One shape stood.The other didn’t.
‘Porter?’Amara swivelled around in her seat.
‘Righto, here we go.’Siri waved and soon his big row of spotlights lit up, blinding her like a wallaby on the road.She had to look away and blink a few times to just see.
The Ram’s beefy engine snarled to life.
The rope snapped tight between the vehicles.
Only the Ram didn’t pull her out slowly, as expected—it yanked her car back, hard.
The sudden, brutal lurch slammed her into her seat and jolted her neck, only for the Land Rover to nosedive straight into the soft hole they’d created.
For a second, she braced, half-expecting the old girl’s airbags to fire.
Instead, the bulldust erupted into a brutal red storm, bursting through the air vents like fire smoke.It poured across the dash, into her mouth, her nose and eyes, and forced its way in through every unseen seam, behind the floor pedals, through the door seals, even up from beneath the console, rising fast, like floodwater made of dust.
She slammed on the horn for help, just as the cabin tipped forward and the car filled with more fine red powder, sealing her off from the world.It coated everything—skin, hair, lungs.She screamed, choking for air, about to be buried alive.
Twenty-nine
The darkness was absolute, like the thickest blackout curtains set across the windows to block out any light.
Then there was a dull and distant sound, like a storm rumbling underwater.
It was soon followed by pain.
Porter’s head throbbed, sharp and pulsing just behind his temple.He tried to move, but there was something heavy all around him, covering his body.With heat.
Porter sucked in a breath, except particles flowed.
Sand?
He gagged.Coughed.The taste of dirt, laced with the bitter tang of exhaust, coated his tongue.
Bulldust!
He’d been buried in the bulldust.
The problem now was: which way was up?
The panic hit him as he tried to shift.His arms were pinned, his body twisted, with his right leg bent beneath him in an awkward position.
Yet the sound behind him seemed familiar…
It was the car horn.
Suddenly sure he was going in the right direction, he dug through the fine powder with speed.His hands scraping blindly, clawing upward, as the dust collapsed with every movement.
His pulse hammered now.As did his chest, desperate for air.
What the hell happened?
The Ram.He’d taken the rope to tie it onto the back.
Siri held the shovel—
Amara!
