Lachlan Walter - The Rain Never Came

It was almost like old times.

‘How about my keys?’ he asked, spoiling the moment. ‘Did you bring them too?’

My gears might grind slowly—sometimes too slowly—but they grind on all the same. Things were starting to make sense: the bits and bobs that he had left me; running into Jacko so quickly, so easily; the deafening roar happening at the same time as we were finally allowed to visit.

The ‘how’ might not have been clear, but the ‘why’ was slowly taking shape.

‘You did this?’ I screamed, waving at the gloom. ‘You’ve been planning this the whole time?’

He didn’t answer me.

‘How?’

Without speaking, he broke my gaze. I turned my back on him, not knowing what I was going to do, only that I couldn’t bear to look at him.

‘Bill!’

Anger and hate flooded through me yet again—I had followed him, as mates do, only to be played the fool. But that’s me, a dickhead to the last.

‘Bill, please.’

I didn’t answer, didn’t turn around.

‘Mate, I know what this looks like. But you have to believe me, I am sorry. That’s why this is happening. I know I can’t make things right, but at least consider it an attempt.’

‘Bullshit.’

The words hung in the air for a moment.

‘Fine, then, enjoy your stay,’ he said. ‘If you hadn’t realised it, I’m not the only one locked in here.’

I thought about it for a moment. Despite everything that had happened, I couldn’t help smiling at the fact that he was still a step ahead of me.

‘You win.’

I carefully sat Tobe’s lighter on the desk, turned back to him, pulled his jangle of keys from my pocket.

‘Good one,’ he said. ‘Let’s have a look.’

I passed the keys through the bars. Tobe thumbed through them, picked out a rusty one that seemed the same as all the others, passed them back. I kept my face blank. I was done with the cellblock; I wanted to get outside so that I could be done with Tobe as well.

I inserted the key into the lock. I was barely surprised when the door sprang open.

‘Wait for my next trick,’ Tobe said. He pushed past me, started rifling through the desk. ‘Aha,’ he said, pulling something from one of the drawers. ‘You beauty.’

He flicked on a torch. I scooped the lighter up, snapped it shut, slipped it in my pocket, another automatic reflex.

‘Here you go,’ he said, passing me a second torch.

I passed him the keys in return, glad to be rid of them, and he hurried to the door. I brought my own torch to life, deciding to let him lead the way. Until we were free of the courthouse, it couldn’t hurt to have a human shield. The thought, bitter as it was, made me feel a little better.

‘Got you,’ Tobe said, finding the right key. He threw the door open, revealing the rough-brick stairwell and the rusty flight of stairs.

‘How?’ I asked again.

‘I worked here, remember? And you know me, always thinking ahead.’

It was such a pitiful explanation. I deserved more, but I knew not to get my hopes up. Everything had changed and I would just have to deal with it.

And so I watched as Tobe thundered up the stairs. I hurried after him, doing my best to keep him in sight, following him into the long corridor that led to the lobby. Like the stairwell and the cellblock, it was dark.

The acrid tang of smoke tainted the air.

‘Come on, Bill,’ Tobe shouted. ‘Or you’ll miss all the fun.’

He was nothing but a bobbing dot of light at the end of the corridor. I picked up my pace, not to please him but because I wanted to get outside as soon as I could, before some Creep stumbled upon me. The lobby grew ever closer; I rushed through the open door.

I came to an immediate halt—my torch was a pitiful thing that barely dented the gloom; there was no sign of Tobe; I was completely exposed; standing out like the proverbial.

And then I was suddenly blinded.

‘Good, it’s you.’

Tobe stopped shining his torch in my face. He stood on the other side of the cluttered room, in front of the doors that led outside. He flicked his torch off and slipped it in his pocket, taking hold of the doorknob.

He looked at me. He smiled wickedly.

‘Come on, Bill, what are you waiting for? Bloody Christmas?’

And then he disappeared through the door.

Ifollowed Tobe into a newborn hell on earth—twilight had fallen while we had been in the cell block, its eerie pink and purple glow playing second fiddle to immense tongues of flame that leaped into the air. The full moon on the horizon was a dull smudge, struggling to cut through the billowing clouds of smoke. The street in front of me—the wide boulevard that cut the camp in half—was completely empty. A shot rang out. Without thinking, I ducked behind one of the towering stone columns that helped give the courthouse its bygone air. More gunfire rang out: the harsh crack of a rifle, the rat-a-tat-tat of some kind of machine gun, the thunderclap of a shotgun.

I couldn’t see who was shooting, couldn’t see who was being shot at.

‘Tobe!’ I yelled.

No answer.

Something exploded to the left of me, throwing me off my feet. I scrabbled back up as fast as I could, looked around, saw that someone had lobbed a Molotov or a jerry-rigged equivalent through one of the courthouse windows, setting fire to its insides.

‘Come on!’ a voice screamed.

Someone was running across the street, heading for the courthouse steps, a half-dozen people trailing behind. In the flickering light they were a shambling horde, holding aloft broken branches, pieces of wood, and lengths of metal. There wasn’t a real weapon to be seen.

‘Bastards!’ their leader yelled, loud enough to be heard over the gunfire.

More shots rang out, sparks kicking up brightly off the street. The mob of holdouts started to fall, one by one. I guessed there were Creeps on a roof somewhere, snipers happily plying their trade. For all I knew, they were on the roof above me. I watched helplessly as one of the felled holdouts twitched, groaned, started screaming. Another shot rang out. The holdout fell still.

Blood pooled around the bodies. My stomach heaved. I tasted bile.

‘Tobe!’ I yelled again.

‘For fuck’s sake, Bill, keep it down.’

I looked to my left. Nothing. I looked to my right.

‘Jacko?’

It was a stupid question; I recognised him straightaway. If I had been a little more clearheaded, his presence might have made some kind of sense, conforming to the nightmare logic that the day had imposed.

But I wasn’t clearheaded. I was terrified.

‘Come on,’ Jacko said. ‘Tobe’s waiting.’

I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. ‘You what?’

‘We go way back, Tobe and I. That’s how long I’ve been here.’ Jacko patted the courthouse, almost affectionately. ‘Who do you think helped make this happen?’ he asked, waving at the warzone the camp had become.

He smiled to himself. He fiddled with something in the pocket of his coat. I looked harder, saw a furry little snout sticking out of it. Jude worked the rest of his head free and then growled at me. Jacko reached down, gave him another pat and another scratch, managed to settle him down.

And then Jacko took off, hugging the wall, keeping out of the Creeps’ line of sight. I was overwhelmed by the temptation to seek shelter away from Tobe’s madness and instead hopefully ride out the chaos he had unleashed in some kind of peace. But I wanted to see Ruby, even if—as I feared—it was just to say goodbye.

I didn’t care about farewelling Tobe.

Jacko was surprisingly fleet of foot for an old man, already disappearing down one of the alleys leading to the square. I hurried after him. A mob of people were already streaming in the opposite direction; it was as if the courthouse was a magnet for their pent-up hate. I stopped at the mouth of the alley, remembering the Creeps on the roof. I tried to warn the mob, to keep them back. Instead, I was shouldered aside, my words drowned out by their screams of anger and hate.