Jordan stirred next to me. ‘It’s okay,’ she yawned. ‘I’ll take her.’
Georgia clambered down from her dad and ran over. I got up too, not ready to let Jordan out of my sight.
I bent down to kiss Mum on the cheek. ‘Back soon.’
She smiled. ‘Love you, sweetheart.’
‘This is all so weird,’ said Jordan, as we trekked across the grass. ‘All these people, just sitting around having a picnic. I mean, I know it’s over. I know it in my head, anyway. But it still doesn’t feel over, you know? Like, I keep expecting some new, awful thing to come crashing in on us.’
I nodded. ‘I think it’ll be better when they finally fly us out of here.’
‘Yeah,’ Jordan sighed. ‘Whenever that is.’
Georgia dragged on her hand. ‘Hurry up. You’re being so boring.’
I smirked, wishing I could just leave it all behind as easily as she could.
‘Sorry, Georgia,’ said Jordan. ‘Almost –’
‘Hey,’ called a familiar voice from down on the grass. It was Amy, completely uninjured, finally reunited with her parents. She got to her feet, giving Jordan a hug. ‘Thanks again.’
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘You too.’
There’d been more vials of whatever they’d pulled from Reeve in a fridge back down in the medical centre. We’d used one of them to bring Amy back from the brink. We’d tried the serum on Calvin too, but nothing had happened. Whatever that stuff was, it could heal the wounded, but it couldn’t raise the dead.
So what did that say about Tobias?
The playground stood not far from the big taped-off area the military had marked out as a makeshift landing pad for their helicopters. It was vacant at the moment, but I could already hear another chopper thundering towards us.
As soon as we reached the playground, Georgia broke away from Jordan and sprinted up to a little boy her age who was sitting on one of the swings. ‘Hi Max!’
The boy jumped off the swing and gave her a big hug. ‘Hi Georgia! Where have you been all this time? I couldn’t find you anywhere!’
‘That’s Hamilton’s kid,’ said Jordan, looking around. ‘Lauren’s brother.’
Hamilton was standing at the edge of the playground, with a serious-looking women who I guessed was his wife. Officer Chew was with them.
‘Hey,’ said Jordan, walking over, suddenly concerned.
‘Where’s Lauren?’
Hamilton rolled his eyes and pointed across the park to where Lauren and Jeremy were awkwardly making out behind a tree. If they were trying to be secretive, they were doing a terrible job of it.
‘Nice to have you back, Lauren!’ Hamilton called. ‘Love you!’
Jeremy jumped bolt upright. His pale face went bright red. Lauren shot her dad a filthy look and dragged him back behind the tree.
Chew snorted at Hamilton. ‘Jerk.’
‘Are you kidding?’ he grinned. ‘What’s the point of having my daughter back if I can’t at least torment her a little bit?’
By the time the fighting had ended, Hawking, Galton and van Pelt were the only members of the Shackleton Co-operative still left alive. The military had worked out who they were and quickly whisked them away.
Those three were the easy ones.
For now at least, most of Shackleton’s security guys had been released back to their families. But what was going to happen, once they got us all out of here? They couldn’t just arrest those three and forget the rest ever happened. It was going to take months to untangle it all.
I glanced back and saw Reeve and Katie coming over to join us, swinging Lachlan between their arms.
Behind them, Mum and the others were getting up too.
We’d been doing that all day. Gravitating towards each other. Keeping the group together, almost without thinking.
My eyes darted up between the trees as the chopper I’d heard before came swooping in for a landing. It was different to the others that had been coming in and out today. Less aggressive-looking.
‘Transport helicopter,’ Hamilton commented over the noise of the engine. ‘Maybe they’re finally going to start letting some of us out of here.’
It was hard to even get my head around the idea of an outside anymore. That stuff was all so distant now, like the whole world beyond the wall was just an endless grey fog with my dad standing somewhere in the middle. But whatever it was, it was better than here.
The chopper touched down, and I watched the blades spin slower and slower, head full of the last hundred days, ten lifetimes of insanity and terror, crammed into the space of a few short months. And somehow, we’d made it through to the other side.
‘Reeve’s right,’ I said, turning back to Jordan. ‘You were right. I don’t think we did this on our own. Like, I don’t think it’s an accident we won. This place didn’t just happen to spit out a baby who could fight off Tabitha.’
Jordan smiled, apparently amused that I was finally switching onto this thing she’d been trying to tell me for weeks and weeks. ‘So what did happen?’
‘Don’t look at me,’ I said. ‘You’re the one –’
‘Luke!’ she gasped, clutching my arm and dragging me back around to face the landing pad.
A door at the back of the helicopter had just opened, and an officer had dropped down to the grass, followed by a man and a woman in civilian clothes.
‘DAD!’ I shouted, breaking into a sprint, straight under the boundary tape, ignoring the shouts of the military people, both of us in tears before we even made contact.
He grabbed hold of me, crushing me into him, and then Kara practically wrenched us apart.
‘Where’s Soren?’ she demanded.
‘I – I don’t know,’ I said. The last I’d seen, he’d been eating alone in a corner of the park, looking as sullen as ever. ‘But Kara –’
She broke away from me, racing off in the direction of the playground, and I felt a lurch in the pit of my stomach. Those two had a lot of difficult conversations ahead of them. After all Soren had done, I couldn’t help thinking that even Mr and Mrs Weir had it easier than Kara did.
