by Watts, Russ
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Evan hurtled into the tower crane with a resounding crash. A metal bar struck his chest and winded him. As he clawed for breath, he wrapped his arms desperately around the crane trying to stop his fall. His body banged painfully into the metal mast and he half expected to go bouncing back off, down to the ground where he would be breakfast for several hundred zombies.
Instead, his momentum took him so fast and hard into the crane that it almost carried him past it. He managed to hold on, and trying to catch his breath, focused on the metal latticework before his eyes. As he regained control of his breathing, he gripped tightly onto the metal frame and looked down. He watched as two hundred feet below him, the zombies attacked the building, looking like tiny ants scurrying into their nest. All the way back to the marina at one end, and a junction at the other, the street was full of zombies, swarming toward them. Over the azure ocean, he saw the clear blue sky stretching toward Tasmania.
Carefully, he reached into the mast and took good hold of a metal bar, intending to use the latticework as a ladder to climb up. The metal was cold and slippery. He ascended the sturdy framework steadily and eventually reached the control booth. He flung open the door and sat down in the chair, sighing as pain in his arms and legs sent throbbing waves through his body. He felt dizzy but he could not stop; Amane and Sasha were relying on him. Charlie and Anna were relying on him.
“I’m scared, I’m scared.”
Looking down to the roof, he saw Amane and Sasha battling against an escalating tide of zombies. They were slicing through the rotting bodies but when one went down another two came through the door to replace it. He noticed they were gradually being forced back to the walkway. He hit every button and lever on the controls in front of him and the crane juddered to life. The gears and motors hummed, and Evan crudely jostled the levers around until he worked out how to make the jib swing and he could lower and raise the hook. Swinging it to the roof, he pushed back the cab door and called out.
“Amane! Sasha!”
He didn’t have to shout to get their attention, as they were by now already standing up on the walkway, fending off the zombies, waiting for him. The rooftop was full of the dead and the walkway was weakening. Amane could hear it straining and threatening to give way as it was jostled and leant on by so many bodies. Evan stopped the jib above them and lowered the huge hook. Once it was within reach, Amane grabbed it and hauled herself on. The metal was icy cold to the touch. She sat astride it with the backpack resting against the chains that attached the hook to the jib. She pulled Sasha up quickly and they threw the metal poles down, gripping the dirty hook as Evan lifted it up and away from the roof. The zombies stared, still trying to grab them, although impossible, as the two women were lifted away and out of their reach.
Sasha sat hugging Amane, her arms wrapped around her as her lacerated hands bled. Yesterday’s wounds had opened and she could barely close her palms, so she gripped Amane with her arms. Amane shut her eyes and clung onto Sasha tightly. The flag ruffled her hair annoyingly and the cold hook sent chills down her spine.
“Oh God. Oh Jesus, this is crazy,” said Sasha. Despite the sun, she was freezing. The cold air whipped at her svelte bare legs and she struggled to keep a grip around Amane as Evan swung them out over the street toward the marina’s car park roof.
“Just keep still, Sasha,” said Amane, quietly, keeping her eyes firmly closed. Sasha looked down at the street below teeming with zombies.
“Oh, my, God.”
Swinging over the street, she began to panic. The pain in her hands was excruciating. They felt numb and she shifted her weight to get a better grip. Sasha slipped, losing her hold on Amane. She screamed and flapped her arms uselessly. Amane had to open her eyes and reached out in desperation as Sasha flew away from her. Sasha’s bloodied hands managed to grab onto one of the backpack’s straps and she screamed in pain. Both women were pulled sideways over the hook. Amane grabbed the huge hook and held on with both hands as Sasha clung onto the backpack, legs kicking wildly, pointlessly, searching for a ground that was not there.
“Help, Amane, I can’t hold on!”
Sasha dangled from Amane’s back who, with all the weight, was struggling to hold on. Evan saw them and stopped the jib abruptly, which only caused the hook to swing more.
“Please help me, don’t let me fall!” Tears streamed down Sasha’s cheeks as she pleaded for her life.
