Days Like This (14 page)

‘Here,’ Ingie said, at last.

‘No, it’s further,’ Kieran said, looking around distractedly. ‘Wait, you’re right. Okay. Are we sure no one’s trailing us?’

Ingie and Kieran checked behind them and then, satisfied, began to scrabble at a pile of brick and metal scraps. Lily looked on in confusion. The rubble had been piled haphazardly against the side of what looked like a broken-down shed. An edge of it’s rusted tin roof flapped in the hot wind. Thick red dust caked the outside walls and there were no windows. Within minutes, Kieran and Ingie had opened a small hole in the rubble.

‘Get in. Come on,’ Kieran said, pushing Lily through the jagged opening. He followed, and then Ingie, who immediately grabbed at scattered bricks and rubble, jamming the bits in to seal the hole behind them. They stood in near darkness with only the sound of the partially dislodged roof tapping in the wind. There was nothing inside except rubble and rubbish.

‘Sit.’ Kieran said, giving Lily a shove. She felt herself starting to panic as Kieran pushed her right down on her back on the floor and held her there. Ingie handed him an odd, long-handled implement. Someone had gone to the trouble of crudely flattening it’s ends and covering them with some kind of material.

Lily tried to twist away, but Kieran restrained her, sharply increasing the pressure to her shoulders. An image of him holding a bloodied knife came into Lily’s head.

‘What are you doing?’ she demanded.

‘Stay still and don’t move,’ Ingie said. She held out the implement to Kieran.

‘You do it,’ she said.

Hastily, Kieran positioned the implement on the floor next to Lily. He pulled her bracelet arm roughly away from her body, hooked the head of the tool under her bracelet and stepped back.

‘No!’ Lily screamed.

Ingie moved away and flattened herself against the wall of the shed.

‘Don’t move, cover your eyes and turn your head away,’ Kieran said. ‘Lean back as far as you can go. Just trust us, Lily.
Don’t move!
’ Kieran turned sideways.

Lily covered her eyes, but not completely. She needed to see what they were doing. Holding a hand over his eyes, Kieran lifted a foot and stamped as hard as he could on the flat lever end of the implement. The other end, some kind of metal cutter, bit down into the bracelet. There was a shocking flash of light that knocked Lily halfway across the floor of the shed. Shapes floated in front of her eyes and it was a second or two before she became aware of an intense pain in her hand. She tried to look at it, but her vision was still blurry, like she was looking through flaming gauze.

‘I can’t see,’ she gasped.

‘You shouldn’t have looked,’ Kieran said. ‘I told you not to,’ he muttered, shaking his head.

‘Yeah, but give her a break,’ Ingie said. ‘it’s hard when you have no idea what’s happening to you.’

‘The blindness is only temporary,’ Kieran said, more gently. ‘At least the bracelet’s off now.’

‘Yup, can’t hurt you anymore,’ Ingie said.

Lily felt something cool pressed to her eyes. ‘Hold onto this, give yourself time,’ Kieran said. He reached behind him. ‘And have some water.’

Lily drained the water from the bottle he gave her and pressed the moist cloth against her eyes. The inside of her eyelids shone back. She couldn’t escape the terrible glare.

Lily removed the cloth after a few minutes and squinted down at her arm. She lifted her hand up close to her eyes and saw that it was covered with blood.

‘Lie down and put the cloth back over your eyes,’ Kieran said. ‘Sorry about that. We had to get the bracelet off quickly. There was no time for discussion.’

‘What happened?’ Her voice trembled and she pulled the cloth away again.

‘You looked when you shouldn’t have. When we cut the bracelets, they explode. You can’t stop it, you just have to try and limit the damage. If you tried to do it yourself, it’s most likely you’d be blinded and probably electrocuted as well.’

Lily’s eyes were starting to return to normal.

‘Thank you,’ Lily said, looking at Kieran.

Kieran gave her a half-smile. He had beautiful eyes. Lily suddenly wanted him to smile at her again, properly.

‘What is this place?’ Lily said.

‘It’s a storage shed. We keep the cutter here for people like you. We have to stash it near the Wall because the bracelets have to come off as soon as we get over. Sometimes we’re not quick enough,’ he said.

Lily shuddered. ‘Thank you for helping me,’ she said.

Kieran pulled a small tin first-aid kit from behind a pile of rubble and quickly cleaned and bandaged her wrist.