‘How are you holding up?’ Dad asked, pulling me close again. ‘These guys treating you okay?’
‘Yeah, fine,’ I said, wiping my eyes clear, dragging him to rejoin the others. ‘How did you get them to bring you here? Everyone I spoke to said they weren’t going to let you in.’
‘That was before I became useful,’ he said sourly, with a sideways glance at the officer who’d come out of the chopper with them. ‘You guys are first in line to be brought back to base for questioning, and I managed to convince them you’d be more likely to co-operate if I was part of the welcome party.’
‘Of course,’ I said, ‘because without you, we might’ve all just decided to stay here.’
‘Right,’ said Dad, ducking under the barrier. ‘See? It was all very tactical.’
As soon as he was through, Jordan barrelled into him. Reeve came up too, and patted him on the back. ‘Good to see you, mate.’
‘You’re back!’ said Georgia, appearing from the playground to latch onto his leg. ‘I’m glad you didn’t die!’
‘Me too!’ Dad smiled. He spotted Mum hovering at the edge of the group and went over to meet her, pulling her into what had to be the least awkward hug they’d had since before they separated. ‘Hey, Em. Thanks for looking after him.’
The guy from the chopper cleared his throat. ‘Your attention please, ladies and gentlemen. I’ve got a list here of persons of special interest to the –’
‘Yep. Thanks mate,’ said Dad, holding up a hand. ‘This is them.’
The guy scowled.
Dad clapped me on the shoulder, turning to the others, stretching a hand back in the direction of the chopper. ‘Any of you guys feel like getting out of here?’
Twenty minutes later, we were strapped in and ready to go. ‘Everyone okay?’ asked Dad, as the pilot came through for a final check.
Weary nod
s from around the cabin.
Jordan slipped her hand into mine as the whine of the engine was slowly drowned out by the whumpwhump-whump of the blades above our heads. The chopper lifted off the ground – no screaming, nobody firing on it – and we gazed out the window, watching the town of Phoenix fall slowly away from us.
We rose up over the park, over the little huddles of people who had almost become the last of humanity, and then banked sideways, drifting above the broken wreck of the town centre. Shackleton’s nightmare vision of a better world, burned to the ground and staying there.
I closed my eyes, concentrating on the warmth of Jordan’s hand, not knowing where I was going, but knowing who I was going with. Trusting that whatever lay ahead was better than what we were leaving behind.
We’d come this far. We’d survived.
I had a feeling we were going to be okay.
THE END
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Hilary Rogers for taking a chance on an upstart twenty-something’s wacky idea for a sci-fi series; to Marisa Pintado for all the incredible work you’ve put into dragging it out of my head and onto the page; and to Jennifer Kean, publicist extraordinaire, for patiently reminding me what day it is and what city I’m in, and for listening to me tell the same stories about myself more times than anyone else on this planet.
Huge thanks to everyone at Hardie Grant Egmont and my wonderful overseas publishers for getting behind this series and pushing it out there into the world, and to all the awesome librarians and booksellers who’ve helped people find it (especially Shearer’s Bookshop, my not-so-secret favourite).
Thanks to Rowan McAuley for being an amazing first reader and creative collaborator, and for introducing me to that Zac Power kid. Keep on putting my writing to shame with yours!
Thanks to Ben for all the technical advice about guns and bombs and helicopters.
Thanks to Rev Dave for being such an awesome pastor, mentor and friend (and for accidentally being rude from the pulpit); and to my second family at Abbotsford Presbyterian Church. It is an honour and a privilege to journey with you guys.
Shout-out to the A-Team. You know who you are. (Also Moose and Jr Moose.)
Thanks to everyone at PLC Sydney. You guys are the greatest. Turns out writing is only the second-best job in the world.
Thanks to Kerryn, Sarah, Claire, Phil, Mute and Weezy, all of whom have suffered living with me through at least one deadline; to the Rusbournes, Hardings, Thurstons, Barnetts and Doiners, who’ve been stuck with me for pretty much my whole life; and to the many, many other friends who’ve read, critiqued, encouraged, and told me to get on with it.
Thanks to Katie. Best brother-sister combo ever. (It’s in print now, Kerryn! Beat that!)
Mum and Dad: I have no possible way of thanking you enough for your constant love, encouragement and support – and most of all, for showing me the true story that shapes all the others.
Finally, to all of you who’ve stuck with me all the way to the end of this book, THANK YOU. I hope I’ve given you an ending worth hanging on for. (If not, I’m sure I’ll hear about it!) Looking forward to doing it all again with something new!
Born in Sydney in 1985, Chris Morphew spent his childhood writing stories about dinosaurs and time machines. More recently he has written for the best-selling Zac Power series. The Phoenix Files is his first series for young adults.
Books in The Phoenix Files series:
Arrival
Contact
Mutation
Underground
Fallout
Doomsday
The Phoenix Files: Doomsday
published in 2013 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.
A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.
eISBN: 9781742738765
Text copyright © 2013 Chris Morphew
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
Illustration and design copyright © 2013 Hardie Grant Egmont
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