The Lucky Country

 

I have been meaning to get back into writing fiction for some time now. I have not written much fiction since I was very young, in my late teens and early twenties. But it is something I have done before, and I have decided I just need to do it if I want to get back into the habit.

This story was not created using any AI. The whole point of me creating these short stories is to work out the cobwebs and rust of having not practiced writing non-fiction for a long time, and to hone my writing skills for different tasks.

Let me know your thoughts about this story. I will aim to get out more from time to time on this blog and will see where this develops over time.

“We were the lucky country…”

What most of us failed to consider is that luck always runs out… 

…I heard the first shot as I was walking past a black Landcruiser in the beach front carpark. At first, I told myself I was hearing things…then I heard the second shot…then I heard the third.  

I turned to my wife, who was standing frozen right behind me, holding our daughter’s hand, “Sandi, get down! Sit next to that tyre right there!” I shouted, pointing at the large four-wheel-drive tyres right next to us. “Jody, sit next to your mum, and don’t move. DON’T MOVE!” I emphasized loudly and clearly. “Both of you SIT DOWN!”  

I quickly ducked down and moved to the end of the Landcruiser. Luckily it was one of those overly modified types, with the too big tyres, the illegal black tint windows, and steels bars front and back. Great cover for the moment. I peered from the rear of the truck and took in our surroundings.  

Bang!! 

Bang!! 

Two more shots. Heavy calibre. Maybe a hunting rifle or shotgun.  

Ba-bang!!  

That was two shots nearly simultaneous. There was a second shooter; where were they? I needed to determine that before we moved any further. 

“Sandi, stay here, I need to work out where they are so that we can move away in the right direction.” I was speaking quieter now, as I knew how much danger we were in. She looked back at me with fear in her eyes…and trust. She trusted me to get them both out of this. Now I had to live up to that trust.

I move carefully to the front of the of four-wheel-drive, it was reverse parked, and ducked my head out from the around the front headlight. The custom bulbar allowed me to scan the area without being too obvious. Thank God for Aussie four-wheel-driving culture! I looked ahead down the carpark and spotted one of the shooters. He was standing on the top of a large truck holding a hunting rifle, and wearing what looked like the kind of tactical gear you could pick up at any sporting goods store.  It had only been a handful of seconds and already my training was kicking in. This shooter looked like he knew what he was doing, which meant he either had some experience or some training.  

I saw him lift the rifle and shoot to my 3 o’clock. Bang! He pulled the bolt back. Ok, the first gun identified, it was a high-powered bolt-action rifle. Now where was the second shooter?  

Bang!! That was the second shooter. He was closer than the guy on the truck. But I could not see him from my position and the loud echo of the bullet firing made it hard to precisely identify his location, though he appeared to be not too far away from my position.  

I turned and went back to Sandi, “I will be back in a sec.” She started to say something, but then I saw her mouth something to herself, maybe a prayer, and then she clung Jody to her even more tightly. Prayers were good, we needed all the prayer we could get.  

I moved back quickly to the car parked behind the four-wheel-drive. It was one of those cars that could not decide if it was a station wagon, SUV, All Wheel Drive, or hatchback. I hated them usually, as they were not good at anything, and were ugly. But not today, as it also had darkly tinted windows and was higher than a sedan. Today that was useful to help me stay hidden.

I stuck my head slowly out from the front of the car, it was reverse parked, so I could not rely on the back of the car for cover.  

There was the second shooter. Walking down the carpark row about 7 meters away. He was carrying a shotgun. As I watched, he put it to his shoulder and moved towards a small car in the carpark. As he moved forward a girl screamed…Bang! Her scream was cut off halfway through. Damn those bastards!  

He was facing to his right, if I were to run out in front of him across the carpark he would see me pretty quickly. At that range a shotgun would make light work of me, and then Sandi and Jodi would be sitting ducks.  

I had to think quick. There was a spotter on the truck with a long rifle, probably a .308 or something like that. If we tried to move down the rows between cars he could line us up pretty easily. With a high-powered scoped rifle like a .308 or 30.06 we’d be pretty obvious targets. But if we tried to run across the carpark row here the second shooter with the shotgun would get one of us, if not all of us.  

Think quick, Doug! Otherwise you are not getting out of here. I muttered under my breath. 

In my pockets all I had was my keys, a small Swiss army knife, my phone, and my wallet.  

Swiss army knives aren’t weapons; if you tried to use it as one you are more likely to cut off your own fingers when the blade snaps back in.  

My keys! I could use my keys like brass knuckles! But the chance of getting him before the shotgun got me was also nil. Nope, I had to distract him.  

I ran quickly and quietly back to Sandi, who was still sitting next to the overside four-wheel drive tyre, “Give me your phone!” I said this quietly, but urgently. She looked at me strangely but handed it to me. I took it and moved back to the other car and slid it underneath it hard enough so that it sat under another car two carpark slots down. I could hear the shotgunner walking closer, he was pretty much in line with the Kia now. So, I waited, he passed the car two parks down and sounded like he was in front of the car next to the small SUV vehicle, a small Chinese car from one of those look alike brands that you can’t keep up with.  

I looked under the SUV, I could see his feet, he kept walking. As he got past the Chinese car, I put the keys in my hand and stuck some out of my fingers, and I rang Sandi’s phone. Luckily, praise be to God, my wife had not listened to me when I said to put her phone on silent when we were having lunch earlier. The phone started ringing and to me, Sandy and probably everyone else in that carpark it sounded like the loudest most distinct sound in the world. The sounds of a late 90’s pop song started reverberating across the carpark.  

