Days Like This Read online

  ‘Alice has one, too,’ Megan said quickly. ‘She let us put it on, no trouble.’

  ‘Well, I’m not wearing it,’ Lily said, folding her arms.

  Pym took a step closer. ‘You have to, it’s the Committee’s ruling. Either you put it on or we call the Blacktroopers to put it on for you. Do you want them to do it?’

  ‘Tell me where you sent Daniel. Tell me if he’s even still alive and I’ll think about it,’ Lily said.

  She hated even speaking that thought aloud. Daniel was alive, he had to be.

  Her parents said nothing.

  ‘Well then, I won’t wear it,’ Lily said.

  Now more than ever, Lily wanted to be out with the groups of young people she’d seen from her window; out looking for Daniel.

  Lily darted past them. She made it to the top of the stairs before her father caught her by the arm.

  ‘No, you don’t,’ he said.

  Lily managed to shake free and ran into her bedroom, trying to slam the door, but she wasn’t quick enough. Her father pushed it open easily. She dodged around her bed, but he followed, a grim look on his smoothly suntanned face.

  ‘You’ll do as you are ordered.’ He grabbed her shoulders, forcing her backwards onto the bed.

  ‘Put the bracelet on her,’ he yelled at Megan. He was surprisingly strong. Her mother hovered by the bed.

  ‘For heaven’s sake, Megan. Hurry up,’ he snapped.

  ‘Alice has one, too,’ Megan said again, as if that made a difference. ‘Come on now be a good girl.’

  Megan grasped Lily’s arm and tried to close the bracelet around her wrist, but Lily kicked and thrashed, fighting them viciously. Her father had her legs pinned with his knees and he was squeezing her shoulders.

  ‘Get off me!’ She twisted around and bit him on the hand, getting him right at the fleshy part between thumb and finger and sinking in her teeth. It must have hurt, but he didn’t flinch, just gave her a swift slap.

  ‘It’s the ruling,’ he shouted as he held her down, veins popping in his neck, his hand bleeding onto her covers. The word ‘ruling’ only made her thrash and scream more. Megan clicked the device in place. Lily was glad to see that her mothers hands were shaking.

  ‘Stupid girl,’ her father said, finally releasing her. He got up and both her parents left the room, slamming Lily’s door behind them.

  Lily examined the bracelet. It was pale blue and if you looked closely you could see metal cords threaded inside it. What were they for? Lily found a pair of scissors in her drawer. She’d cut if off, then she’d get out of there. She couldn’t lose any more time.

  But it was useless. No matter how hard she sawed at the hard plastic, she barely made a scratch. In her frustration, the scissors slipped and the blade dug deep into her wrist. She yelped and Alice burst into the room.

  ‘What’s wrong, Lilla? Have you cut yourself? Let me help.’ Alice put a tissue on the cut and then bound it clumsily with a scarf. ‘Is that better?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, Alice, thanks.’

  Alice flopped down on the bed and leaned her head on Lily’s shoulder. ‘I miss Dan, Lily. I wish they’d tell us where he’s gone.’ Her thumb crept to her mouth.

  Lily put her arm around her sister, wincing because her shoulder hurt.

  ‘I don’t know, Alice. I miss him too. Let me see that.’ She pointed to Alice’s bracelet.

  Alice held up her wrist. ‘it’s pretty, isn’t it? Pink. I wasn’t going to go anywhere, you know,’ Alice added resentfully. ‘But I hate those Blacktroopers. They killed my bird. I hate rulings and I hate the …’ She glanced around.

  ‘There’s no one else here, Alice. Who do you hate?’ She knew perfectly well, but hearing it was gratifying.

  ‘The Committee,’ Alice whispered, and then flushed.

  ‘They can’t hear you, Alice, it’s all right. I hate them too. Pigs!’

  Lily bent closer to look at Alice’s pink bracelet. ‘There aren’t any wires in yours,’ she said.

  ‘Oh.’ Alice peered at it. ‘Maybe it’s because you’re older,’ she said hesitantly.

  I don’t think that’s it, Lily thought, but looking at her fragile sister, she didn’t say it.

