Should Have Killed The Kid (31 page)

The movement toppled the jars that he'd forgotten were perched on his lap. Dave felt his heart skip a beat as they thudded to the ground. He winced and awkwardly froze in position. Beside him, Marge spat, 'Watch what you're fucking doing!' Her sharp tone only led to more panic in Dave.

Bomb.
The word that Marge had written on the jar's label filled his mind.

After a few more seconds didn't bring detonation, he relaxed enough to reach down and scoop up the jars again.

'Fuck, it's not like we can make another one,' Marge continued after she, too, paused for a nervous few seconds.

'Sorry.' Dave wilted beneath her glare until Marge relented and turned her attention to the glow over the horizon instead. She chewed at her lip as she leant forward, pushing her face to the glass.

Dave, grateful that she was distracted, followed suit, starting as he saw that the sky above had darkened while he'd slept and that now the stars were out. If the seeping glow over the horizon hadn't been present, Dave guessed they would have been doused in darkness.

'What is it?' Dave asked but Marge didn't answer, her eyes still fixed on the glow.

Dave stared forward again and felt his unease grow further as he realised it wasn't just the glow that lit the way ahead.

'Should the headlights really be on?' he asked, not liking how his voice came out all jittery.

Marge finally turned and looked at him again.

'Probably not, but what the fuck else should I be doing? Be a bit dim without them. Hasn't seemed to bother them yet.'

'You mean that you just put them on without knowing what would happen?'

'What the fuck was I meant to do?' Marge spat. She shook her head and returned her eyes to the glow. 'Fuck, you can whine. Would it make you feel any better if I mentioned that I don't think it really matters anyway, I think they're starting to get wise to our caper?'

'What?!'

'Shit, what did you think would happen? There's only so long we can move a mountain among folk before they might figure out something's amiss.'

'But you said...'

'Stop simplifying things. And don't panic. We should be fine so long as we keep moving. Should be.'

'I don't know. I think...' Dave petered out as he realised that he really didn't know what he thought.

It didn't help matters that at that exact moment Dave heard, above the engine, the familiar sound of plink, plink, plink tapping from above.

He looked up but the sound vanished almost as soon as it arrived.

When he looked across to Marge she waved her hand to dismiss it.

'That's been happening for awhile now. I think they're still trying to suss things out. Don't stress yet. They're just realising that something is slightly amiss. That...' She pointed out the window toward the glow, '...that, on the other hand, is a bit concerning.'

Dave swallowed as the babble of voices bubbling away at the base of his skull nearly boiled over and came spilling out.

He managed to catch it at the last second though and was pleasantly surprised with how calm he kept his voice.

'Where are we?'

'Well it's a little hard to tell. You were out for a good while. I'm surprised you can really sleep at the moment but, bah, must be catching.' Marge jutted a finger back and Dave let out a nervous laugh when he saw Will sprawled out and snoring on the back seat. He didn't know why. Nothing about the situation really struck him as funny. 'What's got me a little concerned is that by now we must be getting pretty close to Mildura. That glow there... It's got me a little worried. Not many places near here that we can cross the river.'

'Oh...' Dave said and then, because he couldn't think of anything else to say, added, 'Did you want me to drive?'

It was such an innocuous and pathetic question given the situation – not to mention ridiculous: what, they were just going to pull over and swap? – that Dave couldn't help unleashing another nervous giggle.

It lingered a bit longer than it probably should have and Dave wondered if maybe it was further evidence that he was finally snapping.
Voices in head? Check! Hysterical laughter? Check!

'Yeah and what's so fucking funny?' Marge barked. Her demeanour abruptly shifted again and killed Dave's giggles in their tracks.

Silence settled once more as they crested the hill.

The abrupt glare almost blinded Dave.

'Fuck it,' Marge hissed next to him and once again the Volvo ground to a halt.

A city stretched out ahead of them. Dave assumed it was Mildura. If Marge hadn't mentioned they were nearby it probably would have been impossible to tell.

The entire thing burned. Flames leapt high into the night sky, the perspective making it appear as though they were attempting to swallow the moon. But even without the fire, it had already been levelled. Complete and utter destruction that made what the shadows did to Melbourne seem kind of half-arsed. Looking around, Dave didn't recognise anything from his last drive through. Although he hadn't paid
that
much attention, he did have memories of some striking art deco buildings lining the streets as he'd headed for the bridge to New South Wales; of palm trees that had run the length of the main strip; houses leading up to the CBD that had seemed nice and spaced, compared to the cramped streets of Brunswick.

Now, though, there was nothing. Just mounds of burning rubble and collapsed buildings. Shadows, seemingly unaffected by the flames, flittered in and out of the mess. From their perch, it seemed as though the destruction spread out forever. Not only taking out the centre of Mildura itself but fanning out to engulf all the suburbs.

All of it was gone. For a second, Dave's mind shut down trying to process what he saw.

When he came back they were underway again, edging forward toward the burning city, the temperature in the car already rising. Marge's jaw worked, and the clacking of false teeth filled the air as they moved forward. Mixed with the tapping of the shadows on the shield, it made Dave's nerves jangle but he didn't dare ask the old lady to stop.

As they approached, he saw that the damage wasn’t quite as bad as it appeared from on top of the hill. The destruction was still total but at least the rubble wasn’t the continuous wall of flame it had at first seemed to be. As they drew nearer, paths through the remains of the city became clear and Marge visibly relaxed behind the wheel. Dave didn’t know why. Even if there was a way through it didn’t seem particularly inviting. The temperature inside the car rose with every metre they travelled. By the time they reached the first burning outskirts, Dave’s perspiration had already soaked through his shirt.

