55 / 195
Ed started squawking loudly.
"Come on Ed, you're right, we don't need this loser guiding us on this trip."
Apanie declared.
And so they left, leaving Jason alone with his cruel father.
Chapter five
After walking back to get his car, Jason drove on, looking for his friends. Jason
gripped the steering wheel of his Holden, looking out the window. His life. All
one big bowl of cooked up frustration. Where was this lagoon? Where was what
he had been striving for since the start of his journey? All, all he needed – was
soup. Warm, tasty soup, being slurped up by delighted customers. He started to
feel sleepy. Oh, so sleepy. He started to feel his grip loosen, as the car began
jolting as if a wheel had gone loose. Swearing loudly, he slammed the brakes
and realised that he driven straight through a pile of loose gravel. Flinging open
the door, he looked around at his surroundings and it seemed to him as if he
had travelled to some post-apocalyptic universe. The land was barren and dry,
flat for kilometres apart from the enormous piles of red dirt and rubble, and the
huge machinery, cold and menacing. He saw this all in a glimpse of a second.
He jumped out of the car.
He fell, and tried desperately to stab the wall with the cooking knife in his apron
while going down, failing miserably. He looked down with only a few meters left
until landing, and he desperately stuck his hands out. Time seemed to stop.
And then before Jason knew it, he was on the ground with a stinging and aching
wrist that did not seem to move. He screamed – but stopped himself. No one
would hear him. The excruciating pain seemed like a nuclear explosion had
erupted in that one spot.
He lifted himself up with his other hand and straightened his legs, feeling his
right wrist scream at him, scream in pain.
He looked down at the cliffside and saw the wall, all the while feeling 100
needles in his hand, constantly crushing, constantly pinching.
He started to walk down the zigzagged path, complicated, like a maze, looping,
twisting and turning.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jason saw movement. He swiftly moved his head
to the side to see a person shifting in his seating position.
Jason yelled, "Help!"
The guard looked at the source of the noise, his brow furrowed. Surprise
dawned on his face as he realized who was calling out.
He felt his wrist hurt, more than ever before.
And then, suddenly, everything went black.