Wake by Elizabeth Knox

Warren said. ‘Whoever comes around the corner next is going to plough right into us.’
    The boy had a soft, still-roundish face. But he also had a deep manly voice, and was very tall. He hunched his shoulders a little and went on. ‘I don’t think the—thing—is semi-permeable, or that anyone is coming in from the other side. I mean, Dan has been here for nearly an hour, and during that time there’s been no traffic at all from that direction, and only me from this. Me, then you guys.’
    â€˜So, do you know what is going on—?’ Jacob paused, waiting for Oscar to supply his name.
    â€˜Oscar. And this is Dan.’
    â€˜Jacob,’ said Jacob. ‘And this is Warren.’
    Then Dan and Warren shook hands. It seemed the thing to do.
    â€˜I don’t know anything,’ said Oscar. ‘But I’m pretending I’m in a game environment. I’m trying to think how things work in this environment, rather than how they’re normally supposed to work.’
    Warren said, ‘Have you checked to see whether this thing extends beyond the edge of the road?’
    â€˜No!’ Oscar flushed with hope. ‘But you’ll hit the bluff above the sea before you’ve gone very far that way. And how are you going to be able to tell whether the—thing—is there or not without passing out?’
    â€˜We could do what you did with your phone. Go real slow and hold it out in front of us, lit up, or playing a tune,’ Dan said.
    â€˜I wouldn’t trust arm’s-length,’ Oscar said. ‘I started feeling strange about two metres out from where I fainted.’
    Dan held up one finger. Just a minute. He hurried to the truck’s cab and boosted himself up. He rummaged around in the lock-up behind the seats. After a moment he came back with a roll of masking tape—and his big flashlight. ‘Won’t this do just as well?’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Oscar. ‘If we tape it to my stick, facing the end you’re holding so you can see the instant the light goes out.’
    Oscar and Dan sat on the road and went to work fastening the flashlight to the branch. Jacob watched, bemused and admiring.
    When they were done, Dan tested it by edging up to the back of the tanker. The flashlight was just past the trailer when its bulb flickered and went out. Dan stepped back, and it lit up again.
    â€˜Okay.’ Warren hitched his belt. ‘Jacob, perhaps you should wait here with Oscar till we come back. Then we can all set out together the other way.’
    â€˜Sure,’ said Jacob.
    When Dan and Warren had passed out of sight, Oscar began to pace back and forth on the roadside, flinging his feet down carelessly so that he sometimes slithered in the gravel. He asked Jacob if he thought they were in real trouble.
    â€˜Real?’
    â€˜ Bad trouble,’ Oscar said. ‘I got a text from my mum and I haven’t been able to answer it. She’ll be all worried and stuff.’
    Jacob concealed his shaking hands in his pockets. The thought of Oscar’s mum waiting for an answer filled him with terrible anxiety. All he could do to alleviate the anxiety was make a promise: ‘I’ll look after you, okay?’
    Dan and Warren eventually returned, having discovered that the field extended all the way to the sea. Dan locked the cab of his truck and the four of them set out through the orchard. They went slowly, taking turns with the stick and flashlight. They walked in a wavering line, veering back towards Kahukura whenever the bulb went out. The sight of that light, quenched then revived, was so harmless after the spectacle of people clawing at one another’s bodies that it was almost impossible to believe there was any danger. Still, they played it safe, prodding at the empty air as though it were a sleeping tiger.
    By late afternoon, they had made it only as far as the bush-filled gully below the new subdivision.