Deadman’s Track

by Sarah Barrie

  She filled the water bottles then crept back through the trees, unable to resist looking around, checking for any sign they’d been followed. When she couldn’t find one, she began the trip back, almost fell over the pack hidden in the leaf litter. Her pulse jumped. She spun around, around again. She waited, every sense hyper-alert. But she couldn’t see anyone. Where was Pax?

  She picked up his pack, took it back to the creek and quietly slipped it in. It would give away that she’d been here, but no food, no clothes, no warmth or shelter would have to make a big impact on how long he could survive out here, hunting them.

  A piercing scream had her jolting upright and running for their camp. Every sense on alert, she approached the trees, skidding to a halt.

  Pax had Riley and Jai bailed up by the tree.

  ‘I’m not going to ask ya again! Where’d she go?’ he demanded.

  ‘She’s gone for help,’ Jai said. ‘Left us here and kept going.’

  ‘Fuck!’ Pax yelled, clutching at his head. Then he thrust the gun at Jai’s head. ‘This is your fault! They’re all dead because of you, got it?’

  ‘It’s not his fault, it’s yours!’ Riley yelled through streaming tears, clinging to Jai and shaking so hard she could barely stand.

  ‘I didn’t take the damn ring on purpose!’ Jai said. ‘What would I do with it?’

  ‘Ya fucked me over!’ Pax said. ‘That’s what ya did—you and Tank. Didn’t think you’d have the balls, but there ya go. You were going to sell it back to Bryce, weren’t ya? Get me knocked off?’

  ‘He didn’t know!’ Riley cried. ‘He meant to give you the right one.’

  ‘Oh, well,’ Pax said wryly, ‘guess it was just one big misunderstanding then.’ His voice rose sharply. ‘I don’t care! Do ya think Cochrane gives a fuck? I need the ring or I’m dead. I don’t have time for this. Gotta catch up to Tess.’ He swung the gun at Riley.

  ‘No, Pax, please!’ Jai launched himself at Pax and they both went down. The gun went off, startling Tess into action.

  As Pax and Jai rolled down the hillside, crashing through scrub, Tess scrambled down to Riley and grabbed her, dragged her back. ‘Let’s go. Now!’

  ‘No! Jai!’

  ‘Damn it, Riley—stop!’ she said when Riley shook herself free. She went after her and found Pax standing over Jai. Jai wasn’t moving. Blood from a nasty gash to his temple was trickling down his face.

  Pax looked up and lifted the gun. ‘Enough games. Hand it over.’

  Tess took the ring off her finger. ‘You take those bullets out and toss them, and I’ll hand it over.’

  He shook his head. ‘Ya think you’re in charge? Yeah? Okay, how about this?’ He kicked Jai hard in the ribs. Jai moaned, rolled. ‘I don’t have to kill him straight away. How much he hurts is up to you.’

  ‘I’d rather him hurt than dead.’

  ‘Great. I can draw this out forever.’ He kicked Jai again, this time in the face. Blood poured from his nose. As Jai rolled again, he went over the small ledge. Riley raced past Pax to reach him, but was snagged and dragged to Pax’s side, the gun to her head.

  ‘You walk over here right now and hand me that ring.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Tess.’ Riley sniffed. ‘He’s gonna shoot me anyway. Run, Tess. Just go!’

  The distinctive thud of helicopter blades broke her concentration. A helicopter flying that low had to be searching. Relief hit her even as she wondered if rescue was about to arrive too late. She needed to stall him.

  ‘Hear that?’ she asked Pax. ‘The cops are here. We’re right in the location they’d expect us to be today and they’re going to search it thoroughly. Even if I hand this ring over to you now, you’re not going to get away. I’m Search and Rescue, I know how this works, so I’ll tell you. They’ll have coordinated teams on foot checking from the ground while the chopper keeps an eye out from the air. You’re already surrounded. If you want to have any hope of escaping, you need to run. Now.’ She had to hope it was true, wasn’t sure, but he seemed to be paying attention. She put the ring in her hand and took up a throwing position. ‘Let her go. Put the gun down and back up. When she’s out of range, I’ll toss it to you.’

  ‘Bullshit ya will! Why should I believe ya?’

  ‘There’s no time to argue, Pax! Hurry up!’

  Pax growled and dropped the gun, shoving Riley forward. ‘Now give it to me!’

