Jubilee Year: A Science Fiction Thriller (Erelong Book 1)
Page 25
Keech, sitting opposite Boy, unfastened his harness. “You want us to stay outside tonight under all that shit up there?” Keech asked. “Why don’t you sit here? I’ll take the old girl’s place and let’s be done it.”
Boyd sprang up with a scowl and sat in Keech’s empty seat on the opposite side of the carrier. He muttered as he watched Aunty snap herself into the still warm seat.
Aunty watched the landscape flicker by them for many minutes before she gestured to Matthew.
He crouched beside her and they talked for a while, and when she was finished Matthew tapped Keech on the shoulder. He pointed to the soldier’s mic.
“Tell the corporal, Aunty says we need to head for a section of the cliff where there’s an overhang,” he said. “Tell him we have about twenty minutes more traveling before we get there. Then we park up and walk the rest of the way. There’s a narrow valley with the cave entrance at the end.”
When Keech had relayed the information to the corporal, he shouted into Matthew’s ear.
“Corporal asks if she’s expecting others to be there.”
“There will be others,” Matthew answered immediately.
“Will they have weapons?”
Matthew shook his head.
“Negative on the weapons,” Keech replied into his mic.
The dirt road had narrowed with groves of young eucalyptus threatening to block their passage, and yet, they made steady progress. The heavy Bushmaster cleared a path for the ambulance, and they had not been bothered by any more shooters.
With the foliage shifting in an inconsistent breeze making it difficult to make out the details of the cliff, the two men in the cab at last caught sight of the limestone shelf. The cliff rose above them, up and over in a gentle curve like an ocean wave breaking over the treetops.
Taylor noted with satisfaction that the indent in the rock face was deep enough to shelter the entire width of the truck.
Aunty Wanganeen walked up the slight slope ahead of them until she reached the base of the cliff. She stood under the high overhanging limestone ledge and bent down to grab a handful of the brown grit at her feet and rubbed it between her fingertips.
Cameron jumped down from the cab to join the old lady.
“Alright, drive her in as close as you can to the face,” he called out.
“Might not be able to drive out in a hurry if I do that,” Taylor complained.
“You might have nothing to drive if it’s hit by a bloody meteoroid!”
The old lady waved her hand at Cameron. “He doesn’t need to be that close to the cliff.”
“Why not?” Cameron asked.
“Them meteors come from the north and northeast, best as I can tell.”
“How d’ya know they won’t come from a different angle?”
“Because they haven’t yet.”
Aunty made her way back toward the ambulance, still unaware of Franchette’s sudden death.
The stand of trees shifted like restless warriors, tense and resolute in a breeze that came and went.
Storm did his best to comfort Penny and Michael. They were inconsolable, and he left them to wrap Franchette in a blanket. When they were done, they carried her body from the back of the ambulance.
Cameron had his men dig a grave in the loamy stretch of soil at the bottom of the hill.
Michael spoke over her body before falling to the ground in tears. Then they committed Franchette to the earth, and it was done.
Aunty Wanganeen wailed at the grave for over an hour, and Michael and Penny were inconsolable.
Nothing Cameron could do or say could convince the old lady to lead them to the cave so they might begin unloading their gear. The corporal and his men were beginning to lose hope of finding shelter before nightfall. Cameron decided the backup plan was to go back down the road and locate the caves the shooters were in and take them by force.
Matthew sat down beside Aunty and after a time, she fell silent and it was not long before she clambered slowly to her feet.
“The cave is this way,” she told them.
When they reached the small valley they saw that it was filled with stands of big trees, clumps of scrub and boulders. The end of it rose up in a sheer wall of rock and at the base was the cave entrance, hidden by the lay of the valley floor. For it opened up at the bottom of a shallow drop behind a rise in the ground.
It was easy to understand how no new settler had ventured upon it over the years. Perhaps the odd farmer looking for a stray sheep, but any that did kept their lips sealed.
When Cameron walked in the entrance he was relieved to find the first chamber room, though small, allowed enough space for two soldiers to stand and to lie on the sandy floor. He wasted no time organizing the guards at the doorway to their sanctuary. He told the men once things got that bad it was obvious no uninvited would make it to the cave to steal their weapons, they could join the rest of them below ground.
Keech stood by the ambulance, watching as the boy unloaded the ambulance. The carry bags looked heavy and he could dense metal objects clunking about inside.
“So what did you say you have in your bags?” Keech said, giving Storm a quizzical look.
“I didn’t,” Storm told him.
“It sounds like you got bags full of guns to me.”
“Nope,” Storm said. “Nothing like that.”
Storm wanted to be left alone. The violence of Franchette’s death had shaken him badly. He told himself it was not the visage of her bloodied body, but that it was Franchette of all people who had caught the bullet. The injustice of it all was hard to believe.
“Maybe, and maybe not,” Keech said.
Storm dropped the bags on the ground and pulled back the zippers.
“Satisfied?” He asked looking up at Keech.
