Walking to the Stars

by Laney Cairo

  He had no chance of shouting instructions to Samuel, but hopefully Samuel could work out that if someone was shooting them, he should shoot back.

  Samuel dropped back into the APC, and slid into the seat behind Nick.

  "They stopped chasing us,” Samuel said. “That's not good, is it?"

  "Depends why,” Nick said, slowing the APC down and leaning forward to peer through the viewing slot. “No vehicles have been through here, not in a long time."

  The ravine the APC was driving into was man-made, with crumbling concrete walls and a slimy creek at the bottom. Trees and creepers grew thickly through the ruined concrete, and Nick was sure he saw things scurrying in the shadows.

  "This was a freeway,” Nick said. “I've been here before."

  The tracks on the APC whirred and slipped uselessly, trying to climb out the ravine, and Nick had to poke around amongst the ruined exit ramps and overpasses, looking for an easier way to climb out.

  On the other side of the freeway, the trees towered over the APC, crowding the vehicle and making Nick frown.

  "They weren't here,” he said. “Much further up the hill, yes, there was a huge park. Guess the trees have spread..."

  "Are we going to have to walk?” Samuel asked.

  Nick put the APC into neutral and put the brake on. “That depends on Talgerit."

  Talgerit opened his eyes and yawned when Nick crouched down beside him, the dog whining and sniffing around his feet.

  "How's the arm?” Nick asked.

  "Sore,” Talgerit said. “Where are we?"

  "Trees,” Nick said. “I think they're not just trees. Could you have a look?"

  Talgerit shuffled to the front of the APC, Nick hanging onto him to keep him steady, then he leaned against the front of the APC to look out of the viewing slot.

  "Trees,” Talgerit agreed. “This is someone's country."

  Nick nodded, and Samuel asked, “What does that mean?"

  "We're not driving the APC over the top of the trees,” Nick said.

  "Talgerit? Can you walk?” Nick asked.

  "Anywhere, anytime,” Talgerit said.

  "What do we take?” Samuel asked.

  "Drink the water, rather than carry it,” Nick said. “Take whatever food there is. Grab anything else that looks useful."

  Samuel clanked faintly, when they climbed out of the APC, and Nick lifted an eyebrow at him as the pair of them helped Talgerit out, to lean against the nearest tree while the dog ran around pissing and sniffing.

  "Tools,” Samuel said, patting his pocket.

  Talgerit wriggled his toes in the dirt and took the camo jacket that Nick offered him, sliding his undamaged arm into a sleeve and draping the jacket around his shoulders.

  "How does the arm feel?” Nick asked, feeling Talgerit's shoulder and elbow under the jacket, where the field dressings ended.

  "Like you think it would,” Talgerit said, wriggling his fingers and wincing.

  Nick felt Talgerit's forehead, and shrugged.

  "No sign of infection, which is a good thing. There must be antibiotics in what's left of the city somewhere, but I wouldn't want to try and find them."

  "Carder?” Talgerit suggested, and Nick nodded.

  "If we have to."

  As they pushed their way through the undergrowth, Samuel asked, “What's carder?"

  "Goanna,” Nick said. “The fat stops infection."

  Samuel was silent, apart from the crackling of twigs under his feet, and Nick looked back at him and said, “Applied topically, not internally, if that helps."

  Samuel nodded.

  The trees were close together, so they had to push between them, climbing over fallen branches and between balga plants. The shells of buildings poked up through the trees, and Nick found the remains of a set of traffic lights, the paint peeled off the pole and a honeyeater's nest in the green light.

  "This is the top of the hill,” Nick said. “It should be downhill from here."

  Talgerit, who had been leaning on Samuel, pushed past Nick with his dog following at his heels, and said, “There's a track ahead..."

  When Nick stepped out onto the track, Talgerit was kneeling down, looking at the leaves and bark on the dirt. Samuel almost trod on Nick, coming out of the trees, and Nick made a mental note to try and teach Samuel the basics of moving through the bush, before he injured himself or a bystander.

  Talgerit stood up again. “It's well-used,” Talgerit said.

