2042: The Great Cataclysm (41 page)

‘Roger that Nicky. Sam has been listening to all the channels. A volcano in the devils playground that’s been dormant for thousand of years is erupting. My Got it’s bad. Communications here are the same, almost non-existent, we’re only getting snippets. I can’t imagine what it’s like there so be careful.  Call us when you can we’ll be on standby. Out.’

Nick felt a weight had lifted from his shoulders knowing his beloved ship was safe and steaming toward him. He checked the impulse to cheer loudly, instead selfishly savouring the tiny bubbles of enthusiasm that silently popped and prodded inside his chest. Waiting was going to be intolerable, once they were united things would be different, but until then he’d work with Dave doing what he could to help. Graham had gone to Brisbane and he allowed his mind to imagine the destruction that the city must have sustained. All his favourite haunts from the past marched past his closed eyes. The Tung Palace in Fortitude Valley’s Chinatown where he dined two nights out of seven in the summer of 2029 would be under ten metres of sea-water, he was sure. He thought about five million inhabitants of the city and wondered how many survived. He had read all about the 1974 and 2011 floods that had wreaked havoc on Brisbane. Every flood since then had been measured against them until now. This was the granddaddy of all floods, there would never be one to equal it. He decided then that he would take the Platypus there when she arrived. He wanted desperately to be on board her again where he was at least in charge of the situation.  He felt like a fish out of water and smiled at the irony of that phrase.

***

Time dragged interminably as food and supplies were unloaded from some of the commercial vessels anchored out. Alex and Karen were eager to get back to Camp B and Nick was frustrated by the inertia, feeling helpless now they were all well rested.

‘Glad I’m not a sailor.’ Dave muttered beside Nick. ‘It’s bloody boring sitting about on this ship.  We’ll go ashore in the morning. I’m afraid that’s going to be rough. I’d get a Veto back to take everyone into the hills but they’re all in Brisbane rescuing survivors. Looks like another lazy night at sea!’

The evening turned out to be anything but lazy. The Ship’s company turned on a rip roaring party in the wardroom. The survivors from the Phoenix had snapped out of the pain of their horrific experience and joined in, timidly at first, then with
an exuberance bordering on hysteria with
the aid of alcoholic drinks brought in by the commercial ships. Underlying the frivolity was a constant uneasiness, a dread of the ordeal they faced tomorrow. Some visitors from other boats came on board and the party raged well into the night. New friendships were formed, stories swapped, impossible tales related. Nick and Karen danced until they thought their legs would cave in. The chief steward brought more drinks. ‘Better make the most of this lot maties.’ He warned. ‘When it’s gone, God knows where we get any more. Think the brewery’s gone up the river!’  His joke unintentionally stopped the party dead, reminding everyone of the dilemma ahead, bringing home in a peculiar way the reality of the situation. Most then staggered off one-by-one to lay down their heads and allow the alcohol to lull them into a foggy sleep.

Early the next morning Karen stood beside Nick on the deck of the Mittagong. ‘Surely there should be some sort of ceremony to mark the day we started over.’

Nick had nothing to say. He just looked into her eyes until she turned away. ‘C’mon, they’re waiting.’ She said.

Chapter Fifty-two

The Horror

Two liberty boats had been lowered over the side and were held fast by the gangway. The crew helped Alex and some of the other survivors from the Phoenix on board with Nick, Karen and Dave boarding last.  The water was deceptively calm with no hint of what lay beneath as they slowly headed toward the shore. Nick watched Dave with curiosity as he stood straight-backed in the bow of the boat with an air of authority. His fifty-five years had been kind to him; his skin yet to show the deeper crinkled lines of ageing, his thick sandy hair shining in the sunlight, his classic profile defined by a straight nose and a generous mouth. Nick’s earlier assessment of Dave had proven correct, he was a natural leader of men whose power and influence was subjugated by his warm personality.

Alex passed out their face masks and gloves, explaining they would be needed to protect them from any disease resulting from the dead bodies they would find among the debris.

