Tomorrow, When the War Began

There was a pause. Then Homer continued. ‘We’re going to have to get him out. They’ll find him pretty quickly there. The more settled these people get, the more they’ll organise themselves, and the more they’ll start getting tighter control of everything. They might be tolerating guys like Mr Clement for now, but he won’t last long. These people showed at Corrie’s how serious they are.’

We sat there, in silent agreement, three minds working on one topic: how to get Lee away from Barker Street despite his wounded leg.

‘One of the biggest problems is that Barker Street seems to crawl with soldiers, compared to the rest of town, anyway,’ Homer added.

‘We need a vehicle,’ Robyn said helpfully.

‘Well whoopiedoo,’ I said, unhelpfully.

‘What about a silent vehicle?’ said Homer. ‘It’d be hard to drive a car in there without us all getting shot up.’

‘Let’s brainstorm,’ Robyn said.

‘Great,’ I said. ‘I’ll get the textas and butcher’s paper.’

‘Ellie!’ Robyn said.

‘Strike two,’ Homer said to me. ‘Three strikes and you’re out.’

I don’t know what was wrong with me. Just tired I guess. And I tend to get a bit sarcastic when I’m tired.

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘I’ll get serious. What was the last nomination? Silent vehicles. OK. Golf carts. Shopping trollies. Wheelbarrows.’

I was quite impressed with myself, and the others were definitely impressed.

‘Ellie!’ Robyn said again, but in quite a different tone to the last time.

‘Prams. Pushers,’ said Homer.

The ideas started flying.

‘Furniture on wheels.’

‘Pedicabs.’

‘Horse-drawn vehicles.’

‘Toboggans. Skis. Sleighs. Forklift trucks.’

‘Those things, what are they called, on wheels, that people served afternoon tea from in the old days.’

‘Yeah, I know what you mean.’

‘Billy carts.’

‘Beds on wheels. Hospital beds.’

‘Stretchers.’

‘Wheelchairs.’

Like with the cap of the petrol tank on the ride-on mower we’d been ignoring the obvious all this time. Homer and I looked at Robyn. ‘Could he ride in a wheelchair?’

She considered. ‘I guess so. I think it’d hurt him, but if we could elevate his leg and make certain we didn’t bump it ... And,’ she added with eyes gleaming, ‘I could give him another shot.’

‘Robyn! You’re dangerous!’

‘What else was possible, from the things we said?’

‘A wheelbarrow’s possible, but again it’d have to hurt him. From our point of view it’s easier than a lot of things. A stretcher would be good for Lee, but we’re all pretty tired. I don’t know how far we could carry him.’

‘A forklift would be the most fun. I think they’re easy to drive. And the bullets would just bounce off it.’

Something in Homer’s last sentence flicked a switch in my brain.

‘Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way.’

‘Yes?’

‘Well, we’re thinking of little quiet sneaky things. We could go to the other extreme. Rock up in something so indestructible that we didn’t give a damn who saw or heard us.’

Robyn sat up. ‘Such as?’

‘I don’t know, a bulldozer.’

‘Oh!’ Robyn said. ‘One of those trucks with the shovel in front. We could use the shovel as a shield.’

Suddenly the three of us got very excited.

‘All right,’ said Homer. ‘Let’s look at this carefully. Problem one, driver. Ellie?’

‘Yes, I think so. We’ve got the old Dodge at home, for taking hay round the paddocks and stuff. Driving that’s just like driving a big car. It’s got a two-speed diff but that’s cool. I couldn’t say for certain until I saw it, but it should be OK.’

‘Problem two then. Where would we get it?’

Robyn interrupted. I’d forgotten she hadn’t seen Homer in action at Corrie’s.

‘Homer, are you on something?’

‘Sorry?’

‘You keep going like this, you’ll lose your reputation. Aren’t you meant to be just a wild and crazy guy?’

