Kim had received the message from Patricia, but it took her several hours to reach Manly on foot. She had just arrived and was pushing her way through the panicking crowds when she witnessed the incident with Tanya's helicopter at the oval. With her heart in her mouth she saw a man clinging onto the helicopter runners, drop into the sea. She was relieved to see the machine apparently flying off safely to the northwest.
With difficulty she found Chloe's flat. On the way was a supermarket in the process of being looted. Knowing they might have to walk to the mountains, she joined in and filled two large bags with food, mainly bread, cheese, and fruit.
Kim was well-built and tall at nearly six foot. Although no classical beauty, with her mother's blonde hair she was buxom and pretty. She knocked confidently on the door of the penthouse flat. She knew her grandmother was there, having seen her parked car.
The third time she rang the doorbell and knocked insistently, the door of the flat was snatched open. Chloe stood there, glaring, dressed in a housecoat from her chin to her bare feet. She said, without any greeting, 'What the hell are you doing here?' Chloe was dishevelled and obviously naked under her gown.
Kim who had always had a warm, loving relationship with her grandmother was momentarily taken aback, but said hurriedly, 'Granma, the Ice Shelf has collapsed and the whole town is in chaos. Just look out of the window. We are too late for Tanya to pick us up. We have missed the boat, so to speak, so we need to make a plan.'
Chloe looked uncomprehendingly at Kim for a second, then the bombshell suddenly registered. 'You'd better come in. What are those bags for? And the backpack?'
'We are going to need food. The supermarket downstairs was being looted, so I joined in. I doubt if there is anything left by now. The backpack has sleeping bags and clothes. We may have to walk back to The Settlement.'
Chloe said shakily, pointing to the kitchen, 'Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee, I need to get dressed.' She hesitated. 'I have company, by the way.' She glanced at her granddaughter for a reaction.
The Bower grandchildren had discussed the possibility of their grandmother and a lover. All of them adored Chloe, lover or not.
Kim heard a male voice and some conversation down the passage. There was the sound of a shower while she boiled the kettle. She noticed the beautifully-appointed rooms and furniture. There were photographs of the family and some tasteful pictures on the walls. It really was a home to Chloe, she realised.
Within half an hour, a fully dressed Chloe emerged from down the passage, wearing jodhpurs and riding boots, followed by a tall, handsome, grey-haired man in his late fifties, dressed in a suit.
Blushing slightly, Chloe said, 'Clark, this is my granddaughter, Kim. Kim, this is Clark Mason.'
They shook hands rather formally.
'What's this about an Ice Shelf collapsing?' asked Clark.
'The Ross Ice Shelf in the Antarctic has collapsed into the sea. There is a massive tsunami heading this way. The whole city is in turmoil. Just look out of the window.'
'When did this happen?' asked Clark, looking out of the window. 'My God, look at all the crowds.'
'Earlier today,' she said impatiently.
'Oh yes,' said Clark. He was trying to keep the anxiety from his voice.
They quietly sat and drank the tea prepared by Kim, almost as if nothing was amiss.
Kim looked at her grandmother anxiously. 'Granma, we need to get moving. It's too late for the helicopter. I saw the last trip Tanya made. I had to walk here as no vehicles are going anywhere. The whole place is gridlocked.'
'Walk?' asked Clark. He was beginning to realise the seriousness of the situation. 'I should probably go; it will take hours to get to Roseville.'
'Yes, I suppose you should,' said Chloe reluctantly.
Clark moved to the front passage with Chloe, out of sight of Kim. She began looking for another backpack for Chloe to carry.
After ten minutes, Kim heard the front door close quietly and a tearful Chloe returned to the kitchen.
'What should we do?' asked Chloe.
'We have to walk back.'
'Wouldn't horses be a better bet?'
'Where'll we get horses?'
'There's a place north of the city in Terrey Hills.'
'Okay. We need to be careful what we take,' said Kim. 'Here's another backpack.'
They carefully selected items for each pack, with emphasis on food and warm clothing. They ate what they could from the resources in the flat, knowing food would be the biggest issue on the long trek ahead.