  "Who made it?” Samuel asked. “The Noongar who live here?"

  Talgerit grinned at Samuel, and Nick said, “I believe that would be the good option."

  "What animal made it, unna?” Talgerit said. “This is an animal track."

  "Not procoptodons,” Nick said, looking up at the trees closing over the track, just above their heads. “Not diprotodons either."

  "There are other really big things?” Samuel asked.

  Talgerit shrugged. “Probably. We'll walk this path, if it is going to where Samuel's clock is."

  Nick pointed, south and slightly to the west, the direction the path curved through the trees.

  Talgerit walked ahead of them, standing straighter with each step, and his dog sniffed ahead, disappearing into the bush, then sliding out between the trees again. The trees were loud with black cockatoos calling, and honeyeaters buzzed them on the path. Lizards slithered away, and Nick had to grab Samuel to stop him from standing on a dugite snake warming itself in a patch of sunshine through the trees.

  The track twisted occasionally, but kept heading in the right direction. After a couple of kilometers, Nick caught up with Talgerit, who had been stalking several paces ahead of them.

  "Still going the right way,” Talgerit confirmed, pointing toward where in Nick's memory the University of Western Australia stood.

  "There's only one reason I can think of that the track would go there,” Nick said.

  Talgerit nodded. “Whoever, or whatever, uses this track walks there."

  "You're moving better. Does your arm hurt much?” Nick asked, as Samuel caught up with them.

  Talgerit shook his head slowly.

  "This is a good place,” Talgerit said. “Look?” He held out his hand, and a bubble of light swelled, bright enough to see in the late afternoon sunshine filtering through the trees. The bubble grew bigger and bigger, until it was wider across than a man's arms could reach, and was too bright to look at.

  Talgerit let the bubble slide to the ground, where it melted away, into the leaves and gravel.

  "That's a lot of magic,” Nick said, and Talgerit nodded.

  Nick touched Talgerit's arm, above the edge of the dressing, and Talgerit shrugged.

  "Okay, let's have a look,” Nick said. “If you've healed yourself, then I'll take the tape off your arm."

  Talgerit slid off the jacket, and Nick undid the compression bandage, then lifted the pack off slowly, but no fresh blood welled through the field dressing underneath. He kept the sterile side the bandage clean, away from everything, and undid the field bandage carefully.

  Underneath, when he peeled the gauze and wadding off the dried blood and curled sutures, Talgerit's skin had granulated across the wounds, the new skin gleaming and healthy, with no sign of infection. When Nick glanced down at Talgerit's ankle, where the marron had clawed him, the skin was smooth and healthy.

  "Accelerated healing?” Samuel asked. “That's amazing."

  Nick nodded. “I'm going to cover this up again, Talgerit, to stop the stitches from catching. Then you can use your arm again."

  With a smaller field dressing, taken from the APC, covering the sutures, Talgerit swung his arm experimentally.

  "Give me some rocks,” Talgerit said. “Let's get dinner!"

  Samuel pulled a food bar from his pocket and handed it to Talgerit as they started walking again.

  "We stole dinner,” Samuel said. “No need to catch rabbits tonight."

  Talgerit looked dubious about the protein bar Samuel had
just given him, but he tore the foil wrapper open anyway and bit into it.

  "Is it bad?” Samuel asked, and Nick had to admit that the expressions Talgerit was pulling gave that impression.

  Talgerit chewed hard, then swallowed. “Can we run my car on this? It'd be better than mutton fat."

  Samuel shrugged. “If you steal a truck full of the bars, I'll work on the refining process."

  "Because stealing trucks from the army is such a good idea,” Nick said.

  The path curved around, and began to track downhill, between smaller trees than before.

  "We're close,” Nick said, and he began to run down the track, the dog bounding ahead of him.

  The track led into a clearing, and Nick slid to a halt, Talgerit and Samuel on his heels. Across the clearing, partly hidden by tangle of vines, the clock tower of the university reached up, in the dusk. The clock face was broken, the hands of the clock hanging loose, and the roof was missing from the tower.

