HIGH & DRY - Day Six

Day Five

The morning dawned hot and she decided to wear her cropped track pants and a long sleeved t-shirt in the canoe. She had a second scarf; a lighter cotton one and she had been wearing that instead. She dressed and went out to breakfast. The men also opted for wearing shorts and t-shirts. It gave her a real insight to their styles. Wayne was brilliant in his bright Bermuda style, Chris wore serious canoe attire in black, Dan was in camo pants and army t-shirt and she began to wonder if he’d been ordered to do this job too, Greg wore Hawaiian board shorts and a blue t-shirt and Brad wore tan shorts and a red muscle shirt. It made the need to eliminate two even more pressing on her.

Greg was making breakfast, as he always seemed to be when she woke late. He was also the one to automatically prep for dinner and set to in cleaning up afterwards. She knew it was his profession but she was grateful. He smiled at her on greeting and then a concerned frown crossed his face as he saw her state.
‘Sweetheart?’ he asked catching her shoulders and looking into her eyes.
‘Rotten dreams.’ She told him in explanation. ‘I miss the High Country.’
‘Yeah so do I.’ He agreed looking up at the imposing mountains behind them. ‘You go grab a cuppa and rest a bit, I’ll bring you breaky.’
She smiled at him using her Australian colloquialisms and squeezed his arm ‘Thanks.’ Then because she needed one she reached up and gave him a kiss that caught him on the corner of his mouth and he snatched the chance to give her one with it. Then he watched after her as she went off.

After a quiet breakfast, well as quiet as Wazza would ever let one be, they organised themselves to get moving. Facing them she sighed. No matter how many she did she would never get used to sending someone away.

‘Okay, let’s get this over with. Dan.’
The soldier came out to her.
‘Mate I think you’re great but I don’t think I have enough time to get to know you. So thanks but it’s time to return to your barracks.’
He smiled ‘Thank you Ma’am.’ He grinned and kissed her cheek then snapping to attention saluted her and walked over to JD.

Greg.’
He walked over to her.
‘Would you please continue on this journey with me?’
‘Yeah sure.’ He smiled she smiled back and accepted his kiss on her cheek as he went through to the equipment where Chris stood already kitted up leaning on a paddle.

‘Brad.’

Her next choice had them all frowning. She’d never made a pattern of choosing her eliminated men so they were not sure if she were keeping Brad in favour of Wayne her jester and of them all the last obvious closest one to her. Wayne had been friends with them all but they knew he was not an asset in this trek, they also knew there was rougher water to come, he could be a liability that could endanger them all at this rate if the rapids were any worse than what they’d negotiated the afternoon before. Greg had gone white water rafting on the Colorado and the Murray was meant to be bigger.

‘Mate, it has been fun. But I,’ she caught her breath not realising he’d snuck into her affections after all. She took a breath and let it out. ‘I guess the others did blind me to your charms.’ He smiled ‘Thank you for a few great days of adventure. But it’s time for you to go home with JD.’
‘But he’s not my type.’ He quipped and she half chuckled in her emotional downer.
He said nothing more just nodded and bent to kiss her goodbye and then walked off.
‘Come on Wazza let’s see if you can’t drown me today and put me out of my misery.’ She called to him.

They set off in the two canoes. The first of the two hair-raising rapids was on them pretty quickly. She pulled them into the side and while Wayne and Chris hung onto the canoes she and Greg walked down to view the rapid.
‘Geeze that looks wicked.’ He commented.
‘Yep it is, and then some.’ She explained. ‘We could chance that run.’
She pointed to a white water choppy stretch down the far side
‘But one snag a bit bigger than the rest and it’ll rip the bottom out of the boat. But I don’t know if we can chance the deeper run.’
She pointed to the series of drops between the bigger rocks closer to them.
‘That turn there is damned sharp and down there there’s a chance at getting snagged and swamped and if we’re not careful the canoe will snap.’
He looked at her.
‘And then we’ll get wet.’ He said simply and she laughed.
‘Yep, then we’ll get wet.’ She agreed.
‘Your call I guess, but this deep run looks fun.’
‘Okay we’ll have a go but one at a time so you can bail us out.’
‘You might be bailing us out yet. Chris isn’t all he’s cracked up to be.’
‘I know.’ She replied quietly.
They studied the route to the run as they made their way back to the canoes.
‘You go first.’ He said.
She nodded and pulled on her helmet worrying Wayne. She handed Greg her hat. ‘Give us this at the bottom mate.’
‘Sure.’

