Page 17 of Lost In Kakadu

Her breaths shot in and out as she slapped at insects and scanned the blackness, imagining creatures staring at her.

Stop it.

Inhaling a deep breath, she poked the coals with a stick and willed herself to calm down.

But she couldn’t calm down, and she couldn’t stop the dread smothering her thoughts.

Every minute was a minute in pure hell.

ChapterEight

The high-pitched squeal from a flock of lorikeets snapped Mackenzie from his sleep and it took him a moment to orientate himself. As he rubbed sleep from his eyes, he looked toward the wreck. His heart wrenched at the sight of Rodney’s body, and swallowing the lump in his throat, he snapped his gaze away.

He walked to a towering gum tree that had to be at least four stories high to relieve himself. The tree’s smooth bark was like velvet, and thin strips had peeled off and curled at the edges that had darkened as they had dried out.

Returning to the plane, shafts of sunlight speared through the overcrowded tree canopy. He held his palm into a beam and was amazed at how intense the heat was. He followed the light to the canopy where only small patches of pale blue sky were visible, and a new reality hit him.

If I can’t see the sky, how’s a rescue party going to see me?

At the dead fire he kicked the remains of a log, and it snapped in half and fell into the cold grey ash. Abigail stared at him in silence. Her eyes were bloodshot, and he couldn’t decide if it was from lack of sleep or because she’d been crying.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes … and no.” Her voice was a brittle whisper.

He knew what she meant. This situation was crazy. It seemed ridiculous to be doing nothing, but he had no idea what to do.

He was confronted by a complete feeling of inadequacy.

He’d never been camping or done anything even remotely outdoorsy. One glance at Abigail was enough to know that she was well out of her comfort zone.

She was still wearing high heels!

Unable to ignore a sting in his leg anymore, he flopped onto the dew dampened grass, rolled up his jeans and winced. A small, jagged piece of metal stuck out of his calf and streaks of dried blood lined the wound. He yanked out the metal and fresh blood oozed from the open cut.

“Oh God, what happened?” Abigail gasped.

“I had this stuck in my leg.” He tossed the sliver of metal onto the ashes.

“Is it okay?”

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s too deep.” Mackenzie hobbled to the bags, took out one of his T-shirts and as he tied it around his leg, an image of Rodney winding a bandage around his hand filled his mind. Mackenzie had cut his palm while slicing an onion and although he’d tried to bandage it, he was hopeless. But when Rodney came home, he reapplied the bandage with genuine care.

He ran his finger over the scar that had faded so much it was barely visible.

Those little moments were the ones he was going to miss the most.

Back at the ashes he shoved a few sheets of paper between new layers of twigs and flicked the lighter. The fire sprang to life.

His grumbling stomach was loud enough that Abigail looked at him with guilt-ridden eyes. Ignoring her and his twisting hunger pains, he stared into the dancing flames.

“Can you excuse me for a moment?” Abigail moaned as she pushed up from the ground and walked away, wrestling with her high heels on the grass.

After a brief stint in the bushes, she dashed out of the greenery as if being chased by a bear. “Have you heard any planes?” She dusted off her skirt.

“No.”

Abigail scanned the area around the fire with herface twisted in disgust, possibly looking for a place to sit. Shaking her head, she walked to the luggage, and started dragging her suitcase to the fire.

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