Chapter 4

Eddie felt her shiver and looked over his shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asked gently. Sarah didn't trust herself to answer, so she just nodded her head.

Eddie held the horses back, and went as slow as he could; he didn't want Moonboy to get too tired, and he wanted Sarah to have as gentle as ride as possible. Sarah held onto him tightly and let Eddie and Chelle's conversation wash over her. She wasn't even really listening. Lost. She was so lost. She didn't feel very well either, she felt tired, and ill, though not sick.

She did notice as they passed through a couple of valleys. There should've been a small creek in each valley, but wherever this was, the creek beds were completely dry. In the second valley, Eddie and Chelle turned down the valley, following a trail through the trees, and eventually they came to a small pond where they stopped to let the horses drink.

It was getting towards lunch time by the time they got back to the horse trailer. Eddie sighed with relief, having a passenger had been a whole lot less comfortable than he'd anticipated. Chelle dismounted and helped Sarah down. She looked a little unstable on her feet, so Chelle sat her down and gave her some more food and water while Eddie got the horses settled in the trailer.

When Eddie finished getting the horses settled, he looked over at Chelle and Sarah and saw a look of deep apprehension on Sarah's face.

"You okay Sarah?"

"What is that thing?"

"What thing?"

"What you put the horses into."

Eddie turned to look at his Jeep and horse trailer. "It's my Jeep. Like it?" he said, his voice loaded with pride.

Chelle laughed at him. "Come on Eddie. It's just an old Jeep. Get over it."

Eddie was hurt. The Jeep was his pride and joy. His dad had given it to him when he first started learning to drive on the road, and though it was nearly a wreck, it had been properly equipped for real off-roading. He'd restored it and rebuilt the engine, pouring hours of work and lots of his money into it. Eddie had been paid for working on the farm since he was fourteen, and even after rebuilding the Jeep, he still had some put away. When he'd finally started driving the Jeep to school, the other kids in the school had loved it, and since then, he'd been everyone's best mate when it came to getting a ride somewhere. Except when it rained, since he'd never got around to getting any top for it.

Sarah looked at Eddie. It was evident that he hadn't answered her question.

Chelle spoke to her as if speaking to a child. "Umm, Sarah, you get in it, and it takes you places. Though with this Jeep, you don't go anywhere too fast."

"Yeah, not with Chelle the policewoman in it."

"Hey, we know about you. There's a bounty out for getting you a speeding ticket."

Sarah had picked up on that word police. "What's a policewoman?"

Eddie looked Sarah. Surely she wasn't asking such a stupid question as that? Ah yes, the delusion. He decided that he'd humour her and thought back to what he learnt about the convict times. "Well, the police are like the Marines, they keep law and order."

Sarah shriveled up inside, though she didn't let it show on her face. This came naturally when it came to dealing with the marines, who could pretty much do anything they wanted with the convicts and ex-convicts. Beat them, whip them, kill them, whatever they wanted. Once Sarah had been about ten, her mother had started teaching her to hide herself or her feelings - whatever she could - when she was around the marines. Chelle was one of these? A woman? Yet Eddie had been quite rude to her even though they seemed to be quite good friends. Maybe Eddie was one too.

Chelle led her over to this Jeep thing, and told her to sit in the back. Sarah didn't know what the back was, but she could see where Chelle wanted her to sit. "Seat belt," said Chelle.

"What's that?"

Chelle reached over Sarah and brought the belt over her shoulders and connected it with the lap sash. Sarah sighed to herself. She had figured that she was their prisoner, though they hadn't really been too obvious about it. This seat belt thing confirmed it. She wondered what they were going to do with her.

Eddie hopped in, turned the ignition on, the engine roared, and the radio blared into life. This was too much for Sarah. If she hadn't been belted in, she would have run off. Eddie and Chelle started talking as if nothing was wrong, but it was all too much, and she gasped in shock when the Jeep suddenly started going forward. Who were these devils? Within seconds, the Jeep had turned out of the small area it had been in onto a road, though it was a road like none other she'd ever seen before.

Sarah sat there feeling like her mind was out of order. Too much was happening, and she couldn't take it all in. She'd sat on wagons and she could tell that Eddie was driving the Jeep, but nothing else made sense at all. At one stage she became aware of Eddie watching her in this little mirror up above his head, so she looked down instead of having to watch him, or how fast this thing was going.

Eventually Eddie turned onto a more normal road and slowed down to a normal speed. Sarah started to relax a little as Eddie went up the farm lane in first gear. He pulled up outside the stables and turned the ignition off. Both Eddie and Chelle jumped out, and then Chelle came and let Sarah out. Sarah watched as Eddie and Chelle let the horses out of the Jeep thing, and then listened as Chelle said goodbye to Eddie.