The Road to Winter

by Mark Smith

  ‘Not in this valley, you’re not.’ Harry’s voice is defiant.

  I hear movement behind me and I turn to see Stella sitting Willow on the table and picking up the shotgun. She puts her finger to her lips and softly clicks the breach into position. She signals for me to look after Willow, then she slips out the back door with the gun.

  ‘You’ve got fuck-all chance against us, Harry, and you know it,’ Ramage continues. ‘You’re not fighters, you’re farmers. And Christ knows we need farmers, so we don’t want to hurt you.’

  Ramage lets the silence sit for a minute until he says, ‘We could leave you in peace here. But you’ve got something we want. A boy and a girl. She’s a Siley and she belongs to me. We been trackin’ them from the coast. The boy tried to kill me last week.’

  Again, he leaves the words to hang in the air. I need Harry to stall him. I have to find Kas, but I’ve got Willow to look after now, too. She has walked across the room and is standing on her tiptoes to see out the window.

  ‘What’s happening, Finn?’ she whispers. ‘Why is Daddy talking to those men?’

  ‘We’re all just playing a big game,’ I say. ‘We’re going to hide and the others will try to find us.’

  ‘Where’s Mummy?’

  ‘Mummy’s hiding,’ I say, thinking as quick as I can, ‘and we have to sneak out the back as quiet as mice to find her.’

  I take her by the hand and move towards the back door. There’s a loaf of bread on the dresser that I break in half, shoving a piece into each pocket. It’s cold outside. The house backs onto a small holding yard for cattle. It gives us some cover as we move past the side of the house and turn towards the first in the row of sheds. It’s awkward running with Willow so I pick her up and piggyback her. She holds on tight around my neck.

  When we reach the safety of the woolshed I look back to the men in front of the house. They’re still talking.

  I pick up movement off to their right. Stella is crouched behind the rusted wreck of a tractor. She has the stock of the shotgun resting against her shoulder and the barrel on the metal seat. She sees us and waves us to keep going.

  I run along the back of the shed, but as I turn the corner a hand reaches out from one of the chutes and pulls me down. Willow gives out a little yelp as we stumble and fall sideways. I feel the full force of a body land on top of us and a hand clamps over my mouth.

  ‘It’s me.’

  ‘Kas!’

  ‘What’s going on over there?’

  ‘Ramage,’ I say.

  I barely get the words out when a blast from a shotgun echoes across the valley, so close I know it must be Stella. There’s shouting, then and the sound of a fight, metal on metal, and another blast from the shotgun.

  ‘Come on.’ Kas says. ‘This is our chance.’

  ‘But he’s got a trailbike.’

  ‘I’ve got something better than that,’ she says.

  She drags me up by the hand and I pull Willow along behind me. The sheep yards are like a maze. We dodge our way through them and out into the home paddock. Kas leads us along a fence to the back of another shed. She pulls a sheet of corrugated iron aside and squeezes through. I pass Willow in to her, then follow. There’s a stall off to the side where a horse stands snorting steam in the cold air. He’s jumpy with all the noise, but Kas soothes him. She slips a bridle on and passes the reins over his head.

  ‘Whoa there, Yogi,’ she says.

  She takes Willow by the hand and opens the stall, while I climb onto the bales and look outside. The fight is still raging in front of Harry’s place. I can see a couple of bodies on the ground. There’s no sign of Stella behind the tractor and Ramage’s trailbike lies on its side in the mud. We’ve got no chance of getting out of the shed without being seen.

  Kas has mounted the horse and has Willow in front of her. She’s showing her how to grip the mane. I climb back down and swing my leg over to sit behind Kas.

  ‘Trust me, Finn,’ she says. ‘Whatever I say, just do it.’

  ‘They’ll see us! They have to.’

  ‘Which way do we go? What’s the safest way?’

  I remember Harry’s advice.

  ‘We head up towards the ridge and climb as far as we can. If we get to the tree line before Ramage, the trailbike won’t be able to follow.’

  Kas swings around, trying to understand what I’m saying. Then she leans forward and says, ‘You hear that, Yogi Bear. He says we gotta make it to the trees. Hold on tight, Willow.’

  Then she turns to me. ‘Ready?’

