Chapter 7A: Hell From The Hill
Inbroken · Chapter 7 Part 1
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N.B. This episode continues Inbroken, the new title for Book One of The Land Inside Time, previously referred to as The Land Inbroken.
The coupe crawled out of town early next morning.
Jessie had been torn between leaving the previous evening — while the cops remained preoccupied with the chaos in town — and waiting for morning’s better visibility to travel in.
In the end, the failing light had made the choice for her. Waiting for daylight carried the risk of an overnight visit from Keemon and his cronies, but the greater danger would have been trying to navigate the unfamiliar bush at night relying on Miles’s barely adequate headlamps.
John looked distant, maybe even sulky again.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yep, just thinking about staying at Godswold’s place; not looking forward to it.”
“Neither am I. Believe me, if there was anywhere else I thought we could bury ourselves safe from the cops for a while I would do it.”
She turned her attention back to the road but could still feel him looking at her. What the hell does he want me to say? I’ve already told him what went on between Hugh and me, and how I was glad to get away from that relationship. Why can’t he just leave it alone?
* * *
Despite its seclusion and the rough bush tracks that got you there, Godswold’s place lay a mercifully short distance from town. Jessie estimated they’d been driving just under an hour when she pulled into the well-hidden gravel pit Hugh insisted everyone use and parked her car.
She threw the door open, stepped out and took a deep breath.
“Well, let’s do it.”
“Yeah, let’s go and see if he’ll have us. I’m sure he’ll have one of us at least.”
“Oh, come on, don’t be like that, we have to do this for now so let’s just knuckle down until it’s over.”
As further evidence of what John saw as Godswold’s paranoia, the man also stipulated visitors must enter by the one tunnel-like entry through the blackberry canes that almost completely surrounded the shack. This despite the fact several approaches to the hideaway looked much less troublesome. By the time they pushed their way through, avoiding the worst of the thorns, both were running sweat.
“Stand and state your business!” It was Godswold, coming towards them grinning. “Good to see you back so soon.” He looked straight at Jessie as he spoke.
“It’s an emergency visit. John and I ran into trouble in town with that mad cop, Keemon. The whole town’s rioting, we only just got away. Keemon wanted to keep us but fortunately, he got distracted by an angry crowd.”
Godswold headed for the shack, an arm around Jessie’s shoulder. John followed with hate-ray eyes.
“Keemon in trouble? Come in and tell me more! But as to the bit about the riot, I don’t doubt it. That’s the worst Flashing we’ve had, I almost crawled under the old sofa to block the light out.” He chuckled. “I probably would have; except I was terrified of what I’d find there.”
Jessie grinned. “Yes, that would be a greater danger to health than the flares: squirming around in your old food scraps.”
“Nah, the rats eat the food scraps. That’s what bothers me: rats!”
John coughed politely and Jessie looked over thinking, Yeah, okay, enough of the friendly banter, let’s get down to business.
“So, Hugh, is it okay if we stay here a while until we decide our next move?”
“Of course, stay as long as you like. Heck, you can move in if you want to.”
“Thanks, just a day or so will be fine, until I figure the lie of the land. I want to get back to the house in town as soon as possible, it makes me nervous to leave it unprotected. Who’s to say the cops won’t trash it while we’re gone, especially if they come to hassle us and we’re not there.”
“Sure, I understand. Anyway, Dylan’s coming out tonight. We’re going to make more plans for that… thing I told you about.” Godswold’s eyes flicked sideways at Bowman. “Anyway, while he’s here I’ll ask him if he knows any more, he’s always got his ear to the ground.”
“That’s good news. I know Dylan fights with his father a lot, but they do live together, so I’m betting he’d know how the afternoon panned out. I’d love to know what happened to Keemon. That crowd fell on him like wolves!”
They chuckled at the image, even John.
“Anyway, come in and have a beer, then I’ll cook you another meal. A proper one this time; I think Dylan’s bringing meat.”
“More booze?” John asked. “Is that all you do out here?”
Godswold shot him a look. “No, actually we do quite a lot more.” He play-poked Jessie’s shoulder. “Don’t we, love?”
Jessie pushed his hand away and growled. “For Christ’s sake, Hugh, give the innuendo a rest.” She stood back and sighed. “I mean, sorry, but John and I are an item, end of story. If you think you and me can ever be more than just friends again, you’re wrong. Forget about it, okay? I mean, thanks for having us but let’s set a few ground rules, yes?”
Godswold put his arms up like he was being robbed. “Okay, okay, I’ll come quietly.” He offered his hand to John. “Just kidding, yeah?”
John hesitated before returning the handshake. Jessie headed for the shack, and they followed.
