‘Leave him, he’s done for,’ Trent says. ‘Where do we go?’
I hate Trent but I can’t leave him to be alienated. ‘The lake,’ I say. ‘We have to jump into the lake.’
‘There they are,’ Katja says, pointing to where Big Mak and Adrianne are waving at us from the lake, holding on to a small raft with my backpack on it.
Kat is fading fast. Unnaturally fast.
‘Into the water,’ I yell, hoping it will wake her up a bit.
We leap in – Katja, Trent and me, and make for the others. Then we swim for our lives, pushing the raft in front of us. When I turn around I see Chets, Hoche and Digger standing on the pier, with all the worker bug-eyes behind them. They’re not attempting to follow, which worries me as much as it cheers me.
We pull ourselves out of the water. Adrianne throws the backpack over her shoulders and Big Mak and I hold up Kat, half carrying her into the trees.
‘Chets?’ Mak says.
I shake my head.
‘Chets is one of them?’ Trent says.
‘You mean you didn’t know that when you pushed him out of the way?’ I say. It’s more of a statement than a question, though.
‘If he’s one of them, I probably just saved your lives. You should be thanking me.’
Trent is such a jerk.
‘Great, we’ve lost a Chets and gained a Trent,’ Adrianne says. ‘And what happened to Katja?’
‘The spit,’ I say. ‘I think it has something in it to make you sleep.’
‘Like a sedative venom,’ says Ade. ‘That makes sense. That’s why Digger was spitting into the water supply.’
‘He probably spat in the tomato soup, too,’ I gasp, while trying to stop Kat from falling to the ground.
‘So glad we didn’t eat that,’ Mak says.
‘Where are we going now?’ Trent asks.
‘I found a place. We’ll have to circle back behind the building. We should be safe there for a while.’ Mak stops for a moment. ‘Wait a sec.’
‘Are we ditching Katja?’ Trent says. ‘She’s holding us back, and if she’s going to fall asleep and turn into a bug-eye, we don’t want her near us anyway.’
‘We are not ditching Katja!’ I turn on him. ‘If you want to stick with us, Trent, you’d better stop being such a dirtbag.’
‘Chill out, fangy. Just saying what everyone else was thinking.’
‘None of us were thinking that, Trent,’ Adrianne says.
‘Right,’ Mak says, putting Katja over his shoulder in some kind of highly impressive superhero carry. ‘I can manage Kat. Let’s get going.’
‘Still with us, Kat?’ I say.
She gives me a sleepy thumbs-up.
‘If we can get her to basecamp before she goes out, we might be able to save her.’
We move out.
The new basecamp that Mak has picked out is closer to the building, but I’m thinking that could be a good thing because they won’t think to look for us there. There’s another hollowed-out bush – a bit thorny on the outside, so we can’t get in without being scratched, but it feels safe on the inside.
‘What can we do?’ Adrianne says, taking off the backpack.
I grab the bag and unzip it, pulling out an oxygen tank which has a breathing mask attached to it by a tube.
‘Put this over her mouth and nose,’ I say, and we secure it to her face, making sure the seal is tight to her skin, just as she stops responding.
I turn the valve on the neck of the tank, and hear the oxygen hissing up the tube and into the mask.
‘Lance, you’re a genius,’ Adrianne says. ‘If she’s breathing pure oxygen, none of the spores should be able to get in.’
‘We’ll give her an hour’s sleep, then try to wake her,’ I say.
‘What if it doesn’t work?’ asks Trent.
‘It will work,’ I say. ‘And then we can take it in turns to have a sleep.’
‘I dibs first go after Katja.’
Trent is such a jerk.
Mak goes into the new lookout tree, while Adrianne and I watch over Katja. She’s sleeping peacefully and, as her wet hair dries in the sun, it forms little curls around her face. It makes her look younger.
Ade and I look through Dale’s notes for more clues. We know what we’re dealing with now, but what we don’t know is how to stop the aliens. And as Chets is one of them, I’m desperate to find a way of turning him back.
‘What happened in the dining hall?’ I ask.
