The Word of God (54 page)

Peter looked around at the sound of a vehicle. He couldn't see it but it was somewhere back on the road.
Admin vehicle,
he thought.
Ammo resupply and casevac.
He said: “Tell us later, and don't talk about food! We haven't eaten since this time yesterday either, and we had to bloody walk over the mountains to get here.”

He started plodding up the hill, casting frequent glances over his right shoulder as he did. Gwen asked how they came to be there and Joy told her the outline of the story.

By then they were up to the clump of rocks where they had left the two old men. Peter expected to find them gone but they were there, both frightened, tired, cold and querulous. Frank had them covered with his shotgun but lowered it.

“What happened to you lot?” he asked.

“We got pinned down between the Devil Worshippers and Stonewall Jackson's second coming,” Peter replied. “You two alright?”

Frank nodded. “Bloody cold! And bloody hungry!” he replied.

“Get much sleep?” Graham asked.

Frank turned a bleary and bloodshot eye on him. “No. But this old bugger did. Slept like the bloody dead he did, at least till the war erupted a few minutes ago. That got him up!”

The cadets laughed and Old Ned scowled. “What do we do now?” he asked.

Peter gestured southwards. “Walk down the mountain to Herberton,” he replied. “Grab your gear and let's go.”

“What about this radio?” Joy asked.

“Yes. It might be useful to keep us informed,” Peter replied. “When the action hots up they stop using code and talk in clear. It might help us to keep out of trouble. Let's go.”

“Wait a minute,” Joy said. “We ladies need to go to the powder room.”

Graham chuckled. “Is that where you keep your gunpowder?” he teased.

Joy sniffed and shook her head but gave a tried smile. She and Gwen walked off around the slope behind another clump of rocks. Peter picked up the radio and swung it on. He handed the M16 to Graham. “You take this mate. You are better with it. I fired about half a magazine. Give me back the pistol.”

Graham did so, then moved to where he could see back down the hill and crouched to check how many rounds remained in the rifle's magazine. Peter made sure the pistol was on safe and put it in his ammo pouch. Then he took out his notebook and pencil and started copying down the flow of numerals coming through the earphones.

Joy and Gwen rejoined them. Gwen was introduced to Old Ned and Frank and then they set off. Peter let Graham lead again. “I know the ground well,” Graham explained. “This is the ground we crossed during that exercise against the air cadets.”

Peter smiled. “Where you snuck up on the bird from the Navy Cadets,” Peter replied.

Graham gave a grunt and then chuckled. “She was nice,” he said.

Gwen heard this and made a face. “Tina is a lovely person. She must have nearly died of fright when she saw your ugly face peering at her through the bushes,” she said.

Graham glanced back and grinned again. “She is. And she didn't call out,” he boasted.

Gwen snorted. “Struck speechless by the horrible sight,” she commented.

“Got me a kiss anyway,” Graham answered. He then put his fingers to his lips and moved on ahead, flitting from tree to tree.

The hill side they were walking up was all burnt off and covered with a short growth of green grass. There were plenty of rock outcrops but it was easy going. Peter kept looking back but was satisfied they were no longer visible from either the road or the other hill. He could see the other hill through the tree tops but it was now half a kilometre away, or more.

Graham did not go all the way to the top of the hill but angled across the slope to the right. Peter got a couple of glimpses of the road down through the trees on the right before Graham led them over a crest. At once the view changed. Out in front was a wide, forested valley with mountains beyond. Off to the left, at the head of a side valley, was the sweep of the escarpment leading round to the ridge from which Stewarts Head stuck up as an unmistakable rocky outcrop.

Graham stopped and pointed. “Herberton is beyond that ridge in front of us,” he explained, “But the highway and railway are out there at the bottom of the valley to our right, only a few kilometres away.”

Seeing how far they had to go dismayed Peter. He gritted his teeth and wondered if he could walk the distance. Now that the adrenalin of action was draining away he felt utterly exhausted. More worrying still was seeing that Joy was just plodding along, her face pale and drawn.

