Shark Adventure

by Anthony McGowan

  Chung tried to curse them in Cantonese, but his throat was too parched. And then his brief moment of lucidity passed, and he relapsed into incoherent mumbling.

  Amazon and Frazer dragged him under the shade of a fallen tree and returned to their task. By late afternoon their work was done. They had made three good lengths of rope, and Frazer had first soaked them in seawater, and then used them to bind the broken spars together as best he could.

  ‘They’ll tighten as they dry,’ he explained, ‘and that should help to hold the broken sections together.’

  Paddles were a problem. Amazon found a piece of flattened driftwood, hardly bigger than a ping-pong bat, and the best Frazer could do was a stick he found, slightly wider at one end than the other.

  ‘Not great,’ said Frazer, looking at what they had, ‘but better than nothing.’

  It was too late to set off that day, and so they settled down for the night.

  Chung was still moaning and jabbering. They left a couple of crab-opened coconuts by his side, and he briefly looked at them and said something, although whether it was to thank them or damn them all to hell they could not know.

  ‘Can we leave him like this?’ said Amazon. ‘It doesn’t seem right. Can’t we … do something?’

  ‘Well, I’m not sucking the poison out,’ replied Frazer. ‘Look, the best thing we can do for Chung is to go and get help. That’s his only chance. Heck, it’s our only chance.’

  Amazon had to agree.

  After what Chung had said about his schooner, they didn’t even try to light a fire, although Frazer boasted that his bushcraft skills would have made short work of it. They covered themselves in palm leaves, snuggled down together and, tormented equally by Chung’s raving, and by the incessant no-nos and mosquitoes, they fell into a fitful sleep.

  They woke at first light and checked on Chung. He looked pale and sweaty, and yet was shivering.

  Amazon put her hand on his head. ‘He’s running a fever. That bite must have become infected.’

  ‘They say a human has the dirtiest bite of any animal. Time for us to hit the high seas.’

  They pushed the fragile little canoe out into the surf, on the ocean side of the atoll. There was only room for three coconuts, but they were sure that would be plenty for the short voyage. But almost immediately they found a more urgent use for the shells. The canoe, without the raised prow and stern, and lacking the extra planks that were used to build up the sides of the boat, shipped water at an alarming rate. Within five minutes, Amazon and Frazer were sitting in several centimetres of water.

  ‘OK,’ said Frazer, ‘we take it in turns to bail and paddle. You have the first turn with the coconut.’

  So Frazer paddled and Amazon scooped, but it was a losing battle. Even though the waves were modest, the little craft just wasn’t seaworthy, and both Amazon and Frazer began to have that sinking feeling. Nevertheless, they crept steadily closer to Uva’avu. They were helped by favourable winds and currents, which drove them in roughly the right direction.

  After half an hour, they changed roles. It was almost a disaster as Frazer thought that they should also change positions. Amazon, trying to crawl round him, set up a crazy wobble, and the canoe rocked from side to side, taking on more seawater with each dip.

  Amazon, however, saved the day by jumping over the side and into the sea, and using her hands to steady things. Without her weight, the canoe sat a little higher, and Frazer quickly bailed out the water they’d shipped. He then helped Amazon back on board.

  As he did, Amazon noticed his hands: they were scraped raw from the rough paddle he’d been using.

  Frazer seemed to notice them for the first time as well. He took off the ragged remains of his T-shirt, tore it into strips and gave two of them to Amazon.

  ‘Wrap these round your hands,’ he said, and soon the paddling and bailing began again.

  By now the sun was high, and beat down upon them mercilessly. They drained the milk from the second coconut, and then the third, and wished that there had been room on the canoe for more.

  But worse things were about to happen than thirst. The coconut-fibre ropes binding the fractured spars of the outrigger just couldn’t cope with the sea swell. First the ropes became loose, and the spars buckled at the join. Frazer tried some on-the-go repairs, but it was useless, and soon, one after another, the three spars failed. Without the stability provided by the outrigger, the canoe began to rock viciously, lapping up more water. Amazon’s bailing just couldn’t keep up. The canoe was soon half full of water. The island was still at least a kilometre away.

