up to the site today and seeing what all that hard work had turned into already. As we cruised up on Phoenix, we passed the loader crew, already ploughing on through to the finish – another boost.

  But it wasn’t until tired bodies got down into the trench again that we realised nothing was going to get this done other than some serious hard work. The first 20 minutes hurt already aching muscles, but after that, the pain somewhat subsided. And you couldn’t afford to think about it really, because this just had to get done. By that point, we all just wanted the cars out. We knew if we worked our butts off it’d get done by the time the day was out. That would leave tomorrow to ferry them back.

  So that was our day. We attacked car three first, as it was in the easiest position to cherry pick out of its ash tomb. It wasn’t as easy as first thought though, because the front of it had entangled with the front of car four as well as the front wall of the hotel. That took another operation to get them separated, but once three was released, four came out in quick time. There was a bunch more digging to unearth five and six – both were right on the edge of where we’d cleared the ash ramp from above.

  By mid-afternoon we had our six cars. Around the same time the front end loader came into view where Jeffcott St met with Wellington Sq.

  While we’d been digging, Jonesy had been repairing punctured tyres, cleaning and doing everything he could to have the cars as mobile as he could for the push back home.

  As soon as the last car was removed though, he made a beeline through the hole they’d made in the pub’s entrance and went and got himself a supply of beer. Then he marched back to the trench office and took a swig. We all followed suit... although we offered little in terms of help on the cars. But, that’s as good as a warm beer has ever tasted for me. I perched myself upon the roof of the Ford Escape and just savoured every last mouthful.

  Jonesy was on a mission to get one of the cars started before the day was out. But it wasn’t to be. He swore at all the thingymajigs he either had stranded back at the garage, or would have to find from somewhere else. It really would have been the icing on the cake for him to roll back to the oval on four wheels.

  Anyway, as he worked and swore, the rest of us drank and toasted our success, while the loader crept ever closer. By the end of our session, we had decided we were going to paint all the cars red and draw a different number on the side of each
one. Kind of like the Thunderbirds craft. That’s how we want to roll post-rock.

  Hell, none of us knows what will become of all this work, but Jonesy assures us we’ll be car mobile shortly. What we do know is we were witness to, and part of, another game-changer. One that meant our community would stay ahead of the pack for some time to come. Sitting on top of the roof of an SUV, downing my third beer like a boss... good times.

  ***

  January 28, 2015

  Everything I said yesterday morning, but I would prefer a feed of Indian after the spa, not pizza. Oh, maybe an extra helper, too.

  *

  Nope? Nothing? OK then... setting expectations accordingly.

  *

  Funny how things shift so quickly around here. Today was about getting those cars back to the oval. It was a lot less physically demanding than the past few days, as well as being icing-on-the-cake rewarding.

  I headed to the war room, which is just like the one I had set up in Jase’s room at home, just turbo charged. It’s in the Ian McLachlan Room – one of the main function rooms at the top of the western stand. The space was massive and was slowly being filled with all the info and intel we are constantly gathering about the world around us. It also had stunning views of the oval and some parts beyond.

  Anyway, part of our intel is a map of the entire Adelaide plains, with notes and markers all over it with everything we know about the city from the beach to the foothills. We also have a more detailed map of the CBD and surrounds, as well as an activity board where we chart anything significant that happens in our world. It doesn’t stop there as we have charts for monitoring weather patterns, rain, temperature – anything and everything we can think of to help us understand our world more.

  Needless to say, the walls have filled pretty quickly with information.

  It’s usually pretty informal up there, especially on routine days. We were doing something new, but nothing out of the ordinary. I was just in the habit of touching base before I went out.

  But today, you could tell straight away something had happened. There were about a dozen people gathered around the detailed map in deep discussion.

  Travis – a newbie and one of the two lone guys to arrive – was talking everyone through something. When they saw me rock up they called me over. Trav was on watch from dawn at the East Tce/North Tce lookout. There were two sets of tracks that had been made in the ash overnight, headed from and back to Rundle St.

  It looked like they had climbed the wall, as there were foot marks on both sides of it. The trail was lost on our side as the roads had been cleared of ash.

  So, a major security breech has happened. Worse still, the odds of it being by the Norwood hubbers are, well, very high.

  It’s not the news anybody wants.

  Having our borders breeched is not cool at the best of times but, if it involved the Norwood crew, it was something more fearful altogether. We have absolutely no idea where they went and what they saw, only that they came into the city and left again without being spotted. That’s very concerning. The Fat Man and his friends have not forgotten about us. If they were licking their wounds after defeat, they aren’t any more. As to what information they were gathering and why, well, no answer there adds up to good for us.

  It also means we’ll have to start an overnight shift, at the East Tce/North Tce intersection at the very least. When you’re running as thin on numbers as we are, that’s pretty far from ideal. It also means some planning around that beyond the obvious numbers problem. It gets dark out there at night – very dark. We don’t want to give our lookout position away, so will need to work out how we monitor any future visits, while keeping our lookout location (and lookout person) safe.

  After hearing what Travis had to say, it was decided I’d head back there with him and the Phoenix crew to see if we can get more clues around where they may have gone and what they may have seen.

