Haven: The Town

By Peter Stevens

Jacob Harrower's tiny band of rebels has finally repulsed EarthWatch. It seems that babies may yet be born in a time when the final solution for planet earth is no human reproduction for fifty years. However, peace is short lived as government forces again strike the forest dwellers. Jacob and Lillian's wedding day is shattered and four women are taken including Lillian.The pursuit of the victims leads the outcasts to uncover even greater EarthWatch evil, and brings opportunity for justice.

"Must read. Unlike anything else. A story of war, love, passion, sacrifice, betrayal, goodness and the beauty of innocence. Paints a powerful vision."

Jazzy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jan 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503501119

Book preview

One

T he hidden observers watched from a hill 200 metres above the peaceful valley. They followed the movements below, as the crowd surged forward to congratulate a young couple. The tall man and brown-haired woman, both a little under thirty years of age, kissed. The bride and groom were young indeed, in a world where there had been no children born legally for twenty-five years.

Filtered sunlight fell in patches on green ferns and silent white-trunked gums. Birds chirped and flitted among bushes and creepers. The fresh smell of eucalyptus and late-blooming wild flowers hung in the air like sweet wine.

Jacob and Lillian pulled free of each other, coming up for air. Around them, the Haven outcasts laughed and chattered, a welcome relief from the tension and fighting of past months.

The celebrant, Gary, stepped away from those pushing to congratulate the newlyweds.

He found his wife and put his arms around her, pressing gently against her. Her huge pregnant belly pushed back at him.

‘Ella, darling, we better head back to check the food.’

Ella smiled. She pushed back a strand of thick wiry red hair. ‘Okay, love.’ She looked happily and tearfully at Jacob and Lillian.

Without his shoes Jacob was still taller than most. A hand’s breadth taller than his bride. He’d removed his footwear as she approached. Her feet were bare.

He carried his slim muscular body gracefully. His face was finely chiselled, with a strong chin. He had black hair curling to his broad shoulders. His nose was straight and narrow and his eyes green-brown.

With a wide grin and laughter lines at the edges of his eyes, he radiated strength and compassion. She was drawn to him. As are most women, Ella thought.

Ella saw Lillian pick up Haven’s child, Petal—perhaps the world’s only child—and give her a big squeeze.

‘I know we have to go, darling,’ Ella said to Gary, ‘but I hate to leave. It’s so beautiful here.’

‘They’ll be hungry soon,’ her husband said gently. ‘We can spend time with them tomorrow.’

‘And for many years to come,’ Ella said, looking up into his face.

‘And our children will play with theirs,’ he said, rubbing her tummy.

Gary took her hand and pulled her gently up the slope, away from the crowd, towards the town.

Jacob looked across the small clearing. Trees in the eucalypt forest and a bubbling creek formed a natural border around this perfect place, a short walk from Haven. He watched Gary pull his waddling wife up the grassy slope behind the crowd. They climbed the same path that his friends Elijah and Lillian had recently descended. Elijah had given Lillian away.

Jacob turned to his new bride. She looked sensational. And she chose me, he thought. She could’ve had any man in the country.

Lillian looked up from her circle of adoring friends and caught his gaze. Her green eyes sparkled and her lips parted in a smile. The tips of even, pearly-white teeth peeked in invitation. Thick brown hair tumbled past tanned shoulders. Her pale cream dress was simple and short and gathered at the waist. Long, long legs. Full figure.

‘Now you’re all mine,’ she’d whispered after they sealed their promises with a kiss.

Jacob wondered what that was going to be like. Of course he’d heard many stories. Tonight I’ll find out what it’s like to go to bed with a woman, he thought. And she’ll discover what it is like to have a man. His body tingled at the thought.

With Angel clinging to his arm, Liam took Jacob’s hand to congratulate him. They smiled up at him. Others pressed towards him.

Strangely, Liam’s voice grew distant. The murmur of the happy crowd faded. Something’s wrong, Jacob thought. Terribly wrong. What is it?

Lillian was separated from him by the crowd. She seemed fine. Jacob looked across the laughing people.