  But that was not the worst of it. A black fin cut the water away to the right-hand side of the canoe. It sank down again and came up on the right.

  ‘What can we do?’ said Amazon desperately.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Frazer bravely, ‘that’s only a tiddler. It won’t bother us. But grab the other paddle. Let’s go flat out before she sinks. We might make it.’

  They didn’t.

  Two minutes later, the water was almost up to the gunnels. The shark had disappeared for now, but they knew it would be back.

  ‘We’ll have to try to roll her to empty out the water,’ said Frazer.

  Amazon nodded in reply, but her face was taut with fear. They both slipped into the water, and tried to roll the canoe all the way round. It was much tougher than Frazer had anticipated: eventually they succeeded, but it picked up as much water as it shed.

  ‘We’ve got to swim for it, Zonnie,’ said Frazer.

  ‘I can’t …’ gasped Amazon as she trod water.

  ‘We can do this, cuz,’ said Frazer, staring deep into her eyes. ‘Try to keep your stroke nice and steady. Thrashing around attracts the …’

  He didn’t want to say the word, and Amazon didn’t need to hear it.

  ‘You go first,’ he said. ‘I’ll follow right behind you. Remember, nice steady strokes.’

  Amazon was a good swimmer, and, as Frazer recommended, she kept up a rhythmical front crawl. But she hadn’t swum much in the open ocean, and she found it much more tiring than doing lengths in the pool. Every so often she would mistime a breath, and take in a mouthful of saltwater.

  Of course it didn’t help that she was on the very edge of panic. It was fortunate for her that she did not see what Frazer could.

  The shark was back.

  Frazer, more confident in the water, was also more alert to what was going on around them. He was relieved to see the black tip, meaning it was only a reef shark patrolling the area between the islands, but still, a shark was a shark.

  And then, once more, the shark was gone. Frazer, keeping up his own steady freestyle stroke, should have been relieved, but he felt even more uneasy about this sudden disappearance.

  He ducked under the water and looked around, ignoring the stinging of the seawater. Nothing. The water was still too thick with sediment stirred up by the storm to allow much visibility.

  He swam on more quickly, until he was by Amazon’s side. She looked over at him and he smiled. He switched to breaststroke so he could give her a few encouraging words.

  ‘Not far now till we hit the reef. The gap is on the far side, and I don’t think we should risk swimming round the outside. If I’m right, it’s high tide and we should be able to swim right over it. Then we cruise through the lagoon and –’

  He stopped speaking because of the look on Amazon’s face. It was something beyond terror; and mixed in with it was a sort of hopelessness, close to despair. It was a look that spoke eloquently of a huge effort, wasted.

  Frazer looked over to his left and saw again a slate-grey fin cutting the
water. He knew straight away that this was no black tip. The reef sharks were crafty and careful predators, but also rather timid in the face of a threat. This new arrival was afraid of nothing. And even though Frazer knew it was stupid to ascribe human emotions to animals, he couldn’t help but think that this creature bore a grudge. They had taken away its prey once and now it was payback time. Yes, this was the tiger shark, back for revenge.

  This was a different situation from the battle over the baby dolphin. There had been no chance to think. The action was too frantic. But now he had a good opportunity to contemplate his and Amazon’s fate. Frazer tried to remember everything he’d ever read or heard about defending yourself from a shark attack. Go for the eyes, if you can. Or the nose, which was sensitive. A kick or a punch could sometimes put off an inquisitive shark.

  But those things seemed utterly futile against a monster like this. Deep down he knew that Amazon’s only hope was if the tiger shark got him first, and that his only hope was if it took Amazon.

  No! There had to be another way. There was the way of guts. Maybe of sacrifice. Certainly of glory. He was going to attack the shark!