  Riley ran towards her. ‘Get up the hill,’ Tess told her. ‘Get the chopper’s attention.’

  She threw the ring past Pax and ran. The incline was brutal on her already exhausted muscles but she kept going. Riley tripped and Tess helped her up and pushed her ahead.

  She felt the jerk of her jacket as she was caught from behind.

  CHAPTER

  45

  Jared’s stomach flipped and dived as the chopper jostled and jolted in the bad weather. Beneath them was an endless landscape of grassy hills and plains made dreary by a leaden sky and wet, foggy conditions. A snaking white line of track devoid of travellers cut through the uninviting terrain.

  ‘We would have spotted them by now if they were on any of the exposed areas of the track,’ Aaron said.

  ‘What do you want to do, detective?’ the pilot asked.

  He should fly back, assist with search coordination. He didn’t want to. They had emergency supplies and enough gear to last them a night or two in the wilderness should it be necessary. He intended on using them. ‘I need to know where we might have missed them if the hike is still going to plan, and where they’re most likely to be hiding if it hasn’t,’ he said to the man who’d done little since they’d gotten into the chopper other than make his dislike of Jared as clear as possible.

  ‘I still think they’re somewhere in this area,’ Aaron answered. ‘Louisa Creek, Louisa River and Little Deadman’s Bay all contain campsites in sheltered, forested areas, but at this time of day I wouldn’t expect Tess to be there. They should be on the track.’

  ‘And if they’re hiding?’

  ‘Unless they’ve made it further than I think and bunked down in one of the pockets of cover around Red Point Hills, I’m guessing they’ll be somewhere back in that really dense forest on the other side of the Ironbound Range where it tracks up from Little Deadman’s Bay. If I were Tess, I’d be there.’

  ‘Should we fly back over them?’ Emily asked.

  ‘Those more heavily forested areas were covered in fog on the way in,’ Jared reminded her. ‘There’s no point.’

  ‘May as well go home and put our feet up then.’ Aaron’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

  ‘I wish you would,’ Emily barked.

  Jared ignored Aaron. His temper was building by the minute. If he let loose even a bit, the guy was destined to end up a bloody mess on the chopper floor. Aaron had already put Tess through enough before he’d landed her in this situation out of spite. If he hadn’t been so good at his job, Jared would never have allowed him on the chopper.

  ‘My point is,’ Jared said, ‘we need to get in there. Is there somewhere in that area we can land?’ he asked the pilot.

  ‘I can’t land anywhere here on top of the range, not in this weather, but I can probably set you down just above Little Deadman’s Bay.’

  ‘Great. We’ll check out the campsite, head up into the covered area of track Aaron’s talking about from there.’

  ‘Then I’ll have to take the chopper back, refuel and pick you up later.’

  ‘You sure you want to leave the chopper?’ Aaron asked. ‘If they have gone off track, we could be in the wrong place entirely. They could be lost, or severely held up. Tess knows better than to bush-bash out here.’

  ‘It’s highly likely Orvist, a man who spent time in the army and has the skills to navigate and survive out here, has come after them. I’m telling you, if Tess is running from this guy, she wouldn’t be stupid enough to wander around in plain sight.’

  ‘So what if they haven’t made it this far?’ Emily asked.

&
nbsp; ‘We’ve got a team heading in from the Lagoon Crossing,’ Jared reminded her. ‘They’ll let us know.’ In the distance he saw the other helicopter carrying Indy, Emily and Craig. Tess had to have spotted it or at least heard the activity by now. If Orvist was anywhere in their vicinity, he’d be on alert, too. ‘They’ve got to be out here somewhere.’

  ‘Unless she’s already dead,’ Aaron said bitterly, ‘because you couldn’t do your job properly and catch the bastard.’

  Jared had been carefully keeping that thought pushed to the back of his mind since this began. ‘Let’s not forget why she’s out here,’ he couldn’t help but say. ‘We should have been looking for you.’

