INTRODUCTION & DISCLAIMER – Now that the dysfunctional Hawkins family along with youngest daughter Erica’s boyfriend Gavin have fled their house after it was overtaken with terrifying demonic and alien activity, can they keep one step ahead of their supernatural foes in a thrilling chase through Sydney and into regional New South Wales? Read Chapter 4 of this twisted road trip tale to find out.
Please note the strong themes of the story, which include scenes with female characters using the toilet and having their periods, which may not be for everyone. All characters and events are fictional, with similarity to real persons living or dead coincidental and unintentional. Please enjoy, and rate and comment.
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Alistair and Danielle’s journey out of Sydney’s northern suburbs and towards the city was hampered by the morning peak hour traffic. There were thousands of people travelling to work, university and school, plus buses, trucks and commercial vehicles. All of these drivers seemed oblivious to the urgency of the Hawkins family to escape their unworldly pursuers, and Alistair and Danielle had to weave through plenty of slower vehicles.
Getting onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Alistair glanced into the back of the car. “Erica and Gavin, keep a watch out for dangers on the water,” he said.
Erica looked out the left of the vehicle towards Point Kirribilli, but there was nothing out of place, just a yacht and two ferries heading out to Taronga and Manly. Gavin kept a close watch out the right side towards Goat Island, but fortunately there were no UFOs, ghosts or monsters to be seen, and with Danielle right behind him Alistair was able to negotiate the busy Harbour Bridge traffic before exiting and driving to Bennelong Point, and the Sydney Opera House.
Alistair and Danielle stopped their cars, and the six of them piled out. “I thought it best to bring us to a place where there’s more people so we can work out our next move, the aliens might want to avoid being seen,” said Alistair.
“We need to get out of town,” said Faye.
“Yes, but we need to make sure we stay one step ahead of the aliens and demons in case they set traps to capture us,” said Alistair. He looked around, first up at the ornate Sydney Opera House and then at the tall buildings on the city skyline and shook his head.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good spot after all,” he said.
“Why is that?” Faye asked.
Alistair pointed at the opera house. “Is there any other building in the world that looks like the Sydney Opera House? No. That means it might be of alien design, and therefore aliens inhabiting it.”
The other five members of the party also looked at the building and realized Alistair was quite right. Alistair then pointed at the taller structures in the CBD — the distinctive Sydney Tower with its skinny structure and circular observation deck high above the city streets, the white octagonal skyscraper at 25 Martin Place and Sydney’s tallest office building, the blue and grey Chifley Tower with a triangular turret on the roof.
“The aliens could be on top of those buildings or any others watching and listening to us,” Alistair pointed out. “We need to get out of range of those buildings and away from here before they find us.”
“Dad, I think we might be a little too late,” said Erica, the young girl nervously pointing at the sparkling blue waters of Sydney Harbour.
Her family and boyfriend looked and stood amazed at the sight on the water. Coming towards the Harbour Bridge was a ship, which wasn’t unusual, cruise ships and other vessels docked at Circular Quay all the time. But this ship was unusual — a large passenger liner with four towering funnels and even taller forward and aft masts — and having seen the popular movie released towards the end of last year and still in cinemas by autumn several times — Erica did not even have to read the nameplate ‘Titanic’ on the ship’s portside bow to identify it.
With open mouths, they observed the Titanic steam by, although other passers-by at the Opera House seemed oblivious to presence of an ocean liner that sank in the North Atlantic 86 years earlier steaming through Sydney Harbour. And the Titanic was not alone. Above it, well out of range of the smoke that poured from three of the Titanic’s four stacks, was an aircraft.
It was definitely not a UFO like the ones they had seen earlier, but regardless an aircraft definitely out of place. It was an airship, a large silver airship with a swastika on its tailfin and its name — Hindenburg — prominent on its side. The motors of the airship contained with the unfamiliar sounds of a steamship made for quite a racket, but again the other people seemed not to notice or care that a ship and an airship lost since 1912 and 1937 respectively were in Sydney Harbour. Nobody could be observed on the airship, but the decks of the Titanic were filled with passengers and crew in Edwardian era clothes.
“This is much worse than I thought,” said Alistair. “We are dealing with far more powerful aliens than we could ever conceive, if they can go through time and bring back a ship and an airship that were destroyed years ago, think what else they are capable of doing. Let’s get out of here and fast.”
“Where are we going?” Danielle asked.
Alistair, conscious that there could be spies or demons around helping the aliens, leaned over and whispered, “Bondi Beach, follow me,” into his daughter-in-law’s ear.
Danielle nodded, understanding that it was very important that the aliens nor their allies the demons not overhear them.
As she climbed into her father’s car, Erica read the words ‘Titanic’ and ‘Liverpool’ on the ship’s stern as it steamed under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, sounding its horn and whistles, while the Hindenburg flew over the top. Alistair raced no time in racing away from the scene, Danielle right behind him.
The two cars made their way through Sydney’s exclusive Eastern suburbs — Rushcutters Bay, Double Bay and Rose Bay — and into the Waverley area and Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach, which was now less crowded than earlier, with most of the early morning beachgoers having gone to work by this time.
Alistair and Danielle parked their cars, and everybody got out. The tall buildings of the Sydney CBD were visible in the background, but hopefully far enough away to avoid the alien spies who might be watching and listening to them in the city.
“Now, we need to make an excuse as to why we’re not at work today and maybe not back next week,” said Alistair. “They will be wondering where we are, and we need to make it sound as though we’re a long way away. We need to be convincing. Come on, ideas, ideas!”
“Alistair, how about my sister in Adelaide?” suggested Faye. “Perhaps we could say that Angela suffered a stroke, and we’re flying out to South Australia to be with her, taking Erica with us?”
Alistair nodded and stroked his beard. “Yes, that would cover you, me and Erica.” He turned to Cornelius and Danielle. “What about you two?”
“I was going to just call in sick,” said Danielle. “I’m a relief teacher anyway. And Cornelius doesn’t have a job, so he doesn’t need to call anyone.”
Alistair shook his head. “No Danielle, that wouldn’t work at all. People need to think we’ve left town, and therefore if the aliens send around their agents or the police they’ve paid off to find us, they’ll think we’ve gone interstate.” Alistair glared at his son. “What about you? Have you come up with any great ideas, Cornelius?”
“Nuh,” grunted Cornelius.
“I thought as much, that’s why you’re useless Cornelius,” said Alistair. “Fuck, aliens are after us and you can’t think of any reason why you might be out of town.”
Erica spoke up. “How about Cornelius and Danielle going to the Gold Coast?”
“The Gold Coast?” grumbled Cornelius. “Erica, that’s stupid why would I be on the Gold Coast?”
“What were you doing on the Gold Coast that time when I had to spend all that money to bring you back?” growled Alistair, to which Cornelius looked sheepish. “Go on Erica.”
“Cornelius is a clown,” said Erica. “What if he went up there for a job interview, you know to work as a clown at one of the theme parks? And Danielle went with him to support him, and to be his assistant when he was showing his magic tricks in an audition?”
“That sounds pretty reasonable,” said Alistair. “We’ll go with that.”
“How about me?” Gavin asked. “I wouldn’t have gone to Adelaide or to the Gold Coast.”
“No chance you would head to Melbourne for any reason?” Alistair asked.
“None at all,” Gavin said. He then thought. “There was a camping trip in two weeks’ time with some of the guys, we were going up the Colo River for the weekend. I could tell my sister that I got the dates wrong and that we’re going today instead.”
“That sounds fine,” said Alistair. “Tell your sister that.”
Gavin’s face clouded over again. “Lisa seemed a bit suspicious this morning that something was wrong. What if she doesn’t buy it? Then there’s my boss, I’m supposed to be working at the supermarket most of the day. I can’t tell them that I can’t come to work because I’m going camping.”
“You’d better make sure Lisa believes you,” said Alistair solemnly. “Don’t let on that anything’s funny going on, if she doesn’t know anything then she’s safe. If not, the aliens or the demons will come for her too. And as for your boss, just call in tomorrow and pretend to be sick. You wouldn’t be the first young guy to chuck a sickie to go camping with his mates.”
“Right Mr. Hawkins,” said Gavin. “Lisa’s at work at the moment, so I’ll have to call her later when she’s on her break.”
“Now, keep watch while we make the calls,” said Alistair to Gavin and Cornelius, the others moving to a phone box.
Alistair himself was today supposed to be heading with his team to some high rise commercial buildings in Chatswood, which were much easier jobs than the ones in previous days plus he didn’t have to drive through the busy city traffic. He regretted not being able to go to work today, but there wasn’t much he could do about it now aliens were after him and his family.
After calling the office and spinning the tale of him and his wife and daughter having to rush to Adelaide at short notice after his wife’s sister had a massive stroke overnight, Alistair vacated the phone box and Faye rang her employer and told the same story. Erica rang the sandwich shop where she was supposed to be working tomorrow and let them know about having to rush to Adelaide and apologizing for not being able to take her shift for Saturday. She also rang one of the girls from university with whom she and Gavin were working on a group assignment, saying that she would be away at least several days in South Australia, so as not to rouse suspicions by her absence from university.
“Very good, Erica,” said Faye, pleased that her daughter had been convincing.
Danielle picked up the phone and called the school she where was supposed to be working, giving a somewhat vague explanation that her husband had to go to the Gold Coast at short notice for urgent business, and she needed to go with him to support him, and giving her apologies for not coming to work.
Cornelius and Gavin, standing guard and watching intently for anything alien, demonic or supernatural had so far seen nothing, but as Danielle finished Gavin’s eyes picked up something silver in the skies. “Mr. Hawkins, I think there’s another UFO,” he said, pointing at it.
Alistair looked at the UFO. It was silver in color but was a long distance away, so far that it wasn’t making any noise. “That spaceship’s way beyond the city and probably out near Botany Bay, but if it comes towards us then we’ll have to go,” said Alistair.
Gavin intently watched the UFO as it continued to circle around the Botany Bay area, but got no closer than about Newtown so it probably didn’t pose any immediate threat.
“Now, we need to get out of the city,” said Alistair. “But we need to take care of a few things first. Like money, we need cash for the trip. If we use EFTPOS or credit cards, then the aliens and demons will track us. Faye, get the cheque book and write out a cheque for a thousand cash. Then we’ll cash it.”
“Yes Alistair,” said Faye, taking the cheque book and writing out a cheque payable to cash, she and her husband both signing it.
“Mum, Dad, they can trace cheques too,” said the worried Erica.
“True, but it’s less risk than leaving an EFTPOS trail or using credit cards,” said Alistair. “And we need cash to cover our journey.”
“So, where are we going?” Faye asked. “Interstate? Can we drive to Victoria, or up to Queensland?”
Alistair shook his head. “No. The aliens have probably already thought about that. They will have contacted the police, and the police will already be setting up roadblocks at Tweed and Coolangatta on the New South Wales — Queensland border to capture us, and at the Murray River if we tried to cross into Victoria at Albury and Wodonga. It would be the same thing at Mildura and Swan Hill. Even if we went into the outback and tried to get into South Australia its way too far and the Broken Hill police will have shut off the border by the time we make it out there.”
“What do you suggest then, Alistair?” Danielle asked.
“We’ll go back south of the city and cash the cheque,” said Alistair. “That way, if we are being tracked, they’ll think we’re going south. If we cash it at the Chatswood, Ryde or Willoughby branches, they will know we went north. But we’ll turn back and head north.”
Faye nodded. “That sounds sensible.”
While Gavin continued to watch the far-away UFO, Cornelius was looking to the north, and froze as he saw something out of place. “Um, you guys need to take a look at this,” he said.
