by Ben Onslow
No one. Nothing.
I walk further down the passage. Come to the door that leads to the dining room. Push the door back wide and go in.
In the dining room dust motes dance in the light from the windows. The walls glow softly. The black teeth at the front of the coal range grimace. I turn the light on as I enter. The light hits the room. Makes it seem normal.
I start to breathe again.
That only lasts until I see groceries lying all over the floor, like the bag has been dropped and has split.
Something’s wrong.
And still no Ela.
I bend down and pick up the cheese. Pass it from hand to hand.
Then I notice the map has gone from where I left it.
Why would Ela have taken the map?
I run my fingers through my hair. Look around the room.
And see her Com sitting on the sideboard.
Now I really know something has happened to her. Like I said, I might forget about my Com sometimes, but Ela wouldn’t leave hers behind, ever.
I pick up the Com. It’s transmitting.
I turn the Transmit off and check the call register.
The last two Connects are with my Com. One from me, one to me. Within five minutes of each other. The second one didn’t complete.
She tried to Connect back almost straight away, but I had my Com turned off.
I spin round and run out of the dining room.
When I get to the veranda Mon stands up. He looks at me as I run past, follows me to the shed.
It takes only a few seconds to get the Com out of the pannier.
I flick through the menu.
One missed Connect and a message.
I listen to the message.
I can only hear faintly what’s being said, but I can hear enough to recognise Henry and Charlie Willis’s voices.
They’ve got her.
Ela must have made the Connect with my Com without them noticing.
I keep listening.
“Ela Hennessey,” says Henry’s voice in the recording. “We keep bumping into each other.”
There’s silence for a while then, “You won’t need this,” he says. There’s a pause and I hear a clunk. I guess he’s taken Ela’s Com and put it on the table or somewhere, because the voices sound further away. But the recording is still clear.
“Where’s Fraser?” Henry’s voice.
“I haven’t seen him since this morning.” Ela’s voice.
“At the pub?”
“When’s he coming?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you expecting him?”
“No. The food’s for when Jacob gets home.”
So Ela is still thinking, and she doesn’t sound too scared.
I bet she wishes she had my rifle with her.
But why the hell would she go inside the house?
To put the groceries away, I guess.
“What do you think?” Henry asks.
Then I hear the sound of something being hit. A gasp from Ela, and something falling back. A chair hitting the floor like someone’s stumbled into it.
They’ve hit her!
“Is he coming?” Henry asks and there’s silence.
Maybe Ela nods, because I hear Henry say, “That’s better. Do you know where this waterfall is?”
Ela must have nodded again.
“Good girl,” says Henry. “You learn fast. You can take us there.”
“It’s almost dark,” says Ela’s voice.
“We got torches,” says Charlie. “What do you think we are?”
“You don’t need me; I’ll tell you how to get there,” says Ela clearly.
“You’re coming, and you’re going to show us where this is. With any luck Fraser will try to find you and we can deal to him too,” says Henry. “Can you see the site from the walkway?”
“No. You have to follow the creek until you come to a clearing. Then you follow a track off the walkway to find it.”
Good girl, still thinking. She’s directing them to the fake site, and by the longest way.
“We need you to take us there. We don’t want to be stumbling around in the dark all night.”
“You could go in the morning.”
“Nah. Come on,” Henry says. “Let’s get going before Fraser gets here.”
I hear footsteps leaving the room and then there’s silence.
They’re taking her with them.
And they hit her.
I can’t tell how badly hurt she is. But she’s still talking and walking.
And going the way she told them to go, it will take at least two hours for them to get there.
I look at the time of the Connect.
She made the Connect at five. Now it is almost six thirty.
The one thing in my favour is she still seems to be thinking and trying to slow them down. It will take me maybe twenty minutes to drive around to Dickey’s Flat and then walk up the creek.
I look at my Com again. It’s going to be close.
I go to the Land Rover and open the back door.
I check the rifle. Then make sure everything I need is in the back of the vehicle. Knife, some shells, a spotlight and a Swanndri. I stand there running my fingers through my hair, mentally checking if there’s anything else.
I need to get this right.
I keep my imagination under control and move methodically. Mon tags at my heels quietly following every movement.
Five minutes later I’m in the Land Rover, driving coolly as if I’m just going hunting at night, like any other time.
I can’t afford the sort of mistakes panic causes.
I don’t use CatchingFire. I don’t need Fitzgerald or Jacob to tell me how completely I’ve fucked up. I don’t think they’d get here in time to be any use anyway.
29.
Clearing
Tuesday 21st Feb 2051
6:50 p.m.
I drive through the gorge, turn right, cross the bridge onto the road to Waitawheta. Then right again to Dickey’s Flat.
It’s taking forever.
I swing the Land Rover through the bends in the road. Mon is thrown against the side of the vehicle. The tar seal finishes and we come to gravel. The Land Rover starts to slide each time I take a bend. I have to slow down. I don’t want to finish up at the bottom of a bank or wrapped around a tree.
