Daydream

Chapter 3

Maggie and Lara soon turned south, keeping high on the ridges as they made their way toward the wooded area the Dwellingup mob occupied. It would take them at least 3 days to track them down, if they were lucky. The area was cold, with constant frost and fog that rarely lifted for the midday sun. They didn't follow old tracks and roads either, preferring to keep to old game trails that followed water courses and were difficult to follow. The Dwellingup mob didn't live in the old town of Dwellingup, which was connected during summer by a broken bitumen road. It was broken as bitumen was often used as weapons, to either hurl as a chunk or break and sharpen into sharp flakes used in 'pea shooters', which pierced the skin and were difficult to remove at a whole shard. There was a permanent five people who called themselves 'Dwellingup'; Tenna and Harry, with their eight-year-old child Feli; Tenna's sister, Innia, and her mother-from-husband Rebecca. There were at least ten more 'semi-nomads', as they dubbed themselves, who kept in groups of two or three, roamed mainly in the Dwellingup area and periodically met to exchange news and food.

Sammy and Heidi took a winding route down to the grasslands and forests leading to the Murray River, again keeping well away from the main paths and roads. As they gained less altitude, the ground turned greener and animals began to move about; kangaroos, sheep, cows, the occasional emu, birds and small animals of every kind, snakes, wild dogs cats. Where the area had once been home to an imbalance of predators, cold winters and fall of huge human populations had recorrected the balance; now every animal was equally hunted and hunting. Heidi kept her senses open, listening for every sound, whisper, or centralised 'heat', or hotspot, that indicated an animal was nearby. Old Man Dan was no-where to be found, but they passed on the warning of Eliezer to a couple who were hunting high in the hills. The land was quiet, with crisp frost coating every surface, as the day ended and the Suns meagre warmth left the land.

Sunset came, streaks of blood red, pale orange, bright greens and blues, before deepening to deep purple and inky blackness as the stars made their appearance. The twinkled in the heavens, every star bright and glowing a sight to behold on any night of the year. Still Sammy and Heidi wound their way down to the river; cover of darkness made it less likely to be tracked, and as Heidi was aware of every living creature within a one-kilometre range, no-one could sneak up on them. Still, they were tense as they made their way to a deserted house; the windows were dark and dusty, some broken. The door was no-where to be seen, no doubt taken away by a person more I need, the tiled roof slowly falling away. The garden was overgrown, with wild roses and blackberry mixed with black boys and wattle trees that grew more like shrubs. Heidi sensed no-one, the house cold and empty of any human or large animal. They made their way up the old path, grass peeping through the cracks, and entered what was the laundry. Anything electronic was gone, or broken down to salvage copper and circuit boards, in attempts to create a system that could hack into Reppo computer systems; so far every attempt known had failed. Still, Sammy and Heidi searched the cupboards, finding a few thin and stained blankets. They did not venture further into the house, they were only after shelter from the wind and food was never kept in stores. They curled onto the ground, cuddled closely together, using their lumpy backpacks as cushions for their heads.

They were gone before dawn, leaving the blankets in the same place they found them. The next ground of nomads that entered the house would assume they were the first people to enter in a long time.

"It's been ages, where's the sun?" Sammy moaned, jamming her frozen hands under her armpits. It did little to help the cold.

"Not sure, but we will be in range of the Murray River in an hour or so. Mr Sun should be up by then," Heidi answered distractedly; this was the time when she and Sammy were relying on her Sense more than ever. Her eyes had a slightly glazed look about them, and Sammy would swear every now and again she could see constellations of the night sky in Heidi's eyes.

Within the hour they rounded the top of a smallish hill and saw the felled clearing; Heidi was smothering her own and Sammy's hotspot so much they both felt as if something was weighing down on them; no-one would be able to sense them without huge efforts which Heidi would notice. But no-one noticed them. They could see what was happening clearly now; some people were being corralled into what Sammy would note to be a temporary prison for hard labourers, what Heidi thought to be a cage.

"One... two... three... four... five... six. Six people. Three males, one female, looks like there are two kids too. What are they doing there? Why the cage?" Heidi whispered.

"It's a prison. They're hard labourers. Reppo's have caught six more," Sammy moaned. She just heard a scream; one of the smaller figures had begun to scream. A man walked up to the girl and clipped her around the head; she lost her balance and toppled. One of the caged men walked over and picked her up, before shouting angrily at the Reppo. They laughed and walked away.

"That's sick, what do they need the kids for? They big enough to fend for themselves... let them go, they can't be used like that," Heidi hissed.

"We can't do anything, there are two of use and twenty-something of them. We need to get to the Murray mob, as soon as possible," Sammy tugged at Heidi's hand, urging her to back away. Suddenly they heard a shrill sound, a long note similar to that of a bird of prey.

"Tommy," both girls breathed.

"Well... there's no need to fetch the Murray mob..." Sammy began, horror-struck.

"... They already know. What's left of them, that is," Heidi finished. She dropped to her knees and let a shrill call out, copying Tommy's note and adding a long, deep owl hoot to the end of it.

Then they ran.

They didn't stop for a long while; not until Heidi was sure they were out of sight, out of mind, out of sense range. She felt Eliezer search the land for them, probing, looking for the tell-tale individual heat that came with each person. There were people sent out to try and track them, but they soon were off their trail, before Heidi took to drastic measures. Midday came, the fog lifted for once, yet they could not rejoice in the pure sunlight; they continued to run, high into the hills until the low cloud returned, frost crunched between their toes and wind began to bite and freeze their eyelashes. Night fell, still they ran. The full moon was shining when Sammy finally collapsed, vomiting. Heidi stopped momentarily, before she too came crashing to the ground. Shivering, icy cold, the girls curled next to each other and waited for the cramps, the burning sensations, the stabs of pain in their ribs calm.

An owl hooted in the distance, the stars twinkled, indifferent. Two lonely girls in a big, big world.

~