Everyone else looked at what Cornelius was indicating, and froze with dismay. Coming along a path near the beach was a hippopotamus. Only it was not an ordinary hippopotamus, it walked upright on two legs and wore clothes, an enormous flowery mu-mu dress and a large straw sun hat. It also carried a handbag and walked on leads two ferocious looking canines. An ordinary observer might think that the dogs walked by the hippopotamus were German Shepherds, but the Hawkins family and Gavin were not fooled. These were not ordinary dogs, they were werewolves.
“Quick, look away, don’t make direct eye contact with the hippopotamus or the werewolves,” urged Alistair, the others quickly complying with the directions.
“Why did they send werewolves?” the frightened Erica lamented.
“Maybe they’re trying to track our scent?” Gavin suggested. “Werewolves can track even the slightest drop of blood.”
“Shit, I’ve got my period,” said Danielle.
“Are you wearing a pad or a tampon?” Faye asked.
“A pad, I rarely use tampons,” said Danielle.
“Well, you’ll need to wear a tampon now,” said Faye. “We can’t risk the werewolves picking up the smell of your menses on your napkin. We’ll never lose them.”
“I don’t have any tampons with me, I only brought pads,” said Danielle. She looked at her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. “You don’t have any tampons on you?”
Erica shook her head. “Sorry, I always use pads.”
“I only wear pads too,” said Faye. She pointed at a small convenience store across the road. “You’ll need to get some tampons, Danielle.”
Her daughter-in-law nodded, and reached for her purse. Cornelius kept a watch on the hippopotamus and the werewolves. They had seemed not to notice the Hawkins family and the hippo was standing near a light pole, the werewolves sniffing around the base and the ground.
“I think we’re okay for now, but you need to hurry,” he warned his wife, who dashed across a road so far that a car had to brake to avoid hitting her, the driver beeping and cursing the girl with untidy blonde hair who had not bothered to look both ways before crossing the street.
Bursting into the shop, Danielle ran for the feminine hygiene products section and grabbed a box of super-absorbent tampons from the shelf. There was a bit of a queue — mostly older men – for the one checkout staffed by a middle-aged woman, and Danielle didn’t have time for this.
“I’m next,” said Danielle, pushing in front of the line to the irritation of the men waiting and thrusting ten dollars at the cashier. Hearing the dissent of some of the men waiting, Danielle showed her tampons to them. “Women’s problems, period emergency,” she declared, which shut them up.
Grabbing her change, Danielle hurried out and made for the toilet block near where the others were waiting for her. Knowing the smell of blood in her period pad would attract the werewolves, Danielle watched for them but they and the hippo walking them were still in the area, so they still presented a danger. However, as Danielle approached the female toilets there was even greater danger lurking, and she hastily backed away to where the others waited, clutching the tampons.
Faye was impatient. “Danielle, come on we don’t have all day.”
“Um Faye, I can’t go in there,” said Danielle, pointing nervously in the direction of the toilet block. “There’s a monster.”
“Monster, what monster, oh that monster, oh shit!” said Faye.
Everyone looked to where Danielle was pointing and visibly jumped as they took in the sight of the monster. It stood some seven feet tall, with a large mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, shaggy purple fur all over its body and two large turquoise horns protruding from its head. At present the monster was scavenging in the wheelie bin outside the women’s toilets, snarling and growling as it ate the garbage. It didn’t seem to have seen the Hawkins family, but if Danielle tried to go into the female toilets it would then.
“I’ll just have to do it here, sorry about this boys,” said Danielle, yanking down her stirrup pants and her panties and squatting, her period pad in full view. Alistair, Gavin and Erica went to look away, but all caught sight of Danielle’s bright blue menstrual blood over the soft white cover of her napkin and were unable to prevent their looks of shock.
“I must be related to royalty, blue-blooded,” Danielle joked as she detached the sanitary pad from her knickers and put it on the ground, and got a tissue to clean her pussy flaps which also ended up soaked in smelly blue period blood.
Danielle then hastily opened the tampon box, taking out one white cylindrical object. Unwrapping the tampon, Danielle freed the long blue string then spreading her legs to open her wide-set vagina more, Danielle shoved the tampon up her fanny, the lubrication of Danielle’s monthly flow ensuring it went up her vagina with ease. Adjusting the tampon so it was nice and comfortable in her pussy and straightening out the string, Danielle stood up and pulled up her knickers and her stirrup pants, adjusting her panty lines through her leggings.
“Okay Gavin, you can look again,” Danielle laughed, noticing the embarrassed Gavin was staring at the skies to avoid looking at her as she changed her pad for a tampon.
“I was watching for more UFO’s,” said Gavin unconvincingly.
Alistair was closely observing the big purple monster, which having finished eating the trash in one bin, moved to another. “It doesn’t seem to have noticed us, but we can’t be too careful and we must not make eye contact with it. Above all, don’t do anything that it might take as an act of provocation. That means you Cornelius.”
“As if I would annoy a monster Dad, you treat me like I’m a fucking retard,” Cornelius snapped sulkily.
“That’s because you act like a retard,” Alistair shot back. “Anyway, I think we’d better get going to be safe. Where’s the hippo and werewolves?”
“Um Dad, I think we might have something to worry about in that regard,” said Erica.
She pointed to where the hippopotamus had sat down at a bench, the two werewolves still leashed. This was good news, but the family watched as the hippopotamus pulled up the antenna on its phone and began to make a call.
“She’s calling the police to come and get us and take us away to the alien spaceship!” Cornelius shouted out in horror.
“Let’s run!” yelled Alistair, the six of them sprinting for the two cars, Danielle’s dirty period pad and tissue left behind on the ground.
“Where are we going?” Danielle asked her father-in-law urgently.
“Coogee, but if they chase us we’ll have to go somewhere else,” said Alistair, his daughter-in-law nodding in agreement as she and Cornelius dived into their car, and Alistair, Faye, Gavin and Erica into the four wheel drive.
They were not a minute too soon as they started the engines and drove away at speed. From out of the skies appeared another UFO. It was a different design to the others seen earlier, this UFO having floats on the bottom to enable it to land on water, but clearly it was after them. The wailing of an emergency siren indicated that the police were here too, and Danielle caught sight of the flashing lights in the distance as she accelerated away, desperate to keep up with her father-in-law.
The hippopotamus did not chase them nor did it thankfully set the werewolves on them, but the fearsome purple monster lurking at the bins did see them depart, and gave chase. Despite its bulk the monster was keeping pace with them along the white sands of Bondi Beach, and chased both cars. Alistair and Danielle increased the speeds of their respective vehicles, and soon Bondi and the UFO and the fearsome purple monster were vanishing into the rear vision mirrors.
Speeding through Waverley, Alistair and Danielle arrived in the beachside suburb of Coogee and drove to the bank. “Now, in and out as fast as you can,” said Alistair to his wife as Faye took the cheque.
Faye walked into the bank, but less than 30 seconds later came hurrying back looking afraid, to the dismay of her husband, Erica and Gavin, and in the car behind Cornelius and Danielle.
“What’s wrong?” asked Alistair. “Why didn’t you cash the cheque?”
“I can’t go in there, there’s a gorilla in the bank,” said the visibly shaken Faye.
“A gorilla?” Alistair glanced through the front doors of the bank branch and he too saw the aforementioned gorilla, the big black ape standing in the line at the bank, as did Gavin, Danielle, Cornelius and Erica when they stole quick glances into the bank.
“You’re right we can’t go in there, let’s try Kingsford,” said Alistair, he and Danielle driving to this suburb and locating the correct bank branch. There wasn’t any parking close, so Alistair and Danielle had to park their cars and everybody walked down. This time, there wasn’t a gorilla like the one at Coogee, but there was a long line that stretched out past the door of customers waiting to get served, probably as the branch for this ATM had a prominent out-of-order sign.
“This is no good at all,” grumbled Alistair. “We’ll have to go to the Randwick branch. We can’t be waiting here all day, we need to get out of town.”
“Mum, Dad, I’ve just had a thought,” said Erica. “What if the aliens or demons have hacked into the bank’s computer system, and they use it to put secret messages into Mum’s brain while she’s in the bank?”
“You’re right,” said Faye. “I never thought of that.”
“I’ve got an idea,” said Cornelius. “What if Mum wears a hat made out of tin-foil when she goes into the bank? That might stop the alien messages getting in there? And if she wears her sunglasses then they won’t be able to hypnotize her?”
“We’d better give it a try,” said Alistair.
“There’s a shop over there,” said Cornelius, indicating a small supermarket. “I’ll go over and get some tin-foil.”
“Cornelius, get some bottled water,” said Faye.
“Bottled water, got it,” said Cornelius.
“Cornelius, get some A3 sheets of paper and a marker pen too,” said Danielle.
Gavin was confused. “Why would you want that?”
“To communicate between the two cars,” said Danielle. “We can’t use mobile phones or a two-way radio because they can track us, but if one of us needs to stop we can just hold a piece of paper with ‘Stop’ on it out the window.”
“Sounds sensible,” said Alistair. “Now run Cornelius, don’t fuck around.”
Cornelius ran for the shops and dashed inside, returning soon with a roll of tin-foil, a pack of a dozen bottles of water, a black marker pen and some large sheets of white cardboard. “These were in the recycling bin, I thought they might be better than the paper,” he said.
Again, Danielle and Cornelius got into their car and the others into Alistair’s car, and drove for Randwick. In one busy street in Kingsford there was a zebra crossing, across which two very elderly women with walking frames were crossing one way, and an equally infirm old man on a mobility scooter was coming the other way.
They looked like old people, but Alistair was not fooled. “They’re zombies, it’s a trap, we can’t stop,” he said.
Putting his foot down on the accelerator and pressing down on the horn, Alistair sped through the zebra crosswalk, the four wheel drive passing less than an inch from the mobility scooter. The elderly rider swerved the scooter sharply, causing it to fall onto its side, tipping the old man out onto the road and the old ladies with walking frames to nearly lose their balance.
The two elderly women did indeed lose their balance as Danielle drove her car through the zebra crossing, like her father-in-law at very high speed with her hand pressed down on the horn. The car passed by just inches from the old women, causing them to lose their grips on their walking frames and go sprawling into the street.
In the back of her father’s car, Erica was exultant as she looked out the back and watched the three zombies struggling to get to their feet on the crosswalk. The young girl gave her sister-in-law the thumbs up sign and said, “Good one Dad, those zombie freaks won’t be chasing us now.”
Fortunately there were no more zombies on the way to Randwick, and they arrived at their destination, outside the branch of their bank. Everyone got out of the cars, Cornelius having spent the journey crafting out of foil a hat for his mother to wear while in the bank so demons or aliens could not get into the bank’s computer system and put messages in her mind while she cashed the cheque.
It looked a bit like a pirate hat, and Faye put it on her head and slipped on her sunglasses, heading into the Randwick bank branch. This branch was quiet unlike the one at Kingsford and there fortunately there wasn’t a gorilla like at Coogee, so far so good. Nobody else was waiting, and there was only one other customer, a man in a suit being served by a young male teller.
A young female teller pressed her buzzer. “Next please,” she said.
As Faye approached the counter, the young teller’s face showed confusion and uncertainty in equal measures. “Um, how can I help you this morning ma’am?” she asked.
“Good morning, I’d like to cash this cheque please,” said Faye, handing over the $1,000.00 cash cheque.
“Yes, of course ma’am,” said the teller, looking uncertainly at her customer. “I just need to see some photo ID, such as a driver’s license, identity card or passport.”
“Of course, I’ll just get my driver’s license,” said Faye. She went into her handbag and retrieved the license, handing it to the teller.
The young woman looked at the attractive middle aged redhead on the driver’s license. Faye Hawkins obviously wasn’t wearing a pair of sunglasses and a foil pirate hat in her license picture, but the woman on the license just above the Waratah flower was clearly the same woman in the bank branch this morning.