A track climbed steeply out of the pretty valley. Gary and Ella were halfway up. A branch from one of the leafy shrubs protruded across the path. Ella waited for Gary to move it. She looked down at her husband as he bent. Her red hair shone in the patchy sunlight.

Jacob sensed her smiling at Gary’s chivalry. Ella moved her cumbersome body past the obstacle. She held the thin summer dress close to her legs. A chill of unidentified dread gripped Jacob.

Suddenly the peace was shattered by a shocking impact of gunfire. The burst of staccato sound split the warm summer air. Birds burst into flight from the bushes. Jacob’s heart stopped.

Ella jerked with a sudden spasm. She threw her hands into the air. Her body lifted under the impact of bullets, and she was flung down the hill.

Time slowed.

Gary released the branch. His face crumbled. He looked down the hill towards his wife, his mouth open in a strangled silent cry.

There was another ugly crash of gunfire, and Gary was thrown to the ground. He sprawled downhill, hands reaching for his spouse.

Jacob ran. He dodged through the crowd of shocked townsfolk and sprinted for the slope. His hand slipped to his thigh, feeling the smooth fabric of his jeans. He cursed briefly that his knife was missing. He was usually never without it. Wedding day. Their weapons were at Haven.

At the edge of the clearing he forced his way up through heavy undergrowth. The track might be suicide.

He looked across at Gary. The badly wounded man dragged himself down towards his wife. There was no hope for Ella. She was twisted at a strange angle and unmoving. Her dress was rent in half a dozen places. Blood oozed from the holes.

Gary looked up at Jacob. Their eyes met. Jacob let out a great cry of anguish. Have to find the shooters and stop them, his mind screamed. The valley’s full of pregnant women. All in danger. Doctor Patrick will get to Gary.

He ignored the stones and sticks tearing his feet. He dodged from tree to tree, ducked under creepers and around the tall tree ferns. Someone crashed through the scrub to his left: Elijah. They scrambled up the slope. Elijah’s face was terrible, black with anger.

The shooters saw them coming. They were prepared. Bullets whined around them and thudded into trees.

Jacob dived for the dirt. He hit the ground hard. Then he leapt up again and ran.

The sound of gunfire deafened.

He smelled cordite.

Leaves shredded around him.

He kept going while bullets tugged at his clothes.

He caught a glimpse of a half-hidden gunman in the trees ahead. Green uniform: EarthWatch.

But EarthWatch had left, Jacob thought. They’d returned to the city, their army in tatters. They couldn’t be back already!

He bent low as he ran. His fingers scraped the ground and came up gripping a broken branch. It was a metre long, strong, with a jagged point.

The gunman stepped from behind a rough-barked eucalypt and aimed his assault rifle. He was young. Jacob ran furiously. He steeled himself for the impact. Nothing happened. The soldier’s gun was empty. The man stared down at his weapon. He panicked. He reached for a magazine, fumbling slowly.

Jacob swung the stick and hit him hard in the head. It cracked like a hammer on a tent peg. The gunman dropped like a sack of potatoes. Jacob drove the sharp end of the wood up under the soldier’s breastbone. It sank deep into flesh.

Gunfire rattled to Jacob’s left. He shot a glance that way. Elijah had killed. He stood over a trooper’s body. Elijah fired a long burst from the man’s assault rifle into the trees ahead. There were shouts of agony.

Jacob fell onto the jerking soldier beneath him. The bloody stick protruded from the soldier’s gut. He tore it out and cast it aside.

Jacob found the rifle’s magazine in the dust and shoved it into place. He pulled the man’s body in front of him and stood up.

Firing stopped.

Jacob lifted the assault rifle under the soldier’s lifeless arm and fired a short burst. Immediately, flashes of light sparkled from the bushes up the slope, and gunfire crashed and echoed amongst the trees.

Bullets thudded hard into the body in Jacob’s arms, forcing him back. He steadied, and squeezed the trigger, searching the bushes ahead over the dead man’s shoulder. His firing was accurate and deadly.

The soldiers broke cover and ran. Elijah’s assault rifle erupted again. His firing was merciless.

Jacob dropped the body and pursued. Without slowing, he bent and picked up a discarded weapon. He centred the selector to full automatic.