She climbed into her canoe and waited for Wayne then pushed off back into the ebb and watched the boys beach their canoe and scramble down to the rapid.

‘Right mate I’ll get us through this. I want you to ship your oar and use your hands to push the nose away from rocks. And don’t fall in.’

Trembling he hooked the rope around the handle of his oar and pushed it under his seat and then hung onto the side of the canoe. Terrified yet fascinated he watched the water get faster as she headed them down the current. He screamed better than any girl she knew as they took the first drop and then the next two and then in the pond she shoved her oar in hard on the right and swung the nose to the next gap to take the next drop which even she yelled at as the canoe nose went airborne then pulled her up as it fell the few feet with the water. She hauled on the oar but the water wanted to pull her nose broadside to the rock in the middle of the two.

‘Wazza push us left!’ she bellowed and the terrified man leant out and grabbed the rock but it was too late the nose went right of the rock. ‘Shit pray!’ she bellowed and paddled for all her might to get them through the right gap and not get the tail dragged around to broadside and snap.

They shot out the gap and flew a meter to land in the rushing current in the middle. Stunned they didn’t explode on impact she worked like a demon getting them through the rushing obstacles before the river calmed and she could get them to shore. Having beached the nose into weeds and grass, exhausted she slumped

Greg splashed out in the knee depth water to her. ‘Christ woman!’ he greeted her. ‘You think you’re a duck or something?’
She raised her head and smiled. ‘Is Wayne still breathing?’
‘No!’ Wayne called feebly. ‘I’m hyperventilating! Oh man! Oh man!’
‘You didn’t wet yourself now did you?’ she teased.
‘Wetting myself was not the problem.’ He replied in a feeble voice and she laughed.
‘Come on.’ She got up out of her canoe with Greg’s help. ‘Your turn.’ She poked Greg’s chest and grinning he ran off eagerly making her laugh. ‘Oi! Where’s my hat?’ she called after him and he pointed to a tree on the bank where her hat hung on a broken limb stump.

She saw to beaching their canoe and dragging Wayne out to help her in case the boys needed their help.
Chris’s face was white but determined as they dropped over the first rapid and then the next two but then he stupidly tried her trick of turning the boat managing to swing them completely around. Greg tried to get room to turn them about but Chris wasn’t helping. Deb hadn’t seen that level as the problem and was too low to get up and help and to her horror they come down backwards, Greg twisting to attempt to do something about their landing. In the end he launched himself up into the canoe to stop them from diving in and submerging. Then the battle was really on.

Deb used her oar to prod them trying to help Greg get the nose around. Her flying trick only worked because she knew to lean back on the stern to keep the nose up. But then Chris grabbed her oar.
‘No! Let it go!’ she bellowed but he held on tight and she had to let it go or risk falling in or falling off her rock or pulling him in and the canoe over. He fell back flinging the oar over the side of the rapid. It spun the canoe and sent it back toward the fall they’d come down and Greg got wet. But he was able then to guide the canoe straight and take the left drop which brought them down into the deeper and more sluggish pool to float gently up to where she’d pulled in.

However her balance was compromised and she went into the higher pool. She came up heading for the right drop she’d flown over in her canoe and powered away from it kicking and clinging to the rocks feeling the water drag and the undertow trying to suck her down with it. her feet finally felt something beneath them and she tried getting up but slid in the mud. And then she was heading for the left drop. She turned shot her feet forward and dropped over it screaming.

She went under on landing and relaxed as she slowly rose to the surface, then the worst happened, her jacket snagged on a submerged limb. She fought and then tried to unclip the buckles. She got one done and was working on the other when hands reached her and there was Chris underwater with her.

He hampered her somewhat and she began to panic. What was he doing? She slapped at his hands that seemed to be trying to stop her from undoing her jacket and then he grabbed her hands. She was losing her ability to hold her breath any longer and she’d not taken all that good a one. He let her go to go up for air himself and she unclipped her buckle unzipped her vest and shot to the surface to suck in air.

They were in water he was just able to touch his toes to the rocks on the bottom of. She was treading water. He went under as she came up then surfaced with her jacket looking around for her. Greg was there with an oar for her to grab and be hauled out by.
He pulled her up into his arms as she sat on the bank. ‘Christ woman you are scaring the shit out of me.’
‘Me too.’ she said still heaving air into her paining chest.
Chris pulled himself up beside her. ‘Where’d you go?’ he asked as Wayne clambered down from his higher perch.
‘You …. !’ she hissed at him venomously and the three of them stared at her shocked. ‘You tried to drown me you…’
‘No I was going to get you out.’ Chris tried lamely but his smiling eyes held a different meaning.