He laughed, but then went straight back to being serious. Robyn made a face at me and I winked back. ‘So, problem two?’

‘Well, the Council Depot’s the obvious place. It’s what, three blocks from the restaurant. It’s probably been broken open, but we should take bolt cutters in case. The keys to the vehicles would be in an office there somewhere, again assuming they haven’t been looted.’

‘All right. Sounds logical. Problem three. Suppose we pick Lee up. We can’t drive to Ellie’s in the truck, obviously. And Lee can’t use a bike. How do we get him to Ellie’s?’

This was the toughest one. No one had any easy answers. We sat staring at each other, turning ideas over in our minds. Finally Homer spoke up.

‘OK, let’s come back to that one. Let’s look at other details. The plan’s basically a good one. It’s got the big advantage of surprise, plus it puts us in a position of strength. If we had Lee in a wheelchair or a wheelbarrow and we were pushing him down the street and a patrol appeared, what could we do? Push harder? Dump Lee? We’d be in such a weak position. But if Robyn goes back to the restaurant, gets Lee ready, gets him close to the street, gives him acupuncture and whips his appendix out and anything else she feels like to fill in time, Ellie and I could get the truck, burn down the street, stop, throw you guys in, accelerate and go like hell. If we do it between three and four am, that should be when they’re at their weakest.’

‘That’s when humans are always at their weakest,’ I contributed. ‘We did that in Human Dev. Three to four am, that’s when most deaths occur in hospitals.’

‘Well, thanks for that comforting thought,’ Robyn said.

‘We’ll have to be at our strongest,’ Homer said.

‘Where do we actually put Lee?’ I asked ‘It’ll need to be such a quick pick-up. There won’t be room in the cab, so we’ll have to get him into the tray part somehow.’

Homer looked at me, eyes shining with joy. I realised the wild and crazy guy wasn’t so far away. ‘We pick him up in the shovel,’ he said, and waited for our reactions.

Our first reactions didn’t disappoint him, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. It all depended on us being able to operate the shovel part quickly and accurately. If we could do that, it was the best solution. If we couldn’t, we had a disaster.

After we tossed the options around Robyn suggested some more of the plan. ‘If we have a car waiting,’ she said, ‘in a place where it’d be hard for them to follow, or hard for them to use their guns, then we transfer to that ... And either head out to Ellie’s, or hole up in town another night ...’

I tried to think of some unusual place where we could swap vehicles. Somewhere special ... somewhere different ... my eyes closed and I had to sit up with a jerk and shake myself awake.

‘The cemetery?’ I said hopefully. ‘Maybe they’re superstitious?’

I don’t think the other two knew what I was talking about.

Homer looked at his watch. ‘We have to make some quick decisions,’ he said.

‘OK,’ said Robyn, ‘how about this? Ellie mentioned the cemetery. You know Three Pigs Lane? Past the Cemetery? That long narrow track across to Meldon Marsh Road? Here’s what I think we should do.’

Ten minutes later she’d finished. It sounded OK to me. Not great, but OK.

Chapter Eleven

The time was 3.05 am. I had the shivers; not the shakes but the shivers. It was getting hard to tell the difference though. It was also getting hard to tell when one shiver ended and the next began.

Cold, fear, excitement. They were all contributing generously. But the greatest of these was fear. That rang a bell – a quote from somewhere. Yes, the Bible: ‘and the greatest of these was love’. My fear came from love. Love for my friends. I didn’t want to let them down. If I did, they would die.

I looked at my watch again. 3.08. We really had coordinated our watches, just like in the movies. I pulled my chinstrap a little tighter. I must have looked pretty silly, but the only useful things I’d found in the Council Depot, apart from ignition keys, were these safety helmets. I’d put one on and chucked six more in the truck. They probably wouldn’t stop a bullet, but they might make the difference between death and just permanent brain damage. The shiver became a shudder. It was 3.10. I turned the ignition key.