Two green figures emerged from the trees to his right. He cut them down. Further to his right, another rifle barked. Bullets whined around his head.

Jacob swung towards the sound. He saw a flash of green behind a thick white tree trunk and fired towards it. With a cry, a uniformed figure fell from the cover and slumped to the ground.

The firing behind him grew distant. Elijah, Jacob thought. Elijah was pursuing. He glimpsed movement again and ran towards it. Branches parted in a copse of trees. Jacob swung the assault rifle.

A man leapt from the bush. His pale face revealed terror. His green uniform, the uniform of an EarthWatch trooper, looked criminal next to the pale yellow shrub.

Time stood still.

Jacob smelled sweet wattle flowers mixed with the acrid gunpowder of the battle. He reckoned he could take the soldier. His rifle swung towards the green figure, but slowly, too slowly.

Jacob’s finger tightened on the trigger. Too late. He threw himself left. The pale-faced soldier fired. His weapon flashed death.

Jacob saw surprise on the trooper’s face. Surprise that he had managed to fire first. The rifle leapt in the soldier’s hands. Bullets slammed into Jacob. A giant sledgehammer belted him in the belly, the chest, and the head. The assault rifle flew from nerveless fingers. He sprawled in the dust.

His last thought, as the shock of blackness came rushing up, was of Lillian. He’d kneeled in the little wooden room on top of the water tower at Haven. Asked her to marry him. Tears had run down her face. She’d dropped to her knees beside him. ‘I love you so much, Jacob.’ She’d kissed him repeatedly with tiny hot kisses.

The vision faded.

The kisses on his body were the kisses of EarthWatch bullets.

Now he would never know her.

Two

R ough movements woke her. Lillian’s eyes flicked open. Pine trees danced crazily above. Their long trunks and tops heaved and rolled. They hid the sun or leaned aside to dazzle her. She couldn’t move her limbs. She was frozen beneath a storm-tossed world.

She dug deep into the fog of her mind. Recent memories surfaced. She’d just been married. The most joyful moment of her life. Her wedding day had been exhilarating. All her Haven friends were there. Jacob had kissed her, a long kiss. Then they had parted. Her friends had embraced her.

Shots, she thought. Danger. And brave Jacob ran up the hill towards the firing, to protect us.

Lillian squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remember what had happened next. Men in green uniforms. EarthWatch uniforms.

She’d crouched behind a tree, her bare feet forgotten in the rough prickly bush. Frantic figures with guns ran through the forest glade.

There was an arm around her neck. A sweet-smelling cloth clamped over her mouth and nose. The last thing Lillian remembered was the harsh sound of gunfire further up the hill, towards Haven.

Her mind returned to the present. She lay horizontal. Bound. Echoes rang through the tall white trees.

‘Watch the hole!’ A man’s voice.

And another. ‘Okay. Got it!’

She heard heavy breathing from hard-working bodies. Lillian lifted her head, looking down her body. She was being carried on a stretcher. A red-faced soldier held one end of the stretcher. He dripped sweat.

She tilted her head back. Yes, another green-uniformed man was at the front. The back of his clothing was dark with sweat. The stretcher jolted and rolled, and the view overhead changed constantly as they ran through the forest.

She looked back down at her own body, lifting her chest as far as the nylon strap there would allow. She craned her neck. Her wrists and ankles were strapped, and another belt secured her thighs.

She was thankful that her legs were strapped tightly together. The thin mini-dress that she had worn for the wedding was her only outer garment. She felt that it rode up over her underwear. She wished she could pull it down.

The red-faced man looked down at her. ‘This one’s awake!’

There was no answer, and the man went back to his task. The stretcher was carried high.

Dark sweat stains grew beneath the soldier’s underarms. Lillian smelled him.

Two new men appeared alongside them. There was a jolt as the new ones took over. The red-faced man was replaced by a trooper with a rough beard and facial tattoos. As he ran, the new one examined her slowly and deliberately.

‘Where are you taking me?’ Lillian said. She heard fear in her voice. She pushed it down. Keep calm, she told herself. Start to plan.

He grinned. ‘Malakez.’