The flush of anger overwhelmed the numbness he felt at the collapse of his world and his efforts to help his group survive it. He was surprised at how his anger at Keech acting like some kind of cop actually made him feel a little better.
Keech peered down at the oxygen tanks, regulators, and masks and the rest of the medical supplies Storm had gathered.
“Still—you can’t afford to injure yourself, mate,” he said. “Let me give you a hand.”
Storm zipped up the heavy bag with the tanks and handed the soldier a strap.
“Go for it.”
“I’m sorry the lady died,” Keech added. “Jeez, and she was a doctor too. She should have stayed in the Bushy with us.”
“Yeah, well now she’s gone,” Storm muttered without looking at the soldier.
Storm wished the man would simply take the strap and get going without feeling the need to talk.
“We can’t do a thing about it now,” Storm added.
Keech saw the set of Storm’s face and he didn’t say another word until they reached the mouth of the cave.
It was twilight by the time they unloaded the two vehicles. Aunty Wanganeen had remained resolute. There would be no weapons carried into the sanctuary chamber. It was only because of Michael’s loss that she listened to him and agreed to make a compromise with the corporal. The weapons were stacked inside the entrance cave where they could be guarded by whoever was put on sentry duty.
The old woman led the way through a narrow shaft that widened as they descended, a greasy rope strung along one wall offering support as the path steepened.
When a pungent mix of dried meat and wood fire smoke hit them, they knew they had reached their destination. Ahead, they saw the faint yellow glow of a fire in the center of a huge cavern and huddled around it, a group of some forty individuals that included youngsters and gray-heads. They had found the Jawindjira mob.
Neville Combo would have cut an imposing figure in his youth. Now, at sixty-seven years of age, he was still just over six feet tall when he straightened his back, but time and his own folly had given him a stoop. Combo was the leader of the clan and it was he, who announced their arrival to his group.
/> Combo told Michael his group could stay for as long as they needed and he showed them their quarters. Platforms had been made from strips of bark laid over wooden stick frames. The rough furnishings would provide their seats and their beds, and rugged though they were, they were a lot better than cold stone.
Cameron and his men immediately set about establishing a separate space. After several attempts to find a level surface for their ground sheet and sleeping bags, they gave up and joined the rest on the platforms.
Aunty Wanganeen requested they each contribute a gift from their food supplies to Combo.
Boyd grumbled over how in a situation such as this, it should be up to the individual to be responsible for their own survival. He said those who had made poor preparations for such a situation had no automatic rights to the supplies of others.
Cameron told his men to quit griping. He ordered they give up at least five items each from their personal provisions.
It didn’t take long to get the provisions together and Aunty Wanganeen was able to fill a carry bag with tinned fish, packets of peanuts and dried fruit, chocolate bars, and chewing gum. She set the haul down in front of Combo and he nodded his acknowledgment and began distributing them among the mob. The gifts were accepted without comment.
Toady Under Fire
The two men set about preparing a bed at the far end of the low-ceilinged chamber that was no larger than the average bathroom. There would be no need for more than one. In the morning, they would be relieved of sentry duty, and they could go down to the cavern to join the others. For Keech, that time could not come soon enough. For Toady, it didn’t really matter either way.
Toady stared with contempt at the platform of sticks they had lashed together. He hated camping. Perhaps it was odd for a man who volunteered to join the Army, but he had always thought all his IT training would lead to a job in a warm, dry office.
He had hoped to find employment with a company or maybe with the public service, but the one positive reply e got came from the military. Whenever life as a grunt got too much he only needed to remember the lists he worked through, the endless lines he stood in waiting to be interviewed, and the year he spent sending off applications. Now, here he was, a regular grunt in a cave.
It wasn’t right, and he would say as much to anyone who listened, especially if they wore stripes. He was meant for an administration role. No one listened. Instead, he was berated and laughed at, and out of pure spite, they sent him into the outback to round up locals and imprison them.
“What you are, is whatever you’re doing when your times up,” Keech told him.
“What I’m doing is working with uneducated bums,” Toady muttered, his back to Keech.
“Fuck you, Toady! Why do you think Cameron chose you to pull guard duty with me while they’re safe and cozy in their hole?”
“Because they hate both of us?”
“No, you dumb shit! Because you are one self-obsessed, immature asshole! And, you’re lazy. And everyone knows it except you!”
“I shoveled dirt today the same as all of you—you know my last name is Williams, right?”
“No, you didn’t. I saw you leaning on your shovel most of the time. You don’t think anyone notices, but they do. Sarge does. Cameron does.”
“Why did he choose you to pull guard duty with me then?”
“Because I’m the only one willing to go twelve long hours with your endless bitching and not end up beating you senseless,” Keech growled. “You want the first shift or the second?”
Toady scowled and rolled off the bench. “Give me the first six hours.”
“Make sure you stay awake. Those bastards on the hill today might want to visit us and finish the job.”
Toady gave him an evil grin.
“I might lead them to you while you sleep and watch them cut off your head!”
