Ruby took my hand, forcing me to remember how seriously wrong our world was.
‘She’ll be ‘right,’ I said, my mocking smile fading away again.
Once again, I didn’t really believe my own words.
We watched the commander clamber down the stairs to meet us. He moved awkwardly, his body belying a lifetime of desk work. Scorn filled me again. Ruby squeezed my hand. I let my anger go.
‘Bill, Ruby, good afternoon.’ He looked at us like we were walking, talking pieces of meat.
‘What do you want?’ I asked.
Ruby kept silent.
‘Well, if that’s your attitude, I guess we’ll get straight to business.’
‘Come again?’
He smiled patronisingly, making sure that I knew my place. ‘You’ll see.’ He turned away, climbed back up to the stairs.
‘Tobe!’ Ruby couldn’t help herself.
The commander looked over his shoulder. He smiled; I couldn’t read anything in it. We hurried after him. The pair of Creeps that always seemed to be guarding the doors opened them with a flourish that was both deferential and mocking, taking the piss out of the commander in a way that went over his head.
I laughed. It was nice to find that the Creeps and I had something in common.
The commander turned, looked at me darkly. I shrugged. He obviously wanted us upright, I figured that I was safe enough. The commander cleared his throat in an obvious, petulant manner. He walked through the doors, almost tripping on his own feet. Ruby laughed this time, long and hard. For a beautiful moment, life didn’t seem so grim.
‘If you’ll follow me,’ the commander said, trying in vain to retain his dignity.
We left the hot sun behind, entering a lobby of obscene opulence. Every effort had been made to deny the real world, to recreate the past as a grotesque tableau—it was like walking into an antique. Heavy tapestries, wooden-framed paintings and gilt-edged mirrors covered the walls; an island-bar of leather and chrome split the room down the middle; art-deco dining furniture fought with overstuffed lounges for whatever floorspace wasn’t taken up by statues and sculptures.
‘Our mess,’ the commander explained, without a trace of shame or embarrassment.
We weaved through the insulting display of luxury. I felt sickened by such wasteful uselessness, while Ruby seemed largely indifferent, taking it in her stride as she did most everything.
The real reason for her indifference soon became apparent.
‘Come on, hurry up,’ she muttered.
The commander surprisingly did as she said, picking up his pace, leading us into a long corridor lined with faded portraits of presumably long-dead people. Doors lined the corridor: numberless, featureless, closed, and locked. It struck me that no Creeps had followed us inside. I guessed they were needed in the camp; I had never seen more than a few dozen of them at a time.
In the seat of their power, guarding a cripple and a kid hardly seemed necessary. Then it struck me that Ruby and I were alone with the commander.
We hadn’t seen anyone else the whole time, and while Ruby and I might not have posed the greatest physical threat, neither did the commander. I stared at his back, so very tempted. But then I remembered his earlier words, and thought about that great white nothing only a few kilometres away.
I realised how much they depended on us giving up hope.
‘Ah, here we are,’ the commander said, oblivious to my murderous moment, stopping us at one of the unmarked doors.
He took a set of keys from his pocket, fumbled with the lock, threw the door open. He flicked a switch on the wall, illuminating a rough-brick stairwell. We followed a set of rusty stairs down a single flight, stopping at a steel door. The Commander knocked twice, took out his keys, managed to get the door open.
We faced a squat room lined with cells. The single electric bulb shone wan, dim, greasy. A lone Creep sat at a wooden desk, his feet up, and his back to us.
‘Private,’ the commander barked.
The Creep spun in his chair, jumped to his feet, threw the commander a rough salute. ‘Sir.’
‘You’re excused.’
‘Fuck, great.’
The commander frowned, obviously unimpressed by the Creep’s language. ‘Do you enjoy it down here, Private? Or would you rather be working out in the sun?’
The Creep’s face fell.
‘Then you will mind your manners.’ The commander smiled imperiously. It was obscene how much he delighted in lording over his underlings. ‘As I said, you’re excused.’
‘Right, sir, no worries.’ He threw the commander another rough salute as he sauntered out of the room.
‘What the fuck do you want this time?’ someone called out.
It was a hoarse voice that I didn’t recognise
The commander frowned; I guessed that he wasn’t overly welcome in the cell block. I looked for the owner of the voice, couldn’t see anything. The cells were all dark, long, narrow—it was impossible to tell how many of them were occupied.
‘Answer me!’ the voice demanded. ‘What are you waiting for? Bloody Christmas?’
‘Tobe!’ Ruby yelled brightly. She pushed past me to his cell, almost knocking me down.
‘G’day,’ he said. ‘How’s it going?’
Same old Tobe, as cool as can be.
‘Yeah, g’day,’ I said, unable to help myself.
Tobe stepped into the light. He looked thin and a little desperate; the Creeps must have been keeping him hungry. He reached through the bars, took my outstretched hand. He let me go, grabbed Ruby by the shoulders, looked her in the eye and smiled wide. She reached through the bars and hugged him as best she could. I just stood there staring.
‘Tobe,’ I finally said, ‘it’s…’ The words caught in my throat. ‘Mate, it’s good to see you.’
‘You too, Bill,’ he said with a gap-toothed smile.
‘Tobe?’ Ruby asked, still holding him tight.
‘Yeah?’
‘Are you coming back with us?’
Tobe laughed grimly. ‘It depends, Ruby. It’s up to our friend there.’ He nodded at the commander, who had been watching us with fascination.
‘Speaking of which,’ the commander said, ‘I think we’d better get to it.’ He looked square at Tobe. ‘Don’t you think, Tobias? Or would you rather have me explain?’
Tobe’s smile disappeared in an instant. He let Ruby go, took a step back, looked at us, looked back at the commander.
‘You gave me your word,’ Tobe said, holding the commander’s gaze.
The commander made an elaborate show of mulling over what Tobe had said. Tobe cursed him under his breath, looked back at us, met Ruby’s eye.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
The commander stepped forward. He pushed me aside, took Ruby’s arm. She snatched it away, scowling at him.
‘It’s okay,’ Tobe said to her. ‘He’s taking you back to the shack so Bill and I can have a chat, that’s all.’
‘Don’t make me go,’ she said quietly, tears welling.
Tobe smiled sadly. ‘It’ll all be over soon. Try and take it easy until then, okay?’
He winked at her. Something seemed to click—she straightened her back, looked him in the eye.
‘Right, boss, right you are.’ She looked up at the commander. ‘Are you coming or what?’
He laughed at her cheek. ‘Very well.’
He turned away, smiling to himself. He stopped at the steel door, took out his keys, fumbled with the lock. Ruby followed. She didn’t say goodbye; she didn’t look back.
‘Have fun,’ the commander yelled as he slammed the door behind him.