“Thank you Mrs. Hawkins, I’ll just count out your cash,” said the teller, handing back Faye’s driver’s license and getting the denominations of coin that Faye had requested, Faye taking them and putting them in her bag.
“Have a nice day, Mrs. Hawkins,” said the teller as Faye left the bank.
“Yes, you too,” said Faye, going on her way.
Inside the bank, the young female teller shook her head and looked at her colleagues. “Did that really happen? Did I really serve a woman who was dressed in a 1970s pantsuit, platform shoes, a tin foil pirate hat and a pair of sunglasses?”
One of the male tellers nodded. “Yes, you did.”
The female teller sighed. “That’s a relief, I thought I was seeing things.”
While Faye was in the bank, Cornelius had been writing ‘STOP’ on the two sheets of cardboard, and handed one to Gavin, retaining the other for himself.
“Did you get the cash?” Alistair asked.
Faye nodded and removed the foil hat from her head. “Yes, it’s in my bag.”
“Good, let’s get out of here before they find us again,” said Alistair.
Danielle turned the key in her ignition and Alistair heard the sound of the car radio start.
“No, turn that off Danielle!” he exclaimed.
Danielle was dismayed. “Why?”
“Because we can’t risk the aliens or demons hacking the frequency and putting messages in our heads. They’ll have us driving right for a waiting UFO,” asserted Alistair. “No radios, no electronics at all.”
Danielle turned off the radio. “Sorry, I didn’t think.”
“Now follow me closely. We have to be careful, we can’t take direct routes all the time otherwise a UFO might be tracking us and will work out our route,” said Alistair. “Above all, we cannot be separated.”
“So where are we headed?” Danielle asked.
“Central Coast, we’ll stop when we get to Gosford and re-assess our plans then,” said Alistair.
Again, Faye got into the front passenger seat of her husband’s car, Alistair in the driver’s seat and Gavin and Erica in the back.
“Keep a watch out for anything unusual,” said Alistair to Gavin and Erica, as he drove away, Danielle close behind him. Things went smoothly enough though Randwick as the cars went past the Randwick Racecourse and through Moore Park past the Sydney Cricket Ground, but when they reached Paddington traffic started to get congested around the market precinct.
Getting closer to the city, there were fortunately no aliens, ghosts, monsters, demons and out of place animals to impede the journey, but in both Kings Cross and Darlinghurst roadworks hampered their progress to Alistair’s great frustration, his anger levels increasing with each second as he observed roads blocked off by red witches hats, posts and signs.
Fuming as he struggled to get around the congestion, Alistair with Danielle right behind him found himself stuck in more traffic opposite the Domain. In the back of the car Erica looked intently through her glasses into the Domain parklands and immediately picked up something out of place. At first she thought it was just a large dog in the trees the shadows casting odd patterns on its light brown coat, but on closer examination it was obvious what it was, even though Erica had never seen one in person before, and only seen old black and white footage and photos of them.
“Dad, there’s a Tasmanian tiger – a Thylacine – in the Domain, just through there.” Erica pointed out the window, and her father, mother and boyfriend also looked, seeing the large carnivorous marsupial thought extinct since 1936 trotting around in the parkland through some plane trees.
Behind them, Danielle and Cornelius likewise struck in the traffic, were puzzled. “What’s wrong, what’s out there?” Danielle called.
“Thylacine, right through there,” Erica called back, pointing at the marsupial. Cornelius and Danielle looked and they also saw the Tasmanian Tiger pacing back and forth.
Soon the thylacine had company, in the form of a large flightless bird which trotted through the park at brisk pace, casting haughty glances around like it owned the place. At first glance it appeared the bird was a ratite – an Ostrich from Africa, a Rhea from the Americas or an Australian Emu, but this bird was too large and quite different to anything any of them had ever seen.
Gavin’s mouth was hanging open. “That’s a moa, from New Zealand, they’ve been extinct for hundreds of years.”
“So have dodos, but look!” exclaimed Erica. Along the pavement outside of the Domain came a procession of a dozen waddling birds, all flightless as well. These birds were nowhere near the size of the Moa, but larger than a turkey or a kiwi, and their odd-shaped heads and bills plus fat bodies left the Hawkins family in no doubt what they were seeing.
The next birds to appear to the Hawkins family were able to fly, much smaller in size but greater in number. They didn’t look out of place — pigeons — but this flock of birds didn’t look like the many pigeons that called Sydney home. These birds circled overhead around Alistair and Danielle’s cars, and Gavin took a closer look at the flock.
“They’re passenger pigeons!” he exclaimed in amazement.
“Passenger pigeons?” asked Alistair.
“Yes, passenger pigeons,” said Gavin. “They’re from North America, they’ve been extinct since about World War I.”
“You seem to know a lot about extinct animals and birds, Gavin,” observed Faye.
“I’ve got a book about them at home,” said Gavin. “Like the seal out there on the pavement, I bet that’s a Caribbean Monk Seal, they haven’t been seen since just after World War II.”
Everyone in the car looked at the large black seal that moved along the pavement, taking the same path as that taken by the dodos. Overhead the huge flock of passenger pigeons swooped over the cars, and the moa and thylacine remained in the Domain parklands.
“We have to get away from here, the aliens have brought extinct animals forward through time just like they did with the Titanic and Hindenburg earlier this morning,” said Alistair. He and Danielle had to double back on themselves and drive past Hyde Park to try and get around the congestion, which took them into the CBD.
This was a place everyone had hoped to avoid, and the occupants of both cars looked up nervously at the Sydney Tower and the large skyscrapers on the Sydney skyline hoping that the aliens were not up there looking at them from the rooftops, setting up a trap for them to fall into. Seeing a UFO fly overhead — one that made a whirring noise like the one that pursued them from their street this morning — only added to their fear.
But at ground level on the busy city streets, there was soon another problem. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Sydney like Brisbane and Perth had removed their trams, unlike Melbourne which kept their tram network and Adelaide which retained a line from the city to Glenelg Beach. Erica, Gavin, Danielle and Cornelius were born well after the last Sydney trams ran, while Alistair and Faye hadn’t seen them since they were teenagers — until this morning.
Along the busy road came a large green and gold tram, its passengers wearing clothes that looked to be from around the 1940s. All looked in amazement as the tram went on its way, and when they passed Elizabeth Street they saw another tram — only this one was flying in the air — not high like an aircraft but definitely airborne.
As the flying tram vanished from view, Alistair finally caught a break in the grid-locked traffic and he and Danielle made a dash for it, heading out of Sydney city through the Harbour Tunnel. Emerging onto the North Shore, Alistair did not make for the freeway that would lead them to the Pacific Motorway, but went in an easterly direction through Cremorne and Mosman and up to Manly, Danielle in close pursuit.
Passing Manly Beach, Faye looked through the Norfolk Island Pines and her blood went cold. Out to sea, over the blue Pacific Ocean waters, was the UFO they had observed at Bondi earlier in the morning, the one with floats on the bottom to enable it to land in water.
“Alistair, that UFO we saw at Bondi is following us again,” she said.
Her husband had also noticed the UFO, as had Cornelius and Danielle in the car behind. “Gavin, Erica, keep a watch on the spaceship, let me know if it comes this way,” ordered Alistair.
“Will do, Mr. Hawkins,” said Gavin, he and Erica watching the menacing alien craft as it flew along Manly Beach, but fortunately it did not seem to pick up on either of the cars and instead flew further out to sea.
“I think we’re alright, Dad,” said Erica.
“I hope so,” said Alistair. Fortunately the UFO did not reappear as the two cars travelled up Sydney’s northern coastal suburbs. At Dee Why, there were some pterodactyls — large white pterodactyls with long black beaks and black legs — that circled on the sea breeze along with screeching seagulls around the beach while other similar pterodactyls scavenged through rubbish bins at ground level while emitting loud honking noises — but they didn’t seem to be interested in either Alistair or Danielle’s cars, much to the relief of everyone.
Alistair continued driving until he reached Mona Vale, then turned inland on the Mona Vale Road, Danielle following right behind. It was quite a drive until they reached Saint Ives, where Alistair and Danielle turned north and to the Pacific Motorway.
Soon both cars were heading out of town, and were passing the far northern suburbs of Hornsby and Asquith, before leaving the Sydney metropolitan area. Continuing north, the exit signs along the motorway indicating the distances to various Central Coast roads, Alistair and Danielle crossed the Hawkesbury River, and continued to make haste for the Central Coast.
While Alistair and Danielle drove, Faye, Erica and Gavin in the four wheel drive and Cornelius in his wife’s car kept a close watch for flying saucers, but fortunately there were no alien craft in pursuit or hovering in wait for them.
Gavin looked at his watch, it was approaching noon. Had Alistair and Danielle driven directly up the freeway the journey to the Central Coast would not have taken so long, but Alistair’s sage decision to go out by the coastal way to keep one step ahead of the pursuing aliens and demons coupled with the traffic problems getting out of Sydney meant the journey had taken far longer.
“Shit, I was meant to call my sister,” said Gavin. “Lisa will be really worried.”
Alistair was now approaching Gosford, and indicated a sign for a rest stop further ahead. “We need to have a stop anyway. There will be a phone there, give her a call. Make sure you keep the call as quick as possible to stop it being traced and stick to the script. You’re going away camping with your friends to the Colo River this afternoon, Erica, Faye and I are in South Australia after Faye’s sister had a stroke, and Cornelius and Danielle are on the Gold Coast for Cornelius’s job interview. Got it?”
“Yes Mr. Hawkins,” said Gavin.
Erica held one of the cardboard ‘STOP’ signs out of the back window, Danielle gave her the thumbs up sign out the car window and both Alistair and Danielle put on their indicators and exited the freeway and into the rest stop, where fortunately they were the only ones there.
Everyone got a bottle of water each and had a drink, then Alistair said to Erica, “You keep watch, let me know straight away if you see anything odd.”
“Yes Dad,” said Erica.
Alistair turned to Danielle. “You right for petrol?”
Danielle nodded. “Yeah, filled up yesterday thankfully. Got over half a tank of gas.”
Cornelius laughed, never able to resist making immature jokes even at the most unsuitable times. “Danielle’s always got plenty of gas when she’s on her rags.”
“Shut up Cornelius, and grow up!” snapped the peeved and stressed-out Faye.
“You heard your mother, shut up Cornelius, you are a fucking imbecile,” growled Alistair. He turned back to Danielle. “I’ve got plenty of petrol too, so we’re right for a while.”
Gavin walked over to the pay phone, took some 20 cent coins from his wallet and called his sister’s mobile phone, hoping Lisa was on her lunch break. Many miles away back in Sydney, Lisa was indeed on her lunch break, walking along bustling Castlereagh Street having a break from the busy office, when her mobile phone rang inside her bag.
Already worried that she hadn’t heard from her brother, Lisa quickly grabbed her TV remote sized phone and raised the antenna. “Hello?” she asked anxiously.
Lisa felt relief at hearing her younger brother’s voice on the other end of the phone. “Hi Lisa, it’s Gavin, how are you?”
“Gavin, are you okay? You didn’t call earlier like you said, I was worried.”
“Sorry about that, got caught up at university, kind of forgot.”
“So are you at university now?”
Gavin was about to answer, when a kookaburra in a nearby gum tree nearby set off a loud laughing. Hoping his sister wouldn’t overhear the noisy bird, Gavin said casually. “Yeah, just finished a tutorial.”
“Gavin, I can hear a kookaburra.”
“A kookaburra? What kookaburra? Oh that kookaburra.” Gavin let out an unconvincing laugh. “There’s sometimes kookaburras around the campus, there’s one up the tree nearby.”
“Gavin, are you sure you’re feeling okay? After this morning, I’m worried about you.” Lisa looked up at the passing monorail, feeling most ill at ease.