  Before I get the chance to answer, she digs her heels into Yogi’s flanks. He skitters sideways then bursts out into the daylight.

  The fight is going on about twenty metres away and everyone seems to stop when they see us. Harry is still standing, and so is Tusker. We’re not quite at full gallop when we pass them.

  Ramage is the first to react. He moves towards the trailbike. I hear the motor cough a couple of times before it takes. But the noise dies again and I see Harry dragging Ramage from the bike. Kas is leaning forwards, one arm around Willow and the other gripping the reins. We are at full gallop now and heading straight for a railing fence leading to the river paddock.

  ‘Move with me,’ Kas yells. ‘And hang on!’

  Yogi barely misses a step, launching us into the air. I lift off his back altogether but manage to hold onto Kas, who is leaning so far forward she must be squashing Willow. When we land I come down hard and I begin to slip off. Kas reaches around and drags me back into balance.

  The paddock is rising steeply towards the trees and she urges Yogi on.

  There’s still no movement from the houses. I keep expecting to hear the roar of the trailbike. Yogi slows, feeling the incline and the weight of our three bodies, but Kas digs her heels in again and we’re in the trees.

  The undergrowth is patchy, allowing us to move through at a good pace, but before long the mimosa and bracken fern thicken and we have to slow to a walk. Yogi suddenly seems big and cumbersome in the forest. His flanks are lathered in sweat.

  Kas slides off his back and I follow. Willow still hasn’t said anything, and I wonder if she saw Harry in the fight.

  We try to get a view back to the houses, but since we’re only fifty metres into the trees we’ll have to keep moving. Above the sound of the wind in the canopy I hear the distinctive revving of the trailbike. Back down in the paddock I spot Ramage riding along the tree line. He revs the bike then veers downhill towards the farmhouses. Through the trees I can just make out a lone figure running up the hill towards us.

  It’s Stella.

  She must have seen us riding off with Willow and has tried to follow. But Ramage has other ideas. He reaches her easily and circles her, his back wheel spitting up a cloud of dust and dirt. Stella keeps edging forwards, but Ramage is tightening the circle. He swoops in and tries to kick her, but Stella jumps out of the way.

  While Kas and I have been watching the confrontation below, Willow has slid down off Yogi’s back. She starts running in the direction of the paddock, calling to her mother.

  I take off after her, but Kas yells, ‘Leave her! There’s nothing we can do. We’ve got to take our chance now.’

  I’m torn. With just the two of us on Yogi we could move quickly, maybe make it to Pinchgut Junction before any of Ramage’s men and be back in Angowrie by tomorrow. But then I think of Harry and Stella, and how they protected me. And Willow’s just a kid caught up in shit she doesn’t understand.

  Kas leads Yogi further uphill. I can’t move; my eyes are fixed on the paddock. Ramage lands a kick to Stella’s back and she stumbles. She’s quick to her feet, though, and presses on up the hill, forcing Ramage into a wider circle.

  Willow has broken cover and is running down towards her mother.

  ‘Sorry,’ I say. ‘I can’t leave them to fight on their own.’

  Kas looks at me, then back at the paddock. Without a word, she turns Yogi around and in one movement she’s on his b
ack.

  ‘Keep climbing,’ she says to me, before digging her heels into Yogi, urging him down the slope.

  Somehow she gets him to a canter, then a gallop, as she hugs his back and swings him left and right through the scrub, pulling the reins one way then the other, shifting her weight as Yogi responds to her.

  In no time she’s out of the trees and making straight for Stella, who has picked up Willow and is trying to protect her from Ramage. I’m not even sure if he sees Kas coming, there is so much dust in the air. Kas has Yogi at full stretch now and I worry she’ll run right over the top of Stella and Willow.

  But as she nears them, she slows Yogi, putting herself between Stella and Ramage, protecting them with the horse’s bulk. Stella reacts fast, passing Willow up to Kas before climbing on herself. I expect Kas to ride uphill towards me, but she circles back down towards Ramage, who has stopped and is straddling the trailbike with his feet on the ground. As they bear down on the bike, Yogi shies at the last second, almost dislodging Stella, but his flank hits Ramage and knocks him off the bike. Even from this distance I can hear Kas yelling at Ramage, who’s lying on the ground, his arms protecting his head. Kas has Yogi skittering and pigrooting around him.

