“It looks perfect. The air conditioning is on, my freezers are still going, the toilets work and there is gas for cooking. It’s just like the owner’s claimed, the building is off grid.”
He paused and looked around at the assembled group
“I mean there is even enough power for the air conditioning to be on, each of the shops are separate and when they are closed they are hot but the main mall is cool.”
“But where would we sleep?”, asked Laura.
“The furniture store is packed to the rafters and it has a storage area to the rear. We’d find enough beds, linen and so on. I think each family group could pick a shop each and make it a home. All the shops are occupied but I don’t think it would take much to clear out three or four clothes shops”.
And with that it was decided, Kenneth, Sophie and Laura already had their SUV filled but the others packed three vehicles and by 2pm they were outside the bakery, Laurence got out of the passenger’s side of his Land Rover, shotgun in hand and opened the door to his shop, closing it behind him.
Two minutes later the main doors to the mall opened and they drove the four vehicles into the mall and parked them around the mobile phone stall. They got out of the cars and were mesmerised, it was cool, quiet and well lit. Bi-Li and Julie looked at each other and smiled. There was work to do but in a city full of the dead, they were in a safe haven.
- 24 -
Tim crested a hill half an hour later he left the roadblock and had a good view of the mountain range that he would soon be riding up. The sky above the mountains were black, the clouds had a distinctive green tinge. It was time to start looking for a place to spend the night.
The road was dead straight and off in the distance he saw a large truck on the side of the road, there was a house in the paddock near the truck also, but there was no way he would enter a house as he considered it too risky.
He rode faster to get to the truck before the rain started, but the rain was faster than he was. It was showering initially and then the rain was harder, it started to hail just five hundred meters from the truck. He pulled up beside the trailer, large hailstones hitting his bike helmet. He jumped off the bike and climbed under the trailer and dragged the bike under with him.
Squatting on his knees he took his helmet off and rested it on the bike so that it was off the ground, the rain was so heavy that the water was hitting the road and running under the truck. Hail smashed on the road and some bounced under the trailer, he was mostly away from the hail but was still getting wet.
Lighting and thunder smashed around him, the wind was so strong that he could feel the truck swaying above him.
It was nearly sundown and he needed a place to sleep and he wanted out of the wind and rain. He made sure his backpack was on properly and crawled out from under the truck, instantly the rain drenched him, it was much heavier than when he’d crawled under the truck. He stood and reached up for the door handle of the truck, he was hoping it was unlocked. The door opened and then Tim realised his mistake, the driver jumped out of the cabin at Tim. Tim fell backwards and the PV went straight over his head and landed on the road behind him. The hail smashed down on both of them.
The PV scrambled to attack Tim but Tim was on his feet first and kicked the PV while it was on its hands and knees. It flipped over onto its back and rolled away. Tim turned and climbed up the stairs into the truck and closed the door. The PV banged against the door of the truck, Tim locked the door and the PV kept banging. The hail continued and a bolt of lightning crashed into the only tree in the area, a massive gum tree just five hundred meters away.
The PV completely lost interest in the truck and started to walk towards the smoking and burning tree.
That night, he slept in the truck. He woke well before dawn but it was too risky to ride in the dark. He wasn’t sure where the PV was but he thought he’d be able to outrun it on his bike if he needed to. As the sun rose he carefully climbed out of the truck with his machete in hand and looked around to make sure the PV wasn’t around. He wouldn’t be caught off his guard this time. He got his bike from under the truck, put his helmet on and got back on the road. He made good time until he arrived at the foot of the Great Dividing Range.
The Great Dividing Range splits the east coast of Australia from its more arid hinterland. It was now separating Tim from the Granite Belt where the Colony was.
Last time Tim drove up the range, it took less than fifteen minutes. By bicycle, the trip took him nearly three hours. When he got to the top, he found obstructions and men with rifles blocking the road.
- 25 -
The people of Firestone had blocked the highway and were refusing access to anyone. No PVs were going to overtake their town. Tim told them he was heading to McPherson they refused to allow him through.
“Awe, come on man. I’m not a PV. I’m riding a fucking bicycle.”
“Don’t care mate. You can’t come through. Go back to the Millipede turn off and go via Texas.”
“That’s four hundred kilometres. It’s less than a hundred this way.”
“Don’t care, do you have a gun on you?”
“This is fucking Australia. Where the hell am I supposed to get a gun from?”, replied Tim.
He was completely oblivious to the fact that the men he was speaking to had guns. Not living in a culture of guns, Tim thought of them as a tool that farmers used to put down injured animals. It hadn’t occurred to him to be scared.
