by Tony Thomas
‘I suppose so. . .’ Dan looked at the phone, ‘It just disconnected,’ he said, sounding confused.
‘Try again,’ Gen said. ‘We have to report this, someone else could be attacked.’
‘I know, I know,’ Dan said as he keyed the redial. Just as he pressed it, his phone rang, the home phone rang, and Gen’s mobile rang. ‘What the hell?’ Dan said.
He answered his mobile as Gen picked up the home phone from the coffee table. As he put the phone to his ear he could already hear a recorded message ‘Hold for an urgent message from Emergency Services. Please hold for an urgent message from Emergency Services. Please. . .’
He turned to Gen and before he could say anything she asked, ‘Are you getting a strange message?’
Almost immediately the message changed. ‘This is an urgent message from Emergency Services on behalf of the Australian Government. There has been an outbreak of an extremely contagious disease in your area. The Australian Government has declared martial law and issued an immediate quarantine and curfew. Please stay in your home. Any persons found on the streets will be subject to immediate arrest and detention. Please watch your TV or listen to the radio for further updates. Message repeats: This is an. . .’
Both Dan and Gen ended the calls. ‘This is really starting to get scary,’ Gen said.
Dan agreed, ‘I’m going to try the local police again—let’s at least report what’s happening outside.’ Dan was again put on hold. He grabbed the remote for the TV and unmuted the sound while he was waiting.
The news continued to cover the violence throughout the world. The upper right corner of the screen now had a world map. It looked like outbreaks were being marked by red dots with unaffected areas in blue. Much of the map was red. It looked like New Zealand was clear. Australia had only one dot—over Sydney. Some parts of South-East Asia looked clear as well, as did China and North Korea. Dan viewed this with some scepticism. China hadn’t told anyone about SARS until a few hundred cases had shown up Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia weren’t exactly beacons of honesty either.
The Middle East was solid red. Europe seemed to be heading that way as well. North America was heavily spotted as was Africa and South America.
‘That map is terrifying’ Gen said.
‘I know what you mean. It looks like it’s spreading out of control. I just hope this quarantine and curfew were in time.’
A new message began scrolling on the bottom of the screen. ‘If you see or hear an incident please call 131 000. Do not call 000.’
Dan cancelled his call. ‘I guess the normal lines must be snowed under. I’m pretty amazed they have procedures like this is in place already.’
‘It does seem unusually effective, but I guess this is just a variation on the normal emergency call. They probably set it up to cover bush fires or natural disasters.’
Dan dialled the new number. It was immediately answered by a machine. ‘This is the disaster response hotline. If you are in immediate danger press 0 now.’
Dan waited, ‘You will be asked a series of questions. Your answers will be recorded and a response will be prioritised.’ The system then started to reel off questions.
‘Please state your name?’
‘Please state your current location?’
‘Please describe the incident?’
‘Where did the incident occur?’
‘At what time did the incident occur?’
‘Were you or any person currently with you, hurt in any way?’
Dan answered each question slowly and carefully. The call finished with the message
‘Thank you for the information. Your incident has been recorded and appropriate action will be taken. Please remain indoors and follow all directions from Emergency Services.’
Dan hung up. ‘Well that was short and sweet. I think I’m going to hit the net and try to find out what’s going on everywhere else.’
Gen stood, ‘You really should go and try to sleep. You can’t keep going like this. Just crash on the lounge for a while.’
‘Okay, okay. I guess it makes sense to get some rest while I can. What about you? You’ve only had a few hours tonight.’
‘I’m going to try to call Rita. I want to tell her about this and make sure they’re okay. Once I’ve done that I’ll have a lie down.’
‘See if you can get them to come back here, being on the road can’t be safe.’
‘Okay, but you know Brick.’
‘Yeah, I do.’
06:25 AEST: Princes Highway Heathcote
‘Six in the morning and we’re in gridlock, this highway is fucked!’ Brick said.
‘Language, Brick!’ Rita said.
