The Outback (28 page)

Matt slowly ascended the
stairs with his gun raised high, ready to fire at the slightest provocation.
Each step creaked under his weight and acted as a signal to his adversary, who
could return to deliver a potentially fatal shot at any moment. He let out a
sigh of relief when he made it all the way to the top of the staircase without
encountering his murderous foe. The upper floor opened up onto a narrow
corridor with three doors leading off of it. Only one of these doors was open
and it beckoned Matt to approach. He cautiously walked down the corridor,
wondering all the while if his next step would be his last.

As he approached the
doorway, he could hear Rose crying. She did not sound panicked or hysterical,
just afraid and alone. Each whimper was like a screw turning into his heart,
but he had to block out his feelings and detach himself from all emotion if he
was going to get her out of there alive. He pointed the gun squarely in front
of him and readied his finger on the trigger as he stepped in front of the
doorway. He then took the final step into the bedroom, where for the final time
he found himself face to face with Rhett Butler; drug dealer, rapist, hostage
taker and murderer.

Matt had never been more
afraid in his entire life.

***

Colin concentrated on
taking long, deep breaths. He loudly sucked the air in through his mouth in the
vain hope that the sound would drown out his pain. How could he have been so
careless as to find himself in this position? Rose was counting on him and he
had let her down once again.

He thought back to the
day of the mugging. If he had been more alert and reacted quicker, he could
have spared her a lot of pain and punished those bastards who hurt her. His
thoughts then drifted to when Rhett had beaten him in the field. Why had he not
fought back? He could feel the anger growing in the pit of his stomach and then
spreading outwards through his body. He was tired of being a victim.

Using the shotgun as a
crutch, he levered himself up onto his feet. He continued to concentrate on his
breathing and he swallowed hard. Everything seemed to be working. At least it
did not feel like any of his organs were failing. He could even move his left
arm at the elbow, although his shoulder was still giving him considerable pain.
Even the slightest movement caused the most excruciating agony that he had ever
experienced. It felt like it was being chewed on by a bear. If he was to carry
on; he could not afford to let it distract him any longer.

Rhett’s holdall was
still on the couch, where it had been left when the shooting started. Colin
thought he could guess what the old man would consider to be among his
essential items when packing. He slowly moved towards the couch and took a look
inside the bag. He reached in with his right hand and rummaged through the
clothes until his fingers touched upon the chill of a metal container. It was
Rhett’s tobacco tin. Colin opened it and found three pre-rolled cigarettes
inside. He raised one up to his nose and took a sniff. There was nothing better
than the familiar aroma of marijuana.

He spotted a box of
matches on the kitchen counter next to the gas cooker. After taking one of
these and lighting up, he took a deep, satisfying puff on the spliff. He
followed this with a second and then a third, all the while making sure to inhale
as much of the intoxicating smoke as his lungs would allow. Within moments, the
pain in his shoulder was reduced to nothing more than a dull ache and he felt
calm and at peace. He then reached into his pocket and extracted some shot gun
cartridges, which he used to reload the weapon. Now he was ready and this time
he would not fail. This time he would either kill or he would be killed.

***

The Australian had Rose
locked in a firm grip with the nub of his revolver pressed squarely against her
temple.

‘Drop the gun or the
slut dies,’ he snarled.

Matt retained a strong
grip on his firearm and lined up the sight with the forehead of his former boss
even though he knew that he had little hope of making such a difficult shot. If
he lowered the weapon as he had been told, Rhett would shoot him dead for sure.
His only chance was to try and bluff his foe into giving up.

‘Don’t listen to him,’
said Rose. ‘If you lower the gun he’ll kill us both.’

‘I know,’ said Matt.
‘And if he kills you, he will be left with no bullets and I’ll have a clear
shot. So the way that I see it, Rhett is the one who should lower his gun.’

‘You’ve got balls coming
here; I’ll give you that,’ said Rhett. ‘If you want to walk out of here with
them both intact, you will drop the gun, right now.’