  The chopper landed and Jared jumped out first, then helped Emily out. When Aaron followed, the chopper took off again and suddenly it was just the three of them in the vast spread of wilderness. The slash of stunningly cold wind cut through Jared’s jacket and stung his face. It wasn’t raining, but the atmosphere was damp and heavy. He adjusted his pack on his shoulders and looked through a smattering of trees to the choppy silver water of the coastline, then back around to the heavy blanket of rainforest heading up to what he knew was the exposed track over the peaks of the Ironbound Range. He suddenly felt too small, missing the chopper’s height and speed. The enormity of the task frightened him. His priority was Tess. She had to be alive. If they could catch Orvist out here, that was a plus, but the sheer scope and size of the area was overwhelming. If someone didn’t want to be caught out here it would be damn near impossible to find them.

  ‘So where’s the campsite?’ he asked Aaron.

  In response, Aaron turned and began walking.

  Jared exchanged glances with Emily, who pulled a face at Aaron’s back and followed.

  They walked in silence to the campsite. As it came into view, an orange tent stood out against the grey and green and Jared felt hope leap in his chest. ‘Tess?’ he called, picking up his pace, almost racing Aaron and Emily to the tent. There was no answer and, he realised, only one tent. He tried again anyway as he approached it.

  ‘Tess?’

  ‘Jared.’ Emily put a hand on his arm and for a moment he couldn’t understand why she was holding him up. Then he got it. The insects. The sickly smell that meant death. He lunged forward when Aaron stepped back and got the flap open with unsteady fingers. He reeled back. At first he wasn’t sure who he was looking at. The ruined face was all he could process. Then he saw hair, patches of it, sticking out of a burned scalp. Blonde.

  ‘It’s Jasmin,’ he choked. He’d seen plenty of death, but knowing this beautiful young woman had probably died like this at the hands of a monster still caught him in the gut.

  ‘They had a fire over here!’ Aaron called out. ‘Tess knows better!’

  ‘I’m not sure it was Tess,’ Jared said, stepping away. ‘Jasmin’s been badly burned.’

  Aaron shrugged. ‘Maybe it was an accident. They lit an open fire. She could have fallen into it.’

  ‘Those burns are too severe, even for that. Look—over there. That’s the remains of a burnt tent. And do you care? Because it sounds as though you’re more upset someone lit a fire!’

  Aaron’s eyes heated. ‘No fire, no dead girl, right? And there’s a reason open fires aren’t permitted. Imagine how much destruction this one could have caused to the natural environment. There’s evidence at the edge of the camp that it got out of control. They’ve had to chase it.’

  All. Morning. All morning Aaron had been an arsehole, but this was too much. Jared’s fist curled as he took a step towards him.

  ‘Jared! Over here!’ Emily called. The urgency in her voice was the only thing that stopped the punch. He looked in disgust at Aaron, who was tense, expecting it.

  ‘We don’t know what happened here. But there’s a dead girl over there and if that doesn’t upset you, you shouldn’t be out here. Don’t open your mouth again unless you find Tess. Got it?’ He strode away, knowing it was good he hadn’t thrown that punch but wishing he had anyway. ‘Em?’

  ‘Here.’

  ‘What— Oh hell.’

  Emily was standing by a hanging body. Alex.

  ‘We need more people out here,’ Emily said, face devoid of colour.

  He nodded once, fear for Tess and her remaining group making him nauseous, then he walked away and radioed back to Indy. ‘Okay, let’s go,’ he called to Emily and Aaron once he was done.

  ‘What are we doing?’ Emily asked weakly, a hand pressed against her stomach.

  ‘We’re going to keep moving. There’s only one tent here and all their gear is gone. The rest of them must have walked out.’

  ‘What they’ve been through … what way would they even have gone? I can’t help but see it. See them having to leave their friends like this and …’ Emily said with a sob. ‘I’m sorry, Jared. I haven’t seen anything like this before and—Tess. She’s my friend. I mean I know her, and you two and— Oh God.’ She put her hands over her face and tears dripped through her fingers.

  ‘Em.’ Jared stepped in and squeezed her arms. ‘Hey, I know. It’s bad. And I’m sorry. You’re so damn good at your job I forget—we all do—that you’ve never had to deal with a lot of what we throw you into before. This is tough for me too and I’ve seen a lot more. You can’t focus on what’s done. You need to put all your energy into the next bit, then the bit after that. Right now I need that big brain of yours focused on finding the ones who are still alive. Okay?’

  Emily sniffed and dragged her hands over her eyes. ‘Sorry.’ Then she took a deep breath. ‘I’m okay. I just couldn’t hold that in.’ She took a couple more of those long, ragged breaths then forced a smile onto her face. ‘I can do that. Sorry.’

