Clear to the Horizon by Dave Warner

Author:Dave Warner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fremantle Press
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

Sidney Turner woke with the smell of dry dirt in his nostrils. Forcing open his eyes, he saw rotting wood and mudflat close up. He was on his right side. He went to push himself up off the ground but realised his hands were tied behind his back, and feet bound. Tilting his head as far as he could manage, his left eye detected a darkening blue sky. Late arvo? Somewhere in the near distance birds were screeching and chattering. His head felt like it had been kicked by a kangaroo. He split the smell of dirt and bush apart, zeroed in on a cloying odour of sap and wild honey mixed with something else … still water. His muscles had melted. He had no strength. Where was he? Sleep still held him in a headlock but it was not normal sleep, this one made you dizzy and weak. The recent past came to him, not in a fluid stream but like one of those old black and white movies he’d seen on some show on Aunty’s TV, movies that had no sound, and where the images came in jumps and jerks. He remembered looking through wattle, then turning and wham! Somebody had hit him from behind. Mongoose, must have been, must have suckered him. Got out of his car and been waiting, knowing he would come out of the back door.

Panic gripped him. In his balls was where he felt it most.

‘Listen, man, I didn’t tell the cops nothin’. ’

His words were sucked into a maw of dead silence. What was happening? If it was around 5.00 now, he must have been out for hours. He was so thirsty. As his brain thawed, thoughts broke free in chunks and fear rose like so much mist, slowly forming into a solid shape, a knowledge: they were going to kill him and bury his body where it would never be found.

The adrenaline jolt helped him roll on his back. Insects buzzed around him.

‘Mongoose?’ Even though his throat was raw he called as loud as he could. He had to explain he hadn’t talked. Beg for a chance to let Aunty pay off his debts.

Yet again his voice choked on itself. Maybe they’d gone somewhere thinking he was still out to it. Or it could be this was just a warning. A warning he didn’t need. They’d dumped him in the bush. He’d have to find his way home. Now his brain was functioning better, he seemed to grow in physical strength too. He summoned his energy and tried a sit-up but couldn’t hold it. As he dropped back down, this time to the left side, his eyes tracked a grey shape, log-like, spitting distance. He felt his bowels shift. His heart jumped to his throat. He couldn’t breathe. Was it …?

Using hip and shoulder but with the greatest care he was able to fractionally lift himself to confirm …

Oh fuck.

Less than three metres from him, a big croc lay on the creek bank just the other side of a narrow strand of low bush.

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