by Leo Nix
“I've contacted Commander Cullen at Pine Gap, they know of this secret base in Shark Bay. They're sending in the base choppers to pick us up. They'll take my party first then they'll take the rest of you.”
He noticed the two visibly relax, Dyson even smiled, a tired, tight smile.
“No matter what happens, we need to get to Pine Gap.” Obi-Wan continued, “Commander Cullen also informed me that this event is global, those Revelationist terrorists have initiated their 'Apocalypse'. We're cut off from the rest of the world down here, no one's interested in Australia, it's a backwater. That means we have to look after ourselves.”
Brad's face shifted through several emotions before he asked, “What's happened to the US and Europe? Did they get hit too?”
Obi-Wan didn't answer straight away, his face went rigid, “No idea, buddy. We won't know if they've been able to frustrate the terrorists for some time yet I guess. The Revelationists must have friends in high places for it to have gone global - it's probably much like we've experienced here.”
“What?” cried Dyson, “No, that can't be right, we've been monitoring these bastards for years. We've had our own network monitoring them and not a word slipped that this was about to happen.”
“We knew, Dyson, we knew enough. We knew they were planning it, their weapons stockpiles, their rallies and drives to recruit members. We've known of the billions of dollars in their secret accounts. But they were protected, protected from the very top, everywhere. Who knows what they offered as bribes. Yeah, we knew, but no-one believed they would ever go through with it.”
“I guess you're right, Obi-Wan, we did know, at least we knew they were planning this crazy apocalypse, but…” Dyson's voice trailed off, no one spoke about it again.
After a few minutes of silence, Obi-Wan stood and made his way back to his boat. Pipeline was already there, sitting silently with Murphy at the helm. Emily sat with them, chatting brightly to keep them awake. It was almost dawn - the first dawn of the Apocalypse.
They anchored in Shark Bay some days later. Their breaks at various caravan parks along the coast were fruitful. The CB chatter between holiday-makers, grey-nomads with their caravans and four-wheel drives, and the other park occupants, made for lively discussion when the police and special operatives arrived with their uniforms and weapons. Everyone wanted news, news of the apocalypse, the terrorists, their hometown, and, most importantly, advice on what they should do next.
“Like we've told everyone else along the coast: we are all under siege, the terrorists have wiped out almost the entire Australian population. You'll have to organise yourselves into military-style camps. Find weapons, set outposts, develop a secret CB radio code to communicate with and prepare for an invasion of terrorists. We can't paint it any nicer than that, I'm sorry.” Murphy said it like it was. He was always willing to help but he was also a straight shooter. A lot of people were shattered at hearing the news they may have lost their loved ones.
By his side was Emily, the petite blond with the bubbly personality and good looks. She made it easier for the residents to listen. Most of the time one of the constables went with them, a police uniform helped settle the restless crowds.
“Where is the army? What about the police, aren't they doing anything about this?” asked one holiday-maker. His caravan had everything that opened-and-shut, everyone around appeared to be fed-up with him.
“I'm sorry bud, there aren't any. As far as we know the police are either dead or scattered. The terrorists targeted them first. The military had terrorists planted within their units, you can only imagine what that would have been like. You've got to sort yourself and your community into some sort of defense. If you don't you'll just become fodder for the terrorists,” explained Murphy.
“Well, that's not good enough, mate. You lot have weapons and you're all police of some sort. As a citizen of our country I demand that you stay here and protect us. You have no right to come here and take our supplies and then leave. We have rights and I demand you respect those rights.” With his chest puffed out the bull-necked man sounded like a lawyer - or a politician. Some of the crowd laughed, some sighed and some just walked away.
Emily tried to find ways to better explain the situation to blow-hards like him. She was certainly more tactful and successful than Murphy.