‘Don’t touch anything dead.’ He instructed. ‘Move quickly over the debris and stay together.‘  A flotilla of other liberty boats with the rest of the hostages, and several private cruisers selected by Dave, slipped silently in behind them as they began their grim procession to the shore.

Dread enveloped Karen, her earlier high spirits dampened by the thought of the carnage they would have to climb over. Seeing it from the air was totally different to being right in it, touching it.  She had seen many dead bodies throughout her career, but this was something different. There would be children, babies, innocent unsuspecting people, animals; lives cut short by an unforgiving cruel sea, unclaimed, unidentified, rotting among rubbish! 

They passed by mountains of rubble forming islands where ten-metre walls of jagged steel and concrete leered at them on either side. The sickening vile smell of mud, slime and death assaulted their nostrils until Karen thought she would vomit. Several of the passengers with face masks cast aside hung over the side of the boat with their shoulders heaving, retching uncontrollably. A woman screamed and Karen turned to see animal and human arms, legs and parts of bodies protruding grotesquely from the mangled chaos of timber, concrete and reinforcing, crushed car bodies and Trancars. A mother shielded her child from the repulsive sight and Karen closed her eyes, nauseated and appalled.

Nick clenched his teeth and stared grimly ahead at the carnage confronting them. The first exposure to such horrors was always the worst, subsequent ones tempered by knowing what lay ahead. How would they handle this? How would they ever clear it without heavy machinery? It would just have to rot there and become a graveyard for thousands of souls?  That bitter knowledge would cast a dark shadow over the land for many years to come. The realisation of the depth of this atrocious disaster finally dawned on Nick, confronting him head-on; and like a boxer’s blow, it knocked the breath from his lungs. Up to this point it had all been conjecture but now he faced it, it was even more frightening than he could have imagined.

The tender rammed against a section of low lying rubble between two high cliffs of debris and Dave jumped from the boat onto the wreckage and tied it to some steel poking from the pile. Nick stepped out and helped the shell shocked passengers who
stepped rigidly one-at-a-time onto the new shoreline of ruins,
grey-faced and sobbing like zombies awakening from a long sleep. They stopped to stare at the barricade facing them and Karen reached for Nick’s hand. It could have been a scene from a horror movie but no director could have envisaged the carnage here. The twisted wreckage loomed ten metres above them and as far as the eye could see in any direction. It was incomprehensible to imagine that the massive piles of rubble around them had been a bustling society of millions. From this perspective most had no idea how far it reached ahead of them, but Nick and Karen knew it was a long way, even though the army had marked areas where it was the shortest distance to the roads or the navigable land.They tightened their masks but could not block out the mind numbing smell of death and rotting vegetation.

‘We could go back to the ship and wait for Graham to get back?’ Nick said.

‘No. I need to see this, we all need to see this. Besides, we could find survivors.’

‘Remember.’ Alex said to everyone around them. ‘If you see a body, even if you think it’s alive, don’t touch it! If you cut yourself don’t ignore it. Call for me or the army. Stay together.’

They put on their gloves and began to climb. Nick tasted the bile rising and he fought the impulse to retch. He worried about the effect this would have on the children and almost cried when he looked back to see a little girl in a blue dress standing beside a woman. She looked to be six or seven years old and she clung to her mother’s dress in fear. Nothing had prepared them for this and they would never forget it. There was no way around it, they had to cross.

They moved slowly, every piece of steel or wood or concrete threatened to wound them. Slime and rotting vegetation clung to their ankles and stuck to their shoes. Fumes rose clouding their eyes, fires were burning in pockets sending out stinking fumes that choked their every breath. All they could see towering around them were the mountains of ruin. Nick realised this wreckage would remain for years, as access to it was only by way of four-wheel land vehicles or sea. They would need an army of bulldozers working non-stop for years, not just here but at every shoreline. The living survivors would take precedence over a clean up campaign. He could see no immediate solution.

