Chapter 9: Bundy

The hitchhikers were heading north.

I told them I was heading to Bundy (Bundaberg). They were more than happy to get in. The sheila got in the front, and the bloke got in the back. I warned them that I smoked, and they had no issues, so off we headed.

I turned the CD down and asked them about themselves. I was surprised to learn that they weren’t actually travelling together. Nina was from Perth, W.A. and Paul was from London, England.

I now knew why Nina wasn’t worried about travelling alone. She wasn’t bad looking, and I’d say she had some miles under her feet because she was fit. She was about 160cm and roughly my age. I suspected she might even be a couple of years older.

I detected a bit of mixed heritage, as her hair was black and her eyes a deep brown. The skin was also several tones darker than my lightly tanned more olive complexion and the flare of the nostrils was a giveaway.

On the other hand, Paul was slim and about 172cm. He had a thick mat of sandy coloured curly hair. He was older by at least three years. He had a long narrow nose and serious blue eyes that I found very sexy. I also loved the accent.

Nina had met Paul at a Youth Hostel, and they had cadged a lift to where I had picked them up. They had only been there for about five minutes before I stopped. She had been on the road for about six months, while Paul had only been in the country for about a month.

Nina was a Jillaroo and Paul was a Plumber of all things. I knew that I wouldn’t mind him inspecting my plumbing. Fuck! I was getting a hard-on. I’d been using magic and had not had a fix. I dropped the window and lit a durrie to take my mind off my cock. We chatted now and then as I headed north.

We had been on the road for about two hours when I saw the signs. Gympie was coming up, and I travelled through town to a Servo that I preferred to use on the other side. We pulled in to get out for a stretch and a piss stop. I seriously thought about having a wank, but I didn’t think that it would help too much, as I still had to get back in the car with them.

We only stopped for about ten minutes and then headed off again. We had been on the road for nearly an hour and were getting close to Maryborough. It had been overcast all morning, and as we drove through a small range, it started bucketing down. I dropped my speed and concentrated on the road.

Being a Friday afternoon, the highway was always busy. I glanced back behind me. A truckie had been sitting on my bumper for the last half hour, and he was really annoying the shit out of me. I knew the next passing lane wasn’t until we hit a by-pass to Maryborough. He wasn’t happy with me slowing down.

The prick kept riding my tailgate, but I was fucked if I was going any faster. The Cruiser sat high enough that I had an unobstructed view of the road, and I could see that a side road was coming up. I hit the left indicator as soon as I saw the sign and kept tapping my brakes, so he knew I was pulling off.

I had barely pulled over, and the truck roared past me. I waited and let the two cars behind him go through too. I then indicated right and pulled back onto the road. I’d driven this road a dozen times or more since I first got my car licence, so it knew it reasonably well.

“Sorry, but I hate being tailgated, and this spot can be very slippery in the wet. I don’t know this ute really well, having just bought it. I’d rather play safe,” I told my passengers.

“Mate, he was a prick. I’m amazed that he didn’t actually hit ya when you braked before,” Paul said. He had been watching out the back for a while. I could feel his tension each time the truckie crowded me.

I got the car back up to 90km/hr. A couple of minutes down the road, we went down through a low dip and angled up the other side. It wasn’t even a real range just a couple of big hills, but the road here had needed some serious work for a while and had a couple of steep sections.

The road did a sharp right turn as it worked its way around the hill. The route then twisted back down and to the left and then crossed a short narrow two-lane bridge that was more of a causeway, as it often flooded in the wet season. The road had a lot of potholes in it, leading up to the bridge.

It was an old bridge and only had the posts going along the sides rather than proper railings. The government and the local council were still arguing about its replacement. Signs warned you to slow down to sixty klicks before going over it.

We had just hit the left turn to head down when the hair on the back of my neck stood up, and my medallion got warm. I hit the brakes, and then the noises hit us. I think all three of us cringed. The squealing of tires and airbrakes as a truck slides on a wet road is very distinctive.

Then we heard the refrigerated box on the trailer hit the road with a ‘whoomf’. Then the screeching of metal as it slid on the bitumen. We came around the bend in time to watch the trailer slide into the short posts that lined the left side of the bridge.

The trailer had jacked to the right and tipped the cab. Its weight and momentum caused it to arc around the cab, twisting it back towards us and flinging it to the right. The trailer hit and snapped the leading posts. The arse end section of the truck then swung over the side of the bridge. The cab was dragged around, and it was heading for the posts on the right side of the bridge.

The driver of the station wagon that had been behind the truckie had also braked hard; he had tried to go left. Wrong move. The twisting cab of the truck clipped his arse end as it passed the sliding car. The station wagon went up into the embankment, it flipped over and bounced as it slid back down to the road on its roof.

We watched as the truck cab hit the first post on the right side of the road with a crunch. The sounds of ripping metal and metal being slammed into bitumen assailed our ears. The cab had hit the second post, but the impact wasn’t as hard, and it had brought the cabin to a halt.

The first post had also ruptured the diesel tanks. Fortunately, for us, the rain and the nature of diesel stopped it from exploding. The front wheels of the cab were now hanging over the other side of the bridge.

