Days Like This (22 page)

‘Greta.’ Lily touched her shoulder, but the girl flinched so Lily took her hand away quickly. ‘Can you describe where the place is?’

‘Yes. When I got pregnant, after they brought me home, I still had to go back to that place for examinations. So I know exactly where it is.’

She was suddenly animated, as if a tiny valve had flicked open and who knew what waited to bubble and steam forth.

‘Will you show me? Will you come back over the Wall and take me there?’ Lily asked.

Greta looked away from Lily, staring again at the children.

‘Greta?’

‘You don’t even know she’s there.’

‘I have the strongest feeling she is. Please.’

‘Do I have to?’

‘No, but will you? Maybe we can get my sister out, Greta.’

Greta sighed, a giant, resigned intake of breath. ‘Okay.’

‘Okay?’ Lily wondered if she’d heard Greta correctly.

Greta shrugged slightly and nodded. ‘That’s what I said.’

Before Lily could thank her, an awful screaming started up somewhere in the cavern. Greta jumped up, her hands in front of her as if to ward off an attacker. A low moaning came from the back of Greta’s throat, almost a growl. Lily wasn’t sure what scared her most – this inhuman noise coming from Greta or the horrible howling, which had set off a cacophony of echoes and panicked yelling around the cavern.

Lily sprang up, flinging her arms around Greta. Delicate bones shifted under Greta’s thin top and Lily held her tighter, perhaps hurting the girl, but she had to stop the moaning. Greta broke free and ran off towards the screaming, leaving Lily shaking.

Everyone nearby froze, looking towards the sound, before springing into action. Most stumbled towards the noise while parents and carers rushed around gathering the children, herding them into an alcove near the entrance stairway. Lily ran towards the noise.

‘What is it?’ a woman next to Lily asked.

Suddenly, the voices fell into silence.

‘It’s Nerita,’ someone said, and the voices started up again, layering upon one another until they became a wail, ‘Nerita!’

Over the heads of people in front of her, Lily could see that quite a young man was bent over, sobbing. He held a young woman in his arms. Blood ran in a fine line from the edge of the woman’s mouth. She had no other obvious marks that Lily could see, but Lily knew without a doubt that the woman was dead.

The man raised his head, tears streaming. ‘That girl’s got away. She killed Nerita. She’s dead, isn’t she? Someone help her, please,’ he called desperately.

Mary pushed through the crowd and placed her hands on Nerita.

‘I’m so sorry. Sandro, she’s gone,’ Mary said, putting her arms around the man.

Still clinging to Nerita, he buried his face in Mary’s shoulder. When he shifted slightly away from the dead girl, Lily saw that she had been stabbed in the stomach and the entire front of her shirt was soaked in blood.

Lily felt her knees giving way. Kieran arrived from nowhere, putting his arms around her waist to support her.

‘Take some deep breaths,’ he said. ‘it’s all right.’

‘It isn’t all right,’ Lily said. ‘Someone’s been killed. Was it that woman Chrissie who did it? The spy?’

‘Yes,’ Kieran said. He looked at her as if making up his mind. ‘We’re going after her right now You look fit enough. Are you coming?’

‘Definitely. And after we’ve found her, we’ll go for Daniel and Alice, right?’ Lily said quickly.

‘Yes. When we’ve found her we’ll look for your brother and sister, I promise. But Chrissie has to be our first priority. If we don’t get her, this whole community will be stuffed because she’ll lead them back to us. She can’t be allowed to get back over the Wall.’

Lily looked at Sandro, now surrounded by people trying to give him comfort.

‘Let’s go,’ she said.

‘OK, get what you need – waterOK, get what you need – water’s important, s important, something to cover your head, sunglasses if you can find them. Some food. Ask Rosemary to give you a hand. We’ll be at the entrance in about twenty minutes.’ As quickly as he’d arrived, he slipped away.

‘You should go,’ Rosemary said, surprising Lily, who’d thought she might have an argument on her hands. ‘Bring that woman back or …’

‘Or what?’ Lily said.

‘Don’t worry. Just follow Kieran’s lead, you can rely on him completely. He’s trustworthy.’

Unlike Luca
, Lily thought.

