Carrier (24 page)

‘I only know this because my mother was the one who shot him.'

With pain in my heart, I watched Patrick's face gradually transform as he experienced shock, then anger, then sadness and then disbelief.

‘Did you know this on the first day we met?' he asked in a whisper.

I nodded, another tear sliding down my cheek.

Patrick sucked in a deep breath and swallowed thickly, his eyes reddening before he turned away.

‘I'm so sorry,' I said. ‘I didn't want to hurt you.' My throat burned as Patrick turned away. I reached for his arm but he shrugged me away.

‘I love you, Patrick. I really do. I know this because you've been my every thought since the day I met you. You're my best friend.'

The guards moved toward Patrick and, without even looking back, he walked towards the ship, stepped onto the ramp and disappeared though a wall of light at the entrance.

Aticon appeared before me, his long, lean shape blurry through my tears.

Everybody has boarded. The children are gone. They are no longer your concern.

The ship started to make a deafening, high-pitched, whirring noise.

‘No, I have to find them. I won't board your ship without them.'

He moved towards me, his eyes cold, and I staggered back before I turned and ran, my tears drying in the cold breeze that blew against my face.

Bushes slapped my face and scratched my skin while I ran blindly, calling out the children's names. I couldn't leave them behind, alone. I would rather die.

‘Petra, Sammy,' I called into the night. ‘Quickly, we have to join everyone or else we'll be the only ones left here, all alone. The ship is leaving. Streak and Mattie and my mum are waiting!
Please!
'

Patrick was waiting on that ship too. And if I didn't board now I'd lose him forever.

A loud scream came to my far right and my heart stopped when I saw Aticon staring down at a trembling bush. He'd found them.

‘Stop it! Stop whatever you're doing. I'll make them come.'

I am sending them repeated images of their father dying, to teach them a lesson and remind them of what could happen should they disobey me and run away again.

Mentally I cleared my mind so that Aticon could not read my thoughts;
one…two…three…

Tugging my slingshot out of my back pocket, I dug around in the front of my pants until I felt Sapphire's stone, cool and smooth and heavy between my fingers.

Then I threw myself in front of the children like a shield, all the while repeating the numbers one to ten to empty my mind.

Come this instant. The ship is leaving. I have summoned guards who shall have to use force.

One…two…three…

Aticon stood several metres away, his head bent in concentration, as though trying to reach into my mind.

He raised his head as I drew back the sling, aimed, and watched as the stone sped through the air to hit Aticon right between the eyes.

He stepped back, stunned, before falling flat on his back, dust rising all around him.

Two guards appeared just as the ship started to make an urgent churning sound.

They looked at Aticon and then at me, their faces frighteningly impassive, before they bent and lifted Aticon from the ground, effortlessly, one at his head and one at his feet.

I wrapped my arms around each of the children and we crawled to hide behind a bush.

We must leave, earth child. But know that he will come back for you. You will never escape Aticon. You and Aticon are one and the same.

You're wrong!
I mentally screamed back at them.

I peeked through the branches of the scrub and watched as they carried Aticon toward the now flashing ship. A ring of orange dust rose in a great cloud.

More grey guards spilled out of the ship, before speeding the unconscious Aticon up the ramp.

As the ramp eased to a close, the grey guard spoke once more.

This barren land is no place for a female and two young. You will regret this choice. The children will perish.

His words sent a chill through me. I seized both of the children's hands and began running, half dragging them, toward the ship.

‘Wait! Wait for us!'

The churning, whirring sound rose to a deafening shriek. I covered the children's ears with my hands. Dust clouded our eyes and a strong blast of air from the ship knocked us off our feet.

The kids lay on their backs, whimpering quietly as the ground shook, their cheeks wobbling.

I rolled over to take them under each of my arms and together we watched the great ship as it rose from the ground, emerged through the orange dust, and disappeared into the sky, leaving behind an electric blue streak that faded in an instant.