Trent talks through a mouthful of biscuit. ‘It was fine. We were having a laugh, chilling out. We were going to settle down for some sleep but then we heard you over the speaker. We thought it wouldn’t be a biggie, staying awake, but it got harder and harder. Then Miss Hoche started playing that music and tiredness just took over. I was alright, because obviously I’m a beast…’
Adrianne snorts.
‘But the others were struggling. Imran and Isla fell asleep first.’
‘Did you let them out like we said?’ Adrianne asks.
‘No way we were opening those doors,’ Trent says. ‘We tied them up with bag straps.’
‘Then what happened?’ I say.
‘They went mental.’ He shrugs. ‘And we suddenly heard loads of noise coming from outside the dining hall. All the other bug-eyes were going at the doors with axes and hammers. They broke in and started rounding everyone up. I escaped.’
‘Of course you did.’ Adrianne rolls her eyes.
‘What about the others?’ I say.
‘Dunno. Didn’t stop to look. Every man for himself.’ He stuffs another biscuit in his mouth.
‘Nice,’ I say.
‘Don’t judge me.’ He spits crumbs at me. ‘You let your best buddy Chets get buggy. You’re no better.’
I bite my lip. There’s no point arguing with Trent – he always has been and always will be a massive butt-brain. But I’m angry with myself, too, cos a little part of me knows there’s some truth in what he’s saying. It’s my fault Chets became a bug-eye. And I have to fix it.
‘It’s been an hour,’ Adrianne says. ‘Shall we wake her?’
‘It’s just Katja, not flipping Sleeping Beauty,’ Trent snorts, which just goes to show how stupid he is.
‘Mak,’ I call through the branches. ‘We’re going to wake her. Come down and get your stuff together, just in case.’
We pack up all our gear, tie our laces and put our bags on our backs.
‘Ready?’ I say.
They nod.
I kneel on the floor beside Kat and tap her gently on the arm.
‘Katja?’
She doesn’t respond.
I shake her shoulder, not too hard, and say her name again.
I think one of her eyelids moves a teeny tiny bit, but I can’t be sure.
‘Kat – I’m so sorry, but it’s time to wake up.’ This time I tap her arm with one hand and shake her shoulder with the other.
‘For God’s sake,’ Trent says. Then he puts his face next to Katja’s ear and screams, ‘Aaarrgghhhhh!’
Kat sits bolt upright and gasps, the mask coming loose from her face. Her eyes open. They’re the colour of a mystical lagoon where dolphins leap majestically and mermaids comb their hair.
‘Katja, you’re alright.’ Adrianne squeaks and hugs her.
‘What happened?’ Kat says, squinting around at all of us.
‘You took a hit in the arm,’ I say. ‘Chets’ spit.’
‘We think the hunters’ spit contains a strong sedative,’ says Ade.
Katja puts her hands to her face. ‘I fell asleep!’
‘But Lance got an oxygen mask on you first, so you didn’t breathe in the spores,’ says Mak.
‘So I’m OK?’
‘You’re OK,’ I say. And I smile for the first time in what feels like days, but is probably just hours.
15
Confession Time
We set Trent up with the oxygen and he crawls deeper into the hollowed-out bush to get some sl
eep.
He totally hasn’t earned the right to have the next nap but, to be honest, we’re all sick of listening to the rubbish that comes out of his stupid mouth and we’re looking forward to some time to chat amongst ourselves without his smug comments.
Kat, Ade, Mak and I all climb up the lookout tree, and find the comfiest branches to sit on, which isn’t easy cos branches weren’t made to be comfortable for humans. We have Dale’s notes with us but they’re just a bunch of meaningless squiggles. They’d be hard to work out on a good day, but by now we’re so tired we can’t think straight – we’ve got no chance of getting anything useful from them.
‘You feeling alright, Katja?’ I ask.
‘Surprisingly, I feel fine,’ she says. ‘Apart from the tiredness and hunger and blisters and stuff. How about you guys?’
‘Same,’ says Mak, yawning like a lion.
