The Kangaroos

The roaring campfire is enthusiastically flickering against the dark, peaceful, star-filled sky. The restless group eagerly awaiting the next story. We are halfway around the egg-shaped crowd, making it a twelve year old girl's turn to give us a portion of her experienced mind. Everyone has their eyes turned to her malevolent green-eyed face. Her name is Erin Harrell. Her mouth opens and she starts her story.

"A few years ago, there was a Wildlife officer who went under the name of Eustace Monaghan, but everyone called him Rhino because, of the noise he would make when he walked. He used to live in a hut in the bush when he was on duty, with about five other officers, including my Dad. One day he went out into the bush, his obnoxiously loud feet sending out a song of loud repetitive crunch as his foot hits the leaf-littered ground. He came across a carcass of a magpie on he ground. He decided to investigate. A few meters away he came across a mob of kangaroos, they sent a shiver down his spine which could have been caused by the abnormally round hypnotic eyes or the transparent skin stretched across their facial area. He took a few steps back and his back hit the hard, uneven surface of the trunk of a tree, which caused him to hit the ground with a thump. He picked himself off the ground and bolted away from the abnormal mob. When he finally reached the hut, he locked the door and shut himself in his room. He sat on his bed trying to stop the horror from flooding over him, he was losing the battle, His mind must of gone into overdrive because he passed out. A few minutes later there was a repetitive tapping on the hut door and then the surveillance cameras went off," Erin paused and took a short breath." No one ever saw Eustace after that. My Dad told me that sometimes the other wildlife officers could hear the sound of the his feet hitting the ground and sometimes some officers would go missing and be found a few weeks and even months later,completely blind."

There is silence while everybody absorb's Erin's story. Erin looks around at the group, their expressions that are either scared, puzzled or half asleep. Erin starts laughing at the look on everyone's face. He annoying laugh echoes through the trees surrounding the clearing. Her laugh is cut out by a sound emerging from the bushes, almost like the sound of a rhinoceros. Thump, thump, thump. Erin's face loses any trace of colour that has ever existed.