* * *
Jessie had just downed her first beer and was pouring a second when Hugh heard De Saunt’s truck bump past and park in the gravel pit.
“Sounds like Dylan, he must’ve smelt the brew.” The man had already bounced to his feet and made for the door long before the others heard anything.
Jessie had told John about this, how Godswold’s hearing was honed by living out here alone so long. Where it might have made some people more relaxed, it only served to heighten Hugh’s vigilance, as though each day without incident vastly increased the probability of mishap.
That was another thing she never quite got used to about the man — his paranoia and general jumpiness.
Hugh flung the door wide and began firing questions as De Saunt negotiated the last of the blackberry cane tunnel.
“What news, Horatio?”
Despite the heat, Dylan was ashen faced as he spoke. “God, you should see the mess in town! This one was a real biggie. Bodies everywhere, people brawling and the cops only making matters worse, most of the time.”
“Yes, Jessie and her boyfriend John are here. She told me some of it.”
Dylan wiped sweat from his brow. “Yeah, I saw Miles out in the ‘Valet Car Park’. Jeez it was a hot drive out in my old truck.”
Godswold slapped him on the shoulder. “Come on in then, we’re just having a beer.”
De Saunt needed no further encouragement. “Lead the way!”
As they entered the shack, Jessie raced up and hugged Dylan. “Thank God you’re safe. The last we saw you, it looked like Keemon was having a bad day! But I didn’t hear how that ended. All I knew is he’d threatened you and Terry Osborne.”
“Oh, we’re alright, Terry and me both. We even managed to drag the mob off Keemon. Unconscious but still breathing, unfortunately. I wanted to leave the bastard lying there but Terry insisted we get him to a hospital, kept banging on about how he had a duty to a fellow member of The Voice.”
“Well, it’s nice to know Osborne thinks something of loyalty. I doubt Keemon would ever return the favour.”
“Damn right he wouldn’t!”
They went over and sat around the table pensively sipping their drinks a while before Dylan spoke again.
“So, what brings the pair of you back here so soon?”
“We decided to get away for a while, after what Keemon said to us in town yesterday. He may say he only needs to talk to us down at the station, but we all know what that means. So, Hugh kindly offered to put us up until things in town stabilise.”
Dylan scoffed. “Stabilise? How long do you suppose that will be?”
“Yeah, I know. I guess what I’m saying is we won’t go back until it’s safe for us or we find somewhere else to live; that Keemon is one malignant character.”
De Saunt held his hands up theatrically.
“Let me be the bearer of good news, then! My dear daddy tells me he instructed Keemon at the latest Voice meeting to leave you two alone. No need to go in for an interview, you’re off the hook. The crappy cop has been told!”
John jumped to his feet. “Wow, that’s great news!”
Godswold shrugged. “Of course, if you want to go putting yourselves back into harm’s way, I suppose it is. Personally, I think I’d rather take my chances out here. That town’s a clusterfuck.”
John made a face. “Out here? With the gangs getting closer every day? From what I hear they’ll be knocking on your door soon, although I doubt they’ll be that polite.”
“Maybe so, but at least out here we can arm ourselves for that eventuality. The cops have confiscated everyone’s weapons in town. And if the gangs can get this far, they can just as easily strike into town.”
“Seriously, arm yourselves? How do you propose to do that? I tried to lay my hands on some firepower in town and came up with nothing. All I’ve got is some old archery equipment. Mind you, I can do some pretty serious damage with that.”
The two other men chuckled. Jessie glared at them before turning back to John.
“Yes, and you’re a fine shot with your bow, but that won’t hold out long against automatic weapons.”
He looked down and shook his head. “So, what do you suggest? Where do you suppose we get better firepower? And what do you know about weapons, anyway?”
“You’ve only known Jessie a short while.” Godswold enjoyed rubbing salt into the wound. “Whereas I knew her for two years. She knows a lot more about ‘military hardware’ than she’s obviously let on to you. I’d like to say I taught her all she knows, but the truth is she was pretty well versed in most things when we came together. So to speak.” He said it with a smirk.
Jessie gripped John’s arm. “You and me have only been together a short time,” she shot a sideways glare at Godswold, “as Hugh likes to point out. So, there’s a lot you don’t know about me yet. I know I haven’t told you much about this but let’s face it, we’ve been too pleasantly preoccupied getting to know each other to worry about ancient history.”
This time she gave Godswold a coy smile and held it. So, screw you. She felt John relax. Good.
Godswold tried to regain the initiative.
“Well, you need to bring the boy up to speed. It’s all very well being lovey-dovey, but I think the time for that’s behind us.”
