Meteorite Strike (6 page)

Sarah looked around the room once more, her eyes falling on a series of pictures on the wall, photographs showing the man with his family: a woman and two teenagers. Daniel noticed them too and touched the edge of one of the dinner plates.

Barker must have guessed what they were thinking because he looked back to the door that led into the house.

“My family are sleeping,” he said. “Otherwise you'd be able to meet my wife and kids. I'll see if I can get them up in a minute.”

There was uncertainty in his tone. The rain hammered on the roof. There was a flash of lightning and a rumble of thunder seconds later.

“How long have they been sleeping?” Sarah asked.

“Since last night,” Barker replied. “They just fell asleep at the table and now I can't wake them up. I can't…”

His voice cracked and Daniel stood. He laid a hand on Barker's shoulder.

“It's okay.”

Daniel and Sarah found them laid out, still dressed, in each of their bedrooms. Barker must have carried them there from the kitchen. Sarah stood in the doorway of the son's bedroom while Daniel went inside and checked the boy's pulse. His face looked like he was in the most peaceful sleep imaginable, breathing deeply.

Daniel looked round at the door to check that he could still hear Barker, who was clearing plates in the kitchen in an attempt to keep busy, before putting his hands on the boy's shoulder and shaking him violently.

“Don't do that!” Sarah hissed, stepping into the room.

Daniel let the boy go and looked round, picking up a glass of water from the table next to the bed. Before Sarah could stop him, he threw the contents in the sleeper's face. The boy didn't flinch and certainly didn't stir.

“What are you thinking?” Sarah demanded, taking the glass from his hand and putting it back on the table. Daniel looked at her as if surprised by her annoyance.

“We have to find out. We have to find out how deep the sleep is.”

“Well, how do you think the man with the gun will feel when he sees you throwing water on his son?” she whispered, taking a seat beside him. “What do you think it is?”

Daniel shrugged. “Seems to be some kind of coma. Perhaps virus related. I'm not a doctor.”

“Are we safe being this close to him? I thought you said it's infectious.”

“Yes, but I think we're too late to avoid exposure now,” Daniel answered. “It only seems to affect some people, anyway. Remember the passengers who were still awake at the plane? Perhaps the three of us share some kind of immunity. Like a genetic inheritance.”

Sarah laughed humourlessly. “I knew there would have to be some benefit to being related to you, Daniel.”

“Ha, ha.”

Robert appeared in the door, hugging his arms across his chest.

“I don't like this house,” he said. “That guy downstairs gives me the creeps.”

“Keep your voice down if you don't want to be thrown out,” Sarah whispered, pointing up at the roof and the incessant drumming of the rain.

“It's okay, Bobbie,” Daniel said, getting up from the bed, “as soon as the rain stops we're out of here. Right?”

“Whatever you say,” said Sarah.

Daniel smiled. “That was a brave thing you did, Bobbie. I think Mr. Barker's a little paranoid. I don't know what would have happened if I'd been alone.”

Even in the dimness of the room, Sarah could see Robert blush with pride.

“But from now on we have to be more careful,” Daniel continued. “Who knows who we'll run into on the road to Melbourne.”

Robert looked at him quizzically. “What do you mean?”

Daniel leaned against the wall.

“There's been a disaster in this country. People can get kind of desperate. It's not nice, but it's true. At least that truck out front should speed up our progress. If it works, that is.”

They fell silent for a moment. Sarah thought about the long road ahead before they reached the city. The sound of the rain battering the roof sounded more threatening than ever.

“What makes you think he's going to give us his truck?” Sarah asked finally.

“Oh, he's got to give it to us,” Daniel replied, not looking round. “I think I'll be able to persuade him.”

Sarah didn't ask any more questions.

The rain lasted for another hour and Barker said he hadn't known such a downpour in years. Daniel suggested it could be something to do with the amount of dust that had settled in the atmosphere.

