The Colony

by Lang, Christopher

  It was assumed by all that the Colony would grow in numbers. As the Colony grew, the leadership knew that energy production was going to be important. Energy is what drives the modern world. Without energy, life in the Colony would be more primitive.

  The Government electricity turned off six days after Grady's arrival at the Winery. There was plenty of power for lighting and sewage works, but occasionally people were having cold showers.

  A very busy stream went through the property. Matthew Nicolls had a project going to build a few water screw generators. He was determined to increase the power generated. The addition of the McPherson people put pressure on the resources, but the extra man power would more than compensate for this. At least this is what Valerie hoped.

  But now with the sudden increase in numbers energy and water were becoming scarce resources.

  - 14 -

  Three weeks after the plague broke out John-Paul climbed into the window of the house next door, he opened the front door and Jillian and Faye helped him raid the pantry for food. The freezer was still running powered by the solar panels that their neighbour had poured tens of thousands of dollars into.

  John-Paul tried to convince his mother that they should move into the neighbour’s house but she wouldn’t have a bar of it.

  By the end of the week he’d visited every house in town, all seventeen and lugged the food and other goods back to the house next door where there seemed to be an endless supply of electricity to keep food edible.

  They could survive the next months this way, they had enough but they had to be careful to make it last. There weren’t any plague victims in town but they still hadn’t seen any people since the evacuation was completed.

  4 Preparation for War

  An army marches on its stomach - Napoleon Bonaparte

  The first three weeks after the Colony absorbed the military were a busy time. Shipping containers full of weapons and other supplies were transported to the Colony. The Australian Government, unknown to them, supplied large forklifts, a few trucks and housing.

  The army had stored flat pack demountable buildings at the above ground facility. Some of these were transported back to the Colony and stored in a shed, also transported from the base.

  Matthew Nicolls was working on decent accommodation for the military people with private bedroom facilities and communal social areas. As it occasionally snows in the granite belt and summer storms are a regular occurrence, the facilities were joined with undercover walkways. These were lifted from the McPherson Primary School.

  At the base, all supplies not in immediate use were moved to the underground facility. The main base entrance was sealed and made to look deserted.

  As a further precaution, road signs were removed for fifteen kilometres either side of the Colony.

  To minimise the risk of someone stumbling across the Colony, Valerie came up with a way to hide the main entrance to the National Park. The major northern turnoff had a staged car crash placed at the highway intersection. Grady and a group from the Colony spent a couple of days making the crash look authentic before moving it to the highway. As a final touch, the petrol tank of one of the cars was ruptured and set on fire.

  Two hours later, a chain was connected to a large dead tree, two hundred meters up the road. The other end was attached to a Bushmaster; the tree was pulled down, blocking the main road to the colony.

  A team was building a gravel roadway from the rear of Bill Norton's house to the rear of his neighbours, so the tree could be bypassed in an emergency. Valerie was trying hard to convince the committee that another burnt out car would make it look more authentic.

  Gumtree leaves were collected and spread on the back road entrance, so that it appeared disused.

  - 1 -

  Richard Forbes was getting used to being alone. The Kingston Jetty on Kauri Island is not Richard's idea of luxury, but it was better than being dead.

  He had all he needed. A tap with fresh water, an ocean to piss in, a gap in the boards to crap through, and a huge barrier to keep the crazies away. He had all the fish he could eat, but he kept on catching those bloody dream fish. He knew to throw those bastards back.

  He was sure he hadn't eaten any dream fish, but for the last fifteen minutes, he had been watching a sailing boat coming from Macquarie Island. At first, he thought the sails were a bird, but as it got closer, it was obvious that it was an ocean going sailing boat.

  He knew that he had to leave the island to save his sanity, but the only boat on the dock was the launch used for transporting goods from the supply ships. The supply boat wasn't made for the open ocean; too low and too broad, so Richard was sure he'd drown.

  He was now convinced that the boat was real. There were two women on the deck waving to him. If he was hallucinating, they would have been in bikinis at the very most, but they were wearing bright orange life jackets and big floppy hats.

  No more thinking. He jumped off the dock and into the launch and started the outboard motors. He removed the ropes from the mooring bollard and headed out through the surf.

  - 2 -

  Juan watched from the helm as the Launch approached the port side of the yacht. It was large, half the length of Juan's yacht, but almost as wide, with a much shallower draft.

  Richard threw the rope from the front of the boat, but Alex missed it. Michelle leaned down to catch hold of it before the rope went off the edge into the water. Alex helped her tie it to the rail and then they pulled the boat towards the yacht.

  - 3 -

  Juan moved the yacht to an anchorage just off Macquarie Island. The hills of Kauri Island were still visible six kilometres distant.

