Ellie's Heroes

Chapter Three

by Technomad

By the time we got back safely down into Hell, it was breaking day. We hung the meat from a tree branch, to keep it safe from animals, and headed for bed. Our new friend…we'd found out that his name was Nigel Price…bunked on in with Homer. I pitied him. Homer's snoring could have been forbidden by the laws of land warfare. Not that we normally gave a hoot about those.

As had become our custom, we slept through the day. It was much safer that way; we couldn't be seen if we weren't out and about. Our trainers in New Zealand had approved of that idea, saying that it would also keep our night vision sharp. Oh, if there was some reason to be up, we were up, but we just found it more convenient to sleep by day…and prowl by night. We had become children of the night. When I told the others that thought, Homer thought it was hilarious, the big clown; he put on this utterly stupid Dracula accent and began riffing on it until the rest of us had to ask him to stop. We were laughing so hard I was afraid I'd get a stitch.

We put a meal together, and as we ate, we began asking Mr. Price some questions. He told us right off that he was a loyal Australian, which we'd already figured out for ourselves. When we'd seen Major Harvey among the invaders, he hadn't been chained in the back of a car. He told us again and again how pleased he was to have been rescued.

"So, what did you do to attract their attention?" asked Fiona.

"I was…I am, I suppose…a scientist. They wanted me to work for them, developing new weapons. They've got big plans. 'Today Australia is ours, tomorrow, the whole world!'" This last sounded a lot like a quote.

"You speak their language?" This was Homer.

"Yes, I do. I studied in some of their universities, a few years before the war."

Homer looked very thoughtful. "We've got radios. Tomorrow evening, could you come on up to the top of Tailor's Sitch…that's the path we took down here…and listen in on what the enemy's broadcasting?"

"I could do that!" Mr. Price brightened visibly.

For the next few days, we took Mr. Price up every evening, and left him there with a radio and a notebook. He'd come down just after dawn, when he could see to navigate the trail, and we'd all look over the notes he'd taken. The enemy often broadcast "in clear" (I learned that phrase in New Zealand) because they apparently thought that nobody in Australia but them spoke their language.

We learned quite a few interesting things. From what we could gather, Major Harvey had been in their pay for a long time before the invasion. Several times, they lamented his loss and regretted the lack of his services to lead gullible Australians to their doom. That made me feel much better about the horrors of Stratton Prison. We'd been through hell there, and had lost Robyn, but at least she'd died making sure that filthy traitor never gulled another of his former countrymen!

Meanwhile, we had another situation to deal with. Ever since Kevin had confessed just what had happened to him while a prisoner, he'd had long bouts of thinking he was worthless and didn't deserve to breathe air. We all had to keep an eye on him, and he wasn't trustable around anything lethal.

Much to my surprise, one of the best people we had for Kevin-wrangling was none other than Homer. Homer Yannos, poster boy for Insensitive Men. He tented with Kevin, and watched him like a hawk. Several times, I saw him grabbing a knife out of Kevin's hands before Kevin could use it to try to cut himself. Kevin literally couldn't go ten feet without Homer behind him, faithful as his own shadow.

One night, I noticed that Fiona, Mr. Price and I were the only ones around the camp. Mr. Price was sleepy; he'd been up on top of Tailor's Stitch all day, monitoring radio broadcasts, and after he drank off the last dregs of his cup of tea, he got up and headed for his bed. Fiona and I looked at each other.

"I wonder what the boys are doing?" asked Fiona. I shrugged my shoulders. "Shall we go find them?"

I was in favour of that idea. I liked having the boys around. I was completely in favour of the male sex…and not just for that. Not that I had anything against sex, but with condoms so hard to come by, it wasn't something I could indulge in often. Not only would it be difficult enough to explain what I'd been doing to my parents without having a baby in my arms, but pregnancy and childcare would be impossible to deal with in the bush, and would slow me down too much.

I just liked having guys around. I liked their deep voices, the way they smelled, their rough exteriors concealing an inner gentleness that often surprised me when I saw it showing, the different way they saw the world. I missed my Dad…I missed him terribly. Sometimes, when I was asleep, I dreamed of him, and always woke up with my cheeks wet with tears. Oh, I loved Mum too, but I was Dad's girl. I'd never forgotten how he'd told that bloke who criticised him for letting me do stock-work "I don't know what I'd do without her." I treasured that all the more because I knew he had a hard time showing affection.

Fiona and I got up and went out into the darkness of Hell, looking for our men. Our eyes were adapted to the darkness by this time, and there was enough moonlight that we could see pretty easily. We found the boys pretty quickly; they weren't far away.

Lee and Homer were crouching with Kevin, talking to him in low, intense voices. To my horror, I saw a rope around Kevin's neck…he'd apparently been about to hang himself when the boys caught up to him. I had known he was badly upset, but I hadn't known things had gone that far.

"Listen to me, Kevin," said Homer, staring into his eyes, "what happened was not your fault. You are in no way, shape or form to blame for it! Blaming yourself, and thinking you're somehow dirtied, is letting those bastards win! This is just what they wanted to do to you!"

