He had been arguing with himself about whether he should tell his father about his abilities over the last few months. From things his father had said, Andrew had gotten the impression that his father didn’t think much of tellies or people with any sort of power. He could remember his grandmother always saying not to be obvious and attract attention. But he was starting to think that these days that may not be such a problem as it used to be. His dad had been down the coast at Ballina on business for the last week and was supposed to be back today. Andrew’s father had taken the train that ran through Mawillimbar.

Cars were few and far between still. There was a steelworks near Gilong now, and there was talk of a car manufacturing plant being built there to use the steel. So far, though, nothing had actually happened. Most cars in use were salvaged ancient vehicles converted to mostly run on steam power, at least up here in the north. So many gardens had contained decorative rubber tree varieties that rubber, at least, was something that was plentiful.

There were a few coal mines in operation out west, and that was the main fuel for transport and industry alike. And the power station that was at the back of Coolangatta. With the site of Brisbane still radioactive, coal was exported from Southport, the rail line feeding docks near where there had been a large swimming complex, or so he had been told in the history class. The fighting, pestilence, and starvation that had followed the nuclear war had reduced the population to almost subsistence levels, and it had taken centuries to recover.

He had seen pictures of the incredibly tall buildings that had stretched along the coast in the old days. They had been gutted in the aftermath of the nuclear war before some had been destroyed in the fighting, and the rest had collapsed over the centuries, more or less. A nuclear winter and mini ice age that had followed the war had reduced sea levels for several hundred years, but things had since returned to normal, with the huge rubble mounds forming a good base for people to build houses on with great views of the ocean.

Farmers still turned over the odd artifact from before the nuclear war in the farmlands that ran up the length of coast inland from the mounds of rubble. According to the history books, nearly the whole area from the ocean to the mountains had been covered in houses and industrial areas. Nowadays, it was mostly crops and cows with a few towns dotted in between all the way to the edge of the radioactive lands north of Yatlar.

Chapter 2

New skills

He finally summoned up his courage and told His father, who wasn’t impressed when Andrew told him that he could do things.

“Well, don’t do anything! It will only bring unfavorable attention to us all. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to move again.”