This is a story about commradery, friendship,
leadership and battling adversity.
The preface:
“So you’re definitely coming”, I asked my long time
best friend Milly “Yeah for sure, I’ll call Renae and Oscar, and you call
Jamie”, “Remember to tell them that were exploring the caves, so tell them to
bring clothes that can get wet, hiking boots and snacks and torches” I said,
and I was about to hang up when, “You know Jamie might bring that friend of his,
Edmund or something, so be warned okay. I’ll see yah bye”. She hung up, I hit
end and then called Jamie.
Instinct
Suddenly a
lightning bolt flashed across the sky, it lit up the cave and that’s when I realised
they were all gazing wide eyed at me. At first I didn’t know what to make of
their expressions. First I thought “What did I do this time?” but then it
dawned on me, they were looking to me to lead them. It took another crack of
thunder to awaken me from my stupor.
“Okay guys,”
I said not just to them but to myself, “any ideas of how we are going to get
out of this mess”. I looked up and found Edward with his hand up. What a stupid
thing to do, I mean we are in the middle of a war zone for Christ’s sake, we
are not voting for who should be class president. “Yes?” I questioned him, not
even with the slightest idea of where this could be going “what do you think”.
He looked up and inhaled deeply, probably prepping himself for the worst, and
then he said “What if, okay this maybe isn’t the best idea. But what if, we
legit, but I don’t mean like cowering away in some corner I mean we leg it to
the…um… rainforest where we can sort out our priorities, you know whether to
stay together or search for our families or what. So we should maybe start by
deciding a route to the rainf-”. “Ohh, not the rainforest, it so disgusting” Renae
spat out the last word as if it was poisonous; “can we at least hide somewhere
were I’m not going to get eaten by a giant spider or something”. We all burst
out laughing, Renae was still living in her own little world. “I think we take a vote, all in favour of the
rainforest say aye!” “Aye!” was said in almost unison. It would have been
pretty cool if it wasn’t for the fact that right now we were under some pretty
serious threat.
“I think
it’s the rainforest.” I said, aiming it at Renae more than anyone else. “Okay,
from what it looks like we have two options, option one is we cut straight
across the town and opinion two is that we take the long hike round” I paused
and considered what I was doing “I think it would be best to go round, because
we are all wearing hiking gear and I don’t want our party of six to be any
smaller than it is”. I didn’t realise but the entire time that I was saying
this I had my eyes shut, so I opened them.
It was starting get lighter, you could see from
our cave the sun’s light slowly illuminating the surrounds. So I could see
their faces a little clearer now. Edward and Jamie looked really...well… kinda hot, with their clothes and
hair plastered with dried mud and both of them had large rips in their shirts,
and small nicks and cuts on their faces and arm (they weren’t as good as me at
caving). They looked really adventurous and wild. Jamie was distracted by the
sunrise, facing into it, the light cast shadows on his muscled face making him
look like some kind of male model on an outdoor photo shoot. Edward looked up
at me his beautiful face was made even more so with his emerald eyes. I blushed,
I could feel the blood rushing to my face. So, embarrassed, I turned my
attention to Milly, Renae and Oscar. They were huddled in together, I don’t
know if it was the cold or if they just didn’t want to be far away from each
other. Milly and Oscar are twins; they had black hair and smooth porcelain skin.
Their mother was Korean and their father is Mongolian. They didn’t know their
mum much; she died of pneumonia when they were four. They have that kind of
twin telepathy that when one feels depressed the other does, and when the other
feels happy the corresponding twin would feel happy. Renae is shorter than the
rest of us; her hair is blonde and hair skin olive. She is, in my opinion, the
prettiest in the class, but she disagreed. Renae is a “lifelong friend” to
Milly and Oscar, even though she had only known them for seven years. They were
sixteen now, so that’s nine years of not knowing them, I didn’t understand it
and I had a feeling that Renae didn’t either. And then there was me, I’m
tallish, and brunette with an athletic build, but in my mind I wasn’t anything
special.
Then BANG! I felt the ground shake as the
entire right side of the range was blown up.
I hit the ground hard and I’m pretty sure the only thing breaking my
fall was the conveniently placed rock; I could see my vision failing as black
spots began to haze my vision then nothing, just black.
---
“Is she
alright?”, “Oh my god look at her head!”, “Quick! Get her a towel to put around her head. I think she’s coming round.” I wish that last
statement, though entirely true, was false.
Because the pain in my head was becoming more and more strong as I was
slowly regaining consciousness. I could
feel my head being gently lifted and having a towel wrapped around it.
“
I started
taking in other images. The other four
worried faces, who were off to one side. The brightness of the light. I guessed the sun was well and risen. “How
long was I out?” I asked breathlessly. “A
good half an hour. We were really starting to get worried” Edward replied, still
with the same croon.
I reached up
and pressed a hand to my head. That was
a bad idea. I winced and pulled my hand
away quickly. “Is it bleeding?” I slurred, not able to put my tongue around the
words. “Yes.” said Jamie’s voice. “We had to put the towel around it to stop the
bleeding. But I think it will be alright.”
He didn’t sound too sure about that last bit.
“Can you sit
up?” Edward asked. “I can help you if
you want?”. Not wanting to deny a chance to be closer to his perfection, “I
think I might need some help” I said, still slurring. Immediately he gently
took my arm and helped me up. As he let
go, my head started throbbing and I fell back because of the pain. I was waiting to hit the ground, but I didn’t
feel it. Instead, a pair of hands caught me, pulled me in the air and cradled
me to a wall where they propped me up and held me there, not wanting to let go.
“Thanks.” I said, now able to talk properly.
“Are you alright?” Milly and Oscar asked. “Yeah."I answered. “What happened? All I remember was a bang and
then I hit the deck.”. “They bombed the range.” Oscar answered. “Half the mountain side is rubble. I guess
we’ll have to go through the town.” “That’s cool.” I said. “We could probably see what they are doing to
our parents then?” “Yes, but first you’re going to rest”, Edward said, still
holding me upright “We’re all going to need a rest, because we’re all going to
need all the strength we can muster.” No one complained about that, they just
spread out and lay down on the floor. Edward helped me lie down then he lay
next to me. We slept through the day and on until the night had been and gone, only
to wake up the next morning.
