For Sale or Swap - Alyssa Brugman [48]
If she followed the power poles into the gully until she reached the creek, she could continue along the water until she reached the causeway. From there it was merely a matter of walking up the hill to the stables, or taking the slightly longer route back to her house. Shelby smiled to herself. She would be home before lunchtime. Hopefully her mum would make hot dogs with tomato sauce. She could eat about ten of them.
Shelby put her head down and started the long trek home. There were lots of pebbles, rocks and gravelly mounds of angry-looking ants. She had to choose her path carefully. She didn't want to twist her ankle again with such a long way to go.
Further along the road she saw a lizard basking in the morning light. She was watching her feet so closely that she almost walked over it. She let out a little surprised 'ooh!' and skirted around it, but it didn't move. Further along a lone grey kangaroo stood on the edge of the clearing, but as soon as it saw her it bounded away into the bush.
Shelby was feeling so much better that she sang a song. She started with some Beyonce, and then The Corrs. She knew no one could hear, so she really let loose. After that she belted out a Red Hot Chili Peppers song, jumping up and down, nodding her head and swinging an imaginary microphone stand.
Suddenly she heard a noise over the cicadas and she stopped, blushing, and glanced around, wondering if anyone had seen. At first it sounded like the rapid-fire buzzing of a trail bike or a chainsaw, but then she saw a helicopter. She stopped walking and looked up, shading her eyes with her hand. It was unusual, because they didn't normally fly so low.
Another few minutes down the road she stopped again. The wheel ruts of the service road swung around in a tight loop and the power lines dipped to another pole further down the hill. Underneath, the ground dropped away, and she found herself standing on the edge of a small cliff made up of boulders packed closely together. At the bottom the dirt road started again, and continued on into the gully.
'Hmm,' she murmured. It was very steep. She might be able to climb down using the boulders for footholds, but what if one of them came loose? She could imagine the whole thing crashing down and leaving her broken and bleeding beneath. There had to be a way around. There was impenetrable scrub on the right-hand side, but on the left there was another low animal path, like the one she had followed from the house.
Shelby bent over double and made her way along. Every now and then she saw a hole in the ground, about as round as the tips of thumb and index finger touching, and she eyed each one warily. Snake holes on a hot summer's day. She hoped the occupants were asleep, or busy elsewhere.
She had been pushing through the undergrowth for some time before it occurred to her that she should be heading downhill by now, if she was to return to the bottom of the cliff. The path didn't seem to be turning at all. She rotated on the spot and considered going back. That would just leave her with the same problem as before.
Perhaps she could make her own path? She made her way between the trees to the right, stepping over roots and small bushes, and ducking under the lower branches. It was hard being bent over all the time, and her thighs were sore from having to lift her legs up so high with every step. She found it impossible to keep a straight line because of the dense vegetation, but whenever she veered in one direction, she tried to correct it at the next opportunity.
After a while she turned right again. According to her calculations she should be near the power lines again. She looked up, trying to catch a glimpse of the cables overhead, but she saw nothing but the crooked undersides of gum boughs.
'I'm lost,' she mumbled. Lost in the scrub. People died in situations like this. They died of dehydration, or exposure, or snakebite. She'd seen it on the news,