“Stop moving around! You’re too heavy, I can’t hold on!” said Amane, trying to wrap her arms tighter around the hook.
Evan saw they were struggling to hold on and there was no way they would be able to climb back up on to the hook now. He began to manoeuvre the crane’s arm again, hoping they could hold on until he got it over the roof and lowered them down, safely.
“Sasha, can you climb up me?” Amane could feel her grip weakening whilst Sasha wriggled around below. Any longer like this, and they would both fall.
“No!” Sasha gripped the backpack fiercely. Blood was trickling down her wrists, dripping onto her face.
Amane tried to pull herself up but with so much weight on her back, she couldn’t do it. Her grip was loosening and her arms slipped. She only kept a tenuous hold on the hook by her hands and the roof looked a million miles away. She began crying. There was only one way she was going to make it.
She inched her hand over to the backpack strap and clicked the quick release on her left shoulder. The backpack slipped down her arm and swung wildly. Sasha lost her hold but managed to cling on with one hand to the remaining strap that clung to Amane’s right shoulder precariously. Sasha’s free arm grabbed Amane’s leg.
“No, Amane, no, please!”
Amane looked down at Sasha’s face, freckled with blood and tears, utter terror in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” said Amane, quietly. She sobbed as her hand crept toward the other strap.
“I’m sorry,” she repeated. Amane clicked the other strap and the backpack slid off her back. She watched as Sasha fell away. She would never forget that abject look of terror in Sasha’s eyes, the knowledge that she had seconds to live.
In Amane’s ears, Sasha’s final blood-curdling scream lasted for an eternity. She tumbled through the air, dropping to the ground fast. From the cab, Evan watched in horror as Sasha fell, cartwheeling over and over. Her long blonde hair hid her terrified face from him. He heard the scream though and it sent a shiver down his spine. It was a scream that would haunt him until his dying day. The zombies below seemed to bellow as one, as she sped toward them.
Amane watched and shuddered as Sasha hit the ground, crashing through a field of zombies, smacking into the road with a loud, sickening thud. Her bones shattered and her internal organs exploded, spraying fresh blood from her body over the zombies, waves of excitement spreading through them like ripples in a pond. A circle of nightmarish creatures descended upon her mangled body to feast. At the moment of impact, her spine snapped in half causing her head to spin around as if she was looking at her own back legs. Her arms and legs were twisted cruelly, pulled from their sockets, her warm blood drenching those zombies closest to her.
Amane, with the weight off her back, pulled herself up onto the hook, cradling it. Her crying continued unabated whilst Evan continued sending the hook over to the car park, and when he was sure it was safely over the centre, he lowered the hook until it reached the surface. He saw Amane get off and fall to the floor. Leaving the safety of the cab, Evan began his tricky journey to Amane. Climbing out of the cab, he climbed up the metal mast and clambered stealthily over the jib, ignoring the zombies below, inch by inch, out to the point where the trolley held the hook in place.
Wrapping his suit jacket around his hands, he lowered himself through the arm into the chains and started to slide down toward Amane and safety. Once he started sliding down, it was hard to stop. The first few feet were reasonable but he soon began to lose his grip and descend faster. He finally met the hook and rolled ov
er painfully as he landed on the roof. He was dazed and lay on his back looking up into the never-ending turquoise sky.
Déjà vu, he thought, and forced himself to stand up, discarding his jacket, now torn to shreds. He held his hand to his head, trying to stop the spinning. Amane grabbed his shoulder and he instantly felt better.
“Hey,” he said.
“Time to go,” she said, emotionlessly. ”Quietly.”
“Yeah. Amane...” She strode off in the direction of the exit ramp. He jogged to catch up with her.
“Amane, wait.”
Evan stood in front of her. “It was an accident, you know. It’s not your fault.”
“I know it’s not my fault,” she said, bluntly. “It’s yours. Now stop talking and get walking. We probably have a five minute head start on those things before they find out where we are.”
