Chapter 9

(Ellie is sitting in the treehouse, watching the road. We hear a sound from below, Carrie climbs the tree.)

Carrie: I couldn’t sleep. Too much to think about.

Ellie: I slept, but I don’t know how.

Carrie: Did you have awful dreams?

Ellie: I don’t know. I never remember my dreams.

Carrie: Not like Theo…every day he’d tell us his full dreams from the night before, in detail. It was so boring.

Ellie: He’s just boring all the time.

Carrie: I wonder where they all are now. I hope they’re at the showgrounds. I hope they’re ok. It’s all I can think about. I keep remembering all the stories we read in History about World War Two and Kampuchea and stuff like that, and my brain just overloads in terror. And then I think about the way those soldiers were shooting at us, and the way they screamed when the mower blew up. Ellie, I just can’t believe this is happening. Invasions only happen in other countries and TV, you know? Even if we survive this I know I’ll never feel safe again.

Ellie: I was thinking about the games we used to play up here.

Carrie: Yes, yes. The tea parties. And dressing the dolls up. Remember when we put lipstick on them all?

Ellie: Then we lost interesti.

Carrie: Mmm, it just faded away, didn’t it? We grew up, I guess. Other things came along, like boys.

Ellie: They seemed like such innocent days. You know, when we got to high school and stuff, I used to look back and smile and think, “Wow, was I ever innocent.” Santa Claus and tooth fairies and thinking that mom stuck your paintings on the fridge because they were masterpieces. But I’ve learned something now. Carrie, we were still innocent. Right up to yesterday. We didn’t believe in Santa Clause but we believed in other fantasies. You said it. You said the big one. We believed we were safe. That was the big fantasy. Now we know we’re not, and like you said, we’ll never feel safe again, and so it’s bye-bye innocence. It’s been nice knowing you, but you’re gone now.

(They sit for a bit, watching in silence.)

Carrie: Do you think they’ll come?

Ellie: Who? The soldiers? I don’t know, but there’s something Phil said…about them not having the manpower to search the whole district. There’s a lot of truth in that, I think. See, my theory is that they’re using this valley as a corridor to the big towns and the cities. I think they’ve landed at Cobbler’s Bay, and their main interest in Wirrawee is to keep it quiet so they can get free access to the rest of the country. Cobbler’s Bay is suck a great harbor, and remember, we couldn’t see it when we came out of Hell, because of the cloud cover. I bet it’s full of ships and there’s traffic pouring down the highway right now. But it’s not as though Wirawee’s going to be a major target for anyone. We don’t have any secret missile bases or nuclear power plants. Or at least we didn’t, the last time I looked.

Carrie: I don’t know. You never know what Mrs. Norris was getting up to in the science lab at school…

Phil: (from below) You children come down from that tree right now! Great sentries you are. (climbing) And I heard what you said about Mrs. Norris, my favorite teacher. I’m going to tell her when we get back to school.

Carrie: Yeah, in twenty years.

Ellie: Wasn’t it Mrs. Norris’s class when you went out the window and down the drainpipe?

Phil: It could have been…

Carrie: (laughing) What?

Phil: Well it got a bit boring, even more boring than usual. SO I thought I’d leave. The window was closer than the door, so when she turned to write on the whiteboard I went over the windowsill and down the drainpipe.

Ellie: And then Ms. Maxwell came along

Phil: And said, ”what are you doing?”

Ellie: Quite a fair question really.

Phil: So I told her I was inspecting the plumbing.

(they all are laughing. They hear a jet.)

Carrie: (pointing) There it is.

Phil: one of ours! We’re still in business!

Carrie: Look! Three more, and they’re not ours.

Phil: three against one. I hope he makes it.

(later, everyone except robyn and lee are in the treehouse.)

Phil: Ok, we need to do something about Lee and Robyn. How about this: you know how I feel about everyone sticking together. It might be nice for our feelings but it’s ultimately stupid. We’ve got to toughen up, and fast. Just because we like being together, that’s not important any more. You know what I’m saying? So, what I suggest is two of us go into Wirawee to look for Lee and Robyn. If no one’s turned by midnight say, they make their way to Lee’s place, and see if they’re holed up there, injured maybe.

