Seeing Red

The small red hatchback sped down the back roads of Western Australia.

‘Keep it under control, Simon.’ Cherley's tone was harsh but clear from the backseat.

Simon’s eyes stayed fixed on the dirt plain in front, country so red and flat that it was almost impossible to tell the road from the rest. Cherley peered through the gap between the driver’s seat and the car door; Simon’s knuckles strangled the wheel. She looked down at her own palms; one clung to the handle of the back door while the other was cradling Ally’s head, her body stretched out along the seats. 

Rick looked over from the passenger seat. ‘Cherley’s right man, we won’t get her there if we crash.’

‘Everyone just shut up, alright? I’m gonna get her there.’ Simon flicked his gaze to the backseat. ‘Just hold on babe, you’re gonna be fine.’

The car fell silent again as it flew through the emptiness, its wheels the only disturbance to an endless stretch of heat rays that danced up from the earth. 

*

‘Ready?’ Jo asked Brian as they climbed into the ambulance.

‘Nearly. Shayna’s just loading the antivenom in the back.’

Jo nodded her understanding. ‘Are we sure it was a brown-y? I’ve seen plenty of tiger snakes out that way.’

‘Nah we’re sure, they managed to snap a picture of it and send it through when they called it in.’ 

Shayna closed the van’s rear door. ‘Alright, you’re all done back here.’ 

Jo hesitated. ‘I might go and do a cross-check.’ 

‘No need, I checked it inside, it’s fine,’ Brian said. He buckled his seatbelt.

Jo looked at him. ‘Ok.’

*

Simon slammed on the breaks and everyone fell forward. The were staring at the dirty end of a tractor.

The sudden movement caused Ally to vomit once again into the bucket on her lap, the bucket they had used to wash up their dishes at the campsite. It still had the smell of cheap detergent and last night’s baked beans. 

Cherley tried to keep Ally’s leg still as she heaved. They had stabilised it as best they could when the bite occurred—Cherley had fashioned a bandage out of all their socks— but the dirt roads and bouts of sickness meant that Ally was still moving her leg some, and some was more than she could afford. 

The red car nosed out from behind the tractor into the other lane; a four-wheel drive was coming the opposite way. ‘Haven’t passed another car all day and now it’s a goddamned parade,’ Simon said, prying his t-shirt off the sweat of his back. 

Cherley took the used bucket from Ally’s lap. ‘I’ll give you the other one.’ She reached down for the small roasting pot that sat in her footwell. ‘Holy hell!’ Cherley yelled as she lifted the lid.

Rick spun around. ‘What?’ 

‘Spiders,’ Cherley said, slamming the lid down. ‘A lot.’ 

‘What kind?’ 

‘I don’t know, I didn’t exactly ask.’ 

‘Well on the scale of a daddy-fucking-long-legs to a fucking funnel web, what did they look like?’

‘They were small and dark.’

‘Could be anything,’ Rick said. ‘Did any get out?’

‘Not that I saw, but the lid wasn’t sealed when it was on the ground.’

‘Shit.’

Simon barely moved, his eyes strict on the road. ‘Just chuck the pot out the fucking window. We’re not stopping to deal with it.’ 

A moment passed and nobody responded.

Cherley wound down her window. 

*

The clock had passed an hour. ‘I think we should swap,’ Jo said.

‘Nah I’m right,’ Brian said, certain. ‘Easy driving. Just straight roads and speed. We’ll hit Glendar Road in no time.’

Jo looked at him and felt the knot turn in her stomach. She was willing to give a lot for a patient, but that didn’t matter if Brian was pushing 160km/hr and hit a kangaroo built like a boulder. 

But she kept quiet.

*

‘Can we try the air-con again?’ Cherley asked, looking down to see beads of sweat frame Ally’s pale face. 

‘It still won’t work,’ Simon said. ‘And even if it does, we don’t have enough petrol to ru—’

‘HOLY SHIT,’ Rick said, suddenly throwing his body to the right. 

Simon jerked in response, pulling the wheel with him. ‘What?’ 

‘I think some got out,’ Rick said. 

‘Out?’

