He sighed. “Figures.”
Despite the noisy cows and the distressed bellowing that tugged at my gut, I took in the surroundings. We were only about fifteen minutes out from Ross’s place, and the vista here was almost as spectacular as the view from his house.
Even with the muddy creek, it was easy to look beyond that to the rolling fields leading to the large valley. With the water still resting on the ground of oats and grass that struggled to soak it all up, it appeared like a sparkling blanket, glistening in the mid-afternoon sun.
Give it a week, and this area would be flourishing with fresh shoots and regrowth. It was the only positive outcome I could think of post-flood—all the much-needed water saturating the earth.
The chaos and damage was a hefty price to pay for the water, though.
Movement on the road caught my attention. Sandra and Lee headed towards us. Their expressions told me that none of us would be coming out of this job clean or dry.
“Old mate Bill over there has someone heading over now with some wire to do a quick fix of the fence. He’s been trying to keep them close together and stop them from panicking, but those ones stuck are making that impossible.
“The plan is to shift those free, get them through the gate. Bill’s going to park his Cruiser in front of the fence to try to deter them, then we need to get these cows out.”
“We’re assuming it’s just mud that’s got them trapped. Just unfortunate, I guess, but we’ll need ropes and get in to see what we can do,” Lee added.
“Got it,” Craig said, and I bobbed my head.
Together, we gathered the ropes, took a deep breath, and focussed on getting in and out as quickly as possible.
Quick no longer seemed to be the word of the day, however.
Sorting the loose cows had been surprisingly straightforwards, all of us walking that fine line between shocked and relieved when we ushered in the fifty or so cows.
The ones trapped weren’t being as hospitable.
Between the flies buzzing around our faces, the mozzies at our ears, and the tired cows, Craig slipping in the water seemed like the icing on the cake. All of us found it more hilarious than we should have. Hysteria wasn’t surprising, with tiredness biting at our heels.
“You all right?” I gave him a hand and tugged him up, wishing it would have been so easy with the cows.
“Fuck,” he grumbled. “Yeah.” A wry grin formed on his lips and my mouth twitched. “There’s so many rocks underfoot. Those bastards are slippery.”
They’d tripped us all up too. A bunch scattered the embankment as well as underfoot, making our movement more precarious. Two of the cows we’d released had managed to get trapped by rocks. Another two had simply been sucked in by the mud. We still had three more to go, but fortunately, another couple of the farmer’s friends had arrived to give a helping hand.
“You need to hold my hand?” My smile was wide as I wagged my eyebrows at him.
“Piss off,” he muttered and shoved me a little.
I chuckled and took a tentative step forwards, wishing like hell I could see where my foot landed. Craig stepped with me, the both of us moving slowly towards our next target. His “Shit” was the warning I needed to grab hold of him as he stumbled.
“You been knocking back shots or something without telling me?”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t I wish.”
“My hand’s sounding more appealing right now, huh?” I teased, still gripping his forearm.
He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a loud cuss. The two of us jerked our attention towards the shout. The cow we were heading towards bellowed and thrashed.
Surprising the shit out of me, she actually moved, getting herself free. The cheer on my lips was cut off abruptly by another loud cuss, followed by “Snake. King brown.”
With the cow taking panicked strides in our direction and the threat of a snake that I assumed was heading this way too, an errant “Oh fuck” spilled from me as I clung on to Craig and lurched to the closest bank.
Craig’s weight slammed into me, shoving me down, the two of us falling. I registered a mouthful of mud and water before pain ricocheted across my forehead, and the world went fuzzy and then black.