Kevin: I thought you didn’t believe in friendship any more. Seems a hell of a risk to go to Lee’s if we’re so worried about saving ourselves.

(people roll their eyes and glare at Kevin)

Phil: I’m not doing it just for friendship. It’s a calculated risk. Seven people are better than five, so we take a risk to try to build up our numbers to seven again.

Kevin: And we could end up with three.

Phil: We could end up with none. Everything’s a risk from now on Kev. We’re not going to be safe anywhere, any time, until this thing is over. All we can do is to keep calculating the odds. And if it goes on long enough we’ll be caught. But if we do nothing we’ll get caught even sooner. The biggest risk is to take no risk. Or to take crazy risks. We’ve got to be somewhere between one and the other. Obviously whoever goes looking for Lee and Robyn has to be incredibly careful. Bt I’m sure they can work that out for themselves.

Kevin: So what do the other three do? Sit back here and eat and sleep? Shame there’s nothing on TV.

Phil: No. Here’s what I suggest. They load Carrie’s Toyota with everything useful they can find. Then they go to Kevin’s and do the same. And to my place and Ellie’s if there’s time. They pick up the Landrover at Kevin’s and fill it too. I’m talking food, clothes, petrol, rifles, tools, everything. By dawn we want to have two vehicles fuelled up, packed to their roofs, and ready to go.

Kevin: To go where?

Phil: To hell.

Amy: We’ll makes lists. We need pens and paper, carrie.

(they make lists. Kevin keeps writing ‘condoms’ and Carrie keeps crossing it off. I mean, if they’re the last people alive, they DO need to reproduce. Haha.)

Phil: Carrie, we can’t take things lik eyour mother’s diaries.

Carrie: Why not? They’re so important to her. She’s always said that if the house was burning they’d be the first things she’d save.

Phil: Carrie, this isn’t a picnic we’re going on. We’ve got to start thinking of ourselves as guerrillas. We’re already taking teddy bears and guitars. I think that’s enough.

Carrie: If we can take family photos we can take my mother’s diaries.

Phil: That’s exactly what’ll end up happening. You’ll say ‘well if the photos can go, the diaries can go,’ and then someone else will say ‘well if her diaries can go then my father’s football trophies can go,’ and before we know it we’ll need a couple of trailers.

Amy: Why don’t you pack up all the valuables in the house? Your mother’s jewelry and everything. Then hide them somewhere. Bury them in the vegetable garden.

(they hear a distant noise – a helicopter.)

Carrie: It’s a helicopter.

(they run for the windows)

Phil: Get away from the windows! We forgot to have a sentry. Kevin, go to the sitting room; Amy, the bathroom; Carrie, your bedroom; Ellie the sunroom. Look carefully out of the windows to see if there’s anyone coming by road or across the paddocks. Report to me in the office. I’ll get the .22.

(they do what he said. Ellie sees Flip in the yard. The helicopter swoops by her window. Ellie goes to the office.)

Phil: Well?

Ellie: No soldiers, but Flip’s out there, wandering around. They must have seen her from the helicopter.

Phil: That might be enough to make them suspicious. They’d be trained to notice anything out of the ordinary. We’ve got a lot to learn, assuming we can come out of this. How many soldiers in the chopper?

(these lines can be overlapping)

Amy: Hard to say

Ellie: Maybe three

Kevin: I didn’t see

Carrie: Maybe three or four, maybe more sitting up the back.

Phil: If they do land they’ll probably spread out. A .22 won’t be much use. The Toyota’s still up at the shearing shed. I can’t believe we’ve been so stupid. It’d be no use trying for htat. Go back to the same rooms, and see what they’re doing. And try to count the number of soldiers. But don’t give them the slightest chance to see you.

(they do what he says. They all go back to the office)

Kevin: It’s on the west side, just hovering there, not landing.