“Yeah, although I think you’re right, I have been feeling tired, nursing is a pretty full on course, plus I’ve been working a lot of shifts at the supermarket recently,” said Gavin. “That’s what I called you about actually, I’ve been so flat out I got the dates for the camping trip with the guys mixed up. It’s actually this weekend, so when you get home from work I’ll already be gone to the Colo River. I’ll be back late on Sunday afternoon.”
The pretty blonde’s face showed suspicion and doubt. “The camping trip? I swear that wasn’t for another two weeks.”
“No, definitely this weekend. It will do me good, all that nice fresh air in the Blue Mountains, will help me relax a bit.”
“So who are you going with?”
“Just the guys. Gino, Tony, Zach, Zach’s cousin Luke and a couple of others.”
“Is Erica going with you?”
Gavin shook his head. “No, it’s a guys’ weekend away, no girls. Anyway, Erica couldn’t come even if girlfriends were coming. She’s in Adelaide with her parents.”
“Adelaide?” Lisa was disbelieving. “When did they go to South Australia?”
“Early this morning,” said Gavin. “It was a last minute thing, Erica’s Aunt Angela had a severe stroke so they jumped on a plane and took off. They’d be in Adelaide by now. Erica gave me the number where they’re staying, so I’ll call her later to make sure everything’s okay.”
“Well I hope that Erica’s aunty is okay,” said Lisa. “So it’s just Cornelius and Danielle in the house then?”
“No,” said Gavin. “They left this morning too, for the Gold Coast.”
“The Gold Coast? What are they doing on the Gold Coast?”
Gavin again tried to sound casual. “Oh, a couple of weeks ago Cornelius applied for a job as a clown at a theme park. He didn’t get it, but the guy who got the job apparently didn’t work out, so they called Cornelius and asked him to come up for an interview. Danielle went with him as support, and to you know be his assistant when he shows them some magic tricks. They flew out to Queensland this morning.”
“Well, I hope Cornelius gets the job,” said Lisa. This was 100 percent genuine. A Cornelius-free existence was very appealing, and in this case New South Wales gain would be Queensland’s loss if Cornelius relocated to the sunshine state to work at a theme park. His bitch of a wife Danielle would be no great loss either. Lisa would have preferred Cornelius to relocate somewhere much further away such as Warsaw in Poland, Nova Scotia in Canada, Philadelphia in the USA or Caracas in Venezuela, but this was better than nothing.
“How about you Lisa, how’s work?” Gavin asked.
“Fine, busy as usual, but can’t complain,” said Lisa. “You take care on your camping trip.”
“I will, so I’ll see you on Sunday afternoon, and then Mum and Dad are back from their cruise on Monday. I can’t wait to see them.”
“Me either, so I’ll see you Sunday then. Bye Gavin, have fun.”
“Bye Lisa, have fun at work.”
The siblings ended their respective calls, and in Sydney Lisa returned her phone to her bag, and walked to the sandwich shop to get her lunch. It was the same brand of sandwich shop where Gavin’s girlfriend Erica worked, and by coincidence one of the attendants working behind the counter was a skinny, mousy, nervous girl with glasses just like Erica. Ordering her lunch, Lisa thought about the strange events this morning, and despite Gavin assuring her everything was okay, could not shake that feeling that things were far from fine, that something funny was going on with her brother and the dysfunctional family of his girlfriend.
Up on the Central Coast Gavin put down the receiver. “How did I do?” he asked Alistair, who stood beside him as he made the call.
“Fine, I just hope you convinced her,” said Alistair. “Because she will be in danger if the aliens think she knows more than she does.”
“Yeah, I know,” said Gavin, looking most worried. “What about work? Should I call them now too, let them know I can’t come In tomorrow?”
Alistair shook his head. “No, best to call in sick tomorrow morning.”
Walking over to his four wheel drive, Alistair opened the back and called Cornelius over. “I really don’t want to give you a gun like this,” he said, taking the hunting rifle and loading it, “But we need to have one gun in each car to properly protect ourselves if we need to.”
With great reluctance, Alistair handed the high-powered firearm to Cornelius, who snatched the rifle from his father’s grasp. Cornelius’s crazy eyes went crazier still, and he aimed the gun in the direction of the Pacific Motorway. “Bang bang, bang, bang bang!” he shouted, before Alistair grabbed the rifle back.
“You bloody idiot!” he yelled, hitting Cornelius on the back of his head, Alistair looking anxiously to see if any passing vehicles had seen the debacle, which fortunately none of them appeared to have done.
“When will you ever fucking grow up Cornelius? I’ll give this to your wife, at least she will be more sensible than you,” growled Alistair, discretely handing the rifle to Danielle as well as the axe, which she hid in the back of her car, covering the weapons with a blanket.
While Cornelius sulked at his father taking the gun off him, Erica’s attention was on a sign advertising a popular wildlife park in the New South Wales Central Coast area. It boasted an impressive collection of Australian native animals and a large display of reptiles, both from Australia as well as overseas.
Many of the animals at the wildlife park were displayed on the sign, and as Erica looked at it, she could have sworn the crocodile move. She blinked and it didn’t seem to move again and Erica was confident she was seeing things. Her eyesight had never been any good, hence wearing glasses from early childhood.
She looked at the motorway and then back at the sign, and this time a frilled-neck lizard seemed to move. Again Erica blinked thinking it would stop, but it didn’t. The lizard was moving around and now the crocodile was too. Not only were they moving on the sign, they were coming out of the sign.
With fear running down her digestive system from her stomach to her rectum, Erica broke out in a cold sweat and backed away, putting her fingers in her mouth as the crocodile and frill-neck lizard emerged from the sign, soon joined by a second large lizard — a goanna — and an American alligator. Before Erica could open her mouth, a kangaroo bounded out of the sign followed by a dingo, an emu and another flightless bird in the form of a cassowary — which wasn’t even on the sign.
Four venomous snakes — a king brown, a taipan, a tiger snake and a red-bellied black snake — all came through the sign and Erica managed to find her voice. “Mum, Dad, everyone — I think we’ve got a problem!”
She pointed at the sign, and everyone looked in horror at the Australian animals and reptiles coming out of the sign and advancing towards them. A tortoise obviously didn’t cause much anxiety to the group due to the slow pace, and a wallaby was probably too small to pose a threat as were several koalas and a wombat too fat and slow — but a line of aggressive snakes, lizards, kangaroos, emus, cassowaries, komodo dragons and dingos coming at them were. And a crocodile and alligator were definitely dangerous.
“It’s like that sign is some sort of portal,” said Danielle, watching open-mouthed as a platypus and echidna came through it, followed by another crocodile and kangaroo, all advancing upon the Hawkins family.
“Let’s go, now!” yelled Alistair, as the screeching of an angry Tasmanian Devil that leaped out of the sign filled the air. Everyone dashed for their cars and Alistair and Danielle drove away with a screeching of tires. The animals gave chase, and to the amazement of everyone the snakes were able to keep up with the faster animals, the serpents hissing menacingly as they pursued the cars. Finally though, Alistair and Danielle were able to accelerate away and Erica and Gavin looked as the faster animals — the kangaroos, emus and cassowaries — faded into the background.
“We’ll need to take a different route, there’s a chance they’ll let the aliens and demons know and they’ll set a trap for us further up the motorway,” said Alistair.
He took an approaching exit, and Danielle followed her father-in-law into Gosford, both cars stopping in a park outside the entry to the city but leaving the engines running, Danielle getting out and coming over to the four wheel drive.
“So where are we going?” Danielle asked.
“Newcastle, then we can reassess it from there,” said Alistair. “But on the way, we’re going to get some binoculars, one set for each car, that way we can keep a watch out for danger.”
“Well as you know I’m from Newcastle,” said Danielle. “My folks have got an acre or so out the back of their place. How about we stay there until this all dies down? They won’t mind.”
Alistair was horrified. “No, are you crazy? The aliens have probably already planned for that. They’ve probably already sent up agents there in disguise like telephone repairmen or a magazine sales team to check if you’ve been there or been in contact.”
Danielle looked dismayed. “Are you sure? My name isn’t Hawkins so maybe…”
“Trust me Danielle, they will know,” said Faye. “We can’t risk putting your parents in danger.”
“Well, my brother knows this bloke and he…” Danielle began, before Alistair cut her off.
“No! No involving your family at all, is that clear Danielle?” he said. “You’ll put them — and us — in very serious danger.” He then thought about something. “You’ve got quite a big family, haven’t you?”
Danielle nodded. “Yeah. I’m one of ten, four boys and six girls. My parents have got lots of brothers and sisters too, so shitloads of cousins.”
“Jesus, haven’t you Novocastrians ever heard of television? Or birth control?” grumbled Alistair. “I take it most of them are still in the area?”
“Yeah, one of my brothers and one of my sisters now live in Sydney like me, a few cousins have gone to Sydney and one to Wollongong too, but most of the family are around Newcastle,” said Danielle.
“When we get there, you’ll need to stay out of sight as much as possible,” said Alistair.
“Come on Alistair, Newcastle’s a big place,” said Danielle.
“Just be careful,” warned Alistair. “You too Cornelius, they might recognize you too. Let’s get into Gosford and buy those binoculars, and get away from here. The animals that came out of the sign are probably still looking for us, and they’ve probably already called the aliens and demons.”
Alistair and Danielle drove out of the park and into the main street of Gosford, the main city of the New South Wales Central Coast quite busy this Friday afternoon. Everyone waited in the cars as Alistair dashed into an outdoor supplies store that sold camping equipment, fishing gear and other similar items, returning with two sets of binoculars, one of which he gave to Erica and Gavin and the other to Danielle and Cornelius.
Then getting onto the Central Coast Highway, both cars departed Gosford via Erina, intending to travel up to the Hunter Region by the coast, not wanting to risk aliens having set a trap for them on the inland Pacific Motorway.
As they had back in Sydney, Gavin and Erica in the back of the four wheel drive acted as lookouts, and kept a close watch out for anything from outer space or of the supernatural on the drive north. The drive would take them up a scenic part of the coast, with the Pacific Ocean to the east, and to the west the waters of the enormous Tuggerah Lake.
So far, nothing untoward had happened but as the cars went through The Entrance and crossed the bridge near Terilbal Island, Gavin’s eyes picked up some large white birds high in the sky.
“I think they might be a problem,” he said.
Erica took off her glasses and put the binoculars to her eyes. She focused on the birds thinking that they might not be birds but pterodactyls like the ones they had seen back at Dee Why beach. After observing the birds more closely, she sighed in relief.
“They’re just pelicans,” she said, handing the binoculars to her boyfriend, Gavin focusing on the large white pelicans that were gliding on the air currents high up above the sparkling blue waters of Tuggerah Lake.
“Yeah, they are just pelicans,” said the relieved Gavin. “Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to alarm everyone.”
“That’s okay, better to be safe than sorry,” said Faye from the front seat.
The drive north continued, and looking at Danielle’s car following behind Erica noticed that her brother had clearly become bored during the long driving stretch through the Wyrrabalong National Park, and Cornelius had taken off his seatbelt, opened the window of his wife’s car and was now leaning out the window, barking like a dog as the occupants of other passing vehicles wondered what the fuck was going on.
Erica cringed in embarrassment. Cornelius was a nightmare on road trips when they were kids because of this, and sometimes he would start acting up like this even on a short trip within the area of Sydney where they lived. Now Cornelius was a 23-year-old married man and still leaning out the car window barking like a dog.
Beside her, Gavin had also noticed but preferred to look anywhere else but behind him and Erica could see in the front of the car her mother was clearly pissed off at the antics of her son. While Danielle was often an enabler of her idiotic husband, Erica could see that this time her sister-in-law was anything but impressed, trying to concentrate on driving and get her husband to sit down and shut up at the same time.