Matt did not flinch. If
he was to get through this ordeal, he would have to play Rhett at his own game.

‘The police are already
on their way,’ he said. ‘Now the word is out that you are alive, every cop in
this state is going to be looking for you. In fact, it would surprise me if a
marksman was not lining up his shot as we speak.’

For the first time, the
Australian looked to doubt himself. He was stood directly in front of the
window and the curtains were not drawn. If he attempted even the subtlest
glance over his shoulder, he would surrender his advantage.

‘You’re bluffing,’ he
said.

‘Try me,’ retorted Matt.
‘If the cops are not prepared to shoot a man in the back, then I’ll just have
to shoot you myself.’

The Australian looked
deep into Matt’s eyes and beyond, as if attempting to read the Englishman’s
very soul.

‘You haven’t got it in
you,’ he sneered.

‘Don’t be too sure,’
replied Matt. ‘I already killed one man tonight. Where did you think that I got
this gun?’

He could hear movement
from downstairs and knew that Colin was making his way to him. He just needed
to buy some more time.

‘You killed my son?’
asked Rhett.

Matt braced himself to
fire. There was no telling how the old man would react and he needed to be
prepared for the worst.

‘Any man pathetic enough
to die by your feeble hand has no right calling himself my kin,’ said Rhett.
‘You’ve done me a service; I should be thanking you.’

Matt sensed that his
adversary was lying. There had been a definite shift in the old man’s eyes and
his voice sounded more resigned to defeat. As if to confirm this assumption,
Rhett roughly shoved Rose away from him and brought his gun down to bear on
Matt instead.

‘If you pull the trigger
now, we both die. You will save the girl, but at the cost of your own life. Are
you seriously prepared to sacrifice yourself for that little bitch?’

Sweat dripped from
Matt’s forehead. It was now obvious that the old man no longer cared whether he
lived or died.

‘What are you waiting
for?’ asked Rhett. ‘You would be smart to pull the trigger first. If you are
lucky, I may only maim you with the return shot.’

The reason behind the
Australian’s procrastination suddenly dawned on Matt. Rhett wanted him to make
the first move and in doing so become a murderer himself. Matt could feel his
finger tightening on the trigger. He desperately wanted to give in to the
taunts, but he knew that if he did, he too would become a cold blooded killer.
Once he walked down that path there would be no return for him.

‘I’m guessing that when
you killed my boy it was in self defence,’ continued Rhett. ‘It’s a lot harder
when you have to make the first move, isn’t it?’

Matt did not reply. He
desperately wanted to pull the trigger, but the only thing worse than the old
man firing back at him would be if Rhett did nothing at all. Matt did not wish
to execute a man in cold blood; even one as cruel and savage as the killer
stood before him now.

‘Come on,’ urged Rhett.
‘What are you waiting for; shoot!’

‘Does the same offer
apply to me?’

Colin entered the doorway
and brought the sights of his weapon into line with the Australian. He was weak
from losing a lot of blood and had to prop himself against the doorframe to
stay on his feet, but he was still perfectly capable of pulling a trigger.

‘You can’t win this one
Rhett; let it go,’ said Matt.

The young backpacker had
a new sense of conviction and his confidence was renewed by his friend’s
arrival.

The old man sniggered.

‘I’m actually starting
to like you two,’ he said. ‘If you’d shown this kind of spirit sooner the three
of us may have gotten along.’

The Australian slowly
lowered his gun until it was by his side, pointed at the floor. Matt breathed a
sigh of relief, but the old man had not yet offered his last word.

‘Tonight’s been fun,
hasn’t it,’ Rhett mused. ‘Which makes it such a shame, that in the end, we all
lose.’

With those final words
still hanging in the air, Rhett quickly raised his gun to his right and fired.
As Rose fell to the floor clutching her stomach, the two boys unleashed their
remaining arsenal onto their now defenceless foe. This outback killer’s reign
of terror had finally come to an end, but not without a price.