Graham led them down the ridge, keeping just on the left of the crest line. From time to time he would stop to allow the old men to catch up. At each halt he would scout ahead or over the crest. At one of these he came back and said: “This is just near where the Navy Cadets and Air Cadets were camped on that exercise. They had their signal light lashed to this tree.” He patted the rough ironbark with affection.

“Is that all that happened here?” Gwen asked, tongue in cheek.

Graham blushed and grinned but did not answer. Gwen and Joy both smiled.

So did Peter.
Good old Graham,
he thought.

Then he sniffed the crisp morning air deeply and thought how good it was to be walking downhill and free. The sky was a clear blue, the sun and exercise had driven out the cold and everything was looking rosier.

At the next halt Graham came back from scouting and said: “Come and have a look. It is their base camp I think.”

They moved cautiously to the crest line and peered from behind trees. About a hundred paces away, beside the gravel road, were a tent, fireplace and three vehicles, including the truck they had been kidnapped in.

“That's my mate Jed there,” Peter said, seeing the man appear from the tent carrying something.

“I'll bet he's not a happy boy,” Graham commented. “He was really ripped into when you escaped and he was put on ‘Defaulters' along with his mate. I'll bet they've done nothing but peel potatoes, wash up and chop firewood since.”

That picture appealed to Peter and he grinned. Joy smiled at him and he put his arm around her shoulder. As they watched a Toyota Landcruiser came driving down from the area of the battle. Two wounded men were helped out of the front and one lifted out of the back onto a stretcher.

Gwen gasped and shook her head. “There must have been some sort of fight,” she commented.

Graham snorted. “They are just as likely to have shot each other with all that shooting,” he replied sarcastically.

“What will they do with their wounded?” Joy asked.

“That's their problem. Let's go,” Graham replied. He turned and led the way back among the trees and on down the ridge.

A hundred metres further on they crossed an old road which wound its way around the side of the ridge. There were boot prints on it, all heading uphill. Sir Miles watched Graham study them, then asked: “How do you know we won't run into an ambush or patrol?”

Graham shrugged. “I can't guarantee we won't. But from what I overheard of their plans last night I don't think we have too much to worry about. They have four platoons and a Company Headquarters. We know where the HQ is. Half is with the major back up near the Dams and the Admin echelon is just back there at that camp. Five Platoon is up there near the Dams, somewhere on the left; and Six and Eight Platoons were in that attack. So it is only Seven Platoon we have to worry about and they can't be everywhere. Is that about what you reckon Pete?”

Peter nodded: “Yes it is. And I think Seven Platoon is liable to be over towards the railway and on the other side of the Wild River, on that spur over there. If I was trying to cut off the Devil Worshippers that's where I would put them.”

“Me too,” Graham agreed. He then led them across the old road at a point where they could step from one patch of bare bedrock to another. After that it was a steep downhill for several hundred metres. To Peter it was real progress as they sank below the level of most of the tree tops in the valley floor and soon they could see out under them as the ground levelled out. It was easy walking: short grass growing in sandy soil amid a forest of She Oaks.

Graham kept looking to his right as he walked. As they reached the change of slope he grunted and veered left. “I've gone a bit too far right,” he said. “I was right. They've got troops at the gate.”

“Gate?” Joy asked.

Graham pointed to their right. “The Dams are in a water supply reserve. There is a locked gate to keep people out. The fence only extends a few hundred metres either side. There is the end of it over there.”

“But if the gate is locked how did these people get in?” Joy asked.

Peter felt a flush of embarrassment for her. The word ‘naïve' sprang to mind but he did not want to think it as he loved her so much.

Graham just let out a soft laugh and said: “Anyone who can fly an army into someone else's country isn't going to have any trouble taking a set of bolt cutters to a padlock!”

By then they were walking on almost flat ground. This sloped gently down in the direction they were going. Marching became just a plod. Old Ned began to fall behind and was limping badly. He moaned and complained and several times asked when they could stop for a rest.

“When we get to the Highway,” Graham replied. “Then you can sit while we hitch a ride. Then…”

He stopped in mid-sentence as a distant burst of firing began in the bush ahead of them. The shooting went on for several minutes before dying away to occasional shots, then stopping altogether.

