The Last Shot

by Michael Adams

  Bad as I feel about treating him like this, the alternative I imagine is much more horrible. All of us in here, Jack’s gun thugs surrounding the house, blasting the place to pieces. My brother and my friends dying around me. Me maybe surviving the onslaught but having to kill myself so that Jack can’t take me alive. If this is how I save Evan and everyone then so be it.

  ‘By any means necessary,’ I say under my breath.

  Mum wrote that in her book too. Next to a drawing of a defiant fist.

  Nathan looks at me. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘Nothing. Is Evan all right?’

  He nods. ‘He’s just in a nice deep sleep. Lucky little bugger.’

  We all sit a while. Exchange nods. Force smiles. Drum fingers. Tap feet. We’re like soldiers in the back of a plane. About to parachute over enemy territory.

  The day dwindles behind the lounge room blinds and Nathan and the others fade into blotchy shifting shadows. My clothing’s soaked with sweat and I’ve got a coppery taste in my mouth. Oscar clicks on his gun light and the room’s washed in light the colour of blood.

  ‘It’s time to go,’ he says.

  We all stand up, shoulder guns and backpacks. I help Marv put Evan in his papoose. Oscar nudges Alex awake with his boot. He blinks around in the scarlet glow, tallying our assault rifles and the .38 in Marv’s waistband.

  ‘Yeah, that’s fair,’ he whines. ‘How am I supposed to protect myself?’

  Oscar and Louis trade impatient glances.

  ‘If it comes to that,’ Louis says, ‘grab a gun from whichever of us goes down dead first.’

  Alex’s pout fades. He pulls on a dark top and dabs at his face with boot polish.

  Dread settles on us all like a black mist. Once we step through that door, there’s no safe place.

  ‘Anyone need the bathroom?’ Marv asks. ‘Now’s the time.’

  We all laugh. But I do. Just not for the reasons they think.

  In the mirror’s red glow, I check myself. Beanie, black-streaked face, rifle held the way I’ve been shown. I look the part. Now I have to play my part. For me. For Evan. For Nathan and the rest of them. Whatever’s out there, there’s only one way to face it.

  ‘Locked and loaded,’ I say to my reflection.

  I grin because it’s silly action movie talk. Still, it makes me feel better.

  ‘Hoo-ra,’ I say. I heard that in a movie too.

  I rejoin the group. Marv’s blessing himself. Alex is biting his nails.

  ‘I’ll lead,’ says Oscar, phone in hand. ‘Louis, take the back. You guys in the middle, okay? Don’t rush. Safe and steady and stealthy.’

  We pass around a tube of menthol goo and smear our nostrils with the stuff. I’ve got most of a packet of chewing gum still. I pop a piece in my mouth. Offer it around.

  ‘I’ll make my way to the end of the street,’ Oscar says. ‘You guys follow when I give this torch signal.’

  He shows us: a long flash, short flash, long flash.

  ‘It means K, as in okay, as in go ahead, in morse code.’

  We nod.

  ‘Stay low,’ Oscar says, ‘don’t talk.’

  That all makes sense.

  ‘If we see them?’ Tajik says. ‘What do we do?’

  ‘Hide,’ Oscar says. ‘If one sees us, they all see us.’

  ‘Don’t forget,’ I say, ‘that they don’t have to talk. If someone sees us, he or she’s not gonna shout “Hey, over here!” or call it in on a walkie-talkie. They might not react at all and we won’t know we’ve been spotted until they’re all on top of us.’

  Alex rolls his eyes away from me. ‘Dudes,’ he says to Oscar and Louis, ‘if someone sees us we’re screwed but shooting is a last resort, isn’t it? They don’t want us. Not if we wave the white flag now.’ He looks at Nathan and me. ‘It’s these two—’

  Oscar raises his hand.

  ‘Son, let me stop you right there,’ he says pleasantly. ‘Here’s how it’s going to play. We’re a team. We’re about to go through that door. All for one. One for all. All of that stuff, okay?’

  Louis steps closer to Alex, looms over him. ‘Two choices,’ he growls. ‘Get with the program or—’ Just for a second, his eyes flick to the ceiling.

  ‘Or,’ Oscar continues for him, ‘we gag you and tie you up and leave you in a cupboard and you take the chance they find you at some point.’

