FLEUR

McDONALD
OUT IN
NOWHERE

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 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of
the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events,
locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

First published in 2024

Copyright © Fleur McDonald 2024

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968
(the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever
is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational
purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has
given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

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A catalogue record for this

book is available from the
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ISBN 978 1 76147 010 3

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 PROLOGUE

‘Stop it. Don’t do that!’

The man stirred as a panicked voice filtered into his
dreams. He was glad of the intrusion. His dreams were
never nice. Usually, they were something about droughts
and stock dying of starvation, their carcasses spread over
the orange earth, little black spots, flies, buzzing hungrily
over the rotting flesh.
‘No!’
He frowned. That woman sounded as if she meant what
she was saying. Was it to him? What did he have to stop?
Something was sticking into his back. Not just sticking,
jabbing at him. His whole body felt as if it was weighed
down with iron. He tried to wiggle out of the way, but as
soon as he shifted, spikes dug into him once more. What
the hell was that? Branches, maybe? Was he lying under a
bush? How had he got there?

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 F L E U R M c D ON A L D

Opening his eyes, the world spun and spun until his
stomach felt queasy and he thought he might throw up.
‘Don’t do that!’
The woman’s voice again. A fury and terror.
‘I’m going to report you. Fuck off and leave me alone.’
Geez, just stop, be quiet, he thought. My head hurts
enough without your bitching.
‘What’s the matter, sweetie? Why are you acting like
that? Can’t you see I want you?’
In among the nausea and dizziness, the man frowned.
The male voice was familiar.
There was the sound of a hand slapping skin and the
rumble tumble of two bodies rolling together, then a squeal.
‘Stop it, please!’
She was begging this time.
Unease flickered. Was that woman okay? He should help!
That’s what good men did. Help when ladies needed it.
‘Hey,’ he tried to call out.
The words died before they even left his mouth. Vomit
rose in his throat and he rolled quickly, turning his head
to let the vile liquid onto the ground. Instead, it pulsated
onto his chin and down his chest.
The heaving stopped and he lay there, exhausted, the
world still spinning, albeit more slowly than before.
He could hear sobbing now.
‘Don’t, just don’t!’
Another yelp. This time male.
‘What’d you do that for? Bitch!’

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 Out in Nowhere

The man frowned and tried to push himself up. He really

did know that voice. Who was it? What was going on?
‘You all right?’ he called, weakly, so faintly his words
would have been drowned out by the passing traffic.
Okay, he was near a road. Now he just had to work out
where and how he’d got here.
He remembered music. And beer. And then . . . rum,
maybe? Shots. Oh yeah, he remembered the shots. Tequila.
Salt. Lemon. Not in that order.
Running now, footsteps and fast breathing. Whimpering.
He struggled to sit up then pushed some branches out
of his face and away from his body. That’s right! It had
been his mate’s twenty-first. He was the youngest of their
group. Twenty-one and there’d been . . . strippers?
‘Bitch! Come here, you little tart!’ Whose was that voice?
He knew it for sure. Who . . .
Heavy, clumsy steps. Chasing. Heavy breathing. A girl
whimpering as she ran; it sounded like she was running in
circles around where he was half sitting, half lying.
‘Don’t!’ The woman’s voice was loud and high. ‘Don’t
come near me, you fucker!’
‘Come ’ere.’
Was that a stumble and then a fall?
‘Do you need help?’ he called out. Except the words ran
into each other, and even he couldn’t understand them.
Silence. Not even footfalls now. Only cars. The ever-
constant hum of cars.
A high-pitched yelp. The woman.

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 F L E U R M c D ON A L D

Brakes screaming through the night and a sickening thud.

He finally got himself upright and staggered out into
the open. A grassed, wooded area, like a park with scrub,
opened onto a highway. The space was only lit by a few
streetlights lining the footpath.
Cars stopped, lined up behind one another. Blinkers
flashed; spotlights on. There was a bundle lying on the
ground in shadows on the road.
‘Oh my god, oh my god, I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t stop!’
This voice was fearful. A man, standing zombie-like, staring
at whatever was on the ground.
Someone came running from the car line-up. ‘Call triple
zero! I’m a doctor!’
Then another person came running, and another, and
another.
Too many people surrounded the front of the car to see
no matter how much he squinted.
A heavy hand landed on his shoulder, and he blurrily
turned.
‘Mate, what are you doing here? How’d you even get here?’
‘Maaaaate,’ he replied, swaying slightly. How to answer
the question? ‘Too much piss! Time for more.’ Narrowing
his eyes, he tried to bring his friend into focus. ‘What’re
you doooin’ ’ere?’
‘Looking for you! You deserted us at the party. Come
on, let’s go.’
‘What’s goin’ on over there?’ His speech was slurred. He
didn’t even really care, being seen like this. Perhaps he was
still too drunk to give a toss. That was it, he guessed.

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 Out in Nowhere

‘Whatever’s happening has nothing to do with us,’ the

man answered comfortingly. ‘Come on, let’s get you back
to the dorms. I reckon a sleep is what you need.’
There were red flashing lights on the road now, and an
ambulance had pulled up, sirens wailing. What was on
the ground?
And where was that woman? Her voice echoed through
his brain. What he thought was a smile was really a grimace,
and it slipped quickly away to a frown.
‘What’d you do there?’
His finger didn’t line up as he pointed, then touched his
friend’s cheek. Fingers came away red and bloody.
‘Must’ve caught myself on a branch. Like you have.
Here.’ A finger jabbed at his own face. ‘Don’t worry about
it. Come on, mate, it’s time to go home.’
‘There was a woman,’ he mumbled, his eyes heavy now.
‘Needed help.’
‘In your dreams I reckon, fella. Let’s go.’
A strong arm around his shoulders, guiding him away
from the road and towards the college.
That’s where he was! At the back of the college. In
the bush near the sheds. Because that main road ran to the
back of the campus.
‘She needed . . .’
‘She needed nothing.’ His mate’s voice hardened.
‘Nothing at all.’

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