e awoke feeling rested and refreshed. Although the sun was still high, there in the deep shade of a tall Moreton Bay fig tree it was pleasantly cool, the breeze from the harbour gently stirring the leaves above his head. He sat up and stretched, the sudden movement startling a herd of small antelope that edged nervously away across the grassy slope. Other animals grazed or browsed near by. The long-lipped, slightly comical head of a giraffe peered at him from the other side of a dense clump of bamboo; guinea fowl and geese mingled in the speckled shade of a jacaranda, picking their way through the purple carpet of fallen blossoms; further up the slope, deer and barbary sheep fed quietly on grass and bushes that flourished beneath a line of palms. Beyond the palms, just visible amidst so much abundant growth, there was a long row of cages, empty now, their doors standing open.

‘How does it look in daylight?’ someone asked.

He turned and saw Ellie walking jauntily across the grass towards him, her mop of unruly hair a glossy black in the sun.

‘Like the Garden of Eden,’ he said, and laughed.

She pulled a wry face. ‘I hope paradise was better than this.’

‘You must admit, though,’ he insisted, ‘the animals do live in a sort of harmony.’

She grew suddenly serious. ‘Not with people they don’t. You heard those screams last night the same as I did.’

The smile vanished from his face. ‘Let’s forget about that,’ he mumbled.

‘You can’t. Not in here. You’re always being reminded.’

‘Is it often like that?’

‘It wasn’t at first. While there were still houses to be looted, we had hardly any trouble from outside. But since the food supply ran out things’ve got steadily worse.’

‘So last night wasn’t unusual?’

‘Not really. It’s what you can expect if you stay. Like I said, this isn’t really paradise: it’s more like what was left after they messed it up. You know, ate the apple and all that stuff – found out things.’

He glanced sideways at her, almost furtively. ‘What did they find out? In Eden, I mean.’

She shrugged her thin shoulders. ‘I reckon I can guess. Can’t you?’

But he didn’t answer, staring gloomily at a small mob of cattle and antelope being driven along the path below him by a young man and woman.

‘Talking of finding out things,’ Ellie said lightly, trying to strike a more cheerful note, ‘have you found out how this place works?’

‘It’s a kind of farm, isn’t it? With the harmless animals taken out to feed during the day, but then locked up at night for safekeeping.’

She nodded. ‘That’s more or less it. Though it’s a fortress too. Especially after dark, when we free the cats. Without them, none of this would have lasted five minutes.’

‘That’s something I don’t really understand,’ he admitted. ‘Why do the attacks always come at night? Wouldn’t it be easier to try and get in during the day?’

‘No, it’d be harder still. Except for us, everyone here is armed.’ She pointed to the two people herding animals along the lower path. ‘See those rifles they’re carrying: they’re the best you can get, pinched from a military camp. You’d stand less chance against them than against Raja.’

The young man, seeing her pointing at him, waved back. He was strongly built, with small close-set eyes and a thin expressionless mouth. ‘Lazing around as usual,’ he called out.

‘You jealous?’ she replied. ‘Like to change jobs?’

‘Not a chance. I’d rather look after these’ – indicating the animals on the path – ‘than any of those cats.’

‘That’s Terry,’ Ellie confided to Ben, ‘and the girl with him is Val. They look friendly enough now, but they’re both pretty hard cases.’

‘How’d they get here?’

‘The same as everyone else: Molly chose them. She only picks the really tough ones. People who think the way she does. That’s why this place is still intact.’

‘And Molly? When did she arrive?’

‘She might have been here all along. It’s hard to say. You know what people are like, they won’t talk about Last Days.’

‘You don’t seem to mind mentioning it,’ he said.

She gave him a sudden proud look. ‘Why should I? I’m Aboriginal. We don’t forget about things that easy. We have our stories to remind us. My dad always reckoned that’s why we’ve survived as a people. Because we remember so much, even the bad things.’

Ben frowned, aware of his own repeated attempts to forget the events of the past. ‘I’m not sure I follow all that,’ he said uneasily.

‘It’s simple,’ she answered brightly. ‘My dad explained it to me. He said being alive is like going on a journey: you never really know where you are unless you remember how you got there.’

‘And how did we get here?’ he asked bitterly.

‘Oh, Dad told me about that too. He . . .’

