A City Called Smoke by Woolley Justin

Author:Woolley, Justin [Woolley, Justin]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781760082475
Publisher: Momentum Books
Published: 2015-08-30T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Mr. Stix slowed the bio-cycle, weaving around a particularly large tuft of spinifex grass. Nim sat behind him, as he had done ever since they had fled the crashing pirate dirigible. He wondered why they were stopping now. It was still only mid-morning. Usually they would have ridden for another two hours or more before having a break during the hottest part of the day to eat, drink water and rest beneath a shade cloth. He leaned forward so that he could speak into Mr. Stix’s ear.

“Why are we stopping?” he asked.

The bike rolled to a halt. Mr. Stix cut the engine and flicked the metal stand out with his foot, leaning the bio-cycle over and ensuring the base of the stand wouldn’t sink too deep into the dusty soil. He pointed toward a clump of gum trees ahead of them.

“That’s what you asked for, right?”

They had been traveling east for close to a week. Their food and water supplies were being used up much faster than planned. Mr. Stix and Mr. Stownes had intended on traveling with only themselves and Squid. The addition of Nim and Lynn meant there were two more people needing food and especially water in the arid conditions. Typical of the Dwellers, Nim thought, always dependent on what they could bring with them and not knowing that even out here the country could provide everything they needed as long as they knew where to look.

Even if it had been just the three of them, Nim still didn’t think they would have been adequately prepared. Who knew how far outside the fence Big Smoke might be? There was no way they had enough food or water to last the journey there and back. Nim knew Mr. Stix could find water in the desert, in low-lying areas where the water would gather beneath the ground and even the occasional billabong, but these easily found sources of water were rare. The mob had known better than to rely on those alone.

Nim had offered to find food and water to supplement the supplies they had remaining as long as he could come with them. He wouldn’t let himself be separated from Lynn again, and no matter how they felt about each other he still thought that Squid might somehow lead him to the Storm Man. It annoyed him that a scrawny boy who had spent his life doing everything that was wrong with the Dwellers’ way of life – trying to twist the country to his will, trying to change the dirt so that it would grow the wrong plants – could somehow be the one prophesied to find what Dwellers and Nomads alike had been seeking for hundreds of years: an end to the ghouls. He resented his reliance on Squid to get vengeance for Nara and be permitted to return to his mob.

Nim climbed off the cycle and looked toward the trees. He nodded. “Those are kurrajong trees,” he said. “We can get water from them.”

Nim turned to watch Lynn climb out of the sidecar and arch her back, stretching.

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