‘Do you want the next sleeping slot?’ I say.
‘No, Adrianne should have it.’
‘Why should I have it?’ Adrianne says. ‘Because I’m a girl?’
‘Err…’ Mak’s stumped. I’m pretty sure there’s no correct answer to this question.
‘I’m not as tired as you so it makes sense that you go first,’ she says. ‘Unless you need to, Lance?’
‘Nah, I’m OK. I’m used to managing on hardly any sleep. I mean, I’m tired, obviously, but I can wait a bit longer.’
‘So is the CPAP machine yours?’ Mak asks. I can’t see him cos he’s on a higher branch than me and hidden by the leaves, but I can hear in his voice that he’s nervous about asking.
‘How do you know about CPAPs?’ I say.
‘I’ve done a lot of first-aid training,’ Mak says. ‘Among other things.’
‘What’s a CPAP?’ Kat asks. ‘Is it that oxygen-mask thingy?’
‘It’s a breathing regulator,’ says Mak. ‘The gadget attached to the tube makes sure the airways are kept open so breathing is stabilised. They’re used by people with…’
‘Sleep apnoea,’ I say. This is part of the secret I’ve been holding so close for years. ‘I have sleep apnoea. When I try to sleep, my breathing stops, then I jump awake. The hospital gave me the CPAP so I can get some proper rest. I can’t sleep without it.’
‘So that’s why you never go to sleepovers?’ Katja says.
‘It’s one of the reasons,’ I say.
‘What’s the other reason?’ Ade is up on the branch with Mak, and I imagine them looking at each other, making faces, raising eyebrows at Loser Lance and his weird sleeping habits. But I’m too tired and too much has happened for me to bother hiding stuff from them anymore.
‘My mum has Crohn’s disease.’ I pick at my nails, which are black with dirt. ‘She got it when she was pregnant with me. It makes her really sick. She goes into hospital a lot and she can’t leave the house that much.’
‘So you don’t like people going to your house,’ Mak says.
There’s a moment of quiet.
‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ Katja is sitting on the branch next to mine and I can tell she’s looking right at me. I don’t look back.
‘Cos I didn’t want to intimidate you with my coolness,’ I say.
The branch above me rustles.
‘Do you want to know how I know so much about first aid and survival skills and tracking?’ Mak says.
‘I’ve been wondering about that.’ I risk a glance over at Kat. She smiles at me, and not in a weird way, in the same way she always does – like everything’s safe and warm.
‘You know how every summer I tell you I’m going to Lithuania to see my family, and I can’t contact any of you because they don’t have wifi?’ Mak’s family has been spending the whole summer in Lithuania for as long as I can remember.
‘And you said nobody there has mobile phones,’ says Kat.
‘Yeah, well that’s not strictly true,’ says Mak. ‘We do go to Lithuania, but not to see family. My mum and dad are preppers.’
‘Preppers?’ Adrianne says.
‘They’re getting me and Zuzie’ (Zuzie is Mak’s little sister) ‘ready for the end of the world.’
‘Wait … what?’ I’ve never heard Adrianne so confused.
‘They think there’s going to be a third world war, or a global natural disaster, or a zombie apocalypse, or some other massive event that will destroy the world as we know it,’ Mak says. ‘So they built a bunker in the countryside in Lithuania. It’s, like, three storeys underground. It has electricity, a bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms. And it’s full of stuff – everything we’d need to survive on our own for years. As far as bunkers go, it’s legit.’
‘So you go there every summer?’ I say.
‘Yeah, my parents take it super-seriously. We’re totally off grid – not allowed any contact with the outside world. And they teach us to build fires and hunt and stuff.’
‘Isn’t Zuzie only in Reception?’ Katja asks.
‘Doesn’t mean she can’t snare a rabbit.’
‘Wow,’ says Ade.
‘It must seem kind of insane to you guys,’ Mak says.
Mak’s parents seem so normal. I had no idea.
‘Do you want to know why I’m so good at climbing?’ I look over at Katja, but she’s concentrating hard on braiding her hair.