I looked under the SUV, at the front of it the gun man’s feet were just visible past the front right wheel, but now they were facing the other way.  

This was my chance. Probably my only chance. I leaped, crouched, to the front of the SUV, and blessed be the God who spoke this world into existence, the shooter was so distracted by the phone ringing a few meters away that he did not notice me coming. I came up behind him quickly and put all my weight and strength behind a right-hand punch to the back of his head… 

…BANG!!!! 

He must have missed the class on trigger discipline wherever he learned to shoot, because as I hit him he slipped and the gun went off, blasting a hole in the side of the Chinese car right in front of us. But if he missed trigger discipline class, he was still a tough bugger, because he didn’t fall over, he began to turn around, so I did the one thing that I could think of in the moment. I grabbed him from behind at the neck and fell backwards.  

We tumbled to the ground in front of the SUV and as we fell he swung his hands over his head and the shotgun slid just behind my head. But I forgot about this, I forgot about everything else and I just held on to his neck like it was my one and only chance to save my family and myself.  

And he struggled, something fierce. This guy was strong, he must have been a gym freak. He struggled, and struggled, and I held tight, and tighter, until he got weaker, and then I held a little longer.  

I had done a little Karate and boxing when I was younger. I had learnt a few choke holds. But this was no regulation hold, or anything like that. This was just me desperately trying to hold on until this killer was no longer a threat to my family.  

Eventually he went still. It felt like hours, it had been just over a minute. I blinked, it was only at this moment that I realized my head hurt like it had been whacked by a hammer, only it had not been a hammer, I had hit the bumper-bar on the SUV-like car on the way down and then the ground. In fact, hitting the bumper-bar probably stopped me hitting the ground with the full force of his body on top of me.  

I slowly started to move him off me, noting that my left should felt banged up too and a little numb.  

I rolled him off me, he weighed a tonne. Creatine! 

I got up very slowly staying close to the front of the SUV. The shotgun had ended up a bit further away than I realized, I considered picking it up. But it was then that I realized that I was nearly exposed to the original shooters line of sight. In fact, why had he not gotten me yet?  

I didn’t realize it at the time, but his gun had jammed, and he was furiously seeking to clear the bolt and cartridge to get it working again. I am telling you, God was with me that day… 

…But in the moment, I did not know this. I had a decision to make, risk getting the gun and getting shot, or get back to Sandi and get out of here. I chose the second option.  

I started to move back to the side of the Landcruiser where Sandi was still huddled when she screamed and started pointing. She was pointing underneath the car at the man I had just immobilized. He was starting to stir.

Like I said, that was no regulation move, I just held on till he stopped moving. I must have just caused him to momentarily pass out, rather than fully knock him out.  

This changed our situation; now I had no choice but to grab the gun before he did. I stepped out to grab the shotgun, fully exposing myself to the rifleman on the truck. I fully expected to hear the sound of a gun going off and then feel the hit of a hot bullet hitting me. But instead I heard…I heard…sirens. Sirens and they were not too far away. I picked up the weapon.

By now we had only been here for a few minutes. I quickly moved back to Sandy and Jodi, “The police are coming, we should wait here.” Sandi nodded.  

But at that moment the man on the ground in front of the SUV got up, shaking his head, and he reached into his jacket and pulled something out. He started to walk across the front of the vehicle…a gun! He was holding a small pistol, but it did not look like any pistol I had ever seen. As he moved around the front of the SUV I lifted the shotgun and pointed it at where he would step into view at any moment and right as I did that I heard the roar of a turbo engine and the screech of tires and realized the blast of the siren was getting louder, in fact it must have been in the actual lane of the car park we were caught in.  

I got ready to shoot. I had no choice. But at that exact moment the man turned around and ran.  

I breathed a sigh of relief. And then I heard the loudest sound I had ever heard in my life, so loud that sometimes when it is quiet I still hear it. A car or something exploded and at the same moment the police siren was suddenly cut off.  

I did not realize what had fully happened till later, but the terrorists had parked a car near the entrance of the carpark, right near where we were, and where the first police car came in. The rifleman saw the police car coming towards his accomplice and detonated it right as the squad car drove past their booby trap. 

This hit my mind like a vice trap. We had to get out of here. The police were here, so I dropped the gun, I did not want to get confused for one of the shooters and I made a decision, “Sandi, I will go first, we are going to stay low and run down between the cars. Jodi, take my hand. At every third car duck between the cars and sit there for a moment, and then we run again. We have to zig zag as much as possible and keep low. We can’t stay here now.” 

She looked as terrified as I felt. But she was listening.

I got up, took my daughter’s hand and ran. First between the cars parked next to the Landcruiser and a moment land Sandi ran behind me. I heard a loud crack, but I resisted the urge to look behind me. We got three cars up and ducked left in next to a small sedan…a second later Sandi swung in right and sat next to the car in front of the sedan. I looked at her, count to ten I mouthed and held up ten fingers.  

Sirens, more sirens. Louder. The police were coming. I heard another shot, but the ricochet did not land anywhere near us, so I got up and ran again, a couple of seconds later Sandi followed Jodie and I.  

Bang!! 

I am not sure if I felt it first or heard it first. But I definitely heard a loud band and then felt something warm rip through my right thigh. I tripped, I had only made it two cars down, I fell and hit the ground and then…black… 

When I woke, I was in the back of a stationary ambulance, Sandi and Jodi were sitting next to me. My head felt like it had lost a fight with a hammer and I realized it was bandaged, and so was my right leg.  

My girls were alright. I was going to pull through.  

But when I think about that day, I think, was I lucky? Or had the lucky country rolled the dice too often and all our luck had run out?