‘Sorry guys,’ Brick acknowledged. ‘I just don’t get why there would be bumper to bumper traffic at this time of day.’
‘There’s nothing going the other way, Dad,’ Max said.
‘Yeah, well, that way is going back into town. We’re going bush.’
The traffic jerked forward again, slowly creeping up to about 20 kilometres per hour. ‘Fingers crossed,’ Brick said.
As they picked up speed, Rita’s phone rang, within a moment so had Max’s. Both answered them.
Rita said, ‘It’s a message from Emergency Services announcing martial law, the curfew and quarantine. It says that we can be arrested for not being at home.’
Max piped up. ‘I got the same message, what’s martial law?’
‘It means that things are not safe and so the army will act like police and keep people safe,’ Rita explained.
‘What about quarantine?’ Max asked.
Sharn looked smug and said, ‘That’s when they lock sick people away so they don’t infect other people.’
‘Good girl,’ Rita said. ‘Brick, should we head home? We don’t want to get arrested.’
‘They aren’t going to arrest us for going on holiday—there’s no way we could know what was happening before we left—right?’ Brick said.
‘Yeah, okay,’ said Rita. ‘I guess we just take our chances.’
The traffic slowed again before grinding to a halt. Brick noticed a lot more cars going in the opposite direction. He hoped that no one else would notice.
Rita’s phone rang again—Gen calling, ‘Hi, Gen,’ Rita answered.
‘Hi Rita—there’s just been an attack in front of our place as well. This curfew sounds like it’s dead serious. I think you should turn back and come stay with us while you can still travel.’
‘It doesn’t sound like it’s too safe at your place, Gen.’
‘Well, I guess so, but it has to be safer here than on the road. Please come stay with us!’
Rita lowered the phone, ‘Brick, it’s Gen. She said that someone was attacked near their place and she’s just about begging for us to go there and stay with them.’
Brick frowned. ‘Why would we go to somewhere where these attacks are happening? We just left after an attack. Tell them to get in their car and get the hell out of there!’
Rita put the phone back to her ear, ‘I guess you heard that Gen?’
‘Rita, this isn’t some macho fantasy. This is really dangerous. You need to get somewhere safe. Please, we have plenty of food, the house is a fortress, we’ve got rainwater tanks and even solar if the electricity goes off. Please, come stay with us!’
‘We’re just about out of the city now Gen. I think it would be more dangerous for us to turn back. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. I’ll call you when we get past Wollongong.’ Rita quickly disconnected the call. The last thing she wanted was to have her sister keep nagging at her.
Brick turned to her, ‘Rita, I’m sure this is the right thing to do. It would be nuts to go to a place where we know this disease or whatever is causing people to act crazy. Dan and Gen will be okay. They can lock themselves in and last a long time, but trying to go back and stay with them when we’re so close to getting out of the city is just pointless.’
‘Yeah Brick, I think you’re right, I
just didn’t need that call.’
They crept forward in silence. They were only about 2 or 3 kilometres from Waterfall and the start of the Freeway. Traffic usually sped up here rather than slowed down.
‘Are there more cars going the other way now?’ Sharn asked.
Brick cursed under his breath. ‘I don’t know honey. I just wish this traffic would ease up.’
As if by magic, the traffic again started to move forward more quickly. They slowly crept up to 20 kilometres per hour again and maintained it for a few minutes. In the distance ahead Brick saw blue and red flashing lights—never a good sign.
Slowly, metre by metre, they crept forward, with the occasional burst up to second gear. Brick was grinding his teeth in frustration while Rita fretted in silence. As the road became divided just after Waterfall, they found the reason for the traffic jam, both sides of the road were blocked by Army Reserve transport trucks. There were four police cars behind the trucks, and both police and soldiers were turning cars around.
They came to a halt about six cars back from the truck. A uniformed policeman came to the driver’s door. Brick already had his window down, so the officer had only to bend over to ask, ‘Can I see your licence please sir?’