One person who hadn’t seemed to have noticed anything was Alistair, Mr. Hawkins’ face a mask of concentration as he drove through the National Park. However, Erica nearly wet herself when her angry father abruptly rolled down his window and bellowed, “Cornelius you bloody idiot, fucking stop doing that or I’ll stop the car and tan you!”
Whether or not Cornelius heard the shouting or whether his father’s voice was lost in the wind and noise of traffic coming the other way could not be ascertained, but Erica noticed that her brother literally pulled his head in after this, getting back in his seat, closing the window and putting his seatbelt back on.
Exiting the National Park, the journey continued up the coast, nothing odd happened, whether from extraterrestrial or supernatural influences or Cornelius acting like a cretin, and things went smoothly. Erica relaxed a little and beside her she noticed Gavin kept drifting off to sleep.
Around Lake Munmorah, Erica began to feel the need to pee. Obviously she hadn’t been to the toilet since the toilet demon frightened her when she was on the loo this morning back at home, but this wasn’t the time to ask to stop the car so she could relieve herself, so Erica crossed her legs and tried to think about other things.
Gavin awoke when the cars approached Moonee and appeared relaxed, but Erica felt a pang of worry when she saw a sign indicating the distance of the turn off for Ghosties Beach. Was this name auspicious and a sign of trouble to come? Of course it wasn’t, it was a beach called Ghosties Beach filled with caves and caverns and wild surf, nothing to do with ghosts at all.
However, despite Erica’s attempts to reassure herself there were no dangers, Erica felt more nervous the closer they got to Ghosties Beach, and the young girl’s fears proved well-founded. From behind a tree emerged a shadowy grey and ill-defined figure that leaped out in front of the four wheel drive.
“Dad, ghost!” screamed Erica.
In the front of the car, Alistair and Faye Hawkins also saw the ghost as did Gavin. The ghost floated in the air and over the four wheel drive, Danielle and Cornelius seeing it too as it floated over their car making evil and eerie ghost noises, then turned back to chase them.
“Alistair, look out!” yelled Faye as more ghosts, shadowy and ill-defined like the first one approached both cars, some white, some black some grey, floating alongside them making scary supernatural noises, moaning, screaming and banshee-like wailing.
In the back of the car, Erica was close to tears, rocking back and forth in terror, Gavin holding her hand to try and reassure her despite his own fear of the ghosts which looked like spirits of deceased members of the Ku Klux Klan. The ghost she had seen at the house this morning plus the poltergeist-like noises on the doors and windows had terrified her, and this was worse.
Much of Erica’s terror of ghosts came from an incident when she was in her early years of high school. Gavin had been away for the week with chicken pox as had his older sister, and without the only kids at the high school who stood up for her there, she had been suffering terrible bullying, and things were pretty bad at home too. Cornelius was causing no end of trouble, Brendan was off his head on drugs and her parents were fighting, her father and grandmother even more so. So when the already highly stressed Erica got up early to get a glass of water and Cornelius leaped out at her from behind a corner with a sheet over his head and making ghost noises, young Erica ended up on the floor in the fetal positon in a state of terror, Faye having to put her severely traumatized daughter to bed with a bucket, Erica vomiting in stress most of the day.
Erica felt close to vomiting now as the ghosts continued their antics by banging on the outside of both of the cars, but as they cleared the Ghosties Beach area the ghosts stopped their attack, and the sadistic spirits simply faded away, to the relief of the occupants of both cars.
The drive to the Hunter Region continued along the coast, now with Lake Macquarie to the left and the Pacific Ocean to the right. At one stage Gavin was concerned to see what might be a UFO, but it was at some distance away right on the other side of Lake Macquarie, and could possibly be a light aircraft.
Erica was busting to pee, and was hoping her father would soon stop the car for fuel as they crossed the Swansea Bridge and over into Belmont, the southernmost suburbs of the steel city of Newcastle. If they had taken the Pacific Motorway up from the Central Coast the journey would have been less than an hour, but the coastal route they had taken was far longer, plus the stop and the busy traffic in Gosford added much time to the journey, and by now it was late afternoon.
Each time Erica saw a service station she hoped her father would stop there, but he did not, driving all the way up to the Newcastle CBD and the main street, Hunter Street, where he pulled into a large service station and to a pump, Danielle behind him.
Everyone got out of the cars, Alistair and Cornelius getting the nozzles out of the petrol bowsers to re-fuel the cars. As was often the case, Cornelius could not resist the opportunity to make an exhibition of himself, and put the petrol hose between his legs to simulate a penis, pretending to masturbate and laughing.
Alistair’s loud voice cut through the air, scaring other people filling up their cars. “Cornelius, stop doing that right now you bloody fool!”
Cornelius reluctantly did as he was told and began to fill up his wife’s car, but inside the group had already attracted the attention of the service station staff, who watched on the surveillance cameras the antics of a young man wearing a black tee-shirt proclaiming he hated faggots, and an angry looking bearded man shouting. Not to mention who seemed to be the mother dressed like it was 1978 not 1998.
“Keep a watch out on that group, they look like trouble to me,” the woman who ran the service station to the two young male console operators. “They might do a runner without paying.”
While Gavin stretched his legs, Danielle made for the ladies room.
“Danielle, where are you going?” Alistair growled. “Somebody you know might recognize you!”
His daughter-in-law was cutting in her reply, and clearly didn’t care that everyone could hear her. “Excuse me for needing to piss and change my tampon.”
She flounced off towards the toilet, and Faye, also getting the call of nature, also headed for the ladies room. Erica went to follow her mother and sister-in-law, but as she walked towards the female toilets she stopped. Her bladder was bursting, if she didn’t go to the toilet she would have wet knickers, but such was her terror of another encounter with the toilet demon, she couldn’t summon up the bravery to go in there and stood with her legs crossed and her fingers in her mouth, her heart racing.
“Are you coming Erica?” Faye asked, noticing that her daughter had not followed them.
Cornelius laughed and teased his younger sister. “Erica’s scared of the toilet demon coming to get her. Isn’t that right Erica?”
“Cornelius, shut up!” bellowed Alistair, as again other petrol station customers looked over.
Faye and Danielle went into the ladies, desperate to pee, leaving the distressed Erica standing outside, her awkward body posture attracting attention.
Feeling sorry for his girlfriend, Gavin went over to her and stroked her hair. “Erica, you okay?”
Erica shook her head, feeling very close to tears. “I need to go for a pee so badly, but after what happened this morning I’m scared to go to the toilet.”
“I understand,” said Gavin. He looked around, and spied a large dumpster in an alcove. “How about you duck behind there? I’ll stand guard so nobody sees you.”
Erica wasn’t thrilled about squatting and peeing behind a dumpster at a busy petrol station, but such was her need to urinate and her terror of the toilet demon that the young girl had no choice and nodded. “I’m so nervous,” she said in a small voice.
“It’s okay, I understand,” said Gavin, taking Erica. He reached into his jeans pocket and took out two tissues, handing them to Erica so she would be able to wipe her pussy.
Erica, her legs tight together, shuffled alongside Gavin to where the dumpster was and while Gavin stood guard and tried to look casual, Erica ducked behind it. The young girl hastily unfastened her denim shorts which she pulled down to her thighs, then her white cotton floral knickers.
The teenager squatted down, relaxed as much as she possibly could and felt the sheer relief in her bladder as she began to pee. Erica’s smelly yellow urine flowed from her urethra in abundance, the teenager tinkling onto the concrete she was squatting over. Her piss kept coming and coming and coming out of her little pee-hole, soaking Erica’s tight hairy teenage twat in the process.
Finally though Erica’s pee stream started to abate, and the steady yellow stream from the young girl’s pussy turned to big splashes, then droplets before dying away, her bladder now empty. Erica took the tissues and applied them to her vagina, the tissues coming away from her fanny soaked with urine. Now done, Erica stood up and pulled up her knickers and then her shorts, adjusting them around her bum and her box.
“You feeling better now?” Gavin asked, as Erica stepped out from behind the dumpster and threw her pee-soaked tissues into them.
“Yes, thanks Gavin, thank you for standing watch for me,” said Erica. “I really had to go, but the toilet demon might have been waiting for me.”
“I understand,” said Gavin, his eyes going wide at the massive puddle of piss Erica had left behind herself, which had gone everywhere. His girlfriend was a particularly petite teenager built like a willow branch. How did she have so much pee in her bladder?
Erica was a girl who was always fastidious about washing her hands after she had been to the toilet whether she had urinated, defecated or had been dealing with feminine hygiene requirements while on her period, and accordingly the young girl looked around for somewhere to do this. All she could see were small buckets with squeegees inside each of them for washing windscreens, and she made for the nearest one, washing her hands thoroughly to the astonishment of the middle-aged man who was about to use these items to wash his windscreen.
Gavin, himself not having any phobias of toilet demons, then made a dash for the men’s room to pee, Erica waiting for him to return, after which they held hands waiting for everyone else to finish.
At his pump, Cornelius had just finished filling up Danielle’s car. He replaced the nozzle back in the bowser and casually looked as another car pulled into the service station. His eyes however went wide as he recognized the driver and passenger. “Oh shit!” he exclaimed, jumping into the driver’s side of the car and hiding.
Alistair, who had also finished fueling up, saw this and was not impressed. He strode over to the car and flung the door open. “Why are you playing silly buggers again, Cornelius?” he snapped.
Cornelius pointed over to the newly arrived car where the older male driver was fueling up and the old lady sat in the passenger seat. “That’s Danielle’s grandparents, her mother’s parents. They can’t see me, and they can’t see Danielle. You need to warn her, Dad!”
Alistair knew the risks. “I’ll do it,” he said, heading for the female lavatories.
In the ladies’ room, Faye and Danielle had been peeing in more standard situations than Erica, into toilets. Faye finished first, Danielle needing a change of tampon took longer. The young woman pulled a fully saturated tampon full of blue blood out of her fanny, before inserting another one up there to replace it, Danielle noticing that her pee and period again created a green liquid in the lavatory.
Standing up and flushing the toilet, Danielle came out of the cubicle adjusting her knickers through her leggings and joined her mother-in-law at the sink to wash her hands. There was no conversation between the pair, Faye and Danielle never getting along well at the best of times, but then came a knocking on the external door and Alistair’s voice.
“Faye, Danielle, you in there?”
Faye opened the door and Alistair quickly ducked inside. “Danielle, there’s a problem outside. Your grandparents are there.”
“Oh shit!” exclaimed Danielle. “Did they see Cornelius?”
Alistair shook his head. “No, he’s hiding in the car, but we need to somehow get you out of here without them noticing you.”
“I packed a jacket in case it gets cold,” said Faye. “It’s got a hood, I’ll go and get it. Danielle can wear that so her grandparents don’t see her.”
Leaving Danielle in the ladies’ room, Alistair and Faye departed, Faye running back to the four wheel drive and getting the jacket, taking it back to the women’s toilets and giving it to her daughter-in-law. Danielle hastily put it on, covered as much of her face as possible and made her way back to her car, jumping into the passenger seat and joining her husband in hiding.
Faye looked at Danielle’s grandparents, who fortunately seemed to have seen nothing. That was one good thing at least, she thought to herself as she waited for her husband to pay for the fuel so they could get out of here.
Alistair, who had ducked into the men’s room to take a leak, now headed into the service station shop to pay for the petrol. Impatient to leave, he was irritated by the long queue, and when he finally reached the head of it he thought that the young male attendant was looking at him in a funny way.
Being looked at in a funny way did not impress Alistair, and nor did the size of the fuel bill for Danielle’s car. “Gas guzzler,” Alistair growled as he took the receipt, his mood darkening as he walked out of the service station and saw the traffic on Hunter Street was getting heavier and heavier, which would delay them getting out of here.
