by Matt Pike
But, oh what a reward it could be. We won’t really know what’s on offer until we make our way into the heart of the ship. The only way we’re going to get that done is to find a hatch on the deck level. That in itself is going to require the shifting of a lot of ash. If the crew are lucky they hit a hatch sooner rather than later, but knowing where to dig is not much more than educated guesswork.
Oh, and they’re doing all this without the aid of wheelbarrows, which were a godsend on the car excavation. So, another thing to add to tomorrow’s swiping trip to the hardware store. I just about have enough on my shopping list to max out two hovercraft already.
I guess you’ve got to focus on what could be with this project. It’s too daunting to look at the details. The best way to do that is to stand on the deck of the frigate. They had already cleared beyond the railing such that there was a little square, less than a metre across, that allowed you to stand right on the deck. It was just enough to put your hands on the railings and stare out at the desolate landscape beneath and imagine a grand battleship behind you. I tried it… it’s hard to explain just how powerful the imagination runs when you do that. This could be anything.
*
Camp was dead when I returned, but that’s because everyone else was on the beach. Nate, Jessie, Asha and Kelly - yes, Kelly - had returned. With interest. They’d set out with a little fishing boat and had returned with that, a ridiculous bag of fish and an even bigger fishing boat. Or, as Nate called it, a fuck-off fishing boat.
Nate has no shame. When I got down there, he was telling their story to the others - complete with 45.68 percent embellishment, no doubt. Anyway, there he was, sitting on the bow of the fuck-off boat, leaning on the railing with his legs dangling into the space below. He had a scotch in his hands and, somehow, a captain’s hat on! A legitimate captain’s hat, like from some toffy yachting club or something. Oh my god, so funny, so Nate.
Seriously, picture the most immaculate, old money, well-to-do, private school, Adelaide-connected person you could image, then picture the opposite… that’s Nate. I wonder what the long dead former owner of this vessel would think if he was looking down (or up) on us? I’m laughing just thinking of that possibility. Well, serves himself right for being the sort of douche who would actually own a captain’s hat in the first place.
Too good. Anyway, we have a second boat. That’s huge. One leaves a whole lot of risk when operating, two covers ass. And you need ass coverage in this world. I mean, in general, yes, on the water, doubly so, but you can times that by 100 for post-tsunami apocalypse water. There’s all sort of snags floating in and under the surface. There’s probably half the western suburbs out there somewhere. So yeah, two is infinitely better than one.
If the deeper waters produce what they did today, I’m not sure how much shore fishing we’ll bother doing. It was a snapper fest - from one of Nate’s many secret spots, apparently. Those things are huge. Ugly, very ugly, but huge.
I wasn’t going to judge, but I am, they are ugly fish. Seriously, if they ever hit the fish nightclubs, the snapper would be at the back, hiding in the dark corners until all the other fish got too drunk to see straight. They’d have a small window of opportunity to pick up from that moment until the house lights went up.
But they probably have really good personalities.
OK, that was one of my weirdest tangents.
I blame the captain’s hat.
Anyway, today’s catch will be enough for an even more generous trade to Goodwood than last time and about a week’s worth of food here.
I feel bad now. If I ever see a snapper in a nightclub some day, I’m going to buy it a drink. Might even be its wingman.
*
Dinner tonight got serious. With all this stuff going on around us there was this feeling that we needed to start making our own moves to stay ahead of the game. I’m definitely down with that, they just have to be the right moves.
I think Nate’s analogy with Texas Hold Em has really got everyone, including me, seeing things with a new clarity. These moves aren’t accidental. Groups are getting nervous. The winter thing, that’s huge. It’s going to make for some desperate moves.
We have to work to our strengths, that was the consensus. For now, that still means steering well clear of the oval. Our strength there is they (the Fat Man) either think we’re dead or long gone. Besides, there’s no point getting actively involved in a game that’s still playing out and for which we have no real idea of the details. That one will come to us.
As far as our business goes down here, well, the plan ahead is pretty clear, Texas Hold Em or not, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. We’ve got our own winter deadline here. If we don’t get some more substantial shelter constructed before the weather turns bad, things are going to get real nasty for us.
Last winter was bleak. Sure, there’s a little more sun sneaking through these days, so it might get slightly warmer this time around, but it will be a long way off a normal miserable, cold, wet winter. And this time we’ll be at the mercy of the elements, unless we’ve got the frigate sorted, or seriously upgrade our current digs, or construct something better altogether.
All of that sits outside the game of cards we’re talking about, but it’s completely intertwined. It’s our stack of chips. That is our first duty to take care of. However we play this game, we’ve got to hold onto our stack of chips.
That only left Goodwood as a way to make our first entry level moves in this game. Not a bad thing, when I think about it now. So, we are seeing them again tomorrow to talk trade and future and we want to make a play in a bigger game.
It took 13 people sitting around a fire nearly an hour to come up with the right move. It was Alyce’s suggestion, after what seemed like a gazillion rejected ideas, that we would accept their (very desperate) offer of relocating them to the coast on the proviso they helped clear the frigate of ash. Each day, we would pick up a hoverload of their crew who could toil away at the ash before being returned to their digs in the evening. They would not see our settlement, they would not pass the city, just Goodwood to frigate, dig, and back again. No intel on us - nothing. For all they know, we’re a 200-strong powerhouse.