  The five of them sat on deck, talking about their current situation. Jennifer was amazed that they were in reasonably calm water when they had been battered near Kauri.

  “Depends on which way the winds and tides are moving. It's sometimes smooth on Kauri too”, said Richard.

  It had only been two hours since they'd picked up Richard, and the exchange of stories was beginning.

  “So, the East Coast of Australia, New Caledonia, and Lord Howe are all overrun too?”, asked Richard.

  “Afraid so. I contacted New Caledonia early on, but I'm not getting any answers anymore. They said the Plague had broken out, but now, no answer by radio or satellite phone”, responded Juan.

  “You have a satellite phone? How long will it work for?”, asked Richard.

  “The electronics in Satellites will work forever, in theory. They're solar powered, but have a twenty-year lifespan because they need fuel to keep them in orbit. They start working their way down, and must be adjusted every six months or so. When I bought this phone last year, they said even if there are no new satellites, it will last eighteen years. A new set of satellites far above the Western Pacific had just been launched. I assume the phone itself won't last eighteen years. We also have UHF, which is what we used for New Caledonia. But we’re contacting the Australians we know on the telephone”, said Juan.

  “Are the phones still working there?”

  “No, they have a sat phone too. Lots of people in the rural areas have them. Richard, can you tell us how you survived?”

  “My father's best friend is Thomas Clinton, they're like blood brothers. Thomas had a big argument with Mark Snell around the time I was born and our families don't have anything to do with each other anymore. My girlfriend is Betty Snell.

  “It`s not like Romeo and Juliet, or anything where the parents are mortal enemies. Thomas and Mark don’t like each other, so my dad has nothing to do with the Snells. It's just easier. But my Dad and Mark at least say hello if they pass each other at the supermarket. They don't even dislike each other. It's just that the thing with Thomas makes it hard.

  “It’s just easier all ‘round if Betty and I don't tell our families about our relationship. Betty has been accepted into the University of New South Wales in Medicine, so it will be a while before we can marry.”

  Jua
n still didn't see the point of all this, but he had plenty of time.

  “My father was the dock master. We have massive gates on the docks and a fence with spikes that extends to over the water on either side. It’s the tourists, you see. Some yahoo tourist drowned a few years ago after diving off the end in the middle of the night. His family took the Island Council to court, saying it was their fault. The insurance paid out, but they insisted on a big gate and fence to keep the tourists out. So now there's a big stainless-steel fence, nearly impossible to climb, with spikes on the top. It ends out over the water.

  “I took the keys to the gate, went in and locked them again and laid down on the hammock to wait for Betty. She was going to meet me and we were going to have some fun on the hammock together. It was late and I fell asleep. I woke up well after dawn with someone banging on the gates. They were just totally crazy. Smashing on the gates, lunging at me through them… They had a massive bite on their neck.

  “I heard someone scream and looked across the water towards the park. Someone was being attacked by three or four people. The nutter at the gate saw that and ran off towards them.

  “I called my mother on my mobile phone. No answer. I called Betty. No answer. I kept on trying people until I got Thomas Clinton, my Dad's best friend. He asked where I was and I told him. He told me about the crazies. Said he'd seen lots of fighting and some killing and that he was locked in the church with three or four other people.

  “Dozens of people were banging on the windows and doors trying to get in at them. While I was on the phone, I heard a crash and he said they were coming in through a window. He said they were going to make a break for it out the back door. 'Keep an eye out for us,' he said, 'we're coming to you'.

  “Obviously, they didn't make it. The last living person I saw before you, was the lady attacked on the grass.

  Docking days were long days, so there is a little cabin with coffee, water and tea and a couch just big enough to sleep on. I moved in there and slept there or on the hammock until you arrived.

  “I was thinking about making a move on the Launch, but I was really worried about how it would go in the ocean.”

  Juan asked a few questions of Richard and then asked him if he'd ever been to Macquarie Island.

  “I went there once on a school excursion. It's a Nature Reserve, so no one is allowed there without the Ranger, in fact the Rangers hardly go there.”

  “Where were you planning on going on the Launch?”, asked Michelle.

  “Sydney, I think”, was his vague response.

  That afternoon, Juan and Richard took the Launch and landed on the beach near the creek.

  Richard said the rangers have a cabin that they take the visitors to. The creek implied fresh water, but it had been years since Richard was last there.

  The Launch touched the beach. Juan and Richard jumped off and hauled the boat up onto the beach until it was properly grounded. They looked back to the yacht, only twenty-five meters off the beach, and got the thumbs up signal from Michelle.

  Michelle watched her husband walk into the bush with Richard; the rifle was lashed across his shoulders. Richard assured them that the island was empty, but it was with a sense of foreboding that she watched her husband walk out of sight.