I get to the camping ground. Turn off the motor. Let momentum carry the Land Rover as far into the grounds as the line of boulders. Get out. Leave the driver’s door ajar. Don’t want to risk making any extra noise by shutting it.
I open the back.
No idea what I’ll be running into so decide to take everything that might come in handy. I put the Swanndri on. Put shells in the pocket. Buckle the knife belt around my waist. Sling the rifle over my shoulder. Hold the spotlight in the other hand. Leave the back door open too. Start walking across the grass of the camping ground.
Mon follows at my heels.
When I get to the bush line, I can’t decide whether to take Mon with me or not. He can move quietly through the bush and would chase and attack if I needed him to. He does it with game.
But he could just be another thing to worry about.
Or he might be useful. I signal him to follow.
Me and Mon go through the bush, making almost no sound. I deliberately keep off all the marked tracks. Instead of going across the swing bridge I walk along the river bank and then wade across the river.
I don’t want to take the risk that the Willises are lying in wait for me. Occasionally I turn on the spotlight to get my bearings. There is just enough light filtering through the trees to help me follow the track to the waterfall.
As I get closer to the fake site, I hear the creek whispering in the twilight. I work my way through the bush so the undergrowth deadens the noise of my movements.
When I’m ten metres from the clearing I hear the murmuring of voices over the sound of the waterfall.
I signal the dog to stay, creep forward under cover of the trees. As I get closer, the beams from two torches, track across the gloom.
I move up close to the clearing. Crouch behind a tree near the edge. Look around at the scene in front of me.
I’m directly behind Henry. He’s got a torch shining on Ela. She’s still in the white dress and little shoes. She’s got a belt tied around her wrist and Henry’s holding the other end. Charlie’s holding a torch too. They both have their rifles held ready.
And I don’t like the way Charlie is staring at her.
“Is this it?” Henry asks Ela. He pulls on the belt around her wrist so she stumbles towards him.
Ela grabs the belt with her other hand and jerks it.
“Stand still,” says Henry to her.
“Make me,” says Ela.
So she’s still fighting them.
She yanks on the belt again. Henry just raises his eyebrows at her.
I need to figure out a way to get her away from them. I don’t want to shoot her accidentally. And I don’t think I could shoot both of the Willises without one of them getting a shot off.
Henry plays the light of his torch around the clearing. The trees stand guard.
“I was expecting something bigger,” he says.
“Things change,” says Ela. Now she’s tugging at the belt buckle with her other hand.
Henry ignores her, leans the rifle against a tree.
Ela has to move with him. She holds the belt with her free hand. Gives it a vicious tug again.
Henry shakes his head at her, like she’s starting to get bothersome.
But, by putting his rifle down, he’s made the odds better.
One less person who can shoot back.
I move a bit, so I can see Charlie better.
He’ll be the first to get shot now. Ela measure the distance between her and the rifle with her eyes. See her decide it’s too far for her to get it with Henry holding the end of the belt.
Then she carefully moves her wrist to check if the belt’s loose enough yet for her to slip her hand out. Henry sees her do it and tugs on the other end to tighten it. The buckle bites into her skin.
Charlie grunts and shines his torch around the clearing. Stops at the cairn we made. “What’s that?”
“A pile of rocks. It’s in front of the cave.” Ela, rubs at her wrist. But it looks like she’s really working at getting the buckle loose again. That’s good. When I make my move she needs to be able to get away from Henry fast so he can’t use her as a shield.
I move a bit further around to get a clean shot at Charlie and then at Henry without risking hitting Ela.
Henry looks at the mound of dirt and pile of stones lit up by the torch. “We’ll have to come back tomorrow if we’re going to shift that. We need to bring some gear with us,” he says to Charlie.
Charlie nods in the gloom.
Then Henry moves again, and stares at Ela tethered beside him.
“We can’t do anything about the cave at the moment so we’re going to have some fun.” He puts his torch down on the stones.
He grabs Ela by her free wrist, pins it behind her back.
“Let. Me. Go,” she orders. She hits him hard with the other hand.
The belt buckle cuts his cheek.
“Fuck,” he says. Shakes his head, lets her wrist go.
He touches his cheek. Then checks his fingers, sees the blood. “You’ll pay for that.” He looks over at Charlie. Charlie’s been watching from the side-lines. “Get over here,” says Henry.
Charlie moves over to Henry and Ela. Grabs Ela by the shoulders and holds her.
Now they are in a little cluster. Still can’t risk shooting anyone.
“Right.” Henry lets go the end of the belt, walks away in a direct line between me and Ela and Charlie. “You two are going to put on a little show for me,” he says.
Still can’t shoot them without getting Ela. I ease around a bit further. See Ela gauge how far away the rifle is again.
Then Charlie leans his gun against the tree beside Henry’s.
Henry picks up the torch. He takes Charlie’s and positions both torches on a rock so they shine on Ela and his brother, with the waterfall in the background.
He sits on the rock. Pulls cigarettes out of his pocket and lights up. He breathes out the smoke, surveying the scene.