Phil: Look guys, if it lands I think we’ve only got two options. We can sneak out on the opposite side to where it’s landed, and use the trees to try to get away into the bush. The bikes are no use and the Toyota’s out of reach. So we’d be on foot and relying on our brains and our fitness. The second option would be to surrender.

(grim silence)

Ellie: I don’t want to be a dead hero. I think we’d have to take our chances and surrender.

Phil: (quickly) I agree.

Kevin: All right.

Phil: Let’s go back to the sitting room. We’ll see if it’s still there.

(they go. Kevin goes to the window.

Kevin: Still there. Not doing anything just watching. No, wait…it’s on the move…coming down a little.

(Amy gives a cry, Ellie grabs her hand to comfort her)

Kevin: They’re staring right at me, but I can’t believe they could see me.

Phil: Don’t move. It’s movement that could be a giveaway.

Kevin: I know. What do you think, I’m going to start tap dancing?

(tense silence)

Kevin: (whispering) It’s moving…can’t tell…sideways a little, up a bit, up some more. Maybe going over the house, to have a look at the other side.

Phil: This’ll be the big move, one way or the other. They won’t hang around much longer.

Kevin: still going sideways…up a bit more…no, backing off a bit. Come on, back off beautiful. Yes, backing off now, and accelerating too. Oh yes,. Make like a hockey player sweetheart; get the puck out of here. Yes! Yes! Fly away, fly away home. (he turns to them with a casual shrug) See! All I had to do was use my charm.

(Carrie throws something at him. The tension in the room is eased.)

Phil: Let’s get cracking. We’ve been lucky. We can’t afford to make that many mistakes again.

(he herds them into the sitting room)

Phil: We’ll have this conference out here, where we can see the road. Now look, I’ll tell you what I think. If there’s any major holes in it, tell me. Otherwise, let’s just do it, OK? We don’t have time for long debates. All right. Starting with the dogs. Flip and the other one at my place, whatsitsname.

Ellie: Millie.

Phil: Yes, Millie. Guys, we have to abandon them. Leave out all the dry dog food you want for them, but that’s all you can do. Second, the milkers. I’ve had a look at ours, Carrie. She’s not only got mastitis, it’s gone gangrenous as well. We’re going to shoot her. It’d be too cruel to leave her here to suffer. Third, the Toyota. We can’t take it now. They will have seen it from the air, so if it goes missing they might notice that. The three people packing the vehicles will have to take everything they can on bikes, and ride to Kev’s and pick up another four-wheel drive there, to go with the Landie.

Kevin: The Ford’s still there.

Phil: Good. One thing I was hoping we could get from here is lots of vegetables from Carrie’s mom’s garden. But I don’t think there’ll be time, unless it’s done in darkness. For now, I think we should go camping till tonight. Take the bikes and anything else that’s absolutely vital, and get going, in case they send troops out from town. I’m sure they won’t come out after dark, but till then there’s a risk. Finally, about tonight. I think Ellie and I should go into town. We need a driver to stay here, and Kevin and Ellie are our best drivers. And it wouldn’t be fair to have an all girls group and an all guys group. Then if you three aim to get to Ellie’s by dawn, we’ll meet you there. If we’re not there tomorrow, give us till midnight tomorrow night, then leave for Hell. Leave one car somewhere, near Tailor’s Stitch, and go down to the campsite. We’ll find out own way there when we can.

(he stands)

Phil: I’m really spooked about that helicopter. Let’s get out right now, and save the looting till tonight. I’ll meet you at the shearing shed. We’ll have to take all the bikes. We need them.

(he picks up the rifle, glancing at carrie)

Carrie: (hesitates, then murmurs) you do it. (she wipes a tear with one hand, and is holding kevin’s hand with the other.) I hope Mom and Dad don’t mind us doing these things.

(they get to the shearer’s quarters, Phil joins them. Suddenly, a jet comes and bombs the house. Carrie gives a cry. The house blows up. Carrie is on the floor, having a seizure. Phil gets a bucket of water, they splash it on her face. Carrie sits, sobbing and hiccupping.)