Calvin and his men were almost back at our picnic site now. Almost gone.
Then Calvin stopped.
He turned, staring across at the rock face.
I shrank back into the shadows.
Calvin watched the rocks, like he knew he was missing something. Looking nearly straight at me.
Then he moved on again, leading the others away into the bush.
Chapter 14
THURSDAY, JUNE 18
56 DAYS
I found Luke waiting in line at the bakery the next morning. He looked wrecked. The stress of yesterday would’ve been more than enough to explain it, but I knew that wasn’t the reason. I’d seen that battered look before – usually early in the morning, and always when he thought no-one was watching.
He’d been up thinking about his dad again.
Mourning. Worse than mourning.
Everything we knew told us Luke’s dad had been tracked down in Sydney and killed. But what if he hadn’t? What if he’d somehow managed to escape whoever Shackleton had sent after him? How long could Luke keep holding onto that hope?
‘Hey,’ I said, hopping off my bike and joining the line behind him. ‘You all right?’
Luke thought about it. ‘Alive,’ he said. He nodded at the counter in front of us. ‘You want anything?’
‘I’ll get it,’ I said, reaching for my purse. ‘We’re already even.’
‘Jordan, seriously, it’s the end of the world,’ said Luke. ‘Tell me what you want for breakfast.’
I negotiated him down to a hot chocolate, and we wandered up the street towards school. Still no sign of Peter, which was probably good, given what Luke had just done. Not that it had meant anything. But that wouldn’t stop Peter reading plenty into it.
‘What about you?’ asked Luke through a mouthful of croissant. ‘You doing okay?’
‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘It’s just – I really thought we were going to find out something useful yesterday. All we got was more questions and another brush with death.’
Luke shrugged. ‘That’s not exactly unusual for us, is it?’
‘Yeah, but … yesterday was supposed to be different,’ I said.
‘Supposed to be.’
‘I don’t know,’ I sighed. It made sense in my head, but I had a feeling it might not hold up once I’d said it out loud. ‘I just thought – You know, my visions, Mike’s sketchbook, finding the cave … That can’t all just be random, right?’
‘Can’t it?’
‘Stuff like this doesn’t just happen,’ I said. ‘There’s got to be a reason for it.’
Luke was silent for a long time.
‘What about Reeve?’ he asked, voice low as we approached the front office. ‘Was there a reason for that too?’
I stared down at the grass, guilt flaring up again.
We were the reason for that one.
‘Sorry,’ said Luke. ‘Sorry, that was stupid.’
We chained up our bikes without speaking and cut across the quad in the direction of the hall.
Thursday morning. Assembly.
‘We did get some answers though, right?’ said Luke, checking that no-one was listening in. ‘I mean, we know that whoever’s handing out orders to Peter’s mates is serious enough to brand them all with those tattoos.’
‘You should’ve seen the look on Mike’s face when they got them. He was so –’ I hesitated, struggling to put words to that crazed gleam I’d seen in Mike’s eye. ‘It was – Whatever this thing is, he believes in it. He’s committed, one hundred percent. He said it was their destiny.’
‘Destiny,’ Luke repeated. ‘Right.’
I thought again of the people in the white robes. So far, the closest thing we had to a suspect was a drawing in a sketchbook.
‘I dunno,’ I said. ‘I’m still not sure how any of that helps us, unless their destiny is to get rid of Shackleton for us.’
‘Doubt it,’ said Luke, ‘seeing as Cathryn reckons we’re the ones who killed those people in the DVD.’
‘Why?’ I said, suddenly realising how much this had been bugging me. ‘Why would she ever think that? It’s the most – How on earth does she think we did it?’
‘Dunno, but we’ve probably missed our chance to ask,’ said Luke. ‘After yesterday, I don’t think they’ll be asking Peter to hang out with them anytime soon.’
But as we approached the glass doors out the front of the hall, I realised that might not be such a problem after all.