Then JD and the support team came running down and she had to let it drop, but continued sending him dark looks.
‘The lunch camp is just a few hundred meters down. Do you think you can manage it?’ JD asked her
‘Yeah. Come on Wazza, we’ll go find my oar.’

She got up and collecting her hat as she passed the tree, she led Wayne back to their canoe. They found the oar snagged several meters down stream and she angled Wayne to reach over and collect it. Then they continued on down. There were a few smaller rapids but after that last one they were happy to scoot down them almost slalom fashion.
As they pulled into the bank though disaster struck again. Chris had held a branch back for him to get under and then let it go. It swung and caught Greg sending him over the stern of their canoe into the water. By the time Deb sorted out getting to them Greg was to his feet but holding his face. She beached her canoe and got out, ignoring Chris floating down a few meters in his canoe.

When she reached Greg he was bending over and trying to wash his face with water. ‘Let me see.’ She pealed his hand back and swallowed a scream. His face was lacerated from the twigs and bleeding.
‘There’s shit in both my eyes.’ He told her.
‘Yeah and washing it in this water is real good.’ She said sarcastically. ‘Keep them closed and let’s get you up to camp to get the medicos to clean you up.’

She helped him get to the bank and Wayne and the medical team pulled him up. She looked then for Chris and saw him struggling several hundred meters down stream. He was very close to the next set of rapids and she knew after them there was no getting out until the after last hair-raiser.
‘Shit!’ she swore and grabbing an oar, aimed for down river.
For a man who claimed to be ex marine he was acting rather pathetically and dangerously in a canoe! She reached him and threw the oar in before hoisting herself up and into the stern seat.
‘Right buster paddle!’ She instructed grunting with the force of digging her oar in deep and turning them upstream.
‘I am!’ he replied.
‘Harder! I am not doing Crazy Man backwards!’
‘Crazy Man?’
‘The next big rapid.’ She explained hauling on every stroke to get them up out of the current drag into the rapids. ‘It makes that last one look like a stroll in the park.’
‘How’s Greg?’
‘Don’t talk row!’ she growled.
She got them back to the lunch stop and beached the canoe.
‘Thanks’ he said lamely.
She got out and threw her oar on the grass and stormed off from him.

JD came up to them as she sat eating a tasteless sandwich with Wayne.
‘Greg’s out. He’s being taken to Wangaratta and then flown to Melbourne.’
She hung her head. ‘He gone yet?’
‘No they’re just sorting it out.’
She dropped her sandwich on the plate and went to see him.

‘Hey you.’ She greeted him. He was on a seat his eyes bandaged.
‘Hey yourself.’ He replied with a smile. ‘This is all such a strange new experience.’
‘What, you’ve never played Blind Man’s Bluff?’
He smiled, ‘Not with morphine.’ It was her turn to smile. ‘Look I’m sorry you’re left with Darth Vader and Dopey.’
She grinned. ‘Thanks Hans.’
He smiled ‘You never know Skywalker might yet turn up to rescue you.’
‘He might have to if they still want me to take this pair down Crazy Man.’
‘It that good a rapid?’
‘Yeah, the last one was a breeze in comparison.’
‘Wish I could see that.’
‘You will. You get your eyes fixed and it’s a date, I’ll take you down Crazy Man although it might have to wait a year to get the right fall again. It’s really spectacular in these conditions. Like a mini Niagara with a few more challenges.’
‘In this sunshine it would be amazing.’
‘Yeah, pretty snazzo.’
‘You know, when you came back the other night you looked so gorgeous. That and you riding, that’s how I’ll remember you.’
‘What, not flying?’
He chuckled ‘Yeah that too.’

She was informed it was time for him to go and raised his hand to kiss it.
‘What, no last kiss goodbye?’
‘Okay.’ She chuckled.
‘Make it good, you’ll be taken when next I get to kiss you.’
She touched her lips to his and he grabbed her with his hands to deepen it. When she rose her face her eyes were wet.
‘Be good you.’ She told him
‘But I hear Aussie nurses are delicious.’
‘Hmm, must be the sterilization solution under the finger nails.’
‘Oooh you say the nicest things.’ He teased back and she grinned.

She gave him another peck after they sat him in the back seat and then watched the Landrover take him away. With Greg gone they were a person short for the next section of canoeing and she was left with the two worst canoeists.

