Skyfall (47 page)

Minutes later a flat ‘crack' echoed through the night from behind him. Then, silence …

The burning …

Even Baanti, even Slander, neither of them had burnt so badly. So hot, so angry.

And afterwards, when she looked down and the man was lying there, the man whose name she didn't know, he was as empty as anything she'd ever seen and she'd just wanted to scream, or cry, or vomit.

But she didn't, because they were watching her. She could feel their eyes on her, probing, questioning, even as she clung to the other girl.

Never again.

Never …

The bodies lay side by side on the hard ground, the shiftie terrorist and the security man who'd pushed him down that path. Jenx's body, cooling now, looked much more peaceful than the empty, living corpse that Janil had shot a few moments earlier.

Slowly, taking his time, Janil piled rubble and stones around and over the bodies. He wasn't sure why he was bothering, especially for these two, but leaving them there would have felt wrong.

His work done, he turned and stared off into the darkness, into the empty plain. They'd vanished now. Out into all that vast nothingness.

Just like his mother.

Making his way back to the flyer, Janil felt a pang of something. Not pain, not anger. Was it envy?

The bug-like machine crouched, ready to spin up and carry him back to where he belonged. Back up into the sky.

But there was nothing left up there now, either. As he climbed into the belly and sealed the hatchway behind him, his mother's voice floated from somewhere out of the depths of his memory.

‘We're ground creatures, Janil honey. Don't forget that. We might make our nests up here in the sky, but it's not where we belong …'

He settled into the pilot's chair and closed his eyes. Immediately he was back there in the apartment. Eyna Mann, heavily pregnant, crouched beside her five-year-old son, awkward with the size of her belly, and placed an arm around his shoulders.

‘One day you'll fly, Janil. One day I'll teach you. You and your little brother. The two of you will be able to fly away together. But don't ever forget to land occasionally, because that's where people really belong …'

Primary Resonator Online. Spool up? Y/N

The words flashed across the main display. Janil punched in the command and around him the flyer hummed into life.

Secondary Resonator Online. Spool up? Y/N

Another command. The flyer trembled slightly.

Navcon: Enter destination code.

He punched in the sequence for Port North Central, but there was a long pause before the processor responded.

Destination Unavailable. Transponder Offline.

Navcon. Enter destination code.

Frowning slightly, he tried again, with the same result. He tried the code for Port West Central. Nothing. And it was the same for the South Central dome. The major landing ports were all offline.

Navcon. Enter destination code.

There was an emergency port in the Prelature, he knew. He entered the code.

Destination: Prelature, accepted. Clearance granted.

Green icons lit up across the top of the display, and Janil's left hand closed around the main control. As he gripped it, he could almost feel the thrumming power of the machine flowing into him, through him, fierce and warm like blood.

He was going to miss this, he knew.

Releasing the control, he powered down the resonators, unbuckled himself from his harness and climbed out.

The silence outside was deafening. Not a single noise, not a creak or groan from any of the nearby buildings, no electric hum of fans, no footsteps or humming maglifts.

Just… silence.

It took only a few minutes to short out the main power relay for the flyer, ensuring that it would never leave the ground again. Then he pulled the final daysuit from its locker, loaded Jenx's weapon and the rest of the survival gear into a pack, attached his helmet to it and set off after the others, east into the night.

Behind him, the flyer began slowly decaying into oblivion, and above that, Port City was doing the same, only much, much faster.

Walking alone, Lari stopped and looked up. The sky above was empty. Not a dome, not a stalk, not a magshaft.

Just stars.

Behind him, the dying city loomed into the air, black and foreboding, a smear stretching to the north and south as far as he could see. In the faint starlight, thick columns of dark smoke belched upwards, blocking the view.

He was just a few hundred metres out from the last of the rubble, but already the dead and dying cities seemed to be shrinking together somehow, losing their significance, their power.

‘Goodbye.' Lari whispered the word, a farewell to everyone.

A little ahead he could hear the others talking, and as he drew closer he found them sprawled on the sandy ground, waiting.

‘There are caves ahead,' Saria informed him. ‘We should be able to get to them by sunrise and they should be deep enough to hide you lot for the day. Got water there, too.'

‘How do you know?' Kes asked, and the Darklander grinned.

‘I asked the Earthmother.'

‘What's that?'

‘Don't worry. You're gonna have plenty of time to learn about her.'

Lari looked at them.
What a group,
he thought. Jem, Saria, Kesra, a baby, two children and himself.

‘What was that shot?' Jem asked.

‘Probably Janil,' Lari said.

‘He's not coming, then?'

‘No. Here.' He handed Kes the daysuit. ‘Put it on. It'll be easier to wear it than carry it.'

‘What's it for?'

‘It's a daysuit. From the flyer. For emergencies.'

As Kes struggled into the oversize suit, Saria climbed to her feet and the others did the same, but before they could move off, Lari hunched down before the two clan children.

‘What're your names?'

‘Clunnie and Boydil. I'm Clunnie,' said the girl.

‘Good. Are you both okay to walk?'

‘Where are we walking to?' Boydil asked, his eyes wide with curiosity.

Lari, unable to answer, looked first at Kes, then Jem, then finally Saria. The Darklander walked over, crouched beside him, looked at the two children and smiled.

‘Daywards,' she replied.

First published 2007 by University of Queensland Press
PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia

www.uqp.com.au

© Anthony Eaton

This book is copyright. Except for private study, research, criticism or reviews, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any foram or by any means without prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.

Typeset by Peripheral Vision

Cataloguing in Publication Data
National Library of Australia

Eaton, Anthony
Skyfall

For young adults.

I. Title.

A823.4

ISBN 978 0 7022 3550 4 (pbk)
ISBN 978 0 7022 4260 1 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7022 4261 8 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7022 4262 5 (kindle)