“Sir, we know you're all worried about your families at home. We are too, we've lost loved ones as well. But we all have to do what we can to help our community.” Emily stopped to point to the woman beside the grumpy old man. “Is that your wife, sir?” she asked and waved for the lady to join them. The woman was quiet, like a frightened mouse, she too looked like she was fed up with her husband. “What did you do before you came here on holidays, to Western Australia?” she asked. And so Emily worked the crowd trying to build confidence in their ability to develop a safe community.
By the second day on board the two wounded had died. They each had serious gut wounds and once peritonitis set in there was little anyone could do for them. Their scant supply of antibiotics proved ineffective. The police were down to nearly half their original numbers - plus the two spies.
The team's minor wounds began to heal in the salt air and judicious use of the first aid kit's remaining antibiotic ointment.
The food from the boat's pantry was running low, especially instant coffee and tea bags. The UHT milk went in the first 24 hours. Every evening when they pulled into a deserted beach they would fish, snorkel and gather rock oysters, crabs, lobster and shellfish. They certainly didn't go hungry, and the mud crabs and lobsters were delicious.
When they arrived at Shark Bay the group found themselves living on one of the most beautiful beaches on the west coast and quickly set up camp. It seemed that the word 'idyllic' was invented to describe such a scene. By their third day in Shark Bay everyone was beginning to relax. The trauma they had been through was slowly fading into the mists of the past.
Each morning they would go for a swim to freshen up then they would sit around the campfire to cook the leftovers from the previous night's meal and drink tea and coffee - until it ran out.
The smokers were hardest hit. The first aid and survival kits didn't cater for smokers. Rather than go without they resorted to drying the used tea leaves. The resulting herbage was wrapped in whatever paper they could get their hands on and smoked. It wasn't very nice but it helped satisfy their addiction.
With such a beautiful beach right on their doorstep the group spent a lot of time swimming and collecting food when not standing security with the prisoners or patrolling. Their clothing was beginning to rot in the damp heat. It smelt of mould and stale body odour and was basically unwearable. The group fell into the habit of gathering at the ocean's edge to strip naked and wash themselves and their ragged clothing. By day three no-one was all that bothered about their nakedness. Life in the services gave them plenty of opportunity to see naked bodies, attractive or otherwise. Soon most discarded their clothing altogether when they were lazing around camp.
Julie, Danielle and Kerrie walked to the end of the spit to check for signs of visitors. On their way back they met with Skip and Burger. Some members had begun to tan to a deep, honey-brown, like Burger and Danielle, but fair-skinned Skip just went straight to beetroot-red no matter how hard he tried to cover up.
The two men were in the water collecting shellfish buried in the sand, the delicious 'pipis'. Sitting on the sand was a bag of the flavoursome shellfish they'd already collected, neither of them noticed the group of naked girls strolling towards them.
“Mind if we join you, that looks like fun,” called Kerrie wading into the sea beside the boys. She started the special 'wriggle' that pipi hunters use to dig their feet into the sand locating their prey by feeling for the shells with their feet.
The two other girls joined in. Soon they were wriggling, digging and splashing in the waves together. It was about then that Danielle spied Burger, she liked what she saw and subtly moved to be closer t
o him. It also meant that Burger saw a little more than he was prepared to see of Danielle. It soon became obvious that Burger liked what he saw too.
Skip looked up when he heard the girls giggling and staring at the naked Burger.
“Hey, Burger, be careful, mate,” called Skip, laughing, “we don't want any sharks seeing that bit of flesh between your legs and thinking it's a giant worm.”
Burger realised that he had grown a few inches since the girl's arrival. He looked down, saw his growing manhood and immediately sank beneath the waves. There was an embarrassed silence as the girls tried not to giggle, but as soon as Burger lifted his head from the water they engaged in some friendly banter.
“Hey, Burger, don't worry about it, we've seen it all before,” offered Kerrie, the eldest of the group. “Besides, you've got nothing to be embarrassed about, believe me.”
That, of course, only made Laurence Burger's tanned face turn almost as red as Skip's beard. He slowly moved away, mindful to keep his manhood beneath the waves.
