Doomsday by Chris Morphew

Author:Chris Morphew
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hardie Grant Egmont
Published: 2013-04-15T16:00:00+00:00

THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 7.58 A.M. 9 HOURS, 2 MINUTES

He’s okay, I told myself, like thinking it could make it true. He’s okay. He got out.

But the sound of gunfire still rattled in my head. Luke hadn’t called back, and I hadn’t called him for fear of giving up his hiding place, or running down the battery.

I trudged through the mud, trying to busy my mind with the work of carrying explosives.

The wall was bigger than I remembered. A massive expanse of concrete, stretching forever in both directions, towering over our heads. It encircled the town, a line marking out the reach of the fallout. Towering bush on this side, barren wasteland on the other.

Last time had been easy enough. We’d just climbed a tree and thrown a rope over the side. But now that the shield grid had come bursting out of the wall, electrified cords slashing and burning through any tree tall enough to get in their way, things were a bit more complicated.

The sun was brighter overhead now, the shield grid even more ominous for being able to see it properly. Dark lines crisscrossed the grey sky, making this whole place feel, if possible, even more like a prison. The rain had eased off a little bit, but we were all so soaked through by now that it didn’t really make any difference.

I picked up another box of explosives, lugging it through the rain towards a pair of gleaming silver doors: the hidden access point Reeve and the others had used to run their patrols to the outside, back in the day.

Calvin crouched in front of the giant doors, mounting explosives and connecting wires. Once upon a time, he could’ve just keyed a code and popped the doors open automatically, but somewhere along the line, Shackleton had locked him in with the rest of us.

He took the box from my hands, and I felt a twinge of something that felt bizarrely like solidarity.

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘For trying to get them out of there. That was …’

Calvin nodded slowly and then got back to work. I went back to the skid for the last box, an unwelcome thought gnawing at me. I was starting to trust him.

How was I starting to trust him?

Amy was in the driver’s seat, taking care of Tobias. After the incident with the gun, Calvin had decided that that was the best place for her. Amy had been too shaken up by the whole thing to argue, and I was more than happy to actually get up and do something.

‘How is he?’ I asked, leaning in to check on Tobias.

‘Yeah, fine,’ said Amy. ‘Sleeping.’

‘Listen, thanks for –’

‘What do you think he’s going to have to do when we get out there?’ Amy cut in. ‘I mean, what can he do? Sleep Tabitha to death?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said.

‘But you really believe Calvin’s going to show you.’

I grabbed the final box of explosives from the cage, flicking my head to shake back a stray dreadlock. ‘I don’t know.

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