Boy X

by Dan Smith

  ‘And the forest is not like the BioSphere,’ Isabel said. ‘In there we had Thorn. In here’ – she pointed at the trees – ‘we have Thorn and everything else.’

  21 hrs and 03 mins until Shut-Down

  They had been in the forest less than half an hour and already it was like they were a million miles from the rest of the world. There was nothing but trees, heat and the thick, musky smell of damp earth and decaying leaves. And when Ash tested the air, he could pick out all kinds of unusual scents he didn’t recognize.

  Ahead and behind them, the forest hummed with the sound of cicadas and the call of unseen birds, but immediately around them was a cocoon of silence as everything lay still, waiting for them to pass.

  Ash had been in a jungle in India, with Dad, and thought he knew what to expect, but this was different. Isabel had been right when she said he would have to see it for himself, because it would have been hard for her to explain the uncomfortable feeling he experienced the deeper they travelled into the forest. The further they went, the more it was as if he were being watched. It was a similar feeling to the one he’d had when they were in the dark of the BioSphere. He could hear things moving about in the treetops, and in the thick jungle around them, but whatever was out there sensed when he focused on it, and fell silent and still.

  And then there were those insects. Ash had seen enough mosquitoes to know what they were, but instead of being tiny, these were as big as his fingernail, with black and white striped bodies and spindly legs hanging beneath them. Isabel told Ash to spread dirt on his face to keep them from biting him, so now they were both painted with dry mud. As far as he could tell, none of them had yet bitten him, but already a few bumps had formed on Isabel’s face.

  Isabel moved through the jungle like it was second nature to her. She warned Ash whenever they came across something dangerous – trees covered with spikes like six-inch nails, others with tiny hairs that could pierce the skin like splinters and cause weeks of itching. He saw a bright red caterpillar as fat as his thumb, bristling with long spines that Isabel told him could give him a terrible rash. He spotted a huge praying mantis perched on a low hanging branch, eyes twitching, and Isabel pointed out something the size of a rat scuttling beneath the leaves at her feet.

  ‘Scorpion spider,’ she said. ‘Not poisonous, but it can bite. Most places they like the dark, but here . . .’ She shrugged. ‘Here, it is different.’

  ‘Scorpion spider?’ Ash watched the spot where it had disappeared into the trees. ‘But it’s massive. And who thought that was a good idea? A cross between a scorpion and a spider?’

  ‘You like that, you will love this.’ Isabel nodded towards a huge web strung between two trees. In the centre of it sat a yellow narrow-bodied spider with a leg span that was wide enough to cover the top of Ash’s head.

  Ash shuddered.

  ‘I see what you mean about this place,’ he said. ‘There’s something not right about it.’

  ‘Now you understand?’

  ‘Yeah. Everything looks a bit bigger. I mean, the trees are enormous, so high, and the bugs . . .’ He shivered. ‘Is it something to do with the BioSphere?’

  ‘Papa says Isla Negra was a place for research for many years. Not just the BioSphere, but also before. He thinks maybe something escaped.’

  ‘Something like what?’ Ash looked around, trying to see what was hiding in the trees.

  ‘Not monsters,’ said Isabel. ‘Bugs. Very small. In the air.’

  ‘You mean like bacteria and stuff?’

  ‘Yes. Or maybe animals used for research. He has been trying to find out what made it happen.’

  ‘And he hasn’t figured it out yet?’

  ‘No.’

  Ash wondered if that was why he felt different. Maybe it was something to do with the air. But if that was true, then why didn’t it have the same effect on Isabel?

  ‘There’s some really bad smells too,’ Ash said. ‘I can smell something ahead that’s disgusting. It’s like there must be a gigantic dog in here somewhere and it’s just done a massive poo.’ He shook his head and banished the smell, focusing on something else.

  ‘I don’t smell it.’

  ‘Well, if we keep going in this direction, I have a feeling you will.’

  Sure enough, the deeper they went into the jungle, the stronger it became until eventually Isabel looked back at Ash. ‘I smell it now. But only just now.’