It seemed such an odd thing to ask, it threw Brick off guard. ‘Sure, mate,’ he said, and dug his licence from his wallet.
The policeman looked at the licence for a moment before saying, ‘I’m sorry, sir, the government has issued a quarantine and curfew. You must return to your home.’
Brick figured playing dumb would work, ‘But officer, we’re going on holiday. We’ve had this trip booked for weeks. Can’t you let us past?’
The policeman ignored the plea completely. ‘Sir, you may not leave the city. Please return to your home.’
Brick decided to play the fireman card. It had worked for him a couple of times with speeding tickets, and once when he had a few more beers than he should have before getting behind the wheel. ‘Mate, I’m a fireman. I get fixed holidays. Can’t you let us past?’
The policeman glanced at the fire brigade sticker on the windscreen before replying in a low voice, ‘I’m really sorry, mate, but I can’t let you go through. The army guys are checking everyone again a few K’s down the road. If I let you through it’ll cause a riot with everyone else. We’re turning everyone back. You’re just going to have to head home.’
Brick didn’t like the thought of giving in, but realised it was hopeless. ‘Right-o,’ he said. ‘Are all roads blocked?’
‘I think so buddy. At least, every cop I know has been called in to do road block duty.’
‘Aw fuck it!’ Brick said. ‘Rita, I guess we have to head back to Gen’s after all.’
The policeman looked over his shoulder and muttered, sotto voce, ‘I’m pretty sure you’ll still be able to get through if you hit back roads straight away. Get off the highway as soon as you can and start working your way west.’ He then straightened, looked right at Brick and said, ‘Sir, the road is closed, please return home.’
‘Thanks, mate,’ Brick muttered.
The policeman gave him a slight nod. Brick pulled forward, turned, and drove away.
04:30 SST (06:30 AEST): Singapore
‘That is a fucking huge fire,’ Mick said.
‘It must be every restaurant in Boat Key,’ said Chris.
The flames seemed to be three or four stories high. From their window on the thirty-fourth floor, they could see four fire trucks near the blaze. No one was using them. There was a mob of people—maybe three or four hundred strong—roving the streets around the fire. They had seen them swarm over two of the fire trucks, as well as half a dozen police cars.
‘The army will have to show up soon,’ Lara said.
‘Much good it’ll do them,’ said Mick. ‘Unless they come in a tank or something that mob’ll wipe ’em out in no time.’
Lincoln left the window and walked to the desk and picked up his phone. ‘Guys—we completely forgot about Uli and Stefan.’
‘Fuck, you’re right,’ said Mick, pulling his phone from his pocket. ‘I’ll try Uli—you try Stefan.’
Lincoln flicked through his contacts to bring up Stefan’s number. He hit the dial button and listened to the phone while looking at Mick, after a moment he said, ‘Stefan’s phone’s turned off—straight to voice mail.’
Almost simultaneously, Mick said, ‘Uli—are you okay?’
Mick pulled the phone from his ear, all of them could hear the stream of invective coming from the phone. ‘I think he’s a little annoyed I rang him.’ Mick laughed.
As the stream of noise from the phone died down, Mick put the phone to his ear. He asked, ‘Uli, do you know what’s going on?’
As Mick gave Uli a rundown of the night’s events, Lincoln sent a text to Stefan asking him to call.
‘Uh, guys,’ Lara said.
Mick said, ‘Let me talk to everyone here—we’ll call you back.’ As he hung up, he looked at the others and said, ‘Uli’s down at the Pan Pacific. He hadn’t heard about any of what’s going on. He just got to his room and went straight to sleep. He was a little annoyed I called him,’ Mick chuckled. ‘He said he was going to look at the TV—I don’t think he really believed me, but at least I convinced him to check the news.’
‘That hotel’s a fair way away. Do you reckon he could get here?’ Chris said.
‘Guys!’ Lara said, a little more urgently.
‘I wouldn’t like to risk it,’ said Lincoln. ‘Maybe in a taxi, but they probably wouldn’t even let him in here. That security bloke down in the lobby said we had to show keys. After a fight down there they won’t be letting just anyone in.’