‘Of the pot. Two spiders just ran across the glove box and into here.’ Rick pointed down to the open storage compartment on the side of his door. ‘Redbacks.’

They all stared at the door.

‘Well find a way to get rid of them,’ Simon said. ‘We’re nearly there and I’m not about to crash because somebody flinches too hard.’

*

‘I don’t understand, we should have found the road by now,’ Jo said, feeling the heat and adrenaline slowly zapping her composure.

‘Check the sat-nav again.’

Jo picked up the monitor, then furrowed her brows. ‘It’s saying we need to turn around. We’re no longer on the main road.’

‘Well how the fuck did that happen?’ 

‘I don’t know,’ Jo said, ignoring the accusation in his voice, ‘but we need to turn around. We’re on a small offshoot, been on it for a while it looks like.’

‘Shit,’ Brian said, slowing down just enough to turn the wheel. 

*

‘They’ve made a wrong turn, reckon we’ve passed them,’ Rick said as he hung up the call from the dispatcher. 

Simon slammed on the brakes, his jaw locked by the ropes of muscle throttling his neck. He turned the car around. 

*

‘Mother fucker,’ Rick said as he flicked the thong from his right foot at a spider running towards Simon. 

‘That makes five,’ Cherley said, her body rigid and eyes darting. 

‘Would’ve been six if I got the one that crawled under my seat,’ Rick said. ‘Sun is blinding, I lost sight of it.’

‘Well keep killing them. I can barely see as it is, and this’—Simon slammed his palm into the sun-visor above—‘is doing fuck-all.’ 

*

‘Is that them?’ Jo asked. 

They both strained to see a small car in the distance off to the right, moving at a perpendicular towards the road they were on.

‘Looks red to me. Christ, and I thought we were moving,’ Brian said as he watched the car kick up a dirt storm. 

*

Simon jerked his leg at the feel of something on his foot. 

‘You’re alright mate,’ Rick assured him as he looked down to Simon’s feet. ‘Nothing there. Just keep driving, I’m sure we’ll find ‘em any moment now.’ 

*

‘We should slow down so they see us,’ Jo said. ‘They’ve got the sun in their eyes.’

‘Nah, we’ll get to the intersection and stop there. They won’t miss us.’

*

‘Is that them?’ Cherley asked, pointing out to the left. 

‘Where?’ Simon yelled. ‘I can’t see anything in this goddamned glare.’ 

*

The ambulance nosed out into the intersection and waited, the red car powering towards them. 

*

‘Just there,’ Cherley said. ‘RIGHT TH—’

Before Cherley could finish, a spider ran up Simon’s door and onto his arm. 

*

‘Brian, they’re not stopping.

‘Brian?

‘BRIAN?’

***

The ambulance was quiet as it rolled along towards the hospital. 

‘Bloody lucky,’ Brian said for the umpteenth time as he attended Ally in the back. ‘I kept telling Jo that you would see us, but then when you weren’t stopping, I really thought we were going to collide.’

We were going to collide, Jo thought as she drove. 

Simon remained too rattled and exhausted to tell Brian that it was luckier than lucky. That he hadn’t seen them at all. That a stupid fucking spider had caused him to lose control and had saved all their lives.  

*

They pulled up to the hospital. 

‘She’s barely stable,’ Brian said. ‘Not what we would’ve liked after dosing but I’m sure they’ll get her fixed up inside. She’s lucky, too_­—got our last vial. Stocks have been drained this summer.’

Simon thanked them both as he waited outside the vehicle for someone to pull up a stretcher. 

‘Oh, here,’ Jo said. She handed Simon the makeshift bandage Cherley had wrapped around Ally’s leg; Brian had replaced it with a compression bandage in the ambulance. 

‘Thanks,’ Simon said, not meaning it.

Jo remained staring at the bandage as Simon held it. ‘What’s that?’ she said, pointing.

Simon looked down, first with confusion, then with recognition. And then dread. He was looking at a cluster of small black bodies caught in the threads of one of the socks, trying to wriggle free.

‘Spiders,’ he said, not looking up. ‘Redbacks.’

Jo paused. ‘When did they…’ she started but didn’t finish.