Survivor

by Tom Hoyle

  You’re too thick to understand how REPULSIVE it was to see everyone sucking up to you.

  TWO:

  I was lucky.

  Lucky to have found Luke; AND even luckier to have found a proper servant.

  Now.

  Listen carefully.

  I will speak nice and quietly for you.

  Was it luck?

  NO.

  It was MY GENIUS.

  . . .

  It worries me that you’re so THICK IN THE HEAD that you can’t work out who my assistant is.

  How about we turn it into a game?

  YOU have to work out who has helped me, and if you guess correctly first time, I’ll let you go.

  But if you’re wrong – then, OH DEAR, it’s the chop for you.

  THUMP.

  STATEMENT #8

  HAMISH TATE, CEO OF THE ULTIMATE BUSHCRAFT COMPANY

  At all times, a reasonable duty of care was shown by Toby Jones regarding the boys on the trip in question. This is a statement of fact, not to protect the memory of someone sadly no longer with us.

  Boys are not hospitalized for sickness – that is not reasonable. Neither should every illness be investigated for poison. Hindsight is a fine thing. Toby Jones was a decent young man with a great future ahead of him. May he rest in peace.

  The Ultimate Bushcraft Company cannot reasonably protect against the sort of cunning psychopath responsible for these crimes.

  The trip, I remind you, left with more than the required hardware: two satellite phones, two UHF radios, local communication devices, a full set of PLBs [Personal Locator Beacons], and, in Toby Jones, a highly trained and trusted group leader.

  CHAPTER 11

  (TWO DAYS BEFORE):

  THE ELEVENTH PART OF GEORGE’S STATEMENT

  I woke with a start.

  ‘When we find Toby, he’ll sort it out,’ were the first words I heard in Jason’s heavy Australian twang.

  Before I had a chance to talk to the others, Nick was in the room. ‘Have you got Toby and Peter in here?’ He looked at me dismissively. ‘I know you don’t let Toby out of your sight.’

  ‘What’s going on, man?’ said Alastair.

  ‘Toby and Peter have gone walkabout and there’s a problem with the radio. Come on, don’t just lie there,’ said Nick.

  We threw clothes on and went into the main room, a kitchen, which the three bedrooms and toilet opened into. Toby and Peter were nowhere to be seen.

  ‘What’s the soap opera?’ said Matt.

  Nick was looking at the back of the cabin radio.

  ‘Those bastards,’ said Nick. ‘I bet this is part of a game Toby is playing and they think this is all a big [words edited] laugh.’ He spun the radio round. All the wires had been cut – sliced cleanly with a knife or scissors. ‘It’s just a piece of junk now.’

  ‘What about the satellite phones?’ I said.

  ‘Are you blind? This one is Jason’s.’ Nick held it up – the wires had also been wrenched out of the back. ‘It was left here last night and some joker has arsed around with it. Where the hell is that idiot, Toby?’

  ‘There’s no way Toby would do this for a joke,’ I said to Nick.

  Jason strode in and emptied a box of personal locator beacons on to the table in the middle of the room. ‘Some git has taken all the batteries out. They were definitely there last night. I saw them myself.’

  None of it computed. ‘We’ve got to find Toby,’ I said.

  ‘No kidding, Sherlock,’ said Lee sarcastically. ‘You’re a real genius. I think that might be a good idea.’

  ‘Toby this, Toby that, I love Toby, let me get in his pants,’ taunted Nick, staring at me.

  Jason then opened the box of walkie-talkies. He tried two at random: both switched on to static, then he blew into one and a rushing wind sound came out of the other. ‘Great,’ he said. ‘These are working fine. Take one each.’

  It was a beautifully sunny day – as they all were. We were on a thumb-shaped outcrop of land with a sweeping wooded valley in front of us to the north. The path we were meant to follow was to the west, down a gentle slope. To the north and east there was a much sharper drop, pretty much a cliff, with large boulders at the bottom. Behind us the land fell slightly and was covered in trees. Matt and I wandered aimlessly in that direction, down the track the minibus had taken the previous night, mainly because the others headed the opposite way.