They trudged on in silence. Army personnel poked sticks with red ties in places where body parts were visible. Nick guessed that one day in the uncertain future they may try to retrieve and bury them. The sun burned their skin and people fainted but they were afraid to stop, afraid that if they did they would not be able to carry on. People cried and crossed themselves as they passed yet another mangled dead body.

They struggled on for hours picking their way through the horror, with filth clinging to their clothes that were ripped, and hearts that were breaking. After what Nick judged to be halfway Karen dropped and sobbed for so long Nick was afraid for her sanity. He was afraid for his own sanity as he mutely crouched beside her. Alex gave them some energy drink he carried in a backpack. No-one was afraid to be seen crying, even the hardened sailors wept openly. They couldn’t run to flee this appalling place, often they were forced to crawl and stop to wait for others to catch up, and in doing so experienced sights and smells that would haunt them for a lifetime. When they reached the end, when they trod on firm ground again and the pain was behind them, they rushed the waiting jeeps sobbing.

***

The trip to the camp went unnoticed as Nick and Karen and the little girl in blue with her mother travelled without speaking. There were no words to convey what they felt, there were no more tears to be spent. 

They returned to Karen’s home to find Bill and Veronica happily sharing each other’s company.  A bond had formed between them and a new respect for each other’s tenacity and courage had emerged, bringing them together in a way Karen could never have predicted. Bill’s shoulder was on the mend finally and despite the sadness brought on by Brian’s death, a kind of peace settled on the group. The worst was over. They had no more to fear.

Graham came back from Brisbane for the memorial service for Brian the following day. A small forlorn group gathered in the bush where Brian had loved to spend his spare time. The army Padre gave a sermon about peace and hope as they all said their goodbyes. Karen was dry-eyed and serene until the end when she broke down and cried. Nick felt like a child again wishing his father was alive to fill the empty void that knotted his chest and filled his soul. Nothing would ever do that, he expected he would remember Brian every day for the rest of his life.

Graham, Dave, Alex and the family spent the rest of the day resting on the wide verandah gazing out upon the ocean that once was the City of The Gold Coast, discussing the future. Graham advised he was moving to Canberra, where he had set up operations with his two 777s and the Veto fleet. He had decided to stay in Australia. Everything in Hawaii was wiped out, no airports, no beaches, no cities. Jim was safe and wished him luck. Aussair was still in business, but operating on a vastly different plane than before, working with the Government in Australia. Graham had secured air tight contracts that would last for this life time and guaranteed him and those he employed a reasonable income, which was more than most people had at this point. Despite the changed world and the hardships ahead, he felt fulfilled, useful and optimistic.

Chapter Fifty-three

Mt Rockwell

President Walker remained at Mt Rockwell in his duplicate White House and General Cooper continued to run the country. General Douglas had received his fourth star, and General Worth had been thrown into prison to await charges of treason. Bob Anderson had also been stripped of office and locked up.

Laura remained at Mt Rockwell and had been given better accommodations. The political parties were in disarray, many of the politicians missing, which is why the President had instigated military rule. Nobody knew how long the military would rule and nobody cared.

Josh was grateful Laura had located him the second day after the flood, or perhaps he would not have had the strength to go on. The power and stature he had previously enjoyed was gone. He felt alone, afraid and vulnerable. Many men shared the same feelings, grief for their lost loved ones, anxiety, panic, fear and frustration.

They all asked themselves how they could function under these circumstances or for how long?  Tensions were rising as each day dawned and they were trapped in their mountain retreat, a weakened, frightened Government.

Chapter Fifty-four

Gold Coast

Karen insisted that Nick stay on at the house with Bill and Veronica while she continued setting up the hospital in the hills with Alex. Medical supplies were becoming a concern. There were so many demands and so few resources. Graham promised to favour them with some special supply drops which he would work toward when he arrived back to Canberra. With the shortage of fuel and the constant threat of attack, Karen decided to stay at Camp B and return home occasionally, arranging with Nick when he could come to collect her.