A woman walked through the bush, looking up at the tree canopy and down at her feet at the variety of plants growing there. Every so often she would stop to pick a piece of a shrub, examine it and write something on her clipboard. She wore a green chambray tee-shirt, with a small blue symbol just above the left breast, and blue jeans smeared with dirt. She had a blue backpack and she held a red clipboard and a small PDA. In her ears were small headphone buds, her footsteps moved in time to the music. A phone rang and she pulled the buds out of her ears, pulled a mobile phone out of her pocket and answered it.
"Hello, Natasha Greene speaking" she said. After a pause "Oh hi Michelle... Yep still got a couple of hours to go on this site then I'll be heading off. You should see the flowers, they've got Umbrella wattle and Swainson peas. It's just lovely." She stoped and pulled her backpack off and sat down on a log. "Sorry Michelle, it's mean of me, making you jealous. I know you'd like to be out in the field... Ok then I'll ring you when I leave... Bye."
Natasha put the phone back in her pocket. She started to write something on her clipboard but paused. She looked up at the trees. With her music and then the phone call she hadn't noticed. The bush was totally silent. It was never silent. There was always birds, or insects and of course the flies. But nothing. It wasn't windy or too hot. There should be some noise. Where were the birds? She scanned the branches of the trees but saw no sign of life. She picked up her backpack. Looking all around her she walked quickly towards a white ute, just visible through the trees. She shivered. This was creepy, and the one thing you didn't want was creepy when you were out on your own, in the middle of some block of bush, with no one within cooee or two.
And then she saw what she was looking for, a bird perched on a low branch of a large Black Box tree. She quickly identified the large black bird. A White-winged Chough. That was odd, they normally flew in large groups making one hell of a noise. And here was this one just sitting there looking at her, its head titled to the side.
"What's up with you?" she asked the bird, "Not feeling too talkative today huh?" She laughed at her silent conversation and then shuddered again. In large groups squawking and carrying on these birds were creepy. One silent bird just looking at her like that was much more ominous. She tried to shake off the feeling and resumed her walk towards the ute, keeping her eye on the silent bird as she walked past.
The silence was suddenly shattered by the strangest noise she had ever heard. A whooshing noise, but mechanical, kind of like a motor-bike being started under water, but, not really. A motor-bike, being started under water, in a wind storm, with a loose electrical wire? That didn't make sense. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. In a spot about fifty metres in front of her she could see movement. It was hazy at first like a smudge glasses, or an out of focus picture, but as the noise increased a blue shape sharpened itself into... A blue telephone box?? No a police box. It said so. A band of clear white writing across the top of the box said simply 'Police Box'.
Was that there before? Am I seeing things? She asked herself. No, that's new. To her amazement a door on the box opened and out stepped a thin man in a leather jacket, followed closely but a small red haired woman wearing a tunic top and skinny jeans.
Totally inappropriate clothing for the bush was the slightly hysterical thought to go through Natasha's head.
The man looked at her and said one word "Run".
So she did, away from the box and back towards the strange bird.
"No" he yelled. As he did the bird reared up and flew towards her, black wings tipped with white flapping wildly. And behind that bird was a swarm of black and white flashing wings. There were hundreds of them, a mass of claws, feathers and beaks. Natasha screamed in terror, did another turn and ran back towards the man, the woman and the blue box.