----
The next
morning my head felt so much better and I was full of energy. So was everyone else as far as I could tell.
We ate the muesli bar my mum had packed for me to eat on our little camping
trip, then we headed off very slowly and stealthily down the mountain side.
When we came to the outskirts of town we went to Jamie’s house and had a real
breakfast. It was during that breakfast that I realised that, apart from one
muesli bar, I hadn’t eaten for two and a half days. As I was chewing on my sugary
cereal I realised that we had formed little relationships. There was Milly and Jamie – they had woken as
the sun rose and started to talk. Apart
from our journey down the mountain side they hadn’t stopped, and I could
visibly see them edging closer toward each other.
There was
Oscar and Renae - it turned out that last night it had started to rain
again. (Rain was an understatement. It had started storming.) Renae, who was
scared of thunder, went to the closest person grabbed on to them and wouldn’t
let go until it had stopped. Of course Oscar woke up when Renae had grabbed him,
but instead of kicking her off he just held her and made her feel better. So
now they were best of friends.
And there
was Edward and I - Since I had hit my head yesterday and was cared for by the
courageous Edward, I… well...sort of got attached to him. And I was pretty sure
the feeling was mutual. After we had finished breakfast we headed closer into
town. Just past MCCready’s
place we heard a flurry of words that were indecipherable and then we saw two
men running at us. Edward stepped in front of me and as I watched in my
peripheral vision I was pretty sure Oscar and Jamie were doing the same.
The two men
split one went for Edward and me the other went for Oscar and Renae. As the
soldier reached us Edward ran forward punching the soldier squarely in the
chest sending him to the ground. As the soldier got up I saw him draw a knife
from his belt and hold it menacingly toward Edward and I. I saw Edward draw the
soldier in, and as the soldier lunged at him Edward dived out of the way and
rolled to soften the fall. The soldier had fallen onto his stomach and had
winded himself. As the solider was getting up, Jamie came out from nowhere and
pounced on the soldier’s back, taking the knife from his hand and holding it to
the soldier’s throat. I turned to see Edward helping the others restrain the
soldier with some rope from our caving supplies, which gave me an idea.
“Hey guys,
steal their clothes and tie them up.” Everyone looked extremely puzzled. “Just
do it.”, I called to them hurrying over to Jamie with some rope. When we had successfully removed their
uniforms and weapons, we tied the soldiers to a tree. I realised with horror
that the soldiers had guns, but as Edward told me they were probably too hyped
on adrenaline to use them.
“Hey, Beth, ”
Milly called, “What do we do with these?” She was holding up the uniforms and the
guns. I went over to her, “Do you know what nationality these soldiers are?” I
asked. “Um...German, I think. Why?” Without answering her I called everyone
over to where Milly and I were standing. “Okay, I want two boys to …” “That’s
not a first” said Jamie jibing me, I ignored him. “I want two boys” I continued
“to put these on and pretend to escort us around.” “Good idea.” said Oscar,
looking genuinely impressed. I blushed. “I’ll do it!” said Edward and Jamie
together. “Good” I said as I handed them
the clothes. “Go put these on over there
behind the tree”.
I waited
until they were back to continue, “Okay, now you guys,” I gestured towards
Edward and Jamie “will walk behind us with the rifles pointed at our feet, and
we will walk ahead of with our hands up. Ohh, do any of you know the German for
‘Shut up’”, “How about you, Oscar? You
know heaps of languages.” Milly added. “Err…oh…okay. I know this. It’s ‘Verschlossen’!” Oscar said.
I was guessing that, like most of us, he
had studied a language’s swear words very intensely. I smiled to myself about
that.
---
Off down the
street, we hadn’t gone more than one hundred paces when we heard the ominous
sound of an aircraft. All of a sudden my panic set in. All I could do, all I
could think about, was running. “Leg it!” I yelled, and we all immediately
started running for the houses. On the right side of the road, as I got to the
closest house, I looked back and saw Renae in middle of the road, on the ground,
in obvious pain. Another instinct kicked
in, so I stopped running, wheeled around, and ran toward her. As I got there
she tried to get up but failed, I rushed forward, picked her up and put her arm
round my shoulder. I ran back to the house. The door had been kicked open, I
presumed Edward. When I got up the stairs, I looked up and saw the aircraft. It
was low and I could make out the emblem. It looked like a kangaroo and an emu
holding a shield. “Ha,” I said out loud and slammed the door. When I turned
around there were four slightly confused, and very worried people, staring at
me.
“Well, I couldn’t leave her,” I said breaking
the silence. “We knew you couldn’t,” Edward said almost consolingly, “but we
never expected you to run out and carry Renae back. I mean her feet didn’t even touch the ground.
You were physically carrying her.” It
took me a moment to think back, but when I did all the memories came flooding
back in vivid flashes. There was me yelling, the house coming closer towards me,
Renae was on the ground, then it came to me, I took her arm and slung it around
my shoulder. Now Renae was shorter than me, substantially shorter when I
thought about it. “Did I just have one
of those moments like; when a baby is trapped under a car and the parent lifts
up the car to free their child?” I asked. There was a pause, “Yes you did,”
said Edward. As I looked into his eyes an overwhelming sense of calm swept
through me. “Well that’s all well and good, but can someone please take a look
at my ankle,” Renae said, exasperated. Oscar
suddenly jumped forward and carried Renae into what I only could assume,
(seeing I’d never been in this house,) was the lounge room. As I watched Jamie
and Milly peeled off, leaving me and Edward alone in the entrance hall.
I opened my
mouth to speak, but he had already started, “Don’t you ever worry me like that
again, I almost had a heart attack when you ran out to the road.” He looked
genuinely upset. “I’m sorry it was just a kind of instinct I guess,” I said
looking at my feet, “I promise I’ll try to reason with it next time.” “Next
time?” he questioned. “I am kind of hoping there won’t be a next time.” “You
know what,” I said remembering something “I don’t think there will be a next
time. That aircraft, well..I was curious
so I looked out and I saw it was ours, Australian. I saw our coat of arms on
its side, that’s why I was happy when I came in.” Before I could say another thing
he was hugging me “You know how curiosity killed the cat,” he said whispering
in my ear still hugging me, “Well I think it was a freak occurrence. Because that,
what you just saw, could be our ticket out of this war.” He held me to his
chest for a minute or so. We broke off
and went to tell the others.
