Herdenmord - ONC2021

Nocturnal

"Should we help them?" Dimi asked, her eyes wide.

Jamie shook her head. "It sounds blocks away. And the only reason that isn't us is because nothing knows we're here yet. It's getting dark."

"We better cover the windows," Aaden said.

We scattered through the house, closing blinds and taping gaps. We wedged rolled up towels into the crack under the garage door. My parent's station wagon sat in the middle of the garage. I went to the kitchen, grabbed the keys and put them in the ignition.

"We should get the car ready to go," I whispered. I could sense the dark closing in around the house, and the possums beginning to stir. So many nocturnal animals, beginning their first night of herdenmord. We had to stay quiet as possible.

Noises reached us from outside. Howling dogs. Screaming. The revving of car engines as people fled their homes. Sirens and alarms. Sometimes, a screech of brakes and the rending of metal as someone hit something. It was terrifying, but it prevented our small noise from attracting attention.

We filled some water canisters we found in the garage and a dozen empty plastic bottles too. We put the water and all the non-perishable food into the back of the car. There wasn't much. A few cans and a fresh box of wheat biscuits. We divided our meagre supplies into our backpacks so we'd all have something if we got separated.

Jamie lined up every kind of fuel she could find on the garage bench. Kerosene, the lawnmower fuel, even methylated spirits.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Maybe nothing," was all she'd say.

We pulled mattresses and doonas into the movie room, which had no windows and enough room for us all to sleep. We watched the news silently, chewing on cold cheese sandwiches, trying to ignore the screams that punctuated the night. The news services continued to show any footage they could obtain. A huge great white taking out surfers in Western Australia. A battered fishing boat sinking off the coast of Tasmania, the sharks circling. A crop-dusting plane crashing to the ground, a pelican tangled in its propeller. The nightmare images went on and on. Until the power cut out.

The rats had found their way.

#

Aaden was shaking me. Hard.

"Wha..." I started.

"Wake up," he hissed. "The possums found us."

I sat up, instantly wide awake. I could hear the sound of claws scrabbling at window frames and doors and the thump of heavy bodies running across the roof.

"Shit. How'd they find us?"

Dimi spoke, her voice thick with tears. "I flushed the toilet."

We sat in silence, contemplating this catastrophe. It was such a stupid thing to do, but if it hadn't been Dimi, it could've been me.

"Are they getting in anywhere?" I asked. Maybe they wouldn't be able to find a way.

"I don't know."

I checked my phone. Three fifty a.m. It was three hours to sunrise. I turned on the torch we'd scavenged from the garage, shining it over the walls around us. There was no sign of damage, yet, but I knew the walls were just thin sheets of plywood.

"If they get in the house, we won't be safe here," I said. "We should get in the car."

We gathered our doonas and I cracked open the movie room door. "Nothing," I said.

We stepped into the corridor and listened. The heavy rasp of an angry possum sounded and sharp claws scrabbled at the window, but we could hear nothing inside the house.

"Let's go," I whispered, starting toward the garage door.

Then we heard it. A heavy snuffling at the front door.Something big breathed in deeply, pulling all the air from the house into its nostrils. Pulling our fresh, sleep warmed scent in with it.

There was a long silence, then something thumped the front door hard enough to make it creak. Everyone gasped. Dimi staggered backward, hit the wall hard and slid down it.

"Are you okay," Aaden asked, lifting her to her feet.

"I'm fine. I'm so sorry," she wept.

"What the hell is it?" Aaden asked.

A blood curdling howl filled our ears. "Harley," I said, trying not to think of the dog's heavy, muscular jaw or the wide spray of Mr Burns' blood.

The howl rose again. A second howl answered. A great thumping on the roof told us more possums had arrived.

"He's calling the animals," I said.

Harley howled a third time. Claws scrabbled at every window and I heard gnawing from the roof.

"Come on!" Jamie ran for the garage door.

Somewhere, inside the house, a window smashed.

"Shit!" I bolted, my heart in my mouth. I had no idea what just breached my home and I didn't want to find out.

We piled into the garage. I heard claws skittering across the kitchen floorboards as Jamie pushed the door shut behind us. She grabbed a handful of towels and stuffed them into the gap under the door. "I don't think it saw us," she said, working furiously, "but they'll be able to hear and smell us, so we're going to have to be really quiet. This will take care of the smell."

She grabbed the methylated spirits from the work bench and tipped it over the towels.

"Quick, the garage door," she ordered.

I grabbed the lawnmower fuel and started soaking the material. I left a long strip of wet fuel on the concrete for good measure. I could hear something just outside the roller door. Soft, high pitched squeals.

"Rats!"I hissed. "Get in the car." I slid into the driver's seat. Jamie grabbed the kerosene and jumped into the front passenger seat. Dimi and Aaden were already huddled in the back, the doors firmly shut, their arms wrapped around each other. I looked at them for a heartbeat. Were they a thing?

I didn't care.

Jamie and I eased our doors closed, latching them with a gentle but pronounced thunk.

"The vents," I whispered. We closed every vent as tightly as we could.

I turned off the torch and we waited in the dark. We could hear howling inside the house and then it sounded much closer, as though the dogs were right outside the garage door. We waited in the dark, but never heard the scrabble of claws on the doors of the car. Nothing pattered across the roof or pulled at the insulation around the windows. It was dark and quiet.

Nothing is here, I willed into the darkness. Nothing is here.

After what felt like forever, I lowered my window a tiny bit. The air stunk of fuel but it was fresher than the air inside the car. I couldn't hear anything anymore. No howls, no claws. I waited, leaning back on my seat, but nothing disturbed the silence except heavy breathing from the back seat where Dimi and Aaden were sleeping. I didn't know if Jamie was asleep too, but the thought of sleep made my eyes droop heavily. I nodded myself awake a couple of times before I finally sank into oblivion.

I dreamed of the rats. 

(10319 Words)