Malakez, the prison for those who defied conception laws. No reproduction for fifty years. Heavy sentences, even death, for anyone who aided miscreants. She was guilty many times over.

The man’s grin faded as his breathing laboured. Time elapsed. It was quiet in the forest, except for the men’s panting and the occasional grunt when they climbed. Lillian could hear other men moving in the same direction, close by.

She tasted the dust kicked up by their feet. So we’re part of a bigger party, she thought. ‘I’ve just been married,’ she said shakily. ‘My husband will come after you.’

The man looked down at her; his face was red with exertion. The slight grin returned. ‘Husband, eh?’ His breath rasped. ‘Tall? Dark hair?’

‘Yes,’ Lillian said, surprised that he knew.

‘Watched you. Thought he might have been the one.’

The one? ‘What happened to him?’ she asked breathlessly.

‘Attacked us.’

‘A bloody maniac,’ the other soldier added.

Lillian’s pulse slowed. ‘What happened to him?’ she asked again. Her body trembled.

‘Dead,’ the man said flatly between breaths. ‘Don’t wait for him to come, darlin’.’ He took a burst of rifle fire.’

Lillian’s heart stopped. The day was hot, but a cold chill engulfed her. Her mind was suddenly numb. What is he saying? Fear rose like a dark tempest. She felt her bowels loosen and fought to hold on.

The man carrying the front of the stretcher spoke next. ‘Yeah, he died. After he took down four of ours.’

A pause. Heavy breathing. ‘Blue said nine.’ The soldier that Lillian could see. He wasn’t smiling now.

‘What, nine of ours?’ the other one replied.

‘Nine killed between him and the blonde one.’

‘Poor bastards.’

Blonde one. Elijah, Lillian thought. How did they know? Jacob would never be killed. He was too quick. Too strong. I’ve seen him fight. They must be lying.

She wanted to ask another question. Her mouth was dry. She swallowed, trying to find lubrication. ‘How? How can you be sure he was shot?’

The man looked back down at her. He seemed tired of the conversation. ‘Yours the one with bare feet? Tall? Dark hair? Blue shirt?’

Lillian’s lips moved in a yes, but no sound came out.

He read her lips. ‘I was there. He ran like a madman. Didn’t see us until it was too late. One second too slow. My mate got him. Burst of three. Stopped him dead. We left him eating dirt.’

‘Good riddance,’ the other man added bluntly.

‘The other one got away.’

That was the end of the conversation. On the stretcher, Lillian shook. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Anger arose in her. She twisted, struggled against the straps with all her strength. She moaned a long, terrible moan of grief. The straps held. She collapsed back onto the fabric. They took my Jacob. The only man I’ve ever really loved.

She saw Jacob’s face. She saw his gentle smile, his love, his passion. She felt his arms around her, his desire. Tonight was to have been their wedding night, their first night truly together. They’d prepared their house at Haven, built furniture. A new bed. Moved their few possessions together.

It can’t be true, she thought. It’s a nightmare. I’ll wake up in a moment. We’ll walk back through the ferns and tall trees, to Haven. Jacob will hold my hand, help me up the slope, look into my eyes. Laugh.

The bearers stumbled, and the rough movement shook Lillian back to reality. She studied the green uniform in front of her. EarthWatch. They showed no mercy. Save the earth. Destroy mankind. Destroy my Jacob.

Suddenly she hated them more fiercely than ever before. Anger burned in her. It was true. They’d killed him. They knew too much about him. There was sincerity in their callousness. Jacob’s dead.

She struggled again, flexing her muscles against the straps. She arched her body, pushing hard. The straps held tight.

The soldier watched her struggle futilely. He laughed.

Lillian lifted her head and shoulders. She tensed her stomach. Pressed against the straps. She looked down her body again. Her eyes caught a flash of white. She realized that she still held flowers. Her right hand held tight to the remains of a tattered bouquet. Her wedding flowers.

Grief rose up like the pain of her own death. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks. Her life was over. She would never get him back. There was no other.

Her body shrank, trying in vain to draw itself closer. She wailed. A long, gut-wrenching cry of pain that echoed through the trees.