Outside the automatic doors into the service station, a teenage boy had noticed that the man coming out of the shop didn’t look very happy. The boy, whose facial features and body posture showed that he was afflicted by the condition Downs Syndrome, wore the uniform of the special school he attended in Newcastle for kids just like him, and it even had his nametag Toby on it.
Toby was in a good mood, and why wouldn’t he be? In his hand he had a bag of lollies, purchased for him by his parents. He looked at the tall bearded man coming out of the shop, and noted that he looked like his Grandpop. And Toby’s Grandpop was a really nice man, who was always very happy to accept some of Toby’s sweets when he offered them to him. Toby bet that this man was really nice just like his Grandpop, that he was just having a bad day and that’s why he looked so sad, and that some sweets would cheer him up.
Alistair hadn’t noticed Toby, the first he knew of his presence was when a paper bag full of sweets was thrust in his face, and he heard a retarded voice going, “Ood u lie um ollies?”
Started and already on edge, Alistair did not appreciate the intrusion. “Shut up!” he bellowed, knocking the bag of lollies out of Toby’s hand with a single, violent swipe. “Stupid fucking mongoloid!”
The lollies went flying out of the bag for some distance such was the power of Alistair’s strike, and landed in front of a couple who were walking two Labrador dogs. Endlessly obsessed by food, the Labradors moved quickly, the greedy dogs gobbling up Toby’s lollies within seconds.
Toby burst into tears, and stood wailing, the sound getting Alistair even more cross, and angrier still when some woman came at him and said, “Excuse me, how dare you speak to my son like that!”
“Keep the retard on a lead and away from normal people in future then,” growled Alistair.
“My son has special needs and he does not need people like you acting like that,” said the appalled mother.
“Tell somebody who cares, I don’t give a shit about your spastic son boo-hooing and carrying on,” declared Alistair. “Put him in a fucking loony school and keep him there.”
Alistair returned to the car, as Toby’s mother comforted him while he sobbed and his equally appalled father came out of the shop. “Never mind Toby, we’ll get you another bag of lollies,” he assured his son. He glared at Alistair as he entered his four wheel drive, noting the name of the lift company on the shirt Alistair wore. “And I wonder what that dreadful man is going to think when I call his company’s head office on Monday to make an official complaint?”
Everyone in the Hawkins family was back in their cars, but did not pull out, instead waiting for Danielle’s grandparents to leave. This wasn’t a short process, her grandfather was a very precise man who didn’t want uneven dollar amounts when he was paying his fuel, and it kept going to one or two cents over.
In the drivers’ seat of Danielle’s car Cornelius kept popping his head up and down to see where Danielle’s grandfather was, while Danielle stayed completely hidden, sweating in the hooded jacket. Finally though, Danielle’s grandfather finished filling the car and went into the shop, while her grandmother remained in the passenger seat reading a book.
Seizing their chance, Alistair and Cornelius drove out of the service station, Cornelius following his father up Hunter Street, Danielle beside him getting out of her hiding position and taking off the jacket. At the service station, the manager came in from the office and asked the young men at the console, “So, no problems with those weird people?”
The two young guys had no idea where to start. Who seemed to be the oldest son pretending to masturbate with the petrol pump hose then hiding in the car? The young woman with untidy blonde hair going into the ladies room with the older woman dressed in 1970s clothes, the older lady coming back, returning with a jacket to conceal the young woman who then hid in the car with the weird young guy? The space cadet girl with glasses pulling down her shorts and her knickers to take a piss behind the dumpster with the whole thing captured on CCTV, then holding hands with and kissing the young guy who the service station employees took to be her brother? Or was it the patriarch of the group, who after shouting at his son, went into first the women’s toilets then the men’s, came into the shop to pay for the fuel in both cars and being a complete grouch about it, then bullying and upsetting a Down Syndrome boy outside?
By this time both cars were well up Hunter Street, adjacent to which was a railway line, both Alistair and Cornelius having to stop when the bells on a level crossing started ringing and the boom-gates went down. Nobody paid any attention to a passenger train from Sydney nor a goods train going by, but their attention went to the sights and sounds of a steam train when it went by, smoke pouring from the stack on the locomotive, the sound of the steam whistle prominent, the train carriages old fashioned Edwardian era rail cars.
Alistair, Faye, Gavin and Erica looked at the passing steam train, as did Cornelius and Danielle, able to smell the coal smoke as it drifted from the engines before the train went on its way. Thankfully nothing else weird happened, but Alistair said, “That was a warning, the aliens brought the steam train forward through time to show that they’re still onto us.”
Things proved uneventful as Alistair and Cornelius continued to drive through Newcastle’s northern suburbs, but had to make a quick pit stop as Cornelius was the only one not to get a chance to pee at the service station, and was now busting. While Cornelius dashed into a park to have a piss, Danielle came around and asked her in-laws, “So where are we headed now?”
“Nelson Bay,” said Alistair.
“It’s getting late and we’re all tired, we need to find somewhere to spend the night,” said Faye.
“I hope we can find someplace that won’t charge us an arm and a leg,” grumbled Alistair.
“It’s out of season, and not school holidays, I think we should be fine,” said Faye.
Cornelius returned having had a piss, and he again got into the driver’s seat of Danielle’s car, his wife telling him of their destination, Cornelius following his father as they crossed the Hunter River and headed north-easterly along the coast for the town of Nelson Bay at Port Stephens.
Things were winding down for the day as the Hawkins family approached for the early evening, tourist boats returning to the marina after conducting dolphin watching tours throughout the day.
Alistair looked out the window of the car at the lighthouse when they drove by. “I don’t like the look of that lighthouse, it seems demonic to me.”
In the back seat of the car, Erica said, “Dad, it’s just a lighthouse.”
“Yeah Mr. Hawkins, can a lighthouse be demonic?” asked Gavin.
“Well, yes they can be,” said Alistair. “I just get a bad feeling about it; that demons might be up there watching for us. We’ll just have to be careful around it, we don’t want demons or aliens up there using it as a beacon to put thoughts into our brains.”
They continued the drive, and Faye indicated some holiday chalets with a flashing ‘Vacancy’ sign outside. “How about we try there?”
“Prices don’t seem too bad,” said Alistair, looking at the advertised prices as they stopped to take a closer look. “We’ll give it a try.”
Alistair and Cornelius pulled into the parking lot, and the family went into the office. The motel manager, an older guy came to the desk. “Good afternoon Sir, I’m Tom, how can I help you?” he asked Alistair.
“Could we please rent a chalet for the night?” Alistair asked, holding out notes to the value of the hotel room’s overnight price.
“Yes of course Sir, we just need you to fill out the register,” said Tom.
Alistair did just this, but of course the information completed was false, the address given one in Coolangatta, and the telephone number made up off the top of his head. And the Hawkins family became the Brown family. “Oh, you’re from the Gold Coast,” said Tom. “Nice place.”
“Yeah, just drove down this morning,” said Alistair.
Tom went through some of the terms and conditions of staying at the chalets, then handed the keys to Alistair for chalet 12, watching as the family went on their way. Tom shook his head, being in this business for so long he knew of the ‘strange ones’ and this family appeared odd. There was something off about the father, and if they were from Queensland, why did both cars bear New South Wales number plates? True Coolangatta was on the border, but still it was a bit odd.
Why was the father wearing his work clothes if they were on vacation, why was the mother dressed like it was the 1970s? The eldest son in his homophobic tee-shirt looked extraordinarily strange, and definitely not trustworthy. What connection the girl with untidy blonde hair had to this family was unclear, and even more disturbingly why were the younger son and daughter holding hands as they walked to the chalet? Tom shook his head, resolving to tell his wife about them and to keep an eye on them during their short stay.
“This is nice,” said Faye as the family went into the chalet and took a look around.
“Yeah, but not that,” said Alistair, scowling as Cornelius and Danielle each made a beeline for the mini-bar and took out two cans of beer, opening them and guzzling the lager inside. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“We’re thirsty,” said Danielle defensively.
“We have to pay for that and it’s not cheap,” growled Alistair. “Especially expensive overseas beer like that. Don’t drink anything more out of that mini bar.”
“Well what are we supposed to drink?” Cornelius scowled.
“There’s plenty of bottled water in the car, and plenty more water out of the taps,” said Alistair.
Gavin noticed that Erica was pacing a bit, looking very apprehensive. “Everything okay Erica?”
Erica shook her head. Everything was not fine. While she had emptied her bladder at the service station, she had drunk more water afterwards and needed to pee again. But that was only a minor part of the problem. She could feel her excrement in her bowels, pressing against her sphincter and the walls of her rectum. The need to poo was unmistakable, and Erica knew she would have to sit on the toilet this time. And this meant the risk of the toilet demon getting her again.
“I need to go to the toilet,” said Erica in a small voice.
“Well, the bathroom’s just through there,” said her father, pointing at the door. “Hurry up and go.”
“I’m scared, what if the toilet demon is in there?” she asked, putting her fingers in her mouth.
“Erica, the toilet demon is back at the house,” said Faye reassuringly. “You’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, like your Mum said, you’ll be okay.” Gavin tried to reassure his frightened girlfriend.
Cornelius guffawed. “Erica’s too scared to go to the toilet.”
“Shut up moron, keep out of it,” Alistair ordered his son.
“Don’t worry Erica, I know how it feels to be scared to go to the toilet,” said Danielle.
Erica’s eyes went wide. “You do?”
Danielle nodded. “Yeah, when the Newcastle Earthquake struck I was in the toilet at the time. Talk about an instant cure for constipation. Anyway, for a few weeks afterwards I was nervous every time I needed to go to the loo.”
Erica was unconvinced, and the young girl clenched the cheeks of her bum together to try and relieve her increasing urgency.
Faye tried to reassure her frightened daughter. “How about you close the door but don’t lock it while Danielle and I wait outside?” she suggested. “That way we can help you if anything happens. Not that I think it will, the toilet demon is still back at home in Sydney.”
“Are you sure?” Erica asked.
“Yes of course,” said Faye. “The most important thing is that you go to the toilet.”
Feeling more nervous than she had ever been before, Erica went into the bathroom and closed the door but left it unlocked, Faye and Danielle standing outside the door. Her heart racing, Erica looked at the toilet and walked towards it, the teenager putting down the seat.
Feeling herself sweating, Erica unfastened her denim shorts and pulled them down to her ankles, followed by her panties. Erica sat down on the toilet, her pretty teenage feet clad in sandals poking out under her shorts and underpants.
Adjusting her bare bottom on the toilet, all was quiet and Erica relaxed herself enough to pee, the yellow liquid tinkling into the toilet water, the noise audible in the bathroom and to Faye and Danielle waiting outside.
Anticipating hearing the toilet demon’s voice, Erica was relieved when all remained silent and as she finished her tinkle, the teen unwound some loo paper and wiped her wet young vagina. Still nervous about pooing, Erica tried to relax the muscles in her rectum.
She farted loudly on the toilet, this preceding a lump of poo that came out of her anus and splashed into the toilet. Again she thought she would hear the toilet demon’s voice, but nothing as the young girl got some toilet paper and wiped her anus front to back.
Relaxing more now, Erica sat defecating on the toilet, feeling the relief of her poo oozing out of her bottom and splashing into the water. Erica unwound several lengths of toilet paper from the roll and wiped her bottom with them, and could feel that she needed to poop again.
Accordingly, Erica strained, farted and the last of her feces came out of her back passage, this finishing with another loud fart from the teenager’s bottom, signifying she was done apart from wiping. Erica subsequently unwound five lengths of toilet tissue from the roll to finish cleaning herself up.
