‘What do you want to do with her?’
There was silence. ‘That depends on her,’ he said at last.
As the day wore on, the heat in the container grew worse. Although I did my best to stay awake it was difficult to stay focused when all I could think about was the heat, my thirst. Sometime during the afternoon I lay down, trying to ignore the heat rising through the metal beneath my face, and gave way to my exhaustion.
I don’t know how long I slept, all I remember is being woken by a clanging noise and glaring light and the figure of a man crouching beside me. Blinking and confused I sat up and shrank away.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said, leaning back to give me some space. ‘I’m not going to hurt you.’
I tensed, ready to pull away if he reached for me. As my eyes began to adjust I saw it was the man who had brought me back.
‘Here,’ he said, offering me a water bottle. ‘You probably need it.’
I took the bottle and, lifting it to my lips, drained it in quick gulps, aware of his eyes on me.
‘I’m sorry we got off to a bad start. I’m Travis.’ His voice was quieter than it had been this morning, gentler, but I wasn’t deceived: I could hear the threat that lay behind his fake charm. I wiped my mouth and watched him warily.
As if reading my thoughts, he smiled and I saw again the coldness in his eyes, the calculation in his manner, and wondered whether others were fooled by him.
‘Don’t worry. We’re not monsters. Nobody’s going to hurt you.’
When I didn’t answer he stood up.
‘I’m going to come over and undo that chain, okay?’
I hesitated then nodded, my eyes moving to the light outside.
He smiled again. ‘If you’re thinking of making a break for it, the front gate is locked.’
I looked back at him but didn’t say anything. Finally he reached out and undid the shackle, then extended a hand to help me up. Refusing his hand, I drew myself to my feet on my own.
‘That’s better,’ he said.
Once I was outside I saw it was late afternoon, the sun already low. He waited while I took in my surroundings, then he asked if I was hungry.
I didn’t answer.
‘You must be,’ he said. ‘Come with me.’
He led me past the container toward the back of the house. Once it must have been a handsome farmhouse, wide verandahs on all sides, but over the years the verandahs had been fenced off to create storage areas and an ugly extension with a wide covered space had been constructed at its rear. The blond one was seated in an old armchair in the covered space, a beer in his hand. As we approached he gave me a small nod of greeting, although it was difficult to mistake the threat behind it.
‘You’ve met Jared,’ Travis said with a smile. When I didn’t reply he pointed to a table. ‘Sit down and I’ll bring you something to eat.’
I seated myself as instructed, aware as I did of Jared’s eyes following me.
‘What?’ I asked, not keeping the dislike out of my voice.
Jared snorted but before he could reply Travis reappeared with a plate with a white bread sandwich on it. Placing it in front of me he smiled. ‘Sorry it’s nothing fancier.’
The sandwich was Vegemite, which I hate, but I was so hungry I ate it anyway.
When I was done Travis sat down opposite me.
‘So, perhaps you should tell us your name.’
I took a sip of water, trying to wash away the taste of the Vegemite.
‘Sophia,’ I lied.
Travis glanced at Jared and nodded.
‘Pretty. So, Sophia, perhaps you could tell us what you were doing out there.’
‘I don’t have to tell you anything,’ I said.
Travis nodded. ‘No, you don’t. But if you help us we might be able to help you.’
‘Help me how?’
Travis looked at Jared and the two of them smiled. ‘You’re a long way from where you belong, Sophia. There are all sorts of dangerous people out here. But we might be able to get you home again.’
Something about the way the two of them smiled at each other made my stomach clench, but I kept my face blank.
‘So that girl you were with. She was your sister, right? And you were heading north with her, toward the Zone?’
When I didn’t reply he continued. ‘I understand why you’d do that, but you’re not helping her, not helping any of us.’
‘But you’d help her, I suppose?’ I said before I could stop myself.
Travis smiled blandly. ‘Better we help than she dies out there on her own.’
‘She’s not on her own,’ I said before I could stop myself.
‘No. Which is the next thing we want to know about. Your friend with the dark hair. Who’s he? Brother? Boyfriend? Or is he one of them as well?’
‘Does it matter? You’ll never catch him.’
‘I wouldn’t be too sure of that. But if you help us it might go better for him.’
‘Even if I did know where they were I wouldn’t tell you.’
Behind Travis Jared shook his head. ‘I told you she wouldn’t help us.’
Travis shot Jared a warning glance then looked back at me.
‘We’re not your enemies, Sophia.’
‘No? Then why’d you lock me up in a cage?’
Travis paused, his eyes not leaving mine. Then he stood up. ‘Put her back in the container,’ he said to Jared. ‘We can talk again when she’s feeling more cooperative.’
Jared approached and took my arm, but before he could drag me to my feet I stood up.
‘What are you going to do with me?’ I demanded.
Travis looked back and paused. ‘That’s up to you,’ he said, then turned away, dismissing me.