When we finished, everyone was ecstatic. We wouldn’t need to go through the horrors of
those wars you see on television. You know, with the children crying and the
parents screaming. We wouldn’t have to
face it. I went to the pantry of the house and I found a half eaten box of
cherry liquors. I took it to the rest of the group and open the box. “Nice find,”
Jamie said chewing on his fourth “What else is there in that cupboard?” “First
of all, it’s a pantry,” I hated people using incorrect words, “and second, I
just found the chocolate and ran back. I
didn’t really check what they had.” “Well we call it a cupboard in my house,”
he added moodily, “but anyway go back and check what’s there. We might have to wait a bit for things to
calm down.” I had to hand it to him, even though he was sometimes extremely
dumb, he did have his bright spark moments. “Okay, I’ll go check,” and I got up
and left. As I left I heard Jamie’s voice say: “So do you like her?” and Edward’s
answering back “Guess,” with a slight zing to his voice that made him sound
cheeky and sly.
I walked to the kitchen, blushing. As I got
there and opened the pantry, I noticed flour on the floor. I must have spilt it,
because I don’t remember seeing it as I walked in and I was in too much of a
rush to pay attention on the way out owing to the fact I had found chocolate.
As I checked the cupboards for food that we could survive on I heard a creaking
sound in the corner. I turned around and saw a frying pan coming at me. I
screamed and then was hit over the head.
---
What was
with this week and getting hit over the head? “Was it ‘hit
Tom and Sam were standing very close together;
I realised, that like us, impending danger had brought them together. Edward
saw that I was awake and immediately helped me into a sitting position. But he didn’t leave me, he made sure I was
okay and then helped me sit, by sitting behind me and holding me up. “Thanks,” I
whispered, still a little woozy. Then
Sam said, “Oh my god! Beth. I am so sorry. I thought you were German.” Not
taking that as an insult, I said “It’s alright, I would have done the same. So,”
I continued, “do you know where my parents are?” I looked up at her and she was
crying, “What,” I said more fiercely now, “What did they do to them?” “They
took them, we escaped though, and they were looking for us. Oh I’m so sorry.” I took a deep breath “Look,”
I said, “if you say sorry one more time my head might explode. But it’s okay because we just saw one of our
own flying low. They are bound to come
and check here. I mean, we’re a pretty big town and they saw us running away from
them and we were wearing German uniforms.” I put the emphasis on were, because I had noticed Edward had
taken his off. “We know. They explained it to us,” Sam said. “Cool,”
I said, ”then we have an accord.” “What do you mean?” Tom asked. “You can join
our group and in return you’ll stop hitting me in the head with frying pans. Deal?”
Everyone laughed. “Deal,” Sam and Tom agreed together.
We went to sleep in the lounge room because we
wanted to make sure everyone was together and safe. The order of ‘beds (if you
could call a doona on some carpet with a couple of cushions a bed)’ went Jamie,
Milly, Oscar, Renae, Sam, Tom, me then Edward.
We found doonas in the top bedrooms. We had to share them because there
was only six doonas consisting of four doubles and two singles. People had to share the doubles, and I think
you can guess who shared with whom. When I woke up I found the room had turned
yellow. This was because the sun was seeping
through the curtains and the curtains were yellow. We all got up, had breakfast,
and explored the house. This family was
rich. They had gold watches, expensive
televisions (notice I used a plural as they had about six) that didn’t work as
the power had been cut, they had almost an entire IKEA catalogue in their
rumpus room, and they had a gun cabinet which contained a rifle and a shotgun.
We took them for safe keeping with all intent to give them back. We stored them behind a sofa in the lounge
room with the two pistols we’d gotten off the Germans. We went back to the
lounge room a stated to discuss what to do.
“We should go
to a different house,” Oscar said, “even though this is, well let’s face it, it’s
a great house but they saw us running here and that means they will come
looking for us.” “But if they come,” Milly added, “then there are two options. It’s either the Germans come and we surrender
or the Aussies come and we’re saved.” We looked at her. We didn’t really know what to think. Did we go with Oscar’s suggestion or with Renae’s? Finally I said, “Let’s take a vote. We can try and figure out if we stick to our
original plan, or if we now keep switching between houses. But whatever we do
we’ve got to stick together, we don’t know what we’re getting into. We are all
in this now, you know, all for one and one for all”. Edward said nothing, he
was just standing there looking at me. And then I noticed, just like before when
everyone was looking at me. “What?” I said finally. Jamie said “You’ve got a point. We don’t know what we are getting into. I mean, there was nothing on the radio or the
news before we left, and we were only gone a day. We can’t check now because the power’s been
cut. What if we are the enemies? What if we did something to them and they’re
just retaliating? What if we are the bad guys?” Everyone was dead silent “Well…we
don’t know if that’s the case, and any way don’t we still have rights?” I said,
a bit un-nerved by what was just said. “In any case,” Edward said, trying to
put everyone at ease, “even if we did that then we should find out before
jumping to conclusions. Maybe it was
“Okay guys, let’s have lunch and think about
it some more” I said. It seemed to
brighten the mood a little. “What are we having?” Milly said. “Um… I saw they
had some of those Easy-Mac things before I was introduced to the frying pan.” I
grinned. Sam and Tom looked embarrassed but everyone else looked relieved that
I, ‘the fearless-leader’ (one of Jamie affectations), was still relaxed. We all
went to the surprisingly spacious kitchen. Sam who still felt guilty had
offered to cook. I let her. Even though she wasn’t known for her cooking skills,
I was glad for the rest, to be honest my head was starting to ache.
We were all
talking about meaningless things, Oscar and Tom were discussing torques in a
brand new Mazda G.T.I or something, Renae and Milly were discussing if it was
okay to kiss on first dates, and Edward and I were talking about bands. We seemed to have more in common than I first
thought. When Sam had put the meal in front of us we all shut up. It’s not that we were really delighted to see
the mound of lumpy, yellow mess, but we were all just really hungry. After we’d
finished the mound we decided to rest it off, so we went to the lounge room to
sleep. I was fully immersed in a vivid dream with three little, brown-haired children
sitting in a bedroom, with one bed and no windows. They were screaming for their mother as smoke
started to seep under the door. That was the most realistic part; it really felt
like I was choking on the smoke that filled the room. I woke up from the
nightmare, my vision was hazy, and I closed my eyes, rubbed them and opened
them again.