But he cut her short impatiently ‘Why d’you have to talk about your father all the time? He’s dead. Leave him in peace.’

‘But he’s my father,’ she said disarmingly. ‘He didn’t just vanish into thin air. When I think about him, it’s like he was still here.’

‘That’s a load of garbage!’ Ben said, hearing the harshness in his own voice, but unable to prevent it. ‘You’re just kidding yourself. Your dad and all the rest of them are gone. They might as well never have existed!’

Ellie leaped to her feet, more astonished than angry. ‘I thought you were different from this,’ she said. ‘But you’re like all the others. Like Molly and Steve. That’s the way they talk, as if they never knew anybody before they came here.’

Shamefaced, he reached up and took her hand, drawing her down beside him once again. ‘I’m sorry,’ he murmured. ‘I didn’t mean to sound like them. It’s just that it’s hard even to think about some things.’

‘But that’s why you have to think about them,’ she said reasonably. ‘Otherwise you end up the same as Molly and Steve. People with nothing left inside them. Steve especially.’

‘You don’t like him, do you?’

‘No, but I try not to show it. After Molly he’s the most important person around.’

Involuntarily, he pictured Steve’s lean-featured face, his likeness to Greg. It occurred to him that Trev, if he weren’t so thin and undernourished, would have the same kind of look.

‘What’s so important about him?’ he asked. ‘I’ve seen plenty of people like that.’

‘You may have. But Molly needs Steve – that’s the difference – because of what he can do. He’s pretty clever when it comes to practical things. After the water supply packed up, he was the one who found the original spring and fed it back into the upper ponds. He did lots of other things too. He rigged up a sort of windmill for charging a whole lot of batteries. Then he fixed the telephones and attached an alarm system to the outer fence.’

‘How’d he rig the alarm system?’ Ben asked.

‘I’m not too sure, because I don’t know much about electrical things. But there’re thin wires running round the inside of the fence, fixed to it, but sort of insulated from it as well. You can’t get through without touching one of those thin wires and that sets off buzzers in all the main buildings. Sometimes they’re set off by the animals brushing against a wire, but not often. Usually it’s more serious than that. Like last night.’

He nodded, trying not to betray his feelings. But the talk of Steve and the reference to the previous night seemed to cast a pall over the day. The park lay before him exactly as before: green and lush, with the cages thrown open and the animals roaming freely where once only people had walked. Except that now it was as if a thin film of cloud had passed across the sun, tingeing everything with grey. He turned towards Ellie and saw for the first time how completely out of place she was there: her face open and unspoiled, her thin body quick and full of life.

‘You didn’t say how you managed to end up in Taronga,’ he said.

‘Oh, the same as you,’ she answered, and laughed as though it were a joke. ‘I was pushed through the fence one night, as bait. I didn’t have a clue where I was or what I was supposed to do. That’s why I believed you last night. I know what it’s like landing here in the dark and hearing something growl in the bushes.’

The terrifying reality of that moment came rushing back to him. ‘What did you do?’ he asked tensely.

Yet that same memory, apparently, held no terrors for Ellie. She laughed again. ‘Nothing much. I made lots of soothing noises and crawled around in the dark mostly. In the end, I somehow found my way up to the restaurant. It was just luck really, but Molly’s pretty sharp. She saw straight away that I might be useful. The next night she had me getting the cats in.’

‘Weren’t you scared?’

‘I was at first. It wasn’t too bad, though. Before I came, nets and guns were used to round up the cats. That must have been tough, because the cats got used to guns a long time ago – they had to, to survive. For them, the sound of a rifle means meat, and once they hear a shot they’re real difficult to manage. With me working on my own it was different. Everything was quiet and they weren’t excited or anything. All I had to do was coax them a bit. Raja was the only tricky one. He never wants to give up his freedom.’

For Ben the sunlight dimmed even more as he recalled the dark enclosed space of the tunnel, the broad, fiercely whiskered head outlined against the distant doorway. ‘How did you get him in then?’ he asked fearfully.

‘I talked to him a lot and coaxed him the way I did the others. It got easier as he learned to trust me.’

‘Trust you?’

‘Yes, when he realised I wasn’t against him. He must feel like that about you too, or you’d never have got him back.’