  That wasn’t what Louis meant. We all know it. He was saying he’d shoot Alex like he did that woman.

  ‘All I meant was,’ Alex stammers, getting smaller under Louis’s gaze. ‘I only—’

  ‘Only two things I want to hear from you,’ Louis says. ‘An apology and your choice.’

  Alex glances from Louis to Oscar to Marv to Tajik. It’s like he expects support for the idea that throwing Nathan and me to the wolves can save them. I’m fortified he sees only stern faces in the red light.

  Alex forces himself to look at me and Nathan. ‘I’m just scared, y’know? This is all new to me.’

  ‘Are you retarded?’ Nathan’s knuckles are tight around his weapon. My friend is sweet, smart and sensitive but it’d be a mistake to think he’s soft. This is the boy I met seconds after he punched a nail through the skull of a maniac attacking me. ‘Well, are you?’

  Alex swallows hard. ‘No, no, man, it’s like—’

  ‘You think we’re not scared?’ Nathan demands. ‘That this is something we’ve done before?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ blithers Alex. ‘I just want this to be over, y’know? I just—’

  ‘Enough.’ Louis holds two fingers up. ‘I told you I wanted to hear two things.’

  ‘I’m sorry, I really am,’ Alex quivers to me and Nathan. He looks around at everyone else. ‘I want to come with you guys.’

  Nathan lets him hang a second and then nods. ‘Apology accepted.’ His eyes find mine.

  ‘Okay,’ I say, shrugging, going along with my friend. But my gut tells me this is a mistake. Alex is a chickenshit. We should tie him up and leave him. Except that’d be crueller than shooting him because he probably wouldn’t be found and would die slowly. Better for Louis to take him upstairs and get it done quickly.

  Jesus.

  Is this who I am? Someone who thinks shooting an innocent woman in her bed is necessary? Someone who contemplates putting another human down like a problem dog?

  I shiver at who—what—I’m becoming.

  Oscar claps Alex on the shoulder. ‘The right choice, son. Are we all good?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Alex says. ‘We’re good.’

  Louis steps back, nodding to himself, and Tajik and Marv look relieved.

  Oscar turns to us all. ‘Now, before we had that frank and open discussion, Danby was reminding us how Jack’s people operate. Before he got carried away, Alex actually had a good question: what do we do if we’re seen? Here’s what I reckon.’ We all tilt in. Oscar looks us each in the eye. ‘We don’t take any chances. We kill as many of them as we can as quickly as we can. Then we run as fast as we can and try to disappear again.’

  NINETEEN

  We slip silently through the front door and crouch low on the dark lawn. The inky sky pushes right down to the ground. My pulse thumps in my temples. My hands are sweaty on the rifle grip and on the flashlight taped to its barrel.

  I try to calm myself with the sayings jotted in Mum’s book—bravery is being scared but doing it anyway; pressure’s what makes diamonds—and wonder whether she’s somewhere she can watch over me. Thing is it’s so dark I can’t even see me—or anyone else. The only way I know they’re around me is the shallow sounds of their breathing.

  ‘Okay,’ Oscar whispers, clicking on his flashlight, appearing like a spectre inside a crimson halo. ‘Wait for my signal.’

  He crouches and runs and we watch his red shadow weave around bodies and dwindle between cars until he’s swallowed up by the blackness. Then he turns his light back our way and flashes it like he showed us.

  Nathan and I switch our torche
s on. He leads off towards where we saw the signal, with Alex and Tajik following, and then it’s my turn to light the way for Marv and Louis.

  We cluster in darkness by a brick fence on a corner. A motorbike buzzes somewhere back near the main road, its headlight skimming low clouds. The noise and glow fade and Oscar’s face is softly lit as he checks Tajik’s phone tight against his chest.

  ‘We go right here and it’s straight for three blocks.’

  Oscar slips away again and we wait until his signal ushers us onwards.

  We repeat the process, rushing to meet the red light at the far end of streets that all look the same in the dark. I ache from clutching the rifle and running half doubled over under a backpack stuffed with tins of food and bottled water.

  The next time we reach Oscar it’s beside a van and we can make each other out dimly because the neighbouring yard’s solar path lights still have back-up battery.

  ‘We’re doing good,’ Oscar says, peering at the screen. ‘About halfway—’

  Thump-bang.