Chapter 36

Rhett had nobody to mourn
his passing. Rose, however, could rely on both Matt and Colin to ensure that
she would not face the same fate as the man who tried to take her life. Colin
did his best to stem the bleeding and keep the wounded girl conscious, whilst
Matt ran down the stairs to call for help. Thanks to Jenny’s efforts back at the
police station, help was already on its way and an air ambulance arrived within
half an hour.

Rose was airlifted by
helicopter to the hospital at Cooper’s Creek, where she was assigned a private
room on the same ward as Celeste. The doctors worked through the night to save
her life, but it came at a cost. Such was the damage caused by Rhett’s final
act of malice that an emergency hysterectomy had to be performed, meaning that
she would never be able to have children of her own.

Colin also required
surgery, but in his case the bullet made a clean passage through his shoulder
leaving no permanent damage. With time, he would be left with only the scars as
a reminder of the ordeal that he had endured. Despite his injuries, Colin
insisted on keeping a bedside vigil around his girlfriend until she regained
consciousness.

Matt and Jenny relocated
to a local hostel in Cooper’s Creek, where they could more easily visit their
friend and sibling in the hospital. The events of the previous week had brought
the four closer together than they could have thought possible and created an
unbreakable bond that they would always share, but they knew that their time
together was running out. Although they had helped each other survive the
greatest trial of their lives, what they all needed more than anything was to
go home.

Back in Birribandi, the
caravan park was closed down and marked for demolition. It had borne witness to
some of the most brutal crimes in the state’s history and as such, none of the
town’s residents wanted to keep it as a reminder. Birribandi was home to a
small community and none were unaffected by the tragedy that had unfolded
around them.

Each of the backpackers was
granted a visa extension without having to see out the duration of their three
months, but for some they could not put the country behind them soon enough.
Hiro had been the first to go and he flew back to Japan as soon as he had
fulfilled all of the legal requirements surrounding his status as a witness to
the tragedies. For obvious reasons, he did not bother to say goodbye.

Niall had also made a
swift exit from the town. He went to Sydney to meet up with Stephen after his
friend’s belated release from custody. He promised the others that they would
all enjoy a reunion one day, but it would likely require some time before the
group would be able to get together without having to relive the horrors that
they had all shared.

Jonas was the most
reluctant of all to leave. He looked upon Matt as a saviour and felt a sense of
camaraderie and pride with his fellow backpackers. In his idealized view of the
world they were all triumphant heroes. Sadly, the sentiment carried little
enthusiasm with his friends and the young German left shortly after Niall, to
fulfil his dream of going to Cairns.

‘Do you think that you
will ever return?’ Jenny asked.

Matt took time to
consider the question.

‘I don’t know,’ he
replied. ‘Just a few weeks ago I could not have even imagined that I would ever
want to leave. After what has happened, I feel like I finally need some stability
in my life. Returning to England and joining the real world no longer seems
like such an unattractive prospect. What about you?’

Jenny shrugged.

‘I may come back one
day, but not like this,’ she replied. ‘My backpacking days are over.’

Matt did not want their
last few days together to be tinged with sadness and decided to try to lighten
the mood.

‘This last week has been
like Hell, but I am going to miss everyone,’ he said. ‘I’ve learned a lot
staying in Birribandi. Did you know, for instance, that the city of Melbourne
was founded by Batman?’

‘As a matter of fact, I
did,’ Jenny replied. ‘What makes you mention that?’

He looked back at her,
slightly puzzled.

‘It was something that
Jonas said to me shortly after I arrived and I found it quite funny at the
time. To be honest, I assumed that he was just talking nonsense. I mean,
Batman; really?’

She laughed.

‘Jonas was telling the
truth. If you don’t believe me - look it up. Batman founded the city of
Melbourne.’

Despite how ridiculous
the idea sounded, he felt that anything Jenny believed had to be true. He took
her hands in his and pulled her close to him. They held each other tightly and
for the briefest of moments, all of their problems slipped away. If their
fateful encounter with Rhett Butler had taught them one lesson, it was that
life could change in a heartbeat. From that day forward, they would be grateful
for each and every one.

The End

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