When it finally stopped they walked outside. The clouds still covered the sky above, but they seemed a lighter shade than before. The air had a strange metallic smell to it following the rain and the colours of the desert seemed brighter, more vivid.

While Barker was still in the house, Daniel led them to the utility truck and walked around it, inspecting the tyres and the interior through the dirt-smeared window. He lifted the bonnet and looked over the engine, nodding slowly.

“It'll do,” he said, pulling out the dipstick to check the oil. “Hopefully the engine wasn't knocked out completely by the pulse. Changing the battery water should do the trick.”

Barker appeared in the doorway of the house and watched them at the vehicle, his arms folded.

“See anything you like?” he called, the harsh tone returning to his voice.

Sarah and Robert looked at one another. Daniel picked up his shoulder bag from the ground and started towards the building.

“Both of you stay here and don't move,” he ordered.

Sarah began to follow him, but he looked round, his face deadly serious.

“For once, just do as I say,” Daniel said before he turned and joined Barker in the doorway. They exchanged words and disappeared inside.

“What's going to happen?” Robert asked, looking after them.

“Why don't you check inside the truck?” Sarah said, trying the handle of the door and finding it unlocked. “See if there's anything we can use.”

Robert was only too eager to start searching through the cab of the truck and was quickly engrossed. Sarah took the opportunity to run quickly to the house. She moved around the side to the kitchen window.

Peeping around the frame she saw Daniel and Barker in conversation at the table. Daniel said something and the other man stood, knocking over one of the chairs. She felt a sinking in the pit of her stomach, convinced that she was about to see something bad, remembering the gun.

What did happen was quite a surprise.

Daniel put his shoulder bag on the table and pulled out the silver glasses case she'd seen him fussing over just before the plane crashed. Unclipping a hidden panel on the bottom, he removed a small velvet bag and opened it. A glittering object dropped into his hand and he held it up for Barker to see.

A diamond.

Judging by the size of the bag, it wasn't the only one Daniel was carrying.

Keeping low, Sarah moved to the door, pressing her ear against the frame to hear anything she could.

“…enough to buy five more utes,” Daniel was saying. “And your family will need medical help when all this is over. This can buy a lot of help.”

“What about those kids?” Barker asked after a moment's thought. “Are they really yours?”

“They haven't been for a long time,” Daniel replied, weighing the velvet bag in his hand. “But they are now. Look, I've got a delivery to make and I need that vehicle.”

“What am I going to do with a diamond?”

“Here's the name and number of an associate in Melbourne,” Daniel said, passing a scrap of paper across the table. “Call him when the phone gets fixed. He'll buy the item, no questions asked. Just don't take less than $50,000 for it.”

There was silence, followed by the unmistakeable sound of a set of keys being thrown down on the table.

“Take it and go,” Barker said.

Sarah hurried back round the house to the truck, trying to reach Robert first. He jumped out of the ute with a question in his eyes as she approached. Sarah raised a finger to her lips to silence him – she had to think. She knew one thing for sure: an engineer didn't carry around diamonds hidden in his flight bag. That was the kind of thing smugglers did. Was this why Daniel had left all those years ago? Had Mum thrown him out because he was a criminal, and if so, why hadn't she warned them?

From behind, Sarah heard the sound of the door opening again and Daniel's footsteps approaching. He carried Barker's shotgun in one hand and the set of keys in the other.

“Our carriage awaits,” he said, jingling the keys at them. “Let's split this joint.”

“Cool,” said Robert. “I knew you'd do it! Can I carry your stuff, Daniel?”

Daniel raised a hand defensively to the bag on his shoulder and the secret it contained.

“That's okay, Bobbie,” he said as he walked to the driver's side of the vehicle and tucked it under the seat. “I'll look after it. You take care of the backpack.”

Robert shrugged and grabbed the bigger bag, throwing it into the open back of the truck.

“Mr. Barker was very nice and agreed to give us a box of food as well,” Daniel said, nodding to the house. “Do you want to go and get it for us while I fix the battery?”