  We freeze. I know this sound. Metal panels buckling under body weight. The slap of leather on bitumen. Someone’s climbing up over cars and jumping back onto the road. My stomach twists at the memory of the Party Duder stalking me just this way. I reach back along my rifle and turn the lever from ‘Safe’ to ‘Fire’ with a soft click.

  ‘Steady,’ whispers Oscar. ‘Steady.’

  I nod but I’m ready to fight.

  Whoever it is lopes around the van and along the road a few feet from where we hide. Beside me, Louis is on one knee, rifle aimed at the shadow. The figure’s hunched over, breathing heavily. It stops, stiffens, sniffs the air and then turns towards us. Unleashing a shuddering cry, it stands and raises impossibly long arms to the sky. The solar lights catch amber eyes in a black face above yellow fangs bared in a huge pink mouth.

  I can’t believe my eyes.

  Chimpanzee.

  The beast looks at us for a moment then scrambles away, raging into the darkness, banging off and over cars.

  We look at each other, amazed.

  ‘Stop!’

  The shout sounds frighteningly close.

  ‘Don’t move!’ another voice commands.

  The chimp screams in a volley of gunshots. Starbursts flash against the sky nearby.

  ‘Go,’ Oscar hisses. ‘Now.’

  Bent double, we hustle around the van, away from the sounds of animal and human ferocity. We’re around the next curve, running softly on the grass and risking our red lights, when there’s a last agonised screech and a final gun blast.

  ‘This way,’ Oscar says, veering along a walkway between backyard fences. ‘Quick.’

  We flee into a park, streak along its paths enclosed by black branches. Me, Marv, Nathan and Tajik duck behind a brick barbecue while Louis, Oscar and Alex hide next to shrubs. Flashlight off, I feel my way around Marv so I can listen to Evan. He’s breathing steadily, blissfully oblivious. It’s me who has to quieten my panting as I set my gun to ‘Safe’.

  I think back to the Snap, remember the zookeeper liberating his chimps. Poor creature has wandered for a week only to be made crazy when it came into contact with Minions. I hope the animal ripped off a face or two before they killed it. As much as it scares me that there could be more wild animals in the darkness—lions, tigers, bears—I love that they might be on our side. Or at least our enemy’s enemy. But I shudder because if Evan hadn’t been unconscious the chimp might’ve attacked him first.

  ‘Do you think they heard us?’ Nathan whispers.

  ‘No idea,’ I reply. ‘I think they were pretty distracted.’

  ‘Sssssh!’ Oscar clicks off his phone and makes the darkness complete.

  We shut up and listen.

  Motorbikes back the way we came. Hard to know how many or how distant. Stop and start, rev and rasp. I picture riders guiding machines around obstacles. Maybe they’re only checking on the chimp. Nothing to see here. That’s what I hope they—

  My heart sinks as a new sound swells from the south.

  Pulsing the atmosphere, far off but fast getting closer.

  Whup-whup-whup: beating the air.

  Nathan and I grab hands in the dark.

  ‘Shit,’ says Marv, as a spotlight appears over roofs in the distance. ‘Chopper.’

  ‘They know,’ whines Alex. ‘They know we’re here.’

  This might be my fault. Not that I’ve given us away. But back in Parramatta the man I randomly picked for Jack to revive turned out to be a helicopter pilot. It could be him up there. Or maybe other Minions have downloaded his skills. Doesn’t matter either way.

  Louis, Oscar and Alex scramble over to the barbecue. There’s enough glow from the chopper’s searchlight and the motorbike headlights that we can see each other.

  ‘Guys,’ Oscar says. ‘We’re nearly at the bush. Three more blocks straight north.’

  ‘We won’t make it,’ Alex says.

  ‘He’s right,’ Louis says, wriggling out of his backpack, grinning at Oscar. ‘You look after these guys? I’ll catch up later.’

  Oscar goes to say something but Louis shakes his head. ‘Catch you on the flip side.’

  Oscar nods. ‘Good luck.’

  ‘Don’t,’ I rasp.

  But Louis is gone, keeping low as he runs back the way we came until he’s swallowed by the darkness.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Oscar says. ‘We need to make sure we’re worth it.’

  We creep single file through the park, tree shadows stretching and shrinking across the lawn as the chopper’s searchlight swirls and sweeps through the sky behind us. The va-va-va of its engines and the thwap-thwap-thwap of its blades at least mean we don’t need to worry that twigs crackling under our feet will give us away.