  Finally she swings back uphill. When they reach the cover of the trees she slows and slides off to drag Yogi up by the reins. Back in the paddock, a couple of hundred metres from us, Ramage is on his feet again, leaning over and trying to right the trailbike.

  No one says anything when they reach me. The air is filled with Yogi’s snorting and the sound of branches breaking underfoot as we press up the hill. When the paddock has dropped out of sight we stop and rest. Willow crawls into her mother’s arms and Stella looks across at Kas and me. I can’t tell whether it’s sweat or tears running down her cheeks.

  ‘Thank you,’ she says.

  Kas brushes her off. She’s looking up to the ridge. I know her one thought is to escape, to get as far away from the valley and Ramage as she can. I’m thinking the same thing, but I don’t want to leave Stella and Willow.

  ‘We have to keep moving,’ Kas says. ‘They won’t waste any time in coming after us.’

  ‘Not us. Not Willow and me,’ Stella says. ‘We can’t leave. Everything we have is down in the valley.’

  Kas is nodding, but I have to speak up.

  ‘You know what’ll happen if they’re still there, Ramage and his men?’

  ‘I know,’ Stella says. ‘But Harry’s there, and the others. We can’t abandon them.’

  There’s anger in Kas’s voice now. ‘Sorry, Stella, I was a prisoner down there. I don’t owe them anything.’

  ‘That wasn’t my doing, Kas. We tried to protect you and Finn at the meeting. I never agreed with the way Sileys were treated.’

  ‘Stella,’ I say, ‘Kas and me are going back to the coast. We have to go now while we’ve got the chance. You and Willow can come with us or you can go back to the valley. It’s your decision.’

  Stella stands up then and holds Willow close to her chest. She whispers something in her ear. Then she turns to Kas and me.

  ‘Take Willow,’ she says. ‘Please. I can look after myself, but if they took Wils, if they hurt her…’ She leaves the sentence hanging.

  ‘No, Mum! No!’ Tears are streaming down Willow’s cheeks and she clings to her mother even tighter.

  ‘Please!’ Stella’s voice comes from somewhere deep inside her. Her whole body shakes.

  There are no words now. I make my own decision, prising Willow away. She screams and kicks out, but Stella works with me. In the end I have to carry her over my shoulder. I don’t look at Kas; I just start walking towards the ridge. I can hear Stella sobbing and Willow is still kicking me and screaming to be put down, but I keep climbing.

  ‘I love you, Wils.’ Stella’s voice cracks and when I finally look around she’s on her knees.

  ‘Look after her,’ she mouths. ‘Keep her safe.’

  ‘I will. I promise.’

  Stella stands up and straightens herself. She turns back towards the valley and begins to thread her way down through the scrub. She doesn’t look back.

  It takes a while for Willow to finally exhaust herself and become a dead weight over my shoulder. Kas is ahead of us, still leading Yogi by the reins. Without the burden of anyone on his back, he seems to be coping better with the climb.

  We continue in silence for an hour or so. The rangy stringybarks give way to manna gums as we climb higher until the rocky crags of the ridge tower over us. The ground is steeper here and Kas pulls hard on Yogi’s reins to drag him up.

  ‘Rest,’ she says as we come up beside her. I ease Willow off my shoulders. All the defiance has left her little body, though every now and then she chokes back a sob.

  Kas sits down and takes Willow in her arms.

  ‘It’s okay,’ she says. ‘We’re going to be okay. We’ll get you somewhere safe, away from those bad men, then we’ll wait there for your mum and dad. But you’ve got to be strong for us, you understand?’

  The day is wearing on and I know we’re going to have a rough night. At least it doesn’t look like rain, but the clear sky means the temperature will drop away fast. The rocky outcrops are directly above us now. I can’t see a way for us to climb much higher, let alone drag Yogi with us.

  Kas sees where I’m looking. ‘We won’t get up there,’ she says. ‘Not a chance.’

  ‘I know. I reckon our best bet is to go west. Stay at this level if we can and keep an eye out for anywhere we can climb. We’ll rest here for a bit then make our way across. There might be an overhang where we can get some shelter for the night.’