  We were loaded, away and at the lookout intersection within 20 minutes.

  Trav took us to the point where the wall had been climbed. There were a good few metres of trace ash on the ground inside the wall, so you could make out a clear initial direction straight down North Tce until the trail disappeared. We spent the next half an hour searching further up the road in that direction. We found nothing.

  Yep, collectively our tracking skills amounted to zero.

  We pulled back further to the Royal Adelaide Hospital site, where the Norwood hubbers had set up base before the battle for the oval – nothing. Then we pulled back to down Frome St and the parklands along the River Torrens and the university oval area – that’s the direction they would’ve most likely travelled down had they been spying on us at the oval. Again nothing.

  All up, we were out for more than two hours, searching every conceivable area that we thought could possibly make sense as a target and every travel route where there’d still be some ash. We drew a massive blank.

  So, we called in the update on the two-way, then Trav went back to the lookout (in the remains of the Botanic Hotel), while the rest of us headed back to the oval.

  By the time we got there, there were already two cars parked outside Jonesy’s garage. There weren’t many people around camp, so we decided to go help them with the remaining vehicles.

  *

  Pushing cars, mostly on a generous downhill incline, was a hell of a lot easier than digging them out of the ash in the first place. It was just after lunch and we had the six beasts back on oval grounds. The final car made the best entrance. Jonesy had managed to get the Toyota started after some extra fiddling and magic this morning. It didn’t sound in the greatest health, but it was a massive morale boost to have the last of the cars enter its new home under its own steam.

  And there they stood. The bounty of some auto treasure hunting under the North Adelaide ash. We all just watched on and marvelled at what we had done, and what we knew would be another game-changer for the Adelaide Oval crew.

  When I think about the last week, it really is amazing. We have opened up an entirely new food source – one that should be an everlasting renewable one, and we’ve opened up our travel options significantly. Now, or at least when we get some of these cars up and running, instead of needing Phoenix for basic shuttling and ferrying around the city work, she can be used as she was intended – on the open ash. It means future fishing runs become less of a burden on our system and it opens the door to who knows what other discoveries lay in wait for us.

  That’s a pretty cool thought.

  *

  Tonight was another feast celebration – twice within a week, that’s new territory. We laughed, ate and planned how the cars would open up our world – including allowing Phoenix to hit the beach again soon.

  Jonesy reckoned he could have three of the cars up and running within a week, while the others may take a bit longer, depending on what parts he could find/source. The idea to number each car was unanimously supported by all – Thunderbirds are go! In fact, I think that name is going to stick, judging by the enthusiasm.

  Also, I have claimed the honour of writing the No.3 on the third car to roll into usability. I really wanted that one. I’m not sure if anyone else will appreciate my nod to Tallahassee from Zombieland... but I’ll enjoy it all the same.

  As much fun as the night was, I couldn’t let myself get wrapped up in it, though. The Norwood intrusion dominated my thoughts. It’s the why – why were they back? What were they looking for? What was the Fat Man going to do next?

  Anyway, the conversation steered that way soon enough, as we talked about what was practically required to get a night shift up and running. We’ve drawn up a roster that means everyone will have to take a night or two a month – including me. It’s not what I’d want to be doing with my time, but I’ve had to endure far worse than that.

  We also talked about setting up a lighting rig that would automatically switch on if anyone crossed the wall at the same point. Shane’s been drawing up a plan. The
idea being, if they cross onto our turf again, we’ll light them up, which will hopefully be enough to scare them off (maybe with a bit of encouragement from warning fire). It’ll also let them know we’re onto them, so they’d want to think long and hard before doing it again.

  It’s all a bit cat and mouse at the moment – but as we don’t know what they want... and no one is really going to head out there and ask them, it’s the best we’ve got.

  Night shift also requires someone to be on call back at base, otherwise we’re leaving someone to fend for themselves. So, we’ll just have to sacrifice in other areas. It’s a little deflating, because it feels like we were already giving plenty, and we had a nice smooth system going. Now, we have to each give more. But I guess we’ll get used to it soon enough.

  It could be a lot worse. And has.

  But yeah, I can’t help myself. My curiosity is in overdrive as to what the Norwood hubbers are hoping to achieve strategically from this move. I’ve got nothing and that bugs me. I don’t like feeling as if they know more about what’s going on than we do... and right now they do. We know nothing beyond our walls. They know something… maybe plenty… within them. So, as much as we feasted and celebrated... I was not really in that zone.

  *

  It might not just be the dodgy, half broken, ash-filled engines that make the car sound so horrid, there’s something else that may be at play. Fuel has a shelf life… or so Jonesy was saying at dinner. Apparently, its quality deteriorates over time, to the point that it’s no longer useful in running engines. We really don’t have much time, perhaps another six months, if we’re lucky.

  It all depends on how the fuel has been stored and probably a bunch of other factors we don’t really understand the detail of. All we know is it’s something that will become a bigger problem in the future.

  For our part, we can only try to get the most out of what we find. We keep it sealed up tight and make sure it’s stored in cold dark places. But at some point soon, we’ll have to look at a way to extend its life, or find an alternative. Otherwise we’re going to have to rethink how we’re planning going forward.