Danielle felt she needed to go to Burger's assistance, but she could only think of one suggestion - and there was no way she'd be saying that in public.
At night the campfires burned low as they placed a guard on the sand dunes with the prisoners and another in each boat. The rest slept in their sand beds, exhausted.
It was late spring and on some days the heat was almost unbearable. One morning Skip was sitting with his friend, Burger, trying to light their camp-fire for breakfast. Burger laughed at Skip as the wind kept blowing the matches out.
“Why is it, Burger, that one single match can start a bush fire, but it takes a whole damn box to light this one tiny twig? I'm damned if I can work things out sometimes,” he chuckled.
The chatter on the CB radio indicated there was little chance they would meet with a terrorist patrol. They were well fed, healing with the salt water and sea air, and everyone seemed to be getting along well.
The two prisoners were cuffed and placed under guard, away from the group. Dyson interrogated them for information, of which they offered none. All Dyson wanted to do was be rid of them.
Each member of the group carried wounds, not necessarily physical but certainly psychological. No-one was prepared for the end of the world, and no-one had time to say goodbye to their loved ones. They had left behind husbands, wives, children, boyfriends and girlfriends, and they knew, in their hearts, there was little chance they would ever see them again. The Americans in particular felt the keen loss of never being able to return home to be with their loved ones, it hit them all hard.
Each evening Obi-Wan and Skip sat radio watch, listening in on the terrorist chatter and maintaining contact with Pine Gap. They often spoke with lone CB enthusiasts around the country. The story was always the same: the terrorists had taken out huge populations in all major cities and towns right around the country, right around the world. Their occasional contacts from overseas were particularly distressing. For Obi-Wan it served to reinforce that he may never see his family again.
Sometimes, when Obi-Wan was off duty, Julie would sit with Skip to keep him company while he was on radio watch.
“Hey, big fella,” she called as she approached the launch in the dark, “want some company?”
“Hi, Julie, yes, it's always a pleasure to have someone as good-looking as you drop in.” Contrary to his mother's expectations, Skip had actually learned some manners while gaining his engineering degree at Oxford.
“You flirt, flattery will get you everything, at least from my experience it does.” Julie giggled lightly as she sat beside Skip in the launch. She handed him a hot cup of herbal tea, made from fresh picked leaves.
“Not bad is it?” she asked as Skip finished his cup.
“Better than nothing, better than I've had in a lot of five-star hotels,” he said as he handed the cup back to Julie.
The tall beauty sat close and snuggled into Skip's shoulder to get out of the cool, evening breeze. She put her arm around him as she began to talk.
“Skip, how come Obi-Wan is so shy with us girls? He only talks to his soldiers and the police but hardly ever to me and my friends. Even when we were in Geraldton, he sort of ignored us. Is it because we're female, you know.” She petered off into silence leaving the question hanging there.
Skip chuckled softly, “Julie, that's funny. Obi-Wan is as horny as any of us but he is different, that's all. He's married, he's got a dozen kids and doesn't play around. He's just straight, you know, up and down. He doesn't fool about.”
Julie listened, “Then he's not that way?” she asked at last.
“No, but autistic, maybe,” Skip chuckled, he liked this girl, she was funny. “He definitely likes girls but he's shy around them. Cripes, haven't you watched him around you girls at all?”
“Yes, I did. I was sort of hoping he'd invite me to his bed, but he never did. I dropped quite a few hints too but he didn't pick them up. That's why I wondered, you know, men don't usually say no to a bonk or a rumble in the hay.” Julie giggled and snuggled closer.
“Well, now you know. He's a genius too, and you know genius' are one step from crazy. He spends so much time inside his head he hardly comes out to see what's going on around him, especially when he's on holidays.”
“So how'd he get that funny name, is he a Jedi too?” Julie laughed, it sounded like music.
