"When the hell are we going to get out of this damned car? And where the hell are we?" Sam alternated between glaring at James's set jaw and staring at the blackest, wettest night she'd ever seen. The headlights, with their ineffectual illumination, did little to reassure her. The rutted red clay road they bounced and slid over, its path barely discernible through the heavy rain, was a nightmare. Indistinct outlines of crooked, towering trees flashed by the window. Every time a lightning flash lit the road and the twisted shape of one of the trees rushed past her window, she flinched, expecting it to be some prehistoric monster ready to pounce on the car and devour them whole.

James continued to stare at the road, his eyes slitted in concentration. "To answer both your questions, we're coming into a little town called Sapphire. After we pass through it won't be long before we hit a big town called Emerald. We'll stop then, not before."

His clipped, calm answer only deepened her already bad mood. "This road is the darkest, loneliest, worst excuse for a road I've ever had the misfortune to travel over, if you can call it a road. Why did we have to go this way, or is it okay to question your judgment? Isn't the coast road everyone else uses good enough for us?" She moved restlessly in her seat, adjusting her seat once again and grimacing as she gingerly rubbed the knots forming in her lower back.

Moving carefully to avoid waking Ratana and Marc, one snoring softly on each side of him, Nathan stuck his head between the front seats and politely touched Sam's shoulder. "Ms. Louis, we had to come this way. Remember the radio announcement about a sudden cyclone hitting Bowen? That's south of Townsville on the coast road. We couldn't go that way." He tapped Sam's shoulder harder, emphasizing his words. "It is a sign leading us this way. It is important we do this according to what comes to guide us. To do otherwise would be unacceptable and dangerous."

Sam turned to look at Nathan's profile in the darkened car, the green dashboard lights making his features look like something out of a Stephen King novel. "Are you serious? Are you trying to tell me the gods told us to come this way by sending a freak cyclone to hit the way south? Come on!"

"It be true."

His simple, flat statement pulled Sam upright in her seat. She turned to search his face. "Okay. I'll accept that.for now. I have one more question you might be able to answer. Would you tell me what the gods want of us and why? Do you know?"

"I know but I cannot tell. It would mean death to tell those not of the People." He abruptly pulled back into the darkness of the rear seat and fell silent.

Her mouth hanging open, Sam turned to James. "Can you tell me what this is all about?"

He ignored her. "This is Sapphire we're coming into now."

Sam glared at him then leaned forward to get a better view of the town through the streaming windshield. The intermittent lightning flashes revealed a small, rough looking town of few buildings, most rundown with tin roofs. "Why do they call it Sapphire? Are the gems found here?"

Before James could respond, a brilliant white light flashed through the windshield. James slammed on the brakes, sending the Rover sliding over the slick clay of the road. It shuddered, turned sideways and moved steadily toward a concrete block building sitting next to the road. Sam's eyes widened and her mouth opened in a silent scream as the Rover aimed toward the solid wall of concrete. The world slammed into slow motion, the scene surreal and filled with colors normally unseen by the human eye. Cracks of thunder became physical entities. They roared through the car and shattered the night with piercing arrows of light, penetrating Sam's closed eyelids like shafts of white-hot lava. The humid, cloying smell of plant and earth permeated the car, giving its small space the funeral reek of death. Sam gagged, clutching her ears with shaking hands.

Another bright flash of lightning caused Sam's eyes to snap open to see the lone figure of a tall black man dressed only in a loincloth, a spear in hand, his face covered with the traditional painting of a highly respected Aboriginal Elder. He stood, statue-like, upon the hill just behind the building they now moved toward. With exaggerated and maddening slowness, he raised the spear and pointed it at the Rover. A heartbeat later he threw back his head and raised both arms into the night. Fingers of lightning flickered around him, appearing as a multi-colored snake, slithering to protectively surround his body. Almost as quickly as the snake appeared, it vanished. His lips mouthed words into the feral wind battering his body. A brilliant blue-white light surrounding him threw his face into relief, his broad features taking on the etched look of the red clay he stood upon. With a bone-crushing snap, the Rover stopped moving, the passenger side door halted by a wall of air just inches from the concrete. The storm died as suddenly as it started and the figure on the hill disappeared with it. An eerie silence enshrouded the Rover, its passengers still locked into a numbing state of shock. The world subtly slipped back into place when a whimper from the backseat filled the Rover with sound again.

"Who was that?" Ratana's voice quivered with fear. She gulped air, on the verge of panic. "Crikey, what was that around him? The Rainbow Serpent?" Her voice lowered to a stunned whisper.

"You saw him, too?" James whispered hoarsely then cleared his throat. "You saw the Aboriginal man on the hill, too?"

Sam reached out and grabbed James's hand, her own hands shaking and slick with sweat. Her facial muscles worked to attain a look of normality. She licked her lips. "I saw him. He saved us. He stopped the car." The awe and fear in her voice, reverberating through the Rover like a living thing, heightened the feeling of unreality.

Marc's only remark did nothing to break the tension in the car as he mumbled under his breath, "Holy shit!"

Ignoring his weak attempt at humor, Nathan spoke from the darkness. "We all saw him. The Great One leads us and finally binds the Clans across the land. We are being guided and protected. Now do you see, Ms. Louis? Now do you believe?" His voice held no animosity, only wonder and absolute faith in what was happening.

"I believe. Now, I believe." Sam shuddered and crossed her arms over each other, rubbing the goosebumps suddenly covering them.


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