  They walked up the path through the bush in silence for ten minutes. When Juan stopped and sat on a rock, he offered a water bottle to Richard.

  Something had been bothering him about the island and he had to ask, “I'm a bit confused. If no one is allowed on this island, why is this path here?”

  Richard found himself confused by the question. “People do come here. I came here on a school excursion in grade nine and the rangers are here a few days a week. The rangers do school excursions for science students from the mainland and New Zealand. Normal tourists aren't allowed here and Kauri Islanders aren't allowed here without a Ranger.”

  “Why particularly is this a wildlife park?”, asked Juan.

  “Birds. It's a refuge for nesting seabirds. According to the ranger, this island was used for hunting in the nineteenth century, and the rabbits and goats killed off the birds. They got rid of the rabbits and goats and the bird numbers are back up, along with the plants. Sixty years ago, this was a grassy hill. Six hundred years ago, it was like it is now.”

  “Makes sense. Let's find this Ranger's cabin.”

  A few minutes later, they came to the first and only fork in the track. One path continued straight up the hill. The other veered off to the right in a less steep direction. They veered to the right, and after five hundred meters, they came to a small box canyon. To the right was a small waterfall coming down the cliff, and to the left was a large cabin.

  The cabin ran about six meters along the cliff and about three meters deep. The overhang of the cliff gave it some protection from the elements. In front of the cabin was a large paved area. Further along, near the creek formed by the waterfall, was a set of picnic tables that could accommodate forty people.

  Juan had expected a tool shed, but instead it looked like they'd found a place for the five of them to live. They walked to the cabin and opened the front door. Two bunk rooms were at each end, and in the middle was a wood fired stove, lounge and a kitchen sink. All that was missing was a toilet.

  “The toilet's outside”, Richard commented as Juan tried the taps. “And there is hot water from the tap on the stove when the fire is going.”

  Juan looked at him. “It was a weekend excursion; arrived Friday afternoon and went home Sunday”, Richard explained.

  “Let's have a look at this toilet.”

  The toilet was a two-minute walk from the cabin. It turned out to be a long drop, but the drop was down into a dry gully, more than ten meters below. After a brief inspection and the all-important smell test, Juan concluded that even Michelle would be happy with this toilet. It was cleverly built in a way that would allow the natural rains to wash the waste into the forest to decompose.

  Juan and Richard walked back to the beach with the downhill journey taking less than ten minutes. Michelle was relieved to see her husband and the boy walk out of the jungle onto the beach.

  The decision to anchor the yacht and move to the island was made, later that afternoon Juan called Valerie with an update.

  - 4 -

  That night, Juan and the others slept the sleep of the truly exhausted. The men made five or six trips lugging gear from the boats to the cabin, while the women got the place ready to move into. The two couples moved into the rooms at either end, and Richard slept in a makeshift bed in a corner of the main room. If that didn't work out, Juan thought that he would be able to dismantle Richard's room from the dock and convert it to a cabin for one of the couples.

  In the early morning, Juan awoke with a start. A bright light flashed in the window. Ten seconds later, the massive explosion shook the cabin. A subtropical storm.

  Juan dressed and went to the main room. Alex and Richard were there already in just their sleeping shorts. Within a minute, the ladies had joined them.

  Lightning and thunder, one after the other, sounded above them and lit the room up.

  “Is this normal?”, shouted Alex to Richard.

  “We're in the sub tropics in the middle of the ocean, so yes, it's normal to get big storms here”, Richard responded.

  Jennifer had never seen so much rain in her life.

  “It doesn't rain like this in New Caledonia”, said Juan.

  “Will the boat be okay Juan?”, Michelle liked the hut, but wanted to be able to leave if they needed to.

  “It's anchored front and back and cabled to a tree with a fifty-meter tether. It’s not going anywhere. The Launch is ten meters above the high tide and tethered to a tree also. There's nothing to worry about. We should just go back to bed.”

  It was easier said than done. The rain and thunder were loud and the lightning was bright. After an hour or so, the storm was over and he could hear snoring coming from the other rooms. Juan let himself o
ut and went down to check on the boats.

  They were fine, he knew they would be, but now he was able to go back to sleep.

  When he crawled back into bed with Michelle she asked him how the boat was. Then she rolled over and went back to sleep. Five minutes later, Juan was asleep also.

  - 5 -

  The next morning, the waterfall was gushing and the toilet gully had been washed clean.

  That afternoon, while everyone else fished, Juan followed the path up the hill to the top of the basalt ridge. From there, he could see the yacht in the cove and the others fishing in the gentle surf. In the distance to the north, he could see Kauri. Here and there, clusters of PVs walked around the island, looking for more victims. To the east, south, and west, there was nothing but ocean and sea birds.