CHAPTER 33

Night fell.

Velma was sneaking along the banks of the Janna River in the downstream direction. The others followed behind without question, including Fred, who was albeit reluctant to give up his position as leader for the time being.

If the past three days had taught her anything, it was that night was much safer than the day. It meant they could actually walk around in the open and stretch their legs, without having to worry about being seen. At least at night, you could easily see a flash of light through the trees. Velma supposed that loosing your sight due to the darkness heightened your other senses. At night, she could better sense the presence of the soldiers – or at least hear them coming.

Velma froze. 'I hear something!' she whispered back to the others.

Without a word, they gathered behind some boulders to the riverside. Velma held her breath, straining her eyes in the darkness to find the source of the noise. It had sounded like a rustle of leaves, and she began to suspect it was probably just a possum. Still, they waited twenty minutes before Fred suggested it was safe to move on. They went to move along the bank again, but something in her path caused Velma to stop dead in her tracks.

In the still night air, it was the only thing moving, and she couldn't believe she hadn't seen it earlier. A large fuzzy wombat was grazing at the grasses by the river, just inches away from Velma's feet. She bit back a shriek of surprise and stepped slowly backwards. She had always thought wombats were shy creatures, but this one seemed confident. It didn't even seem to be aware of their presence.

'Wombat,' Velma mouthed back to the others.

She knew they had to avoid the wombat. Some resurfaced piece of knowledge from primary school floated to the forefront of Velma's mind – wombats were dangerous. But she also knew that sounds were more important than ever at night. If they avoided the wombat, that meant going up from the river and into the bush. But based on the amount of leaf litter in this part of the country, Velma ruled that out immediately. She realised suddenly that summer must soon be over and they were already on the brink of autumn. That meant over two months since the invasion.

Velma shuddered – how much they had all changed since then! They were physically fitter, their survival instincts were stronger than ever before and they had become accustomed to thinking a different way.

And then Velma knew what they had to do. She had to think of a different way around this, and that meant going in the river.

Tentatively, she put a foot in the water, gasping at the icy bite of the water as it gushed into her boot. Biting her tongue, she took another step before shuffling in further until she was knee deep. She waded out further and hid behind a spindly bush.

'Velma,' Daphne whispered. 'Is this necessary?'

'Were you not listening to the plan?' Velma hissed back.

'Yeah I know, but we don't have to go in the water yet…'

Velma made a frantic gesture at the wombat in their path.

'She's right, Daph,' Fred whispered in her ear. 'The soldiers are closing in by the hour… we don't know how tight their circle is.'

He grabbed Daphne's hand and stepped into the water.

'Oh, and Daph?' Velma said acidly. 'Try not to scream.'

Daphne glowered at her, but when Velma turned around, she clamped a hand over her mouth as she stepped in the river. For Daphne, the worst part was the horrible feeling of muddy river water penetrating her boots. She and Fred waded out to where Velma was, and it wasn't long before she was shivering. Shaggy and Scooby followed after, rather sheepishly after Velma roused on them for making so much splashing noise. By the time they reached the others, they were well and truly shaking in their boots, and it wasn't just from the cold.

'I see them,' Velma breathed, peering between some twisted branches. 'They've really moved in since the last time we were here.'

Fred followed Velma's gaze. There was one soldier on either side of the river. Along from them, spread out over the ridgeline, Fred could see at least eight others until the shape of the land curved out of sight. His view on the other side was obscured by leaves, but he suspected it looked much the same. He couldn't make out their expressions as they were silhouettes against the moonlight, but one thing was obvious – all had guns. Their uniforms looked bulky too, which probably implied extra supplies of bullets.

He didn't share this piece of information with the others, but a grim expression exchanged with Velma told her she realised the dangers too.

'It's going to have to be one at a time,' Velma whispered.

There was a moment of silence before Fred piped up. 'I will go first.'

Daphne clutched his arm so hard that her nails were making imprints on his skin.

'No, Reddie,' Scooby said. 'Ri will ro first.'

Normally Fred would protest to any one of his friends volunteering to something so dangerous, but something in Scooby's tone stopped Fred from arguing.

'You're very brave, Scooby,' Fred said graciously.

'Rope. Not brave.'

