I smiled, glad that my apology had been accepted. ‘You bet.’
‘Well, goodnight then.’
‘Yeah, you too. And thanks again for today.’
‘No worries,’ he said, waving me away.
Sleep came easily, but the morning sun disturbed it too soon. I rolled over, already sweating, my back aching, my leg burning. For a blessed moment, I had no memory of where I was or what had happened to me. I stared at holes in the ceiling that now let hot sunshine in, rather than cold moonlight.
All too quickly, everything came back. I groaned low; a mournful sound.
‘G’day, Bill.’
I turned my head. Ruby was sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling wide, looking bright. She showed no trace of her troubled sleep, was more on top of things than I could ever hope to be.
I suddenly felt old.
‘Yeah, g’day,’ I mumbled.
I groaned again, let my head fall back. Bells tolled somewhere in the distance, counting out the breakfast hour.
‘Bill, we’d better go.’
I groaned a third time.
‘Useless bastard—Tobe was right.’
At the mention of his name, I decided that I could cope with whatever had to happen next. I buttoned up my coveralls, slowly got to my feet. Ruby passed me my stick and an almost-empty canteen. I finished off the canteen, felt a little better.
The urge to do my thing overwhelmed me.
‘Uh, excuse me a sec.’
Ruby smirked.
Bursting at the seams, I limped outside as fast as I could. I stopped dead; there were people everywhere, streaming toward the courthouse. Privacy was a non-existent thing—I ground my teeth before spotting an empty, collapsing building on the far-side of the alley. I barged through the crowd, stumbled into the ruin, tried hard to ignore the ripe stench of waste, near tore my coveralls, managed to find some relief.
I tottered back into the alley, smiling stupidly.
‘You right?’ Ruby asked, sitting outside our shack, perched on the broken stool we had found.
‘You bet.’
‘Well, come on then, shift your arse.’
I did as she said and we followed the ravenous throng. Our fellow holdouts were quieter than I had expected; only a low murmur of morning conversation disturbed the quiet air. We shuffled down alleys, passed ruined buildings, the crowd constantly growing thicker.
Ruby’s eyes scanned back and forth, checking every face. I was chilled by the sheer number of bodies, by the stink of resigned desperation they exuded. I pitied them, starting to hate the fact that I was now one of them.
‘Jacko!’ Ruby called.
Overwhelmed, I was pathetically grateful that she had kept a look out.
He was heading towards us, moving against the flow. I felt a guilty pang for the offense I had caused the previous night. When he was close enough that I could see the bloodshot whites of his eyes, he tipped me a wink to let me know everything was alright.
‘G’day.’
‘G’day.’
Jacko waved away a fly, slowly bent at the knee.
‘Ruby, how are you this morning?’
‘Not bad.’
‘Good one.’
He stood back up, frowning slightly.
‘You folks had better hurry along,’ he suggested. ‘There’s already quite a queue.’
Ruby shot me a dirty look. I swear that I blushed.
‘Right, then.’
I pushed myself hard to keep up with Ruby. Once or twice, she looked back, making sure that she hadn’t lost me. Each time, I heaved a wheezing sigh of relief. And still we kept walking, swept along by the torrent of people.
We hit the ruins of the manicured garden encircling the courthouse. A vast mob of dispirited holdouts met us; there were thousands of them, more than I had ever seen in one place.
Ruby froze; a rabbit in headlights. Slack of jaw and wide of eye, I crashed into her.
‘Sorry.’
She didn’t answer. For a weighted moment, we looked over the crowd together. At some fuzzy point in the distance, it changed from a formless mass into a series of incredibly long single-file lines, each one terminating at an open-faced canvas tent.
There were dozens of lines, dozens of tents.
‘Ruby, you okay?’
She didn’t answer. I looked at her. She was staring at the courthouse, her eyes hard, and her little-girl wonder completely gone.
‘Tobe…’
I followed her gaze. Lining the courthouse steps were twenty or more Creeps, their hands on their guns. When I caught the eye of one of them, he smiled an evil smile.
‘Ruby? We should get a move on.’
This time, I led the way. Ruby shadowed me, only relaxing when we reached the end of one of the lines and disappeared from the Creeps’ sight.
‘You alright?’
She scooted ahead, looked over her shoulder, winked.
‘No worries.’
We waited, the heat baking us in our skin. I cursed myself aloud—neither of us had thought to bring any water. That was my fault, not Ruby’s—now that Tobe was gone, I had to be the adult, to be the one in charge. A black cloud of self-doubt hung over me as we kept waiting. Soon, thirst was consuming us. I apologised profusely to Ruby, but she sulked and looked anywhere but at me.
When our turn came, we couldn’t finish our water fast enough.
Bloody blow-ins is what Jacko labelled us when we made it back to our shack and I realised that we had now run out of water until the next morning.
‘Useless dickheads,’ he added, almost as an afterthought.
But he still wrenched himself off the broken wooden crate that sat outside his door, inviting me to take his place. I gladly sat down, my leg burning once again. Ruby sat cross-legged on the ground next to Jude, started scratching him behind the ears. Jacko disappeared into his shack. For a long time, he made a clatter-and-bang ruckus as he rummaged around for something.
‘I’m thirsty,’ Ruby said.
She didn’t complain, but simply noted the fact. Even so, her words cut me deep.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘You’ll learn, it only has to happen once,’ Jacko said, reappearing.
He set down a battered tin tray bearing two steaming cups of billy-tea and two unopened canteens.
‘Here, make it last.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Sure as shit I am.’
Ruby took a canteen, looked at Jacko, smiled softly, and muttered a thank you. She cracked the canteen and had a small sip, being careful not to guzzle it.
‘Cheers,’ she said.
‘You’re welcome.’
Something startled Jude—he bounded to his feet and darted down the alley, barking madly. Ruby stood up, stretched her back, and gave me a strange look. I said nothing, confused as always.
‘Back in a sec,’ she said, rolling her eyes.
She ran after Jude, disappearing around a corner.
‘Kids,’ Jacko muttered with more than a little affection.
He held up one of the cups of tea.
‘Fancy a cuppa?’
Struck dumb, I nodded.
‘Don’t be embarrassed. Not that many folks ask an old man the time of day anymore—it’s nice to meet some that do.’
‘Well, thanks again.’
The tea was bitter and earthy, but it was still tea.
‘Jacko, you don’t know how long it’s been,’ I said, sighing deeply.
He laughed. I took another sip. It was exquisite, divine—I actually smacked my lips. Once Jacko passed me his leather tobacco-pouch and his gleaming lighter, the picture was perfect—I rolled some tobacco and lit up, grinning like that ridiculous cat in that strange story from long ago.
‘You alright?’ Jacko asked.
I laughed quietly, unable to help myself.
‘Yeah, I am. I just…’ I waved in the air, stupidly and enthusiastically. ‘I just didn’t expect it to be like this.’