CHAPTER 41

'You think you're funny, don't you?' Daphne teased, nudging Shaggy's arm.

Shaggy scratched the back of his neck. 'Like, well yeah, a little, I guess.'

'This is not the time or place for joking,' Velma sighed. She looked up at the sky and watched the moon sliver behind the canopy of trees. 'It's midnight, and we need to get going by 5 tomorrow morning.'

'So rearly!'

'Yes, or we're all going to die of starvation,' Velma snapped at a shocked Scooby. 'I'm going to go for a walk up the hill and try to see if I can figure out where we are.'

'Like, what happened to sleeping?' Shaggy muttered.

'Sleeping is a waste of time!' Velma announced.

Shaggy looked to Scooby inquisitively, who shrugged in response.

'Do you not understand the importance of this? If we don't get out of the bush soon, we're going to run out of food. Winter's coming and it's getting colder by the day. Unless we figure out where we are, we're going to die.'

'I'll come with you, Velm,' Fred said quickly. 'I don't think I'll be getting much sleep either.'

Fred shrugged on his puffer jacket and tugged the zipper up as high as it would go. He pulled up the hood and tied the strings so tight that only a small portion of his face was showing. Then he put a beanie on over the top, eliciting a giggle from Daphne and Scooby.

'Stay warm, Freddie.'

'No problem.'

Fred was so rugged up that he virtually waddled like a penguin to catch up to Velma.

'I told you we should have gone up this hill before stopping for the night!' Velma said when Fred appeared breathlessly at her side.

'I didn't deny it,' Fred said.

'Okay,' Velma considered. 'True.'

'Let's face it, Velma, we were all far too tired.'

'I guess. But look at the fantastic vantage point this will give us! See how the trees are thinning out as we go uphill?' Velma babbled. 'The rock face is steep – probably remnants from quaternary sandstone – so I just know…'

She broke off as she caught sight of Fred grinning at her. 'What?'

Fred laughed. 'What happened to the "I hate nature" and "nature is a waste of space" Velma?'

'I don't know,' Velma said seriously. 'Essentially living in the bush for so long has really given me a greater appreciation of it. When I realised I was interested, I started reading those environmental textbooks I borrowed from –' Her breath caught in her throat and she it covered up with a cough. 'From Marcie's house.'

They travelled in a comfortable silence for half an hour or so, helping each other through the sections of dense undergrowth and shear rock faces.

As she clambered up another steep rock with graceful ease, she realised with immense satisfaction she was getting so fit! While she followed Fred around a windy path around the side of the mountain, she couldn't help but look at her body. In the moonlight, which was now very clear since there were no trees obscuring their view, Velma could easily identify a muscular tone to her legs. She ran a hand down her side; she was thin and her abs were strong. Oh, how she had hated the intense daily exercise at first! But without knowing it, she had become so used to it, and her body was seeing some results. Suddenly all the bramble scratches and mosquito bites didn't seem important anymore. Velma had always been insecure about her body, but she was feeling a confidence she'd never felt before.

Perhaps it was this new-found confidence that made Velma venture, 'Daph's better.'

Velma so desperately wanted to gauge Fred's opinion on Daphne at the moment, but she didn't know how to go about it. She didn't even know what she expected – or wanted – his response to be.

'So much better,' was Fred's response.

'I was really worried about her. I thought… well, I don't know.'

Fred didn't think he'd ever hear Velma of all people say the words 'I don't know'. He suspected she did actually know what she was going to say, but he preferred not to go there.

'You did a good job with her, Fred,' Velma continued. 'I envy people like you sometimes. I'm just not great with people.'

'That's okay,' Fred said, trying to react coolly to this rare occasion of Velma opening up to him. 'Anyway, it wasn't just me. It was mostly Shaggy if I'm being honest.'

'Oh, I thought you and Daphne talked it out.'

'Look Velma, maybe she and I could've worked it out. But in the heat of the moment, it doesn't matter who helps her. I just wanted her to get better, so I did whatever it took, and that involved Shaggy.'