Fear and agony shook her body. Her mind moaned the tortured questions that could never be answered. Oh, Jacob, Jacob, why did you have to leave me? Why did you have to be the one to go? Why did you have to die?

As Lillian’s cries faded into sobs, the two green-uniformed men picked up their pace. The pine needles crunched underfoot as they wound their way north-east with the other troops.

Their sweat dripped like tears onto the desolate woman’s body.

Three

E lijah shouted as the EarthWatch soldiers fled before his and Jacob’s mad charge. He stumbled back down to the clearing after the battle, bloody and exhausted, still clutching a stolen assault rifle.

Elizabeth ran to him, white faced. She hugged him fiercely, then stepped back. ‘Elijah, Lillian is missing. So are Lucinda, Edith, and Celeste.’

‘Missing? What happened? Where’s Jacob?’

‘When the shooting started and you followed Jacob, we ran for cover in the ferns. Men in green ran through, shouting and waving their guns. We stayed hidden. Then they left. When the firing stopped, we came out.’ Elizabeth burst into tears.

Elijah pulled her to him.

Through her sobs she said, ‘Gary and Ella are dead.’

‘Oh no.’

Elizabeth pushed her blonde hair back from her face. Lines of worry creased her pretty face. Blue eyes, sparkling with joy so recently at the wedding, were filled with pain. ‘Patrick checked them.’

‘Both dead? And the baby?’ Elijah was stunned.

Elizabeth’s arms were rigid by her side. Her small fists were clenched. Tears ran unchecked down her face. ‘Jacob hasn’t come back,’ she said. ‘Patrick and Liam have gone to look for him.’ She paused, letting her words sink into his tired mind.

Elijah’s world slowed. The adrenaline of the fight ebbed. He felt drained.

‘Elijah!’ Elizabeth put her hands on his shoulders. She squeezed him hard and looked intently at him. ‘Four of the girls have disappeared. I think the soldiers took them.’ Her lips trembled. ‘Lillian is gone. Jacob is missing. Elijah, you’re in charge now.’

Lillian was almost numb when the stretcher was lowered to the ground. There was noise, movement, and shouted instructions. A dozen men packed up camp. Lillian saw other stretchers too, four in total.

Men bent over Lillian, loosening her straps. Their hands were rough against her skin. They pulled her to her feet and pushed her, staggering, towards a makeshift camp toilet amongst the trees. They turned and left, and she pulled down her knickers and sat without thinking. She was in shock, and the urine would not come.

Three other women were pushed into the small canvas shelter. ‘Hurry up, take a pee, and then we’re leaving!’ one of the soldiers said as he left.

Lillian stood slowly, rearranging her clothes. The three other women hugged her, and she wept again. It was Edith, Celeste, and Lucinda. They clung to each other, crying.

‘Get on with it!’ The impatient voice came from outside.

They tried to go in turn, caring little about sharing the small room. They were fearful and confused. Lucinda was just getting off the seat as the canvas walls were abruptly removed, and men folded and packed them. The soldiers laughed at her embarrassment and made coarse comments about her anatomy.

Lillian looked around. They were in a clearing. To her left, a deep sinkhole fell away, its sides sheer. Fifty metres in front of her were shallow craters. Blackened, twisted, and torn vehicles were lined up there. Ten or eleven wrecked vehicles, she thought. One was tilted halfway over the edge of the deep hole, with the others pressed against it.

Through the fog of her grief, Lillian knew without doubt that this was the scene of the battle where Jacob had clashed with EarthWatch forces.

As she thought of Jacob, the tears flooded again. She stumbled. One of the women put out a hand, steadying her.

Three EarthWatch Armourlites stood apart from the burned hulks. Two were troop carriers, eight-wheeled rather than the X-class’s six. No gun turret. Solar panels on the roof. One vehicle was different, bigger, no solar panels. They sat like big black cockroaches, their sliding doors gaping.

An officer approached. A captain. He was neatly dressed in the green uniform and may have been in his late thirties, with short red hair. He had piercing blue eyes. He walked with a spring in his step. Despite the recent violence, he was friendly.