Chloe emerged from the bedroom, gingerly carrying a large handgun. 'I'm uncomfortable with this. David gave it to me some time ago and I haven't touched it since. With all your training, maybe it would be better for you to have it. We may need it.'
Kim took the gun, a .45 Webley automatic. She made sure the chamber was empty and noted the magazine was full. She put the safety catch on and tucked the weapon into the back of her trousers, so it was hidden by her jacket. Chloe passed over two boxes of ammunition.
They were almost ready to go when Chloe said, 'I can't bear to leave this place in a mess. Could you just help me tidy up please.'
So they made the bed and vacuumed all the floors. Chloe emptied the fridge, leaving the door open. She took all the garbage to the basement. Everything was left as if they would be away for a few months' holiday. Kim carefully cleaned the gun.
'I know this looks odd,' said Chloe, 'but this place has meant so much to me over the years. I need to be able to remember it like this now, even if I never see it again.'
Kim nodded. She felt much the same way about her home in the Blue Mountains. 'I understand Granma, I really do.'
Chloe whipped around the flat once more, finally switching off the electricity, and, wearing their packs, they went out, carefully locking the front door. It was now dark and all the streets were lit.
The crowds had grown in the three hours Kim had been in the flat, so they went down a side street and walked up the hill past Brookvale Oval. After less than a two kilometre walk, Chloe spotted a man on a motor scooter leaping off and joining in nearby looting. He had left the engine running.
'Quick,' she said, 'hop on. I had one of these when I was younger.' She clumsily engaged the gears and they drove off, whipping past the stationary traffic. To start with progress was rather unsteady, but after a few minutes, Chloe seemed to be perfectly in control.
'Better than walking,' she shouted into the breeze.
They wound their way slowly up the Wakehurst Parkway and Forest Way. The roads were all packed and hardly moving. Several times people tried to stop them, presumably to take the scooter away, since that was the only form of transport making any progress at all. Kim had the gun readily accessible and when one man became very aggressive she fired a shot at his feet and he scampered off. By ten in the evening, they were in McCarrs Creek Road.
'The stables are here, just around the corner,' said Chloe, as she drove up a narrow path and killed the engine. 'We'll wait here. I hope nobody else has the same idea and the horses are all safely asleep in their stalls. I was going to offer to pay, but I don't think that'll work. I'll leave them a note though. We'll wait until all the house lights are out.'
Kim could see Chloe had put the emotion of leaving her flat and her lover behind her and was now fully engaged in getting them both back to the Blue Mountains.
At midnight they crept into the stables. The horses were all quietly resting. Chloe shone her powerful torch around. 'We'll take three, one each and one for the packs. I'll select some while you try to find some sacking to muffle the sound of their hooves.'
Within thirty minutes, they had three horses fully tacked up and their packs were firmly strapped onto one of the horses, together with a bag of fodder.
Chloe was busy shining the torch around. 'What're you looking for?' asked Kim.
'Wire cutters. We'll have to cut fences when it's too difficult to find ways around.'
Kim, standing in the shadows, became aware of someone approaching. She waited in the dark behind a door while Chloe continued her search.
'Who's there?' said a male voice.
Kim tensed up and waiting, holding the gun, whacked the man on the head as hard as she could as he crept past.
'Ah, here we are,' muttered Chloe. 'What was that?' she asked anxiously, reacting to the noise of the man falling to the floor.
'Someone heard us,' said Kim. 'I'll tie him up, but we must move quickly before anyone else comes.'
'It's the owner, damn. I really have no reason to hurt him, but we must be quick,' said Chloe, shining the torch over the inert body as they tied and gagged him, propping him up against a sack of horse food. 'No note now,' she added.
Rapidly and noiselessly they led the horses out of the stables with their muffled hooves enclosed in sacking. In minutes, they were down the road and into the dark, where they were able to mount having removed the sacking.
Chloe said, 'I've ridden here quite a bit as I bought most of the original Settlement horses here and tested them in the park. We need to go southwest until we have passed Duffy's Forest Creek and then we can head northwest. There are many paths through the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. We'll have to keep going, even in the dark. With a bit of luck we will be over the Newcastle Freeway by about dawn.'