  "I've seen pictures of this,” Samuel said. “Before I left home."

  They walked on, across bitumen reclaimed by the vines and balga plants, and past wrecked traffic lights, until the ground dipped sharply, and the tower was close enough it loomed over them.

  Samuel leaned against Nick, once they'd slid down the embankment. “This is the place,” Samuel said. “We made it."

  Talgerit turned to look at them over his shoulder, as the gloom of dusk settled around them.

  "Keep moving,” Talgerit said. “Can't stop now."

  The cloisters surrounding the quadrangle they'd slid into were still standing, and Talgerit led them through the cloisters, and under cover.

  "Is there anyone here?” Nick asked Talgerit in a whisper, when Talgerit paused and peered around the corner of the building, his dog pushing between his legs to snuffle at the stone wall.

  "No people,” Talgerit said. “No nothing."

  "What?” Samuel whispered.

  "No birds, no dogs, no nothing,” Talgerit said, and he walked out into the open.

  Nick grabbed Samuel's arm, and pulled him after Talgerit.

  "Do you know where we're going?” Samuel asked. “I had maps, but they're gone, in the river."

  "Physics Department is ahead of us,” Nick said. “At least it was, the last time I failed a physics exam."

  The ground was rough, vines growing over rubble and thick bushes, but in the very last of the daylight, Nick could see the shape of the Geology Department on his right, and the Physics Department looming behind it.

  Nick pushed ahead, through what his memory said had once been a tropical garden but was now a dense thicket of bushes and trees, all of them with sharp edges that whipped at his face.

  "Hey, Talgerit, can you make some light?” Nick asked as he almost fell out of the thicket, the dark shape of a building looming overhead.

  Talgerit slid out of the thicket behind Nick, Samuel after him, crunching fallen branches and muttering about the trees.

  "Don't need to,” Talgerit said, and when Nick glanced back, Talgerit's face was lit by a pale glow.

  Talgerit opened his stolen jacket, and the Wagyl scale on a cord around his neck glowed, blue and white, shimmering in the darkness against his chest.

  "What does it mean?” Samuel asked, as Talgerit covered the scale up again.

  "Don't know,” Talgerit said, and he held out his hand, a glowing sphere of light forming on his palm.

  "That way,” Nick said, pointing at where his memory said the Physics Department was.

  The globe of light bobbed ahead of them, drifting toward the building, until it nudged up against a substantial pale red brick and sandstone wall.

  Nick scrambled through the undergrowth and across the rubble of what had once been a covered walkway, to where the glowing globe lit a shattered window.

  "Think this was an office,” Nick said, carefully pushing broken glass off the windowsill. “C'mon."

  He heaved himself over the windowsill, and fell into the room, landing in a pile of dried leaves and, probably, rat shit. Samuel was next in the room, and Nick barely got clear in time, then they both leaned out to help Talgerit climb in.

  The globe of light followed Talgerit in, reminding Nick of childhood balloons floating on a string.

  "Wow,” Samuel said, and Nick looked around the office, where books crowded the shelves and the shell of a computer sat on a sagging desk.

  The office door opened, with some shoving, and the light drifted ahead of them, into a long hallway.

  "Dusty, but intact,” Samuel said, following the globe of light. “I'd expected the building to be bombed, or gutted by looters."

  The next door that Nick pushed open was a computer lab, with rows of desks holding desktop computers, the chairs at the desks still in place. Apart from the faint scurrying of rodents, Nick could see no indication the room had been disturbed since the university was evacuated.

  "Why is all this untouched?” Nick asked. “Why hasn't the army, at least, taken all the hardware?"

  "Could the building be radioactive?” Samuel asked. “If I can find a real laboratory, I might be able to tell..."

  The ball of light flared briefly, and Talgerit said, “We have a problem."

  Nick closed the computer lab door and asked, “What kind of problem?"

  Talgerit opened his jacket, and the Wagyl scale around his neck shone as brightly as the floating ball of light.

  A long roll of what sounded like thunder echoed through the building, the floor under Nick's feet vibrated and dust rained down on them.

  "Explosions?” Samuel asked.

