There was nothing worst than waking up from a terrifying nightmare, only to find yourself in the middle of nowhere and encased in a vehicle that wasn’t actually working. The last thing Alex Hasting remembered before being jarred out the depths of unconsciousness was the unmistakable ambiance of a hospital intensive care unit. What had stood out most hauntingly for her though wasn’t what she saw, but what she heard. In fact, she couldn’t remember seeing anything at all. It was almost as if someone had thrown a dark cloth bag over her head and forced her to rely on her hearing instead.

Amidst the darkness of her subconsciousness, she vividly remembered hearing the concerned voice of her sister as the latter discussed the well-being of a critically ill patient with one of the nursing staff at the intensive care unit. Alex strongly speculated that the patient in question was actually herself because she discovered she couldn’t directly communicate with either of them.

‘Mum’s due back from holidays in a week,’ her sister had commented wistfully against the mechanical background sound of the ventilator and accompanying heart monitor. ‘I can’t let her see Alex like this. She’ll be guttered!’

To her credit, the female nurse she had spoken to had managed to alleviate her anxiety by suggesting she go home to get some rest. Alex couldn’t remember any more than that because that’s when she surfaced from the tides of unconsciousness, panting heavily in cold sweat.

Now, she was sitting in the driver’s seat of a ute in the middle of a deserted country road with no memory of how she got there which was something of an oddity because her memory was usually pretty good.

She looked down at the National Park and Wildlife Services uniform she was wearing and was overcome with an intense wave of curiosity. She wondered if she was suffering a form of amnesia because she couldn’t remember doing anything in her professional life that resembled the duties or responsibilities of a park ranger either. Shaking her head in dismissal, she fumbled blindly for the ute’s keys that were still embedded in the vehicle’s ignition.

Common sense should have told her that her tunnel vision would have hindered any driving skills she possessed. However, in the wake of her current disposition, her mind was pre-occupied. She hated isolation and longed to return to the vibrancy of modern civilization. Finally locating the keys, she turned on the ignition – or at least she tried. The engine erupted in a stubborn, prolonged splutter before dying out completely. This was the last straw for Alex and she blasted the horn with as much force as her frustration allowed before climbing out and slamming the door behind her.

If Alex had been expecting any sort of reprieve from her predicament outside the ute, she would’ve been sorely disappointed. The drought stricken brown paddocks of the unforgiving countryside surrounding her stretched for kilometres as the harsh summer sun glared down on Alex’s unprotected face. It instantly reminded her of an apocalyptic barren wasteland and her limited peripheral vision didn’t help at all. She stared out into the paddocks, hoping against hope that what she was experiencing was all but a dream and that she would eventually wake up in the comfort of her warm cosy bed in the city. Had she woken from one nightmare only to wake up in another?

The screeching sound of a crow flying overhead jolted her back to the present and she soon realised that she’d need to find some shade before she succumbed to heatstroke. Scanning the endless paddocks, she soon came to across a slim dirt track amidst thick shrub. Seeing as there was no other relief from the blistering sun, she made a bee-line straight towards it.

The change in temperature was pleasantly immeasurable. Alex glanced around her and found herself amidst a forest of eucalyptus trees. She was so in awe of the sudden transformation of her surroundings that she failed to notice she was in fact moving further away from the road and the ute. She soon found herself lost. Hopelessly lost.

Cursing silently, she looked around the endless rows of trees and vegetation in hope of finding anything that would help her way back towards the main road. Confused, she spun around in an attempt to gain some sort of familiarity amongst her surroundings but failed miserably.

She soon became aware of a faint rumbling of thunder in a distance. It wasn’t overly distinctive but it had an oddly familiar rhythm to it. At first, she thought a storm was brewing but, on closer examination of the clear blue sky above, she concluded that wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon.

Boom. Boom. Boom-boom-boom.

She stopped for a moment, trying to remember where she’d heard it from. Almost on cue, it stopped as well, as if challenging her sanity. Alex thought for a minute then decided on a plan of action. Maybe if she continued forward, the rumbling would re-commence, letting her to analyse its origin again. She took an anticipatory step forward, listening intently.

Nothing.