Her poo over with no demonic interference, Erica felt most relieved and triumphant too, the young girl standing up off the toilet and flushing it, then pulling up her panties and her shorts. Walking over to the sink, the sound of the toilet cistern refilling continuing, Erica washed her hands with plenty of soap and water, adjusted her glasses in the reflection of the mirror and emerged from the bathroom the teenager having a bit of a wedgie after pulling up her knickers, and adjusting the panty elastic from between her butt cheeks.
“Everything okay Erica?” Faye anxiously asked her teenage daughter. She and Danielle had been able to hear Erica advancing the toilet roll while she was in the bathroom and then her flush the toilet and wash her hands, but apart from that nothing else weird was heard.
Erica was overjoyed at being able to take a crap with no supernatural harassment. “Yes, everything was fine. You were right, there was no toilet demon in there waiting to get me.” She rubbed her tummy. “I feel so much better.”
“That is so good, such a relief,” said Faye.
“More for Erica than you Mum I think given she was the one who sat on the toilet and had a crap,” Cornelius laughed, again cutting in when he wasn’t wanted.
“Congratulations kid,” said Danielle. “And guess what? Waiting out here while you went to the toilet made me need to go to the toilet to take a crap too, so excuse me.”
Erica, still overjoyed about using the toilet with no toilet demon waiting for her, came back down to Earth a few seconds later as Danielle stepped into the bathroom and immediately noticed Erica’s toilet smell. Showing her usual levels of tact and discretion, Danielle laughed and pretended to gag. “Oh my God Erica, how much did you shit? It absolutely fucking stinks in here!”
She laughed and closed and locked the door, waving her hand under her nose and breathing through her mouth to try and avoid the stench of her sister-in-law’s shit, while the blushing Erica went and stood with Gavin.
After Danielle had taken her own dump and emerged from the bathroom five minutes later, bitching and moaning that she had to change her tampon prematurely as it was too hard to defecate with one inserted and that she didn’t want to take it out and put it back up there again, it was time to worry about more important things.
“I’m worried about leaving the cars overnight,” said Alistair. “Look how easily the Mexicans stole your car this morning, Faye. What if the demons interfere with them so we can’t get away if we need to?”
“I’d been thinking the same thing, and I’ve got an idea,” said Faye. She took some money. “I’ll be right back.”
Faye dashed off, and was back five minutes later, holding a bottle of holy water. “There’s a church just across the road, and when we drove in I noticed that they had a shop. So I bought this.”
Alistair was cynical. “What good is holy water? I don’t believe in all that stupid crap.”
“This morning I didn’t believe in monsters, ghosts, UFOs, demons, teleportation or time travel either,” said Faye. “But it is all real, we’ve seen it for ourselves. So the things in the bible must also be true too.”
“What were you planning to do?” Alistair asked.
“I thought if we sprinkled the cars with holy water and prayed, it might keep any demons away, at least until the morning.”
“Well, we can give it a try,” said Alistair. “Come on.”
The motel manager Tom, already suspicious of the party staying in chalet 12, was doing some work outside when he observed even more evidence that this group were strange. He watched wide eyed as all six of them came out of the chalet and stood around the four wheel drive, sprinkling it with holy water, before kneeling around the vehicle, clasping their hands and reciting the Lord’s Prayer, crossing themselves and saying ‘Amen’ when finished.
Then the strange group — the bearded man, the woman in 1970s clothes, the weird son in the black offensive tee-shirt, the out of place blonde girl, the mousy daughter with glasses and the young guy presumably another son and if this the case way too close to his sister — went to the second car and repeated the process. The vehicle was sprinkled with holy water, before all six got down on their knees and recited the Lord’s Prayer, crossing themselves when finished and saying ‘Amen’, before going back inside, the perplexed motel manager shaking his head in disbelief.
Inside the chalet, Alistair said, “I think we’d better go and get some dinner. I haven’t eaten all day, and I’m starving.”
Nobody had eaten anything since the morning, and in the case of Alistair, Faye, Danielle and Erica not at all — so they were plenty famished. Luckily the tourist town of Nelson Bay had plenty of eating options close by, so the group set out on foot.
Gavin glanced up at the full moon as he walked along holding hands with Erica, recalling how it had spoken to him back in Sydney this morning. Sydney seemed very far away, and Gavin could not help but worry about Lisa, and that his sister would not have any problems with the supernatural nor aliens during the night.
*
Gavin’s worry about his sister was an emotion reciprocated by Lisa at this very moment. As was usually the case after work on Friday, Lisa and her friends from work had gone out for drinks after the day at the office had finished. She was currently in one of the many bars at Darling Harbour, the venue crowded with office works enjoying the start to their weekends and lots of football supporters, a Rugby League game taking place later at a nearby stadium.
“Are you okay, Lisa?” one of her friends asked, struggling to make herself heard over the band playing at the venue. “You seem a bit distracted.”
Lisa nodded. “Yeah, fine thanks, probably just a bit tired.”
Inside the bar, lots of people were smoking, a habit that was not one of Lisa’s or any of her immediate family, and she disliked the smell. Going outside to get some fresh air, Lisa inhaled it into her lungs, then saw coming along the way the tall, fit handsome form of her boyfriend Pete, like her coming to relax at the bar with friends after work.
While his friends went into the bar, Pete and Lisa exchanged a kiss, asking each other about their respective days. “Work was fine, but I’m worried about Gavin,” she said.
“Gavin? He’s not sick is he?” Pete asked.
Lisa shook her head. “No, at least I don’t think so. It was just that he was acting so strange this morning, I mean really, really strange.”
“Strange how?”
“Well, he thought I was naked, then I was talking to him while I was in the toilet, and then thought I had a stain on my skirt. If I didn’t know any better I’d swear he was hallucinating, but that doesn’t sound like Gavin at all.”
Pete knew and liked his girlfriend’s younger brother. “Well Gavin’s a sensible kid, no way would he ever take drugs. That little girlfriend of his, Erica, she wouldn’t do drugs either.”
“Erica, no she wouldn’t, especially after one of her brothers got hooked on drugs when he was younger. That’s what makes it all the more strange.”
“Maybe Gavin is coming down with something?” Pete suggested. “Or maybe its stress? My sister is a nurse, she said the course is pretty intense, and a lot of university students even if they did well in high school like Gavin did can find making the transition from secondary to tertiary education hard.”
“I’ve thought about all those things, but there seemed something more going on,” said Lisa. “Like Gavin rang me at lunchtime, tried to tell me everything was okay, but I just got that feeling he was lying.”
“So where’s Gavin now? Resting up at home? Or maybe if he and Erica go out to see a movie or something it might help him relax?”
“Gavin’s gone away camping up the Colo River with his mates for the weekend,” said Lisa. “He had mentioned it before, but it was supposed to be two weeks from now. He said he mixed the dates and again it’s not like Gavin to forget something like that.”
“Well the Colo River is a nice spot,” said Pete. “That fresh Blue Mountains Air might be good for Gavin. My brother, sister and I always loved it when our parents took us camping up there as kids.”
“Hopefully it does do him some good,” said Lisa. “I just worry about him.”
“Well, I’d be a bit strange too if I thought I saw my own sister naked,” laughed Pete, stroking Lisa’s long blonde hair. “But I’m sure Gavin’s fine, it’s not like it happens all the time. Plus, you’re overlooking the good news.”
“What’s that?” Lisa asked.
Pete grinned suggestively. “Your brother is away camping. Your folks are still on their cruise out in the South Pacific. That means we have the house to ourselves — and can have a lot of fun.”
Lisa and Pete kissed, and Lisa felt her boyfriend’s hand on her bum, tracing her panty lines through her skirt. Inside her knickers, Lisa felt her vagina tingle, but it didn’t last long. Before accompanying Pete back into the bar, Lisa looked at the night sky, seeing the Southern Cross constellation and the full moon. Her attention went to the bright lights of the Sydney city skyline, the tall buildings illuminated and the red aircraft navigation light atop the Sydney Tower flashing intermittently.
It was a nice autumn night in Sydney, and she and her boyfriend had a fun weekend ahead of them. But still, Lisa could not shake that uneasy feeling that something very strange was going on with her brother and that his story of camping at the Colo River was fictional.
*
The first restaurant that the ravenous Hawkins family spied up in Nelson Bay was a Chinese restaurant. “That looks nice, let’s try in there,” suggested Faye.
They all stepped inside, and immediately knew it was not the place for them, despite how hungry they were. The restaurant interior was decorated with Chinese artwork and lanterns plus dragons — lots and lots of dragons. As soon as the party of six entered the restaurant the dragons looked at them and hissed and growled menacingly. Everyone backed out slowly, and continued their walk up the road.
“Didn’t really want to have Chinese food anyway,” grumbled Alistair. “We’d be sitting there trying to eat our meal listening to Chinamen going ‘ying yang ying yang’ the whole fucking night.”
“How about fish and chips?” Erica suggested, indicating a fish and chip shop across the way.
“Well they probably won’t have dragons in there, so let’s give it a go,” suggested the ravenous Alistair.
The fish and chip shop was busy this Friday night, and the family ordered six fish and chips, with all of them getting a soft drink out of the refrigerator. They sat in six chairs next to each other, a tank full of lobsters on the other side of them.
Waiting for their order, it was young Erica who noticed first that something was amiss here too. The walls of the fish and chip shop were painted blue with cartoon animals and people who liked eating fish. There was a fisherman, a ship’s captain, a chef, a pirate, a mermaid, a shark, a marlin, a crocodile, a dolphin, a stingray, a seagull, a pelican, a penguin, a seal, an orca and a cat, all eagerly anticipating a feed of fish and chips. However, as Erica looked at the cartoons she could feel the eyes of the cartoon ship’s captain looking at her, and then she saw the cartoon seagull move.
At first Erica thought she might be mistaken, but when the crocodile swam across the store wall, she knew she was not imagining things and tapped her mother on the shoulder. Faye also movement in the cartoon people and the animals, who in turn nudged Alistair who also saw the cartoons all moving around freely along the walls, as did Gavin, Cornelius and Danielle, Danielle noting that the dolphin performed a back flip and the pirate waved at her.
All sat rigidly in their seats, dead silent, until one of the lobsters spoke to them from the tank. “Well good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins, Cornelius, Danielle, Erica and Gavin. I do hope you enjoy your stay in Nelson Bay.”
Alistair spoke softly. “We need to leave here, right now. Do not make eye contact with any of them.”
Leaving their soft drinks half consumed, the Hawkins family stood up in complete unison like they were herd animals and left the fish and chip shop. Other customers were puzzled, as were the staff of the shop, who could not fathom why six customers who had paid for their order would just up and leave like that. The group had appeared odd when they arrived, but still…
Deprived first of Chinese food then fish and chips, Alistair was pretty grumpy as the family searched for another restaurant, which hopefully did not contain vicious dragons, cartoons that came to life on walls nor talking lobsters.
“What about this place?” Faye suggested. The restaurant was a casual eating place, specializing in fried chicken. Appropriately, there was a large chicken statue outside the front door, and a large rooster on the roof.
“Fried chicken, I don’t know,” grumbled Alistair.
“What’s wrong with friend chicken?” asked Faye.
“Nothing if you’re a Negro and live in America,” grunted Alistair.
Cornelius laughed, and impersonated an elderly African-American man from the Deep South. “Hey Alistair, y’all want some friend chicken?”
The angry Alistair turned around to belt Cornelius one, but fortunately this time Danielle, although normally a trouble-maker but tonight desperate to eat and not wanting any more delays, pulled her husband away from his angry father and reprimanded him. “Cornelius, tone it down.”
“So no friend chicken then?” the famished Faye asked.
Alistair looked at the friend chicken restaurant. “I’m not black, I don’t want to eat food for Negros. But I’m so hungry I would probably eat a deep fried Negro right now, so let’s go inside.”
Fortunately, Alistair did not have to consume a deep friend African-American for his tea, there was plenty of friend chicken plus chips and salad and drinks for everyone to enjoy sitting at a booth, plus no strange happenings like at the Chinese restaurant and the fish and chip shop.