  Then came one of those dreadful everything-changes moments. We saw Alastair return to the hut, panting furiously, pointing, then running back in the direction he had come from. Matt and I hurtled after him; shouts went out to the others.

  A little way round the crown of the hill towards the east, still on the fairly narrow path, Alastair stopped and pointed down towards the large boulders at the bottom. There were bodies down there.

  There was a thick bush to the side of the path that had been squashed and snapped, and there were scuff marks across the track to the cliff edge. It looked like there had been a fight, then a fall.

  ‘Right,’ said Jason. ‘Everyone’s to stay here. No questions. I’m going to investigate.’

  It was impossible to go straight down – it was sheer to begin with, and then sheer again after a ledge that hadn’t been wide enough to break their fall. Jason had to go back past the hut and then down a much longer route. About fifteen minutes later we saw him picking his way over the rocks towards the bodies.

  We held our breath as he disappeared behind the boulder. We could see Peter’s distinctive red-and-black trainers. Jason stood up and shook his head.

  ‘Oh my God,’ I muttered. Despite all the evidence, I still wanted to believe it was an awful accident. We stared, silenced by the horror of it all.

  Jason then went across a few boulders to the second body: even though it was blood-splattered and broken, it was unmistakably Toby.

  I found myself saying oh no repeatedly, stupidly, unable to unfreeze my brain. Others shouted and swore over and over again. Although I’d only known them for a few days, I had a real sense of loss.

  ‘Go back to the hut and stay inside,’ hollered Jason.

  We were slow to do that. Like cattle or sheep, we drifted back as a helpless flock.

  You might think that we stayed like that for hours, but it’s not like that in real life. People soon realize that they’re not the one who is dead – and no one can imagine himself dying. It’s always others. And we didn’t realize the extent of the danger. We didn’t know about Luke, of course. It must be hard for you to understand. None of it seemed real – it was as if there was going to be a sudden and obvious explanation that meant Toby and Peter weren’t dead after all.

  Toby. Dead. He would have gone on to do fantastic things. He was a great person. He was the sort of person I would like to be. And Peter. Peter was too young to die.

  But soon we were exchanging theories about what had happened. To be honest: concern about ourselves shoved out worry about the dead. ‘Could Peter have got in trouble and Toby fell trying to save him?’ suggested Matt. ‘Toby would be brave if he had to be.’

  ‘Maybe Toby attacked and killed Peter and then, filled with guilt at his vile crime and assault, jumped himself?’ That was Nick. ‘Peter was all right. Toby was probably jealous. Or he had other secret twisted reasons for attacking him.’

  ‘You really are full of shit,’ I said to him.

  ‘Yeah?’ Nick replied, pushing me. ‘Yeah?’ Another shove. ‘Be careful that you don’t slip as well. We don’t want any more weirdos to die.’ He didn’t actually punch me, but his shoulder and arm made firm contact with mine.

  Matt got between us, as did Lee.

  ‘Come on,’ said Lee. ‘We need to pull together. Fighting amongst ourselves won’t help.’ Then he added quietly: ‘The evidence would suggest that there’s been enough of that already.’

  Nick and I both took a step away from one another, but if either of us had flinched, it would have started again, but worse. I think I ha
ted him at this point, but not badly enough to want to really hurt him.

  ‘You need to watch yourself,’ Nick said to me as he stalked off, pushing away Lee’s arm.

  We had just made it back into the cabin when Jason returned. ‘Look,’ he said, straight away, with no introduction. ‘They’re both dead, and at this stage there’s no point asking how or why. We just need to get help as soon as we can, especially as Toby’s satellite phone is nowhere to be seen – probably smashed to bits on a rock – just as his radio was.’

  There was more swearing and muttering.

  ‘How long before someone comes to get us?’ said Alastair.

  ‘They’ll probably be concerned if we don’t check in tonight, but it could be forty-eight hours. I don’t know, do I? Nothing like this has ever happened before. But I don’t think we should sit here while those bodies go bad in the heat and get eaten by animals.’

  Reg said that he felt sick.

  Jason ignored him: ‘The next hut is about twelve miles away. We should do the walk as planned and radio from there.’

  ‘I think it’s more sensible to stay put,’ said Alastair, who was still examining the radio, probably hoping to get it going again. ‘They know we’re here, and this is where they’ll start looking.’

