Lachlan Walter - The Rain Never Came

‘How long?’

Tobe picked up his rifle, prodded the nearest body with it. ‘Judging by this poor fucker, I’d say only a couple of days, a week at the most.’

He scratched his chin, thinking hard. A horrifying thought reared its ugly head.

‘Tobe?’

‘Give me a minute.’

‘No, don’t give me that. Look, mate, we need to get out of here, right now. If the Creeps were hit this hard, they’ll be looking for payback. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be around when that happens.’

‘I doubt they’ll come back here. Why would they? Better to bomb the shit out of the joint from the air and then take out all the surrounding towns, just to be safe.’

My mouth fell open. ‘Towns like home?’

He nodded at me, slowly.

Iturned and ran, without hesitation, without a plan. The thought that our nothing, nowhere town might be next spurred me on, blinded me to everything else. The bodies, the wrecked vehicles, the ruined buildings, the carnage—they were all a blur. I flew down debris-choked roads, vaulted cracks and potholes. Tobe was somewhere far away, almost forgotten. My heart hammered. My body complained, a boisterous choir of weary strain. I felt thirsty, but the feeling was distant, drowned out by panic. I kept running, hit the withered bush that bordered the bare-earth plain. Dying trees and thick scrub whipped me; I threw my arms up to protect my face and barrelled through, my body the prow of a fear ship. The uneven ground, thick with leaf litter, dead wood, and exposed rocks, constantly snagged my feet. Somehow, I ran on. Nothing else moved, a seemingly identical patch of frozen bush, repeated for mile after mile.

I was moving forward; the world was standing still.

I couldn’t keep going and staggered, slowed, then stopped. My breath wouldn’t come; my heart kept racing. I knocked off half of my canteen, let a cramp subside, and then kept drinking. For too long, I stayed bent in half, trying to regain control.

Time passed. The world slowly lost its blurred edges.

I stood straight, patted myself down, checked for scratches. Nothing. Once again, I silently thanked someone I don’t believe in. My thirst flared and I finished off my canteen, emptying it. A familiar worry pulsed through me, but my shock squashed it flat.

I realised that I was lost.

I stood there, faced with yet another brand new world. Earthen ridges ran either side of me, their cracked walls full of rocks. A dead creek snaked across a dying land; its bed was narrow, maybe six feet wide. I had no idea how I ended up in it, probably stumbled through a ford or a breach. I goggled at it. A crash rang out, a familiar sound, a startled animal barging through thick scrub. I ignored it, knowing better than to mess with a starving bull roo.

I scrambled up one side of the ridge. I was a little disappointed by what I found—more withered bush, same as it ever was. But then what had I expected? Civilisation? The lost boys? El Dorado?

I cursed aloud, kicking the ground.

‘Tobe!’

I threw my head back, yelled it loud. Spooked birds took flight, a monstrous feathered cloud that threw me in shadow. And then they were gone and there was just the patchy canopy, the burning sun, the empty sky.

‘Tobe!’

Still nothing.

I broke down, coughing, wheezing, my chest burning. I caught my breath and finally heard Tobe’s reply. Stupid relief washed over me. Light and happy, almost a birdsong—it sounded so much like it but it wasn’t a coo-ee.

‘Dick-head… Dick-head…’

It was small, far away.

‘Tobe!’

‘Dick-head…’

‘Tobe!’

‘Dick-head…’

Call and response, again and again. Each time, Tobe was that bit louder. I wanted to run to meet him, but knew that was a bad idea. I waited, called until my voice grew hoarse, kept calling until Tobe appeared in the distance, Red and Blue trotting beside him—black silhouettes stalking through the grey scrub, walking around like they owned the place.

I stopped calling out a word that was now little more than an animal grunt.

‘G’day, Bill,’ he said, as easy as can be.

We hugged.

‘It’s good to see you.’ It was a dry whisper.

Gently mocking, Tobe replied in kind. ‘You too, mate, you too… Now, get off me, you idiot.’

I let him go. He unclipped a canteen from his belt and passed it over. I finished it off, ignoring the cramp in my gut. My head started swimming again; I tottered, suddenly dizzy. I had pushed it hard running all those miles, I had blown a lot of fuses. Deep inside me, it felt like something had broken. Blue trotted over, licked my hand. More by instinct, barely knowing what I was doing, I gave her a good scratch.

‘Bill?’

I didn’t answer.

‘Mate, are you okay?’

‘Hang on a minute.’

‘Shit, you can have five. Kick back and have a smoke if you like. But then we’re out of here.’

I looked at him. He was serious, had already turned away. He held something out in front of him; the bright sun reflected off its glass face, a wicked shard of burning light. He nodded to himself, slipping the compass back in his pocket.

‘You nearly there?’

I looked at him darkly. He was right; we needed to get moving, to get home. There was no time to sit around with our feet up. I decided to get it together, or make an attempt at least. But nothing came.

‘You a bit shell-shocked, mate?’

I didn’t answer, tried taking another step. Nothing. The signal just wouldn’t go through.

‘Right, then.’

Quick as a striking snake, he pushed hard on my chest. I rocked on my heels and flailed around, then started to fall.

‘Good one,’ Tobe said, catching me.

I righted myself, shook him away, and raised my hand in a fist. Nothing else crossed my mind. Tobe caught my hand, forced it down.

‘We should get a move on, now that you’ve got your beans back.’

I couldn’t believe his cheek. Without another word, he started walking away. Somewhat reluctantly, I followed. What else could I do? He wasn’t moving fast, but it was soon too much for me. I shuffled, dragging my feet. Every so often, Tobe looked over his shoulder to make sure I was okay. Whenever he did so, I would smile and make a pathetic effort to speed up. He would ignore my smile, turn back, and tramp on.

We weaved around dying trees, crested ridges, clambered down gullies, barged through waist-high scrub and drifts of dead leaves. Sometimes, Tobe was far in the distance, one shadow amongst many. Once or twice, he stopped and looked at the sky, trying to guess how much daylight was left. A few times, he disappeared altogether, only to reappear a minute later.

I trudged on, one foot in front of the other. I caught my feet and almost fell more times than I could count.

‘Bill?’

I didn’t look up.

‘Bill?

‘What?’ I asked.

‘Mate, stop for a minute.’

I managed to look up. I tried to summon a smile.

Ahead of me, I could see bright sunlight and the bare-earth plain. If I hadn’t been so dry, I would have cried. I managed to catch up to Tobe. Together, we pushed through the tree line. The plain rolled out a long way before meeting the wall. Together, they stretched to the north and the south. A couple of burnt-out transports were all that broke the emptiness. I had no idea where our gap was, where we had first come in.

‘West’s that way,’ Tobe said. He pocketed his compass and started walking.

I once again trailed in Tobe’s wake, a painful crawl across an uncaring land. I followed the tree line, my feet dragging ruts through the dirt and dust. My head lolled, my arms hung useless, my legs kept threatening to buckle. I licked my cracked lips. I felt like a badly made facsimile of a man.