John shot back. “Speak for yourself, I’m just getting started!”
Godswold sighed and rolled his head around as if to get a kink out of his neck.
“Okay, okay, I get that. But the point is, we’re running out of time. I’m not kidding about the gangs getting closer. Maybe you’re not familiar with my daily routine here? Every morning I take a short patrol through the bush. And every morning I see more and more signs of gang activity: cigarette butts, shell casings, they don’t even bother burying their crap when they take a dump.”
Jessie scowled. “They’re pigs! And pigs get slaughtered.”
“Yeah, of course, they’re pigs. But they’re arrogant, confident pigs. They don’t bother covering their traces. They know they’re too well-armed for ordinary folk to fight back. But they haven’t met me.”
Bowman sneered. “What, you think you’re going to be the one to stop them? One man in a dilapidated shack? Seriously, I don’t care how many guns you’ve got, common sense tells me you won’t last long in a firefight.”
“Maybe not, but I won’t be on my own. There’ll be others. Jessie, How much have you told him?”
“Not much. Nothing about this. You asked me not to say anything until you had a chance to tell him yourself.”
Godswold turned back to John.
“Okay, just listen to me for a minute, will you? I understand the scepticism. You’re not aware of certain things, so I talk, you listen, and I’ll bring you up to speed. Okay?”
He waited a moment for John to signal acceptance with his own, albeit sour-faced nod.
“I have guns. Lots of them. Don’t ask how; such knowledge is dangerous. Let’s just say I wasn’t always the hare-brained hippy folks in town think I am. I spent the greater part of the last twenty years in the Army. Very handy in a world like this, I made a lot of connections and managed to get away with a cache of ordnance when things started going to shit at the beginning of The Changes. And I’ve added to the stash whenever I could.
“Now, for all I know, or care, the army’s gone to hell in a handbasket. At least, the last I heard, they were headed that way. I know Dylan talks about contacting them via ham radio, but my personal opinion is we’re on our own and have to do this ourselves.”
He waited a moment for that to sink in before continuing.
“And what you see here as an extremely vulnerable little shack is much better defended than you think. Has Jessie told you why I insist all visitors park on the gravel out the back and come straight up here along that track, then come in by that one entrance through the blackberries? No? Well, just you try walking up to this shack any other way and you’ll find out. Mind you, you’ll be wandering in the next world when you discover your mistake.”
John got the inference. “You mean you’ve set personnel mines around here?”
“Of course, and it’s proved extremely effective at thinning out the gangers!” Godswold’s face took on a look of evil triumph. “And landmines are the least of the gangs’ worries if they try to give me grief. But I’m not worried about them coming here for me. I have bigger plans.”
“Such as?”
“I’m going to take the fight to them. Then I’m going to sort out those rogue cops in town.”
John opened his mouth, but Godswold held a hand up.
“I know, I know I can’t beat them on my own. That’s why I’m putting together, how shall I put it, a ‘Band of Friends’. Old army buddies and others I can trust. People who know their way around firearms and explosives.”
“Why don’t you just leave it to the Voice militia? They seem to be doing a reasonable job at the moment, given the conditions they face.”
Once more the other two men laughed this off.
Jessie’s face, however, remained serious.
“Don’t believe all you hear from Dylan when he does those Voice broadcasts,” she said. “He gets told what to say. Those victories and successes you hear about? Absolute bullshit. Most of the militia have been killed or run off to protect their own families. And we’ve recruited the rest into the ‘Band of Friends’ just mentioned, isn’t that true, Hugh?”
John pointed at Godswold. “We? You mean you’ve been helping him all this time and not letting on? What else should I know about?”
Godswold sighed. “Quite a damned lot, it seems. Look Johnny boy, as I say, we don’t have much time. You’re either on board with this or you can piss off back to town. It’s a short enough walk, I’ll tell you how to avoid the mines and you should get there in a day or so if you manage to track straight through the bush.”
De Saunt broke in. “Give him a chance, Hugh. You’d be pretty cheesed off too, in the circumstances.” He turned to John. “I know how this must sound. But look at it this way: if you can’t bring yourself to trust us yet, ask yourself if you trust Jessie. I’m fairly sure I know the answer to that. She’s a good ’un and you know it. Would she get mixed up in something not right?”
John wanted to scream, How the fuck should I know, no one tells me anything until it’s too late! But he sat there, not wanting to blurt stuff out, waiting for the right words to come.
In the end, Jessie beat him to it.
“Let’s just take him up the hill and show him.”
Godswold shot up and made for the door. “Great idea. Come on Johnny, we’ll show you what we’re on about.”
***
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