Lachlan Walter - The Rain Never Came

‘As if there’s a difference.’

He laughed, slowly at first and then harder and harder. It was contagious, soon we were howling together.

‘What’s so funny?’ Ruby asked.

We laughed some more. Tobe wiped tears from his eyes. Somehow, he kept the transport under control. But our mirth faded as the highway curved and the thick bush swallowed us up into its shadowy world. Tobe cut our speed as the road started twisting through the towering trees. We crawled for a long time before the road straightened back out.

‘Shit.’

Ruby drew the word out, leaning forward with the binoculars hard against her eyes. Tobe looked at me, raising his eyebrows. I didn’t know what he wanted.

‘Have a look, dickhead.’

Ruby wordlessly held the binoculars up.

‘It’s all right, Tobe. It’s just an old bridge and a few more wrecks,’ I said, doing as he said.

We slowed, stopped at the bridge, jumped out. Trees grew thickly around us, hugging both sides of the road. We must have been on an aquifer; they formed a solid wall, casting us in deep shadow. The pounding sun was far away, hidden by the canopy, robbed of its ferocity.

There was no birdsong. The world sighed as the wind blew.

‘Right, then.’

Ruby and I stood to one side as Tobe rolled an enormous rock onto the road. I crouched next to him, helped him lift it. Tobe nodded at the bridge. A wrecked firetruck and a rusted-out bus sat in the middle, cutting it in two. Sunlight drenched us, the empty river below cutting a bright scar through the dark land.

‘One, two, three.’

We threw the rock as hard as we could. It landed with a thump, rolled a little, came to rest beside the firetruck. The bridge barely shook. Tobe picked up another rock, threw it at the bus. The crash of shattering glass echoed through the trees.

‘Let’s go. Ruby, stay behind me.’

But she had already darted onto the bridge. Red and Blue dashed past her, running their guts out in pure dog joy, disappearing from view. The wrecks threw Ruby in shadow; we soon lost sight of her as well.

‘Shit.’

We jumped back into the cabin. Tobe started the transport, edged the front wheels onto the bridge. It sagged a little but held. I released a breath I didn’t know I had been holding. I kept an eye out for Ruby. Tobe inched us forward, so slowly that you would swear we weren’t moving. The bridge moaned as old wood strained.

‘Come on, what are you waiting for? Bloody Christmas?’ Ruby had Tobe’s drawl down pat.

She had climbed on top of the bus and was doing a handstand. I whistled low, couldn’t help feeling old. To see it all as simply the way it is, instead of as it was, instead of as the wreckage of a forgotten world, what bliss that would be.

I sighed deeply. Tobe muttered under his breath.

Ruby smiled wide, finishing her routine by somersaulting to the ground. She bowed low and then darted further along the bridge.

‘Better get a wriggle on, I guess.’

I felt the same weary regret that filled Tobe’s voice. I tried to ignore it. We pulled up to the firetruck, wedged our bull-bar against it. Once again, we dug in and pushed hard. It started to move, leaving rubber behind. After much grinding effort we pulled free, only to snag the bus on our rear bumper. The engine whined, the transport weighed down by our newfound load.

‘Come on.’

Tobe floored the accelerator, forcing us forward. The engine screamed and then stalled. I leaned out the window to look at the damage; we were hauling a load of twisted metal that exuded the acrid taint of petrol. Somehow, the bus’s fuel tank had been punctured; a thin trail was dribbling down its side, pooling on the road. I turned back. Ruby was watching us from the far end of the bridge. She raised a hand. Tobe started the engine and pushed us forward before I could stop him. A fireworks show of sparks appeared in the rear-view mirror as the bus—still snagged on our rear bumper—collapsed on its wheel hubs and started scraping along the road. Tobe revved the engine harder. We shot free. The transport stalled again.

‘Look out!’ Ruby yelled.

In the rear-view mirror, tongues of flame were leaping off the bus. Cold sweat drenched me. Tobe was cursing to himself, trying hard to get the transport started. Horrified, unable to stop myself, I looked back at the wrecks. Tobe screamed Ruby’s name, telling her to run. Flames reached the bus. It exploded with a thunder that drove everything else away.

It happened too quickly. It happened too slowly.

Through the dust and smoke, I saw that the explosion had blown a hole in the bridge, a hole big enough to cast both wrecks into the empty river. A deep tearing sound came from below us, as if the world itself was cracking open. The transport lurched, its rear end dropping, throwing us back into our seats. Cracks were racing across the surface of the bridge, splitting it apart, raining more rubble onto the dry riverbed.

‘Come on, you bastard.’

The engine didn’t catch. I knew it wouldn’t. A crack in the surface of the bridge caught up to us, raced underneath us. I said nothing. I didn’t have to; Tobe was watching it as well.

‘You’d better buckle up, mate.’

I got back into my seat and did as he said. The transport lurched again.

The bridge gave way. Wood snapped, concrete crumbled, metal buckled and cracked. We fell. Tobe smiled grimly, tucking himself into a ball within the safety of his seatbelt. I reached for the door to try to brace myself. It was gone, torn off without me even noticing. Without warning, the transport started tumbling, end over end. A distant part of me realised that I was holding onto the old rusty nail that my hat used to hang upon, clutching it tight like it was a rosary or a rabbit foot. The transport kept tumbling. I screamed. Tobe stoically kept his mouth shut, but then we hit a tree that hung over the empty river and he started screaming as well. Something tore into my leg, digging deep.

I screamed again. I blacked out.

Tobe’s stifled cries brought me back. My eyes wouldn’t open, the lids stuck fast. I pulled my glasses off. Somehow, they had made it through the fall. I prised my eyelids open, slipped my glasses back on. Tobe was ramming his shoulder against a piece of wreckage, his left arm hanging useless and wrong. Red and Blue lay at his feet, watching him with worried eyes. I tried to wave, saw that my fingers were wet with blood.

I felt more blood dribble down my neck.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t sit up. I craned my neck. Tobe rammed his shoulder a last time; he let loose his agony as his useless arm popped back into place. A gaping trench peeled his forehead apart. His nose was bent at an obscene angle. He took hold of the crooked thing, snapped it back into place with a squelch.

He didn’t cry out. ‘Right, what’s next? Ah…’

He limped my way, Red and Blue at his heels.

‘Bill? You with us?’

I groaned, gave him a pathetic thumbs-up. ‘Thanks for saving my arse, again.’

He looked at me strangely. ‘Don’t thank me, I didn’t do shit. Ruby put in the hard yards.’

I craned my neck again. Ruby was darting through the forest of twisted metal and broken concrete, beating out spot fires with an old blanket.

‘Cheers, Ruby.’

She turned at her name, smiled, turned back, kept working. ‘You owe me one,’ she yelled over her shoulder.

I let my head fall back. My legs were wet, my pants clinging to me. With numb horror, I saw that the gnarled tip of a broken branch was sticking out of my thigh. I stupidly leaned forward, tried to shoo away the flies buzzing around it. Barely aware of what I was doing, I tried to wrench my leg free.