  ‘Don’t be.’

  ‘Are we just about ready to go, then?’ Aaron asked.

  Emily’s teary eyes moved past Jared to where Aaron was standing and hardened. ‘Jared, can I shoot him? It would really make me feel better.’

  He saw the attempt at humour for what it was—an effort to get back to normal—and gave her arm one last squeeze. ‘Come on, let’s get going.’ As much as he wanted to make her feel better, there was a very real urgency tearing at him to find Tess.

  There were plenty of trees and lots of mud, and a creek crossing left him soaked to the knees. But those first few kilometres were nothing on the joke of a mountainside they began climbing after that.

  ‘Is this even a track?’ he asked Aaron, lifting himself up over a tangle of tree roots interspersed with deep mud holes, only to crawl under a fallen tree and get tangled in some sort of unusual vine.

  ‘It’s the track,’ Aaron replied. ‘You want to wuss out? Go back down. Wait for the chopper. I’ll find Tess.’

  ‘You right, Emily?’ Jared asked, ignoring Aaron and giving her a hand up a steep rocky slope.

  ‘I say we stick him in a tree hollow,’ she muttered, then, as she went down to mid-calf in a mud puddle, ‘or drop him down a hole.’

  ‘I thought you wanted to shoot him.’

  ‘Shoot him first, then hide him. I bet no one would ever find him.’

  ‘You’re probably right.’

  It was rough going, frustratingly slow. Every second felt like a minute, every minute an hour. His leg slipped down the side of a large rock, jarred him painfully. He swore, resettled the gun in his hand and pushed off again. He was a lather of sweat by the time he spotted a clearing through the last of the heavy forest. He pushed on, hoping for a better look around. At least the wind seemed to have died down. A blur of movement to his right had his head spinning, gun forward.

  Riley, he noted with relief, and dropped the gun.

  She rushed over. ‘Pax,’ she puffed. ‘Got Tess.’

  The fear came back, sharp and fast. ‘Where?’

  ‘Down there, on the track looking for the ring.’

  ‘I just came up there, Riley. They weren’t there.’

  Riley began sobbing, shaking her head. ‘Tess threw the ring and we ran but
I tripped and he grabbed her. I kept running. We’d heard a helicopter and she’d said to flag it down, so I came out here. I don’t know where they went.’

  He could hear it too. Indy was close. ‘Where’s everyone else?’

  ‘They’re all dead, except Jai. I don’t know where Jai is, either. Pax hurt him. He has a gun.’

  ‘Okay, all right.’

  ‘Riley!’ Emily came into view, Aaron on her heels.

  ‘Em, calm her down. Pax has Tess. I’m going after them. Aaron, this guy is armed. You should stay with Emily and Riley until backup arrives.’

  Aaron shoved him, hard. ‘Tess is not yours!’

  The stupidity of it stunned him. Disgusted, Jared shook his head. ‘Do what you like. I just don’t need another victim.’

  A gunshot had them ducking. ‘Emily, stay—’ As he turned around to talk to her he saw her shocked expression, saw her drop to the ground.

  ‘No!’ The helicopter he’d heard appeared up over the range. ‘Keep still.’

  ‘Damn it!’ Emily said. ‘I’m fine. Hit the vest, just—ow!’

  Out of the corner of his eye, Jared saw Tess being dragged into the clearing, Pax using her as a shield, his gun at her temple. His heart lurched and he straightened, fought to keep the anger that ripped through him under enough control to think clearly.

  ‘I’m getting out of here!’ Pax yelled over the noise of the chopper. ‘She’s coming with me. Get that helicopter on the ground!’

  The chopper was hovering, dancing from side to side in the wind. Aaron was staring at Tess as though in a daze.

  ‘Aaron! Get down!’ Jared ordered. ‘Aaron!’

  ‘Tess?’ Aaron called out. ‘It’s okay, Tess. I’m going to help.’

  Pax took the gun off her temple long enough to point it at Aaron and fire a shot. Aaron crashed to the ground, avoiding the bullet. ‘I want that chopper down!’ Pax demanded.

  Jared risked another glance over his shoulder, saw Indy’s gun was trained on Pax but knew she wouldn’t take the shot. It was too risky. The chopper was rocking badly and Tess was too close. He got on the radio to talk to them.