  The park curves back to the street. We crouch in the bush behind a bus stop.

  I’m terrified but exhilarated. My senses dilate. Like I can see and hear more clearly than ever before. Like my nerves extend into the air around me and the ground under my feet. I’m alive. I might be about to die. But I’m more alive than I have ever been.

  A few blocks south, the chopper hovers, the ‘News 7’ logo on its cabin shining in the glow of motorbike headlights below. Sniper Minions perch in the aircraft’s open doorways, the spotlight swings across rooftops and into backyards. I wonder if they’ve found the house we just left, are sniffing out clues to which way we went.

  ‘Shit,’ Oscar says. ‘Shit.’

  Motorbikes rumble around the corner ahead of us. Their headlights blaze between stalled cars and dark riders straddle machines in shadowy clouds of exhaust. Our escape route to the bush is blocked. My heart’s as loud in my ears as the chopper and bikes.

  Brrt-brrt-brrt.

  I snap my head to this new burst of noise that’s sharper and louder than everything else. See the chopper spin so crazily that a gunman tips out and plummets onto the roof below.

  Brrt-brrt.

  Streaks of fire flash from a dark backyard. It’s Louis. Has to be.

  The chopper stabilises so the remaining Minions in its cabin can return fire.

  But Louis’s next burst snuffs out the searchlight, and the chopper yo-yo’s up and churns away out of range.

  I want to whoop, shout, ‘Go Louis!’

  As much as I love that he’s giving them hell, I hate to think of what’s going to happen to him.

  We flatten ourselves in the garden as motorbikes streak past our hiding spot.

  Brrt-brrt-thocka-brrt-thocka-brrt-brrt—it’s like a full-scale war has broken out. But the chopper’s shrunk to a couple of blinking dots against the southern sky.

  This is our chance to move. Oscar switches on his red torch, keeps the light so low we can barely see our way through cars and over bodies.

  Ahead of us is black bush. Oscar shines the light across the road so we can see the dirt track we need to follow. He kills the light and we scurry low across the asphalt. Grit crunches underfoot as we feel our way deeper int
o darkness.

  Motorbikes thunder down the road we just crossed. We press ourselves down into the weeds. We’re finished if they saw the red glow of Oscar’s torch. The headlights slice through the air just over our heads and swing away as the riders round a corner to join the firefight.

  On hands and knees, we fumble along the track. Brush closes around us and the air becomes soupy.

  ‘Christ,’ Oscar says, gagging. ‘Hang on.’

  He clicks his torch on and off. Just long enough for the scene to burn into my retinas. The path’s littered with bodies. We have to pick our way over them. But there’s also dense forest up ahead. It’ll be harder to find us in there.

  We scrape forwards, feel our way into and over corpses, our whispered gasps of ‘Step here’ and ‘That’s it’ alternating with dry retches.

  Then we’re enclosed by trees, able to stand in shadows.

  Behind us the black shadows of houses frame an orange inferno that whooshes into the sky. I don’t know if Louis has set the blaze but it’s terrifying and spectacular. The chatter of gunfire echoes across the suburb. Jack’s first soldier is taking the fight to him. My stomach’s sick with the knowledge that we’re only alive because Louis is sacrificing himself. I feel even sicker when I realise I’d rather he dies than gets caught and forced to tell them our plan.

  Back there—a white flash and a whumpa.

  Petrol tank, gas cylinder, pool chemicals: something goes up in another explosion.

  I glance at my fellow fugitives in the glow: black-streaked, white-eyed, faces fearful but fierce. Whoever any of us were a week ago, we’re now people we could never have imagined.

  TWENTY

  Rats scurry from our red lights. We hurry around gnawed hands and over chewed faces. Beady eyes watch from the brush and wait for us to pass. We don’t stop again until we’re clear of the bodies and the fire behind us isn’t even visible as a glow through the trees.

  ‘You okay?’ I ask Marv.

  He nods and I help him ease Evan to the ground. My little brother’s breathing and heartbeat are fine.

  I turn so Nathan can take bottles from my backpack and share them. Above us, the forest and sky are totally black. I hope drones aren’t much use in the dark and that for all Jack’s resources it’s not easy for him to fix the chopper searchlight.