‘Hi, I’m Blue. I’m in charge here. You’re our prisoners. Sorry about the rough journey.’ He jerked a thumb in the direction of the waiting vehicles. ‘Get in’.

The soldiers motioned towards the centre vehicle, the larger machine, with their weapons. Lillian moved that way. Her circulation returned, and with it came her anger. She rolled her shoulders unobtrusively and tensed her thighs. She glanced around. The other women moved slowly, following her.

She quickened her pace slightly. Three men moved closer as she neared the Armourlite doors, shepherding her towards them. They were relaxed. No need for them to be prepared, Lillian thought. Just four helpless women.

Elijah’s training advice came back to her. She almost heard his voice. Three you can take. Biggest first. Put him down so he won’t come back up. Use knees and elbows unless you’re wearing heavy boots. You don’t have weight, so use speed. A punch to the throat, a groin kick, or a kick to the side of the neck would do it.

Lillian looked down at her bare feet. Natural, for a forest wedding. Her left hand still clutching the stems of forlorn-looking white flowers. Grief rose, but she suppressed it.

She wriggled her fingers, crumpling the flowers. She drew the petals into her hand, crushing them. One by one they fell to the ground, leaving a pathetic trail behind her.

She looked up. The closest soldier was huge, over six feet tall and wider than Elijah. She moved closer to him, glanced up at the tops of the trees, and pointed towards them with her left hand. ‘What’s that?’ she asked. Simple. Oldest trick in the book.

Involuntarily, he looked up, and she drove her fist into his throat. She felt cartilage fold. Membranes and ligaments collapsed like cardboard. Trachea and larynx crushed against his spine.

His weapon fell. Lillian reached up, gripped his shoulders, and launched her body into the air. She swung in an arc and kicked the second soldier in the side of the neck. He dropped. Probable vertebrae damage.

Lillian landed on all fours, ignoring the pain in her foot. She sprang towards the third man, head down, neck muscles tensed, forehead to his groin like a sledgehammer into crockery. He screamed with agony and fell. Strike three. Batter out.

Lillian stood, a little shaky, and looked around. The other soldiers were frozen with surprise. The trees were less than fifty metres away. She knew she would make it. Her mind felt freedom. She sprinted.

Her recently stretcher-bound body failed her. A violent cramp stabbed her right calf, a spasm that locked her leg and brought her crashing down. It was all the time her captors needed. Big men rushed her and fell on her twitching body.

She lashed out, struggling with all her strength. She injured several more before a blow to the head left her semi-conscious. They threw her, handcuffed, into the rear seat of the Armourlite. The three other captured women flopped next to her. A door lowered and the vehicle moved. The electric motors whined up to speed.

The other women had their tender hands on her. They whispered comforting words. Slowly the fog in Lillian’s mind cleared. She sat up. She couldn’t see the driver. There was a partition which separated them from the small forward section.

An opposing bench seat faced them. Another one behind it. Across the aisle were three more bench seats. In front of those were humps in the floor. For the motors and gearbox, she thought. On the sides, lockers. Behind the driver’s area were two more bench seats, one on each side, facing the rear. Three armed soldiers sat there.

She made herself think. Plan. Seats twenty-four, Lillian thought, but just us four girls and three soldiers in this one. Plus the driver. What can we do?

As she deliberated, trying to ignore the throbbing in her head, their journey continued. There were many changes in speed. Many turns. The motor’s whine rose and fell. The air was charged with ozone from the engines. Fans in the roof tried to clear it.

The Armourlite rocked and shook. The soldiers talked amongst themselves. Lillian’s grief returned, and she cried softly.

The women waited. She saw them through her tears. They were used to her being a decisive leader. In Jacob’s absence she’d led them in a courageous attack against overwhelming EarthWatch numbers only a month ago.

The girls seemed confused and worried by her tears. She wiped her nose on the back of her arm. Sniffed loudly. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘It’s just that they said Jacob has been killed.’

The women gasped. Lillian cried again. Edith reached over and drew Lillian down close to her chest. Lillian felt her body being racked with heavy sobs. She looked up at them with gritty eyes. They had tears rolling down their own cheeks.

‘They shot Jacob. He’s dead,’ Lillian said.