It was brilliant. Our biggest heavy labour challenge and we just get someone else to do it for us. And they will. There is no doubt at all. I’m smiling as much writing this now as we all were when Alyce suggested it.
This is playing the game. More than that, it is thinking for now - true modern thinking. The world is turning, the game is changing and we just slid our first chips into the centre of the table. Game on.
*
March 8, 2015
The morning mission had a new, or old, member today. Steph was in Phoenix with me, while Ye-jun rode with Kelly in wing. She’s still not really at full strength yet, but there was no stopping her once she had the boat adventure under her belt. Aside from some of the heavy lifting, she was pretty much back. Besides, the look on her face as she prepared to jump aboard the hovercraft, well, it was just priceless.
We hit the waystation, did the usual checks and headed to the jail. I couldn’t help but look at Kelly as we neared. She had all the nerves, doubts, recalls and wonder that I must have when I first returned. Watching her was seeing inside me, in a way, and a reminder that I should never take these visits for granted.
There was a new letter in the mail room. It was disappointingly but excitingly short.
Meet tomorrow. Same time, same place.
Affirmative, was our simple reply.
We were soon back at the waystation and off to Goodwood. We stopped by the Goodwood hotel on the way to pick up some beer. It was the one drink they’d asked for that we didn’t have the first time around. We thought it’d be a nice touch to show we’d thought about it. It was also to be another illustration of the resources at our disposal with the gift of transport.
It took a few minutes to sift through the mess to find what we were looking for, but we stumbled
on a rich vein of beer and loaded up a few cartons to go with the massive load of snapper, plus a restock of gin for Jonesy.
We had a little team meeting before making the final leg to the aliens. Just a reminder of what we were trying to sell ourselves as and what we wanted. It was actually super helpful. We’d only really come up with the plan last night, so re-establishing what that meant to each of us was a good way to get grounded before we met with Goodwood.
I’m not just talking about our demands, it was bigger than that. If we were selling ourselves as this potential large and all-powerful crew, we had to believe it ourselves. It had to just seep out of every pore as we talked to them - they would have to feel it. This was a huge part of the whole equation, because they could just up and steal our hovercraft and open up their world that way. The only thing stopping them thinking about that was assuming we were far, far bigger a force than we are. Perception was a big deterrent.
Another important thing we wanted to seed into the conversation was the fuel. It’s already starting to deteriorate; you can pick up the change of noise in the generator with some batches. Within a few months it will all be useless. We have a solution (well, we haven’t tested it but we think it’ll work). That’s all they needed to know really. All true, but it’s another big disincentive for them to try to steal them in the first place. I mean, why go through all that risk only to grab something that might only work for a couple of months.
It’s just a details thing, but an important one.
We were soon off again, landing in the shopping centre car park, with Ye-jun and Kelly staying back. I’m pretty sure the Goodwood lookouts could hear that second hovercraft, but that’s completely not a bad thing. Anyway, nods were exchanged with the aliens on lookout and soon Maria and Jimmy were there with a posse to carry the supplies, and accompany us, back to their base.
There was another exchange care package waiting for us. It was quite generous, it had to be said. Given their impending food drought, it was quite a sacrifice. But, then again, fresh fish would be worth it. It was more than that, is what I’m getting at. Steph and I shared a look that confirmed we thought it was a good sign of how desperate, and true to word, they were and would remain. But, you can never tell, I guess.
There was a different mood as we met with them today. This wasn’t about getting to know you or feeling out ground, this was a meeting around a single purpose. The proposal they had made just hung in the air until it was dealt with. It didn’t take long after the exchange of bounties for Maria to get down to business.
“Well, have you asked the powers that be about our offer?”
We told them we had, then gave them the terms of what we were offering. Six people for five hours a day, to help prepare accommodation. Adding there was a lot of work ahead to get things ready, but it should all be completed well before winter.
There was a quick exchange of looks between Maria and the other leaders but, basically, they couldn’t say yes quick enough. They even offered us a crew to take back with us there and then! We said we’d return at the same time tomorrow and for their help to be ready.
With that, we were on our way, Maria’s goon sons carrying new food supplies for us. I remember walking out of there, feeling like some mob boss who’d just shown mercy on some disappointing underling. I really did feel that. It wasn’t hard to play the part, either. Especially, when the aliens are so convinced of how big, powerful and together we are. You can tell with every interaction. Anyway, I definitely had my mobster strut going on as I walked back to Phoenix.
After loading up at the hardware store and swiping a heap more pots from a restaurant, we were on our way back. I made a mental note to tone down my mobster strutt before I got back to camp.
*
After updating everyone, I headed out to the digate site to drop off the wheelbarrows and extra shovels. There were wild celebrations from the crew there - Laura, Eliza and Mark - when they found out they would have people to order around from tomorrow. Oh, also their new gear.