  The earth tremors started up then, another consequence of the damage the people of the past had done to their world. The tremors were coming more often lately and for a longer time. Alice buried her head in Lily’s shoulder.

  ‘I hate the tremors too, Lily.’

  ‘They’ll stop soon,’ Lily said, and they did.

  Lily woke to the sound of the water moon. Lily loved to hear the cascading water and she loved to watch how it fell, drifting gently sideways. She slipped out of bed and crept into the bathroom. From her vantage point, she could see five of the water extractor pipes. They looked sinister; rising high above the roofline like the glistening limbs of an alien creature. Each pipe disgorged a circular spray of water that Lily knew would drench the gardens and flow off roofs to be channelled into water tanks. She concentrated on the water that pitter-pattered from the pipes and reminded her of natural rain, which was a rare phenomenon these days. When it did rain, it usually came in the form of frightening storms, slashing at the house with lightning and thunder and massive hunks of hail. Lily couldn’t escape the fact that though she loved the water moon, it also troubled her. They were obviously fortunate to get it; fresh water was a necessity. Even before the Wall went up and blocked everything out, it was obvious that the water moon didn’t fall on the less fortunate suburb across the wide road outside their house.

  ‘Why do we have water and they don’t?’ she’d asked her parents back then.

  ‘Because we are in a prescribed water zone and they aren’t,’ her father had replied airily, as if this was a natural distinction.

  ‘I know that, Dad, but why exactly us and not them? Who says we can have water and they can’t? Are they less important than us?’

  ‘Accident of birth, I suppose. Or good fortune, call it what you like,’ he’d said, waving his hands like he was describing the colour of someone’s hair. ‘Everyone knows there’s only a limited amount of water to go around. Some people have to get it and we happen to be part of that group. We can afford it, they can’t. Now, for Pete’s sake, can you stop asking questions, Lily? Why can’t you kids just accept things for once in your lives? Just accept.’

  ‘But what happens if those people never get water?’ Dan had chimed in. ‘What happens if it never rains? Do they just die?’

  ‘That’s really not our concern,’ their father had said, matter-of-factly.

  And that was it.

  Lily wobbled on the edge of the bath now because she felt the shooting pain in her head again. The deep ache wasn’t so painful that she couldn’t speak, but it was bad enough to make her cry.

  ‘Headaches just happen at your age, Lily,’ her mother had said in her flat voice that morning, looking away when she said it.

  ‘Why do they happen at my age?’ Lily had asked. ‘There’s nothing on the screens to say that head pains are normal at my age. You don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘Just accept it,’ her mother said.

  ‘Like we have to accept that Daniels just disappeared?’

  Her mother shrugged.

  ‘Daniel had head pains, too. Is it something to do with being hormonally lucrative?’ Lily said, challengingly

  Megan glanced sharply at Lily. ‘Who told you that?’

  Lily ignored her question. ‘And tell me, Mum, will I disappear just like Daniel did?’ she said.

  Megan’s ominous silence confirmed what Lily already knew.

  FOUR

  For the next week, Lily continued to search Daniel’s room every night, waiting until the house was still and dark before slipping into his bedroom. Again and again, she systematically combed through his notes, papers and books. Her efforts yielded precisely nothing. She was desperate. Daniel had definitely been onto something, but she was coming to the conclusio
n that whatever Daniel had found would stay hidden. It was a deeply depressing thought.

  During the day, she did as little schooling as possible, instead working desperately to try and hack into the central data system, making her own notes, being as thorough as possible. Surely if Daniel had found the weakness in their security system, then so could she. She’d convinced herself that she needed Daniel’s information. Sometimes she wondered if she was using this as an excuse to delay because she didn’t have a clear escape plan.

  All too quickly it was Friday again and Lily was no closer to hacking the system or finding Daniel’s codes. She had spent the day staring at her screen, but her lack of sleep and her anxiety made it hard to concentrate. She had forced herself to remain quiet when the Blacktroopers had visited that morning, and the rest of the day had been long and empty. Alice was more than usually non-communicative and her parents were distracted and cold when she saw them briefly at dinner.

