Tomorrows Child (31 page)

Seth stumbled
out of the forest and toward the house. He was not so lucky and
would not heal as quickly. His right arm hung limp at his side,
blood ran from his face, and bruises had already appeared on his
cheek and under his eye.

Trinity and
Phoenix ran across the yard and helped him the remainder of the
way. He winced in pain as they sat him on the steps, unable to go
any further.

“Bastards,
ambushed me,” his voice was breathy and the words caught in his
throat. “…Was on the ground before I knew what hit me.” Seth was a
big man and the force used to knock him down must have been
considerable.

“Is everyone
okay? What’d they want anyway?” Seth had missed the entire thing.
Out cold on the forest floor.

“Food mostly,
raiding everyone’s house.”

“Took the
Jeep,” said Lachlan.

“And the
cruiser and most the fuel too, I’d imagine,” Ruben said as he shook
his head in disbelief.

“Thankfully,
the kids were playing in the toy room and missed most of it. They
ran out when Lachlan got shot, but the men left in the Jeep shortly
after.”

“Oh man! Did
you get shot?” Seth tried to turn toward Lachlan, but winced in
pain and stayed where he was.

“Yes, a flesh
wound. But the bleeding stopped now. Reckon I’ll have a gory scar
though,” Lachlan joked.

“Men!”

“Where is Raven
and Abigail?” Libby was inspecting Seth’s shoulder as she
spoke.

“Abigail is in
the toy room with the kids. They were distressed by the blood.”

“Raven has been
gone for a few hours. She left early this morning, but I expect
she’ll be back later today.”

“She left? To
go where?” Trinity questioned Tahinah. “That’s not normal. There’s
nowhere to go.”

They continued
to discuss the raid, Lachlan’s wound, Seth’s broken arm and Raven’s
disappearance. The loss of food would hit us badly, but losing the
Jeep and the cruiser had long-term effects. We were vulnerable and
isolated without reliable vehicles. But this wasn’t the only
problem. These people knew where we lived and these raids would
continue if they thought we were hoarding food and supplies. We
were, of course, and Beanie-head wouldn’t stop until he had it
all.

This was bad,
really bad, but the biggest problem for me was that we planned to
leave for Emma Creek today and the only two vehicles able to take
us had just been stolen.

By late
afternoon, Raven still hadn’t returned. Tahinah was distressed.
Ruben was beginning to think the raiders might have kidnapped her.
As night descended, Libby and Tahinah tried to force visions of
Raven, but they couldn’t. By morning, she still hadn’t
returned.

“I am sure she
is still alive. There is no presence anywhere. She must be still
alive,” said Libby.

No one was
saying much. The men had just come back after finding no signs of
her. There were a lot of tracks because of the raiders, but none
that led anywhere and none that were distinctly Raven’s.

“You know, how
no one could sense the binding?” I said, “Maybe this has something
to do with magick.”

Everyone looked
at me. “Why would it have anything to do with magick?” Libby
said.

“I don’t know.
Everything seems to come back to magick, sooner or later.” It
didn’t seem so strange to me, not anymore.

“Well, it could
be magick, but I couldn’t even guess why,” said Tahinah. “Raven has
no interest in magick; she never has.”

“I think she
ran away,” said Navarre. “She keeps telling me how much she hates
it here, but I figured she was just overreacting. You know, the way
Raven always does.”

Phoenix
returned to the room, holding a piece of paper in his hand. “Did
anyone think to check Raven’s room?”

Tahinah’s eyes
were rimmed red and she shook her head, “I checked her bed again
this morning.”

“Well you need
to read this; she left a note.”

I know you won’t
realise I’m missing until I don’t show up for dinner, by that time
I will be long gone. You have no hope of finding me so don’t
bother. I have found a place where I am wanted and not expected to
work myself to death.

Consider this my
suicide note. I am not dead and I am not going to kill myself but
pretend I have.