‘Okay I have a special surprise for you.’ JD announced and Luke walked in from the trees.
Her life lit up!
She ran to him and he caught her smiling. She kissed him and he grabbed her devouring her hungrily. And then she buried her face on his chest.

‘He comes with a gift.’ She looked at JD and Luke took her hand and walked to the others. ‘He has to decide over the next stretch which of these two men will take his gift and leave.’
She looked at him and at the two men left. He squeezed her hand and let it go to take the small backpack off that he wore.
‘Right the four of you need to do the next stretch now.’ JD instructed

‘Had Greg not been injured you would be swapping with one of them now right?’ she asked as they kitted up again and he pulled the backpack back on.
‘Yep and you would be eliminating one at the end of this stretch.’
‘Oh.’ She said in a small voice.

At the canoes he collected Greg’s jacket and paddle and she realised he wore half cut track pants and a long sleeved t-shirt.
‘Take Wayne again, I can handle Chris.’ he told her
‘Have you seen Crazy Man?’ she asked not debating his decision in the slightest.
‘Yeah and he’s up.’
‘Oh.’ She said softly again and wondered if she could get them through it.
‘Keep right and you’ll be safe enough.’ He told her and took her shoulders. ‘Happy I’m back?’ he asked and she beamed up at him
‘What do you think?’ she asked and he grinned and kissed her.
‘Go on, get this show on the river.’

They enjoyed the cruise down to the rapids and then the warm up of the smaller series of rapids and then the roar of water announced Crazy Man Falls. She yelled for Luke to lead as he’d seen it last and he aimed for the right of the largest rocks. Wayne knew to ship his oar and hang on and they watched as Luke shouted orders to Chris who took no notice and then they disappeared from sight round boulders, bushes and water. They waited a few minutes until she heard the long whistle Luke used as his all clear signal and then she aimed at the rock.

They sailed down to the first level and she dug in hard to turn them right and then they were going over the falls proper. To her amazement Wayne let out an Indian call of pure delight and grinning she joined in. They shipped some water when they hit and then she was steering them out away from the dangers of the tumbled rocks. They sailed up to Luke beaming with pleasure.

She noted Chris was all wet again and there was a reddening on the bridge of one cheek below the eye. She accepted Luke’s hand and noted him wince slightly when she squeezed it a little too hard. He looked down at her and she smiled, her eyes twinkling, her mind envisioning the tall man laying out eagle armed backwards into the water. He smiled and squeezed her hand back.

To be good for TV they were picked up then in the Landrovers. And driven for nearly two hours to the entrance stretch of the Hume Weir. Deb wanted to be in the car with Luke but JD insisted she was in the one with Wayne. She took the chance then to swap addresses with him and then to sleep on his shoulder. When they got out they left wet puddles on the Landrover leather seats. They were set down at a landing similar to the bottom of the Crazy Man Falls to canoe out into the river and then down the last few hundred yards to enter the Hume Weir. Out in deep water she began a game of water cricket and they laughed at her then had races and played canoe chasey then finally they canoed to the huge wall that stopped the water and met JD.

They got out and formed a small circle.
‘Luke?’ JD prompted and Luke let Deb’s hand go to collect the bag from his shoulder. Then he went in front of Wayne. Deb’s hands went to her mouth.

‘Wazza mate.’ He said with a smile and Wayne smiled back. ‘Please take this gift.’
Wayne looked at him and then at who he now knew to be Debra Harris.
‘Yeah sure,’ he replied and smiled at her.

She hid her face and cried. She knew Luke had done it to make her final choice easier but why?

‘Wayne you have a last date with Jill before you go. Dinner in town.’ JD told him as he accepted Luke’s bag. She looked at JD and Luke that was his prise? She was insulted. ‘And the contents of the bag.’
Wayne opened the bag. There was a waterproof wallet that he unrolled to discover it contained a cheque for quarter of a million dollars.
‘Woo-hoo baby we gonna celebrate tonight!’ he grinned and showed her then hugged her.

They were then put in a Landrover and taken away from the other two. Looking back at them standing on the bank still in their gear she had a dreadful feeling of foreboding wash through her. Luke smiling and raising his hand in a small wave did nothing to dispel it.

She enjoyed her diner with the mad party animal Wayne became as he danced up a storm in the resort nightclub they went to after dinner. They then said goodnight at the foyer and the big limo took him away and she went up to her room she would be in for the night. She wondered where Luke and Chris were and her last thought was happy for Luke would be her mate after all.

Day Seven

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adventure, australian, bush, episode, horses, intriegue, mystery, script, series, story, suspense and tvshow