Down on His Luck

February the 7th 2009, was the last day of many people's lives. The Black Saturday bushfires ripped through country towns of Victoria, destroying thousands of homes and killing 200 people. The temperature reached 46.4 degrees Celsius with strong winds of up to 200km/per hr.

His name was Martin Cook; he was a 31 year old man, who lived in Marysville. He had no family or friends and he didn't have money or a job, he had a vision days before, that something like this would happen soon, so he moved into the bush days before.

Martin knew what he was going to do, and that was to set off into the bush and stay there for a while. He had packed his swag, lots of packets of marshmallows, matches, water, his bush clothes and a rifle.

So he set off for his adventure at 4:30pm. He walked about 43km to the national park, outside of Marysville, and was planning to stay there for the next two weeks. Once Martin got to the camp site, he unpacked all his stuff and went out to find sticks, bark, logs and leaves for his fire later on in the windy but hot night. While coming back from collecting items for his fire, he saw a woman in the distance who looked like she was camping in the same area as him. He decided to go up and talk to her after he had brought all the stuff back.

The woman was about two hundred metres away from where Martins camp was. He saw from a distance that she had blonde hair and was fairly tall. He was walking over to this woman and then started talking to her. Her name was Carol and she was 30.

Carol came to Marysville to try and start a new life because back in Adelaide, she got involved with the wrong people and they messed her up. She has been going through a tough patch back at home with her parents and friends, so that's why she moved. She didn't have enough money to buy a house or rent a caravan, so she was camping out until she finds a job, somewhere in the bush or on a farm.

Martin and Carol had been talking until the late hours of the morning, and they started flirting with each other. The next morning, Carol was sitting next to her fire, singing "Working Class Man" (Jimmy Barnes). Next thing Martin woke up and joined in with Carol's singing, holding hands and swaying side to side.

That night, Martin was having a night to himself and was thinking about Carol the whole night. He wanted to tell her that he liked her but didn't want it to come across that he was desperate or trying too hard. He didn't sleep for the whole night, thinking about Carol. He knew he had to tell her, so he said to himself that he will just go over there in the morning and tell her how he felt about her.

The morning after, they started talking about relationships and then Martin opened up and came out and said 'I like you'. She came back with a kiss on the cheek and a hug. They ended up sleeping together, obviously having a romantic night with