She took another step. Still nothing. Annoyance slowly raged within her and she gave up, storming ahead in defiance.

Then it came back.

Boom. Boom. Boom-boom-boom.

She didn’t hear it at first because she was too pre-occupied with her premature defeat. Her attention was diverted when she realised the rumbling had gotten louder. Without any logical explanation whatsoever, her annoyance subsided and was replaced with intense curiosity.

‘That sounds very familiar,’ she muttered aloud as she looked around, trying to find its source. ‘Where’s it coming from?’

Unfortunately, the next step she took killed off any opportunity to investigate the sound further. Apart from the natural ambiance of the Australian bush, the silence was deafening. The longer she waited for the sound to return, the longer the silence stretched. Alex eventually moved ahead when she realised the sound wasn’t going to return and, in the process, unwittingly stepped on a twig …

 

The transformation of her surroundings was instant to say the least. In fact, it was starting to become a bit of a habit. With a blink of an eye, she suddenly found herself amongst thick vegetation and there was a black jacket on the ground. Who did the jacket belong to? She made her way to the base of the tree and picked up the garment in examination. The sheer size of the jacket told her that it wouldn’t have fitted the children anyway. The jacket reminded her of someone she didn’t expect to be in this area of isolation. On hindsight, he probably would’ve captured the magic of the country scenery with his digital single lens reflex camera.

A professional photographer, Murray Parkes wasn’t on to let the beauty of a certain landscape escape his watchful eye. It was one of the things Alex loved so much about him. They had met during one of his photo shoots and it was love at first sight. Alex smiled at the memory and brought the jacket up to her nose, savouring the smell of his aftershave.

‘I wondered where I'd dropped it,’ a very familiar voice greeted her. ‘Thanks.’

Alex looked up and saw the man himself. Where had he materialised from? A tall man, Murray posed a striking figure. On this occasion, he wore military style clothing and sturdy hiking boots which – if Alex had been paying any attention to, she’d have realise that it wasn’t his style of clothing at all. Granted, he certainly had the compact and muscular physique for it but he was a pacifist through and through. She flashed him a dazzling smile and greeted him with a passionate kiss on the lips before handing him back the jacket.

‘I know how much it means to you,’ she told him. ‘I remember you wore it when I first met you.’

‘Yes and I remember how unimpressed you were at the time,’ Murray reminded her, thoughtfully.

It was at this point of the conversation that the dialogue started to go slightly awry – not that either of them were paying much attention to it.

‘Well, what do you expect?’ Alex retaliated. ‘You were tearing across a protected area in that bloody Harley-Davidson of yours.’

Murray gave a lopsided grin.

‘At least you didn't throw it over the cliff. Speaking of which, there's something I want to show you.’

He put on his jacket and began leading her away. Now, she was curious.

‘Really? What?’

‘Words just can't describe it,’ Murray replied cheekily.

‘Sounds ominous.’

‘Come on then ...’

The climb over the ravine was steeper than Alex imagined. She wondered how Murray could be so energetic at this time of the day because she could no longer see him. That wasn’t to say he was no longer there. She could still hear his footsteps and panting ahead of her. She, on the other hand, was beginning to feel as if she had just run a four kilometre marathon and the muscles in her legs and arms were burning with exhaustion. Was she really that unfit? She looked up and wondered where Murray had disappeared to.

‘Murray! Slow down!’ she called in desperation.

He didn’t respond at first, rising Alex’s anxiety levels up a notch. A few seconds later, he re-appeared in front of her, shaking his head with laughter.

‘God, you're really out of shape! And you call yourself a park ranger!’

Without any attempt to help Alex or even register her need for assistance, he continued on his way as if nothing happened. Alex cursed under her breath. Typical men! Always wanting to show they were the greater sex. What exactly was he trying to prove anyway? She shook her head in disbelief and continued to struggle up the ravine. She had only climbed a few meters further when she heard a blood curling scream up ahead. That almost sounded like … No, it couldn’t be, could it?

Suddenly with renewed energy, she scrambled to the top of the ravine and found herself at the cliff edge. She wasn’t even sure how she managed to get there so fast. Without even thinking, she looked down and wished she hadn’t. Murray lay there broken and limp at the bottom on a ledge.