He shook his head. ‘It’s different with me,’ he said quietly. ‘Why’s that?’

‘Raja hates me.’

A large eland doe had wandered to within metres of where they sat, her young calf thrusting at her teats, sucking noisily. The eyes of the mother were calm, placid, unconcerned by the nearness of the two human beings.

‘Why should he hate you?’ Ellie asked curiously.

‘He knows what I’m like inside; what I’m capable of.’

Ellie nodded, the idea of Raja’s being able to understand such things not sounding at all absurd to her. ‘And what are you capable of?’ she asked.

He remained silent for a while, biting at his lower lip, his teeth sinking painfully into the soft flesh. ‘I had a dog once,’ he began, and then regretted raising the subject.

‘Yes?’ she said encouragingly.

‘He also found out what I was like,’ he added, ‘but only when it was too late.’

He thought that she would ask him more about the dog. Inwardly he prepared himself for the inevitable question. But all she said was, ‘If Raja hates you, why did he let you cage him?’

‘He had no choice.’

‘How come?’

He plucked a blade of grass and tossed it into the air, the breeze quickly carrying it away.

‘It’s hard to explain,’ he said, ‘but there’s a voice inside my head, that animals can hear. I used it to order him back.’

‘You mean you forced him?’ The same anxious frown, which he had first noticed in the moonlight, again creased the smooth skin of her forehead.

‘Kind of, yes.’

‘And is that the only way this voice works?’

‘No. Other animals trust me when I Call to them. Raja’s the only one who doesn’t. I have to will him to do what I want.’

Ellie rocked forward onto her knees, bringing her face close to his. ‘Then in future you’d better leave the tigers to me,’ she said earnestly. ‘You can cage some of the other cats.’

‘Why should you take all the risks?’ he answered, arguing with her even though the thought of never again having to face Raja filled him with relief.

‘Because if you go on forcing him back to his cage, one of these nights he’ll kill you.’

‘Maybe.’

‘No, not maybe.’ She spoke now with quiet emphasis. ‘I know him. In the end he’ll kill you. That’s for sure.’

He hesitated briefly before giving in. ‘Yes, I suppose so.’

She smiled as though he were the one doing her a favour. ‘All right, then, I keep the tigers for myself. Agreed?’

She held out her hand, but before he could take it the woman called Val came running towards them.

‘You, Ben,’ she called out, ‘Molly wants you up at the admission building.’

‘What for?’

Val’s face, friendly until then, changed abruptly. ‘Don’t stand around asking questions!’ she said angrily, fingering the rifle at her shoulder. ‘Just do as you’re told and get up there!’

Ben and Ellie crossed the wooden bridge spanning the ponds and approached the old admission building. Except for some peeling paint, the side facing into the Zoo was unchanged. A tall, pretentious structure, topped by an absurd dome, it reminded Ben, more even than the restaurant, of his childhood visits. Only the outer walls had been modified. As he climbed the steps, he could see through to where the arched entrance had been bricked up. Molly and Steve were waiting for him just inside the doors, in the reception area, an open space which had once housed the ticket office.

‘You wanted me?’ Ben asked.

Molly nodded, eyeing him speculatively, as if trying to gauge his usefulness. ‘Steve and I have been discussing whether you’re worth keeping,’ she said bluntly.

‘But you said he could stay!’ Ellie interrupted, pushing past Ben.

‘You shut your mouth!’ Steve warned her, the animosity between them breaking out again.

Molly placed a steadying hand on his shoulder.

‘I don’t seem to remember you even being invited here, Ellie,’ she said calmly. ‘So if you want to stay you’d better not speak out of turn.’ She paused and turned back to Ben. ‘Now where was I?’ Acting absent-minded, she casually gathered a stray strand of blonde hair and tucked it behind her ear. ‘Ah, yes, the problem of what to do with you. Steve here’s of the opinion you aren’t worth hanging on to. He doubts whether you could earn your keep, which after all is the main issue. What do you say to that?’

‘I . . .I could help . . .’ he floundered, the question taking him by surprise.

‘It’s not enough to help,’ Molly pointed out. ‘I mean, Ellie’s been doing the job on her own for quite a while. As Steve keeps reminding me, it’s a waste to use two people where one will do. And waste, in these trying times, is something we can’t afford.’

