Page 102 of Lost In Kakadu

His head appeared over the edge, and he waved down at her. She returned the wave as his words reached her. “Tie the bag on.”

She secured the rope and stepped back as the bag inched in a vertical line up the cliff. They repeated the process with the next case and then it was her turn to climb. She tied the rope around her waist and mounted the first protruding rock, clinging to the sandstone with her fingers. For a fleeting moment, she remembered her once meticulous fingernails and was sickened by the fortune she’d spent on them over the years. Mackenzie tugged on the rope, and she searched with her foot for the next step, gingerly pulling herself up the rock face.

Halfway up, she had to stop. Her calf muscles ached, and her fingers throbbed. Mackenzie’s assurances floated down to her.

“I’m okay. Just need a rest.”

“Okay, take all the time you need.”

She placed her forehead on the warm rock and closed her eyes for a moment, listening to her ragged breathing.

“You’re doing well, honey,” Mackenzie’s voice floated down to her.

Abi pushed her hand toward the next stone but before she could grasp it, her foot slipped. Vertigo overwhelmed her and she fell. The rope strangled her waist, biting into her side, and she slammed face first into the cliff. Excruciating pain exploded from her knee. An abrupt memory flashed into her mind. It was another time when she’d felt incapable, and Spencer had told her so too. He often told her she was useless.

“Grab the rocks, Abi!” Mackenzie’s panicked cries reached her from above.

Spencer’s disparaging comments incited hatred within her. She wanted to prove him wrong, prove she was worthy as a woman and with newfound determination she reached up for the nearest rock.

“That’s it, Abi. You can do it.”

Mackenzie believed in her and she welcomed his encouraging words as she continued to climb. The pain in her leg intensified and the restricted movement forced her to rely on her arms even more. She was asurvivor, and each painful step upwards was proof of how tenacious she was.

Her heart raced, but not with fear—with excitement. The edge of the cave was just another foot away.Keep focus, Abi.Mackenzie’s hands hooked under her arms. He lifted her over the precipice with ease and she fell onto his heaving chest and ran kisses along his neck.

He wrapped his arms around her. “You’re safe now, honey.”

She kissed him wildly, passionately. “I know.”

Abi crawled further into the cave, the coarse sand of the cave floor pricking at her fingers. She dragged her leg, trying to ignore the pounding in her knee. Her arms and shoulders ached, and her body trembled, but she ignored it all and focused on her achievement. Beside her, Mackenzie’s breathing was ragged. She reached out for him. They lay holding hands, staring at the roof of the cave until they got their breath back. Abi noticed the indentations in the rock above her. It was like the inside of a sponge; hundreds of small pockets with smooth edges.

She turned to Mack. “I hope that was worth it.”

“Wait till you see.” His eyes twinkled with excitement.

She smiled, studying his face. A lock of his sweat-soaked hair draped over his shoulder and lay across his cheek. His dark, smiling eyes were rimmed with long, black eyelashes and his beard was full, hiding his handsome jaw line. Squeezing his hand, she sat up. Her knee throbbed, but she avoided looking at it.

The easterly facing view of the valley below them was breathtaking; a cascading river of green as far as she could see. Blue sky met with the green horizon and Abi imagined she could see to the end of the earth. “It’s beautiful.”

“I told you.”

But as Abi gazed out over the panorama, she realised something was missing. There were no signs of civilisation, nothing to indicate that anybody shared this earth with them. No buildings, no smoke, no planes, nothing. She scrutinised the sky.

Surely there’d be planes somewhere.

Her emotions were torn. On one hand, she wanted to be saved; on the other, she didn’t want their utopia to end.

“Why can’t we see anything?” Mackenzie read her mind.

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

“How far off course could we have gone?”

The plane crash seemed like years ago, but the memory of that day was forever burned into her mind. She recalled the two attempts the plane made at turning and tried to imagine the distance it travelled away from the planned route. “A long way I guess, but still, shouldn’t we see something? Maybe it’s just the wrong time of day. I bet we’ll see planes tonight.”

He smiled at her. “You’re probably right.”

She leaned over to kiss him but gasped at the pain in her knee.

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