‘Maybe,’ Mick said. ‘I bet if we waited downstairs for him we could convince the guard to let him in.’
‘After what that German bloke said I’m not sure I want to go downstairs,’ said Chris.
‘Okay,’ said Lincoln. ‘So what do we tell Uli? We can’t just give up on him.’
‘I reckon we just tell him to wait it out like we are,’ Chris said. ‘At this point we’ve got no plan other than waiting to see what happens. As much as I like Uli, I’m not going to ask him to risk his life to get here, or risk mine going to him.’
‘Yeah, you’re right,’ Lincoln replied.
‘Guys!’ Lara yelled.
‘What the hell Lara?’ Mick asked.
‘You might want to look out the window again,’ Lara said. ‘I don’t think there’s any chance of us moving anytime soon.’
Lincoln, Mick, and Chris moved back to the window. Lara pointed towards Boat Quay and said, ‘See that green truck on New Bridge Road?’
‘Yeah,’ they all said.
‘Well a minute ago there was a machine gun firing from it. The mob just overran it. I can’t see how anything is going to stop them short of some sort of tank or armoured car that they can’t get into.’
‘It can’t have fired for long, there’s only a couple of bodies on the road,’ Mick observed.
‘Ten seconds ago there were at least twenty bodies. I’ve been watching them get back up.’
‘What do you mean get back up?’ Chris asked.
‘I mean just that. They got shot, fell down, and after a couple of seconds, they got back up and went for the truck again. They definitely got hit, I could see them rock back and jerk around. This is really messed up.’
‘So you’re saying that people got shot, fell down, and then got back up?’ Mick said as he shook his head. ‘That’s fucking bullshit!’
‘Mick, I’m just telling you what I saw.’ Lara said, ‘I don’t really believe it myself, but they definitely went down and then got back up. Watch to see next time someone tries to stop that mob, those bastards are bullet proof!’
‘Take it easy,’ Lincoln said. ‘They could have just been jelly bags or rubber bullets for riot control. Let’s just keep an eye on what’s happening.’
As they watched, a second army vehicle came towards Boat Quay. It w
as some sort of all-terrain vehicle with a gun turret on the roof. As the truck approached the bridge over the river, the mob surged towards it. The truck skewed through ninety degrees as it slid to a stop, about 100 metres from the front runners.
‘I wonder what they’re doing?’ Mick said.
‘Probably telling them to halt,’ Chris answered.
The mob continued to move towards the truck, the people at the front of the mob were almost on it. The truck fishtailed as it turned and started to retrace its route. The mob continued to chase as the truck accelerated away from them. Just before it was out of sight, the truck stopped. A soldier climbed out of the passenger door and walked quickly to the back of the truck. He raised a camera for a moment, then hurried back to get into the truck. As he finished closing the door, the truck accelerated away.
Dozens of people continued to chase after the truck; however, smaller groups started breaking off, some running down other streets, others trying to enter buildings.
‘Bloody hell’, said Lincoln, ‘are they looking for more people to attack?’
‘It sure looks like it—the news didn’t say they were hunting for new victims though,’ said Chris.
‘Shit—look down there—they’re chasing someone,’ Lara said—pointing to the street closer to the building.
A person, it looked like an older man, was running down the street. At least twenty people were chasing him like a pack of 6-year olds chasing a soccer ball. He ran towards a building on the far side of the street. As he struggled with the door, the pack drew closer; he pulled the door open just as the pack reached him. The first six or seven people beat him to the ground. As more and more of the pack reached him, he was lost from view.
‘Oh bloody hell!’ Lincoln said. ‘Are some of them going into the building now as well?’
The pack seemed to be shrinking, but only a few of the attackers had moved back to the street. As they watched, the doorway cleared and the last of the attackers rushed into the building.
‘Where did the old guy go?’ Lara asked. The doorway was completely clear. The attackers had either entered the building or run off. The victim was gone.