  Ash shrugged and they kept on going a few more metres until they came upon a brown fleshy plant the size of a football. It was split so that it opened like a giant mouth, and was red inside. Around the lips there were hundreds of white tendrils that, from a distance, looked like teeth. The smell that it gave off was worse than dog mess, and it made both of them gag as they hurried past.

  From time to time Isabel stopped and pointed out a footprint, or a place where the foliage was damaged. ‘They came this way,’ she would say. ‘See how they broke this branch?’ Or she would mutter to herself, ‘They are clumsy. Such a trail.’

  Ash was concerned that he was also leaving an obvious trail, and watched Isabel closely. He did as she told him, avoiding what she avoided, stepping where she stepped, touching what she touched. As they progressed through the forest, he began to feel more at ease, like when Dad had taken him into the jungle in India.

  After another half hour or so of trekking, Isabel stopped and crouched to examine the trail left by Pierce and the others. ‘They went that way.’ She pointed straight ahead, then stood and adjusted the pack she was carrying. She looked to her left, where the jungle was thicker. ‘ We go this way.’

  ‘What? Why not that way? Why not follow them?’

  ‘We need to get ahead. This way is more difficult, but it’s quicker. And Thorn will follow their prints instead of coming after us.’

  Ash looked back to see that their bandage-wrapped boots had hardly left any prints, even in the soft ground. If they moved carefully – if Ash didn’t leave a trail like a rampaging elephant – then Pierce and Cain’s trail would be the more obvious route to follow. Isabel’s idea made sense, but Ash still didn’t like the thought of losing the trail, and he also wasn’t so sure that taking a more difficult route would be a good idea, because Isabel looked exhausted.

  ‘What if they’re just up ahead?’ he asked. ‘They might be really close.’

  ‘They are slow because they carry the crate, but they set off more than three hours ahead of us. Trust me. If we go this way we can still catch up.’

  ‘Do you actually know where we’re going?’

  Isabel looked at Ash as if he had insulted her. ‘Of course I know. The bay is at the north end of the island.’ She brushed hair from her eyes. There were beads of sweat on her upper lip and on her forehead. She fished a compass from her pocket and turned it until the needle was aligned with the red N, then moved her finger in the direction it was indicating – towards the thicker trees. ‘North.’

  ‘You’ve been there before?’

  ‘Yes.’ She shoved the compass back into her pocket and adjusted the rifle slung over her shoulder.

  ‘How long will it take?’

  ‘I think maybe we arrive tomorrow.’

  ‘Tomorrow?’

  ‘I know.’ She sighed. ‘We don’t have much time.’ She looked up at the snatches of sunlight visible through the treetops. ‘But when dark comes we will have to stop – for a while at least. It is more dangerous at night.’

  Ash ran a hand over his head and looked at Isabel. The colour had drained from her skin. ‘Are you feeling OK?’

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘We will catch up with them, won’t we?’

  She didn’t answer.

  ‘Say we will.’

  Isabel blinked hard, as if she just wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep. When she opened them again, she looked at Ash. ‘We will. We must be moving faster than they are, so we are catching them up all the time. And they will have to stop at night too.’

&nbs
p; ‘But Kronos won’t.’ Ash couldn’t stop thinking about Mum, locked in the lab, slowly dying. ‘ Kronos won’t stop at night.’

  Isabel pursed her lips and shook her head. ‘No.’ She rubbed her face with both hands and when she took them away, her eyes were red. This was the first time since coming into the jungle that Ash had seen her so scared. She was growing weaker and becoming breathless, while he only felt stronger. He was worried about her, but he already had the burden of so many other things on his mind, he didn’t want to think about losing Isabel’s strength to prop him up. He needed her and had to believe she would be OK.

  ‘So we’re going to have to spend the night out here?’ He changed the subject and looked at the plants growing tight around them. For one moment, he wondered if they were closer than they had been a minute ago. He had never seen plants move before, but in this place almost anything seemed possible.

  ‘I know somewhere safe to stop.’ Isabel sniffed. ‘And we will leave as soon as it is light enough. Or maybe if there is a good moon we can risk moving at night. We’ll have to wait and see.’

  Ash was suddenly overcome with a sense of how lucky he was to have her. On his own, he would never have come this far; would never survive the jungle. ‘I’m glad you’re here,’ he said.