“Right. now turn her around and slowly undress her.” He waves the cigarette at them as if directing a scene.
They’re playing the same game as they played with Jess. Like they’re making a Vid without the camera.
I aim at Henry’s head. Charlie turns Ela around and starts to undo the buttons of her dress.
She shoves him hard. But he just smirks and brushes her hands away.
I move the rifle enough so Charlie is in my sights. But Ela is too close to him and keeps moving.
“Make him stop,” she orders Henry, and shoves at Charlie again.
“He can do what he likes,” says Henry. I get him in my sights but Ela is in the direct line of fire again. “As long as you can still walk when he’s finished, there’s a mine shaft a bit higher up, waiting, and I don’t want to have to carry you there.”
He takes another pull on his cigarette, and then proves he does care how Charlie does things. “No, undo the dress all the way. Slowly – it’s more interesting that way.” He’s back in his roll of movie director.
The blue smoke curls away from his mouth as he watches Charlie.
Charlie leers, grins, as if he has played this game before and likes it. Henry gives the directions; Charlie follows them.
From Henry’s comment about the waiting mine shaft, I figure they mean to kill her. I’m tempted to shoot him now, but there is still a chance of hitting Ela as well.
Henry leans forward, watching.
The two rifles are sitting ignored only two metres away.
Ela tries to pull away, but Charlie pulls her back.
He bends down a bit further breathing hard.
I need a distraction right now. My brain screams at Ela.
“Hit Charlie now!”
And she does, hard.
She brings her knee up and gets him right on the nose and floors him.
I hear the bones breaking.
He falls back onto the stones holding his nose and swearing through blood and gristle.
Then Ela launches herself at their rifles.
Charlie is roaring threats and struggling to get up.
I move towards Henry.
Henry leaps up to stop Ela. The butt of my rifle crashes down on his skull. He falls to the ground like a sack of meat.
I put my boot in the middle of Henry’s back to make sure he can’t move, aim my rifle at his brother, just as Ela grabs the first Ruger. She picks it up. It’s all pretty clumsy the way she handles it, but she’s real serious, looks like she’s planning on doing some damage. She holds the rifle the way I taught her. Jams in the bolt. Puts the butt against her shoulder. Aims at Charlie. “Move again and you’re dead,” she says. It’s all competent enough to keep Charlie still and watching her warily.
Charlie freezes, squints like the light from the torches is blinding him. He’s probably able to make out the shape of his brother lying on the ground, and me standing on Henry, aiming across the clearing.
Then he looks across at Ela. Looks stunned.
I can almost hear him thinking, so much for ‘Sweet and Elite’.
“Are you all right?” I ask Ela.
She nods. “I’d almost given up on you.”
“Keep covering Charlie, so I can take care of Henry.”
Ela nods.
I just hope she can hold it together until we get the situation under control. Though I don’t think I need to worry. The rifle doesn’t even waver.
I decide on a bit of insurance for her. Whistle and almost instantly Mon comes bounding into the clearing like a puppy let out of a cage.
He runs up to me.
&nbs
p; I nod at Charlie and order, “Hold!”
Mon changes instantly. His hackles go up. His ears go back. He bares his teeth, growling deep inside his throat. He slinks towards Charlie and circles him.
I can feel Henry start to move under my boot.
I know I have to neutralise Henry fast. He is the more dangerous. If he regains consciousness before I get him tied up he could still be trouble.
With Charlie’s attention fully on the dog and Ela, I take my chance and hit Henry again. Henry relaxes on the stones. I kick him to make sure he’s right out. I’ve seen the Vids where the villain is faking unconsciousness.
I look around for something to tie him up with. Remember the belt dangling from Ela’s wrist. I go over to her.
“What’s this?” I start to undo it.
“Don’t even ask.” She sounds real fierce, moves her hand enough so I can get at the buckle. Still doesn’t give Charlie any hope of escaping without a bullet in him.
I take the belt off her wrist and walk towards Henry, checking for any sign of movement. I stand beside him keeping away from his arms and legs, then kick him in the side again, just to be sure.
No reaction still. I straddle him and grab both his arms. Wrench them around behind his back. Tie them together with the belt, pulling it as tight as I can. I’m not worried about circulation. Only that Henry won’t be able to get loose.
I roll him over. Put my arms around his body and haul him to sitting position. Leaning him against the rock cairn. I intend asking Henry a few questions when he comes to.
I check Mon and Ela are keeping Charlie under control.
They’re doing well. Mon is still circling and Ela is aiming the Ruger real steady.
Charlie is watching them both. Holding his bleeding nose, but making no effort to move.
I turn back to Henry and survey my handiwork.
Henry’s head lolls forward on his chest. Mouth slightly open. Blood running down the side of his face. But he seems to be breathing.
I need to tie up his legs too. The last thing I want is Henry making a lunge to escape and managing to hide in the bush. I’ve enough respect for Henry’s hunting skills to know that if he gets away he’ll be hard to find, and dangerous.