Thoughts soon turned to the logistics of the dig. The extra numbers and equipment would speed up everything, but some thought had to be put into how best to get the wheelbarrows close enough so as not to require double handling of ash, as well as a process to remove it far enough from the frigate that it wouldn’t have to be double handled at a later point either. I mean, there are tonnes of ash that need moving. It takes up a lot of space.
Once everyone was happy with a plan, I took off. I had my own little puzzle to solve on the way back. I needed to find a path to the frigate that didn’t lead past any sign of our settlement. We didn’t want Goodwood to have any intel on us at all. That meant finding a new path that connected the frigate to our riverside track and was well back from the beach. I had created a few flag markers and dotted them along the path I created. It led me straight to the part of the river that widened, about a kilometre from the beach. It was enough of a landmark for me to take the new path and follow the flags to the frigate, without getting lost and looking like an idiot.
*
Back at camp, the desal operation was starting to look like a small factory on the beach. It really was quite a sight. It was great to see the first batch of 20L water containers start to fill up. Really satisfying, seeing your future hydration security build before your eyes.
The ash brick moulds are also starting to roll out. There’s a nice little design that is basically a matrix of squares. It means more of the wood surface is being used in part of a mould, providing a lot more bang for our wood buck and a lot more bricks.
*
The rest of the day was about as chilled as it gets for me these days. I’d been the bottleneck on a lot of projects getting started, but now the goods had been delivered, everyone had work to do. I just enjoyed it. And it really was enjoyable, seeing this new empire coming to life.
It got me thinking about the possibilities. Like, if nothing else happened in the city, or it all turned into a lifeless bloody mess and we just wanted to turn our back on it all, well, we could. We would have everything we needed to get by. It also got me thinking about our crew in the city. If this was our path forward, what a difference they’d make. Between Kent’s knowledge of all things botanical and Shane’s sparky skills, we could really make this life liveable. Image if Shane got down here. We could source some solar panels - as many as we needed - and have full power, and all the conveniences that came with it. Instead, we have to rely on one generator for only the most important of needs… and it makes a super annoying noise day and night.
I thought about the oval again and all the possibilities there. Man, my head is so messed up, it doesn’t know what it wants anymore. I did know what I wanted the most. After I’d had too much of being inside my own head, I went and stole Alyce from her work on the desal. Cue: Nate’s immature noises.
We jumped on Phoenix and headed inland to get some wood (side note: strongly resisting immature jokes right now). Not that we were desperate to resupply, I was just desperate for some alone time. It was nice just cruising and holding hands. On the way back, I found a nice spot by a bend in the waterway. There was a natural cove in the landscape nearby, enough to make it feel even more secure.
It was about halfway between the city and the surf. Not another human within kilometres and nothing but the sound of running water as our backdrop.
There’s something about the connection we have, coupled with the craziness of the world that keeps turning around us - it’s powerful. There’s this electricity there. I feel it could power its own city if we could harness it. Today it was good enough to power ourselves to get through another day, situation, disaster, conflict - whatever was going to be thrown at us next.
Curled up in each other’s arms afterwards, it was that thought that ate at me while I tried to let no thoughts come at all. Something big was brewing in our world again. It’s a different big than before. But everyone has the feeling that once life deals the turn and river cards in t
his game of poker and the remaining players scrabble to stay on the table, well, things will never be the same again. Not that anyone knows what that actually means, but, through our collective experience, it’s never all good news.
So, I had that going through my head and Alyce in my arms. In between the city and the sea, in between the past and the future and in between conflicts that would change the future for me and everyone I know. Anyway, I didn’t really think much more before four words fell from my mouth.
“Will you marry me?”
I think they caught me more off guard than they did Alyce. Go figure. Anyway, she gave me the most delicious long gaze, said “yes” in the sexiest way imaginable and we kissed. And kissed.
So, you know, that happened.
I apologised for not having a ring, or much of a romantic setting, or anything that some sort of preparation would’ve given to the moment. None of it mattered to Alyce. I think she could feel all the things I was feeling. It’s hard to find your grounding when the world keeps making such big turns under your feet. There is no stability in the way this life works. No pathway. No easy. Except Alyce. She is all that as well as my confidante, my best friend, my strength, my lover and now, my fiance, for however many days or moments or memories we have together.
We decided to keep our little status update secret from the others as we started our journey back to the beach with stupid smiles on our faces and a little moment of belonging that’s pretty rare around here.
*
I have just put finding an amazing ring on my to-do list.
*
March 9, 2015
I left my finance in bed this morning (pauses to let the use of that label wash over him… naww) while I prepared for what I knew would be a crucial day.
Steph joined me on Phoenix. Ye-jun and Asha wingmanned us. It was hard (almost impossible) to tell Kelly she wasn’t up for this particular mission. It wasn’t a judgement she took kindly to, but we needed everyone fully fit if we were taking six of Goodwood’s bigger bodies on their first day of hard labour. Not only did we have to be at our best on the off chance something were to go wrong, we still needed to play the game of strength perception. If we were a, say, 200-strong community, there’s no way someone like Kelly, still moving in quite a bit of discomfort, would be doing frontline operations. It was that point that finally got her to stand down. Thankfully. She gets rather scary when she feels she’s been slighted.
