𝘼𝙐𝘿𝘼𝘾𝙄𝙊𝙐𝙎 » 𝙟𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙘 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 ✓ [1]

X

CHAPTER TEN
OPEN THE GATE

The boys had a ludicrous idea.

'What are you trying to do?' I grumble at Zach, watching his best attempt at rattling the screwdriver into the hatchet of the smashed golf buggy from just outside the Visitor's Centre.

'It's not moving,' he complains, the battery still wedged tightly under some sort of latch.

I snatch the screwdriver from him. 'Let me get it out.'

Zach, with the hopeful nod of his brother, claimed that two summers ago, the fixed up their grandpa's old Malibu with a bunch of all car parts deemed unusable. He explained that he was certain the battery inside the old golf buggy would able to kickstart another vehicle. It was absurd, but time was wearing thin, and absurd is all we have.

I got to work with attempting to remove the buggy's battery from its wedge, Gray quietly observing us. Mud was starting to squelch into my kneecaps as I knelt down, wearing of how far I was sticking my arm in invade any more electrical faults sparked. 'You really think.... a twenty-year-old jeep is gonna work.... with a battery from a mauled golf buggy?'

Breath could barely sit in my lungs in this heat, gasping for short bouts of it, making talking a head-spinning job. Full blown hallucinations didn't seem like such a far stretch if we were isolated in this part of the jungle any longer.

I stuck my hand a little further underneath the box, trying to haul it up. The thing was heavy, warm and doused in an uncomfortably slick coat of thick petrol.

'And you have a better idea?' Zach asks me.

A click came from under the hood of the buggy as I was able to lift the battery out, beads of sweat rolling from my arms. 'Got it,' I say breathlessly, carefully rolling over the heavy piece of plastic to wipe the grime free from its logo, the plastic sticker peeling off. The thing was covered in dents and scratches. I didn't have high hopes for Zach's optimism at all.

'Here,' I say regardless, passing over the battery to Zach's outstretched arms. 'Take this back to Alex so he can try and fix it into the-'

In the far distance, an unmistakable roar rippled through the jungle at a gut wrenching volume. The kind that didn't distinguish a direction or depth. It came from all angles, at all heights, stifling your arms and legs. All three of us froze. Even mellowed from presumed distance, the sound began to carry the wildlife above us further into the jungle as they scurried away, screeching and flailing and squawking in distress. I watched a small flock a lorikeet's hurry away, splitting up in all directions as the flew through gaps in the tree line.