  Isabel nodded and started to smile.

  ‘I mean, I should be thanking you. For getting us out of that place, for the clothes . . . everything. Gracias. Isn’t that how you say “thank you” in Spanish?’

  ‘De nada,’ Isabel replied. ‘You’re welcome.’

  ‘It doesn’t seem real, does it? I mean . . . any of this.’

  Isabel remained silent.

  ‘I always thought Mum had a boring job, working in a lab, but she was making a cure for some horrible disease. She was saving the world and I thought she was just some boring person in a white coat.’

  Isabel pulled a water bottle from her rucksack. She unscrewed the cap and took a swig. ‘What you said about being glad I’m here?’

  ‘Mm-hm?’

  ‘Well, I’m glad you’re here too.’ She held the bottle out to him. ‘Drink. We need to stay strong.’

  The water was warm and tasted tinny, but Ash hadn’t realized how thirsty he was. The last time he’d had anything to drink was when he had woken up in the white room, and he had no idea when he’d last eaten. As if to confirm it had been a long time, his stomach let out a long grumble.

  When they set off again, Isabel plucked a hand of bananas from a plant and passed one back to Ash.

  ‘You sure they’re safe to eat? Nothing weird about them?’

  ‘They’re safe. Just don’t drop the skin where we walk. Leave no trail for Thorn.’

  ‘But he’ll follow the others, won’t he?’ Ash stripped back the bright yellow peel.

  Isabel shrugged. ‘I hope so.’

  The fruit was small and sweet with flavour that exploded in his mouth. It was a lot better than the dry, bland bananas Mum got from the supermarket, and Ash didn’t know whether that was because the fruit was different or because he was different. Either way, it didn’t matter because he was starving, so he ate the first one in a couple of gulps and tossed the skin into the trees where it couldn’t be seen, then took another.

  ‘Don’t eat too many.’ Isabel warned. ‘You’ll get . . . how you say? Runny toilet.’

  Ash couldn’t help smiling. ‘You mean the squirts.’

  ‘The squirts,’ Isabel said, making Ash burst out laughing.

  ‘Is this funny? The squirts?’

  ‘Yeah. Yeah, it’s funny.’

  Isabel raised her eyebrows and looked at her watch. ‘It’s just gone one thirty. We need to keep moving for another three or four hours – that should be just enough time to get to shelter before dark. It will be safe to stay there.’

  20 hrs and 02 mins until Shut-Down

  The jungle closed in on them, the trees growing so close and dense that the canopy became a solid ceiling. Shards of light pierced through in places and cut into the gloom, illuminating a faint mist that hung at ankle level, shimmering with an eerie glow. Vines twisted between trunks that bristled with spines and barbs, forming impenetrable maze-like walls. Unseen creatures grunted and moved in the shadows. Monstrous insects clung to distorted branches. A rich earthy smell hardly masked more sinister smells, and Ash found himself constantly on edge, testing everything, using all his senses to scan for danger.

  At least twenty minutes since their last stop, they hacked their way through a thick tangle of vines to find themselves in a more open part of the jungle. There was a small area of hard, black dirt a few metres wide, with only one or two trees growing there. The ground was punctuated with smooth stones and small patches of ferns. On the far side, the jungle was more evenly spaced, easier to travel through, so they paused to rest before moving on. The sweet smell of freshly spilt sap was still in the air and, above them, a shaft of sunlight broke through the canopy.

  Ash studied his friend as she drank from the water bottle. He noticed her discomfort when she swallowed, and saw a sudden shiver wrack her body. He could tell that something was making her feel unwell, but she hadn’t said anything. She hadn’t complained even once.

  Seeing her like that made him realize he had been trying to ignore a nasty idea that was simmering in his thoughts. As he watched Isabel, though, the idea began to form so quickly that he couldn’t stop it. It gained weight and settled over his already aching heart: Mum was wrong about the virus being contained.

  That was the scent Ash had detected when he entered the lab area.

  The smell of unburnt cooker gas was Kronos.

  And that’s why it was all over Isabel – because it had escaped and was now working its way through her blood.