Leaving Evan standing there, astonished, she walked off down the ramp without him. He followed, walking six feet behind her, keeping her in sight but unsure of what to say. Was she right? He hadn’t forced Sasha to come with them, but it was his plan. Maybe he was lucky they hadn’t all been killed. He felt bad about it certainly, but, damn it, it was nobody’s fault. If only she had been able to hold on. A storm cloud brewed in Evan’s head.
As Amane approached the swing doors to the shopping centre, he called out to her to wait and she stopped with one hand on the door. He placed himself in front of the door, forcing her to look at him, waving his finger as if he was admonishing a naughty schoolgirl.
“Fine, blame me, whatever. But you go out there unfocused and you are going to wind up dead or worse.”
“Fine,” she sighed. “I hope at least you still have the key to the boat?”
Evan took it from his pocket and dangled it in front of her face briefly before putting it back. He was mad with her. He was mad with himself. But right now, they had to concentrate at the job in hand or they would both be very dead, very soon.
“Stick behind me. Move fast and quietly. There are only a few boats out there so we should be able to find it before they find us. If, God forbid, we don’t find it, then...”
“Then what?” Amane folded her arms and looked at him expectantly.
“Then I don’t fucking know! What do you want me to say?” Evan caught himself before his temper took hold and let out a long slow breath. He looked her up and down and pushed open the door. He didn’t have time to argue now.
“Coming?” he asked, angrily.
She nodded and he went through. It looked the same as it had done yesterday. It was eerily silent. All the zombies had evidently given chase and left. A huge ornate clock hung over the doorway downstairs that Evan hadn’t noticed before. A smiling koala and a kangaroo pointed to the time. It was 11.57 and they were running out of time. Another day was slipping away.
Evan retraced their steps from yesterday, which only served to remind him of George. He wondered where he had gotten to. The boy deserved a break and Evan truly hoped he was all right. Maybe they would meet up in Canberra one day soon. Evan promised himself that after he got Charlie and Anna that they would go and find George.
Amane stayed just behind Evan keeping an eye out for movement. She did not want anything to surprise them anymore. When you looked closely, there were hiding places everywhere. She tried not to look too hard into the darkest corners; her imagination went to places she did not want to go to. Sasha’s face glared back at her from every shadow.
They skirted low down the first pier and had no luck. She read names that meant nothing to her, ‘The Merri Rose,’ ‘Terrys,’ ‘Mangahoe.’ She noticed a few zombies in the marina heading their way but decided they weren’t worth telling Evan about, not yet anyway. They were too far away to need handling.
They had to go back down the pier and onto the next one, which was almost deserted. One ship was still moored up at the end. She heard Evan give a quiet exclamation and soon saw why. The ‘Johanna’ was there waiting for them. A joyful Evan ran up the gangway and turned around beaming.
“This is it, Amane!” He temporarily forgot the recent animosity between them and bounded across the deck up a flight of gleaming white steps to the bridge.
“Evan, wait!” Amane ran up to him. “Be careful. We don’t know who, or what, could be on board.”
“Of course, don’t worry.”
The last time someone had told them not to worry was Miguel, and his dead body was currently skulking around Melbourne. Evan’s confidence reminded her of Rob. Too much of it could be a bad thing. Evan opened the door to the bridge and walked in. The ship’s bridge was spotless. Whoever owned it kept it in mint condition. Looking around, he felt a little bamboozled by all the controls and reluctantly thought back to what the Father had said: ‘Keep it simple.’
“Evan, look,” said Amane pointing out the window. A couple of zombies were shambling up the pier toward them. Further back, hundreds more were entering the harbour.
“Shit. I’ll get us going,” said Evan, taking the key out of his pocket. “Can you cast off? Just untie those ropes over there.”
She left the bridge and walked back down the steps to the deck where she began untying the ropes. The meaty rope was heavy but she got the job done. She heard the engine start and as soon as she had loosened the final rope, the ‘Johanna’ pulled away from the pier.
Shielding her eyes from the overhead sun, she looked at Evan through the crystal clear glass of the bridge. He was steering them away out to sea. His face was driven and focused. She wondered how he did it. How he could just switch off and focus like that? Had he forgotten Sasha already?