Funny… it
was still hazy? I took a deep breath in and immediately started to gag; the smoke
in the dream was real. I yelled for everyone to wake up, I got up, stepped
forward and tripped over Edward. He woke up a little startled; he looked around
and started at once to try to wake the others up once he had realised what was
happening. I was now on the ground after tripping over Edward, but that was
good. I remembered the fire fighters that used to come to our school and talk
about fire safety ‘get down low, and go, go, go!’ So I did, I started toward
where the smoke looked like it was coming from, the kitchen. When I got there I
found the source of the smoke, not a fire but a pot sitting on top of the stove
billowing smoke. I got up, pulled my t-shirt over my mouth and ran and to the
pot to switch the gas stove off. Then I ran to the wall and opened as many
windows as possible. I called back to the other room, “There’s no fire. Open the windows.” Then I went back to the
stove, took the still smoking pot and put it in the sink to dowse it in water.
As the smoke started to clear I went back to the lounge room and found all of
them all a bit startled but none of them were worse for wear.
---
“What’s
wrong?” Sam asked me, a little worried. “Oh…you left the stove on,” immediately
as I said it I knew it was a bad Idea. I could see her face starting to crack,
“but,” I said, making this up as I went along, “anyone of us could have done it.”
“Yeah, but it was me,” she said now
crying, “I can never do anything right. I’m always falling over, getting stuck or over
reacting.” As she said that, I realised she was right. At school she was always snapping pencils in Maths
and breaking beakers in Science. “It’s all right,” I said reaching out to hug
her, “we all make mistakes.” “I-I’m so sorry,” she said weeping into my right
shoulder. I looked around at Edward for help.
He came forward, put one hand on her head and one on my left shoulder. I
felt myself blush. “It’s all right,” he and I said together. “Yeah,” said Tom now rubbing her back, “its
okay. Shhhh”. It took a while for her to fully calm down. By then it was
starting to get dark. “We should stay
here and organise our priorities” Jamie said. “Yeah,” said Oscar, “at least
until we’ve figured out where we would go next”.
By that
stage I was really tired, my eyes were drooping and I was having trouble
holding my head up. “Well,” Edward said beside me, “we could figure out where
they would be keeping our parents and families.” “What do you mean Edward?” Milly
said. “I mean that we only have two places large enough to store the entire
town” I thought sleepily about that. “Where?” Oscar questioned. “The council
building or the sports centre” I replied tiredly. “Oh yeah,” said Oscar. “But I
think,” Edward continued “they would keep them in the sports centre its bigger
and it has fewer exits.” We all agreed.
Then we started some conversation about, ‘If you were stuck on a desert
island what would you bring’ I fell asleep with my head resting on my arm right
there on the table.
I vaguely
remember someone picking me up and carrying me to the lounge room, but that was
it. When I woke up next morning I found myself face to face with Edward. I lay
there and watched him sleep. I noticed that the light that shone through the
room in the morning was still very dim. I got up and made my way to the kitchen
with the intent of making myself a coffee. We had started running out of some
supplies, milk and bread, but there was powdered milk in a tin in the pantry so
I made a coffee. I sat down with it and swept my eyes across the kitchen then I
faced the lounge room. Edward was stirring. I decided to put the pot on the
stove and re-boil the water so that others could have a cup, then I sat back
down in my chair.
As Edward
walked in he said “Good morning. How did you sleep? You must have been tired
because you fell asleep in here last night. I had to carry you to bed.” His
eyes met mine, I was transfixed. He made himself a coffee and sat down across
from me. “You know?” he said, “there’s something about you that I find truly
fascinating.” “Ha!” I half scoffed, “there’s nothing remotely special about me.”
“No, no, no I disagree,” he said, “I find the way you face adversity truly
inspiring.” “Ugh,” I groaned, “Edward
it’s too early for big words, my brain is still sleeping.” “Okay, let’s see… I
love the way you handle challenges that come along. It shows true leadership.”
I smiled, “See, it’s not that difficult to use smaller words.” I looked up, he
was leaning close to me. “You know,” he
said smiling, “I think something must have muddle your brain. Come to think of it hitting your head
repeatedly wouldn’t help.” “Hey, hitting my head,” I corrected him, “anyway
it’s just because I’m tired, that’s all.” “Really?” He questioned me, “You know,
I always thought you weren’t very interesting. But now I have come to like you…more
than a frien-,” he cut off and stared out the window behind me. I turned and
saw a German soldier pointing his gun at us through the window. He was
motioning to his friend and for the brief second that he was turned away,
Edward grabbed my arm and pulled me into the lounge room. I started to wake
every one up while Edward grabbed the guns and his hiking bag.
He cocked a
pistol and gave it to me, he gave the other pistol to Oscar, the shotgun was
given to Jamie. He cocked his rifle, swung his bag on his back and pointed the
rifle toward the entrance hall. I faced the kitchen holding the pistol
awkwardly. It was strange to have that power in your hands. Just like my Dad
said, “It takes nine months to make a life, but only a second to take it away.”
I never really realised what that meant… until now. There was a smashing of glass
and the sound of a solid object snapping the wood of the door (which was
already weakened by Edwards ‘spur of the moment’ action). And then they came. It
felt an eternity of waiting just to see the first soldier coming through the
open door from the kitchen. I hesitated, but luckily he did too. They didn’t
expect us to had weapons. Then I pulled the trigger. I felt the recoil throw my
arm back. And the sound, oh…I couldn’t explain it if I tried. I had no idea
what would happen. It felt like everything had gone into the matrix slow-motion
shots. I was waiting for him to duck or dodge out of the way. He didn’t. All I
could see was the pain running through him like a Mexican wave stretching from
his chest, rippling out until it hit the edges of his body and the soldier
collapsed in a heap.