Jared left me with another bottle of water, locking the door. Now the sun was off it, the container was a bit cooler, but it was still stultifyingly hot, so I was careful not to drink the water too fast. Now I was alone again I found myself more frightened than ever: although I was pretty sure they didn’t know how to find Matt and Gracie, I knew it wouldn’t be long before they started to think about what they could do with me. The way I saw it they didn’t have a lot of choices: if they let me go they ran the very real risk that I would go straight to the police. It was possible they might be able to get around that by turning me into Quarantine, who might be less concerned about the way I’d been treated, but really there was no way they could let me go without putting themselves at risk.
But if they didn’t let me go, what then? They could keep me here, locked up in this box, but they couldn’t keep me forever, surely, meaning they’d have to make a decision sooner or later whatever happened.
Thinking back to Travis’ manner I suspected that wasn’t a decision he’d put off for too long. Which brought me back to where I’d started.
Finally I gave up and slumped back against the wall. Outside it grew dark, the sound of the birds mingling with the murmur of a screen somewhere, before giving way to the ponk ponk of frogs and the rustle of the night.
An hour or two after dusk I heard the sound of a car pull up somewhere nearby, then the rattle of the gates, followed by voices somewhere behind the container. Standing up I crossed to the grille and pulled myself up to peer out.
The open space behind the container was illuminated from one side by a floodlight, its glare casting long, looming shadows. Travis and a third, younger man I guessed must be Ryan were sitting on the chairs I’d seen earlier. Ryan had a bottle of something that looked like whisky in his hand, Travis a beer.
Something told me they were waiting for something, so I wasn’t entirely surprised when Jared appeared, dragging something on a rope.
Because the grille was small and I had to keep dropping down to rest my hands I couldn’t see what he had with him immediately. But as he f
inished tying it up and stood back I realised it was a dog, or had been once.
I had seen photos and videos of Changed animals before, but the reality was more unsettling than I had imagined. Although it was still recognisable as a dog its proportions had been subtly altered, its legs stretched and its chest deepened, so it resembled some kind of spectral greyhound. Its fur had grown thinner as well, and its skin translucent, but where one might have expected to see blood and muscle, pale light pulsed and rippled, as if inside some creature drawn up from the ocean depths.
Disquiet gripped me. It wasn’t that it looked disgusting or monstrous, it was that it seemed wrong somehow, a thing that should not be.
At first nothing happened. Jared moved back toward Travis and Ryan. Ryan passed him the whisky bottle and he took a swig. But then, almost as if a signal had passed between the three of them, Travis picked up a short, truncheon-like stick from beside one of the chairs and began to circle in toward the dog.
Although he approached it with studied casualness, it was obvious he meant the dog harm. Yet whatever he intended to do he wasn’t in a hurry to do it. When he was still a metre or so away from the dog he stopped and half-turned to look at Ryan and Jared, the stick swinging loose in his hand, his manner deliberately casual.
The dog wasn’t fooled. It shrank back, making a weird high-pitched noise halfway between a growl and a whimper.
Travis continued his pantomime for a few seconds, and then, with a swift, startling savagery he spun and jabbed the stick into the dog’s side. There was a flash of light and a spitting sound, and the dog shrieked, whipping away in distress. Startled, I stifled a cry, but Travis didn’t press his attack, instead he backed off, swinging the stick, which I now realised was some sort of electrified prod, back and forth while the dog whimpered and moaned, straining on the rope around its neck.
Jared and Ryan gave a sort of cheer but Travis didn’t turn or acknowledge them in any way. Instead he circled in again, watching the dog, the prod tracing an arc through the air in front of it. As before he didn’t strike at once; instead he held off until the dog had begun to recover, then lunged forward and hit it on the shoulder and – when it jerked and jumped to escape – on the rump, the prod showering sparks where it struck the creature’s skin.
Seemingly satisfied, he turned away and walked back to where Jared and Ryan stood. Although they watched him he did not look at them. Jared stepped forward to take his turn, advancing on the poor creature with a cricket bat.
If Travis’s assault on the animal had been restrained, Jared’s was deliberate and cruel, eliciting yelps of agony and fear from the creature. Yet horrible as the dog’s cries of distress were the look on Jared’s face was worse, not just the focus of it but the smile that played across his lips each time the dog cried out or yelped.
When Jared was done Ryan took the bat from him, its length rising up and striking downward over and over again until at last a look passed between Travis and Jared and the two of them closed in as well, kicking and striking until the creature lay on its side.
Unable to keep watching I let go of the grille and dropped down, trying to block out the sounds of the creature’s shrieks, the shouts of pleasure from Jared and Ryan. Only when the creature fell silent and I heard the sounds outside change once more, did I climb back up and look out again. The dog lay unmoving in a pool of blood, its faint luminescence staining the ground. Jared nodded to Ryan, who walked out of sight for a few moments, only to return with a can. Opening it he began to splash petrol over the remains, then, taking a box of matches from his pocket, he lit one and let it fall on the dog’s body, stepping back as it caught fire.
The smell of the creature as it burned was foul, unnatural, fleshy and sweet like flowers or rot, and as the smoke leaked into the container, it mingled with the stink of the bucket and my own body. If I had been in any doubt before about the fate of the Changed once Travis and the others caught them, they were gone, as were any doubts about what lay in store for me.