‘But what if . . .’ Ben glanced covertly at Ellie, ‘ . . . if something happened to one of us?’

‘That thought did cross my mind last night,’ she admitted. ‘It’s mainly why I let you go out there. I was curious to see if you’d cope on your own. But Steve’s point still holds. We can’t afford to keep two of everybody just in case. It’s not economic. If Raja suddenly took it into his head to make a meal of Ellie . . .’ She smiled at the thought. ‘Not that she’d make much of a meal! But if he did, then that’d be the time to look for a replacement. Not before. Don’t you agree?’

He made no reply desperately searching for reasons that would convince her of his worth. But he could think of nothing.

‘Well?’ she asked. And when he still remained silent: ‘Really, I’m disappointed in you, Ben. I thought you’d do better than this in a crisis.’ There was a disturbing suggestion of finality in her voice.

‘Please,’ he said, ‘just let me stay for a while. See how things go.’

‘Don’t waste your time begging,’ Ellie broke in coldly. ‘They’ve got about as much pity as Raja. Less probably.’

Steve shook off Molly’s detaining hand and took a half step forward. ‘You’re pushing your luck, Ellie,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t if I were you. We can always dump you and keep him. That’s something I’d go for any day.’

Molly put her arm through Steve’s and again drew him to her side. ‘Now there’s a suggestion!’ she said, and smiled.

But Ellie, her eyes flashing angrily, was not easily intimidated. ‘And here’s another,’ she retorted. ‘We can both clear out and leave you to do your own dirty work!’

‘Oh, come now, Ellie, there’s no need to talk like that. I’d keep Ben if I could – if you’d show me how.’

Ellie grew abruptly calm, almost wary. ‘But you already know why we need him.’

‘Remind me.’

‘What are you playing at, Molly?’

‘Just remind me.’

‘All right. The real danger time is dusk, when we’ve put one lot of animals away and haven’t let the others go. Taronga’s wide open then. Well, between us we can halve that danger time. While I’m freeing the cats on one side of the park, Ben can be doing the same on the other.’

‘Which side of the park did you have in mind?’

Ellie’s eyes narrowed. ‘So that’s what all this is about,’ she said, the truth dawning on her. ‘You want him to work with Raja. If he agrees, he can stay. Isn’t that it?’

‘It’s possible.’

‘But you saw him last night! What it cost him!’

Molly shrugged indifferently. ‘I don’t know about Ben’s state of mind,’ she said, ‘but Steve and I have just come back from looking at Raja, and we’ve never seen him so upset before. Eight hours since he was locked up and he’s still spitting fire. I like that. It’s extra insurance for us because it means he’s twice as dangerous. Now if Ben could guarantee to keep him in that state . . .’

‘It’s got nothing to do with Ben,’ Ellie said quickly. ‘It was the break-in that disturbed him.’

‘He’s usually calmer after a kill.’

‘Last night was different.’

Molly switched her attention to Ben. ‘What made the difference last night?’ she asked. ‘Was it you?’

‘Don’t listen to her!’ Ellie blurted out. ‘She’s trying to blackmail you.’

‘No, not blackmail,’ Molly said, still gazing directly at Ben. ‘A choice, that’s all.’

With an effort, Ben managed to return her gaze, looking straight into her cool, unfeeling eyes. ‘I was the one who made Raja angry,’ he said, unsure at first why he felt compelled to tell the truth.

‘How did you do it?’

‘It’s the way I control him. He resents it.’

‘So he’d stay angry if you worked with him?’

‘I think so.’

‘Well then, the choice is yours. Take him over and you earn yourself a place here.’

‘There’s another choice, Ben,’ Ellie broke in. ‘We can both leave Taronga. I’ll go with you.’

He turned away from them all and looked out at the Zoo. He could see only the wooden bridge and the ponds with their backdrop of trees. Yet at that moment the whole of Taronga seemed to present itself to him. A complete world in miniature. Eden, he had called it. Hundreds of innocent animals, as yet unbetrayed, living peacefully in the midst of the city’s chaos. Dependent for their safety not on human beings – not ultimately – but on a creature like themselves. Raja as their chief guardian; the key to their survival.

Behind him, Steve said in a jeering tone, ‘I don’t think he’s got the guts to handle Raja.’