‘Oh, Lillian,’ Edith said.

The other women wrapped their arms around her. After a while, the tentative questions began. ‘How do you know? How can you be sure? What are we going to do?’ Lillian had no answers.

They were still holding her tight when the officer came from the driver’s partitioned section. He steadied himself with hand-grips which ringed the machine at roof level.

Another soldier. That makes five, Lillian thought, looking through pain.

‘Welcome again, ladies,’ he said. ‘I understand one of your relatives was killed in the fight.’ Blue’s brow furrowed. ‘That’s regretful, but of course, he and his friend killed nine of our men.’

Lillian’s voice rose out of the group of women. ‘And we’ll kill you and destroy the rest of you murderers and rapists.’ Grief overwhelmed her again. She couldn’t hold back a cry.

The man laughed nervously. ‘At times we are murderers, and regretfully, rape does happen. Not on my watch though. However, there’s a bigger picture. We’re serving a purpose that’s higher than all of us. And you certainly won’t destroy us.’

He looked hard at Lillian. ‘Although you had a pretty good try back there. I’ve got four more men who need serious medical treatment. One may not live. He’ll certainly never talk.’

Edith’s voice shook. ‘Why did you come for us? We were given an assurance of safety by the chairman himself.’

The man thought for a moment, his brow slightly furrowed. ‘Oh, you mean after the forest battle? When the old chairman was killed? We have a new chairman now. New instructions.’

‘You have no right to hold us prisoner,’ Lucinda said angrily.

‘Actually, we have every right,’ Blue said calmly. ‘In fact, we’re enforcing the law and we’re doing what’s right. We’re protecting the earth for all of us.’

The usual philosophical jargon, Lillian thought. A pack of lies.

‘Why did you attack us?’ Edith asked. She gripped her seat as the vehicle lurched.

Blue thought for a moment. ‘We were nearby. Decided to drop in.’ Another short silence. ‘We have standing orders to kill or imprison you,’ he said. ‘We’ve just been a bit too busy to come. Actually, to be totally honest, we’re a bit short staffed since you pulled that stunt with the sinkhole. We had to leave the south-west forest for a while. This was an exploratory mission to see if you outcasts were still around.’

‘And the attack?’ Edith said.

‘Seemed like a good idea at the time.’ Blue looked grim. ‘You all seemed pretty helpless. I couldn’t have been more wrong.’

‘Why take us four?’ Edith said tersely.

‘We would’ve taken a lot more if the crazy blonde fighter had been killed as well. What is it with your men? Don’t they know fear?’

The officer didn’t wait for his question to be answered but, after a moment’s reflection, continued. ‘It was getting too dangerous to stay. Nine good men down. We decided to get out fast.’

‘Where are you taking us? We’ll die before going back to Malakez.’

Blue laughed. ‘Malakez? No, no, we wouldn’t want to waste you with those butchers!’

‘Where, then?’

‘The Barn. The chairman’s residence and storage facility. Past the prison’. He stood. ‘Behave yourselves, do what you’re told, and you might survive. Make trouble for me, and I’ll have you shot and thrown out for wild dog food. It’s up to you.’

The women were silent. Lillian sniffed. She held up manacled hands.

‘Promise to behave?’ Blue said.

She nodded.

He pulled keys from his belt, reached over, and took off the handcuffs. Lillian rubbed her wrists. Blue seemed tired of the conversation. He turned and walked back to the driver’s area.

The machine was going faster now. It pitched like a boat on choppy water. Trees rushed past. At times, the whine of the electric motors faded as they negotiated a bend in the forest breaks, and then picked up again.

Lillian pulled free of the women and walked unsteadily to the door in the partition. The soldiers watched her. They gripped their weapons uncertainly. She stared into the forward compartment. The driver worked steering levers. Blue examined maps on a video screen.

As the driver became aware of her standing in the doorway, he glanced her way and stared. Lillian felt his eyes bore through her flimsy wedding dress. The Armourlite lurched over a rough patch of sand, and he hastily looked forward again.

Lillian was accustomed to men’s attention but had rarely sought it. This man’s interest revolted her. I’m going to kill them all, she thought.

