‘But…’
‘Don’t. Nothing you can say will make up for not being there.’
He seemed to deflate further. I was happy for that. He cried, his chest heaving. His cracked ribs made him wince with every breath, and still he cried.
My anger started draining away. I didn’t have the energy to maintain the rage.
‘I’m truly sorry.’
He whispered it. I ignored him.
‘And anyway, it looks like we’ve got more pressing problems,’ he said.
He pointed at the wasteland. I saw nothing different.
‘Look harder,’ he said.
‘Piss off.’
‘Between the burnt-out tank and the fallen-down guard tower,’ he suggested.
I squinted. Far in the distance was a feather-thin plume of smoke, almost invisible against the all-encompassing blue of the sky.
Tobe’s eagle-eye had done it again.
‘Shit,’ I said.
The last thing I wanted was an interruption. I couldn’t relive that horror again; we needed to sort it out there and then. But after a lifetime on the land, it had been drummed into me that you barely ever get what you want.
A rhythmic squeak broke the wasteland’s ghostly quiet. I turned, saw Ishra and Ruby wheeling out the bandaged bull-roo who had occupied the trolley next to mine. He moaned steadily. Ruby stroked his head without affection. Ishra focused on the burden of the trolley, his old-man body looking like it might give way any minute. Appreciating the fact that I knew nothing about the bull-roo, I turned back to Tobe, hoping that he could answer my questions. But his eyes were fixed on the distance.
There was nothing behind them—he was lost somewhere in his head, silently mulling over words he never should have heard.
‘G’day,’ I said to Ruby and Ishra, giving up on Tobe.
Ishra stopped the trolley and its squeaky wheel; in the quiet, I noticed the rumble of the approaching train, more a feeling than a sound.
‘Hello, William.’
‘Bill, nice to see you back on your feet,’ Ruby said, smiling cheekily.
I didn’t return her smile. The bull-roo moaned again and then started to twitch. Ishra halted the trolley and passed a small plastic case to Ruby.
‘If you will.’
‘Cheers, Doc.’
She took the case, cracked it open. A gleaming hypodermic needle sat inside. She deftly plucked it out, rolled up the hulk’s sleeve, swabbed his forearm with something, and injected him with something else. Her hand didn’t shake as she administered the sedative.
‘Well, that’s that,’ Ishra muttered.
Ruby passed back the needle and then sprinted to Tobe, somehow feeling his distress.
‘You okay?’ she asked.
The dead embers of his eyes briefly flickered with some kind of life. ‘No worries.’
The fire died out again. He stooped slightly, reached for Ruby. She stared at him quizzically; he looked like he was about to cry.
‘Please…’ he said.
Ruby hugged him, comforting him in a way that I don’t think anyone else could. Theirs wasn’t the knock-about familiarity of old mates or the unbreakable bond that comes from sharing a life in drear and seared desolation. It was the silent understanding of a fellow soldier, a fellow survivor.
I looked away. I wasn’t meant to witness their moment.
I waited. The plume of smoke became more a thumb than a finger. The rumble steadily grew louder.
‘Right, folks, sorry that you had to see that.’
I looked back at Tobe. He was standing a little straighter, seemed a little more together.
‘You okay?’ I asked, unable to help myself.
‘Yeah, mate, cheers. Anyway, we’ve got more important things to worry about.’
‘My thoughts exactly,’ Ishra said. ‘Now, remember what I said earlier, don’t give them a reason to…’
His words were drowned out as the train sounded its horn to warn us of its approach. Its blare echoed across the wasteland, scaring into flight a flock of magpies.
‘Never mind,’ Ishra said to himself.
The behemoth slowly pulled up alongside us, belching smoke. It was a jerry-rigged monstrosity held together by spit and string, the same as everything else nowadays. Awed, I silently watched as a hulking, diesel-powered engine car crawled past us. On its roof, a handful of Creeps in shapeless sand-coloured tunics kept watch from a fortified gun nest.
A dozen or so carriages snaked behind the engine car, each one sporting cracked timber walls and windows covered in mismatched boards. A long line of rusty shipping containers hung on behind them. The train was so long that it overhung the far end of the platform.
‘Wow,’ Ruby said, drawing the word out.
That was enough to break the moment—Tobe, Ishra and I all laughed a little. Ruby looked put out, but there was no way that we could explain our laughter to her.
‘Thank you, Ruby,’ Ishra said. ‘I will miss you.’
That didn’t just kill our tiny cheer; it desecrated its corpse as well.
The train stopped with a shudder, one of the Creeps in the gun nest rapping a rhythmic pattern on the steel roof beneath him.
‘Please, leave this to me,’ Ishra said.
‘No worries.’
Tobe spoke for us all; there was no argument there.
The door of the first carriage flew open. A dozen Creeps strode out, a tall and lanky bloke in the lead. Cocky and self-assured to the last one, none of the Creeps drew their guns. They ambled over, taking their time. Behind them, a last Creep rolled a stainless-steel supply box towards the ticket office.
‘G’day, Doc,’ the lead Creep said, lifting up the visor on his cumbersome helmet.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me…’
I had gotten it wrong; the lead Creep was a woman. But then, in full body armour with helmets on and visors down, they all looked the same.
‘Hello, Captain. How are you today?’ Ishra asked.
One of the other Creeps mockingly echoed Ishra’s rounded tones.
‘What’s this, Doc? A couple of holdouts, a cripple and a kid? That isn’t much of a catch.’ She laughed. Her eyes flicked over us as if we were nothing but meat. ‘Right, then,’ she said.
I wanted nothing more than to turn tail and run like the proverbial. Tobe caught my eye, shook his head slowly. Ruby stared at the ground. Tobe reached out with his good hand. One of the Creeps casually reached towards his pistol. Tobe ruffled Ruby’s hair and then raised his arms in surrender, grimacing in pain, wrestling with his sling.
Ruby said nothing, did nothing, kept staring at the ground.
‘So, Doc, what’s the story?’ the captain asked.
‘Well, it’s exactly as you said, apart from the “cripple” comment. We’ve got these two holdouts.’
Ishra waved at Tobe and me. We didn’t meet the captain’s eyes.
‘This young lady.’
Ishra waved at Ruby. She didn’t look up.
‘And your compatriot here.’
The bull-roo on the trolley didn’t even moan.
‘What happened to him?’
The rest of the Creeps were eyeing us warily, their hands now on their pistols. The fear I felt became ice; sweat drenched me without warning. Tobe caught my eye. He shook his head once again.
‘A dog attack, I do believe. Prior to the arrival of these three.’
Tobe smiled. I didn’t know why.
‘How bad is it?’
‘Well, the dog apparently savaged this poor man’s face. It’s doubtful that he’ll ever see again. He’s under sedation, and will probably need to stay that way until he can get proper help.’
‘Can do. After the camp, it’s express to the line.’
I whistled. Tobe groaned. The captain paid us proper attention. She dismissed Ruby and me almost instantly, but seemed to puzzle over Tobe. He smiled a broken-toothed smile, winked through his puffy eye.