Keech stared at Toady in disgust. “You have no clue why it is no-one likes you, do you? I’m going for a piss before I hit the sack.”
He shouldered his automatic and walked to the entrance but he didn’t go any further.
“Fuck me days!”
Toady looked at the man and saw that an odd light was reflecting in Keech’s shiny face and in his wide staring eyes. Even the man’s shadow was clear on the rock.
He stood next to Keech and gazed up at the orb that glowed a dull orange above the rocky ridge of the valley. It appeared to float in the blackness, the size of nine full moons. No—fifteen full moons! He thought he could make out continents.
“Where did that come from?” Keech asked. He was not looking to get a reply from Toady. He reeled and reached out for the wall of the cave to steady himself.
Toady’s mouth was dry. His legs shook, but he hardly noticed. He wanted to go home, to his mother’s house in Melbourne. Anywhere but where he was; in the outback under the weight of that thing.
The two men retreated back inside the cave. They considered running down the shaft to join the others underground. Toady slumped against the wall and slid to the floor. His gun fell across his trembling thighs. He stayed put in the sand as his polymer buttstock rattled against the stone behind him.
Keech sat down on the edge of the stick bed. “You take first watch.”
“Okay,” Toady said, as he got to his feet, still shaking.
“I—I’m going to sleep now,” Keech told him as he eased himself onto the platform and curled into a tight ball.
Toady stayed frozen in the same spot for an hour while he listened to the sound of clicks and thuds, he did not want to look outside again. Not on that night. Even so, he felt drawn to have a peep out the cave mouth. Flashes of light had grown more persistent and every so often a shower of small stones bounced across the sandy floor.
It hit him all of a sudden that he was hearing movements outside, that they, the shooters were approaching the cave. Who they were, really didn’t matter. No one was coming inside.
He got to his feet and leveled the barrel of his gun at the entrance and cried out a warning. There was no reply. He brought the rifle up to his cheek and braced himself, ready to shoot the first figure to appear.
That was when the noise began. It sounded like it was coming from a large metal bell and it grew louder until it sounded like the grinding whine of an empty drum spinning at high speed.
The ground gave a lurch. When the follow-up jolts hit, it was in rapid succession. Each was more violent than the last, and they didn’t stop.
Keech rolled off the platform and onto the cave floor. He scrambled in the dust to find his fallen weapon. The floor of the cave lurched again, and he was thrown against the wall. As he lay in the dust he heard a terrible groan from deep below.
The Earth was in anguish as it wrestled with the electromagnetic force that threatened to tear it apart.
Inside the cave, the two soldiers choked in the thick dust.
Toady, his eyes full of grit, crawled until he felt twigs and leaves under his palms. He stood and began to stumble forward. The ground under him tilted violently, and he was thrown to his knees once more. He scrabbled forward like a crab, then, by some miracle, he managed to get to his feet and this time he ran.
A strong wind howled between the rock walls of the narrow valley. There were stones clattering down the slopes. The surrounding trees were being pounded, the branches exploding around Toady’s head. Something zinged past his ear. It was the basic training that made him flatten to the dirt. Shooters were firing down on him, but how was that possible with the ground jumping around like it was?
A larger projectile passed over his head. He heard it whistle close by him. He buried his face in the coarse grass. Close to his ear, he heard a thump that sounded nothing like the impact of a bullet. It was more of a sizzle. The noise spit makes when it hits the hot plate at a barbecue. He could smell burning wood and something more pungent like the hot barrel of a machine gun fired too many times without rest. No. That wasn’t right. It smelled more like burnt stone.
Animal instinct alone might have made him raise his hand to protect his face, and he was amazed when he saw the hole. It was the width of three pencils held together. The smell of seared flesh filled his nostrils as he peered through his hand at the light show above.
He gasped in shock at a searing pain in his thigh. A larger projectile passed through his chest, but to Toady, it felt like a body blow; like a bus had hit him. It was a golf ball sized meteoroid strike to his head seconds later that finally brought a merciful end to Toady’s suffering.
Keech crawled to the opening and steadied himself against the cave wall. With his palms against the rock face, he worked was able to stand, even with the whole hill shaking like it was. Outside the entrance, he saw flames devouring the valley floor. The trees were already well alight and the heat from the inferno was intense.
He squinted through the dust and smoke and thought he could make out Toady’s lying on his back not twenty yards from the entrance.
“Hey, Toady,” he called out. But the form was still.
If he was quick, he could grab a leg and pull the man inside before the heat overwhelmed him.
“Williams! Come on back in here.”
He saw that the limbs were bent at odd angles like the broken branches of a fallen tree. He took a step closer to the cave opening, but the wind was like a blast furnace and he felt the hair on his head burn. He stepped back behind the shelter of the stone wall once more. As he looked on, he saw fire engulf the body, the flames brightening until he could see the man no more.
The cave was filling with acrid smoke and he dropped to the floor where he knew there would still be a little air. He slid on his stomach, up to a fresh pile of rubble where the shaft leading to the cavern had been.