Raven

Tahinah’s hands
were shaking as she released the note and let it float to the
table. I saw the writing. The letters were large and scrawled and
written in red. Raven was angry when she wrote this, but she was
always angry. It was so crazy, it could have been a joke. But it
wasn’t and I wasn’t really surprised.

So that was it,
Raven had run away. She wasn’t kidnapped or murdered or injured.
There were no clues where she had gone and no way to make her come
back. Everyone found a reason to blame themselves, except Phoenix.
But I knew why she really left. She left because of me.

Two days after
the raid, Phoenix and I headed off towards Emma Creek. Ruben, Luke
and Navarre were supposed to take up the slack, now that Lachlan
and Seth were unable to work and Phoenix was with me. The men had
agreed there was less risk to Phoenix and me than to the other
people of the valley. The women needed to be protected if the
raiders returned, not to mention what remained of the food.

Libby didn’t
agree, entirely, but her concern for me didn’t override the wishes
and needs of the community. If Libby thought she could have managed
to walk to Emma Creek and back, she would have. So Phoenix and I
began the journey to Emma Creek… on foot.

We walked
towards town in the direction the dreams told us to travel.
Following the old bitumen road was easy and the pace steady. My
early morning training sessions meant that I was fit and carried no
weight to slow me down.

Phoenix carried
a gun at Ruben’s insistence. After everything that had happened, we
needed to be prepared for every possibility. There was no gun in my
dream and there was no feeling of impending doom. But it was a good
idea and Ruben could relax, knowing that we had some protection
from whatever lurked in the shadows.

I carried a
long bamboo stick, a pouch filled with herbs (attached to my belt
for protection), and a backpack. Libby and Tahinah had helped us
pack. The backpack held two sets of clothes, socks, food and
bundles of carefully selected herbs. Thanks to Libby.

Navarre
designed the stick, which he informed me was actually a staff, as a
weapon. It stood over seven feet tall. We spent many hours working
out how to use it and inventing techniques that made it a weapon.
It really was only suited as a method of defence and not attack. In
theory, it should be more useful than a gun because it allowed me
to focus my anger and fear directly through the staff. I could
poke, prod and hit. Navarre hated the thought that I would be
unarmed, but Ruben still didn’t trust me with a gun.

“How long
before we take a break?” I asked. We had been walking for about
four hours. Though it was hard to tell, the canopy of the forest
was dense and dappled light painted the road. The sun was not
visible from any direction.

“We can stop
anytime you like.”

“We could have
lunch, I guess. I’ve been starving for the last hour. So anytime
soon would be good.”

“I know your
dream showed you the crossroads, but I think we should avoid it.
There’s no cover, it’s way too open and if there’s any danger, I
think we will find it there.”

“Whatever you
think is fine with me. I’m not so attached to my dreams that I
can’t allow any detours. I’d be happy to take the shortest route.
But you know, Libby thinks the dreams are really important.”

We detoured
past the crossroads anyway, despite Libby’s advice, not so far that
we were way off course, but I felt a tug in my chest as if I had
missed something. I didn’t mention it to Phoenix, in case he made
me double back and walk through the crossroads.

We followed the
river towards a waterfall and the tugging eased. At least the
waterfall was in the dream, so we were back on track. As we
approached, we saw two people sitting on the rocks in the sun. Both
were naked.

It was obvious
they carried no weapons so we called out as we approached.

“I’ve met
them,” I whispered to Phoenix as we approached. They were the young
hippy couple at the markets. I remember the girl flashing the peace
sign and smiling. It would be nice to talk to someone that didn’t
live in the valley with us and I was curious how things were
working out for them.

“Hey man, how
ya going?” said the man, while the girl just smiled. “I remember
you, in town that day. Just crazy, you left before all the
excitement.” He stepped forward and shook our hand “I’m Ryzer and
this is Charity.”

“I’m
Phoenix.”

“And I’m
Psyche.”

“So, what
happened after we left?”

“Some guy
punched another guy, a dog stole some meat before they got to cook
any and that tall guy expected everyone to move out to his place,
like a damn cult. No way, man, am I getting into any cult shit, so
we slipped off when it got dark.”