There was a body pressed up against the other side of the glass, standing in the little foyer area between the front doors and the hall itself.
Peter’s body.
Cathryn had him pinned to the wall, her face centimetres from his.
What now? I thought, getting ready to go to his rescue.
Then I saw the expression on Cathryn’s face.
Oh.
She leant forward, brought her hands up to his neck, and kissed him.
Peter’s eyes went wide, but he didn’t try to fight her. He waved his hands around for a minute, like he didn’t know what to do with them, then finally brought them to rest on her hips.
I felt a tiny glimmer of relief – like, for half a second, a giant weight had been lifted off me – but then the logical part of my brain kicked in and the weight came plummeting back down again.
‘What is he doing?’ Luke whispered.
‘What does it look like?’ I said, flaring up.
He was doing what any guy like Peter does when a girl who looks like Cathryn makes a move on him: shrugging his shoulders and letting it happen.
‘But she thinks he’s a killer!’ said Luke.
‘Who cares?’ I hissed, striding towards the nearest open doorway. ‘The point is she’s dangerous, and we can’t afford to have Peter –’
Luke latched onto my wrist.
‘Not now,’ he said.
‘Well how long do you think they’re going to need?’ I snapped.
‘If we go in there now, he’ll just overreact and blow up at us, and we’ll end up in Pryor’s office,’ said Luke. He started towards the other end of the hall. ‘C’mon, come inside and we can sort him out later.’
I looked back at Peter and Cathryn. Still going. They’d attracted a little crowd of Year 7s, but it didn’t seem like either of them had noticed.
A hundred girls in this school and you pick the one with the mass-murdering mum.
I bit my tongue and followed Luke, heading inside through the doors at the far end.
We’d barely made it into the hall when I heard Peter’s voice behind me.
‘Jordan! Jordan, wait!’ He came racing in from the foyer, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
My teeth clenched. ‘What?’
‘It wasn’t me!’ he said. ‘I was – I just found her and I was trying to get her to tell me about yesterday and – and then she pushed me up against the wall and she …’
‘Yeah. We saw.’
‘Jordan, please, you know I’m – That wasn’t anything!’
‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Let’s find somewhere to sit.’
I walked down to the front of the hall, and picked out some seats right in the middle. No point trying to be inconspicuous anymore.
Luke sat down next to me, leaving Peter stranded on the far side. He sent me a pained look.
Then his face brightened.
He jumped up in his seat and leant across Luke to look at me. ‘What if it’s Bill?’
‘What if what’s Bill?’ said Luke, pushing him off.
‘What if he’s the one who’s been telling my old mates what to do all this time?’
‘How?’ said Luke. ‘The Co-operative has him. They’ve had him locked up since forever.’
‘Yeah,’ said Peter, excitedly. ‘Yeah, exactly. Remember what he said when they were chasing him down in the tunnels? Find me under the ground!’
‘So?’ said Luke.
‘What if they’ve still got him down there somewh
ere?’ Peter answered. ‘That’s how he’s communicating with Mike and the others through the locker. He’s sending them instructions to help get him out!’
He kept glancing over at me like he was hoping this amazing insight would convince me to forgive him.
‘Still doesn’t explain the cave,’ said Luke. ‘Besides, wasn’t that cage or whatever that your dad built supposed to stop –?’
Luke didn’t finish his sentence. The crowd around us was quickly going quiet, drawn to the sound of booming footsteps echoing up from the stage. It wasn’t Pryor. But it wasn’t Stapleton either.
It was Doctor Montag.
He crossed to the lectern at the front of the stage, looking slightly harried, and leant in to the microphone. ‘Mrs Stapleton will be here shortly to continue with your usual assembly, but I’ve asked for just a few minutes of your time to make you aware of an important new initiative of Phoenix Medical’s healthcare program.’
We were sitting right in front of him, but he seemed to be carefully avoiding looking at us.