‘Err – yeah!’ I say, because, let’s face it – we’ve all been wondering.
‘I was taken into care when I was really little,’ she says. ‘My mum couldn’t look after me. She tried, but she couldn’t.’
‘Oh, Kat,’ Adrianne says, ‘I didn’t know.’
‘Nobody does.’ Kat unbraids her hair and starts all over again. ‘I was in a home for a while. It smelt funny and the bed was hard. My room felt like a prison. I hated it. So I ran away, over and over again. Then they put me in a foster home and I hated that, too. I got really good at climbing out of windows and escaping across rooftops.’ She smiles in this way that makes her eyes twinkle. ‘Eventually I went to a foster home I liked and my foster mum adopted me, so everything turned out fine. But, for a few years, climbing was the only thing that made me feel better.’
I really want to hug her, but that’s not easy to do when you’re perched on separate branches in a massive tree.
‘I can’t believe you guys have been keeping these huge secrets for so long,’ Adrianne says. ‘I mean, I would have thought you would have shared this stuff with each other. I understand why you wouldn’t want it to be spread around the school, especially with idiots like Trent around.’
‘So, what is the story with you two?’ I say. ‘We all thought you and Trent were besties, you know, being head boy and head girl together.’
‘I’ve never liked him,’ she says. ‘I used to tolerate him, but then…’
‘What happened?’ Mak says.
‘I don’t want to say.’
‘Please tell us, Ade,’ Kat says. ‘We’ve told you our secrets.’
‘Tell us!’ I say, and then we all start quietly chanting, ‘Tell us, tell us, tell us.’
‘Fine,’ she says, ‘but this story had better never leave this basecamp, or I will hunt you all down and kill you.’
‘We promise,’ I say. ‘You can trust us.’
‘It’s not like the stuff you guys have been through,’ she says. ‘But it was the worst moment of my life. It happened in Year Five. It was half term and my mum got a call from Trent’s mum saying he was having a last-minute birthday party, and that he’d really like me to go.’
‘I don’t remember him having a birthday party,’ Mak says. ‘I mean obviously we wouldn’t have been invited…’
‘…But he definitely would have made sure we knew about it.’ One of Trent’s favourite things was to make me, Chets, Mak and Kat feel left out.
‘I didn’t really want to go, but my mum made me feel guilty and said at least I’d get to see my friends, so I agreed,’ Adrianne continues. ‘Of course none of us had phones then, so I couldn’t check with anyone.’
‘I’
m liking where this is going,’ I say, and look over at Katja to see her grinning.
‘So the next afternoon my mum drops me off at this posh spa hotel. Trent’s mum meets us at the door and tells my mum to collect me at seven. That’s five hours, I repeat, five hours from the time I got there. The first part of the party is in the pool, she says, so I get changed into my swimming things and go to the pool expecting everyone from school to be there.’ She takes a breath. ‘But there’s just Trent and his entire family. Not just his mum and dad and older sister, but aunties and uncles and cousins. And me. I keep looking at the pool entrance, thinking any moment my friends are going to walk in. Or at least somebody I know. But an hour ticks by and I realise nobody else is coming. It’s just me.’
‘And the Trents,’ Mak sniggers.
‘I’m not happy about it, but I don’t want to upset Trent’s mum, so I just get on with it. Swim some laps. Play politely with the inflatables.’
‘This is one of the best stories ever,’ says Kat.
‘Then, after swimming, we all get into the hot tub thing,’ Ade says. ‘And we sit in there, chatting, with these fruity drinks. All of us in a circle. I’m willing the time to pass quickly, but it feels like forever. Then finally we get out and get changed and everything.’
‘Please say it’s not over yet,’ I say.
‘It’s not over yet,’ Ade says, and I can imagine how pink her face is. ‘We go into the hotel restaurant and they’ve booked a huge table for all of them, and it’s decorated with balloons and sparkles and birthday banners. I go to sit down, but the waiter says, “Non, mademoiselle, we have a special table for the birthday boy and his girlfriend”.’
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