I saw
another soldier writhing in pain next to him. Then I felt a pair of hands
grabbing my waist and pulling me toward the entrance hall. Next, I was running
out of the house. Milly was behind me and the rest of them were in front of me.
We just sprinted down the road not knowing where to go or what to do. We turned
a corner and headed for a derelict house which everyone said was haunted. We
sprinted around the back and kicked in the door. We headed upstairs and ran into
the first room that faced the street. We dropped our guns and Edward’s bag on
the floor and looked out the window for any sign of danger. We waited and
waited. The waiting was the worst because you could think back to what you just
saw. What you just did. That was when I cracked. All I could do was curl up in a ball. I was
rocking backwards and forwards and I couldn’t do anything else. Tears welled up
in my eyes. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t hear anything. I could just remember
the sound of the shot. I just sat there rocking backwards and forwards. Edward
turned around. He realised what I was doing and he rushed over to me and
started to hold me. I could tell he was talking, his lips were moving. But, I
still couldn’t hear him. I’m pretty sure that he realised I couldn’t hear him,
so he shook me out of my stupor.
I looked up
at him. He started telling me over and over again, “It’s alright, it’s okay, and
you’re alright,” he said crooning to me in the same soft voice he used in the
cave. I took a while to calm me down. Evidently the Germans hadn’t seen us running
into this house, but as Jamie pointed out, “We still need to keep moving.” I
realised suddenly, “That plane I saw, what if it didn’t see us? What if they
haven’t found out about us?” “They couldn’t have missed that,” Edward murmured
in my ear. He had taken to sitting behind me holding me upright. “But,” I
hesitated, “what we should do is find a mobile and try and contact outside help,”
I paused. “Does anyone know of anyone with a phone?” I thought for a minute. We
lived in a reasonably big town, but it was isolated from the outside world. Not
many of us had really expensive things but those who did have them had them in
excess example A: the televisions at the hide-out house.
“I think,” Tom said finally, “the Ackroyd’s
have one. You know what Susie’s like. She is as adventurous as I am tall.” ”Yeah,
they’re bound to have one, let’s go and-” Edward interrupted Milly, “No. We
should send only a couple of people. It would be easier for the soldiers to
catch eight of us than just two. And if
two are caught then our crusade wouldn’t be over.” I thought about that for a
moment. I inhaled deeply and said “I’ll go.” Edward put his chin on my shoulder
looked at me, “No” he said. It startled me how dark his voice could be, “You’ve
done enough hero work let someone else share the limelight.” I blushed, “Okay,”
Sam and Tom said together, “I’ll go” they said still speaking in unison. “We
shouldn’t stay here,” I said, “they’re bound to come looking for those who were
responsible for the, the-” I couldn’t bring myself to say it, I was hoping that
they understood what I was trying to say. “We know,” Edward said reassuringly,
“we know what you mean.” I inhaled, “So we should go to the, um…, rainforest
and meet up at the clearing?” “Okay,” said Tom and Sam, “We’ll leave soon but
whatever you do don’t come looking for us, we’ll find you.” We all just sat
there not really wanting them to go, when I finally realised “Which way are we
going?” “We should go around the outskirts running from house to house,” Edward
said. At least he was still thinking rationally. “Okay,” I thought, “that could
work”. “Are you guys ready to go” I asked Tom and Sam. They looked hesitantly
at me, “Y-yes,” they seemed unsure. “Yeah we’ll go. Just In case we don’t see
you again, goodbye,” she was crying. I got up and ran forward, my arms
stretched out to hug her. “I’m sorry you have to do this,” I said now crying
into her shoulder. We exchanged our farewells. Tom took the rifle and from the
bedroom window we saw them jogging out of the house and down the road.
---
We decided
to wait until nightfall, which left a lot of time to sit around and do
absolutely nothing. That was what I hated the most, sitting down and doing
nothing. Everyone went to their own little corners; there was Renae on the bed,
Jamie in the corner nearest the window, Edward in the corner to Jamie’s right, Milly
in the one to Jamie’s left and me in the corner opposite Jamie. I kept thinking
about that soldier. About his family, if
he had a wife or kids. I kept seeing the ripple of pain and anguish. I knew I
would never forget that memory. Edward came over and sat down next to me. I
started to feel drowsy, I don’t know if it was because I woke up early, or
because I was sitting in the sun. I lay my head on his shoulder and closed my
eyes. I woke up about an hour later, with a stiff neck and a back ache. I got
up and stretched, I felt my spine crack back into place, it felt a lot better.
I looked over at Edward, he was sleeping.
He had his head against the wall. He looked really peaceful.
I went over
to the window and sat next to Jamie who had moved, I guessed because it was too
uncomfortable. “Nice sleep?” Jamie winked at me. “Yeah,” I answered back. “Did
you get any?” He thought, “I don’t know. you know that thing where you kind of
go into a stupor…well I did that, I don’t know if you count that as sleeping or
not. But it got really uncomfortable so I came over here”. “Yeah,” I said “I
think it’s kind of like day-dreaming, I guess it’s sleeping”, there was a
pause, it was kind of awkward. “
He looked at
me, and then at Edward, then back at me. “Oh, come on” he said, a little
exasperated. “You know it in your heart that you like him. Come on, you know
this crap better than I do, ‘true left love unspoken is the quickest route to a
broken heart’ and all that junk. I know he likes you, why don’t you just accept
the way you feel about him.” I was silent. I knew I had no come back and no Smart Alec
answers. He got me. I did like Edward. “Okay,” I whispered “I like Edward. Is
that a crime?” “No,” he answered. “Just tell him how you feel.” “This is a war
zone, for crying out loud,” I said, much more loudly than I had intended.
Edward yawned, opened his eyes and looked at us both. I smiled and decided to
go vanish to the bathroom to ‘wash my face’. As I walked out I glanced at the clock
that the previous owners had left. It was, and I was assuming it was the
correct time, 5:45.
“What a
dump” I said out loud to myself. There were tiles falling off the wall, the shower
was missing taps and the floor was knee deep in dust and cobwebs. I walked over
to the sink and struggled with the tap until it gushed out water. I adjusted
the tap to a suitable pressure, caught the water in my cupped hands and
splashed it over my face. When I had finished, I walked back to the bedroom and
went to sit back by the window. Jamie and Edward were there. Jamie looked guilty and Edward looked smug.