'But you and Daphne have talked?'

'Yeah, she came up and talked to me while I was on sentry duty one night.'

'That's good.'

'Yeah. But she's terrified of sleeping.'

'She looks bloody exhausted too.'

'Another reason why I'm looking forward to Headquarters,' Fred sighed. Then he suddenly blurted out, 'Why is Shaggy better at calming her down than I am?'

They remained silent for a few moments; the only sound the steady beat of their footsteps. An owl hooted above them and ruffled its feathers, causing the topmost leaves to rustle ever so slightly.

'Has she told you about the dream?' Velma asked quietly.

'Yeah,' Fred sighed.

She nodded understandingly. 'And?'

'It was pretty bad, Velma.'

Silence stretched between them once again, the air heavy with what wasn't being said. Eventually, Velma couldn't resist asking, 'What was it about?'

She had never seen Daphne that distressed before. In a purely scientific way, she was interested what had caused her friend to react so violently. But Velma wasn't that cold hearted; she was also deeply concerned about Daphne.

'She already told you.'

'What? That you died and there was a zombie?'

'Yes. That's all you need to know.'

Knowing this was all she was going to get out of him, she replied, 'Okay then. Did she tell Shaggy?'

'No.'

She leaned over and pat Fred's shoulder affectionately. 'Does that make you feel better? She told you, not Shaggy.'

Fred looked at her for the first time during that whole conversation and smiled. 'Actually, it does.'

They settled back to the comfortable grounds of small talk until they reached the highest point of the crest. All the way up the mountain, Velma had waited with bated breath. This moment would determine everything. If she reached a pinnacle and could see nothing but bush for miles, they were screwed. But if the vantage point gave them insight into where they were, they may just have a shot at survival.

One foot in front of the other… Velma got the distinct feeling that she was walking towards her fate. Not that she believed in fate or destiny or anything like that, but it was a similar sensation. She was almost too scared to look. The cool, fresh air whipped her face and her ears popped slightly as they reached the highest point they had been at in weeks.

'Open your eyes, Velma.'

It was so dark that Velma didn't even realise she had closed her eyes. But hearing the hint of a grin in his voice had encouraged her eyes to open.

Velma almost cried in relief when she caught sight of the flat plains stretching before her eyes.

'The industrial centre!' she cheered.

To her utter disbelief, tears started to form in her eyes. She wiped them away quickly before Fred caught sight of them.

'We were so close,' Fred murmured quietly.

'Yes. We must be –' Velma broke off suddenly as she heard her own voice tremor. She took a deep shaky breath before continuing, 'we must be less than twenty k's away. One more day.'

'I told you we should just keep following the river,' Fred said. 'Hey, you okay, Velma?'

Velma bent down and retied her shoelaces in what she hoped was a casual manner. 'Of course!'

'It's okay to get emotional. We've been through a lot,' Fred said. 'I mean, we probably wouldn't have survived in here much longer if we didn't find a way out soon. The lack of food – or the exhaustion would've gotten to us. It's a mighty sense of relief to find your way out of a huge and confusing place after being stuck here for over two weeks! And without a path to follow!'

'We've been lucky.'

'Thanks to your navigating skills,' Fred grinned.

'Hardly! It was your idea to stick to the river. Although this does mean we'll come out near Bunnings. That's where the Janna river goes through.'

'I wonder if it will still be patrolled.'

'I doubt it. But we should still exercise caution.'

'That's just routine at this point.'

'I just can't believe we… we found it,' Velma said.

Velma walked over to a flat rock perched on the side of the mountain. She half shuffled, half slid down the soft dirt until she was sitting on the rock. She pulled out her compass and notebook and made a couple of quick sketches and notes so they would know which way to go. When she was done, she leant back against the earth and serenely took in the night sky.

'You want to get going soon?' Fred asked quietly.

'Yeah, I suppose we should,' Velma replied unconvincingly.