  After dinner, Lily felt as if she would burst out of her skin. Too agitated to stay in bed and with nothing to see that night from the bathroom window except the shining Wall, she crept downstairs and headed towards the door leading to her parents’ wing; an area she was forbidden to go. The house was silent and dark, though the light from the Wall squeezed in around the sealed-up windows that faced in it’s direction. She wondered why the Wall had to be floodlit. Was it to scare people? And which people, exactly?

  The connecting door opened easily. If it had been locked, she’d have had an excuse to creep back to bed. The door made a tiny click as it closed behind her. Lily held her breath and listened while her eyes adjusted to the dim light. Ahead was a long, thickly carpeted hallway.

  Lily had never been in this part of the house before. The air-conditioning seemed colder and the carpet had a new smell, the pile springy beneath her bare feet. Matching the chilled air, the wall was cool to her touch. There were some framed paintings, but Lily couldn’t make them out. She was certain they didn’t contain any reminders of long-gone family birthdays or picnics or times at their beach house. She wondered whether that house even existed anymore, or if the rising oceans had crept in to claim it.

  She could hear the soft rumble of her father’s voice interspersed with her mother’s lighter tones. Touching one wall with her fingertips, Lily crept forward, lifting each foot carefully. Her parents’ voices came more clearly from behind a door that was ajar at the end of the hallway. Lily knew it was risky being here, but what could they do to her that would be any worse than her life in this house, without Daniel? Lily listened at the door.

  ‘Do we have to have this conversation?’ Megan was saying. She sounded like she was close to tears.

  ‘We can’t avoid it, Meg,’ Pym said.

  Lily shuffled closer to the door.

  ‘They say Daniel’s output … highest quality,’ her father was saying, his words fading in and out.

  Lily’s heart flipped at the mention of Daniel. Did that mean Pym and Megan knew where he was and that he was still alive? Cautious relief surged through her. She tried to hear more, but her father’s voice became fainter as he moved away from the door.

  ‘The Committee … Lily sooner …’ Lily was frustrated by the low, unintelligible rumble of her father’s voice. She frowned at the mention of the Committee. Standing here in the dark, eavesdropping on her parents, Lily was suddenly overwhelmed with sadness at how much her parents had changed. Thinking back, they seemed to stop loving her and Daniel around the time the Wall went up about twelve years ago.

  Lily remembered when Pym and Megan had been loving and gentle, like normal parents. The funny quips and joking had stopped first. Then they seemed to lose interest when Lily and Dan hurt themselves or were sad and needed comforting. Then physical affection, like cuddling, stopped. Now it was as if Lily was an unwelcome guest. It was the same with Daniel before he disappeared.

  It hurt the most that her parents seemed to care more about the Committee than their own children. Pym and Megan were in awe of the Committee. Lily didn’t even know who this faceless group was or what they did apart from issuing rules and edicts, each more draconian than the next. All she knew was that they were all men and there were about twenty-four of them. She and Daniel had asked Megan and Pym for information, but their parents merely dismissed these requests.

  ‘Don’t talk about Daniel.’ It was her mothers voice again.

  ‘We must, Meg.’

  Her father sounded as if he was right next to Lily, right on the other side of the door. She sprang back, almost tripping in her haste.

  Get it together, Lily, she told herself sternly.

  ‘We’ve done what we’ve done,’ Pym was saying. ‘We’re not the only ones and it’s not like the Committee really gave us much choice, you know that.’

  ‘I don’t want to be reminded,’ Megan whispered. Lily was surprised by the emotion in her mother’s voice. She hadn’t heard her express any real feeling for such a long time.

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous! We’re reminded every day by this.’ Her father was obviously pointing at something and Lily wished she could see what it was.

  ‘Yes, but we’ve done our bit now We’ve made our contribution.’ Megan’s voice rose again. ‘You said we might not have to do any more.’

  ‘It doesn’t work like that, Megan. We have to keep contributing to the harvesting. It’s mandatory, remember?’

  Harvesting? There was that word again. Lily shuddered. Were they talking about harvesting people, like Daniel and her and Alice?

