Underground (7 page)

S
UNDAY
, J
UNE
28
46
DAYS

‘Right outside my house,' I said, looking through the blinds of the bedroom window. ‘You think they're trying to send a message?'

We were back in the empty house next door to mine. Out on the street, maintenance guys were slotting a tall, black pole into a hole in the concrete. There was a shiny half-sphere at the top, like the pole was wearing a bowler hat. And, according to the article in the
Herald
, that half-sphere had four cameras inside, feeding full three-sixty degree surveillance back to the security centre. Not that they needed it with the tagteaming guards swarming around my house.

I dug around in the box for the last of the dry biscuits Jordan had allocated us for lunch. ‘Want it?'

Jordan shook her head and I shoved the biscuit into my mouth.

We'd waited in Lauren's front yard for another half-hour last night while Calvin got everyone back into their houses, then slinked back here with our bag of groceries. It turned out to be mostly biscuits, canned fruit and uncooked pasta. Not exactly a balanced diet, but at least we weren't going to starve.

Not right now, anyway.

‘Okay, so, three days,' said Jordan, moving away from the window and pacing out across the room. ‘Three days until those things go online.'

I waited, expecting her to follow that up with some kind of plan. But she just kept walking a slow circle around the carpet.

Because what plan was there?

Even if we did find somewhere else to hide, we'd only be buying ourselves a few more days of survival. We'd be no closer to doing anything about Tabitha. And when those cameras turned on, we wouldn't be able to
move.

‘What are we going to do about Peter?' I asked. Even with everything else that had happened in the last couple of days, the shame of abandoning him down there had never stopped gnawing at me.

Jordan stopped pacing. ‘What
can
we do?'

I hesitated, almost letting it drop. ‘Maybe we can, you know, negotiate with them. Figure out a way to –'

‘You really think that's going to happen?'

Her voice wavered as she spoke, and I got the sudden feeling I was missing something. Since when was
she
the one shooting down
my
insane suggestions?

‘But … we're going to have to deal with them at some point, right?' I said.

‘I know,' said Jordan. ‘I know we are. And, look, I want to get Peter back as much as you do, but –' she sighed, fingers clenching in front of her. ‘Even if we
could
, he's too
–
I mean, look at what he did to Mr Hanger. He's not
safe
. What if he blew up like that again?'

‘So, what, we just leave him –?'

‘They said you were going to die, Luke!'

Oh.

‘What's that supposed to mean?' I asked, skin crawling.

‘What do you think it means? We go back there and they're going to kill you! Look – I don't –' she stared up at the ceiling. ‘I don't know, okay? I don't know what we do. But we can't just –'

She staggered forward, almost crashing into me, arms dropping down to cradle her stomach.

‘Jordan!'

I reached out, realising what was happening to her.

Too slow. She collapsed on her hands and knees, coughing and gagging like there was something alive inside her. Her eyes squeezed shut and I could see it was taking all she had not to cry out and give us away to the neighbours. She fell, landing in a heap on the carpet.

And then it was over.

Jordan's eyes opened. She sat up, staring around at the room, eyes sliding over me like I wasn't even there.

Because I wasn't. Not where she was.

Not
when
she was.

Jordan was having another one of her visions. Her body was still here, but she was seeing this place at some other time. At least, that was as close as she'd got to explaining it to me. And no matter how many times I saw it happen, it never stopped freaking me out.

Jordan stood up, squinting, one hand pressed to her forehead. She turned and headed for the door, moving slowly, like she was in the dark. Which, for all I knew, she was.

I followed her onto the landing. She stopped a few steps out, looking down at the floor, taking in a scene that was apparently much more interesting than the one I was seeing. Then she crept forward again, holding the banister for support.

Jordan reached the top of the stairs and peered down. She lowered a foot onto the first step.

‘No you don't,' I muttered, grabbing her gently around the arms and pulling her back. ‘Jordan.

Jordan
. Come on, time to –' Jordan fell back against me, shaking again. Spluttering violently. Face screwed up like she was waking from a nightmare. I stumbled back, bending to my knees, trying to lower her to the carpet before she knocked us both over.

‘Hey, come on,' I said, holding her still. ‘Come on, deep breaths. Deep breaths.'

One last cough, and the shaking stopped. Jordan's eyes opened. She smirked up at me. ‘
Deep
breaths?
'

I rolled my eyes. ‘What's wrong with that?'

‘I'm not having a baby, Luke.'

‘Whatever,' I grunted, pushing her off me. ‘Sorry I don't have a pre-prepared list of encouraging things to say to my friend while her brain is travelling through time.'

Jordan got up, rubbing her eyes.

‘So what did you see?' I asked.

Her smile disappeared. ‘We might have a problem.'

‘Might?'

‘It was night. I don't know when. But soon, because that was still here.' Jordan gestured at our bag of food sitting against the wall. ‘It was scattered all over the place, though. And we were both gone. It looked like –' She turned, visualising it. ‘I think there might have been a struggle.'

Monday, June 29
45 days

What are we still doing here?
I thought, staring into the bathroom mirror. I couldn't see much in the darkness, but it
looked
like my body was finally getting to work on those bruises.

Another day gone and we were still in the house. Or I was, anyway. Jordan had sneaked out for another newspaper.

Even after her vision, she still wanted to stay here as long as we could. We had a roof over our heads, at least, and some kind of view of what was going on in the town.