Scooby had a pack to his back, but Fred moved over and strapped it up more firmly. He turned to Shaggy, his eyes screaming with sorrow.

'Raggy.'

'Like, yeah?' Shaggy replied rather shakily.

'The cream ries will get roggy.'

'In all of this, you're worried about cream pies getting soggy,' Velma said. 'Oh, Scooby Doo. Good luck.'

Scooby crouched down so that his shoulders were submerged. He paddled out almost silently to the centre of the river. Then he looked back at the gang, whose faces were all etched with concern. Shaggy gave him a thumbs up. Scooby doggy-paddled out a bit further forward before slipping down beneath the surface of the river.

Fred, Daphne and Shaggy were staring at the water, but Velma was staring at the soldiers, looking for the slightest sign that they detected some movement.

They didn't see Scooby appear past the soldiers, but they also didn't see the soldiers react at all.

'Where is he!' Shaggy fretted.

'Scooby is a strong swimmer,' Velma reasoned. 'I'd say he popped up much further along. It's dark too, remember.'

'Like, I wanna go next.'

'Try your arm in the water, Shaggy,' Daphne said softly.

Shaggy ducked down, gritting his teeth together and seething with the pain it was causing him.

'Are you okay?'

'Sugar honey ice tea!' Shaggy gasped.

'It's a lot more satisfying if you just say it,' Daphne said.

Daphne was only teasing him. She and all the others knew that Shaggy and Scooby didn't like swearing. They much preferred to express themselves using food, apparently.

'Like I'm going to have to do it now or it's going to kill like a…'

'…bitch…'

'…later. Um, not what I was going for. Thanks Daph, you're like, being really helpful tonight.'

'I know.'

'Shaggy,' Velma said, ignoring Daphne. 'Your best bet with that arm is to streamline and use your legs to kick like hell. It's not a huge distance you have to cross underwater.'

Out of everyone, it was safe to say that Shaggy was their biggest concern. Velma was worried about the aftermath – the river water was dirty and there would almost certainly be an infection there after. But she was even more worried about him being able to make it undetected, especially being one limb down. But to everyone's relief, they saw him bop up on the opposite side of the patrol.

'Daphne, you go next,' Fred suggested. He needed that confirmation that she got across safely before he went.

Daphne paled.

'It could be worse,' Fred encouraged. 'We could still be in our hiding spot upstairs.'

'Where did you two hide up there?' Velma asked.

'In two old paint tins. The stench inside almost made us pass out.'

Admittedly, Daphne still felt slightly nauseous from the paint's odour. She could still smell it on her and Fred. She used that as a motivation to force her trembling body further into the water. Just as she was about to wade away, Fred grabbed her around the waist and kissed the top of her head.

'Kiss me properly,' she demanded.

'No. You need your breath.'

Daphne smirked and waved him off. She pushed off a rock and reached the centre of the river where she couldn't touch the bottom. Daphne had always been the type of girl that takes ages to "get used" to the water whenever she was at the beach or pool. In being that girl, she was always splashed at by her bolder friends. It was very rare that she just dove in, and she was completely out of her comfort zone in more ways than one.

Heart hammering in her chest, she treaded the water closer to the soldiers very slowly, feeling incredibly vulnerable. One splash and her body could be sliced with bullets. She couldn't believe her life now depended on how long she could hold her breath for.

It was impossible to move through the water soundlessly, so she tried to do so very quietly. Every tiny gurgle of water she made felt like it was amplified one thousand times and every time she braced her body for the impact of bullets. But none came.

After a five metre swim that could be a serious competitor for the world's slowest Olympics, Daphne took a series of deep calming breaths. She was treading water, and she began to realise she was just tiring herself out further. With one last breath, she dipped beneath the surface of the water.

She was completely unprepared for the wall of icy water hitting her face like a cold metal shield. It took her by surprise, and she immediately felt the breath leave her body. But she hadn't escaped a bloody massacre in Bunnings to die in a river. She flexed her legs out behind her and propelled herself forward with a powerful breaststroke kick. She felt the mud and silt particles brush across her face and scrunched up her nose to stop them from entering. Daphne wasn't entirely sure how she actually moved along the floor of the river, but by some curious mixture of underwater freestyle, breaststroke and frantic doggy paddle, Daphne felt she had travelled far enough to break the surface.

