“You did what?” Paul gasped.

“Hey, I didn’t do a thing. A rather heavy road train did,” Gina replied meekly.

“Is everyone ok?” Paul asked.

“Yeah, shame we can’t say the same about the car,” Gina half-mused.

“Look, if you tell us where you are, we’ll get there as soon as we can,” Paul said anxiously.

“I don’t know…there’s nothing I can tell you, apart from there’s a few trees, a couple of shrubs and one pissed off truckie,” Gina sighed.

“Well where were you headed?” Paul queried.

“Oodnadatta,” Gina replied. “But we were way off course.”

“Right, well…we’ll head back towards Adelaide, but we’ll stick to the back roads,” Paul suggested.

“Ok, but what if you don’t find us?” Gina peeped.

“You’re a journalist…you must know someone that knows something,” Paul declared.

Gina muttered for several seconds. “Idiot…I can get my phone traced.”

“There ya go,” Paul chirped.

“I’ll call you back and let you know,” Gina perked.

“Ok, be careful,” Paul ordered and ended the call.

Gina thrust the phone back in her pocket and looked over to where Greg was arguing with the truck driver.

“You’re lucky all my rig got was a few scratches,” the truckie snapped.

“That monolith? You’re lucky we didn’t become roadkill,” Greg retorted. “How fast were you going?”

“Actually, he was within the speed limit,” Gina chimed in.

“He totalled the rental car,” Greg barked.

“Come on Greg, let’s go walkies,” Brad announced and led Greg by the shoulders into the shadows.

“I’m sorry, he’s not used to communicating with people,” Gina sighed, turning back to the truckie. “If you want to swap numbers, we’ll get back to you as soon as we make it back to the city.”

“Yeah, you’d better,” the truckie grumbled and pulled out his cell phone.

“Well?” Fenny asked.

“Their car got squished by a truck,” Paul sighed.

“Oh my god, are they ok?” she gasped.

“Yeah, they weren’t in it,” he nodded.

“So, we’re going to pick them up?”

“They don’t know where they are,” he announced, rolling his eyes.

“Well that’s just brilliant,” she scorned.

“Genie’s gonna try and get her phone traced.”

“Genie? Am I hearing affection?”

“I never called her Genie,” he said with mock horror.

“I think you’ll find you did,” she mocked.

“And what? You don’t have a pet name for Brad?” Paul sarced. “Snugglebutt perhaps?” She glared at him. “Hey, it was just a guess,” Paul perked. “Hey, and let me guess…he calls you muffin,” he added in a baby voice.

“I will pull over and you can walk if you’re going to keep that up,” Fenny scorned. “Besides, I call him Kong.”

Paul cracked up laughing, but stopped abruptly when he caught sight of the view in the wing mirror.

“Oh oh,” he breathed.

“What?” Fenny asked, keeping her eyes on the road.

“We’re being followed,” Paul announced. “I reckon it’s heavies.”

“What do I do?” Fenny gasped, suddenly realizing she wasn’t happy with the idea of a car chase through the Australian outback.

“Put your foot down,” Paul demanded.

“No,” Fenny peeped.

“They’re catching up,” Paul shrieked.

“I’m not used to these roads – I’ll kill us,” Fenny squealed.

“Rather you than them,” Paul announced, unclipped his seat belt and thrust his foot onto the accelerator.

Fenny let out a squeal as the car roared up the dirt track, she noted the speedometer was reading 210 and wished she knew what that meant in miles. Paul fell back into his seat and buckled himself back in.

“I can’t keep control at this speed,” Fenny said, panicking.

“And they’re not getting off our tail either.” Paul sounding equally as worried.

“Anymore bright ideas?” Fenny hissed.

“I think I need to change my underwear first,” Paul replied.

“Thank you for making me look like a complete idiot,” Greg snapped.

“You were doing a good enough job of that on your own,” Gina barked.

“You’ve always got to be in control, you’re a fucking control freak!”

“Me? Oh please, you can’t even handle it when you’re dominated in bed!”

“So resorting to childish jibes about sexual performance now, are we?”

“Yeah and looks like you’re the only one bothered by them.”

“Ha, there are countless women who could proclaim my bedroom prowess.”

“Shame none of them are your wife.”

Greg glared at Gina. That one had hurt. “Fuck you,” he managed to hiss, then walked away.

“Greg, where are you going?” Brad sighed.