  She snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of her father’s raised voice. ‘We have to make a decision soon, Megan. We don’t want to be cut off, do we? Not when we’ve come so far. Look at us.’

  There was a pause. Lily hardly dared breathe. She had to stop herself from barging in there and demanding to know what they were talking about. She knew they would never tell her.

  ‘All right.’ Megan’s voice was quiet again, resigned. ‘But tell them it has to be soon. I know there’s no choice, but I can’t stand the waiting. I want it over with. Not that we’ll ever be able to forget it.’

  The softness in her mother’s voice reminded Lily of how Megan had once been when Lily was small. Lily backed away, touching her bracelet, trying and failing to wrench it off.

  ‘I’m going to the kitchen for a drink, can I bring you anything?’ Pym said.

  Lily, thankful for the soft carpet, bolted down the corridor. She ran to her room as if all the creatures of the night were chasing her.

  Her parents’ conversation had been confusing, but it was clear that, like Daniel, Lily was in danger. She knew time was running out for him and probably for her. She also knew that once she left her parents’ house, she could never turn back.

  The next day, Lily waited for a chance to speak with Alice. When she was sure Pym and Megan weren’t around, she tapped softly on hersistes door.

  ‘Alice?’ she called out, slipping into the room. Alice stopped what she was doing – mapping the world’s longest remaining rivers on her geography spreadsheet. Alice didn’t really enjoy lessons and would much rather play with her dolls or listen to music or draw improbable flocks of birds in even more improbably coloured trees.

  Almost obsessively, Alice drew the things that were disappearing from their world. Lily noticed that many of the rivers Alice had mapped no longer existed.

  ‘You’re making the rivers longer than they actually are,’ Lily couldn’t resist saying.

  ‘No, I’m not,’ Alice said, defiantly adding another few centimetres to the Zambezi.

  ‘Idiot,’ Lily said, grinning.

  ‘Sticks and stones, Lilla.’

  Lily sighed. ‘Alice, there’s something I have to tell you.’

  ‘What?’ Alice said.

  ‘I need you to listen to me and try to be a big girl.’

  When Alice didn’t want to understand something she became irritable, and if that didn’t work, there was always the tantrum.

 
‘What are you talking about, Lily?’

  ‘I think I’m going to be taken away, like Daniel was,’ Lily said in a rush.

  Alice pressed her fingers into her ears and hunched up her shoulders. Annoyed, Lily pulled Alice’s hands away and held them down, forcing her to listen.

  ‘Okay, I’ll just tell it like it is,’ Lily said. ‘Megan and Pym have a problem with me. You know it’s true, Alice. They had a problem with Daniel, as well. And they’ll probably end up having a problem with you, too.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  Alice had gone red and looked like she might begin wailing. Even with her face all scrunched up, she was pretty. She was pale like Lily, but Alice’s eyes were velvet brown, not washed-out blue, and her teeth were small and perfect.

  The kind of teeth our parents might aspire to, Lily thought sourly.

  Now Alice’s teeth were clenched together and she was struggling against Lily, who was much stronger.

  ‘You have to listen to me, Alice. I can’t exactly explain it, but I think we’re in some kind of danger – me now you later.’

  ‘Ow, you’re hurting me! You’re just jealous!’

  ‘What?’ Lily said. In her surprise, she let go of Alice, who sat up, rubbing at her wrists and scowling at Lily.

  ‘You’re mean, Lilla.’

  The lights flickered out then and they waited for the emergency generator to kick in. Lily knew that all the ‘privileged’ families inside the Wall had generators to supplement the erratic electricity supplies. She wasn’t sure why the main supply was erratic. That was yet another thing her parents wouldn’t explain.

  When the generator grumbled and stopped and the lights came back on, Alice was still scowling, her face wet with tears.

  ‘Why do you think I’m jealous, Alice?’ Lily said. No matter how exasperating she was, Lily didn’t like seeing her little sister upset.

  ‘You’re just trying to frighten me because you’re jealous that Mum and Dad love me more than you,’ Alice said.

  ‘Oh, Alice, I’m not jealous. I’m just worried and scared. There’s something wrong with Pym and Megan.’