‘As you know,’ Montag continued, ‘we at the medical centre are dedicated to providing the people of Phoenix with the highest possible standard of care. As the needs of this town change, we need to ensure that our healthcare practices continue to stay one step ahead.’
A chill raced up my back.
Those changing needs better not have had anything to do with Georgia or the baby.
‘Tomorrow morning, here at school, my medical staff and I will be carrying out compulsory blood testing of all Phoenix High students, as part of a town-wide screening program.’
A torrent of whispers filled the hall. Montag raised his voice to silence them.
‘This testing is being conducted for your own safety and well-being.’ His eyes still slid over us like we weren’t there, but there was no mistaking the warning in his voice. ‘Your co-operation is appreciated.’
He turned from the lectern and left the stage without another word.
The house was quiet when I got back from school. I dropped my bag off in my room, thinking I was the only one home, then went downstairs for something to eat and found Mum in the lounge room, lying on the couch with her hands on her stomach. The baby had grown heaps, even in the last week, and the bump under Mum’s hands was becoming extremely noticeable.
She glanced up as I walked in. Her face was fixed with the worn-out look that she seemed to carry with her all the time these days. She’d been crying.
‘Come here,’ she said.
‘What’s wrong?’
She waved me over impatiently. ‘Just –’
I bent down next to her. She grabbed my hand and pressed it to her stomach.
‘Are you serious?’ I said. ‘It’s already –?’
Something bumped the palm of my hand.
‘There!’ said Mum. ‘Feel that?’
Another bump, and it was like a scalpel straight through my chest. A tear rolled down my cheek and I didn’t try to stop it. For a second, everything else just disappeared and all I could feel was that tiny body reaching out to push against mine.
‘Kicking,’ said Mum, head falling back to her pillow. ‘Seven weeks and he’s already kicking.’
‘He?’ I said, snapping out of it.
Mum shrugged. ‘Just guessing.’
I stood up. ‘Where’s Georgia? She needs to feel –’ Mum’s smile disappeared.
‘She’s back at the medical centre. The blood test Dr Montag took on Tuesday turned up something –’
‘Blood test?’
‘Yeah,’ said Mum, trying to hide the concern in her voice. ‘He didn’t really explain why he took it, but – Anyway, he wants to keep her overnight, just to make sure everything’s okay.’
It might have been the worst panic I’d felt since we’d got here. Something in Georgia’s blood. Something serious enough to make Montag start screening the whole town.
‘Then what are you doing?’ I demanded. ‘Why aren’t you down there? Who’s with her?’
‘Jordan – Calm down,’ said Mum, sitting up. ‘You think we’d leave her in that place by herself? Dad’s with her. He’s going to stay there tonight.’ She gave a half-hearted smile. ‘He said I’d seen more than my fair share of that place.’
‘Oh.’
They wouldn’t do anything to Georgia. Not with Dad there.
Mum got to her feet and gave me a hug. Her stomach pressed into mine and I felt the baby move again.
‘We’re going home,’ she said.
I pulled back. ‘What?’
‘Dad and I have been talking about it. Phoenix just isn’t working out for us. As soon as we can organise a flight, we’re heading back to Brisbane. You can go back to your old school and –’
Mum frowned at the look on my face.
I knew what she and Dad were like when they fixed their minds on something – and I knew the kind of fight they’d put up when Ketterley told them there were ‘no flights available’. Trying to leave Phoenix wasn’t just impossible. It was dangerous.
‘I thought I could handle it,’ said Mum, voice starting to crack. ‘When we first found out – I thought I could handle having the baby out here away from my sisters, but …’
I pulled her in closer again, hugging her tight.
Lost for words.
‘We’ll work it out,’ I said eventually, knowing how meaningless it sounded. ‘We’ll figure something out.’
Mum sniffed and nodded. ‘We will.’