She decided to go a little further just in case, but after just two extra strokes, her lungs began to ache. Clutching her nose and mouth to stop bubbles escaping, she pushed off the bottom of the river and broke the surface as silently as possible. She took several short gasps of the cool, sweet night air before bothering to check where she'd popped up.

The good news was, she was far away from the patrols, and there was a steady current pushing her even further away, which had almost certainly helped drive her forward underwater. The bad news was that there was no sign of Shaggy or Scooby. She considered waiting for Fred and Velma, but she couldn't swim against the current. She ducked back underwater and performed three strong strokes with her arms before travelling in a streamline with the current. Then her face collided with a rock. Daphne broke the surface frantically, clutching at her left cheek. She thought there was blood running down her cheek, but she couldn't be sure because she was wet all over. Cautiously, she slipped back under again, but there was a sharp stinging pain in her cheek.

Instead she lay on her back, trying to flatten herself as much as possible while nursing her cheek. The river started a slightly steeper descent, and the flow rate increase – she had no idea how far downstream she travelled. Somewhere down the line, a friendly voice cried,

'Raphne!'

Daphne had never been happier to hear Scooby in her life. She heard him paddle into the water beside her and help her out onto the bank. She collapsed in the mud, shivering uncontrollably.

'D…D…Daphne?'

'Shaggy? Are y…you okay? H…how's the arm?'

'Like, p…pretty s…s…sore.'

She moved closer to him and they huddled together while Scooby stood in the water, keenly watching the stream for any sign of Fred and Velma.

'Huh.'

'What is it Shag?'

'L…like it's raining.'

'Oh my god. Could this get any w…w…worse?'

'Red and Relma!' Scooby yelped in delight.

'We…we did it,' Fred beamed through chattering teeth. He chucked the second backpack up on the bank and crawled out.

'I wasn't sure how f…far we were going so I waited for F…Fred,' Velma explained, mimicking Fred with her backpack that now only contained a waterlogged gun.

'The five of them huddled together before Velma suggested that they find some shelter. The best they could find was a river red gum that blocked out about two percent of the rain. It was a real drenching, and on already wet skin, it was freezing. Velma decided at that moment that it was autumn; this type of weather pattern was so typical of autumn and the air had a new bite to it that she hadn't noticed before. Thinking made her head ache. The bitingly cold water had left her ears ringing and her head was pounding like someone was trying to get out of it. Her eyes were red-rimmed and they stung a lot and it took all her self-control not to rub them. She glanced around at the others. Fred and Daphne were wrapped in each other's arms, Fred daubing Daphne's cheek with a piece of cloth he ripped from his shirt. Shaggy was on the verge of passing out from the pain in his arm, and Scooby was doing his best to provide him and Velma with comfort. Velma knew they had to get some medicines from somewhere for Shaggy.

Velma could see no sense in staying here so close to the patrols, sitting around doing nothing and getting colder by the minute.

'I t…think we should walk. We need to g…get further away. It's n…no good staying here getting c…c…cold.'

'Re ralk? To rhere?'

'The farmhouses.'

'Risn't that a rong way raway?'

'Yes, but we have n…nowhere else to go. We need sh…shelter.'

Fred, always the action man, got up straight away and went to support Shaggy, with Scooby on the other side.

'Come on,' Velma addressed the group, but she was really only speaking to Daphne.

'Fuck you Velma.'

'Yeah, fuck you too.'

The tension between the girls was almost as icy as the water they were soaked in, but not quite. An hour into the walk, they had their arms around each other, fully reliant on the other for support.

~oO*Oo~

The downpour didn't stop until the crack of dawn. The bush thinned out, revealing the farmhouses, as Velma had anticipated. Only they weren't the same ones as those near Koda Crescent. Those farmhouses were dozens of kilometres away.

They were all so exhausted that they piled into the first building they came to, which happened to be a run down barn. An exhausted Scooby volunteered himself for the first sentry duty, which everyone was beyond grateful for.

They were wet, wetter and wetter. Cold, tired and hungry – no one felt like eating the soggy café food that was undoubtedly now infested with the murky river water. They were textbook cases of getting sick.

And they got sick.