The group came to a halt. Old Ned cried: “What is that shooting? Are they in front of us?”

“Sounds like it,” Peter said.

Frank looked really scared. “What happened?” he asked.

Graham looked at him with a pained expression, then said: “I'd say some Devil Worshippers just ran into trouble.”

Old Ned let out a gasp. “But so will we! We're cut off!” he cried.

“Oh poop!” Graham snorted. “It is good news. The Confederates will be busy, and now we know they are there so we will just detour around them.”

“But there might be more! How will you know where to go?” Old Ned cried. He was shaking with nervousness and his voice quavered.

“Trust me!” Graham replied, pursing his lips.

“But you might lead us into a trap!”

“Then go your own bloody way!” Graham snapped. “If you don't like the way we are going then piss off and find your own way out!”

Old Ned gobbled. “You.. you can't say that! You can't leave me!” he cried.

“Crap! We aren't responsible for you being here. We saved you, remember. Now shut up and do as you are told or clear out,” Graham replied.

The group resumed walking. Within a minute they came to a dirt road running across their route.

Graham glanced both ways along it from under cover. “This is that old road we crossed on the hillside,” he explained. “There is a road junction with the new road to the Dams along to the right there a hundred metres or so.”

At that moment the radio burst into life. The transmitting station was loud and clear. Peter began writing and calling the message out to Joy as he did: “Two, this is Two Three, Contact Report, Over. Now Two is saying ‘Send'. Two Three says: Alpha- Contact. Bravo- Seventeen Zero Seven Hundred. (As he wrote that Peter glanced at his watch:
0710. Only ten minutes ago. That has to be the action we just heard
) Charlie- Wild River, Moomin; Delta- Four- that is the number of enemy- Foxtrot- Two KIA and one PW; they are the enemy casualties- Golf- enemy were moving west along Wild River. One escaped northwards. Hotel- Codes now. One three two one, two one two one, zero one two one, three one five one, three three two one. More to follow, over.”

This went on for three more minutes till Peter had copied the whole message. “Forty five groups in code,” he called. Joy quickly counted them.

“Shouldn't we keep moving?” Frank asked.

“This might be useful in helping us steer clear of them,” Peter replied. “Start decoding while we walk Joy.”

Joy had Gwen extract the Bible from her backpack. Peter took out the Signals Operating Instructions and said: “Today is the seventeenth. Company Net, that is… er.. Jacob, Chapter Eight.”

By the time he had done this they were a hundred paces beyond the road and at the bank of the Wild River (South Branch). It was only a creek at this stage, with a bed twenty metres wide. A mere trickle of ankle deep water flowed down it.

Graham stopped behind a tree on the bank. “Let's have a break and refill our water bottles,” he said.

They settled in the shade under cover. Gwen took Joy's water bottles to fill them and Sir Miles took Peter's. Graham remained up on the bank on guard. Old Ned gulped water in great slurps, then flopped down on the sand.

The radio began to talk again. “Company HQ this time. You keep going on that Joy and I will do this one,” Peter said. He copied it down: “Two to Two Three. Roger your seventeen zero seven hundred. Sunray moving to your location now. Out.”

“That was short and sweet,” Graham replied.

“What did it mean?” Sir Miles asked.

“Their boss, the major, is moving to Seven Platoon's location now,” Peter replied.

“Where are they?” Frank asked.

“They are this mob up ahead,” Peter answered, pointing to their right front.

“I thought they were called Two Three,” Frank said.

Peter shook his head in exasperation.
I wish adults weren't so ignorant!
he thought.
They should all have served in the country's armed forces so they know all this stuff! They'd be a bit more use then.

In reply he said: “Their Call Sign on the Company Radio Net is Two Three but their number in their battalion or regiment is Seven Platoon.”

Joy suddenly gasped and chewed at her pencil. Peter and Gwen both leaned over to look at what she had written. “This is really important,” she said. For a minute she scanned the page of the Bible. Then she wrote the last two words and said: “It is. Listen. That last sentence of the Contact Report says: “Have captured Black Knight and The Scroll.”