After making a few wrong turns in the dark, just as the sky was lightening up in the East they saw car lights, completely stationary, on Bobbin Head Road. The mostly sleeping people in the vehicles, barely noticed them. So they found a gap and all three horses were quickly guided over the road.
'It may be more difficult crossing the freeway,' said Kim. 'There will be panic and people may behave irrationally.'
Within two hours, the pair skirted alongside of the Ku-ring-gai Chase road with little interference from people in vehicles. They ran into trouble when they tried to cross the Newcastle Freeway at Mount Colah. Chloe, leading the pack horse, thought she had spotted a gap between two cars and was just about to ride through when the driver aggressively started his car and closed it. Kim realising there was no time for negotiations, or any type of nicety, drew the Webley and shot the car's two front tyres out. The driver emerged and started to protest, with his wife and small children screaming inside the car.
'Get into that fucking car,' Kim shouted, 'and move it back. You have ten seconds or the next shot will be into your thick head.' She pointed the gun. The man rapidly did as he was told. Kim fired three shots into the car's engine, which then stopped running, as they raced through the gap, crossing the other carriage of the freeway without difficulty, and disappearing into the surrounding bush.
'Whew!' said Chloe. 'Close one. Obviously we must avoid human contact where we can. It's cross country from now on anyway.'
Stopping at noon, and unsaddling in some trees they watered and tethered the horses, allowing them to graze. Two hours later they continued the journey, after indulging in a small snack from their limited resources. They rode through Galston and Kenthurst, an area consisting mainly of small holdings, using gates where they could find them. On one occasion they were unable to find a gate, so Chloe held the horses while Kim cut the barbed wire fence, folding all the strands back on themselves to protect any animals passing through.
If another human was sighted they immediately moved away, where possible, out of sight.
Finding a small copse as night fell, Kim said, 'There's a house a k or so away. I suppose we can risk a small fire.'
The horses were in a place where they could graze and were also given a little of the fodder. Kim cooked chops and boiled some vegetables, which she had rescued from Chloe's fridge. 'We forgot the tea,' Chloe announced, taking the kettle off the fire and hunting through their supplies.
'We must boil the water anyway,' said Kim. 'Leave the boiled water out overnight and I'll fill water bottles in the morning.'
The night passed uneventfully, with Kim crawling out of her sleeping bag now and then to check on the horses. They were on their way at dawn.
The routine continued for the next few days. There was some difficulty in finding a ford to cross the Hawkesbury River, but they were now moving into less-settled areas with larger properties and it became easier to avoid being seen.
'We'll be in the mountains soon,' said Kim hopefully.
Crossing one major road was a real headache. Many of the cars on the road had run out of fuel and it was clear people were panicking, having eaten all their food. Kim approached the road in hiding, watching for more than an hour before she returned to Chloe and the horses.
'We should go before dawn when most people are at their lowest ebb. It'll still be quite dark and we'll be well on our way before anyone notices anything. On horseback, we ought to be able to easily outrun any pursuit.'
'What about midnight?' asked Chloe.
'We could try that, but we get into thick forest shortly after we cross the road and I don't fancy wandering about there in the dark.'
Staying well away from the road, they spent an uncomfortable night worrying about the next morning. Both had trouble sleeping without the warmth and comfort of a fire. But they certainly didn't want to give away their presence.
At five in the morning, Chloe said, 'Come on, I'm sick of this, let's make a move.'
Packing up quietly, and making certain all their horses and equipment were in order, the little entourage crept towards the road.
Kim again went ahead. The vehicles were scattered everywhere, but everyone appeared to be asleep, staving off another dreadful day.
She chose a place with a decent gap between vehicles and while it was still dark they crossed over the road quietly and quickly, disappearing into the bushes on the other side. Finding a path, they had the horses moving at a fast walking pace.
'I hope we weren't seen,' Kim whispered, 'but I saw movement to our right. We'll go on a bit, until it gets light, and then I'll double back to see if we're being followed. Don't worry Granma, I won't be far away. Just putting into practice some of Derain's lessons.'
When it was fully light, Kim told Chloe, 'Keep going on this path, I'm going to double back. If there's anyone following they are going to get a very big surprise.'
