May Day (The Erelong Trilogy Book II)

Dagger Looks

They sat on the cold metal rungs of the stairwell, staring at the old iron door that served as the main entrance to the interior of the Station. The silence fell like a heavy curtain between them. Both men regretted the heated exchange that followed after Cameron told Storm about the agreement he had made with the Committee through Sam Murton.

Storm was mighty pissed. Cameron had made the agreement on his behalf as well. It was nothing less than a betrayal. He was never going to trust Sean again. He was sure of that. He was of a mind to make his own way back to Coona. It was clear now the trip to Sydney had been a mistake. Many in the Committee remained unconvinced. Taylor had died for nothing. Cameron's pact with Murton was just the last straw.

"He's not the bloody Party, is he? So how can he speak for them?"

"I told you already, he was speaking for the Committee," Cameron said indignantly. "So you can quit looking daggers at me!"

"You should have only spoken for yourself," Storm told him.

"You were the one who insisted we make this frigging journey, right?" Cameron exclaimed. "Did you really think we would convince them in a day?"

"Alistair should have bloody shown up!" Storm exclaimed. "He's the one who asked us to do this in the first place."

The metal door squeaked open, and Kelly's worried face appeared. "Everything all right?" He had overheard enough to know he might want to intervene before they both left the Station never to return. Kelly didn't want to be responsible for not stopping them when he had the chance.

"Storm thinks coming here was a waste of time," Cameron growled.

"None of us like being stuck down here, mate," Kelly told Storm. "We've been here for months. We're giving serious thought to what you said. For many, it amounts to a king hit. One they're still reeling from. We worked for years to raise the consciousness of the workers to prepare them for the revolution. Only to have you two tell us the world's ending in a couple of weeks. What kind of reaction were you expecting?"

Storm shrugged. "It doesn't matter now, does it?"

Nothing mattered more to Storm at that point than a safe and quick return to Coona. He was ready to leave with Cameron, but since his mate changed the plan things were falling to pieces.

"Do you think we will be able to convince them to leave the city?" Cameron asked Kelly.

"Leave the city you ask?" Kelly exclaimed. "Mate, we can't even move freely on the streets!"

"We don't really have a clear picture what group is behind all the killings," Kelly continued. "Like you heard yesterday, we believe it's only a matter of time before the Party is targeted."

"But you are a registered political party, aren't you?" Cameron asked.

"Yes," Kelly replied. "And, the political establishment is screaming for us to be labeled a terrorist group. The only reason that hasn't happened yet is that we have so much support among the working class. The government has backed off calling us terrorists—so far."

"Let's just say that everyone went totally mad, and the Party was actually voted into power," Cameron said. "What could it accomplish? You exist within the same political system and you will be corrupted like all the rest."

"We are not part of the political system," Kelly replied. "The Party has been built by the working class. Voting for us means voting for a workers' dictatorship. The working class in control. Not the ruling class."

"Sounds idyllic," Cameron said with heavy sarcasm.

"We know everything is about to get a lot tougher. We know Canberra is poised to stamp out all dissent," Kelly said, staring hard at Cameron.

"They've been locking up protestors for a long time," Storm said.

"You're not hearing me," Kelly replied. "There's going to be a military coup. Like the one we saw in the US, right before they cut the internet. We've been watching and recording the preparations for it."

"That's ridiculous!" Cameron snorted. "The Australian Army would not be planning a coup."

"Well, we are sure that's what they've been doing," Kelly continued. "We expect them to arrest members and supporters alike. They will probably go to their houses and round them up."

Cameron winched. "You mean groups like those death squads Sam was talking about? If they're real, they are nothing but gangsters. And, that's not the same thing as a coup."

"It'll start once the military wrestles control from the government," Kelly replied undeterred by Cameron's skepticism.

Kelly had left the old metal door into the main complex of the base ajar. It had swung open. Storm watched the comrades rushing about like bees in a hive as they prepared articles to be formatted and pasted into the pages of tomorrow's newspaper. Each page was to be printed by one of the photocopiers standing in the corridor. This was the narrow space that was separated by thin dividing walls from the makeshift rooms where people slept and worked.

"Time for me to get back to work," Kelly said as he got up.

Cameron cleared his throat. He had a question for Kelly, but it wasn't an easy one to ask. "This is going to sound weird. We saw a horde of people when we came in. They were making their way along the main road. They looked like they had suffered some kind of trauma. Like they were all suffering from shock. They were walking into fences and right over them. They weren't bothered to look for gates."

"They were acting like they were brain dead," Storm added.

Now it was Kelly's turn to look awkward. "They knew the big meteorite shower was coming. The FSF herded everyone across the city into the tunnel system before a day before it happened and kept everyone down there. No one was allowed to leave the underground shelters."

Cameron nodded his head. "You know, I told Sam the Metro tunnels were set up for people to shelter in."

"Hardly," Kelly said with a look of surprise. "They aren't all that comfortable."

"I bet there are some better set up than others," Cameron said.

Kelly gave Cameron a puzzled look. "What are you talking about?"

"Doesn't matter—carry on with your story," Cameron said.

"Days later, comrades in Malaysia we talked to over the ham radio told us a large object—bigger than our moon—passed close to the planet. It only affected the Southern Hemisphere because it was traveling by so quickly. They told us people had been injured by what they thought were electrical emissions. We figure that in places further south, like Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and in the Antarctic, the injuries suffered by anyone not able to make it underground would be much more serious."

"And the Committee had difficulty believing our story?" Cameron asked with a look of incredulity.

"We are preparing for a revolution, not a pole shift," Kelly replied. "Most of them will come around to the idea eventually."

"We don't have that kind of time," Storm said bitterly.

"Three more weeks, Storm," Cameron said placing his hand on the boy's shoulder. "We'll convince as many as we can."

"It's bloody useless," Storm said, and he shook his head in grim disbelief.

"Those people walking into fences you asked about... we call them stumblers," Kelly told Cameron.

"Stumblers," Storm repeated. "Like zombies?"

"They're not frigging zombies!" Cameron snapped.

"That's right," Kelly said looking sharply at Storm. "We need to treat everything as explainable because it is."

"Still sounds like zombies to me," Storm said, with a look that told Cameron, he was testing his friend's reaction.

"Jeez," Cameron snorted. He wasn't too annoyed though. In fact, he was pleased to see Storm had bounced back to form.