  It was ahead of them now, right in between them and the possibility of safety in the lagoon. Frazer looked again at Amazon. She was treading water, and Frazer was incredibly proud of the courage she was showing. But she couldn’t stop her teeth from chattering in the cold water.

  ‘Listen to me, Zonnie,’ he said, keeping his voice calm. ‘I’ve got a plan. I’m going to swim straight at the tiger. They don’t like to be attacked. It has a brain the size of a gumball, and it thinks that anything that attacks it must be a threat. I need you to swim over that way towards the reef. Don’t slow down, and don’t look back. Just go.’

  ‘NO!’ sobbed Amazon. ‘I’m not letting you do this. You’re a better swimmer than me. You go for it, and I’ll …’

  ‘Forget it, Zonnie. You’re just in my way. Anyway, your parents … you’ve got to find them. Just go, now, or you’ll ruin my plan. GO!’

  The last ‘GO!’ was a furious yell. Her heart torn, Amazon began to swim. Then stopped, came back, touched Frazer’s face. Their eyes met, in silence, and then she was off again, swimming like she’d never swum before.

  Frazer saw the tiger shark still ahead of him, approaching in lazy curves. He kicked out, meaning to rush straight at it. He hoped it would shy away and give them the chance to make it over the reef. It was a slender thread to hang his hopes on.

  And now it snapped.

  The tiger had sensed the presence of Amazon. Rather than coming for Frazer, it had veered off towards her.

  ‘NOOOOOOO!’ he screamed.

  He splashed the water, thrashing around, trying to appear like a dying fish to attract the shark. But it wasn’t working. The tiger knew what it wanted, and what it wanted was the girl.

  Amazon knew nothing of this. She was still swimming for dear life, close now, so close to the reef …

  The creature dived lower, until her tail almost brushed the soft coral sand on the sea’s bottom. And now she saw the shape in the water above her, clearly etched against the light that poured into the ocean from the clear blue sky. This was how she liked to attack, bursting up from underneath.

  She beat her tail powerfully and began her attack surge. Somewhere deep in her brain she knew that she had not been seen, and that the attack would succeed. But her mind was also filled with other thoughts. Thoughts of revenge, and what …? Something akin to justice. Yes, this was right, so right. Now she was coursing upwards, unstoppable, filled with power and energy.

  Closer, closer, closer, and then, with a devastating percussive force that seemed almost not to belong in the animal world, but to the horrors of destruction dreamed up by humankind, she struck.

  Frazer saw it all. The tiger shark surging through the water towards his cousin, and the explosion in the water as, miraculously, wondrously, the dolphin rammed it from below, sending the massive shark flying a metre up into the air. It was a devastating, indeed almost fatal, blow. The shark could not even swim away, but spiralled down helplessly into the depths.

  The mother dolphin leapt through the air once, twice, three times, and then was joined by her baby. In a few powerful strokes Frazer reached Amazon, and they trod the water together as the two dolphins swam and leapt around joyously.

  ‘I can hardly believe it,’ said Amazon, ‘but she’s saying thank you, isn’t she, for when we saved the calf …’

  ‘I think so,’ agreed Frazer, the grin on his face as wide as a giant clam. ‘Do you think they’ll give us a lift round to the village?’

  ‘It would be nice, wouldn’t it? But she’s a wild creature, and she’s a mother with a baby to look after.’

  And, as if to confirm this, the two dolphins suddenly were no longer there, as if they had been merely dreamed up by Amazon and Frazer.

  It took them twenty minutes to swim over the reef and reach the land. They hauled themselves up on to the beach, like two exhausted leatherback turtles. It was another half an hour before they made it round the island to the village. They were ragged and filthy and shattered and happy.