It was funny
and I thought how Ruben would have reacted. A cult wasn’t something
we had considered in the styles of government Lon envisioned.
Chances are that Lachlan would have been in the fight and Seth not
far behind him.

We ate lunch
and chatted about life. They were still at the old school and were
happy and healthy. Life was simple, more or less. The dark haunting
look I remembered had lifted and I realised they were younger than
I thought.

“Why don’t you
stay with us tonight?” said Charity. “It’s better than camping out,
safer too.”

“There’re some
really wild dogs around. It would be better if you stayed with us,”
said Ryzer.

“What dogs?
Like great, giant, hairy black things?” I asked.

“No, more like
the meanest pack of poodles you’ve ever seen. They’re vicious, bark
and bite and run for miles. There used to be two, now there are
ten. Puppies!” he said.

Phoenix and I
talked about going on or going back. It was only half an hour back
into town and it was likely that we wouldn’t get far before the sun
set. On our way back to town, Phoenix pointed toward the
crossroads.

“We should have
trusted your dream,” he said. Libby said always trust the
dreams.

Tall grass and
paddocks of dairy cows surrounded the old school. Most of the
buildings were old and wooden with peeling paint. But it looked
pretty comfortable, considering the alternatives.

About fifty
people had settled in the old school, but there was plenty of room
for fifty more. Most of the people had wandered in as they
travelled from the coast, looking for somewhere safe. But fifty
people weren’t that many, really. Maybe there were fewer survivors
than we thought.

Charity and
Ryzer had other motives for inviting us to the school, beyond their
concerns for our safety. The pump wouldn’t pump water and they
couldn’t get more than a few cups of milk from the cows. They
seemed pretty straightforward with everything else, but didn’t come
straight out and ask us for help.

“Not much can
go wrong with water pumps, they are pretty easy to fix,” said
Phoenix. He showed them how to prime a pump by pouring water in an
opening in the top. “If it loses pressure and won’t pump, it
usually needs to be primed.” He showed them a few other things that
I wished someone had shown me… before I went swimming in the frozen
creek, trying to fix our pump!

We walked
through the paddock to the dairy to find the cows had already
arrived. Ryzer watched a documentary once and remembered that the
cows had to be brought in twice a day and changed into new pasture
regularly. He didn’t really know why, but he did it anyway. The
documentary didn’t show him how to milk a cow.

The herd was
small, only about twenty head. But it would be enough to keep fifty
people in fresh milk, yoghurt and cheese.

“These cows
here are dry, that means they don’t have any milk. Some will be in
calf and will have dried off naturally. These here look like they
aren’t in calf, but it’s hard to tell. They would have dried off
because they didn’t get milked,” Phoenix explained.

“Hey, how do
you know so much?” said Ryzer

“This is where
I went to school.”

“Oh man, I wish
we met you sooner,” Ryzer was scratching his head and I wondered
what other disasters had occurred in the past.

“These cows
here, the ones with calves are the only ones that can give you
milk. But the calves get most of it. If you take away the calves,
you get all the milk, but that means you have to feed the
calves.”

Phoenix tried
to explain how to organise the herd so they could milk some of the
cows. And then he began to teach Ryzer the art of milking a cow.
Charity ran off when he started and arrived back with an audience.
Everyone was willing to learn, and in less than an hour, the boys
had milked six cows and filled three buckets with warm, creamy
milk.

“That’s amazing
man! We usually get about a cup a day.”

Everyone
applauded and Phoenix bowed, “It’s not that amazing; next time we
visit you’ll be having milk baths. If they didn’t have the calves,
you would have six times that amount.”

There were many
things about the school that Phoenix was able to show them. I was
impressed. But for Phoenix it was everyday stuff.

A bell began to
chime. “It’s time for dinner,” said Charity as she led us toward
one of the biggest buildings on the campus.

“This is the
old dining hall, but we never actually ate here,” said Phoenix,
“they were afraid we would wreck it or something. If they knew what
was eventually coming, maybe they wouldn’t have been so
possessive.”