Out on the Waste

The Earth was red.

The sky was red.

The whole world was red.

Saul hadn't seen anything outside of a harsh crimson in quite sometime. It was the arid wasteland before him, merciless and unending. It was the searing red God above, leeching away his essence, salt by salty drop.

Salt of the Earth, made flesh in the here and now.

The red was a river cascading and segmenting down a smooth and downy delta. Its origin was a pair of dark red holes, ringed and speckled with biological blight. Neither he nor Josh had seen the Eastern Brown, all three feet of scales and fangs. Saul had crushed its head beneath his boot laden heel but not before the serpent bitch had left its mark on both man and child.

And now they existed, just barely, two exhausted spectres trudging through the endless waste. He carried his son dutifully, despite the venom coursing its way through the network of his veins as well. A visceral highway overrun by the slow death inflicted upon him, no terminus in sight. He thought it ironic as he hadn't seen another actual car since theirs had broken down back on the paved road.

True, it would have been logical and more safe to wait for the next passing motorist. But when his little boy had cried out in pain, a different side of him took over. Paternal instinct, generations of strength and fervor blotted out the end result of his brief battle with the snake and he had plunged headlong into the wilderness, seeking whatever help he may find.

Saul had done his research. He knew the Australian Outback could be a dangerous place. He knew all about the infamous array of venomous spiders said to plague the land but he hadn't thought about those which crawled on their bellies through the red dust. Foolishness on his behalf. Maybe of this whole endeavor?

Thankfully the boy was slight, a mere wisp of a child and therefore easy for his father to shoulder the burden. He had always told the boy to put more meat on his bones, but he was briefly grateful that he hadn't. Joshua groaned aloud in his father's arms, even as Saul reached out to grasp the fencepost. He had stumbled across the fence not long after wandering dazedly into the waste. He knew he had located the infamous Dingo Fence, the longest posted fence in the world, constructed specifically to keep out the wild dog population. The thought of feral predation nipping at their heels only fueled his desperate progress. More so though, the thought that a man made construct could only lead back to its creators. Stick to the fence, find a town. Rather akin to following the flow of water when lost in the woods. Yet there was no water out here, no food. And he would have gladly taken a handful of bacteria laden runoff.

He was struggling, no doubt about it. Saul all but knew that his struggle was futile. Death was following and eventually it would catch up. For both of them. He wondered which would catch them first. The spectre of hunger? The ghost of thirst? The phantom of sheer exhaustion? Or most likely, that crimson bastard, the God of the Waste. The toxin seeping through the pair, delivered from the red God's familiar in scales and fangs. Wasting away, drop by drop, step by step, beleagured gasp by he was a good father wasn't he?

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He'd like to think so.

He could hardly be blamed for the snake. Saul thought, however, that he could be partially be blamed for the events that had lead them to the red waste. After he and Laurie had broken up, he suspected that maybe the boy could use some time away, so lets take a nice vacation, why not? He was grateful that she had let him take Josh out of the country despite her having won custody of the boy. The courts has said "We find you guilty on all counts of child abuse, for not staying near the car and for allowing your child to be attacked by slithering death."