Ellie's Heroes

Chapter 12

by Technomad

A few days later, we finally got back to familiar territory. The hunt had been intense; we'd had to hole up by day in deep forest, or in ravines, with cut branches hiding the Piranha and ourselves hidden nearby in case the other side found our getaway car and shot it up. We'd seen helicopters and airplanes going by overhead, and made ourselves very small and still to avoid being seen. I could really feel for rabbits…I figured I knew what it was like for them.

By night, we travelled as hard as we dared. Luckily, the moon was out, and we had ways to see what was ahead, so we didn't have any nasty accidents, and the Piranha could handle terrain that no other vehicle I'd ever seen could. I agreed with Homer…after the war, I wanted one of these for our station! It'd be dead useful, and I could just see my dad's face when he saw what it could do. Prying Dad away from it would be a real challenge.

When there wasn't aerial surveillance overhead, we'd spent some of our days really getting familiar with the Piranha. It was completely amphibious, and we'd found the stopcocks that kept water from flooding it.

"All in all," Kevin said, echoing my own thoughts, "this is easily the best vehicle we could have had. She holds us and the gold without any problem, and we've not found any terrain she can't handle."

"Can you imagine driving one of these around Wirrawee?" Homer asked, with an evil grin. "Remember that cop that was always giving me grief? He'd shit himself sideways about the first time he found out about that gun turret."

When we got close to home, it came time to figure out just what to do with our plunder. We knew we had to hide it; the enemy'd be looking for it, and there were quite a few Australians I wouldn't turn my back on, if they knew about that much gold being in the vicinity.

We batted ideas around for most of a day. By that time, we were out of the vicinity of Monmouth, and we seemed to have shaken off pursuit. Not that we relaxed; we had the Piranha hidden in an old barn on an outlying station, one that the enemy didn't seem to be paying much attention to. We were up in the loft, where we could see out in all directions. Any enemy patrols we saw were going to get a very unpleasant, fatal surprise.

"We could just take the Piranha to the edge of Hell, and shove it over the cliff. That way, it'll be pretty much out of sight, and we can cut brush and branches to hide it once it's at the bottom," said Fi.

"And think of the almighty crash it would make!" Homer's eyes lit up.

I found I really didn't like treating our faithful armoured car that way. It had served us well and faithfully, and just tipping it off a cliff struck me as, somehow, ungrateful. I know, it made no sense…but that was how I felt. I put my mind to work, and came up with another idea.

"How 'bout we take the Piranha onto my station, and sink it in the deep pond at the back of our property?" I asked. "The pond's more than deep enough to hide it, even from the air. Dad sounded it once, and said it was twenty feet deep, most places. I've been skinny-dipping there many times, and there's plenty of room for the Piranha."

"Skinny-dipping? And you didn't invite us?" Homer grinned at me, and I knew what he was thinking. Men really only do think about one thing.

"Mind out of the gutter, Homer…if that's possible," Fi said, rather sharply, I thought. He hadn't said anything, but I knew what he was thinking. Lee hadn't said anything; he was lying there with his eyes closed. The poor guy had been driving all night, and he was knackered…but the way he smiled told me that he didn't mind the idea of joining me for a skinny-dip. I didn't mind that idea, myself…but we had no time nor privacy for such things. War really is all about sacrifice.

"Your place is about ten kilometers from here," Kevin commented, looking at a map, "and we should be able to get onto your property without alerting whoever's taken over your house." At the thought of others…of invaders…usurping our house, I felt my lips ripple in a silent snarl. One fine night, I intended to pay those people a visit, and explain to them just how I felt. Preferably with an axe.

"The pond's a good longish ways back away from the house. This is do-able, but I think we should wait till the next rainy night to try it," I concluded. "Anybody got any different ideas?"

Nobody did, and we settled down to wait the day out.

OOO

A couple of days later, we got the weather we'd been wanting. The rest-up in the barn had been good for us; all that travelling had taken a lot more out of us than we'd realised. We'd tucked into the food we'd brought along, and I realised for the first time how hungry I'd been. All that excitement had been great fun, in its own scary way, but there hadn't been much time for eating.

We rejoiced to see the clouds rolling in toward evening, and a few hours later, when we rolled on out, the rain was coming down; not hard enough to really hinder us, but enough to make aerial surveillance difficult or impossible. We didn't want to be tracked. This far out of town, the chance of running across an enemy foot patrol, or one on motorbikes or in lorries, was not high. For some reason, the enemy tended to stick close to Wirrawee itself, not coming out into the country at night if they didn't absolutely have to. I can't imagine why…

There were some fences between where we were and the pond, but we made short work of those with the Piranha. The big soft tires didn't leave much trail, and I hoped that nobody'd put two-and-two together. At least the area around the pond itself was mostly all rock, so people wouldn't see tracks to the pond, and none going away.

When we got to the pond, we all got out, save only Homer. He'd insisted on being the one to do the honours.

