Short Scary Stories

From Perth to Darwin.

I'd been travelling around Australia for about eighteen months doing the usual things travellers do. Between partying and sightseeing I'd worked on chicken farms, picked fruit and worked in call centres. I'd originally gone with some friends but one by one they ran out of money or got homesick so I was the last. I met James about two months before my visa was due to end. I was staying in Perth in some shitty hostel and one day he moved in to the bunk above me. These hostels were full of colourful characters, some fun, some annoying but most were like me, away from home and doing something different. It wasn't a very glamorous existence but it was fun and it was what it needed to be at that time.

We clicked immediately. James was unlike a lot of the guys you'd meet ravelling. He'd gone it alone and actually seemed like he was out in the world to actually grow and better himself. He wasn't obsessed with getting drunk and trying to have sex with anything in a skirt like 99% of the guys I'd encountered. He was calm and easy-going and the type of person who would immediately put people at ease, with James around the hostel actually felt like a home. James had a few more months on his visa than I did but we agreed that we'd go home together and he'd move down to London. We wouldn't live together straight away, he would find a house share and when the time was right we get a place together. Those were the kind of plans we were making before we set off on the road trip.

The idea was to drive from Perth up to Darwin, avoiding the main highways, where we'd fly out back to the UK. James had some crappy car that he'd brought while living in Queensland and claimed to have driven it across the outback more than once. We set off, a bit later than planned to due leaving drinks the night before but we had plenty of time. With three days for a two day journey, we planned on taking in some sights along the way. We were five hours out of Perth on some outback road when the car gave up on us. Neither of us knew much about mechanics but when your exhaust pipe is visible in the rear view mirror on the road behind you, it's obvious that something is wrong. All we could do was wait for someone to pass by and give us a lift to the nearest town, which according to our map was a five hour walk across the outback. Though we had plenty of water and food, neither of us fancied that. We had no phones either; we'd given up the contracts as we were leaving the country. We probably should have walked. Hindsight is a bitch.

We waited for hours. When you come from the UK, especially London, and everything is on your doorstep you don't have the sense of scale for dealing with a land mass of the size of the outback. As time went on and no vehicle appeared the opportunity for starting off on foot left us. It would be dark soon and attempting to cross the outback at night held less appeal than attempting it during the day. We sat in that crappy car for hours before he appeared in a dust storm of exhaust and sand.

When Jonno, that's what he called himself, pulled up beside us we were hesitant. Jonno was a stereotype through and through. He was covered in grease, unkempt and spoke with a thick accent that seemed almost caricature. His pick-up truck looked fifty years old and the mangy dog sat in the passenger seat, quiet but looking at us like we were meat.
'Looks like you could use a tow?' he said.
'Yeah, any chance we could get back to Perth?' asked James.
'Not heading that way mate, my ranch is about an hour north of here. You can rest up the night and I'll take you to Wagga Notch in the morning. You can get the bus to Perth from there'.
'Can we go north from Wagga Notch?' I asked 'we need to be in Darwin in two days'.
'Yeah, there's a few busses that go that way but you'll need to change at Quietbrook. Might be a bit tight with the changes but I think two days is doable'.
James looked at me with concern. He leaned in.
'I'm not sure about this, maybe we should wait for someone else? Just go back to Perth and get the train.'
Jonno heard what James had said.
'I doubt there'll be anyone on this road till morning, even then it'll be the ranchers going up to Quietbrook. Look, you're out here in the middle of nowhere, I really don't want to leave you, I can tow you, no charge.'