Robert didn't need to be asked twice, running back to the building. Alone, Daniel looked at Sarah carefully.

“Everything all right?”

She shifted her feet on the ground and looked at the road stretching away into the distance.

“Just looking forward to getting out of here,” she said.

8

They found a map in the glovebox of the ute truck. Daniel spread it out on the dashboard as they drove a bumpy parallel track across the desert. The rain had passed and the landscape was now an endless sea of shifting red dunes as far as the eye could see.

“Looks like we landed somewhere in the Simpson Desert,” Daniel said, pointing to a spot on the map whilst keeping an eye on the difficult track.

Robert sat between them, holding the map open, while Sarah examined the area across which they were travelling. She knew a little about the geography of Australia, having been made to study up by Mum. She could see that they were in the state called South Australia. The plane had gone down somewhere in the desert area and, if Daniel had his directions right, they were heading away from it towards the nearest settlement of any size: Innamincka.

“This way should take us right past the McKeever–Sikong oil refinery,” Daniel explained, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. “We'll be able to get petrol there.”

Sarah took another look at the map.

“Why aren't we heading to Adelaide?” she asked. “It looks closer than Melbourne.”

Daniel shook his head.

“Melbourne's bigger and we'll pass through more places on the way,” he explained. “Trust me. Besides, Adelaide was probably affected by the virus when the cloud passed over.”

“I guess so,” replied Sarah. Clearly Daniel's sights were set on Melbourne and he wasn't going to be persuaded against it. She kept quiet for a while and watched the dunes pass by, thinking all the time about the secret she had learned back at the house.

At least Daniel was a good driver. A couple of times the truck almost lost control as it went over one of the ridges, but he always managed to keep it on track.

Having grown tired of looking at the map, Robert folded it up and put it down on the floor. He watched Daniel for a while.

“What's going to happen to them?” he asked eventually.

“Who?”

“Mr. Barker and his family,” Robert explained.

“Oh, they'll be okay,” Daniel replied casually. “They're just sleeping really. Mr. Barker is there to look after them.”

“But how will they eat and drink? He can't feed them if they're asleep. What will happen? What will happen to everyone from the plane?”

Daniel fell silent, seemingly able to ignore the fact that Robert was going to stare at him until he got an answer.

“As soon as we reach a town we're going to send an ambulance to rescue them,” Sarah said finally, realizing that it was up to her to reassure her brother. “They'll take Mr. Barker's family to hospital. They have ways to feed people who are sleeping. It's called intensive care.”

Robert thought about this and nodded.

“Like Mum?”

Sarah's voice choked in her throat a little. “Yeah, like Mum.”

Daniel glanced around at this, but made no comment.

They drove on through the desert until the dunes began to even out and the landscape became less sandy. The day was getting late and night started to fall quickly due to the dense clouds above. Daniel pulled the truck over by the side of the road and cut the engine.

“We'll stop here for the night,” he said, rubbing his tired eyes. “It's too dangerous to keep on driving.”

“Where will we sleep?” asked Robert.

“Where do you think, kid?”

“Under the stars?” Robert's voice was excited now. “Can we make a fire?”

“It wouldn't be camping without a fire.” Daniel clapped him on the shoulder and jumped out of the truck.

They made their preparations for the night quickly. It was still warm, but a chill was coming to the air as the clouds finally started to roll away. By the time the sun had sunk in the west, a campfire was burning with the blankets laid around it, ready for them to bed down for the night. Sarah opened a tin of beans and some corned beef from the box Barker had given them. They set about making a simple meal.

Later, they lay back on their blankets and looked up at the night sky, visible now that the clouds were breaking up. Spreading out above them was an amazing vista of stars like Sarah had never seen. She'd lived in London most of her life, where at night the stars were all but lost in the ambient haze of the street lights. Out in the desert they shone brilliantly in the blackness, however. And not just one or two. Hundreds upon hundreds, packed together in clusters and constellations. It took her breath away.