Tears coursed down my face and my heart contracted in pain, as though somebody was standing on it, grinding their heel in.

‘Goodbye Mum, goodbye Patrick,' I whispered to the stars.

The children sat up and rubbed at their eyes.

‘The bad man is gone,' Petra said, almost cheerily.

‘Yes, the bad man is gone,' I said, wondering if he could actually hear my thoughts from so far away, from wherever they were in outer space.

‘What will we do now?' asked Petra, staring off in the direction of Luke's motionless body.

I thought of the exploded barracks and of Desert Downs and even Patrick's house, but not one of these choices appealed to me. It gave me the chills to think that none of the people who once inhabited those places would be there to wander the halls and sit at the empty dinner tables.

Now that the ship was gone, I could see the army trucks all parked in a row.

I told the kids we'd sleep in the back of a truck tonight and then go on an adventure and drive to the coast tomorrow, to see the beach.

If the country was now free of Carriers and we were the only inhabitants, then we may as well start our new lives on the coast where we'd be visible to rescue crews. The planes Aticon had destroyed would not be the last planes, surely.

Warm blood pumped into my heart, giving it new life. There was a possibility that we would be rescued by the UN, just like Dad had always dreamed. Perhaps the kids would have a chance at a normal life. These thoughts gave me a sudden sense of purpose, as though all the death and destruction in the past twenty four hours, and the fact that I'd never see my mother or Patrick again, could somehow be balanced out by the children's survival.

After making sure I chose a non-Carrier truck, I settled the kids down in the back. Luckily there were blankets, only the grey scratchy kind, but better than nothing. I doubled them up for pillows and then tucked them in, using three to keep away the cool chill in the air. The kids fell asleep quickly, clutching each other and their teddies while I went out to bury Luke and Jonny.

It was a difficult task, but I just couldn't bear to leave them out for animals to pick at. With my bare hands and the end of a shotgun, I scraped at the earth and dug out two shallow graves. By the time I was done, my arms were ready to fall off and the easterly horizon had paled, heralding dawn. But the last thing I wanted was for the kids to see their dead father in stark daylight.

Hurriedly, I rolled Jonny in first, then, after taking a break to catch my breath, and sipping water from my canteen, I did the same with Luke.

Because Luke was so much heavier, it took a lot longer, and by the time I had covered them both with sand and laid some pale pink desert flowers on top of their graves, birds had begun to chirrup in nearby trees and the first golden rays of sunlight warmed my face.

I muttered words, pieces of prayers and snatches of passages from favourite books I had read over the years, before I wiped my face and headed back to the truck, my muscles screaming with exhaustion.

After climbing into the cab, I fell asleep, my head resting against the steering wheel, until I woke up some time later, drool dribbling down my chin.

My stomach groaned.

I checked on the children, and seeing as they were still asleep, decided on a quick hunt.

Half an hour later I emerged from the bush with two dead rabbits dangling from my hands by their soft grey ears. I was thinking about Sapphire's stone, and trying to remember exactly where I'd shot Aticon so I could find it, when I froze and fell to the ground at the sound of voices.

From beneath the truck, I could see long, skinny dark legs carefully edging their way along the sand as the small group of people inspected the vehicles.

When they reached the end truck, the one the children were sleeping in, I called out.

‘Hello!'

The legs froze then, before slowly, they bent at the knees.

Several dark faces peered beneath the truck. One of them smiled.

‘Lena!'

‘Sapphire?'

Leaping to my feet, I ran toward the trucks. Sapphire came around and ran towards me, enveloping me in her reed thin arms.

‘You didn't go with them?' I asked, so surprised and excited to see another human face.

Sapphire's family hung back in a group, nodding their heads toward me, but not approaching.

I nodded my head back.

‘My grandfather led us away and hid us good. Remember, he knew they were coming. What about you?'

I told her what had happened and by the time I finished she was shaking her head.

‘Now you're all alone without your mum,' she said with sad, shining eyes, bringing a lump to my throat.

