Her heart missed a beat and she felt a punch in her chest. Leaning forward on the table to steady herself, she breathed deeply through her mouth.
The screen on the table went white — there was no sound, just bright white. The image on the screen zoomed out, providing a wider view of the area. The image now was of the entire continent. There was a large white bulge in the middle of South Australia, reflecting the intense heat generated by the explosion.
‘Successful detonation of Alpha device,’ said the captain. ‘Continuing to drop point Bravo. ETA, two minutes.’
Finn stood outside the barn in the unusually mild, eucalyptus-scented air, staring out into the blackness. His bag was packed for the next morning. The idea of going back to the war made him feel anxious. But while in his heart he wanted to stay, he knew he couldn’t.
‘Hey,’ said Jess, walking up behind him.
‘Hey,’ replied Finn, his voice sounding heavy.
‘Wish you didn’t have to go,’ said Jess, smiling sadly. ‘Who’s going to do all the lifting around here now?’
‘Oh, I’m so sorry! You might have to roll up your sleeves for a change,’ said Finn, straight back at her.
‘Nah, I’ll just start a list of jobs you can do when you come back,’ she said, bumping him playfully with her shoulder.
‘You know this war could go on for years and years,’ Finn said, serious now. ‘I might be an old man by the time it’s over.’
‘Yeah, that’s okay,’ said Jess, quietly. ‘I’ll find a use for you, old man…’
The flash of light on the horizon to the north-west was bright enough to silhouette the trees in the distance and make night into day. It flickered once, then softened into a sustained glow. Finn’s immediate thought was lightning — but lightning didn’t have a residual glow, or linger like this. It had dulled now into a menacing red glow.
‘What the fuck was that?’ exclaimed Finn, his body tensing and involuntarily straining upward.
‘I don’t know. It’s not lightning,’ said Jess, staring at the glow.
‘It must be massive, whatever it is,’ said Finn concerned. ‘Where’s your dad?’
‘I’ll go get him,’ said Jess, turning to go back to the shed.
Finn stood staring at the glow, trying to work out where the light was coming from. A moment later he heard footsteps behind him as John and Jess joined him.
‘I’ve never seen anything like it,’ remarked John. ‘Could be a bushfire, I suppose.’
‘But it happened so quickly. It was a flash of light and then this glow — now it’s fading quickly,’ replied Finn.
A dull, sinister thud of a soundwave hit them — not so much a noise as a feeling in the chest, a vibration so deep it felt like a solid mass hitting them.
Panic swept over them all.
‘Jesus, what the fuck,’ Finn pulled Jess in tight to him.
John steadied himself by grabbing the wooden railing. ‘Don’t know what that was — but it ain’t natural, that’s for sure. Come on! Let’s see if there’s anything on the radio,’ he said, turning hurriedly to go back into the shed.
John went to the radio while Finn shut the shed doors. John worked on the radio, hands trembling, trying to find a frequency.
Their minds were racing. Were they under attack? Were they going to die? What could they do?
Silence hung in the air.
‘It’s okay, guys,’ said Finn, willing his heart to slow down. ‘We’re alive. It’s going to be all right — just stay calm. Keep trying the radio. We have to get something.’
The static suddenly gave way to silence. After a pause that seemed to last forever, a newsreader’s voice came through. ‘This is breaking news. Nuclear bombs have been detonated in the northern area of South Australia, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Far North Queensland. At this point, this is all the information we have. We will keep you updated as we learn more.’ With that, the message repeated. John turned down the radio.
‘Oh shit,’ said Finn in an awed voice, ‘they’re nuking us.’
‘Jesus, are we going to be all right?’ asked Jess, moving closer.
‘Dunno,’ mumbled Finn.
‘It makes sense, though,’ said John. ‘Doesn’t it? The flash, the sound. None of it was caused by weather, that’s for sure — it had to be from a bomb.’
‘It does make sense, but what doesn’t make sense is that they would do it in the first place,’ said Finn, still staring at the radio, his mind working overtime.
Jess mused aloud. ‘Why would the Chinese nuke this area? They’ve invested huge energy to secure the mines. Why nuke out here — where the mines are?’
Finn’s mouth dropped open slightly, and he started blinking rapidly. ‘I think we dropped them on ourselves. I think we nuked the mines and the Chinese port up in the gulf,’ said Finn excitedly.
‘What? There’s no way the government would do that,’ scoffed Jess, refusing to believe it.
‘No,’ Finn said, standing up, ‘when I spoke to the army yesterday they said that most troops were involved in an operation to move people outside the demarcation lines that the government had established. I think they were moving people out of harm’s way,’ said Finn, more convinced of his theory with each word.
Both Jess and John contemplated the theory for a moment.
‘Keep listening. They might say,’ said John, looking back at the radio.
The three of them stayed up most of the night, debating and discussing the theory, checking the radio for news. But it just continually repeated the same news, shedding no new light.
The wick in the lantern cast only enough light to show their faces. Exhaustion soon took over and they all fell silent. Sleep came quickly to them. Even Finn couldn’t hold off sleep, despite his mind doing its best to resist with thoughts of what would happen next. Perhaps, he hoped, this meant the war would be over. Or was a new, far worse war just beginning?
Chapter 23
In Beijing, Ambassador Xian received a call at 4 am, demanding his presence with Chairman Yun. Xian left his apartment in distress. To be summoned at this hour to see Yun could only mean bad news.
While he sat outside Chairman Yun’s opulent, old-world-style office, waiting to be granted entry, his assistant briefed him on the news of what had happened in Australia.
‘My God!’ said Xian, genuinely stunned by the news, ‘General Stephens must be insane to do that to his own country.’
At that moment one of the enormous, polished wooden doors opened smoothly. A young, impeccably suited woman silently ushered Xian into the room with only a very subtle gesture of her eyes and head.
Xian strode into the office. ‘Chairman, I am aware of the actions of General Stephens and am shocked that he would make such an act of aggression on our mines. I assume there are to be retaliations,’ started Xian, injecting enough anger into his voice to ensure Yun did not think him a coward.
‘Yes, Xian,’ said Yun from his richly upholstered chair. ‘It is shocking, though it was always a risk. It seems we underestimated General Stephens. He has proven to be courageous to the point of insanity. A difficult breed of adversary.’
‘Indeed. So what is our response?’ Xian prompted respectfully. ‘They cannot take nuclear action against China without consequences!’
Yun gave Xian a pitying look. ‘Our response will be a pragmatic one, Xian. There will be no retribution, no further attacks on Australia — just a withdrawal of all remaining military forces.’
‘But sir, are you not obliged to retaliate in kind?’ Xian asked, shocked.
‘I am not interested in wasting any more time or resources on what is now a nuclear wasteland. We must be smarter and use our heads, not our fists.’