"This is a man's job, Ellie," he'd said. As he'd known would happen, I snarled at him. I was ready to tear his head off…until I saw his grin. He'd planned to get my goat, and once again, he'd succeeded. Was I that easy to predict? I guess I must have been.

Homer drove the Piranha into the pond, and it drifted out toward the centre. I felt rather sad, as though I were betraying a good friend, and firmly sat on the feeling. It was just a stupid armoured car, and an enemy armoured car at that! Beside me, Fi sniffled softly, and I put my arm around her shoulder to comfort her.

"Don't worry, Fi," I whispered. "Homer may act like a clown, but he's really quite competent. He'll be all right."

"I'm just a little sad to see the last of the Piranha," she whispered back. "It's been good to have. Riding along in it, I felt invincible, like nothing could stand in my way."

Out in the middle of the pond, the Piranha suddenly began settling, sinking quickly. I saw Homer pop out of one of the topside hatches, and let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding. Homer drives me crazy, but it would have broken my heart to lose him. As the car started its dive to the bottom of the pond, weighed down by its load of gold, Homer dove off the top and swam toward us. When he clambered out onto the shore, Fi flitted down and gave him a big kiss and hug, offering him a towel she'd stolen somewhere. Lee put his arm around my shoulders.

"Well, that's our futures settled," Lee commented. "All we have to do is survive till the end of the war, and we'll all be rich." He gave me a smile. "I don't know about you, but I do think we've got this coming. We haven't been offered a penny of pay, so we took our pay from the enemy."

"Spoils of war," Kevin agreed. "It might not fit the rules, but then again, when have we worried too much about those?"

Once Homer was dried off and re-dressed…I noticed Fi was happy to help him changing his clothes, and realised that more had been going on between those two than I'd known about…we headed back home. Back to our nice, safe tents in Hell.

OOO

A few days after we got back into Hell, we decided it was time to check in with New Zealand. Once we got the radio out and lugged it up to the top of Tailor's Stitch, it was fairly easy to get through to Auckland. Enemy interference wasn't as bad as it had been for some reason.

Colonel Finley was excited to hear from us. "Where have you lot been?" he asked. "We've tried and tried to get through to you! We thought you'd been captured again, or killed!"

"No," Lee answered; we'd decided to let him be our spokesman. "We're still free, and quite well, thanks for asking. Has anything interesting happened since we spoke last? How is Nigel?"

"Your friend is well, and eager for news of you. You made quite an impression on him, you know. There's been an almighty uproar over by Monmouth. Would you lot know anything about it?"

"Well…" Lee winked at me, and I suppressed an urge to giggle…"we might. Wasn't there a fire there?"

"A big refinery fire, and apparently, from what the enemy's broadcasting that we can decode, a mutiny by some of their own soldiers. They seem to have robbed a bank and raised all sorts of hell before taking to the bush. There's also been a mass escape from the internment camp they'd set up at the Monmouth Fairgrounds."

"That's wonderful news!" I leaned over to give Lee a kiss, as Fi did the same for Homer. Poor Kevin had nobody to kiss him, but he gave a "right on!" sign.

Colonel Finley paused for a second. If I had thought he was capable of such a thing, I'd have thought he was embarrassed. "I have to ask this…did your lot have anything to do with that?"

"Us? How could you associate us with such devilry?" Lee's voice dripped innocence. "We might have had a little to do with that fire…it was ANZAC day, and we thought a nice big bonfire was just the way to celebrate."

"I thought so! That op, at least, had your fingerprints all over it! You lot ought to get medals for it, if you weren't already in line for some for the Cobbler's Bay strike!"

"How are the enemy reacting?" That was Fi. She was probably the cleverest of us, and she cut through the nonsense. As long as the war went on, the enemy were not something we could ever leave out of our calculations.

"They seem very confused. Apparently a good bit of Monmouth's been burnt down, and quite a few of their soldiers are missing; they don't know whether they died in the fires, or deserted with the loot from the bank."

That was what we wanted to know. We were notorious enough on the other side as it was; I'd seen "Wanted" posters with our faces on, and thanks to that damned traitor Major Harvey, the enemy knew just what names went with which faces. Our false identifications were not much protection, and if the enemy could link us with what they could call "common crimes," they'd have yet another excuse to execute us if we were captured. Homer and I were already under sentence of death, but the others weren't…yet.

A few nights later, it was bright and starry, and the others were resting up in Hell. I made some sort of excuse, and went up Tailor's Stitch…by this time, I could have done it blindfold…and headed toward my home.

Standing on a ridge where I could see the main house, I could see lights on, and people moving about. I smiled to myself. It didn't feel like a nice smile. They were more than overdue for a visit from the rightful daughter of the house and her friends.

They thought they were so safe…that nothing could threaten them. They would have never believed that any danger was near. And yet, from well within eyeshot of "their" house, I watched them with envious, hating eyes, studying their movements as though I were studying the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. They never considered that anything could go wrong. And yet, so far away and yet so close, I drew my plans against them.

THE END