Not that any of that's going to help us when Calvin
comes crashing through the door
.

But what else were we supposed to do? Camp out in the bush? The nights were freezing enough as it was, without –

Something flashed in the corner of my eye. My head snapped toward the doorway. A beam of light swept across the house, flickering in through the windows.

They'd found us.

I ran from the bathroom, stumbling to the bedroom at the end of the hall.

No, no, no, no –

What was I
doing
here?

I flew across to the window and stared through the blinds. Half a dozen security officers, torches in hand, semi-automatic rifles swinging from straps across their shoulders. All running. Calvin up front.

A tiny part of my brain registered that that much weaponry and manpower was probably a bit over the top, but the rest of me was too caught up in being about to die. I watched, paralysed, as they ran along the street to the front gate.

Weapons clanking. Boots pounding the concrete.

And –

They kept running. Straight past the house.

I stood at the window, trying to work out why I wasn't dead yet.

Ten seconds later, they were up the street and out of sight. Slowly, it sank in. They weren't coming for us. Or if they were, they were looking in the wrong place.

I stepped back unsteadily, dizzy with relief.

A hand landed on my shoulder and I almost jumped out the window.

‘Whoa – it's me!' whispered Jordan, spinning me around. She was breathing almost as hard as I was. ‘Did you
see
that?'

‘Yeah. Where were they going?'

‘I don't know,' said Jordan in a rush. ‘Out into the bush, I think. I came out from next door and Calvin was
right there.
I was like one second away from –' She closed her eyes, shaking it off. ‘Anyway. It's fine. They didn't see me.'

‘Then who were they after?'

‘I dunno. Not us.' She pulled a rolled-up
Herald
from her back pocket. ‘Look at this,' she said, voice darkening as she shook the newspaper open.

I took it from her, holding the front page up to the streetlight glinting in through the blinds.

LOCAL YOUTH TO BE PRESENTED WITH
YOUNG ACHIEVERS' AWARD.

A boy stared back from the page, his pale skin looking even more ghostly in the dim light.

‘Crap,' I whispered. ‘Jeremy.'

I skimmed the first paragraph. According to the article, he'd been flown out to Canberra for some awards ceremony at Parliament House. The details were a bit sketchy – which I guess is what happens when you have to make them up in a hurry.

‘Where do you think he really is?' I asked.

‘Nowhere good,' Jordan sighed. She grabbed back the paper and flipped it over. ‘It gets worse.'

‘Of course it does.'

Usually, the back page of the
Herald
was taken up by what passed for Phoenix's sports section. Round-ups of the few local comps, plus just enough falsified details of the national rugby and cricket and whatever to keep people from getting suspicious. But today, it was dominated by a full-page ad.

A tall, muscular security officer, immaculately dressed and airbrushed to perfection, stood against a white background, staring determinedly into the distance. Under his feet, a red Co-operative logo was stamped next to three words in sleek, bold lettering:
MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

My stomach plummeted.

Officer Calvin was recruiting.

‘It could just be making up numbers,' said Jordan doubtfully. ‘They've already lost, what is it now, five officers? Not counting the ones in hospital.'

‘Could be,' I said, not believing it any more than she did.

This was what Officer Barnett had been talking about the other night. Something big was coming. And whatever ‘difference' these guys were about to make, I had a feeling it was only going to make our lives more miserable.

Chapter 9

T
UESDAY
, J
UNE
30
44
DAYS

We were leaving.

I stood at one of the downstairs windows, watching the last of the sunlight melt out of the sky. I couldn't even remember coming down here. I'd been pacing all afternoon. Wandering the house, trying to walk off some nervous energy.

At midnight tonight, the surveillance cameras across the street would come online. If we wanted to get out of here, we had to do it before then.

The plan was to head out into the bush. Try to find somewhere to sleep where we wouldn't freeze to death. And then see what happened in the morning.

I left the window and went back to my pacing. It all felt so
pointless.
There was no mission. No plan. No building to sneak into, or suspect to investigate, or information to track down. It was just survival now. And what good was that if Tabitha was just going to sweep through and –

‘Luke!' Jordan's voice came from above me. ‘Get up here!' She was leaning over the banister, waving frantically.

‘What?' I said, bolting up the stairs. ‘What's wrong?'

She grabbed my arm, pulled me into the bedroom, and just about threw me into the window.
‘Look.'

From this angle, I could see down into Mum's front lawn. Three security officers had just walked out through the front gate. They were heading up the street toward the town centre.

‘So?' I said. ‘They're changing shifts. It's what they always do at –' ‘
No,
' said Jordan excitedly.

‘No, it's not! They always change over one at a time, not all at once! Luke – I think they're
going.

' I watched the guards slip out of my line of sight, and then stared down at my suddenly unguarded front lawn. The miracle that had been handed to us right when we needed it most.

There was no way it was that simple.

‘Why?' I asked.

But it was like she hadn't heard me. ‘I'm going,' she said, already halfway to the stairs. ‘Back to my place. If they've left your mum, then they're probably –'

I raced after her. ‘Jordan, just – just hang on a sec.'

She turned to look at me, but I knew she wouldn't wait for long.

‘What if we're doing exactly what they want us to do?' I asked.

‘What do you mean? They don't know we're watching the house.'

‘Of course they do!' I said. ‘As if we wouldn't be!'

A pained look crossed her face. ‘Luke – What else
is
there? Our only other plan is running away.'