After a bit of negotiating, the owners of the car agreed to get rid of it for $150, and minutes later, Fenny was driving away from town in the choking, sputtering vehicle. “If this thing blows up and kills me, I’m gonna be seriously pissed.”

“Yeah, well if you drive into oncoming traffic and kill me, I’m gonna be pissed too,” Paul said with a smile as he perused the map. “There’s another town maybe ten minutes from here, they’ll probably have a cell site.” He checked the phone that was balanced on his knee: still no signal, and the battery was going down. “Fucking kidnappers, don’t charge their phones,” he grumbled.

“Wish this car had a radio,” Fenny mused.

“Would’ve cost you an extra $50,” Paul said.

“Would’ve been worth it.” She checked the side mirror for the tenth time in so many minutes.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I dunno, I just wanna make sure Ritza didn’t catch on,” she shrugged, trying not to let on to her nervousness.

“Look, you heard her, she thinks we’re dead,” he said. “All we gotta do is get hold of the others and everything’ll be ok again.”

“Yeah,” Fenny agreed, seeming to lighten up.

Paul struggled with the map, trying to divine which way the creases were meant to go and why they didn’t go that way but in a way seemingly contrary to their nature. “Oh wait, hey, pull over!” he cried suddenly. “The phone, we’re getting a signal, stop!”

Ring

“What the hell…”

“Shit, shit, shit,” Gina cursed as she fumbled with her jeans while trying to maintain some modesty.

“Fuck,” Brad breathed as he saw Greg curiously wander towards their hiding place.

Ring

Gina finally found the phone and was ready to just turn it off with hopes of Greg not finding them, but that number looked so familiar. Squinting her eyes closed, she answered the phone. “Hello?” she whispered.

“Genie!”

“Paul?” she gasped in spite of herself.

“Brad—what the fuck is going on?!” Greg screeched as he stumbled across Gina and Brad naked in the grass.

“Greg, look,” Brad began, “this isn’t what it looks like.”

“What’s going on?” Paul demanded into the phone.

“Something wrong?” Fenny asked.

Gina sat up and tried to cover herself the best she could with her pile of clothes. “Excuse me, I’ve got to take this call,” she said, then carefully stood and backed into the trees as Greg watched her, agog, and Brad shook his head and struggled with his boxers.

“What is going on?” Paul repeated into the phone.

“Nothing,” Gina sighed as she cradled the phone to her ear with her shoulder. Once behind the cover of a tree she tried stepping into her panties, lost her balance, and crashed into the harsh bark. “Dammit!”

“What’s wrong?” Paul asked once more.

“Nothing for you to worry about, just come get us, we’re at Brady Creek, some farmer’s house.”

“Brady Creek?” He checked his map. “That’s a ways away, it’ll take us a while.”

“I don’t care, just get here, okay?” Gina snapped

“So what’s it look like, huh?” Greg demanded, standing over Brad as he pushed his still damp legs into his pants. “Cause it looks like two people rolling around naked in the grass to me.”

“We couldn’t sleep, so we went for a walk—”

“And decided to do it in the bushes, huh?” Greg was fuming.

“No, we were just swimming,” Brad said, trying to be assuring.

“Just skinny dipping?”

“Well—”

“With Fenny’s best friend?!”

“Look, it’s, would you stop—”

“Fuck this,” Greg shrieked and stomped off towards Gina.

“Greg,” Brad called after him

“Gina,” Greg said firmly. She let out a short shrill scream when he appeared, followed by Brad, and she covered her bare chest with her arms.

Brad tossed her his shirt so she could have something to hide behind. Greg looked horrified. “What is wrong with you?” she demanded as she tried to cover the mouthpiece of the phone while holding the lapels of the shirt closed around her.

“What’s wrong with me?” Greg asked. “I’m not the one fucking Brad.”

“What?” Paul shrieked into the phone.

“What is going on?” Fenny asked.

“If you were fucking Brad, that’d be a whole different issue I think,” Gina said.

“Don’t try to be cute,” Greg snapped.

“We didn’t do anything,” Gina urged, “we just went swimming.”

“But Gina doesn’t swim,” Paul said, even though he realized he wasn’t being heard.

“What are you talking about?” Fenny huffed and made a grab for the phone, but Paul was too quick for her.

“Bullshit,” Greg said.

“Look, we came across this billabong, it was warm, the water was there, we thought it would be fun,” Brad explained.

“Yeah, it’s lots of fun splashing around naked with your girl’s best friend,” Greg said.

“Greg—” Gina began.

“And you!” he said, turning on her. “Sleeping with every man that comes along, a different one for each day of the week, no matter who he belongs to, huh?”

“Oh yeah, Mr. Scruples,” Gina sneered, “married guy sleeping with any woman that comes along. You fucked Fen when she was seeing Brad, so even if I had slept with him, you would be the last person to have the right to bitch about it!”

Greg’s features settled into a scowl. He turned and headed back for the house.

“We didn’t do anything,” Brad called. Greg’s only response was to flip Brad off without turning around to face him. “I’m sorry,” he said to Gina, then left to wait for her back by the water.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before bringing the phone back to her ear. “Hey Pauly,” she said sweetly.

“What the fuck was that?” he screeched. Fenny was still confused.

“It was nothing,” Gina sighed.

“It didn’t sound like nothing.”

“Well it was. Brad and I were walking around these people’s farm, we found a billabong and decided to take a dip is all.”

“Without your clothes.”

Fenny’s jaw dropped and her brows furrowed.

“Well it wasn’t like that. It was harmless and friendly and he didn’t see anything and we didn’t do anything. I promise you.”

“We’re coming to get you,” Paul said. “Brady Creek, was it?”

“Yeah.”

Paul turned off the phone. “Turn around, we need to go the other way.”

Obligingly, Fenny turned on the engine and made a U-turn. Once she was satisfied that the car was going to work properly without her worrying about it, she turned to Paul, who was staring out the window. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m trying to quell the need to kill something,” he said through clenched teeth.

“So then what happened, what was all that about?” she asked carefully.

“You promise that when you feel the need to kill something, you won’t slam the car into a tree?”

“Sure. Tell me.”

“Well,” he began with a sardonic grin, “sounds like Greg caught your Bradley and my Gina rolling around naked doing something which they claim wasn’t fucking. Skinny dipping, that’s what they were doing. I happen to know that Gina is not a swimmer.”

“They wouldn’t,” Fenny gasped. “Would they?”

“I wouldn’t put it past Gina, she’s done it before,” he said miserably. “Brad?”

“He did do Ritza,” she sighed.

“Let’s find something to eviscerate,” Paul growled.

Fenny frowned at the road. “Good plan.”

“I think we may be fucked,” Brad sighed as they headed back towards the house, the sheep now wary of them and scattering as they walked past.

“I don’t think Paul believed me,” Gina announced.

“And I’m sure he’s told Fen.”

“I’m sure she doesn’t believe Greg,” Gina assured him. “She’s too besotted with you.”

“I dunno,” Brad sighed, “she’s something of a fatalist. They’re probably planning ways to kill us right now.”

“And Greg is probably sulking like a little kid,” Gina said. “Maybe you should find him before he does something stupid.”

“Me? He’ll kill me.”

“He’s less likely to kill you than me I think. He’s been upset with me since I refused to put out earlier.”

“Oh,” Brad said, not sure that these were things he needed to be told.

“Hey guys,” Kev called as he came out onto the back porch, “something wrong with your friend?”

“Why do you ask?” Gina called back as they hurried their pace.

“Stormed out, headed for the main road, said something about having to get away?”

“Crap,” Brad muttered, “this is like babysitting for a spoiled teenage girl.”