Free The Seventh Day by Joy Dettman

much. They are not so big as you, and tonight they were only two. You . . . you may leave now. You smell of hard work.’
    He does not wish to leave me. ‘Oh, girl,’ he says, again and again and again. ‘Oh, Christ. We shouldn’ta done it.’
    Already he is sharing the blame of it with me, but he does not release me. I cover my nose with my hand for the close scent of him is of much perspiration, and I try to move away. In my trading for the dogs’ goodwill, I was able to leave them when I wished. In the cooking of the food, I gave only of my time and as much as I wished to give. I can not walk away from Lenny, for in this thing that he has done, there is more that can be had of it. He has always been greedy with food, always wishing to fill his plate again and eat more. And he . . . he eats his fill of me.

    (Excerpt from the New World Bible)
    The Chosen named the first year of the borrowed calm the New Beginning, and they named the year One.
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    And in time, many worked in the rubble of the western quarter in the clearing of city streets. And in time the mother and daughter moons were accepted, and expected in the night sky.
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    And all who would labour laboured, and in time some earth was cleared and crops planted. And in time water from the ocean was cleansed of its salt and the ocean’s weed harvested, for it gave nourishment enough to sustain those who laboured for the Chosen.
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    There was starvation or swift death for those who did not.
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    And there was much death, for there was raiding and plotting and great religious division amongst the greatest of the survivors and amongst the least of them.
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    And there was defilement and the ravishing of the female and of the youths who were below the least of the survivors. And there was much fear and distrust.
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    In the year 10 of the New Beginning the Chosen called for a counting and a numbering of the survivors. And they sent forth their army to the outer reaches of the eastern city where they crawled into every concrete hole that sheltered life.
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    And in the year 10, in all of the city there were 1034 males and 504 females. Of these numbers, 162 females were of breeding age.
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    And each was marked, with number and status, on the left shoulder. And her name and number was recorded in the book of records.

THE ESCAPE
    Lenny has a machine to calculate the days, and though he can not read Monday from Wednesday, he can recognise the colours. When it is time for the grey men to come, the light flashes red. It is a city tool, which the little men have given to him, and on each visit they set it for him with the press of colourful buttons.
    It interests me. I wish to play with the buttons, which are many; I think there is much I may learn from it but Lenny says I may not touch them, though each night when he wishes to come to my bed, he thinks first to buy my goodwill with the calculator.
    I have seen the colour grow more bright as time moves from Monday to Friday, from yellow to orange. Today it will be flashing red and I do not care to see it, or the day, or Lenny. I had planned to be as the rabbit and hide in my hole in the hills when the light reached the red, but this morning when I try to lift my head from the pillow, nausea rises with it, and a stream of bitter bile gushes from me.
    I am afraid of this morning illness which will not leave me. Lenny is also afraid of it. When I do not rise, he comes to my room with pill and chem-tea and the smell of it is enough to make me spill more bile.
    â€˜Pa reckons you got their frekin plague, girl.’ One finger rubbing at the ginger hair of his face, he moves from boot to boot, watching me.
    My reply is more bile.
    He goes away, and I sleep a while in my unclean bed. It is later when he returns to strip its coverings and to pick me up and carry me to the old bath, where he has spilled a near barrel full of water.
    â€˜Pa reckons I got the