The gate opened and one of the guards climbed down from the roadblock, came through the gate and approached him. He asked about the big city. The smoke haze was visible from the top of the range and Tim told him what he'd seen.
As he told about the Honey Pots, the guard showed interest in the idea. The man was also very interested to know about the roadblock at the Air Force base.
“We haven’t seen many PVs, as you call them, but we’ve heard that they move in herds.”
“Yes, they do. It’s weird. They’re like Starlings; you know how they do those swarms that move as one? And they just stay together.”
“I’m Tim, by the way”, he held out his hand.
“Jacob”, the man responded, shaking hands in a firm country manner. “Pleased to meet you.”
Jacob told him about the town, and that they’d had seen two PVs, and decided to close off the town borders.
Jacob walked back to the barrier and came back with a thermos of coffee, and they sat and drank together until a Ute arrived. Tim was called over to talk to the driver.
Jacob walked over and picked up the bike and Tim’s backpack. It finally occurred to Tim that these men had guns, and for a brief moment, he thought they were going to kill him. The driver of the Ute smiled, shook his hand and offered to drive him to the barrier on the other side of town. He even let him charge his phone on the drive.
During the trip, the driver told Tim that he'd spoken to the crew going to the Winery a week or so earlier, and that they'd been allowed to pass through the town. Not long after that, someone pulled a gun on them so they completely shut down access.
At the other barrier, Tim got back on his bicycle. After an hour and a half of riding, he found another truck to sleep in.
- 26 -
Early the next morning, Tim took the Colossus turn off and saw some people doing work in the front yard of a massive orchard.
“Hi Tim”, one of them yelled out. It was Robert Clarke, the server administrator at Intelligent Business Corporation.
“Hi Robert. It seems I’m at the right place.” Robert approached Tim and gave him a massive bear hug, which Tim reciprocated, dropping his bicycle on the ground. Tim realised he was teary.
“Hey man, it's okay you're here. Well, not quite. The Winery is another couple of kilometres. Grady is going to be so glad to see you. He's mentioned you a dozen times since we got here. Said he tried to call you yesterday, but got no answer”
“I must have been in a blackspot”, said Tim, forgetting that he'd had hi
s phone off most of the day to save the battery.
“Tell me about it. This whole place is a fricking blackspot, but the lady in the house next door has a couple of sat phones. I’ve got a Ute; do you want me to run you the last few clicks?”
“No, I’m right, I’ll make it.”
“Okay man. At the T-Junction, take the left and you’ll know you’re there when you get to the barrier.”
Ten minutes later, Tim crested a slight hill and saw the weirdest fence he’d ever seen. A Roman Soldier would recognise the design, but not the materials. An eclectic array of shipping containers and cages filled with rocks. Tim coasted down the hill to his new home.
- 27 -
Juan and Michelle set off the fog horn for the third time that day.
After each horn blast, Michelle scanned the buildings with the binoculars. On the first two sweeps, there were no signs of life. The sun was about to set and Michelle was drawn back again to the house up near the churches.
“That curtain has changed again, and it's the only place other than the grass patch that has any of the crazies”, said Michelle. “They keep walking around outside the house as if there is something there that they are interested in.” Juan was watching the crazies on the grass. They had moved off the dock to the grass again, they seemed to realise that they couldn’t get to the boat and were no longer reacting to the horn.
“Are we going to stay here overnight?”, asked Michelle.
“Yes, my apple pie. I don't want to go out of the bay at night, so we'll stay here overnight. Do you agree.”
“Yes, my cream tart.”
They both broke up laughing, which was something they hadn't done very much since they left the Gold Coast.
As the sun set, they watched the shore. The dock and the sandy foreshore were barely visible, but the houses merged into the darkness of the hill.
Suddenly, in the house with the curtain, a window became faintly visible.
“Juan, there is someone in that house, a dim light just came on.”
- 28 -
The next morning when Juan awoke, Michelle was not in bed. He could hear her tapping away on the keyboard in the galley.
Juan went to the head to relieve himself when Michelle yelled out to him, “Darling, I've had an idea. I've been on Google Maps. That road is called “Ned's Beach Road.” Why don't we ring the houses on that street, there are only twelve pages in the phone book, and just a few houses on that street?”
“Phone book?”, he said, wondering where she'd got a phone book from.
“Yes, my sweet, phone book. Their phone book is online. Get with the times Captain.”
'Oh my God', thought Juan, 'how does she wake up so chirpy?'
Michelle began going through the phone book, ringing the numbers. On the third number, a woman's voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Hello, are you in the house with the crazies outside?”