From outside I could hear Jared and Ryan whooping, their voices raised in a kind of war cry, the sound chilling, deranged. Who were these three? Did they have families, friends? They must have, and unless those people knew about this, they must be able to pass as normal, to seem plausible, when underneath they were cold, cruel killers. Or – and this thought ran through me like ice – was it possible everybody was this way underneath, that this madness was always there, in all of us, just beneath the surface?
I closed my eyes, trying to push the thought away, but then I heard the lock clank at the other end of the container and Travis swung the door open and stepped in.
In the half-light I couldn’t see his face but I knew he was watching me, and despite myself I drew my knees in tighter. Perhaps he noticed, for as he approached he smiled.
‘I just wanted to check you were okay in here,’ he said, standing over me.
‘Sure,’ I said. ‘Great.’
‘I’ll have Jared bring you some more water.’
When I didn’t answer he looked up at the grille.
‘We should have that thing closed over.’
‘Is that what you do to all of them?’ I asked, my voice trembling with anger.
Travis looked down at me and smiled again. ‘All of who?’
I gestured at the bucket. ‘Whoever you kept in here before me.’
Travis shrugged. ‘And if it is?’
‘What kind of person does that?’
With a suddenness that shocked me Travis dropped so his face was right next to mine in the darkness.
‘You don’t think it’s them or us?’ he demanded.
Willing myself not to shrink away, I shook my head.
‘Even if it is, nobody deserves to die like that.’
‘You think that . . . thing . . . deserved to live? That the Changed deserve to live?’
‘What kind of person does what . . . what you just did out there?’
‘Don’t waste your pity. They don’t feel pain like us. And even if they do, better them than us.’
I shook my head. ‘No,’ I said. ‘I don’t believe that.’
Travis made a sound of disgust. ‘You’re weak,’ he said. ‘Your kind always are. And then when things go wrong you come crying to people like us. People who know how to do what needs to be done.’
‘Better weak than a monster,’ I said, regretting the words as soon as they left my mouth. But Travis didn’t hit me, although for a long second I thought he would. Instead he just stood up.
‘We’re going to find your sister,’ he said. ‘I think it would be in your interests to help us.’
15
As I lay there in the fetid heat with the mosquitoes whining about my head something gave way inside me. I was trapped. Even if I did help them I knew there was no way they could let me go after what I had seen. My only chance of survival was escape, but that seemed impossible, and in the unlikely event if I found some way to break out of the container I had no idea how I would ever find Matt and Gracie again.
For a long time then I wept, my body huddled in on itself as if I might contain the loss I felt. It was so unfair. Anyone I loved seemed to get taken away from me: Gracie, Dad, even Matt.
Yet as I sobbed I found myself thinking about Travis and the others, about them hearing me, knowing they had made me feel like this, and something shifted within me at the thought of giving them that satisfaction. Taking a breath I tried to steady myself, to swallow my sobs, and as I did I realised I wasn’t frightened any more, or sad. I was angry. Angry at Travis and Ryan and Jared, angry at Quarantine, angry at the world for doing this to us, for making us live like this. And so I reached a decision: I wasn’t prepared to just die, not for them, not like this.
After that I slept, I think, because I remember being woken again, just after dawn, by a sound from outside.
For a while I just l
ay there, my mouth parched and my head thick. Then I crawled over to the door and started beating on it. ‘Hey!’ I shouted. ‘I’m thirsty! I need water!’
At first nothing happened. I could hear people moving around outside, dogs barking, followed by the clatter of things being loaded and the slam of the tailgate on one of the trucks. Then I heard footsteps approaching and somebody threw the lock on the door, light flooding in.
I backed away, one hand raised to shield my eyes. Jared was standing there, his lean shape silhouetted against the morning light. Without speaking he walked toward me. I had to fight not to flinch at his touch.
‘Don’t move,’ he said, kneeling down beside me and unlocking the chain around my ankle. I looked at his broad back and neck and for a split-second imagined striking him, but before I could act he was on his feet in front of me.
‘Turn around,’ he said. I took a step back and he snapped a hand out, grabbing me and twisting me around so my back was to him. Yanking my arms together behind my back he snapped a zip tie tight around my wrists and then turned me and shoved me out into the light.
Outside Travis and Ryan were leaning against one of the trucks. As we drew level with them Travis straightened and turned to face me.
‘So,’ he said. ‘I see you’re up.’
I stared back at him.
He laughed. ‘Still with the attitude, I see.’
I looked at the truck. Several kitbags of equipment lay in the back.
‘Where are you going?’ I asked.
Travis smiled. ‘I think you know the answer to that. The real question is whether you’re going to help us.’
I didn’t reply. Travis stood staring at me. Then he looked at Jared.
‘You know what to do,’ he said, his voice flat and cold and final, and turned away. Behind me Jared tightened his grip on my arm, but before he could pull me away I twisted away from him.
‘Wait,’ I said.
Travis turned back.
‘What?’
‘I’ll help you.’
The Silent Invasion Page 13