  He was sure of it. But he couldn’t understand why it wasn’t affecting him. As he struggled with his thoughts, a feral sound came from somewhere out of sight. He had heard something like it earlier, but said nothing because it was far away, but this time it was much closer.

  ‘There’s something out there.’ He became more alert, switching his focus away from Isabel.

  ‘Where?’ Isabel screwed the cap back onto the water bottle and looked about, trying to listen.

  ‘There.’ Ash pointed to their left, through the hole they had hacked in the vines. ‘It sounds big.’

  ‘Thorn?’

  Ash shook his head and got to his feet, slinging the satchel over his shoulder. ‘It’s coming this way. Right towards us. I think we should go.’

  ‘What is it?’ Isabel stood up beside him and raised her rifle.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Ash started walking backwards, keeping his eyes on the gap in the vines. ‘But it’s moving faster.’

  ‘OK. This way.’ Isabel grabbed her backpack and secured it, then pushed ahead. ‘Let me go first.’

  ‘Fine, but just hurry up.’

  They ran to the other side of the small clearing and forged on into forest. Isabel still couldn’t hear anything, but Ash could hear it as plain as if it were right beside him. Something big and clumsy was crashing through the thick jungle in their wake, and whatever it was, it wasn’t being anywhere near as careful as they had been; it was blundering through, smashing things out of its way. It must have been strong, thick-skinned, and knew the jungle well – there was no way Ash and Isabel would have been able to travel through that area so quickly and avoid all the barbs and spines. At that speed, they would have been ripped to shreds.

  ‘It’s getting closer.’ Ash couldn’t help the way his voice tightened in his throat. ‘Hurry up.’

  ‘We can’t go any faster,’ Isabel panted. ‘Not here.’ They were coming to another area of dense growth, the trees closing in on them once more. Some of the thick trunks had spines as long as pencils and as sharp as hypodermic needles. A simple misstep, an accidental trip, and those spines would slide through their flesh as if through butter.

  Behind them, the noise grew louder, like an approaching freight train forcing i
ts way through the forest. Ash could hear the foliage being rammed aside, the snap and crack of branches breaking. ‘Quick!’

  It was so close now. Something huge and unstoppable.

  ‘We can’t!’ Isabel shouted in frustration. ‘The jungle is too thick.’ She stopped and pulled the rifle from over her shoulder, pointing it into the forest behind them.

  The crashing stopped.

  Ash came to a halt and moved his head to listen. He sniffed the air, smelling something musty and unpleasant.

  ‘Is it gone?’ Isabel kept the rifle raised.

  As Ash turned to look at her, he heard something. No more than twenty metres away. An animal-like grunt. There was a pause, then the crashing began again. ‘It’s coming. Let’s get the hell out of here.’

  But Isabel didn’t move. She stayed as she was, rifle aimed into the forest as the thundering and smashing grew louder and louder. She stood her ground – even when the foliage split on the other side of the clearing and a monstrous creature burst into the open.

  It straightened its front legs and came to a shuddering stop.

  Slavering and grunting, the gigantic boar must have weighed at least three times as much as a grown man. On all fours, it was taller than Ash, but if it had reared onto its hind legs, it would have been two metres tall. Its wide, hunched shoulders were packed hard with solid muscle, supporting a huge, pointed head that tapered to a black nose as big as a dinner plate. A line of bristles stood up from the ridge of its sloping back, and it had short, powerful legs to support its massive bulk. Tusks stuck out from either side of its lower jaw like curved, razor-sharp blades more than thirty centimetres long. Ash knew that one thrust from those yellowed and dirty weapons would split him down the middle.

  The beast stood there with thick saliva hanging from its jaws, its breathing slow and heavy, its chest expanding and relaxing. The smell that enveloped it was an intoxicating mix of rotting meat, sour milk and death.

  ‘Shoot it,’ Ash whispered.

  Almost exactly as he said it, Isabel fired a warning shot.

  CRACK!

  The sudden noise was deafening in the confines of the close trees. The sound reverberated in Ash’s head, and at the other side of the small clearing the beast flinched as Isabel’s bullet struck the ground between its front legs.