“I’m finding a fucking town, so I can get back to civilization and get home,” Greg yelled as he walked.

Brad turned angrily to Gina. “Why are you mad at him?”

Gina blinked several times. “I’m not entirely sure.”

“He doesn’t know where he’s going and it’s dark,” Brad scorned. “Do you really want him walking alone around here?”

Gina rolled her eyes and then turned and jogged after Greg who had only walked about 200 metres.

“Greg stop,” she panted.

“Why, so you can insult me again?” Greg growled.

“I’m sorry, just stop,” Gina begged. Greg kept walking. Gina jumped in front of him and put her hands on his shoulders. “Stop, please. I’m sorry, really.”

“Is there a reason you’ve been on my back since before we left?” Greg asked.

“No, not really…I’m just so worried about Fen and Paul,” Gina replied. “I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

“You hurt me, you know,” Greg said sulkily.

“Can you forgive me?” she asked, sliding her hands down his chest and around his waist under his jacket.

“If I do, can we never fight again?” he asked and caressed her dusty cheeks.

“Well we can try,” she breathed as she brought her lips to his. They kissed briefly before falling into a welcomed hug.

“For the record, I do think you’re great in bed,” Gina mused.

“And I like to be dominated,” Greg whispered. She let out a relieved giggle.

After what seemed like hours, the sky began to lighten and Paul and Fenny could get a better look at the car that was following them so intently.

“We’re never going to shake those bastards off,” Fenny sighed. She was beginning to get tired, and her arms and hands ached form gripping the wheel so tightly.

“Let’s take the next right turn and floor it again,” Paul suggested.

“What will that achieve?”

“I don’t know, but it’s entertaining to watch you freak,” he perked.

“If I wasn’t so tired I’d slap you,” Fenny groaned.

“Ohh kinky,” he grinned and then squealed when Fenny took the right turn sharply.

“So where does this lead?” she asked as they sped down the barely-there boggy road.

“No idea,” Paul shrugged, squinting through the early morning light. “Oh hey, a sign.”

“What does it say?” she queried.

“Beware, end of road, steep cliffs ahead,” he perked

“CLIFFS!” they yelled together.

“WHAT DO WE DO?” Fenny screamed.

“JUMP,” Paul yelled, undid his seat belt and opened the door.

“Crap,” Fenny hissed. She knew it was going to hurt. She unclipped her seat belt opened the door and hit the soggy ground with a thump.

Fenny and Paul sat up in time to watch the van disappear over the cliff top. Paul crawled to the edge as the van crashed onto the rocks and burst into flames. There was no time to assess their wounds. Paul dragged Fenny to her feet and they hid in the trees.

“Fuck I hurt,” Fenny mumbled through clenched teeth.

“Shh,” Paul whispered as the heavies came flying around the corner.

They pulled to an abrupt halt and clambered out of their car to assess the tyre marks that disappeared over the cliff.

“You think they’re dead?” one heavy said to the other.

“By the look of their car, I’d say so,” the other perked.

“The boss will be pleased,” the first one grinned.

The two heavies got back into their car, did a U-turn, and left.

Fenny and Paul staggered out of the trees and fell onto the grass near the cliff edge. The sky was now pink, and there was a distinct smell of burning rubber in the air.

“Well, this makes things interesting,” Fenny sighed and rolled up a leg of her jeans to check her knee. “We’re stranded and lost.”

“Ahh, stranded yes, lost no,” Paul perked, lifted his shirt and pulled the maps from his pants, then the cell phone from his pocket. It was amazingly unscathed.

“You are a smart man,” Fenny mused.

“I know. Shame about the van though,” he sighed, laying back down on the grass. “In the last few days we’ve destroyed Genie’s Beetle, had my parents’ car blown apart, crushed a hire car and deposited the psychos’ van over a cliff.”

“You did what to Gina’s Beetle,” Fenny gasped, checking her other knee.

“She doesn’t know yet,” he mused through clenched teeth.

“Someone’s gonna die for that,” she jeered and moved over beside Paul.

He sat up and looked at her. “So,” he began and put his arm around her. “Whom do I call first? Gina, roadside assistance, a doctor or the nearest pizza delivery shop?”

“I could go for a pizza,” Fenny mused, putting her arm around Paul and resting her head on his shoulder.

“Ah shit, no signal,” Paul scorned and chucked the phone onto the grass. He rested his head against Fenny’s. “I think we’re fucked.”