As kids, Will and Zara had played in the rockpools with the sheepdogs who had been their constant companions. Now the gully lay dry, but the sheep found shade there during the heat of the day.

The grass was bleached golden and devoid of any goodness, and there were large bare patches of ground where nothing grew. The land was parched and, as Zara knew from her work as a rural journalist, most of the state was waiting impatiently for a steady, soaking rain. Last year’s rainfall had been below average and now it was mid-April and everyone was hoping this year wasn’t going to be the same. Just looking around at the property, she hoped her mum would decide not to put the crop in right now. The land wasn’t ready for the invasion of tynes, no matter how ‘nil-till’ they were.

The tall trees surrounding the farmhouse came into sight as she rounded the corner. The dam, where she had taken her horse for a drink every day, was right next to the front gate and she slowed to a stop. The house paddock was empty of the two horses they’d owned most of her childhood. Zara hadn’t been living at home when Starbuck and Winkey had died, and there didn’t seem any point in getting another horse when she wouldn’t be home often enough to ride it. Her mum didn’t ride anymore and Will preferred the ute or motorbike.

She started to get out of the car to open the gate, but the gate jerked and started to swing open by itself. Frozen for a moment, she looked around trying to see how this could possibly be happening. Then she saw a camera perched high up in a tree and some type of opening mechanism.

Will must’ve rigged up an electric gate! How clever.

She drove through and waved up at the camera. She wondered how much he could see from the house.

Following the purple dirt track, she went over a ramp before rounding the small bend into the house yard. Zara parked near the garage but, before she could get out, she was greeted by three kelpies running around her car, barking and trying to jump in as a welcome.

‘Sit down, you lot!’ she growled good-naturedly, trying to pat all of them but instead managing to get her hand in the mouth of one of them. ‘Yuck.’ She wiped the saliva on her jeans and continued to walk towards the house, while Trixie, Shadow and Boof ignored her command and competed for her attention.

Inside she called, ‘Hey! I’m here. What’s with the gate? You turned into Big Brother or something?’

‘In the office,’ Will called back.

He certainly sounded stronger. Not a lot, but better than he had this morning.

Zara put down her satchel containing her computer, notebook and recorder and took a breath before walking down to the office.

‘Whatcha doing?’ she asked with a smile. Will was dressed in his normal gear and, other than being pale and gaunt and having lost not only his hair but his eyebrows as well, he looked like he was ready to go to work.