The tears were coming again. I went back upstairs, holding them off just long enough to get up to my room. I collapsed on my bed, staring at the ceiling, losing it completely, angry and scared and trapped in a world too big and too dark to even wrap my head around.
I thought about going over to Luke’s.
No. He had enough to deal with without me showing up on his doorstep, crying. Besides, I didn’t trust myself not to do anything stupid if Montag was over there again.
I decided to email him instead. I sat up, coughing, and pulled out my laptop.
Something else came out with it.
A brown paper lunch bag, folded in half.
And even before I opened it, I knew there’d be some new nightmare waiting inside.
JORDAN,
MEET ME BEHIND THE SCHOOL HALL
AT 6 P.M. TONIGHT.
COME ALONE.
Chapter 15
THURSDAY, JUNE 18
56 DAYS
At 5.45 p.m., I poked my head into the kitchen. ‘Back in a bit.’
‘Where are you going?’ Mum asked. ‘Dinner’s nearly ready.’
‘It’s school-related,’ I said, which was technically true.
Mum looked out the window. It was already starting to get dark.
‘I’ll be really quick,’ I said, which was probably less true.
Mum didn’t look happy, but she seemed too exhausted to argue. ‘All right. Just make sure you’re back before curfew. That Officer Calvin is a madman.’
I stopped on the veranda and decided to take my bike down with me. Easier to make a quick getaway if I needed to.
Not that I was the only one out here. There were still plenty of people out watering their gardens or walking their pets. But I had a feeling none of their hearts were hammering quite as hard as mine was right now.
What was I about to walk in on?
My first thought was Mike, Cathryn and Tank. I’d had classes with all of them today. They would’ve had plenty of opportunity to slip a note in my bag. But why would they want to talk to just me? Why not all three of us?
What if it was worse than that? What if they’d delivered that message on behalf of whoever they were answering to? Overseers? Was that what Mike had called them?
I shivered.
Why? What was it about those stupid drawings that bothered me so much? Didn’t I have enough real danger in my life?
The back gate was locked by the time I got to school. A good sign. Hopefully, it meant everyone was out of
there. I jumped the fence and hauled my bike over after me.
I checked my watch.
5.52 p.m.
Enough time to take the long way round and hopefully come up on whoever this was from behind. I walked my bike across the lawn, keeping an eye out for security.
The school had been a pretty smart choice. The guards still came through here, but they were nowhere near as – Oh no. No. Not now.
I stumbled, gagging, the worst pain so far.
Another vision.
Why couldn’t they ever happen when I was home in bed?
Everything spun. The grass turned to sludge under my feet. I searched frantically for a place to hide, not wanting anyone to see me while I was out. There was a garden a couple of metres away. I staggered over, hauling my bike, and collapsed down into the bushes.
And then the bushes disappeared.
Night flashed into day.
Rough, rocky ground under me.
The nausea faded and I stretched back up onto my hands and knees. My eyes swung into focus. And suddenly, I was a completely different kind of disoriented.
Phoenix had vanished.
The whole town, gone.
And the bush had evaporated with it.
Nothing but dry, barren wasteland in every direction. The same kind of terrain we’d seen when we tried to escape over the wall.
I stood up, brushing the dust off my knees. This was different. I wasn’t just looking at another time. I was looking at another place.
But…
No. That wasn’t right. The slope of the ground was still the same. And now that I was looking for them, I was pretty sure I could pick out all the places where the buildings on the main street should be.
I was still here.
So when was this? Was I back before the town was built? Or was this a glimpse of the future, of what the Co-operative was planning to do to with Phoenix after –
After Tabitha.
I turned around, eyes passing over the place where my house had stood until about thirty seconds ago. The wasteland and sky shifted at my movement, like ripples spreading out across a pond.
There was something out there.
A concrete building. Square and grey, like a prison or something. The building was maybe two storeys tall, although it was hard to tell from this far away. It stood a little way out into the bush at the north end of town. At least, that’s where it would have been if the bush and the town still existed.
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