Ugh… I was going to kill Jamie. Clearing my head with a deep breath, I sat down
next to Edward and asked. “Do any of you know the time, the clock out there
says its five forty-five, but I’m not sure?” Edward checked his watch, “It’s
about six, so it wasn’t far off. It’s getting darker. We should wake the others so we can head of
as soon as it is dark.” I stood up and went to wake Oscar, he wasn’t too happy
that I woke him, but I told him it was for the best.
When everyone
was up, we determined the route. “Try and stick together,” I said. “We should
head for the clearing if we get split up though.” They all agreed on that. We headed down the stairs and to the back
door. I had the pistol again. Edward taught me how to put the safety on and off
so I wouldn’t have it live as we were trying to sneak around the outskirts of
town and into a rainforest. He gave the shot gun to Jamie and he kept the other
pistol. It went dark pretty quick. We were lucky because sometimes the moon can
just light up the sky and make everything as bright as day, but tonight cloud
had swept in from the east. It looked like the only thing we would have to
worry about was bumping into things. We set off running in between the
houses. We sent someone off in front as
scout. If it was safe, they’d wave a
white handkerchief to signal to us.
When it was
my turn to be scout I ran forward. As I
got to the house I tripped over a dog bowl and fell over. Just my luck. But I got up, turned around and
signalled for everyone to follow. It was tedious running between houses, but we
were making good time. Later on it started to rain. The further we got into our journey, the
heavier the rain became. The trip around the outskirts of town was about 10 km. We may not have lived in a very big town, but
we sure lived in a spacious one. At the half-way point we stopped and rested
for a bit. The backdoor of the house we stopped at was open, so we popped in
for a quick snack. We found some fruit cake on the bench, it was kind of old but
still nice. When we got closer towards the sports centre we could distant
shouting that made me anxious. Sensing my anxiety, Edward held my hand. I felt
my face become hotter. As we were reaching the end of our ‘little trip’ I heard
something that sounded like gun fire. That made me more anxious. I squeezed
Edwards hand tighter and bit my tongue trying not to scream.
We quickened
our pace. As we got to the edge of town there was a one hundred metre wide
paddock commonly called ‘the paddock of doom’. Legend has it some kid was
killed there. But thought it was just away for parents to scare their kids into
not going there, because as my mum would put it “the people who hang out there
are less than desirable.” Kids had built
jumps on the paddock to ride bikes over and do tricks. We had all agreed back
at the derelict house that we would sprint to the other side, then make our may
to the clearing. “Ready?” I asked in a timid voice. “Yep,” Jamie said. “Just remember, if you trip don’t, I repeat,
don’t scream.”
---
We all
sprinted, the distance was nothing but the terrain was treacherous. You could
never plot it because the kids kept changing it, modifying it, tearing down it
and starting a fresh. The problem with that was that there were mounds and
holes and branches riddling the area. As I ran I could see black shapes in my
peripheral vision dodging and weaving. I think I was too focused on that to realize
what I was doing. As I looked up I saw a mound of dirt moulded into a jump. I
weaved around it and found myself face to face with a log. I couldn’t stop, it
was too late. Instinctively I leaped forward like a ballerina, with one leg stretched
in front of me and one behind. But I caught my foot on the log and immediately went
from leaping to falling forward toward the ground. I put my hands instinctively
over my face and braced for impact, I hit the ground hard. I was lucky, I’d put
my hand over my face. Otherwise I would
have concussed myself… again. I pulled
myself up, feeling an agonising pain in my right knee. But I continued to run
toward the rainforest. As I got closer to the forest I could hear someone else
running beside me. I turned and saw Milly, I was guessing her ankle was still
sore from her fall two days ago. We got to the forest and were greeted by Oscar, Jamie, Renae, and
Edward.
As we headed
off toward the clearing, I felt the pain in my knee grow stronger. I guess it
was just a cut and maybe some gravel rash or something, but it was getting
worst and worst. As I walked I tried not to think about the pain that was now
causing me to limp. Edward noticed. “What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding anxious.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I just fell over on the run and now my knee is hurting
that’s all.” “I wondered why you were slow? I mean you’re quite fit, so I
thought that run would have been like a walk in the park.” I giggled at that.
Walking along I began to limp more prominently. It wasn’t far to the clearing
and I was able to see it. When we were almost there, my knee buckled making me
fall forward. Edward helped me up and put his arm around my waist which helped
me to walk. “When we get to the clearing,” he said now very anxious, “I’m going
to have to take a look at your knee.” I nodded.
When we got
to the clearing my knee was starting to throb. I got to the log in the middle
of the clearing with Edward’s help. He helped me sit down, swung his bag off
his back and knelt beside me. I saw him pull out a torch and a red container
the size of a shoe box. He turned towards my leg and shone the torch on it. How
could I describe it? My knee was bleeding from a large cut right down its
centre, it was surrounded by gravel rash, my leg was purple and visibly
swelling and it had bit of rocks still embedded in it. “Are you alright?” he
asked. “Um…” I said now going pale with the pain, “No I-I think my kneecap is
broken”. He bent closer toward my knee, “Yeah I think so too,” he said sounding
rather worried. “I’m going to have to clean and dress the wound,” he said now
in a croon. “It will hurt, but you mustn’t move too much because you might
damage it even more.” I took in what he had just said, inhaled, nodded and said
“I’ll need to hold someone’s hand.” “I’ll do it,” piped up Renae who was behind
me. “Okay,” I took her hand and started to think about other things like Mum
and Ead and…Edward.
But then the
pain hit me like a torrent of water. Bang! It spread from my knee all the way up to my
chest. It suffocated me. I looked down, Edward was wiping the cut with Dettol. He
got tweezers out and started carefully removing pieces of embedded rock. After
that was done he got Jamie to carefully hold my leg up and he wrapped my knee
in a skin coloured compression bandage. I
sat there on the log for what felt like days. It was cold and I only had a
t-shirt on. When I started to shiver, Edward came over pulled off his jacket
and gave it to me, “Is it feeling better?” He asked in a worried voice. “Yeah,
it’s starting to throb, but that only means its healing.” He smiled and sat
down on the log. “What time is it?” I asked, I couldn’t see the suns rays yet
so it must still be late. “It’s only twelve. You should get some rest.” “Mmm,”
I agreed. Then without warning he pulled
me back gently, but firmly, and put my head in his lap, “Go to sleep,” he
whispered, I obliged.