But it wasn’t that which decided him. He turned back towards Molly. ‘It’s a deal. I’ll cage Raja for you.’

‘Good,’ she murmured, but no longer smiling now that she had achieved her purpose.

Ellie, meanwhile, said nothing, remaining tight-lipped until they were outside, standing on the wooden bridge that spanned the ponds.

‘You’re a fool!’ she said, the words bursting out of her. ‘You fell for their stupid threats! You just let them bully you!’

‘No,’ he answered, ‘it wasn’t their threats that made up my mind.’

‘What then?’

He gestured vaguely. ‘This place. Taronga.’

Below them, a pair of black swans and a bedraggled-looking muscovy drake paddled slowly across the pond, their smooth, rounded breasts creating v-shaped patterns in the water.

‘Taronga?’ she asked incredulously. ‘But you’ve only just got here. You don’t know what it’s really like.’

He was tempted, then, to try and explain it all to her: the reason for his decision; the necessity of putting himself at risk, of correcting the old imbalance, even though the thought of again confronting Raja made his heart jolt unpleasantly. But he merely said, ‘I still think this place is worth fighting for.’

She shook her head. ‘All you’re doing is risking your life for Molly and Steve.’

‘No, I’m not talking about the people,’ he said. ‘I know what they’re like. It’s the rest of it I want to preserve. The animals and the way they live. The fact that what’s happened out there in the city hasn’t affected them yet.’

‘Hasn’t it?’

‘No, not yet. And we can keep it like that if we try.’

She shrugged, unwilling to go on arguing with him, and left the bridge, wandering off past the information centre. He caught up with her further along the path, at a point where they could look out over the trees towards the harbour and the distant high-rise buildings of the city.

‘Taronga,’ she murmured thoughtfully. ‘D’you know what that means?’ She gave him no chance to reply. ‘It’s an Aboriginal word meaning water views.’

The harbour, as he remembered it, no longer existed – the ferries, the powerboats, the white splash of sails, all magically removed, leaving a wide expanse of intense blue. Yet beyond the water, the city centre retained its former aspect: the tower, the skyscrapers, the Opera House standing on the foreshore, all apparently untouched by time.

‘Isn’t it funny how it doesn’t seem to change,’ he said, indicating the distant skyline.

‘It’s like this place,’ she answered. ‘It only looks different when you get close and see what it’s really like.’ Almost as an afterthought, she added, ‘Come on, I’ll show you.’

She led him along the path to where one of the many telescopes, installed for the benefit of visitors, still stared out into space. The original coin-slot and time-mechanism had been removed, leaving the lenses unobscured.

‘Here,’ she said, swinging it round, ‘take a look.’

He peered through the eye-piece and immediately the city leaped towards him. There was nothing timeless about it now, the illusion of permanence shattered by the prevailing air of ruin and decay. It was apparent in everything he saw: the steelwork of the bridge streaked with rust; tiles missing from the shell-shapes of the Opera House; the upper storeys of the skyscrapers almost windowless. The whole distant scene speaking to him of sadness and loss.

He straightened up. ‘What went wrong?’ he asked. ‘They said it wasn’t going to affect us. It was all up there, in the northern hemisphere. We were supposed to be the lucky ones, who’d escaped. That’s what they said on the radio and telly. I heard them.’

‘They made a mistake,’ she said.

‘Yes, but why did it happen? It didn’t have to. Not to us.’

‘I think it had something to do with being cut off. The way we are here in Taronga. Everything just went bad after that.’

‘But this isn’t bad,’ he objected. ‘The animals are still alive. They’re even freer than they used to be.’

She smiled, a trace of disbelief in her expression, and suddenly he had the feeling that there was something she wasn’t telling him.

‘Well aren’t they?’ he asked.

But she evaded the question. ‘Even if what you say is true, how long d’you think it can last? Sooner or later one of the break-ins’ll be successful.’

‘So what?’ he answered defensively. ‘You can’t tell me the people outside are trying to wreck the place. They want it for themselves. Isn’t that right?’

She nodded.

‘Well then, Taronga will go on the same as before. Nothing will really change. Not for the animals anyway.’

But again she shied away from giving him a definite answer. ‘Maybe,’ she muttered vaguely her voice, her face, registering the same uncertainty; her eyes fixed on the sad outline of the deserted city.