The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 43
Her last ride had taken her just twenty miles further north,having been picked up by a friendly middle-aged lady who had a farm nearby andhad been delivering fresh produce around the area in her truck.
She had spent the last few days hitch-hiking alone fromSydney, where she had been unexpectedly abandoned by Ellie, her travellingcompanion.
“You can’t just stay here,” Alice had protested, over coffeeon the harbour front at Sydney. Ellie had fallen hook, line and sinker for animpossibly perfect, blue-eyed surfer boy at Bondi Beach. “What about yourdegree?”
“I don’t care – he’s the one,” replied Ellie in her besottedstate of mind.
“What happened to sticking together at all costs?” askedAlice. “You know I can’t afford the bus fare to Brisbane. Are you reallysuggesting that I hitch-hike alone? A twenty-year-old single woman?”
“You’ll be fine,” said Ellie. “Just stick to public placesand only accept lifts from women.”
“It won’t last with this guy, you know,” insisted Alice whohad seen right through Brad, the surfer’s, act. “He probably picks up adifferent tourist every week.”
“That’s not true,” replied Ellie. “He says he’s never feltlike this about anyone ever before.”
“Was that before or after he got you into bed?” asked Alice.
“Look, I’m not listening to any more of this. My mind ismade up and I’m going now,” said Ellie. “Brad’s taking me out on his boat forthe day. If you want to go, then go. I’m not stopping you.”
“Fine,” replied Alice. “I will. Ring me when it all goestits up and you can come and meet me with your tail between your legs.”
“That’s not going to happen,” replied her deluded friend, asshe flounced confidently out of the café, leaving Alice to foot the bill.
Left with no option but to proceed on her own, Alice hadbegun the journey up the east coast, breaking it into small chunks. She didn’twant to make the trip to Brisbane in one go as there were many places shewanted to visit along the way. If she couldn’t find anywhere cheap to bed downfor the night, she would get off the road and use her tent. She was resourcefullike that.
Getting lifts had proven to be a lot easier than she hadthought. Four days after leaving Sydney, she was now ready to head straight forBrisbane where the hitch-hiking would have to stop – it was illegal inQueensland.
It was getting significantly hotter with every passing dayas she headed north, and today it was becoming quite unbearable. The truck shehad been riding in was old with no apparent form of air conditioning and shehad been practically sticking to the hot, black leather seats. All through thejourney she had felt rivulets of sweat running into the small of her back andit was incredibly uncomfortable.
She refrained from putting her backpack on for the timebeing to give her back time to breathe, instead opening the top and pulling outher last bottle of water. Taking a long cool swig, she decided she would haveto seriously stock up at the garage because there was no guarantee she wouldmake it to Brisbane today.
As she savoured the refreshing liquid, she heard a strange,high-pitched whistling sound, like a firework taking off. She looked all aroundbut she couldn’t see anything. Thinking no more of it, she drained the rest ofher water and walked up to the garage shop to replenish her supplies.
She hadn’t expected it to be this hot in springtime, butthen she was moving closer to the Equator every day, and the SouthernHemisphere was getting more and more sunlight as the equinox approached.
It had been winter when she and Ellie had arrived inAustralia three months before, though it hadn’t felt much like winter, eventhen. They hadn’t had a day cooler than the average April day in England sincethey had arrived.
Global warming had hit Australia hard in recent years andshe had been shocked at the amount of devastation as she had travelled aroundNew South Wales. Everywhere she went she saw blackened tree stumps, a reminderof the devastating fires that had ravaged the region the previous summer.
Sydney itself had been under serious threat from the firesfor a while as the mercury hit over forty degrees every day in January and thewildfires raging all around grew closer and closer. Thankfully disaster hadbeen averted this time, but all over the world cities were facing similarthreats.
Travelling in the Australian winter had seemed like aneminently sensible idea, but as she moved up the east coast, the climate wasrapidly changing. What would it be like when she reached the tropical regionsin the north?
Once she had restocked on water and snacks in the shop, shewalked over to the specially designated waiting area just along from the petrolpumps where she held up her crudely written cardboard sign simply reading“Brisbane”. It seemed like today was her lucky day as she was almostimmediately picked up by a middle-aged woman who she had just seen refuellingher open-topped 4x4.
“You headed for Brizzie?” asked the woman.
“Too right,” said Alice, hurriedly picking up her backpack.
“You’re in luck,” said the woman. “Hop in.”
“Thank you,” said Alice, dumping her sign in a handyrecycling bin and slinging her backpack into the back seat, before sliding ingratefully beside the woman. She wouldn’t have been so grateful if she knewwhat the future Alice knew about this woman, but at twenty she was completelyoblivious to the danger.
Like a lamb to the slaughter, thought Vanessa, revelling inthe power that time travel was gifting her. Her enemy from the future was inthe car, full of youthful innocence and trust that was going to prove to beseriously misplaced. She glanced across at Alice, so impossibly young and withher whole life in front of her.
That life was about to become significantly shorter than itshould have been. Vanessa felt no remorse for this whatsoever; in fact, she waspositively relishing the misery and fear she was going to put the young girlthrough before she killed her. The world belonged to her now; she set the rulesand she could wipe