Despite his expressed distaste for friend chicken, Alistair had no problems eating the chicken from the large family sized bucket the family had purchased. The restaurant was busy this evening, and lots of people were sitting in the booths, or waiting for take-away. They were close to finishing when Cornelius started feeling a bit thirsty after eating fries with too much chicken salt, and he was glad that they had ordered unlimited drink refills, as his glass of soda was close to empty.
Getting out of his seat, Cornelius went to go to the drinks machine, which took him past a large television screen. A nightly current affairs program was on at the moment, although as Cornelius passed by it had gone to a commercial break.
Cornelius’s interest was aroused by a show that was being promoted, a Saturday morning children’s television block, which screened cartoons and was hosted by three really hot young women — one blonde, one brunette and one redhead — and one really lucky young guy. While Cornelius definitely did not want a job, he might be persuaded otherwise if offered a job like this.
Perving on the three girls as they announced what would be on tomorrow morning’s show in their usual bubbly manner, Cornelius’s attention went to the cartoons the girls said would be on. One was an amusing cartoon about a villainous vampire, whose attempts at world domination were always foiled by the bumbling monsters who were his henchmen and by his own hubris and his failures to plan and learn from his past mistakes. The other cartoon of which the girls showed a clip did cause Cornelius apprehension — it was the same cartoon as the one this morning, where the robots had come through the TV to get him.
Fortunately the clip was only on for a few seconds, before the four young presenters again addressed the camera. “So join us Saturday morning from 7 am for lots of fun and adventure,” said the blonde girl, before she and her three co-hosts stopped and pointed through the TV, no longer smiling.
“That includes you, Cornelius Hawkins,” they said in unison.
“Aah!” yelled Cornelius. He turned to run, but like his younger sister that morning when she had been terrorized by demons while she was on the toilet, he became so afraid he could not move.
In abject terror, Cornelius sunk to his knees and watched in horror as the three girls and the young guy on the TV turned from live action to cartoon, and came through to the TV screen towards him.
“No, no, no, this can’t be happening!” Cornelius screamed, horrified as the restaurant and everyone and everything in it turned to cartoons, including himself. “Leave me alone!”
Cornelius cowered on the restaurant floor as the TV presenters approached him. “Relax Cornelius, we’re not going to hurt you,” said the redhead.
“We’ve got somebody here who wants to meet you,” said the brunette presenter.
“Who, who wants to meet me?” Cornelius gabbled, dismayed that he was a cartoon now.
“He’s right behind you,” said the lone male presenter, pointing for Cornelius to turn around.
Cornelius did just this, and recoiled in horror as there stood the tall, caped vampire from the first cartoon promoted. “Bah!” screamed Cornelius.
“Relax, Cornelius,” said the vampire.
“How can I relax, you’re a vampire, stay out of my head, stay out of my head!” screamed Cornelius.
“Yes, I am a vampire. But I am also a fully qualified lawyer, and as such, as I am here to broker a very attractive deal between you and your friends over there.”
“What friends?” asked Cornelius.
“On the TV screen there!” said the vampire, pointing at the television, the TV presenters doing likewise.
“Aah!” yelled Cornelius, who flinched in horror as he saw the robots that had come out of the TV and chased him back at the house that morning. “Stop talking to me, stop talking to me!”
“Your friends up there have a proposal,” said the lawyer vampire. “They are willing to let you and your wife Danielle live, as long as you hand over your parents, sister and sister’s boyfriend to the aliens and let them take them away to live on a spaceship.”
“What?” yelled Cornelius.
“Oh, and the robots aren’t going to kill you, but they do want to beat you up,” said the vampire. “Not too much, you know a trip to hospital in an ambulance and a couple of days in a ward type beating up, but not an intensive care type beating up. I tried to negotiate on this, but I’m sorry, they insist on beating you up. They wouldn’t budge on that point.”
“No!” screamed Cornelius, rolling into the fetal position on the floor and clutching his head. “I don’t want to get beaten up, and please don’t take my family away and make them live on a space ship!”
“Cornelius, my advice as an attorney is that you take the proposal,” said the vampire, thrusting towards Cornelius a contract and a fountain pen. “Sign it, and it will be the best outcome.”
“What if I don’t?” Cornelius screamed.
“I think it’s best I let the robots tell you that,” said the vampire.
Cornelius watched as the TV presenters pointed at the television, in which the robots watched the proceedings. “Execute him, execute him, execute him!” chanted the robots, their voices getting louder and louder with each second.
The four TV presenters joined in. “Sign the contract, sign the contract, sign the contract,” they chanted, indicating the vampire and the document full of legalese he held out towards Cornelius, along with the fountain pen.
“No, no, no!” Cornelius screamed. “You can’t make me, you can’t make me!”
“Cornelius!” came another voice, a voice he recognized. It was his mother’s voice and now she and the rest of the family were standing around him. Well cartoon versions of them, but as Cornelius was a cartoon too now, it didn’t really matter.
“Cornelius, what’s happening?” Danielle squatted down beside him and stroked his head. “What’s wrong?”
“My head, my head, they’re in my head!” wailed Cornelius. “Make them stop, make them stop talking to me and putting messages in my mind! Make the vampire, the robots and the TV people go away!”
“It’s alright Cornelius, we’ll get you out of here and back to the room to rest,” said Faye.
“Is he alright, did you want us to call an ambulance?” asked the anxious restaurant manager. “He seems very unwell.”
“No it’s okay, my husband suffers really severe migraine headaches.” Danielle lied perfectly, and Faye Hawkins joined in.
“Yes, it’s been the same ever since he was a boy, they come on without warning. He’ll be fine once he has his medication and lies down in a darkened room. Let’s get you back now Cornelius.”
Cornelius shook his head. “What if they get in my head again? What if they’re in the lighthouse, and use it to put invisible rays in my head on the way back?”
“We won’t let that happen,” said Faye. “I’ve got an idea. Erica, go and get the empty chicken bucket from our table.”
Erica dashed over and retrieved the requested item. It was full of chicken bones from legs and wings, so Erica simply tipped them onto the table, oblivious to the stares of other diners, and raced back with it. Erica handed the empty chicken bucket to her mother, who in turn put it over Cornelius’s head.
“There you go, that will keep you safe on the way back, they won’t be able to put rays into your brain wearing that,” said Faye.
“Let’s go back now,” said Alistair, taking Cornelius by one arm and Danielle by the other to escort him out of the restaurant.
“My head hurts,” Cornelius complained, his voice somewhat muffled by the chicken bucket that covered his head.
“You’ll be okay soon,” Faye assured her son.
“Okay, enjoy your tea, show’s over, nothing to see here,” growled Alistair as he and Danielle guided Cornelius from the restaurant and everyone looked at them.
Faye, Erica and Gavin followed them and they stepped out of the restaurant, passing the large chicken statue that stood outside. As Erica walked by her, the chicken statue laughed at her. “Your brother is such a freak Erica,” it intoned.
Erica’s petite little body went rigid, and the skinny bespectacled teenager stormed towards it. “You got something to say chicken?”
The chicken again laughed, enraging Erica more. “You think it’s funny that vampires and robots are trying to put messages in my brother’s head! Fuck you, chicken. You hear me, fuck you!”
“Yeah, like she said, don’t laugh at my husband when he’s sick,” Danielle screeched, turning and confronting the chicken, which again laughed.
“It’s not fucking funny you stupid chicken!” Erica screeched.
“Yeah, I’ll fucking smash you!” yelled Danielle. “Then we’ll see who’s fucking laughing.”
“Girls!” The voice of Faye Hawkins cut through the car park. “I don’t like the chicken laughing at Cornelius any more than you do, but you need to let it go.”
“Your mother is right Erica, let it go,” said Gavin, guiding his fuming girlfriend away from the chicken statue.
“I hate that fucking chicken, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!” Erica screeched, pointing at it.
“I know you do, but you can’t do anything about it now,” said Gavin, taking Erica by the hand.
As the group walked through the car park, the rooster on the roof let joined its companion on the ground, by laughing at Cornelius and then letting out a loud cock-a-doodle-doo.
Danielle turned and looked up at it as it crowed again. “Yeah, laugh it up rooster,” she shouted. “You’re nothing but a really big chook, what the fuck would you know?”
The Hawkins family were completely unaware that this had been observed by another family who had pulled in, a very clean cut family whose car displayed Christian stickers. The father dressed in a shirt and trousers and the mother in a long skirt and blouse turned to their three kids — two boys aged about 10 and 12 and a daughter aged about 14 — as the group watched a tall young man wearing a homophobic black tee shirt and with a chicken bucket on his head was led from the car park by an severe looking bearded man and a fairly trashy blonde girl, a middle aged woman dressed in 1970s clothes and a young man trying to keep an angry and disruptive teenage girl who had been screeching at a chicken statue under control following behind.
The father said his daughter and sons, “You see kids, that’s why we always say no to drugs.”
“Your father is right,” said the mother. “Faith in Our Lord is the way to live our lives.”
The family went into the restaurant where things had settled down after the Cornelius meltdown earlier. The television was showing the last segment of the current affairs program before the telecast of a Rugby League game commenced, and if the scenes in the restaurant and the car park weren’t enough to convince people that taking drugs was a bad idea, then watching this segment would.
It described a new and dangerous illegal drug, small yellow pills. It seemed to have originated in Melbourne, but had been coming up in other Australian cities too. What made this drug far more dangerous than other illicit drugs was the bizarre effect it had on people who took it. Those using it felt perfectly normal, but suffered bizarre hallucinations and extreme paranoia lasting days.
There was an interview with a Melbourne family whose teenage daughter and her friends had taken these drugs at a rave party and after acting weird and paranoid for several days, the group of girls had vanished. As it turned they had walked all the way from Lilydale in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs through the Dandenong Ranges, across the metropolitan area and all the way to Geelong, a city some 80 kilometers west of Melbourne. They were found cowering under the Geelong Pier, convinced that a flickering streetlight in the car park was a UFO there to abduct them.
Another case was in Sydney, where a teenage boy who had taken the drug had been acting very oddly, then literally ran away from home. He was found by police over 80 kilometers way, still running at full speed, convinced that mobsters from the Mafia and bikie gangs were trying to kill him. A similar case was in Brisbane, where a young woman who had also used this drug was running around on the Story Bridge in a blind panic causing traffic chaos, terrified that ghosts were chasing her. Some boys in Canberra who had been using the drug attempted to swim across Lake Burley Griffin, believing the devils and poltergeists pursuing them could not extend their power across water.
While the drug users in these cases survived, not all were so lucky. One heartbroken family in Adelaide described the loss of their 18-year-old daughter, who swam out into the sea at Glenelg in a bid to get away from vampires, and drowned in the ocean, her body washed up in the Port Adelaide River days later. On the Gold Coast, a young guy had believed God had given him the power to fly and tested the theory by leaping off the top floor of a high rise in Surfers Paradise. As it turned out, he could not fly and gravity won out. Another case saw a young English backpacker travelling in Darwin jump off a boat to avoid a monster, and she was never seen again, presumably ending up as dinner for the many saltwater crocodiles that called the ocean waters of the Northern Territory home.
Back at the motel, the manager Tom had watched the current affairs show and was glad that he and his wife had taught their kids about the dangers of drugs when they were growing up. He was now looking forward to the football, but the commotion outside saw him look out the office window. It was the weirdos from Chalet 12 returning, and this time the strangest of the group — the oldest son — wore a cardboard bucket from a friend chicken shop over his head. Tom shook his head. Was he seeing things? Had he unwittingly taken this drug too, and now hallucinating? Given the events today, he had to wonder.
END OF CHAPTER 4 — TO BE CONTINUED….