When he’d finished Ingie flipped the box closed, jammed it and the cutter into the corner and piled the planks over them.

‘Why didn’t they activate the bracelet?’ Lily said.

Kieran shrugged. ‘Who knows? They’re totally unpredictable. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. Maybe they’re going to try and track you. They probably would have activated it otherwise. They can do it from any distance.’ Kieran spoke matter-of-factly.

‘It would have tightened and cut off your hand,’ he said. ‘We often can’t get people back here in time after that happens. They bleed to death. If they’re lucky they lose only their hand.’ He shrugged. ‘it’s pretty grim.’

‘Like that boy, Taddy?’ Lily said.

‘Taddy was lucky he only lost a hand,’ Ingie said. ‘I’m not sure how lucky you are, though. If they didn’t activate the bracelet, maybe it’s because they want you back for more draining. That’s the only explanation I can think of. Still, there’s no point worrying about it now. We have to get going, pronto.’

‘Where to?’ Lily said.

‘A safe place,’ Kieran said shortly. ‘Don’t talk, walk.’

They hustled Lily outside again, shored up the hole and set off.

The world beyond the Wall was dusty brown, a land in deepest drought. Bushes with thorny leaves bent under the weight of the heat. Dead eucalypts dotted the landscape.

Lily thought they’d been walking for more than an hour, maybe two, when they left the rubble zone and started threading their way through smashed-up houses. As far as she could see, no one was following.

Eventually, they reached an area where most of the houses were whole, but still vacant. Lily wondered where all the people had gone.

The air was like someone had blowtorched it. Lily had no hat and the white facility gown gave her no real protection from the relentless sun. The back of her head stung and her skin itched where the blood had dried. Her wrist was bleeding through the bandage. It took all her willpower to stay upright.

She reminded herself that Kieran and Ingie were putting themselves at risk to help her, so the least she could do was keep quiet and keep going. She lost all track of time, and the sun seemed to intensify rather than wane as the day wore on. Lily’s legs threatened to give way and getting air into her straining lungs was a major achievement. Kieran and Ingie’s breathing was also laboured. The stench of sweat filled the air.

They were silent, apart from the occasional word of encouragement. Kieran and Ingie looked behind them constantly. Lily wanted to believe that this time she had escaped for good. Now she had to find Daniel and Alice. She kept this thought in her head, repeating it as she put one bleeding foot in front of the next. Kieran and Ingie were red and filthy. Lily could only imagine what she looked like.

They stopped occasionally, sheltering briefly in broken-down buildings or gullies, before summoning the energy to continue.

‘How long have we been walking?’ Lily asked.

‘Probably about three or four hours,’ Ingie said.

The houses had eventually petered out to just a few tumbledown wrecks. Now the landscape was littered with odd pieces of rusted equipment, cars with no tyres, and bits of sagging fences and ruptured asphalt. Lily started to wonder if they would ever reach shelter.

The sun finally began to slide down the sky ahead of them, its colour deepening to ruby. Lily thought they must be moving more or less westwards. The unease radiating off her two rescuers unsettled Lily, but she didn’t want to waste energy with more questions. Scraps of clouds filled the sky, their tops black, their undersides red and gold.

They all heard the vehicles at the same time. Kieran and Ingie pulled Lily down behind a tractor that had rolled into a ditch. ‘Stay there,’ Ingie said, as Kieran peered around the tractor’s metal body.

‘An armoured car,’ he said. ‘It’s heading north-west.’

‘If they change course they’ll cut us off,’ Ingie said anxiously. ‘Should we wait till nightfall?’

‘No point,’ Kieran said. ‘They’ll track us with night vision.’ He jerked his head at Lily’s wrist. ‘Lily needs medical attention and we all need water. And if one of us breaks an ankle in the dark, we’re stuffed.’

Ingie nodded. ‘Okay.’

Lily pulled herself up to look. The armoured car was closer than she’d expected. She ducked down again, but not before noting it was one of the bug-like Blacktrooper vehicles. it’s thick tyres allowing it to go straight over the top of obstacles.

‘They’re stopping,’ Kieran said. ‘Bloody hell. Okay. If we head south-west and then approach the cave from the east, we’ll avoid them,’ he instructed.

The cave
? Lily thought, but figured she would find out more soon enough.

Kieran looked behind them. The last of the light was creeping across the eastern sky.

‘We’d better go,’ Ingie said. She sounded dubious.

