Skyquakers (7 page)

When it went dark, the two reclined in big wooden chairs out
on the porch and watched thousands of stars open up over the fields. After a
meal, a bath, and finding fresh clothes, both Ned and Jackrabbit relaxed to the
sound of the Ord River and felt the cool air fill their lungs. Jackrabbit
declared the worst was over: Zebra Rock was just a short trek south of here,
and with the rocky cliffs and desert sands replaced by trees and farmland, the
Kununurra
was long behind them. Ned could not believe he
had made it to Ivanhoe. He was almost in the Northern Territory; that was how
far they had gone in three days.

‘Thank you,
’
he said.

Jackrabbit made a series of grunts and grumbles under his
stubbled
beard. They would probably find some wine around
here, he then suggested. Ned agreed and went hunting for the cellar. He came
out with a few bottles and read their French titles with very poorly-slanged
pronunciation. Unobligated by monetary values anymore, they popped the corks and
shared the bottle between them. Ned found it rather bitter, but he supposed it
was much better than his night on the scotch.
 

The dog was lying on the grass in front of the porch,
snapping occasionally at mosquitos. The way he watched the fields so silently,
he must be a sheep herder, Ned thought. They argued whether the alien mutt
would attract Quakers, perhaps looking for their lost guard dog, but neither
had seen the sky
’
s stormy mass draw near in a
long while now: they seemed to be distracted with their warehouses and other
massive projects to care for the happenings of two lost wanderers in the
desert.

The moon appeared from behind some scattered clouds, and
that was when the dog showed his true colours: the white of his fur suddenly
began glowing green, florescent, making his whole body illuminate in a soft
aura. The
border
collie’s tongue, ears, and underbelly
burned with brilliant green incandescence. It made him look radioactive, and it
was quite startling for Ned and Jackrabbit to witness.

‘Whoa. Did the dog just
…
or am I
…
?
’
Jackrabbit checked how much he had drunk.

‘That
’
s so freaking awesome! Look at
him! He
’
s glowing!
’

Ned ran out onto the grass and began rolling around with the
dog, playfully tackling him and letting him bite his sleeve and lick his face
with his glowing green tongue. The fur of his belly didn
’
t feel any
different when it shone, but the vibrancy of the colour was incredibly
striking; a beautiful spectrum of light in an otherwise bleak and gloomy world.
Moonboy
, Ned called him. He ran about with him in the
dark for hours, captivated by his green glow. They played fetch with a stick in
the fields, and
Moonboy
–
who could never be lost in the
dark – returned loyally each and every time, until eventually he tired Ned out.
After that, Ned went back to sitting on the porch and the dog sat by his side,
always facing the fields, keeping watch over them.

Ned turned to Jackrabbit.
‘
We
’
re
keeping him. He
’
s a glow-in-the-dark dog. We
are definitely keeping him.
’

‘You
’
re keeping him,
’
Jackrabbit corrected, then he declared he was going to bed.

At the crack of dawn, the dog was barking again. He was in
hysterics, scratching at the door, howling and wailing.

Ned and Jackrabbit slept in separate bedrooms upstairs that
night, cosy in the abandoned sheets of someone else
’
s home. It
was the best night
’
s sleep Ned had had in weeks.
With his new alien pet at his feet, he felt safe enough to not need a fridge
within three steps, and he was exhausted enough to sleep undisturbed all night.

Until morning, when
Moonboy
woke
them both with a start. Ned sat upright in his bed only to hear Jackrabbit
announce loudly from a distant room,
‘
FIRE!
’

Ned hastily pulled his clothes on and ran downstairs. He
arrived at the front porch, where Jackrabbit and
Moonboy
were standing, and gasped at the sight.

‘Holy shit.
’

All the fields were on fire. Roaring red flames and thick,
black smoke rose on all three sides, destroying hundreds of hectares of wheat
crops, and the blaze was drawing near. He could already feel the heat and smell
the smoke. If they stayed here much longer, the fire would trap them in a ring
and engulf them.