  "The Wagyl,” Talgerit said. “Maybe on the roof."

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Chapter Thirteen

  "You had classes in this building?” Samuel asked, watching Nick push the double fire doors open, onto an echoing entrance hall of broken glass and shifting shadows.

  "First year medical students had to do compulsory science units,” Nick said. “It wasn't pretty. It doesn't mean I have any idea where the research labs are, though."

  "I'm guessing the basements,” Samuel said. “It's easier to keep things secure down there, then there's the whole containment issue. If you're going to make a mess, do it where there are no windows."

  Talgerit looked upward, to where the crunching and crashing on the roof of the building had come from. “I could go, see the Wagyl...” he said, sounding hopeful.

  "Oh no,” Nick said. “Firstly, we're not going to the basement without you and your lights. And secondly, we're not going to the basement without you because there are things running around here, and they're not rats. I don't think they're even really things. If you'd like to tell me they're very small Wagyls, I'm not going to be surprised."

  Samuel swung his head, and sure enough, something hopped and slid, just on the edge of his vision, melting away.

  The dog whined, pushing between Talgerit's legs, until Talgerit settled him.

  "I don't know what they are, but they're not Wagyls,” Talgerit said.

  Nick rubbed at the dust on the wall, revealing a building directory and map. “Stairs are down this corridor,” he said, pointing.

  Samuel followed Talgerit and Nick, staying within the glow of Talgerit's globe and watching out for the things that were moving in the shadows, out of reach of the dog as he rushed at them.

  "Don't stand on any of those things,” Talgerit warned, unnecessarily in Samuel's opinion. “I think they own the building."

  "Should the labs smell?” Nick asked, as they crept down the stairwell, the stink of mould and decay growing stronger, even over the lingering smell of Talgerit's Featherman boots, which dangled around Talgerit's neck on a cord. “What does physics research smell like?"

  "The labs I'm used to smell of coffee and shorted circuits,” Samuel said. “I have no idea what gravity wave research smells like."

  The stairs ended in a hallway so dark that Talgerit's globe struggled through the opaque and musty air,
and the floor was dank and slimy underfoot when Samuel stepped off the final stair.

  Samuel grabbed onto Nick's shoulder, and said, “I guess we just work our way along the corridor, opening doors."

  Talgerit set more balls of light floating around them, and Samuel picked his way through sticky slime, to the first door.

  The sign hanging crookedly off the door read Experimental Quantum Dynamics, and Nick nudged at the door and asked, “What's Experimental Quantum Dynamics?"

  "About as magic as Talgerit's lights,” Samuel said, pushing his shoulder against the door, alongside Nick's. “High energy, high impact electron destruction physics, I suspect. Well outside of my area of knowledge."

  The door gave way with a rending of rotten wood and corroded metal, and they shoved it open far enough for one of Talgerit's globes to float in.

  "Oh,” Samuel said, at the hulking machines that filled the lab. “They're electron lasers."

  Nick tugged on Samuel's arm, and said, “Keep moving, no matter how exciting the lasers are."

  The next room was an office, with shelves that had collapsed under the weight of mildewed files and journals, and the door after was a workshop.

  It wasn't just an ordinary workshop, but a huge machining workshop, with precision lathes, heat pumps, gas expanders, spot welders and banks of tanks of compressed gas, some of which had ruptured messily sometime in the past. The workshop ran back, into darkness, and Samuel picked his way over upturned lab stools, to where the little things hopped and scampered around, just ahead of the dog.

  "This workshop...” Samuel said, shaking his head. “This must be where most of the equipment was manufactured. That's a precision mill, and that's a plasma welder."

  "Can you use all these?” Nick asked.

  Samuel shook his head. “Maybe the lathe, and the mill, as long as no one wanted me to produce anything usable. I'm not sure there's anyone still alive how knows how to even power up some of these things."

  They worked their way through the workshop, past equipment that Samuel couldn't identify, and each intact drill press and recognizable 3D printer made Samuel more and more hopeful that if he could find the right lab, the guts of the gravity wave clock would still be intact.