---
“How are you
feeling?” Edward asked as I yawned and opened my eyes. “Better. But my knee is really stiff.” “We need to keep
it still, otherwise it might split the kneecap even more.” “So you do think
it’s broken?” I asked. “More than certain. When my brother broke his, the symptoms,
the colour, it’s almost identical.” “Almost?” I asked perplex. “Yeah,” he
smiled. “My brother cried.” I giggled and turned red again. “So what time it is
now?” He looked at his watch, “Just past nine.” “Nine?”I said confused, “I
slept for that long?” I sat up and stretched I was really stiff. “Will you help
me get to the shade?” I asked. “Of course,” he replied. I swung my stiff leg
over the log so that I was sitting facing the shady trees. I stood up putting
all my weight on my left leg. Edward
came around to my right side and wound his arm around my waist. I hobbled to
the tree and sat down in the shade. “When do you think they will come?” I asked
him. “Soon”, he murmured. “Cool,” I said as I lay back against a tree. “Wake me
when they get here,” I closed my eyes.
I had a
vivid dream. Edward, Jamie, Mum, Dad,
Sam, Tom, Oscar and Renae were all there, for awhile I wondered where ‘there’
was. I looked up there was a scoreboard and a couple of hoops. Now that I
looked we were in the sports centre and everyone, the whole town, was there
safe and secure. Then the soldiers came in, and started waving their guns
around, it was frightening. A small child was calling for her mother the
soldier was yelling at her and pointing his gun at her. She was crying, almost
screaming. I turned away and then I heard the ominous shot, it was exactly like
the one in the hide out house. I tried to wake up, forcing myself to but I
couldn’t. I heard my name being called. I thought it was a soldier. I started thrashing
trying to get away from the voice. Then I woke up.
I saw Edward
looking at me with pleading eyes, “Are-are you alright?” I looked up and
swallowed, feeling tears well up in my eyes. He pulled me toward him, I felt
myself starting to cry. He held me to his chest soothing my pain with his voice.
“It’s alright,” he crooned over and over again. I calmed down and told him
about the dream. He was still cradling in his arms. He just sat there
listening. We sat there not talking,
just thinking and watching the birds flitting in and out of the trees. “We
might have to go back to town, we’re running low on food.” Edward had managed
to get some food in his over stuffed backpack while we were in the hide out
house looking around. “Mmm,” I agreed. I had gone off the idea of food. I was
still a little shaken up from the dream. They decided to go to the town tomorrow
at about six at night. That left all day to do nothing. But of course, I wasn’t
doing anything anyway because of my injury.
At six they left.
It was quiet. Renae had stayed behind. We didn’t talk much, she was too worried
about Oscar to talk. What we did say to each other was short and to the point.
Like, “Do you want any water?” or “Are you tired?” At least I had some company, she was always
right next to my where ever I went. I slept for most of the day. It’s amazing
how you get so tired from doing nothing. The others came back at six pm the
next day. They told us that the Germans were holding the town captive in the
sports centre, and that they had to wait to bring the supplies back till after
dark. They thought someone had seen them, but no one was following them now. I
went, with the help of Edward, to the shady tree. I lay down in the grass. It
was so peaceful, there were no sounds. I put my head on Edwards lap and stared
at the tree above looking at all the patterns and colours. I realized that Edward
was staring at me. I got embarrassed and flushed red. He chuckled, but
continued to stare.
“What?” I said still embarrassed. “It’s
nothing really,” he admitted. “It was just…I love the way you blush. It’s all
of a sudden but it’s so cute.” I blushed again but this time I felt my face get
really hot, I knew I must look like a tomato. “See,” he said not breaking his
gaze, “It’s all of a sudden.” He put his hand on my cheek, and I returned to
watching the tree.
I don’t know
how long I was asleep, but when I woke up it was raining and getting dark. I
hobbled over to the camp stove the guys had ‘borrowed’ and sat down. They
started to discuss what they favourite season was. “You see I love spring,” I
said. “Everything is alive I get the feeling that I’m in love. In spring, you
know that lighted headed buzzy feeling.” “That’s probably just hay fever,” said
Jamie, as cynical as always. “It does that to me as well. You see the good season
to like is winter. Coz then you can go snowboarding” “Ha,” I scoffed. “You haven’t
been any where that couldn’t be classified as sub-tropical.” He frowned “Nah, I
went to…um…Syd-” he cut off and stared into the rainforest, the side closest to
town, because birds had just set off one of those wildlife alarm calls. The one
that alerts other animals to the presence of…danger.
We acted
immediately. Edward grabbed me and carried me to the other side of the clearing,
he went back to the others. Jamie already had picked up the shotgun. Edward
grabbed the pistol and gave the other one to Renae (she was a better shot than Oscar).
They all loaded and cocked they guns and pointed it toward the rainforest, I
felt dread creeping up on me. I saw my friends Renae, Jamie and Edward
protecting me from the imposing threat, I saw Milly and Oscar running back to
me with fear spread across they beautiful faces. I realized this was all my
fault if I hadn’t told them to come caving with me none of this would have
happened. They would be safe with their parents, sure maybe they would have
been held captive, but at least they would have been safe. I felt so bad, all
the things that had happened the fight on the street, the shoot off, all our
injuries and us splitting up was all me. I started to cry. Milly an Oscar who
had reached me were now comforting me, “it’s going to be alright.” I couldn’t help
myself it just burst out “No it’s not,” I tried to speak clearly through the
tears. “This is all my fault, I’m so sorry”. They looked at me very worried
“He-hey, we are still alive aren’t we?” Oscar said after an angry glance from
Milly. “Only just,” I said through the tears now pouring down my face. “No
don’t be so stupid,” Milly said in frustration. “We don’t even know you are trying
to be sorry for.” I took a deep breath, “Fo-for everything. It was my fault we
went on that stu-stupid caving trip. If it weren’t for me you wo-would be safe
in the sports centre with your family. Not defending your liv-lives in a rainforest
clearing.” My voice kept breaking, but I didn’t care. “Bethany, we probably
would have been in just as much danger at the sports centre than if we were
here.” The thought of that calmed me down enough to look over at the others,
standing with their backs towards us with guns raised. Everything fell silent; you could have heard a
pin drop. Then the ominous sound of feet sloshing through the dense under-growth,
I saw them two slightly dirty and a little worst of wear people that I Knew as…
---
“Tom. Sam. Oh
we’ve missed you so much,” I got up and hopped, very ungainly toward them. I
literally fell on Sam but luckily she caught me and pulled me into a hug. “Ohh,
I’ve missed you guys, I was so worried about you.” I got out of her hug and
then threw my arms around Tom as Milly hugged Sam. “We should get out of the
rain,” I said finally as we all had hugged and exchanged hellos. I started
hobbling back to the shady tree which now double and cover for the elements
when Edward grabbed me and carried me back to the trees in his arms. “You
didn’t have to do that you know,” I whispered in his ear when he sat down next
to me. He smiled and whispered back “But I wanted to.”
