"Shit what are we gonna do!?" I punched the compost bin near the vechile shed.
Malia didn't look nearly as worried as I was, instead her face was slowly brightening.
"I got it! We take the quads. Only one though, sacrifes have to be made, and they're at the end of it oh well."
God she was so smart. And sexy. I give her a playful smirk and we sneak off to the shed.
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Once the quad is all fired up Malia comes running back from the house were she managed to get together some food that was left out to be sold.
"Good job babe." I peck her on the forehead as she ties the basket to the back of the quad.
"Shhh wheel it more there so they don't hear it start." she scolds.
"Yes miss." I reply cheekily.
I wheel it another 50m and then climb on, tugging her up behind me. We didn't have time to get helmets from the locked shed and honestly going without is way funner.
"Ready babe?" she tightens her grip around my waste.
"Yeah!" she says and we roar off, avoiding the road but taking to the trees once again.
We're still playing low, trying to get into another country which is hard from Austrailia but taking a plane to California is our ultimate goal. Life in the sunshine away from all this drama. We had no idea how to get the money for plane tickets but Maila says as soon as we reach a town she can lead us to her dads mansion. I tryed to ask why she's hear if her dad has a mansion but she always avoids the question, so I agree to travel blindly to this mansion.
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Three days through the forest and we've finally reached the outskirts of a small down. It's getting dark and smoke billows from chimneys in the cold winter air. The quad ran out of fuel yesterday so our last day on foot has been exhausting and we only have two apples left for food.
"What do we do." I ask, she's the one with the brains.
Find out where we are is the only plan we come up with and we end up asking at the post office.
The town is small but sweet, with every garden filled with life and every house painted brightly. A man at the post office gives us a map for free, and we sit on the curb outside to study it. In my hands it gets truned from side to side as I try to underdstand all the bare landscapes and winding roads. Before long Malia snatches it off me and nods as she studies it.
After a while she stands up and leads me to a bus stop across the road. A bus stop!
"Does this take us somewhere good?" I say at our sudden breakthrough.
"Too a train station where a train can then take us into the Sydney, where I used to live." she says boringly now eyeing the bus schedule. "Tomorrow morning!" she groans.
"Well it is the outback." I sigh in annoyance.
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The metal seat was uncomfortable and I was up half the night just studying Maia's beautiful face. She's so much prettier when she sleeps because all the curves and wrinkles of worry dissapear from her face, and she looks happy. I wish I could make her happy and it kills me that I can't.
"Malia." I groan in the early hours of the morning. "Mailia!" I shout this time, I'm seeing right.
"What?!" she jumps up out of sleep looking worried.
"The bus!"
I can hear its exhaust spitting even though its almost 400 metres away. The wheels make a funny sound against the gravel and the whole thing wobbles every ttime the wheel hits a pothole in the road.
It pulls up outside the stop as a cloud of dust swirls around us, leaving us coughing in our excitment.
The doors screech open and we both jump on the empty bus.
"Hey kids! Got your tickets?" the excitment in the bus drivers voice is dull but there, obviously he doesn't have very many people to drive around.
"Tickets...?" Malia mumbles.
"Yeh tickets, how else are ya gonna ride? I only get a dollar a hour so you ain't ridin' without ya ticket, that's for darn sure." his thick Austrailan accent annoys me and I want to punch him. Tickets! How the hell are we gonna get tickets we've got no fucking money! Of course every bloody hope of getting out of this shithole turns us down.
The bus driver shouts us out and we fall onto the seat as the bus pulls out onto the dirt road once more. I watch it until it dissapears, the next bus doesn't come for days and without a ticket there's no hope anyway.
"FUCK!" Malia shouts kicking dirt.
As hot as she is swearing I don't kiss her, just pull her into a reasuring cuddle. Once again I can't make it ok, and the lines of worry that momentarily dissapeared return to her brow once again.
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"Calm ye selves I'll get ya out of here." I hear a heavy voice shout.
I look down the road and there'e a girl about our age with two beautiful golden plaits swinging near her waist. Her hands are dirty and the mud on her gumboots is crusted up so hard I'm surprised she can even walk in them.
I squint my eyes against the sun as she walks up to us.
"Come fine strangers! I'll show ya the light in this dark time. The cattle are dying and my Betty and Fredrick are going too, you shall take them for their last ride." A smile plasters across her face but tears form in her eyes at the same time. It sounds like she's talking about horses.
Malia looks at me confused but I'm already following the girl as she heads off behind a house.