She left the path and quietly rode her horse back to where, still hidden, she could see the path they'd taken; there she waited. Not more than ten minutes later, three men in their thirties came running along the path.
They were talking. 'I saw three horses. That's the way to go; there's no chance now with the car. We're all going to die on this bloody road if we stay here.'
'How many people?'
'Two women; should be easy meat. We'll fuck 'em and dump the bodies in the bush. Nobody will miss them with all this chaos around. They'll never be found. Maybe the dingoes or dogs will eat them.'
Kim had made sure the Webley was fully loaded and ready. Her blood was now boiling. She considered taking all three men out there and then, but it was too late and they had gone past. She made herself calm down and riding her horse, followed the men, keeping just out of sight. It took a few minutes before the men caught up with Chloe. She was quite serene, knowing Kim was on hand.
'A fucking granny,' said one of the men. 'Fancy fucking a granny!' He made a grab for the reins, but with Chloe's skill she managed to evade his grasp for a minute until two of them cornered the horse and one held the reins.
'We are having the horse and you,' said the apparent leader. 'Off or you will get hurt.'
'I don't think so,' said Kim, still mounted. None of the men had seen her approach.
The man just stood there grinning. 'You won't dare use that gun. I bet you don't have a clue how it works anyway.'
'I am going to count to ten,' said Kim through gritted teeth. 'If you are still holding the reins of that horse you will get a bullet between the eyes. One, two, three ...'
'Ah, bullshit, you couldn't hit a barn door at ten feet,' the man blustered.
'… eight, nine, ten.'
A split second's flash of apprehension crossed the man's grinning face as Kim calmly lifted the Webley, took aim, and shot him between the eyes. He was lifted up and thrown back a metre with the impact of the heavy bullet. The horses skittered, but were just kept under control.
'Jesus Christ,' shrieked one of the others, making to run.
'Stay exactly where you are or you'll both get the same treatment.' Kim fired another shot at one of the men's feet. 'Hands above your head.'
'We didn't mean anything. It was just a joke,' one of them pleaded.
'You mean, "We'll fuck them and leave their bodies in the bushes for the dingoes" was just a joke!' Kim retorted angrily. 'You,' Kim yelled at one of the men, 'undress, and get a move on. Yes everything. Off now!' The man hesitated. Kim fired a shot at his feet and he quickly stripped. Soon naked, he was shivering in fright.
'I just need my money and credit cards,' he pleaded.
'No you don't, not where you're going. Stand over there and if you move one inch you'll get one in the head.' Kim waved the gun in the direction of the dead man.
'You're a bloody maniac!'
Kim ignored him. 'Now you, the same thing. Quickly.' The second man complied and, like his companion, soon stood shivering.
'Put the clothes in a pile. Then both of you, strip your dead friend, and put his clothes on the pile too. Hurry up!' They jumped as Kim fired a shot next to them. 'Okay, now light the clothes.'
'There's no lighter.'
Wordlessly, Chloe tossed the man a box of matches. The pile of clothes was lit. Both men had crapped themselves and were crying as they watched for ten minutes as their clothes burned to ash.
'If I ever see either of you again,' said Kim, 'you'll get a bullet between the eyes. Now get the hell out of here.' She fired two shots just wide of the pair. There was momentary hesitation and then they ran, tearing themselves on bushes as they scampered down the path, naked and barefoot.
Kim, still holding the gun, slumped down on the saddle. 'Jesus, I didn't think I'd ever be able to do that. The Academy,' she explained, glancing at Chloe, while she reloaded the gun's magazine.
Chloe, shivering in fright at their close call, edged her horse over and put an arm around Kim, 'You saved our lives. Thank you. If I'd been on my own I'd be a goner by now. Those bastards, did they really say those things?'
'Definitely, I was only a couple of metres away. They were deadly serious.'
'We'd better get going. What are we going to do with the dead man?' asked Chloe.
'Nothing. If his friends don't fetch him, he'll suffer the same fate as they had planned for us.'
They continued along the ill-defined path, climbing steadily into the mountains, without stopping, putting as much distance between them and the road as possible.