“Are you on the boat?”
“Oui, I mean yes, we are on the boat.”
“Oh my God, can you help us?”
“We want to try, how many of you are there?”
“Just my husband and me. We're here to celebrate our first anniversary.”
“How did you end up in the house?”, asked Michelle.
“We woke up a few days ago and a crazy man tried to get in through the security door. We slammed the wooden door shut, and since then, haven’t seen anyone besides a few insane people who come to bash on the door.”
- 29 -
“How are we going to help then Juan?”
“Do we want these people on our boat?”, he responded. “We have enough water because we produce our own from seawater. Food is also not a problem because we can fish, but four people on our boat is a lot. There isn't a lot of room”, he reasoned.
“We have the bedroom hold in the bow where Matthew slept. That would easily hold a young couple.”
“How do you know they're young?”
“They've only been married a year.”
“That doesn't mean they're young.”
“She sounded young. She sounded almost like a teenager. I don't understand why you don't want to help them”, retorted Michelle.
“Oh, I do want to help them. I'm the emotional one, remember? You, my dear wife, are the logical one. I just wanted to make sure that it is the logical thing to do.”
“Fuck logic, it's the right thing to do”, said Michelle. And with that, it was settled.
- 30 -
Although Michelle is the logical one, it was Juan who came up with the plan. Michelle relayed the plan to the couple.
“Are you sure you can do this Juan?”
Juan had bought the boat much closer to shore and anchored with the engines idling. The crazies on the grass had flooded onto the dock, and the grasslands were temporarily clear. Juan had his rifle out and was aiming at one of the crazies near the couple's house. Pow. A miss. He only had twenty-four bullets so everyone had to count.
“I just need to concentrate and allow for the wind. It's a long way, but that was pretty close.”
That wasn't the question that Michelle was asking. She was wondering if he could shoot a person, but the fact that he'd just pulled the trigger answered that.
Pow. This one a hit in the chest, and the crazy went down. The other three stopped milling around the house and came out to the crazy which was flopping around on the grass dying.
Pow, another miss. Pow, a hit in the shoulder. The three crazies were clustered close together. Pow, the centre one was down. “Okay make the call, some of the ones on the dock are heading back up the hill.”
Michelle went downstairs, and a moment later, a couple raced out of the front door towards the foreshore.
They were not coming directly towards the boat, but rather heading to the shore that three hundred meters from the closest point to the boat.
It had been agreed to keep away from the dock.
The two remaining crazies saw the couple and lost interest in their dying friend. They began running after the young couple. This was expected and planned for.
“Michelle, hit the horn.”
Michelle began rapidly hitting and re hitting the fog horn. The crazies on the dock got agitated as the boat was now much closer. Despite this, none of them went into the water.
Pow, this time a headshot. Juan saw the crazy's head disappear in a puff of gore. Just one left, and about one hundred meters to the shore, with the crazy thirty meters behind them. Pow, a miss, pow another miss.
The couple hit the sand, but the man tripped over and went sprawling meters from the edge of the grass. She stopped to help, but he signalled for her to go on and she did. The man got up, but as he did, he looked back at the crazy, only fifteen meters away. In his panic, he fell again. The girl hit the water, but Juan hadn't noticed. He had to take another shot or the man would die. Pow, a miss. The man was struggling to get up, but was on his feet as the crazy got to the sand. It would be close.
The crazy ground to a halt and stood on the edge of the sand. The man was on his feet and sprinting towards the water, but he needn't have bothered going too fast. The crazy had lost interest in him and was heading towards the dock.
Michelle had returned to the deck. “You beautiful man! You did it! That's another two people you've saved.”
“Let's pull in the anchor and get them before they drown”, said Juan.
- 31 -
Later that night, the two couples sat at the table playing cards. Alex and Jennifer and Juan and Michelle played poker as the waves lapped against the boat. They had discussed their next steps, but a decision had not yet been made.
3 Of Life and Death
The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.
John F. Kennedy — Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961
One of the key objectives for the police and military was to keep the roads clear
for essential travel. Initially, it was thought that people were much safer in their own homes than out on the streets.
But the Government had underestimated the Plague. Before long, people would need food and the electricity system would fail, making it impossible for people to survive in their homes.
Some districts were already in the dark and the houses were becoming hot boxes in the Australian heat, killing both the living and the crazy. But the electricity in some parts of the city might run for years. Homes and districts with solar power might have power for decades. But the water and sewage network depended on electricity, and without power, parts of the city began to run out of water.
The Colony Page 11