"They could see that you were brave, so they knew they couldn't break you from the outside," Lee chimed in. "So they did this awful thing to you, to break you from inside…to have you break yourself where they couldn't!" Lee reached out and took Kevin by the shoulders. "Damn it, Kevin! You're not the guilty party here! You're the victim! Even if you found yourself enjoying it, that's an involuntary reaction! You wouldn't blame yourself for sneezing if you were caught in a dust-cloud, would you?"

Kevin finally spoke up. "No. I wouldn't. And it wasn't like I invited it! If they'd treated me decently…" He broke down, bawling heartbrokenly. "Damn them! Damn them to hell!" He crumpled, sobbing his heart out.

What I saw next…I'd never have believed it before the war, not in a million years. Homer took Kevin in his arms, rocking him back and forth and crooning soothingly to him. Lee patted him on the back, using the other hand to wipe tears off his face.

I signalled Fi that we should head back to camp. Once we were there, we sat side-by-side in silence for a few minutes. We were both trying to digest what we had seen.

Fi finally broke the silence. In a voice thick with unshed tears, she said: "There are times I'd cheerfully strangle Homer…but every time, he goes and does something to show how wonderful he is!"

I agreed completely. I'd thought before that Homer had always hung a big sign around his neck, and I'd been the fool who took it at face value. Right about then, I'd not have dared compare my brainpower with a chook; I thought the chook would have beaten me by a kilometer, easily.

In a soft voice, Fi went on: "When we get some more condoms, and some privacy…I'm going to give Homer a wonderful present. One that'll have a smile on his face for weeks! How 'bout you and Lee, Ellie?"

I agreed. I did have a few condoms left. Right then, we didn't have much privacy, but when we did…Lee was going to have the time of his life, if I had anything to say about it. I knew I couldn't ever say anything to him or Homer about what I'd heard; I knew there were some things that were "guys' business," and this was in that category if anything was. Even so, I'd seldom if ever been more touched. Matter of fact, if Homer had propositioned me, I'd have given him a memorable roll in the hay, too.

"The nice thing about that is that it's a gift I can keep on giving…and I never run out!" Fi began to giggle, and I joined her. Her joke wasn't the best I'd ever heard, but it did do a good job of breaking the tension. When the boys finally did join us, they didn't act like there was anything unusual, and I knew that if they'd known about us eavesdropping, they'd have been angry with us.

After that night, Kevin was better. Still not really well…but better. He smiled again, and we could trust him with a knife to cut up dinner with, without wondering when or how he'd take it to his wrists. I was surprised that his counselor in New Zealand hadn't tried to deal with his experiences, but we weren't there for long, and Kevin wasn't a guy who opened up easily. Neither was Lee…or Homer, for that matter. I love my countrymen, but I do admit that they have their little faults.

We'd been lying low after the Car-in-Pond Incident, waiting for a response from the enemy. Night after night went by, and not a sign of them did we see; Mr. Price said that the radio didn't mention anything too unusual, and our watch on the countryside showed no signs of activity. If they'd found the car, they probably accepted the scenario of it getting into the pond accidentally; I'd noticed that many of the invaders were bad drivers…even by my standards, which I will admit are not too high.

Since things were quiet, we began to try to think out our next move. Topping Cobbler's Bay would be difficult, but we weren't aiming anything like that high. Matter of fact, we planned to stay well away from Cobbler's Bay for the foreseeable future; we knew that whole area would be hotter than the bloke that lifted the crown jewels.

By this time, Mr. Price was enough of a fixture with us to be included in our plans. One evening, he was listening to us discuss various schemes, then asked us a simple question:

"What would you say," he asked, staring reflectively off into space, "if I told you that the enemy has a large gold hoard in Monmouth? And that it isn't particularly well-guarded?"

I stared at him, goggle-eyed, and the others all did the same. He obviously relished our surprise.

Fi finally broke the silence. "What is it? And how did the enemy come by it?" She frowned. "Did the bastards take our country's gold reserves?"

Mr. Price shook his head. "No…the authorities took good care to get that out of the country at the first signs the invasion was real." They would, I thought bitterly. "The gold, and they, are all safe and sound in the States. However, there were private stocks of the stuff, some of them quite large." He grinned at us. "Did you lot all forget about the gold rush?"

I was glad of the darkness. Yes, I'd forgotten all about the gold rush. History classes at school seemed like they were a million years ago, and history had never been my strongest subject. If I'd known that I was going to be living through, and making, history, I'd have paid better attention.

"Well," Mr. Price went on, "the invaders found some very large stocks of gold in private hands, and confiscated every scrap of it they could. They've been grabbing women's wedding rings off their hands in their prison camps. They plan to use the gold to buy themselves more arms on the international market. They're meant to be under international sanction, but there's dealers and countries who'll ignore that for enough payment in gold."

"How much are we talking about?" asked Lee.

"Oh…I'd say, from things I overheard while I was in their hands, about fifty million dollars' worth…Australian dollars, pre-invasion." Having dropped his bombshell, Mr. Price sat back to see what would happen.

For a few minutes, we sat there, gobsmacked. I looked at my friends, and they at me. I had never seen so many beady eyes in my life.

END Chapter 03