She was drawn to the stars. She put her hands behind her head and gazed up at the thousands of sparkling lights dotting the night sky like tiny fireflies. It was crazy to think all those stars were hundreds of millions of light years away. She almost felt as if she could reach out and touch them. Her eyes traced shapes in the stars until she could just make out some constellations. And there was the moon – so clear and unobscured by the bright lights of the city. It shimmered: a beautiful assembly of pristine white and dusty grey, and Velma could even see some of its craters.

'Has the cross turned over yet?'

Velma had almost forgotten Fred was there. She glanced up at him and smiled at the softness in his tone. She looked back to the sky and scanned the stars until she found it. Just to the left of the moon was the Southern Cross.

'Yes, it has. It's a new day.'

She tucked her notebook and compass back into her bag. Then, sensing Fred standing awkwardly above her, Velma reluctantly decided they should get back to the others. She accepted Fred's hand as he pulled her back up the mountain before they began their descent back down the other side.

'You love space, don't you,' Fred said.

'Space is very interesting, Fred. All the physics involved and the vastness of the universe…'

Fred was laughing, shaking his head.

Velma felt a little put out; she certainly hadn't expected a reaction like that from Fred.

'No. You don't just love it for the science, do you? You think it's really beautiful.'

Velma felt her expression soften and smiled. 'You know what? I do. But I love it because I understand all the science behind it. When you piece it all together, it produces something so… so wonderful. You wouldn't understand. It completely sucks the breath out of my lungs.'

'I already know what it's like to look at something and be completely blown away.'

Velma's heart fluttered and swelled. 'Fred, oh my god, I wish Daphne could've heard you say that. That was beautiful.'

He beamed. 'Thank you.'

They had quite a walk ahead. The path from the base of the mountain would be fairly flat and easy to follow, but it would be tedious.

So Fred asked Velma, 'Tell me about space.'

She did not hesitate. 'At night, you look up and you see stars. During the day, you look up and you see the Sun, our star. Each star in the universe has a strong gravitational pull that attracts other bodies to orbit around it. Stronger than our Sun in fact, because the Sun is a relatively small star. And I always think: are there other beings on other terrestrial planets, doing exactly what we're doing: staring into the night sky?'

'You think we're not alone?'

'I'm sure of it. It's selfish to think Earth is the only inhabited planet in the universe. There are millions – billions of other planets in the so-called "Goldilocks zone". That's the region where conditions are just right for life.'

'Wow,' Fred breathed.

'But then of course, you can also consider other life forms. We're carbon-based, but what about silicon-based beings? Do they inhabit other bodies in our own solar system – say gaseous planets like Jupiter? And Fred, the distances in space are enormous! Incomprehensively large for the average human. It would take a lifetime to travel from Earth to Neptune, and then there's so much more beyond that. The universe is infinitely large. It's confusing, mysterious, yet so beautiful at the same time.'

Fred nodded along with her. Everything Velma was saying he was subconsciously linking back to Daphne. He found himself comparing the universe – his universe – to her.

'I am one being,' Velma continued. 'Compared to the human population, I am nothing but a tiny dot. Then compared to all organisms on Earth – including the animals and microscopic organisms, we are less than a speck of dust. Yet we are all dwarfed by the size of the Earth.'

Velma watched Fred with budding curiosity. 'Now, the Earth only makes up a tiny portion of the solar system. It is dwarfed by the Sun. The Sun, in turn is dwarfed by other larger stars. Then there are galaxies like the Milky Way, which is one of thousands of known galaxies. Put all the galaxies together and you have a universe.' She turned to Fred with a dreamy expression on her face. 'Feel insignificant yet?'

Fred was absolutely blown away by this revelation. Velma had described it so well that Fred felt like he was in some sort of simulation where he zoomed out of each scale until the smallest objects disappeared into nothing.

'I have never felt so unimportant in my life.'

He decided right there and then that there was one key difference between Daphne and the universe. Sure, she was mysterious and beautiful, but she made him feel like he was the most important person in the universe.

'In the grand scheme of things – the really grand scheme,' Fred began. 'This war seems so damn meaningless.'