‘Lift has reached maximum passengers.’ Ping. ‘Lift has reached maximum passengers.’ A hollow voice repeated.
‘It’s no good.’ One of the crowd yelled. ‘It’s been like this since the announcement.’
‘Come on.’ Graham spluttered. ‘We’ll use the stairs!’
They started at a run, but they quickly slowed. It was six floors to the top, not normally a big climb, but the burden of the blankets over their shoulders proved to be a heavy load. ‘Don’t drop anything Graham, we’ll need all this and more!’ Nick puffed, feeling guilty about the few books he had thrown among the other things.
They burst gasping onto the roof and Nick saw the big net lying beside the Veto. Nick didn’t like Vetos. In his opinion the jets were noisy, but this black Navilon cocoon was a welcome site.
Graham pulled out the net shouting above the wind. ‘We can fill this with provisions, even people if we have to, and lower it to safety up there.’ He nodded toward the mountains. ‘D’you think you can pick out Brian’s house from the air?’
‘Yeah, I think so, it should be easy to spot it perched up there on the hillside.’
‘Is there anywhere there to land the Veto?’ Graham asked.
‘No. It’s in the bush.’
‘Okay. The first thing we’ll do is drop this in there. There’s room for more, let’s go back down for another load.’ They pushed the blankets into the net and headed back to the stairwell. Shielding his eyes from the glare, Nick stopped to look around at the unimpeded spectacular view. Vetos swarmed like bees overhead, and with the bright morning sun reflecting on their shiny black bodies, they looked like huge flying beetles. He looked out to a sea that appeared strangely calm, showing no hint of its anger to come. Queenslanders had an enduring saying about their state; Beautiful one day, perfect the next!Not this time, he thought, and trembled as a cold shudder wound it’s way slowly down his spine, and that other threat that had been haunting him surfaced again.
When they reached the floor below they saw that some of the residents had fled leaving their apartment doors wide open. ‘That’ll save us some time. We’ll grab some provisions from there.’ Graham said.
‘Wait a minute. Isn’t that looting?’
‘Yeah but who’s going to care, nothing will be left by the flood anyway! Better we take it up there where it can be used. The looters will be doing everyone a favour and not realising it.’
They worked feverishly for about an hour collecting items from apartments and stuffing them into the net until it was full. Nick constantly consulted his watch, afraid they would run out of time.
Liberty’s four Allison turbine jet engines spat into life, jerking the machine into a frenzied wobble, and the jet thrusters whipped the air as they wound up to maximum thrust. An almost unbearable thumping sound reverberated in Nicks ears as the engine reached full revs, and he quickly reached for the earphones to help soften the deafening noise. The jet thrusters extruded a waving vortex and Liberty leapt from it’s mooring like a jack rabbit.
The big net jerked rapidly off the rooftop swaying precariously below Liberty as they climbed above the building. Graham winched it up and locked it into place beneath the liberty’s belly. Nick could now see the streets below already jammed with Trancars and cabs. There were only a few roads leading into the mountains from the Trancab terminus, and as they flew overhead they saw that most were blocked by fleeing cars. Some people had abandoned their vehicles, forcing others behind to do the same. Women carried children, and children carried pets, like ants marching, crawling, filing around every object, fixed on their destination. Police on horseback threaded their way through the throngs of people, calling from loud hailers for calm.
On the way to Brian’s house they passed over a dairy farm at the foot of the hills. Several men on horseback were driving a small herd of cattle up into the hills. ‘Heaps of people will make it to safety.’ Graham yelled above the roar of the jets. ‘I bet just as many refuse to budge, either not believing or just plain stupid, thinking that nothing will happen to them. Some idiots will stay to witness the bloody event close up!’
‘We’ve never seen big tsunami in Australia before, they probably think it’ll only be very large storm waves and some minor flooding.’ Nick shouted. ‘I’ve seen them in the Philippines, where even small tsunami caused huge damage. There it is!’ He said, pointing to a break in the vegetation below. ‘Brian’s house, the one with the flat roof there.’
Graham hovered low over the house and flipped the lever that held the net in place. Nothing happened.
‘Nick you’re going to have to lean out and release the net while I hover just over the roof. Here, clip this safety harness to your waist first, don’t want to lose you yet.’ He shouted above the noise. ‘Pull the yellow rope that’s attached to the cleat just outside the door, that’ll release just one side. I don’t want to drop the net.’
Nick gingerly manoeuvred his way out through the door. Violent wind slashed mercilessly at his body, forcing him back against the side of the Veto, one elbow stinging sharply as it smashed against the door sill. Wincing with pain he glanced at the net spinning below his feet, and fighting giddiness, he leaned over and fumbled for the yellow rope. He jerked it swiftly, releasing the net as instructed, and it’s contents spilled out in all directions over the roof. Red-faced from the exertion and with shaking legs he scrambled quickly back into the cabin. ‘Phew!’ He whistled through clenched teeth, ‘I’ll stick to boats in future.’
Graham laughed. ‘I bet you’ve met with worse than that at sea. Are you up for more?’
‘Sure, why not!’ Nick was secretly beginning to like this Veto flying. The world was a different place from up here. Strangely he felt safe, the Veto offering a fast retreat from the dangers below.
‘Can we go to the hospital and see if we can find Karen?’ Nick asked.
‘Yeah but first let’s take a look around.’
Graham pushed the guidance lever forward and swooped westward, climbing swiftly into the mountains. Lush, dense Gum trees obscured the view below, and the previous summers high rainfall led to rampant undergrowth, which when dried out during the coming months, would feed the raging bush fires that often devastated these forests. Now there was a different kind of devastation on its way; men who would strip the lower reaches of forest just as surely as any bushfire, taking wood to provide fuel for fires, only they wouldn’t allow the regeneration to follow. They would tear at its heart and lay it bare, one species sacrificed for the survival of the other.
They passed over small pockets of clearings where farmers had razed the trees to dig dams. Wherever nature afforded a level section of ground, farmer had planted crops, usually just big enough to feed his family. On the top at Beechmont to the south, the terrain flattened out into grassed slopes and verges. Small communities and homes dotted the countryside. The army swarmed where cattle had once contentedly grazed, flattening the soft lime green grass with their jeeps and leaving deep tracks in the soft earth. Dull khaki tents raised their ugly faces on the landscape, forming a lumpy, grey-green carpet. There were many places on this mountain, where a man turning slowly in a circle could see before him a changing vista of ocean, valleys, mountains and sky.
They came upon a large area that had been turned into an airfield littered with Vetos. ‘That lot’s mine.’ Graham said, pointing with pride. ‘Courtesy of the Australian Government. There’s fields like this all ‘round the country.’ They could see a road leading to the airfield lined with water tankers, parked so closely behind each other they resembled a train. As each tanker disgorged its payload into commandeered water tanks, it was driven to another parking area and left to languish with the other useless machines, its life suddenly cancelled like a used cheque.