We sat in a
circle with my leg in the centre (I still couldn’t bend it). “What happened to
you?” Tom asked me eyeing my swollen and bruised leg. “I was just about to ask
the same question,” I replied. “Well, ladies first.” “Okay, okay,” and I
started to tell them about our journey to the clearing and my ‘little trip’.
When I finished they were looking at me with a mixture of empathy and worry. “It
will be alright,” I said spotting their faces. “So,” I said “what happened to
you?” “Well,” Tom said, “we had gotten to the house fine, and we got the phone,
but we needed to charge it. So, we looked around and we found one of those
chargers that plug into the cigarette lighter in the car, you know the ones. So
we found the keys and went out to the car. When I got in I plugged it up to the
charger in the car and waited it took us like an hour to realized that we had
to turn the car on to charge it.” I rolled my eyes. “Okay, so we turn it on,
and Bam! I don’t know if Susie is deaf or not, but that kid cranks her music up
loud. It took about ten seconds to find the button that switches the CD player
off, then we quickly charged it but, it was too late we drawn to much attention
to ourselves. They came and well you heard the gun fire right.” I nodded. “So…ahh...anyway
we had to lie low for a couple of days, you know. Not go running through the
town like headless chickens. Once the scene died down we went back to the car and
got the phone,” “They didn’t turn the car off when you were lying low?” I
looked at him confused. “Nah, they it’s a really nice Merc, 12-oh-9 I think. A
beauty, really quite.” “Sweet. Is that the one with the 1200 torque engine?” ”Ahem.”
I smiled. Jacob Ackroyd was a entrepreneur “Then” Tom continued, with a tint to
his cheeks, “We waited for nightfall and came here.” We smiled at each other
and then Edward said, “Hang on, you got it?” “Yeah. We’re not completely
hopeless you know.” I looked at them with a grin spread across my face.
“Lets call
the army. Susie’s father is in the army she’s bound to have his contact. They
could probably help us.” I thought about what we would say. ‘Hello? Yes...Um,
my town’s been invaded and we need help.’ It sounded kind of right. Tom had
given Edward the phone. “Okay,” Edward said. “I’ll go try and get reception. The
middle of the clearing might have some.” “I’ll go with you,” I said wanting to
leave the others to catch up. They always seemed to get along better without me
clouding them up with my sensibility. He helped me out to the middle of the
clearing then he bent over the phone. He went and sat on the log, He turned the
phone on and then into contacts and searched ‘D’ for Dad there was nothing. I
remembered her Dad’s name was Jeremy so I leaned over and punched in ‘J’ for Jeremy.
We got something there was Jeremy’s home and work number we called his work. Edward
put it on speaker and we listened to the dial tone.
It started
ringing, ‘Ring, Ring’. We waited. On the fourth ring I became worried, but then
there was the sound of the phone being picked up. “Susie” the voice sounded
scared. “No we answer together “it’s one of Susie’s friends.” ”What happened to
Susie?” he asked his voice almost at breaking point. “Nothing,” I said “Look…we’ve
been invaded Mr. Ackroyd and we don’t know what to do.” “Invaded, invaded by
whom?” He sounded disbelieving now. “The Germans, Mr. Ackroyd and we ar-are
really scared,” my voice was starting to break. “What can I do?” he asked, “Bring
support,” Edward said.“We really need your help.” He took a deep breath in “Hang
on. I’ll go get the Captain.” There was a rustling and banging on his end, we heard
the distant call of ‘Cap’n’.
We waited
for a minute “I’ll put you on speaker” he said sounding very important. There
was a beep and then a new voice “This is Captain J. Bogg, but call me Justyn.” This
voice sounded young and fresh he was probably only twenty five. “Please Justyn,”
it sounded weird addressing someone we didn’t even know, by their first name.
“You’ve got to help us there are some people invading our town,” I found myself
begging to a stranger it felt unusual. “We will help you,” Justyn said, “just tell
me where you are.” “We are in a town in Queensland called Mapoon. But we are
hiding in a rainforest clearing just north of the town.” “Okay”, he said. “We
will be there in mmm…about three days. All you have to do is stay there and
keep out of their sight. We’re going to get your families first and then come
for you. Good luck.” “You too. Good bye,” I said in a choked voice as the phone
call ended. We were going to be fine, we were going to get out of this and our
families would be rescued as well. Joy surged through me andI wanted to do
something wild I looked at Edward, he was staring back at me.
I resisted
the urge to tackle him to the ground. Instead I went for a hug. He held me
there in the pouring rain. I looked at him there was a triumphant look in his eye
and a sly smile on his face. He bent his head down and kissed my nose, lightly
but slowly. I moved my face up so that our noses were touching. Then, he kissed
me. A little hesitantly at first probably just gauging my reaction. I kissed
him back. I felt the rain soak my back, his hands on my shoulders. I put my
hands behind his head and knotted his hair with my hands. There was a loud
coughing sound from behind us; it snapped us out of our trance. I turned
towards the others, a little embarrassed but all together thrilled. I looked at
them all, standing with us in the rain. Jamie turned towards me “Good news?” I
smiled slyly “Guess.”