The second car was an older troop carrier version (Troopy) that was made by Land Cruiser. He’d had just enough time to slow, and he had hugged the right side of the road. I think he had dropped speed as he went around the right-hand bend in preparation for the next left.

I also went right. I pulled up behind the Troopy on the wrong side of the road. Like the older bloke in the Troopy, I jumped out and headed to the station wagon, as it had kids in it. He went to check on the driver. Because the car had flipped before it had hit, it hadn’t damaged the doors on the driver’s side.

I reefed open the passenger side rear door and bent down to look inside the car. A toddler and a girl of about five years were dangling from their seat belts. They were both howling something fierce, but they were alive.

I slid in and put my hand on the baby’s chest to hold him in place. I released the five-point harness that he was hanging by in the baby seat. I wiggled him around got him to my chest and backed out over the edge of the roof. Nina was behind me, and I handed him to her.

I crawled back in and got the little girl. She was pretty good for me, and as I spoke to her, she calmed a little and let me help her out of the seatbelt. When I hugged her to me, I knew she’d be okay. I dropped one of the little healing spells that I had learned onto her and crawled back out with her attached to my chest like a leach.

She didn’t want to go to Paul, but I convinced her I had to get her mummy. I crawled back in, but I wasn’t hopeful. The kid’s mother hadn’t moved the whole time I was getting the kids out of the car.

The old guy had gotten the husband loose. He was in a lot of pain because he had smashed into the steering wheel. Their old wagon didn’t have airbags installed in it. I was amazed that they had all been wearing seatbelts. A lot of people are still grumbling about being forced to wear them. I always wore mine.

This wasn’t my first accident either, and I have seen the results of people flying around loose in a tin box. I touched the woman. I couldn’t believe she was still alive. She had been seriously injured when she was slammed into the door when the car rolled. She had busted bones and a nasty skull fracture. I could feel her slipping from me.

I pressed the ring on my left hand into the side of her head, and for want of a better description; I pulled the bone back into place. I felt the blood vessels it had been squashing fill back up with blood, and her heart got it moving again. I dropped the healing spell on her.

I didn’t think healing was one of my best attributes, but it seemed that I could at least do the elemental spells. It might just be enough to keep her alive until better help came. I had to crawl back out because I couldn’t get her out from this side of the car.

I walked around the other side of the car and found the roof had folded over the top of the door frame. I grabbed the door and using a ‘release’ spell; I ripped it from its hinges and tossed it away. I used a ‘levitation’ spell to support her, while I unclipped the belt and rolled her into my arms.

I staggered back and got to my feet. The lady was no lightweight, so I kept using the levitation spell to help me carry her to my ute. Paul opened the door, and I put her on the front passenger side and laid the seat back.

While no one could see what I was doing, I realigned her left femur and told the bones to mend. The healing spell seemed to be helping, and she was breathing better. I felt she was also coming around a little.

I decided that if she saw the baby, she wouldn’t panic. So, I got Nina to get in the front of the cab with her, and I went to check on her husband. I told Paul to get in the back with the little girl so she could see her mummy and they were out of the rain.

Hubby’s concussion wasn’t so bad. His busted rib was the problem. The old fella from the Troopy had put him in his passenger seat as well, with help from another guy who had stopped not long after we had.

I know that we aren’t supposed to move injured people, but it was still raining. Laying them on the road in the rain wasn’t going to help them. I bent over the hubby, so my body hid my hand and pulled the broken rib back into place. I dropped the same healing spell on him.

I was getting a bit light-headed from using so much magic. I took a couple of breaths and then went and check on the truckie. The only way I could get to him was the windscreen. His truck had the split variety. It was an old truck. The passenger side had shattered, so I pulled the other half of the glass out and tossed it away.

I was finally able to reach in to touch him. I’ve never touched a dead person before. It’s a very weird feeling. My spirit guide could also feel my sorrow and distress and tried to comfort me. We both knew the truckie’s living spirit was gone from his body. I could do nothing for this man.

Even if I had gone to him first, I doubt there was anything I could have done. He body was already going cold. He had probably died before I even got my ute stopped on the side of the road. I left him where he was and walked back to the others.

I told the old bloke that the truckie was dead and checked on hubby again. He was still in shock, but they had convinced him to stay where he was, that the kids and his wife were okay and in my ute.

I noticed we now had six cars and a bus crowding the road. The bus driver had enough brains to stop at the top of the rise and block the roadway. He had been directing the other drivers to turn around. He was going to have a tough time turning himself.

This was a narrow section, and he didn’t have space to pull off the road on either side. He was either, stuck for the duration or he was going to have to reverse back a long way before he had a hope of turning that bus.

If the other drivers went back down the road about a klick, there was a dirt, back road into Maryborough they could use to get around the accident. They were not going to get that truck off the bridge in any hurry. He couldn’t have picked a better spot to block the highway if he had tried.

One of the other blokes had a two-way radio, and he had called in the accident. I was tossing up putting hubby in my ute and driving into Maryborough, but I needed a rest. With any luck, an ambulance will get here first.