‘Bushfire!
’
Ned cried.

‘
Ain
’
t
no
bushfire. This manmade.
’

‘What? By who?
’

‘Get your shit. Go!
’

They rushed to collect their things.
Moonboy
,
back to his normal colours under the rising sun, was still barking at the
flames. Ned hurried to get his shoes on, grab his bag, and steal some cans from
the cupboard. He heard Jackrabbit yelling for him outside. He emerged onto the
porch, but then cried,
‘
Lily!
’
and ran
back in.

‘No, don
’
t!
’

Ned clumsily scurried back into the living room. The fire
was right in their front yard now, the flames burning up everything in their
path. The air was becoming thicker, smoky, and hard to see through. Ned coughed
and covered his face with his singlet. He seized the radio and shoved it in his
bag; he was not losing Lily, the only girl left in the world who understood
him.

He ran out and met Jackrabbit. The dog ran ahead. They
followed the hybrid, knowing he probably had better survival instincts than
they did.
Moonboy
managed to weave through flames,
finding clean routes, occasionally halting when he came across a barricade, a
wall of fire, or a fallen tree. They ran back to the river, towards the desert
again; they would be safe on that side, as the winds were sweeping the blaze
the other way.

At the river,
Moonboy
halted dead.
Ned ran in, waist-deep, while Jackrabbit trudged through the muddy water and
swam for the other side. Ned turned back and cried,
‘
Come on,
Moonboy
! Please! Come on!
’

The dog seemed to dislike the water and would not budge. He
danced around the bank, whimpering and trotting on his toes.

‘Let
’
s go!
’
Jackrabbit
was on the other side already. The flames were scarily close and the smoke was
beginning to engulf them.

Ned went back for the dog. He picked him up in his arms and
carried him across. He ran into the water as, behind him, the flames rose and
formed a wall of heat and smoke along the bank. He had to swim a little,
forcing
Moonboy
to crawl up his neck and almost onto
his head, petrified of getting wet. On the other side, Jackrabbit was waiting
with his hand out. He helped drag the two of them back onto the banks.

‘Never seen such a cowardly mutt in my life!
’
he cried.

Ned was on his back, panting, but Jackrabbit did not give
him any time to rest; they had to get far away from this place.

They were forced back into the desert again, to the edges of
the
Kununurra
, and from the same rocky cliffs where
they had admired Ivanhoe upon their arrival, they looked down at the farming
town again to watch it burn. Everything was gone. In less than an hour, the
town and surrounding farmland had been reduced to blackened earth. The great
Ord kept the blaze from crossing over to the other side, and from their high
post atop the rocky cliffs they were all well out of danger anyway, but it had
been a frighteningly close call. Ned and Jackrabbit sat and coughed until the
smoke was expelled from their lungs. Even
Moonboy
sounded a little phlegmy. Over the cliff’s edge, they watched the fires burn it
all down: the farms, the homes, all of Ivanhoe, in a single angry cloud. The
black smoke rose high into the air, smothering the blue sky. Ned watched his
hopes burn and shrivel up in an angry red storm.

‘My mum
’
s going to come here one day,
thinking I
’
m here, and see nothing but ashes,
’
he said.
‘
How is she going to find me
now?
’

Jackrabbit was angry, very angry.

‘Fucking assholes!
’
he roared, and he kicked the
sand.
‘
I hate
‘
em! I
hate
‘
em all!
’

‘Who?
’

‘Suits!
’
he shouted.
‘
They
did that! That
’
s what they go about doing!
Smoking people out of their towns, burning shit down; and they clear it too,
for their asshole Walkers to come in and make a new farm or something. That
’
s
what they do. That
’
s what they
’
ve
been doing from here to Never
Never
!
’

Ned looked back down at the flames and caught on; this was
what the
Skyquakers
were here for. Like the farmers
before them, they were clearing the land of all the native plants and animals
to make way for their own; humans included. Ned and Jackrabbit and the seven
billion others who once populated this planet were merely inconveniences to
their master plans. As for these Suits, he could not understand them. He could
not imagine any human who would want to help the invaders, help burn down
towns, hunt those last remaining survivors; what good could come of this
widespread destruction? This invasion was gradually showing its true ugly
form.
 