He glanced back at Will and was glad to see the boy still snoring away.

He turned forward and held his breath as the Volvo eased between the first fires.

After a minute of driving Marge reached over and flipped the headlights off but their absence didn’t hamper visibility. The flames provided plenty of illumination to see more than Dave ever wanted to. And the rubble and mess that peppered the road ensured that Marge had to slow to a speed that gave him ample time to take in his surroundings.

He tried his best to only face forward but images seeped in anyway, glimpsed out of the corner of an eye.

The shadows were thinner on the ground as they moved deeper into the carcass of Mildura and the shattered remains of houses gave way to what Dave gleaned from the occasional sign amid the rubble had previously been a strip of hotels. But they were still there, flitting to and fro. The glinting that rippled their surface highlighted by reflected flames. As bad as they were, they weren't the worst thing that Dave glimpsed from the corner of his eye.

Clearly Mildura had still been pretty full when the shadows hit. Dave wasn't surprised by that. This close to Hent, there couldn't have been much warning. But it did make for some horrific images as they passed. The clearer areas left Dave in no doubt what made up the pulped and congealed mess that lined the side streets. It was like the strip at the airport, multiplied over and over and over and never getting any easier to comprehend. It took him a long time to connect that the coating on the streets might be playing a role in the strength of the surrounding flames. Once he did, however, he felt like vomiting. Especially when a faint odour, not unlike roasting pork reached his nostrils.

Even though it had been pouring rain on his one and only visit, Dave had always associated Mildura with sunshine. But no more. Looking at his current surroundings he found it difficult to believe that the sun would ever rise again.

Not that you would deserve to see it even if it did...
It's was Naomi's voice that spoke in his head, finally rising free of the tangle of voices that wrestled at the base of his skull.

Dave managed to keep his reaction down to a sharp intake of breath. He braced himself for a further onslaught but Naomi seemed satisfied with the one salvo and returned to join the babble.

Dave looked down and studied the jars as Marge eased them through a couple more turns then almost clipped a mammoth chunk of brick work that obscured most of the road. He didn't know if it was just his body heat but he could swear that the jars were heating up in his hands. He tried his best not to think of the effect that might have on the blood labeled:
bomb.

It ate away at him while they navigated a cracked and half uprooted roundabout. The surrounding rubble pressed in closer and closer the further in they travelled but Dave barely noticed. He just kept testing the glass of the jar, uncertain whether or not it warmed; wondering whether or not he should mention it to Marge; whether or not they were about to be blown sky high...

That would be a suitably pathetic death…
This time it was Monty's voice that wriggled free of the pack, the mocking tone knifing into Dave's brain. Fortunately Dave was provided with a distraction before any others could emerge and join the taunting.

A few turns later, Marge ground to a halt next to the distinctive remains of what had once been a McDonald's.

When she turned to him and he saw the look on her sweat-soaked face though, any relief he felt at the distraction faded fast.

'We have to walk,' she said and Dave felt like bursting into tears.

25.

'What?'

A beat of silence passed as Dave looked at Marge in disbelief.

'What?' he asked again while she ignored him and busied herself killing the ignition.

'I can't drive through this.' Marge pointed out the front window. 'We'll have to walk.'

'But...' Dave's argument petered out when he actually looked up and saw what stretched out before them. Suddenly the temperature of the jars in his hands seemed like a ridiculous concern. Rubble soared up on all sides and the tarmac road ahead looked like it had been mulched. Criss-crossed power lines, street lights and signs created a spider web that bobbed alarmingly above the entire mess, threatening to collapse at any second.

There was clearly no way to get a car past. Dave wasn't even sure they'd be able to navigate it on foot. He glanced back the way they'd come but it seemed like the flames now burned even fiercer in that direction. Like they'd looped around in a net to entrap them.

Don't be so paranoid,
he thought and swallowed a few times before continuing. He was forced to pause twice when his voice went all crackly and panicky once more.

'We can't... there's no way you... we can't go out there.'

'Well, unless you feel like swimming then we don't have much of a choice.' Marge scanned the rear-view mirror. Dave felt a brief surge of panic until he realised that she was just looking for Will. 'The bridge is that way.' She pointed off toward the mess that blocked the road ahead. 'Eighth Street back there was even worse if you didn't notice it. We could double back then try and hook around to San Mateo but really I don't think it's going to get any better. We'd have to walk sooner or later, so why waste the time.'

'But–'

'Will... Will.' Marge cut off Dave's mumbling. 'Come on, Will we need to get out of the car.'

Dave looked back to see Will sleepily rub at his eyes then look in confusion when they came away sweaty

'Why?' the kid asked while he tugged at his t-shirt, slurping it free of his chest.

'Exactly...' Dave started to agree, pointing at the kid as though he was some form of evidence.

'Shut up, both of you, and get the fuck out of the car.'

Marge stopped the argument dead in its tracks.

Obediently Will reached for the door handle and a little more grudgingly Dave started to follow suit.

'Don't forget those fucking jars either,' Marge snapped as she too went for the door. 'You see the barrier even start to flicker and you smash the fucker labelled shield instantly, got it?'

'What?' Dave felt his heart give a solitary thump but Marge had already struggled free of the car and didn't reply. After a second of deep breathing he stepped outside.

Instantly sweat rushed to soak any part of his clothing not already sodden. When he stared around through the faint luminescence of the surrounding shield, Dave wondered what the heat would be like without it in place. It seemed as though the flames reared up twice as high once he was out of the car. Dave cringed back, his heart hammering and his breath coming in shallow gasps.