Australia

I’m so sleepy right now, but it’s been a busy sort of day. Played really bad golf with my sweetie (and his game wasn’t so hot, either, but better than mine), and then drove to my son’s in-laws for a birthday do for Auron, who turned 1 yesterday. Babies are cute people.

On to Australia, then, in our fun little tale.

***

The battered land rover stopped by the third mangled cow in five kilometres. "Fuckit," said Muddy Wolfe. "What d’you reckon is doing this?"

Teddy Johnston shook his head. "Not an idea. There’s no crocs around here, no dingos–maybe somebody’s pet lion got loose or some damn thing. Bloody mess, any way you look at it, isn’t it?"

"I hope this one is the last of this shit," said Muddy. "We can’t afford to lose too many like this. It’s beyond a fuckin’ nuisance, and if it is someone’s pet gone wild, I’ll kill the fuckin’ thing and worry about it never." He spat on the ground by the skull from which scraps of skin hung in ribbons. "Let’s go see if we can find the buggers. Drive on!"

A kilometre and a half later, they stopped again. "Fuck it all to hell!" Muddy jumped out of the vehicle and strode to the site of slaughter. Carrion birds half hopped out of his way, too full to fly any distance.

Teddy also climbed out of the land rover and surveyed the area. "How many? Can you tell?" He tried counting skulls, but too many of them were broken into pieces.

"Too fuckin’ many. That’s how many," said Muddy. "There must be at least twenty, maybe. Give or take." He wandered among the scattered pieces. This was more serious than he had imagined. "Fuck it. Let’s get away from here and find a place to camp for the night. It’s going to be dark soon."

Teddy looked around. "What if whatever did this is still around?" he asked. "It’ll eat us in our sleep."

"I doubt it, or they, will bother with a pair of scrawny bastards when there’s all this lying around. But maybe we should sleep in the rover anyway." They got into the vehicle and Teddy drove from the charnel pit as fast as he dared, aiming for one of their usual campsites.

Neither of them slept well that night.

***

Back tomorrow or so with more.