She looked back at the pier melting away as the approaching zombies fell into the ocean. Unable to swim, they splashed around momentarily before dipping below the surface. She wondered how long they would stay that way. Would they rot? Would they stay below the water forever? She stayed out on the deck watching the city recede whilst Evan drove them on.
Amane was enchanted. She had never seen the city skyline from this vantage point before and it was beguiling. Tall skyscrapers shot up into the sky, highlighting man’s ingenuity, his ability to beat nature. Yet looking closer, she could see that man was now dead or dying; the city was burning and the last two people alive there were leaving.
She left the bow and walked carefully to the stern so she could watch Australia fade away. It was a peculiar feeling. She had made it her home in the last few years, yet she also felt as if she was a stranger here. Her true home was back in Tokyo. Her friends were there: people she had gone to school with, her first boyfriend, her relatives, aunts and uncles.
She sat back feeling the warmth of the sun and counted her blessings that she was alive. So many people had died, her parents, Lily, Joe, Rob, and Sasha. Back when she was fifteen, a close aunt had died. She hadn’t told her parents or even Hakuba, her best friend, when she had visited the family’s Kannushi in the temple.
“Where do you go when you die?” she had asked him. His wizened old face remained expressionless. After the old man had considered this, he had answered her.
“Where do you think?”
At the time, she hadn’t known what to say and had blurted out something she had read in a magazine: something vague about heaven or hell. Amane had left the Shinto shrine and ran home. She replayed the conversation in her head.
“Heaven or hell,” she said out loud. “Except when Hell is full, the scum get sent back to Earth until we’re all wiped out.”
“What’s that?” said Evan, arriving behind her. He sat down beside her.
“What about the ship?” she said, worried.
“It’ll be okay for a second. I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”
“I’m fine.”
He sat beside her for a moment while they watched the city retreat from view. The sea air was invigorating. Heading away from the mainland with the gentle ocean spray on his face, it almost felt as if their problems were disappearing along with the city skyline. Soon he
would be reunited with his children. He had to believe they were there. They must be.
“Well I’ve got to get back to the bridge.”
They stood up together and Evan walked away. “How long will it take? Until we get there I mean?” Amane asked him.
“All night I expect. We should be there by early morning. Why don’t you take a look down below? There should be somewhere to rest up. Just take care, okay?” Evan trudged back up to the bridge leaving her alone.
Amane stayed a minute or two longer and then followed him. She found her way through the bridge, proceeded down below, and tried the doors one at a time. The first door led further down to the engines. The second was a galley. She wandered around opening cupboards admiring all the food and drink. She helped herself to a chocolate cupcake and carried on exploring the ship.
Amane paused in front of the third door. There was a rolling, banging sound inside, faint, but definitely there. Were they not alone on this ship? Evan was up on the bridge. Surely if there was anybody on board, they would’ve come out by now, unless they were incapacitated for some reason. She looked around for a weapon and drew a blank. She went back to the galley and grabbed a kitchen knife. She approached the door again slowly. The sound was still there and she turned the door handle slowly. When the lock clicked, she flung the door open brandishing the knife. A bottle of gin rolled up against the wall and she let out a sigh: spooked by a bottle. She picked up the unopened bottle, unscrewed it, and took a swig. The alcohol burnt her throat and she coughed before taking another, longer swig.
Venturing further into the room, she put the knife down on a small table. There was a bed, table and chairs, closet, television, even a music system and an iPod dock. A photo hung on the wall by the bed and Amane took it down. A cheerful family smiled at her: a mother, father, and a girl. She took another long swig from the bottle and lay down on the bed. With one hand on the gin and the other grasping the photo tightly, she wept until she fell asleep.
* * * *
Evan looked at the charts spread out before him. Much of it was gibberish but he had a good idea where they were headed. They were going to be at sea for hours bobbing up and down over the ocean. Father Thomas had told him about the Bass Strait, about the dangerous squalls and troughs. He also told him of the abundant marine life, the whales and sharks. It had been a couple of hours since Amane had gone downstairs and he heard her resurface, padding up the wooden steps to the bridge. He shuffled the charts away, not wanting to worry her.