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‘Stay in the shade, Sandy. I won’t take long. I just want to climb up a bit higher and have a bit of a look around through my strongest zoom lens.’

‘In case you can see Paul and Cecily and P.D.? You’re not taking photos?’

‘Yes and no. Something’s off. Andrew’s going for help. He’s coming back in the company helicopter.’

Sandy’s face lost its colour. ‘Should I be worried?’

‘No, but we will be careful. Wait over there for me.’

She followed him to the base of the rough track up the knoll, and waited while he pulled himself to the top. It was high enough to give Graysen a three-sixty view around the gorges and gullies.

Putting his eye to the view finder, Graysen did a slow sweep of the terrain. To the east, he got a clear view of the track back to Standley Chasm. He swept the lens from left to right and back again.

There was no sign of Andrew on the track, and there should have been. He couldn’t have got that far yet.

Suspicion began to curl in his gut. He turned to the west and could make out the track along to Reveal Saddle, the next high point. There was no sign of Jenny and Clive on the track either, but he could see Maggie and Miska standing very close to the edge of the cliff.

He lifted the camera as a movement caught his eye on a rocky ledge above them.

‘Oh, Christ. Sweet Jesus. No!’

In the wilds

Sandra froze as she heard Graysen’s distressed cry. She looked up at him as he hurled himself down the low cliff, and she covered her face as small rocks fell from above.

‘What is it?’ she asked as he grabbed her arm. ‘Graysen, you’re hurting me? What’s wrong?’

‘Quickly.’ The urgency in his voice frightened her. ‘We have to get off the track and go bush. We have to hide. Zed’s got a rifle. A high-powered rifle with a telescopic sight.’

‘What?’ Sandra kept her hands on her face as the landscape tilted and then spun around her. ‘Why would he have that? Surely it’s against the rules?’

‘Don’t go fainting on me, please, love. We have to move fast. Where’s your pack and your water?’

‘There.’ She pointed to her bag a short distance away on a flat rock.

Graysen picked it up and slipped it over his back. ‘Quick, take my hand. We’ll go back along the track a short way where we can’t be seen, and then we’ll head into the scrub.’

‘What about the others? I don’t understand. What’s he doing?’

‘I don’t know,’ Graysen said as he pulled her along the path. ‘And the others have disappeared too. Andrew, and Clive and Jenny. I should have been able to see them all from up there.’ His voice cracked and Sandra knew Graysen had seen more than he was saying. Something that had frightened the life out of him.

Her legs were shaking as fear gripped her, but she trusted Graysen and she’d do her best to keep up with him. Fifty metres along there was a short bank off the path that led to a bare hill with only tufts of spinifex grass.

‘The cliff face to the west is higher and should keep us out of sight until we get to that bush.’ Sandra looked down off the track. Two hundred metres down was a gully with a thick stand of bush on each side.

‘Stay with me, and do exactly as I say.’

Graysen gripped her hand firmly and they stepped down off the trail onto a steep slope. Sandra’s feet slipped, but Graysen kept hold of her and she regained her balance. The ground was uneven and Sandra kept her eyes to the ground as they ran, dodging the large tufts of grass, and avoiding the furrows that were a trap for unwary feet. Halfway down, Graysen turned around and looked up the hill as the slope began to even out.

‘There’s no one up there yet. I think we’re clear. Quick, we’re almost there,’ he panted.

‘Watch where you’re stepping,’ she said, her voice ragged. ‘There’s a whole heap of channels in front of us.’

Graysen nodded and led her a little to the left, and soon they were almost to the trees. Digging for the last of her energy, Sandra took a deep breath and ran the last twenty metres. As they reached the cover of the bush, she stopped, but Graysen tugged at her hand.

‘No. We need to get further in. The gully kicks to the south down there. I’ll feel more secure if we can get cliffs between us and the ridge, and not just trees.’

Fear and confusion held Sandra in a terrifying grip. She fought the familiar feeling as panic threatened to take hold. That awful feeling of losing control—light weightless limbs and pressure on her bladder. It had been over two years since she had had a full-blown attack.