Lily took another look. ‘They’re getting out of the car,’ she whispered. ‘They’re spreading out.’

Two Blacktroopers were heading in their direction, another two moved away from them and two more stood by the vehicle.

‘Stay low,’ Kieran said. ‘We’re going to have to crawl and use whatever’s between them and us for protection.’ He grabbed handfuls of the thick dirt that carpeted the gully and started rubbing it on his face and arms.

‘You too,’ he said to Lily.

‘Let’s go,’ Kieran whispered once they’d covered themselves with dirt. ‘We head for that car, okay? Between the clump of scrub and that rocky outcrop. Keep your head down, stop when I stop. Lily, you go between me and Ingie.’ Kieran slipped his knife out of his belt. Lily saw Ingie was already holding hers.

‘I should have something, too,’ Lily said.

Kieran paused and looked at Ingie, who shrugged. ‘Take this then.’ He unhooked the gun from his belt. ‘Don’t use it unless you have to, but if you do need it, don’t hesitate. Pull back the hammer, aim and shoot to kill. Got it?’

Lily nodded unsteadily.

The Blacktroopers who were heading their way had stopped and one of them was talking into a two-way radio. Lily couldn’t hear anything specific, only a low rumble. Kieran set off, using his elbows to pull himself forward. Lily copied him, grinding along awkwardly on her stomach. Sharp stones and spiny shrubs cut into her. She could hear Ingie close behind. Lily’s arm throbbed and her headache had returned. Splashes of light danced across her vision.

Don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop
. She told herself.

The gun felt heavy but comforting in her palm. She grasped it by it’s short barrel, her finger nowhere near the trigger. Down here in the dirt, between the spinifex, rocks and rubble, she could no longer see the troopers. She could only hear the faint static of their radio.

‘Keep moving,’ Ingie hissed. Lily looked up and realised she had fallen way behind Kieran who had already reached the car. She sped up.

They crouched in the paltry shelter of the car. The two Blacktroopers closest to them were no longer using the radio. They spoke to each other and then one of them turned and jogged back towards the vehicle. The remaining trooper started walking purposefully towards them.

‘Down!’ Ingie said. They flattened themselves against the vehicle. Rust had eaten holes in the doors and the glass had long ago popped out of the windows.

‘Don’t use that unless you have to,’ Kieran said, pointing to the gun. ‘Too noisy.’

Lily nodded.

The Blacktrooper was so close they could hear the crunch of his boots. He coughed hoarsely and spat in the grass. Then he walked around behind the car, beginning to unzip his fly.

Ingie leaped at him. Lily couldn’t believe how fast she moved. Taken by surprise, the trooper let out a shocked snarl. Kieran sprang up too, lashing a length of cloth around the man’s mouth. The trooper went down. Blood gushed from his throat, but he was a huge man and he was fighting back, scrabbling for his gun. Kieran and Ingie were on top of him, Kieran pressing his knee into the man’s face, desperate to stop him from shouting out. The trooper punched and kicked, rolling sideways, out from behind the car. If anyone from the armoured vehicle was looking in their direction, the struggle would be clearly visible. The trooper’s helmet slipped and Lily could see the veins straining behind his ear. He wrenched his arm free and pulled away the gag Kieran had jammed in his mouth. Lily acted instinctively. She swung her arm back and hit the trooper as hard as she could on his exposed skull with the handle of the gun. He stopped struggling. Ingie’s blade flashed and he lay still.

‘Quick,’ Ingie said, wiping her knife. She and Kieran dragged the trooper back behind the car. ‘We’ve got to go. They’ll come looking for him.’

Sickened, Lily avoided looking at the dead Blacktrooper. She looked instead towards the armoured vehicle. Only two of the troopers were visible, standing with their backs to Lily, but she knew it was a temporary reprieve.

Kieran and Ingie took off, running crouched over. Lily followed them. She saw that they were trying to keep the bulk of the car between them and the Blacktroopers. She fumbled and dropped the gun and had to scuttle back to retrieve it, cursing herself for losing valuable time.

Kieran and Ingie were heading for a scrubby stand of trees. It was poor cover but better than nothing. They reached the trees and threw themselves down, lying flat and peering back the way they had come. From here, the dusty tree trunks partially obscured their view of the troopers. One of them had moved to the back of the armoured car; the other was turning towards Kieran, Lily and Ingie.