“Ben's called 'Obi-Wan' because he loves Star Wars, he's fixated on it. When he's not cracking codes and running tests or developing protocols for counter-espionage, he's collecting Star Wars memorabilia for his kids.” Skip cupped his mouth and whispered in Julie's ear like a conspirator, “he even dresses up in Star Wars costumes and goes to those Star Wars conventions. Plus… get this, he's also a serious Trekkie. He has a massive collection of Star Trek original movie posters, figurines and all sorts of obtuse memorabilia. I'd say he'd be worth a fortune if he ever sold it.”
Julie stopped rubbing Skip's arm and looked at him. “No way! He's a Star Wars geek, so am I! We should make love and make Jedi babies.” She laughed again. It delighted Skip to share his boring shifts with someone as bright and bubbly as Julie.
Julie wasn't finished, she had more things on her mind. Just like all lawyers she had to have answers to her questions. “Skip, I've got a question I've been meaning to ask you but I don't know whether I should.”
Skip rubbed gingerly at his face, it was sunburned and sore. “OK, well, if you have to ask then you just have to ask.” He leaned across Julie to adjust the radio dial. It sounded like voices and he wanted to get a clean signal, but it was just noise.
It had been a quiet shift and seemed like it would remain so - except that Julie's hand on his thigh suggested otherwise.
“OK, I hope I don't upset you, but… what does it mean to kill someone?” Julie didn't know any other way to ask such an emotive question, so she just jumped right in.
“Wow. Now that's a deep and meaningful question, Julie,” replied Skip, a little shocked.
“I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that. Just… well… I want to know. You're a soldier and you have to kill sometimes. Like those people at the hotel and now we've got those two terrorist prisoners. How, you know… how do you make peace with yourself afterwards?” Julie chewed at one of her fingernails, she was now a little nervous wishing she hadn't asked.
Skip considered the question before answering. “We train to be the best and for me that's radios and computers. I build them and maintain them as best I can. I also studied how to code and write software for all kinds of military communication systems. I was offered a position at Pine Gap because I am considered the best.” He started with what was safest.
“I joined the military because they offer positions in what I love doing and I'd heard that signals staff get the best postings, at least I thought so back then. It was suggested that I apply for a signals position with the Special Air Service, the SAS, and I got it. I had to accept that sometimes I would need to fight, and someti
mes I might have to kill.” He paused for a moment trying to think how to say the next part, the awkward part.
What saved him was Julie, she had always been impulsive, a bit like Trisha, she spoke before Skip was ready. “So… I've seen you catch a fish and then hand it to the other's to kill, what does that mean?”
Once again Skip carefully considered his answer. “Well, that's simple. I've seen too many dead people. I've also seen animals killed in warfare. We live on a planet that is hellbent on killing for revenge or as an expression of power. That's not me, I hate killing, anything. Life is way too rare and precious in this universe to want to destroy it.”
“That's why you won't even kill to eat?” she was curious and wanted to know, even if it meant pushing her friend like this.
“Julie, if I was starving or had to protect myself or a friend I would kill. I'm human, it's in my DNA to kill to survive. But if I had a choice I wouldn't do it.”
“Does that mean you would go vegetarian?” Julie gave a pixie-like smile knowing Skip was doing his best to be polite.
“Ha, ha, that's funny, I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain just to eat vegetables!” he chuckled. “Seriously though, Julie, it's impossible to be vegetarian in an environment like this. If we tried to stick to vegetables we'd all be dead by now. In the bush, living off the land like we're doing, it's downright impossible.”
Julie smiled, “I'd miss all that lobster and fish and the oysters, yum.”
“You've got me on your hook, girl, and I can't get off it, just like those fish,” he said, smiling back at her.
It wasn't hard to like Julie, he decided. She was almost as tall as he was, she had a beautiful smile and complexion. She was manicured and toned, wore the most expensive clothing and had a nicely sculptured feminine body. Julie had money and she had brains. She also knew what she wanted and when she put her mind to it, she got it.
