Read Online Fast Flight by George Ivanoff - Free Book Online Page B

there’s no doctor around. All we’ve got is a first-aid kit.’ His hands were on his hips now as he slipped into full-on Dad Mode. ‘And if you get seriously injured, what then? Do you see a hospital nearby? Huh?’
    The kids looked blankly at each other and then back to Dad.
    â€˜No! Of course not,’ continued Dad. ‘We’d need to find some way of contacting the RFDS.’
    â€˜R … F … D … what?’ asked Emma.
    â€˜RFDS,’ said Dad, smiling now. ‘The Royal Flying Doctor Service. They’re doctors and nurses who fly around in planes to help people in the middle of nowhere.’
    â€˜Wow,’ breathed Em. ‘Doctors who fly.’
    Dad turned his attention to Dawson’s bloodied knee. ‘You need a bandaid for that?’
    â€˜Nah,’ answered Dawson. ‘It’s just a scratch.’
    â€˜Anyway,’ continued Dad, ‘no running around in the collapsed buildings. It’s dangerous. Got that?’
    â€˜Sure,’ Samantha said, a gleam in her eyes.
    Emma nodded.
    â€˜Besides which, if you’re running around you’re not looking at the sights properly. And  there’s so much to take in …’ He turned around. ‘But we’ll see more of it tomorrow. Come on. We better get back to camp and start dinner.’
    As he headed along the dirt road, Dawson looked back at the town of Farina. It was a ghost town. But that didn’t mean it was full of ghosts. Farina was abandoned. No one lived there and it was literally falling apart.
    Bathed in the golden light of sunset, the place did look supernatural. Dawson imagined spirits of the past hiding in the buildings and pacing the deserted streets.He remembered the Ghastly Ghosts video game he liked so much. There was a deserted town in that. All he needed now was an ecto-blaster to hunt ghosts with. He smiled. Ghostly video game images floated through Dawson’s mind as he turned and followed his family.

    Dinner was baked beans on fried bread. Dawson was sick of camp food. Dad wasn’t a great cook at home, but his camping menu was even worse. You’d think that as a stay-at-home dad, he’d be able to cook better. Sadly not.
    If they camped anywhere near shops, they had sausages in bread. If not, thenwhatever they ate came out of a tin. The bread was fried because it had gone stale in the heat.
    â€˜You can revive anything by frying it in butter.’ This was Dad’s cooking motto. Dawson wasn’t so sure about it. He imagined buttery bush ants and witchetty grubs popping and splattering in a frying pan. He grimaced. But he was hungry, so he shovelled beans and butter-sodden bread into his mouth.
    Dawson looked around as he chewed. The campground was nestled in amongst a scattering of trees, about a five-minute walk from the town itself. The glow of their lantern lit up their immediate area. In the distance was another circle of light. Campers who had recently arrived – probably the samepeople who’d been hanging around earlier, judging by the red car.
    â€˜What are we doing tomorrow?’ asked Samantha.
    â€˜I reckon we can spend a little over half a day here,’ said Dad. ‘We’ll have a late lunch and then get moving. It’s about fifty-five kilometres to Marree, which is our next stop.’
    â€˜Is that another spooky town?’ mumbled Emma, her mouth full of beans.
    â€˜You mean ghost town,’ Samantha corrected.
    â€˜Nah,’ said Dad. ‘Marree is an ordinary town – people still live in it. Nothing special, though. It’s just a place to camp before we move on to Oodnadatta.’ He scooped the last of his food into his mouth but continuedtalking, spitting little bits of food in his excitement. ‘There’s lots to see before we go. Aside from the buildings of the town itself, there’s bits of the Old Ghan railway, some carriages, water towers and other