  We sit in an exhausted silence. Huddled together, I get the chance to look at Kas closely in the daylight. It’s hard not to be drawn to the birthmark on her face. It spreads from her hairline, down across her forehead and cheek on the left side. The rest of her face is darkly tanned and her skin is clear. Her hair is thick and matted, jet black like Rose’s. But her body is leaner, her arms all sinew and tendon lacing down to large hands. There are calluses across her palms and fingers. Her clothes are torn, with glimpses of her dark skin peeking through.

  I find myself wondering where all her strength comes from. There seems too little of her to ride the way she does, or to drag Yogi up this hill.

  ‘Come on,’ Kas says. ‘We’ve got to go.’

  It’s harder moving across the hill than climbing it. The ground is flinty underfoot and we struggle to keep from falling. Willow is on Yogi’s back, and while the horse keeps slipping he always seems to right himself without Willow falling.

  We continue like this for a couple of hours or so. It seems impossible that the day has passed so quickly but the sky is beginning to darken and a chill is finding its way into the undergrowth.

  ‘Kas,’ I say. ‘I’m going to climb higher up towards the cliffs and walk parallel to you. I’ll keep you in sight. If I find shelter, I’ll whistle.’

  She nods and keeps walking. I begin clambering towards the cliffs. The ground flattens out at the base of the rock so it’s easy to keep pace with Kas and Yogi.

  It’s almost dark by the time I find a small overhang where the ground has been trodden flat, probably by animals looking for shelter. I whistle and I hear Kas begin to urge Yogi up towards me. It takes her a good ten minutes to climb up. I have to lean down and help her drag Yogi the last few metres. Once he’s on the flat I take Willow off his back and put her down on the dry ground under the overhang. She pushes back against the wall and hugs her knees to her chest. Kas wanders off to tether Yogi to a tree.

  I drop into the bush and collect as much bracken as I can hold. It won’t be much, but it will help to keep the cold at bay.

  We can’t risk a fire—not with Ramage’s men after us. I spread the bracken on the ground and sit down next to Willow. She crawls in closer for warmth. Kas eases herself down further along the wall.

  ‘I’m hungry,’ a small voice says against my chest.

 
‘Sorry, Wils,’ I say. ‘We might be able to catch something tomorrow.’

  ‘What about the bread?’ she says.

  ‘What bread?’

  ‘In your pocket.’

  With everything that’s happened I’d totally forgotten about the bread I grabbed from the dresser before Willow and I escaped out the backdoor.

  The bread has crumbled in my pockets, but there is enough for each of us to have a small piece.

  ‘Your mum makes good bread, Wils,’ I say without thinking.

  Her chin drops to her chest with the mention of her mother and even in the half-dark I can see her bottom lip start to quiver. Kas moves over and puts her arm around her, and we squeeze her between us. Eventually Willow lays her head down in Kas’s lap and closes her eyes. Before long we can hear her steady breaths as she sleeps.

  ‘I’m going to have a last look about,’ I whisper to Kas, ‘before it gets too dark.’

  I retrace my steps for about a hundred metres, listening for any movement below us. Apart from a breeze moving through the branches of the trees up on the ridge, the bush is quiet.

  Back at the overhang I can just make out Kas and Willow. I sit down next to them.

  ‘Is Rose okay?’ Kas asks.

  I close my eyes and think of the last time I saw her, propped up in bed, sipping soup. ‘She wasn’t great when I left her. Had a fever, but I think she was getting over it.’

  ‘And the baby?’

  ‘Okay, I think. It was kicking.’

  ‘That’s a good sign.’ She shifts her position and I feel her shoulder against mine. ‘How far is Angowrie?’

  ‘We can make it in a day if we can get up to the ridge and find the track.’

  She takes time to think this over.

  ‘Why did you come looking for me?’ she says. ‘You were safe down there. Or, at least, safer than anywhere else.’

  ‘Rose would have come on her own if I hadn’t tried. I couldn’t let her do that. And she says she might be further along than she looks. Six months, maybe.’

  ‘I reckon more. Her boobs are big.’ She laughs. ‘She’s always been flat as a pancake.’