Larapinta by Annie Seaton

Author:Annie Seaton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Manuscript Template, Public
Publisher: ASA

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Graysen had been worried about Sandy all morning. She wasn’t her usual chirpy self, and he knew he’d walked too fast for the first kilometre; he’d been walking off the anger after the words he’d had with Paul.

Zed was lying on his back under the shade of a rocky overhang.

‘Where did Paul and Cecily get to? Have they gone ahead with P.D.?’

Zed sat up and frowned. ‘No, Cecily rolled her ankle about half an hour into the trek. P.D. and Paul made a carry chair with their hands and were taking her back to Standley Chasm to get help.’

Graysen stared at him. ‘They didn’t pass us.’

‘They must have. They turned around and went back that way.’

‘Shit. What if they’ve fallen?’

Zed pushed himself to his feet. ‘They couldn’t all fall.’

Graysen turned around and looked back along the ridge that led to the lookout. Andrew came into view followed closely by Clive and Jenny.

Graysen left Zed and hurried across to Andrew. ‘Hey, did you guys pass P.D. and Paul and Cecily?’

‘No, why?’ Annoyance crossed Andrew’s face as he folded his arms. ‘Don’t tell me they kept going?’

‘Zed said Cecily rolled her ankle and they turned back that way.’ Graysen pointed back to Standley Chasm in the distance.

‘Turned back? This is the only track. They couldn’t have. We would have passed them.’

Zed came over followed closely by Miska and Maggie. Sandy looked over at Graysen and frowned.

He gestured for her to stay where she was in the shade.

Andrew looked at Zed. ‘Can you tell us exactly what happened?’

‘About half an hour into the climb we—Miska and Maggie and I—came across them. Cecily was sitting on the ground and howling, Paul was swearing at her and poor P.D. was trying to keep the peace. She’d stepped on a loose rock and rolled her ankle, she said.’

‘She said?’

Zed pulled a face. ‘Miska and I had a look at it, and there was no sign of a sprain or swelling.’

‘We tried to tell them to stay there and wait, but Paul insisted on going.’ Maggie looked upset. ‘He told Cecily she was useless and he was over this fucking trek, and they were going home.’

‘P.D. said he’d help Paul until they got back to you, and that you could call for help.’

‘Why didn’t P.D. call me on his satellite phone?’

Zed shrugged. ‘I got the impression he thought you’d only be a few minutes away.’

Andrew ran his hand through his hair. ‘Well, where the bloody hell are they? They can’t simply have disappeared into thin air.’ He looked around and his eyes did a three-sixty sweep of the landscape. ‘Can you guys take my pack and get the morning tea supplies out of it, please? I’ll try and call P.D. and base and get some help out here.’

Andrew slipped the huge pack off his back and unzipped it. He reached down to the bottom and pulled out a square red phone with a thick antenna.

Andrew walked over to the edge of the drop and then looked up. ‘I’ll just climb up that knoll so I can get a clear signal to the Iridium satellite.

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