River, Sun, Freedom

Hansel, Gretel and the ... rock?

chapter 3; Hansel, Gretel and the ... rock?

It took two days to get to the “headquarters” as Richard liked to call it. Two days riding in their hover-truck, a large hovercraft with ample room for seven people or five people, their luggage, a hover bike strapped to the top and enough supplies to last three people four weeks. Richard and Alice sat in the front, switching the driver’s seat when either of them got tired, while Nate lounged in the back next to Jake with Jodi on Jake’s other side. They stopped only at night and never stayed long, eating and sleeping in the truck.

When they finally stopped moving, Jodi practically flew out of the car, reveling in the ability to once again feel her legs. Jake quickly followed, and the other three took their time, slowly unloading her hoverbike. It was then that Jodi took stock of where they were.

They were out in the desert; that was for sure. Almost everywhere the eye could see, were vast open skies and red sand. That would’ve made Jodi cower, and look for shelter if shelter hadn’t been right behind her, in the shape of the biggest, reddest rock Jodi had ever seen.

The rock could have been a quarter kilometre high, and half a kilometre wide. It was huge! So big it took Jodi’s breath away.

“They used to call it Uluru” said the quiet voice of Alice beside her. “Among other names.” She stepped closer to the rock and touched it. “For the “ordinary” people of this country, this place was a nice tourist destination, and that was about it, but for my grandfather, and his ancestors, and the old indigenous tribes that lived around here, this is a sacred place.”

Jodi looked at this woman before her. “And for you?”

Alice looked at her and smiled. “For me, this is home.”

Jodi stared at her perplexedly. “You live on a rock?”

Alice smiled wider and chuckled. “Not on, but in” and before Jodi could ask again, Nate called out to her.

“Oi, you coming or not?” he called.

Jodi walked over to where he was standing with her bike. Nate rolled it towards her. “You and your brother take the bike and follow me, Rick and Alice will take the car.”

“But where are we going?”

Nate grinned. “You’ll see.”

He walked past her towards Uluru and she followed, rolling the bike beside her, with Jake behind her. She stared up at the Rock again, trying to see the top, but couldn’t. She looked back at Nate again and stopped suddenly. He was nowhere to be seen!

Startled, she turned and saw the truck was also gone, with her and Jake’s rucksack in it. Fighting back the urge to panic she desperately looked around for the truck.

“What are you doing?”

“I can’t find them. They’re gone and they took our stuff!” Jodi almost cried to Jake, and then stopped, for it hadn’t been Jake's voice that had asked the question. She felt relief flood through her as she turned to face Nate, who was frowning down at her.

“We’re not thieves.” He said. He turned sharply and walked back towards the rock. This time Jodi watched carefully, and so she did not miss when Nate went behind a certain edge that jutted out. The place had a native indigenous painting of a brown-coloured man, edged in white, but she was absolutely certain that it wasn’t as old as it was suppose to be. Moving closer, Jodi saw that behind this piece of rock was a hole of some sort, large enough for a fairly large person to squeeze through. Nate was holding back a wrinkled fabric sheet of the same colour as the rock around her, which Jodi was sure would camouflage this entrance almost perfectly.