Beside him,
Moonboy
was still
making little anxious noises. He had seen the dangers in that place long before
they had.

Ned patted him to calm him down.
‘
Good boy,
’
he said.
‘
Good boy.
’

Jackrabbit was eager to reach the settlers at Zebra Rock now
more than ever. He had to warn them that Suits were nearby. The settlers had
come from the north, from somewhere along the coast, and they had witnessed the
likes of Suits once before, narrowly avoiding their path of destruction. The
Ord River ran south from here. Somewhere half a day
’
s walk
along its banks was their settlement. With the burning town of Ivanhoe now
behind them, they carried on. They weaved along the banks, following unpaved
roads and goat tracks with the water lapping at their feet. There was evidence
of where others had camped along this same route: Jackrabbit pointed out a
former fire the settlers had made two weeks ago when they came through here.
Moonboy
sniffed around, picking up interesting scents.

After days of hiking through deserts, bushland, rocky hills
and gravel tracks, Ned finally hit a highway made of asphalt: the Victoria
Highway, which ran east-west across the Top End. It felt unnatural for his feet
to stand on the black tar of a smooth, artificial surface. He stood there and
saw nothing but the desolate Australian outback: no cars, no towns, just sand
and shrubs. The road was long, flat, and abandoned. To his right, the highway
ran west into the
Kununurra
desert, eventually taking
him to Broome. To his left, it crossed the Ord River and went down towards a
place called Hidden Valley, a beautiful wetland nature reserve, much like
Parry’s Lagoon. The concrete bridge also served as an enormous dam, holding
back the Ord to allow it to flood a manmade basin. Water gushed from open flood
channels along the wall’s face. No one was operating the dam anymore, but water
was still moving through. The valley below looked like some sort of hidden Eden
trapped in the country’s red centre, so perfectly picturesque that it was only
lacking an arching rainbow. The valley’s soft, green hills rolled down towards
a large permanent lake, and the whole valley was thick with shady trees, native
birds and fish, fruit-bearing flora, even a waterfall where tourists once leapt
from the rocks into untouched natural waterholes. It would have been a perfect
settlement for survivors of the storm if it had not been occupied already.

Ned and Jackrabbit watched the ominous sight from the rails
of the dam wall. Beside them,
Moonboy
was growling.
Somewhere in the valley below, a series of warehouses had sprung up, and tiny
black dots – some humans, some Quakers – were building the fences of their
future factory around their new territory. There were enormous machines helping
them flatten the land, dig trenches, and erect poles, not dissimilar to manmade
contraptions with the same purpose. The project looked ten times the size of
the ranch they had seen in the northern
Kununurra
. It
was rather frightening to gaze upon, to see that this invasion was very real,
very tangible, and that nothing so far could stop the
Skyquakers
’
progressive movement across the country. Suits – humans helping Quakers – were
down there too; Jackrabbit had seen them before. He had seen them lurking
around this dam, inspecting it, taking small chunks of concrete from the walls
to show their masters, possibly for them to understand the chemistry of the
dam. Jackrabbit knew what they were doing: they were going to blow it up. They
wanted the valley’s many lakes at full capacity to kick-start their farms. A
silly mistake, Jackrabbit said: the Ord would run dry in a matter of weeks,
turning the precious valley into a desert.

The old man sneered at them.
‘
Fuckers.
They
’
ll destroy the whole place; you
’
ll
see. The whole goddamned country. It
’
ll be gone to those Walkers
and those dicks in suits.
’

‘We do have a lot of land,
’
Ned said.
‘
Why
couldn
’
t we just share?
’

Jackrabbit gave a sarcastic,
‘
Ho-ho
!
’
and then marched on in big,
angry steps.