What happened? he said. We heard the chopper when we were driving away, heard shooting.
She said, Those people are dead.
So, how did you get away?
You know I didn’t get away. She was shaking, trying to keep the gun steady. Your operator broke my ankle. I got picked up and I spent the last two and half months in Transit, while my daughter —
Rich came up beside her. The steel-cap was their operator?
She saw Stokes put it together.
Shit, he said quietly. His eyes moved down to her leg. Jas told us you panicked and did a runner. It sounded wrong but we didn’t have time to hang around. Then later Mira saw she had your tools. He shrugged. By then we didn’t trust her anyway.
Something wrong with that girl, Eileen said. Right from the start.
Li looked at her and back and Stokes. The shotgun felt pointless suddenly. She put the safety back on and lowered it. Didn’t even look at Lucas but she felt the tension go out of Rich and figured she wasn’t going to get them shot.
Do you have my tools?
Nah, she took them. Took a bunch of stuff that didn’t belong to her.
So they hadn’t sent Jasmine away – she’d run out on them. Maybe saw what was coming. It didn’t matter. She’d wasted enough time on Jasmine. She looked at Rich but he didn’t look at her.
We’ve got most of your other stuff, Mira said. We can put it back together for you.
The gear would help her get across the range. In Transit, she’d heard about people crossing the lower slopes in four or five days but that was in the hot season. If she could get the four-wheel drive going, Rich would take her as far as he could before he turned north. He was angry with her but he’d do it. Otherwise, they could strip it for parts and she would make them give her a lift to the foothills. They owed her that. But first she needed to see if the engine was fixable. Maybe Shaun would let her use their tools.
She was already walking back to it when Eileen said, Why don’t you come along with us too?
Li stopped.
Stokes said, We don’t have an operator or a patcher now. Mira’s training up pretty good but she’d do better with help.
She turned to face them. No. I’m going east.
Across the range? On foot?
Rich said, She’s taking our ride.
There was some argument. The mosquitoes liked the idea of a second vehicle.
You’re getting a medic, Rich said. She gets the transport.
Why hadn’t she known he would do this? They’d never discussed it but she’d thought of the phone as hers, unquestionably. The vehicle was his. His independent means to get to North if things didn’t work out with this crew. He was giving that up for her. Even though she’d used him and he was talking about her like she wasn’t there. He kept helping her and helping her, like the act of helping meant something and she didn’t know how to thank him, didn’t even know what she was to him. Was she some form of Rachael that could still be saved? Or one of the others on his list? Or was she him, before he gave Rachael up?
Things were rearranging in her brain: speed, distance, time. One new update. She would drive across the range and into time again, through time. To Matti.
Shaun had everything. Working together, they cleaned the plugs thoroughly, wiped out the tubes and the air intake, changed the oil and the coolant, checked the fuses, the battery. Shaun replaced a couple of worn piston rings in the cylinder block. He conferred with Stokes and then half-filled the tank with diesel.
I don’t know if that’s gunna get you over, he said, but it’s all we can spare.
They worked all through the clear cold of morning while the others got the fire going again, brewed tea and made damper. She looked up now and then at the range in the distance, flickering bluely in the air above the fire. Stokes and Eileen sat talking to Rich while he dressed an ulcerated sore on Eileen’s arm. He’d taken the tent down, packed up his gear. Lucas was cleaning and oiling the shotgun. Mira threw sticks for the dog while she powered up the phones with a hand-cranked charger, and then the dog left the game and went to Rich and lay looking up at him. Dev was repairing a torn pack. The new guy crouched a little way from the fire, cleaning and polishing everyone’s boots. Now and then he looked across at Mira and Li saw he was even younger than she’d thought.
Shaun said, We’ve got him on the shit jobs till we see what he’s good at.
When they were done, the engine started first try. Mira brought Li’s phone over, fully charged.
Shaun wiped his hands on a rag. There’ll be ice on the road further up. Don’t rush it – you’re sitting high, easy to flip and roll.
There was no message from Chris and when she called she got his answering machine again. I told you before, she said. They’ll just put me in a queue till my credit runs out. So I need you to do this and I’m going to wait for you to call me back.
It was early in the afternoon now, a thin grey wind coming up, and she had a great need to start driving. But Stokes asked her to eat with them first, and when she looked over, Rich was looking back at her, so she went and sat across from him at the fire, between Stokes and Shaun, and listened to them talk about the howler, about supplies, and the route they were taking to North this time. Rich was sketching or writing something on a piece of paper between mouthfuls. Mira came and sat beside the new guy and then Dev squeezed in between them with