Rosemary had given Lily a small backpack as well as some nuts, dried fruit and a water bottle. Lily was jamming it all into the pack, attaching the water bottle to the outside, when Rosemary stood and put her hands on Lily’s shoulders.

‘I’m sorry about our disagreement yesterday,’ Rosemary said. ‘I was wrong. I should have been honest with you. We’ll talk more when you return. Deal?’

‘Deal,’ Lily said. ‘And I’m sorry, too, for what I said.’

Lily was relieved that they had moved towards clearing the air. ‘Who else will be going today?’ she asked Rosemary.

Rosemary shrugged. ‘There’s a core group. Kieran, obviously, he’s a natural leader.’ She hesitated. ‘Probably Luca, but with his head full of fury, he’s not the ideal candidate. Ingie, Merrick, maybe Sal and Taddy. Now, let me bandage those feet.’

Lily shook her head. ‘It’ll make the shoes too tight. I’ll be okay,’ she said.

‘Well, go on then, or you’ll miss them. Don’t get caught. Please,’ Rosemary said.

It was already hot, even in the small entrance to the main cave. Lily jammed a cap on her head and the sunglasses Rosemary had thrust at her. They slid down her nose so she had to keep pushing them back up with her finger. Kieran was there already, with Ingie and another tall, strong-looking boy. They nodded at Lily and Kieran introduced her to the boy, whose name was Shah.

‘Oh, hell, we can’t escape you, can we?’ It was Sal. Luca was with her.

‘For heaven’s sake, Sal, will you shut up?’ Kieran said.

Even with all her bravado, Sal recoiled slightly.

‘Well, I’m still not convinced that she and Chrissie aren’t in this together,’ Sal said defensively.

Before Kieran could speak, Lily stepped up to the taller girl and grabbed one of her arms, digging in her fingers. ‘Give it a rest, all right. Enough is enough,’ Lily said.

She half expected Sal to laugh. Instead she just snorted and snatched away her arm as if Lily had burned her. Kieran smiled and winked at Lily. Luca shook his head in disgust, though it was unclear what exactly disgusted him.

Greta arrived and Kieran gave her a big hug. ‘Thanks for coming,’ he said.

‘Yes, thanks, Greta,’ Lily added softly.

‘Is there anyone else? Where are Merrick, Petra and Taddy?’ Ingie said.

‘They’ve already gone out with the two regular parties,’ Kieran said. ‘One lot stuffing up the electricity and the other lot doing food. Ric’s with them as well. So it’s just us.’

A shiver went through Lily’s body. This was it.

‘Here’s the plan,’ Kieran said. ‘We track down Chrissie and deal with her. Then we head for the Wall. We’re going to Lily’s house to see if her sister Alice is there. If she is, we take her with us. If she isn’t, we’ll reassess. Then we go to the drainage facility where Lily was. We find the boy named Daniel and see if it’s Lily’s brother. Agreed?’

Everyone nodded.

‘Have you got your weapons?’ he asked.

They all nodded again, except Lily.

‘I need something,’ she said.

‘Here.’ Kieran handed her a short metal pipe. ‘Keep this handy. You’ll probably need it at the facility,’ he said.

She slipped it into her pack.

‘Okay then, what are we waiting for? Let’s move,’ Luca said.

Kieran went out through the screening vegetation and into the gully. Ingie, Greta and Shah were close behind, moving quickly. Lily followed, almost tripping over herself, reluctant to be left behind or, worse, to be stranded with Luca and Sal.

They made their way up the gully. When they reached level ground, Kieran held up his hand. They crouched, listening, but there were no unusual sounds so they moved out of the gully and into the sun, which struck them like a ball of flame. Kieran ran like a deer, all sinew and muscle, slightly bent over, staring at the ground.

‘Is he tracking?’ Lily called to Ingie, trying to curb her puffing.

‘Yes, he’s brilliant at it. It’s easier to keep up if you don’t talk,’ Ingie said.

‘Yes, keep quiet,’ Shah added bluntly.

It wasn’t long before Lily’s lungs were burning. She was still angry with Sal. If she kept insisting Lily was a traitor, people would start believing it. Lily knew she would have to keep confronting Sal, and never ever wimp out. She had to prove herself and earn the group’s trust.

