Tomorrow 1 - When The War Began

by John Marsden

  Loyalty, courage, goodness. I wonder if they’re human inventions too, or if they just are.

  I look around me. There’s Homer, making lists and drawing plans. God knows what he’s got in mind for us. Robyn’s reading the Bible. She prays quietly every night. I like Robyn and I like how strong she is in her beliefs. Chris is writing too, probably a poem. I don’t understand any of the ones he’s shown me so far – I don’t know if he understands them himself – but I try to make intelligent comments about them. Fi’s putting in some posts for a bigger chookyard. Lee’s sitting next to me, trying to make a rabbit trap. It doesn’t look as if it’d catch any rabbit with an IQ of more than 10, but who knows? Maybe rabbits have IQs in single figures. Anyway I like the way Lee stops every few minutes to stroke my leg with his lean brown fingers.

  We’ve got to stick together, that’s all I know. We all drive each other crazy at times, but I don’t want to end up here alone, like the Hermit. Then this really would be Hell. Humans do such terrible things to each other that sometimes my brain tells me they must be evil. But my heart still isn’t convinced.

  I just hope we can survive.

  Author’s Note

  The settings in this book are based on real places. Hell is a reasonably accurate description of Terrible Hollow, in the Australian Alps, near Mt Howitt in Victoria. Small cliffs, like steps, descend into the hollow, and are known as the Devil’s Staircase. Tailor’s Stitch is the Crosscut Saw, a long ridge of rock which runs for miles from Mt Howitt to Mt Speculation, through Big Hill and Mt Buggery. It is a particularly beautiful route for bushwalkers, and gives good views into the Terrible Hollow.

  It is generally accepted by locals that a hermit did live in or around Mt Howitt and the Terrible Hollow for many years. There were eyewitness sightings, particularly in the late 1970s. In 1986 a hiker, Scott Vickers-Willis, found a beautifully carved handmade walking stick concealed in a bush on the edge of the Terrible Hollow. I have seen this stick, which is still in Mr Vickers-Willis’ possession; its discovery, in such a remote and wild part of the world, lends startling support to the hermit theory.

  Other locations used in Tomorrow, When the War Began, include China Walls, a rugged mountainous area on private farmland near Khancoban in NSW, and the long wooden bridge across the MurrumbidgeeRiver at Gundagai in NSW. Generally though the settings used in this book could be found in any AustralianState.