Four

L illian stood as long as she could during the trip, watching the forest flash past. After several hours they left the trees and travelled through open paddocks, north, towards the city. The roads were damaged, and their speed often slowed. At times she returned to the seat or was joined in the doorway by one of the other women.

The soldiers made suggestive comments and tried to strike up conversation. She largely ignored their advances. In response to one particularly lewd comment, she returned a stare that would have frozen lava. She held it until the soldier turned away. He didn’t look her way again.

On the outside, Lillian was composed. The tears had stopped. Inside, grief threatened to engulf her like a dark cloud. Anger helped her suppress it. When tiredness overcame her, she went to the back of the vehicle and curled up with the other women. She slept fitfully, her dreams black and painfully distorted.

She woke aching and sad. The position of the sun suggested late afternoon. They had reached the western suburbs. Lillian knew what to expect. She’d been here only a few short months ago. The eastern suburbs still maintained a civilized appearance, but in the west, riots, fighting, looting, and disease thrived.

Through the Armourlite windows Lillian saw boarded-up shops and rubbish-strewn streets. Occasional walkers glanced furtively their way and quickly vanished into murky alleys or dark-weed-tangled gardens.

The remains of decomposed and rat-damaged corpses were propped awkwardly against broken fences or were posed hideously in gutters.

Several times she saw EarthWatch conformity vehicles cruising slowly through dilapidated housing estates. Lillian imagined the technicians inside, viewing their monitors, waiting for the tell-tale alarm identifying foetal development. If the alarm sounded, soldiers would rush from the vehicle for an arrest. Conception was strictly prohibited and laws brutally enforced.

Ancient rusted car bonnets laughed crazily. The superseded fuel-guzzling transporters spread their broken doors wide in hopeless surrender. The Armourlite slowed to a low whine to steer past the wrecks, and then revved high, accelerating to the next grim reminder of a ruptured society. They left the city with the sun very low behind them and to their left.

Heading north-west, Lillian thought.

The women were sore, tired, and afraid. The terrain became hilly. The roads were in better repair. Lillian could see ahead Malakez prison: high and dark, protected by layers of high wire fences and brightly lit checkpoints.

Many Haven outcasts were ex-prisoners. She shivered, thinking of those who still endured torture and death behind those walls, despite Jacob’s best efforts. Twice he had breached the defences of Malakez to rescue those incarcerated there.

Tears welled as she remembered him. She swallowed, choking down her grief.

Finally the vehicles left the main road. The sun slipped behind the trees. The driver switched on brilliant lights, and Lillian was surprised when she saw the power of the globes. Every vehicle she had known since the end of the fossil fuel era had suffered from poor night illumination. She could see clearly as the driver turned towards a high wire fence.

Uniformed soldiers left a heavily fortified guardhouse to greet them. Blue disembarked to talk. They inspected his documents. Through the Armourlite’s open door Lillian heard the guards request a password. Blue’s answer was indistinct.

Before Lillian could gather her strength to attempt another escape, Blue returned with the military personnel for a careful search of the vehicle. Once the guards were satisfied, large gates swung effortlessly open to let them through.

They drove slowly towards a massive building. The word hangar came to Lillian’s mind, but this galvanised-iron building was far bigger than any hangar she’d seen. Security lights blazed along its length, and it stretched away far into the distance.

The three vehicles drove into the huge concrete-floored structure and turned inside the shed, facing the way they’d come.

The women were told to get out. They climbed stiffly down the extended steps.

The leader and his men disembarked and stretched wearily.

The women were prodded towards the front of the large machine, and Lillian glanced left and right. She gasped. Beyond the third Armourlite from their own convoy, scores of other vehicles were parked. They were dark, shiny, and new.

The line of vehicles stretched away as far as she could see. There were Armourlites of varying classes and other vehicles that she could not identify. The vehicles’ noses were all parked in a row with military precision.

Lillian heard the whine of an approaching vehicle, and a small four-wheeled transporter pulled up next to them. It had a front bench seat with a low tray at the back surrounded by a waist-high metal frame. It was driven by a pleasant-looking youthful man dressed in casual