Peppery dust billowed up. Lily thought that maybe she should have worn jeans instead of shorts, but at least there was air on her skin.

Lily was glad of the hat and sunglasses. They were ill-fitting, but better than nothing. Even through the smoky lenses of the glasses, the weight of the sun hung heavy in the sky.

Lily scanned the ground as they ran. There was no sign of any other living thing, not in this heat. There wasn’t even an ant or a beetle, and the sky was free of clouds and birds. This was a dead land.

Still
, Lily thought,
it’s far more alive than the claustrophobic, sterile environment inside the Wall
.

Every step closer to the Wall squeezed her heart. The last thing she wanted was to be back inside that world, but she couldn’t just leave Daniel and Alice. She imagined that each step took her closer to their freedom. She wouldn’t think about failure, or about the possibility that her brother and sister might be dead.

Ahead was a small clump of red rocks surrounded by sickly bush and a broken strip of fence. Lily saw that Kieran had stopped and was casting around on the ground. Now that the thud of their feet had quieted, there was only hot silence punctuated by the crackles and pops of baking earth.

They’d been running alongside what once must have been a large road, possibly a freeway, but the land had crept in and bunched up the tar, invading it with dusty rivers of earth and weeds. It would be fatal to the ankles to try to run on that broken surface, better to make their way through stunted bushes and rocky ground.

‘I lost her tracks for a bit, but here they are again,’ Kieran said from the other side of the outcrop, dragging in breaths as he spoke. ‘She’s not trying to be evasive; she’s just following the road. Look.’

He pointed down. Ingie bent over, so did the others, but all Lily could see was scorched earth and dust.

‘What do you see?’ Lily said.

‘Blood,’ Kieran said shortly. ‘She’s injured.’

He took off again, faster than before. Lily, struggling to disentangle her water bottle, was the last to move. The others ran in a determined clump, drawing away from her. She should have let Rosemary bandage her feet. They were already bleeding.

Lily laboured along, trying hard to catch up. Her bag and water bottle bumped against her back and her sunglasses fell off. She couldn’t waste time picking them up so she jammed her cap further down over her eyes and pressed on. Sweat ran into her eyes and streamed down her neck and back.

How far was the Wall? There was nothing on the horizon, just the slight curve of the land with the odd bruised-looking tree and shattered building. Every so often there was another ragged clump of rusted farm equipment. All trace of the clouds that had brought the recent rain had vanished and the iridescent blue arched from one side of the sky to the other.

‘Up ahead!’ someone cried out. Lily picked up her pace. The group had come to a sudden halt, surrounding something that thrashed on the ground.

Adrenalin gave Lily extra speed, blunting the pain, and she came up on them in a rush. On the ground was the woman, Chrissie, pinned there by Luca, who had his knee pressed into her sternum. Chrissie screwed up her face and yelled in pain.

‘Shut up,’ Luca said. ‘You killed Nerita and now we’re going to kill you.’

She was surprisingly strong, managing to buck and lash out, despite Luca’s size.

Lily looked around at the others. They stood staring, dragging in big hoarse breaths. ‘Kill her?’ Lily said.

‘Well, duh,’ Sal said. ‘What else would you suggest? She’ll only go back and give us up otherwise.’

‘I won’t, I won’t, I promise. Just let me go and I’ll say nothing at all,’ Chrissie pleaded. A cut on her heel bled profusely into the filth that caked her bare feet.

She freed one hand and lashed out at Luca, catching his face with her nails. He grunted, shifting slightly. Seizing her chance, Chrissie dislodged him, squirming out from under his knee and reaching into her pocket.

Kieran threw himself down beside the girl, catching her wrist as her hand came out of her pocket. She held a small metal knife. The blade flashed, but Kieran held on and twisted so she couldn’t move.

‘She must have used this on Nerita. Who searched her, for God’s sake? Kieran said.

With a supple movement, he disarmed her, retracted the blade and shoved the knife into his own pocket. Then he let her go and pushed himself upright.

‘Well, get on with it,’ Sal said, holding out her knife to Luca.