This piece was my attempt to write in about 1000 words a piece which explored the concept of menace. It was a task for my students so I thought I would have a go as well.

He was awake. He looked around and saw nothing familiar.

There was a hum that throbbed in his ears. Through the bush in front of him there was a clicking.

The air was thick with a most pungent odour.

His head ached and his limbs were bloodied and battered.

His instinct said this was not a healthy place.

Again there was the clicking. It stopped momentarily then started again.

The hum he concluded was the result of his injuries, he didn’t dare look too close to see what was wrong in fear of what he might find.

His mind began to wander in ever decreasing circles of concern about the future that lay before him.

What was this place?  How did he get here and what was the smell that perfumed the air such that his nose recoiled as he tried to shift it from his smell.

Around him lay rotting vegetation, leaf matter, twigs and in places what looked like scorch marks.

He moved his leg into a more comfortable but in doing so noticed the clicking had become more agitated.

He quietened and it settled.

He tried again and it quickened, and grew louder as if in warning.

He sat frozen, fearful of moving of hearing the clicking warm to his movements.

He had no line of sight. The foliage blocked all his view so he was unable to determine just where he was and where anything else might be.

He began to edge away from the clicking. A centimetre or two, then stop.

Wait! Listen!  Another centimetre.

In an hour he had moved less than thirty centimetres.

He was exhausted. His mind raced.

His body ached. He would not give in.

The clicking was becoming more rapid. Louder.

He sensed a rise in its agitation, he slunk back into inaction.

He grabbed a branch, a weapon, but for what?

What was he facing?

He thought of yesterday. The sun on his back, the mates around his BBQ.

The beers, the camaraderie.

Where had all this begun? Was he asleep? Had they put something in his drink to send him off to this strangest of places?

He pinched himself. It hurt so he thought ‘I must be conscious.’

Amongst the leaves he nestled down for it was getting dark.

He needed rest, sleep, and time to recover.

Tomorrow would be another day.

He’d be stronger, more resilient.

He would think clearer then, after a good rest.

As he lay his head down and drifted into his earned slumber,

The clicking continued.