  The village was once more full of life and activity. The islanders were trying to put their world back together, gathering what they could of their possessions and patching up their ruined homes. Men, women and children were hard at work, foraging and fixing, hammering and hewing. Many of the animals were dead, but one boy was still proudly looking after his puppies, and the occasional dignified pig picked through the rubbish.

  Bluey was on the roof of one hut with Matahi and Oti, weaving new palm leaves into the thatch, when Amazon and Frazer entered the village. Matahi had used a hatchet to cut the chain between the handcuffs, but the steel rings were still around Bluey’s wrists. Amazon could tell from his face that he had spent a long, dark night, his soul racked with horror and regret over the loss of the two young Trackers, whose care had been in his hands.

  Frazer called out, ‘Hey, Bluey, nice bracelets. You got a matching necklace and earrings?’

  Bluey looked up from his work. His face registered, in quick succession, puzzlement, disbelief, astonishment and joy. And then, entirely disregarding every health and safety rule he had ever been taught, he jumped straight down from the roof, to land at the feet of Amazon and Frazer.

  The three Trackers hugged, while the villagers gathered round, chattering excitedly, and grinning with joy at the return of the lost children.

  ‘I thought you guys were dead. Stone dead. Like, as dead as you could be.’

  ‘If it hadn’t been for a dolphin, we would have been,’ said Amazon. ‘And Frazer was pretty cool, as well. For a Yank.’

  Frazer smiled. ‘Hey, you Brits did OK too. And we both bailed out the Aussies! And, guess what, we saved the baby turtles, so we can chalk this up as mission accomplished! But it’s a long story. So what’s been happening here?’

  ‘Well, no one was killed, but you can see the mess the storm made. The people here are pretty resilient, but they need help, and there’s no way to get word out.’

  ‘My village will recover,’ said Matahi proudly. ‘My people are brave and strong. But yes, we will need help to rebuild …’

  ‘I think I can lend a hand there,’ said Frazer.

  Bluey gave him a quizzical look. Frazer pointed to the tree, still sprouting the sat phone fruit, safe above the flood.

  ‘I’ll call my dad. He’ll pull some strings. He’ll want to know about the turtles. I guess it won’t be long before a boat comes with supplies for the island, and a lift out of here for us.’

  ‘But you will come back?’ asked Oti quietly. Or perhaps, rather than a
question, it was a statement.

  ‘Yes,’ said Amazon and squeezed his hand, which sent the boy off on a series of cartwheels that managed both to express his joy and hide his embarrassment.

  Matahi smiled.

  ‘And we will hear your story. You must tell it well so that we can see the pictures in our minds. But first I think that we may be able to gather together enough for a feast. A small feast …’

  Without the jamming of the signal, it took no more than a few seconds for Frazer to get through to Hal Hunt. Hal’s gruff voice was not mellowed by the distorting effect of the satellite.

  ‘What the heck took you so long to call me?’ he barked. ‘And how are those turtles? Or were you too busy working on your tan to notice?’

  ‘Turtles are good, Dad. And sorry about not calling. I guess we had a few … problems. There was an attack by killer squid, a shark issue, a typhoon, a castaway interlude, another shark issue and a couple of bad guys who wanted to bump us off. You know, the usual TRACKS stuff. So we were kinda busy. But, yeah, we saved a whole bunch of baby turtles.’

  And then Frazer saw the yearning look on Amazon’s face, and took advantage of the stunned silence on the other end of the phone to add, ‘Dad, I’m going to hand you over to Amazon now. I think she needs to … well, you know.’

  ‘Hi, Uncle Hal,’ Amazon said, frail hope and deep yearning mixing together in her voice. ‘Have you …?’

  ‘It’s good to hear your voice, Amazon.’ The gruffness had gone from Hal’s voice, replaced by an unaccustomed tenderness.

  ‘But my parents … I need to know.’

  A pause.

  ‘I’m sorry, Amazon, but there’s still nothing. We’ve been following up various reports of light aircraft in the area, checking possible flight paths … Really, Amazon, we’re doing everything we can.’