‘No,' I said smiling through my tears. ‘I've got the kids and now I've got you and your family. We can travel to the coast together.'

Sapphire smiled, her lips wobbling while she rubbed at her eyes.

‘Grandfather wants to go east. He thinks the coast will be full of dead bodies and bad luck.'

Panic squeezed my heart tight.

‘When are you leaving?' I held the rabbits up. ‘Want to share lunch? Your family can eat, too.' I looked back at where they'd been standing and they were gone.

A bird called. It was the same call from the waterhole. Just the sound of it crushed my heart.

‘No, don't go, Sapphire.'

She took my hand in her own and left something smooth and shiny in my palm. I knew by touch it was the sapphire I'd shot Aticon with.

‘I found it in the grass over there,' she said with a flick of her head. ‘We're leaving now. I have to go, Lena.' Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. ‘Maybe one day I'll see you again.'

I nodded and took her hand in mine, giving it a squeeze. ‘If the coast is no good we'll come east.'

She squeezed my hand before releasing me, our fingers trailing until our hands broke apart.

For the rest of the morning, while the kids slept, I practised driving — in another truck — backward, forward, in circles and straight lines until it ran out of fuel and I was reasonably skilled, enough to get us to the coast anyway.

When the kids woke up, we said some words and laid fresh flowers on Luke and Jonny's graves, before climbing into the cab of the truck.

I turned the key and engine roared into life. The kids, who could barely see over the dashboard, grinned up at me.

‘Are we going to have a swim with the fishies?' asked Petra. When I nodded, Sammy laughed and hugged Peter to his chest, his little eyes staring over the dashboard with hope. I was amazed at the children's ability to focus on the now — on the fact that we were driving to an unknown destination with the promise of a new life by the sea, instead of thinking about the horrors of last night, which was something I could not stop doing.

There was Patrick's stricken face and the betrayal in his eyes, Jonny's shattered skull and Luke's glassy, vacant eyes, and the fact that I didn't get to say goodbye to Mum. Then there were the Aticonans. I couldn't shake the creepy, wormy feeling from having my brain invaded by the grey guards, and especially Aticon himself.

But the children's improved mood, their unbridled enthusiasm and their endless questions about the ocean and the creatures that lived in it, was infectious, and soon I was able to push the past twenty four hours into the darkest corner of my memory bank and focus instead on what lay ahead.

But as we passed Patrick's house a short time later, its tin roof peeking through the trees, stone cold melancholy hit me hard, causing my eyes to prickle with tears, skewing my vision enough to make me pump the brakes.

I leant my head against the steering wheel until somebody tugged on my shirtsleeve.

‘Can the doggy come too?' asked Petra over the roar of the idling truck.

‘What doggy?' I asked, lifting my head.

‘That one,' said Petra, pointing to the orange ball of fur curled up on the side of the track.

In a blink I was out of the cab and on the ground.

‘Emma?'

Emma eased herself onto her three legs, wobbled then fell onto her rump again.

‘It's okay, girl,' I crooned into her ear as I scooped her up into my arms. ‘You've got plenty of time to learn how to walk again.'

I tucked her in a blanket at the back of the truck, right near the cab so that she was visible to me and the kids.

Next I circled the truck and called out in all directions for Charlotte. It wasn't until my voice died in my throat half an hour later that I realised she wouldn't be coming with me. That she had probably died or run off to hide somewhere.

We hit the road again and after following a large, bumpy track for several hours, we reached a sealed road, and marvelled how the truck rolled smoothly along it, giving our bottoms a break from all the jumping and jarring. Emma hardly moved in the back, the long journey lulling her to sleep.

When darkness closed in we ate the rabbits that I'd cooked over a fire before we had departed, and then slept locked up in the cab instead of the open back, Emma in my arms and Petra and Sammy leaning against each other. Now that I knew Sapphire and her family had escaped the Aticonans, there was the possibility that others were still about, and who knew if they were dangerous or not.