  ‘Except they don’t know we’re here. They think we’re out there.’ Jason waved his arm vaguely. ‘If anything, they’ll be expecting us at the second camp by this evening.’

  ‘Do we all have to go?’ asked Reg tearfully. ‘I don’t like this. There could be anyone or anything out there.’

  Jason slammed his fist down on to the table. ‘Don’t be so weak. This isn’t a horror movie. Yeah, we do all have to go.’ He glared at Reg and then the rest of us. ‘Let me be [word deleted] blunt about two things. The first is that I’m in charge and you little [word deleted] are going to let me sort this out. And, second, I’m worried that we’re not alone out here.’ He looked at the windows. ‘We need to stick together.’

  ‘I think Jason’s right,’ I said. ‘We need to get help as soon as possible, and that means going to the nearest radio as soon as we can.’

  ‘Georgey is right. I’ll go if Georgey goes,’ said Reg, now crying properly and hugging himself. He looked at me for reassurance and I nodded.

  ‘Blah! Blah! Blah!’ said Nick. ‘How pathetic. It’s just a little wander through some trees. I say we’ll find there was more to Toby than we thought.’ Nick jabbed his finger at me. ‘He always looked at the blond one here in a weird way. Let’s get this walk done.’

  How did I feel about Nick now that I had calmed down? I was angry that he didn’t show any respect for the dead. Not even for his so-called friend, Peter.

  Jason then told us to pack immediately – we would be off in ten minutes.

  Matt was shivering slightly but tried to make light of it. ‘I wish we had a carrier pigeon. Maybe we could send a smoke signal?’

  This gave me the idea to leave a note in the cabin, explaining what had happened and calling for help. I took a pencil from the kitchen, tore the back page from a book that had been left in the front of my rucksack and sat on my bunk to write:

  I went into the kitchen, rolled up the note, poked it into an old plastic water bottle so half of it was poking out and left it in the middle of the table.

  Lee was standing on the other side of the table and showed with a nod of his head that he wanted me to go outside. Everyone else was still in their room packing. I dropped my rucksack by the door and followed.

  We stood exactly where the minibus had stopped the previous evening, just beyond the hearing of the others.

  ‘I don’t like this,’ Lee whispered.

  ‘Have you really called me out here to say that?’ I said.

  ‘Yes,’ he continued, leaning forward. ‘I don’t like this logically.’ He adjusted his glasses and then put his hands on his hips. ‘Let’s say Toby wanted to kill Peter for some weird reason, but then felt guilty about it and committed suicide.’

  I began to protest. ‘But we know that Toby wasn’t like that . . .’

  ‘I know,’ said Lee. ‘But just suppose. Or suppose that he tried to grab Peter, who then dragged Toby over the edge with him. In either case, why would Toby destroy most of the communication devices first? Why make us walk to the next hut? And why sabotage the location devices? It doesn’t achieve anything.’ He looked back at the hut. ‘And supposing Toby is victim rather than attacker. There’s no one here strong enough to drag him out there and kill him. Not even Nick could do that. Nick and you together? Possibly. But Toby would have made one hell of a noise and woken us all up. And why also kill Peter? I don’t like this one bit.’ He glanced around. ‘In my view, we are not alone.’ He strode back into the hut, his voice trailing off.

  I was left out there – my head spinning with frightened thoughts. I looked at the surrounding trees, half expecting to see eyes.

  ‘Come on, Georgey,’ said Jason from the door of the hut. ‘It’s time.’

  I returned to collect my rucksack, which was just inside the door, exactly where I’d left it. As I hauled it on to my shoulders, I noticed that the table was empty. ‘I left something on the table,’ I said to no one in particular.

  Matt was coming out of the room we had slept in. ‘Lost something?’

  ‘I put something on the table,’ I repeated, pointing. ‘A message in a bottle.’

  ‘Well, there’s nothing there now,’ said Nick from outside. ‘Stop arsing around. Don’t you know that two people are dead?’

  ‘But . . .’ Something stopped me from saying more. I had been thinking that there was an accidental or absurd reason for the deaths, but this jabbed serious doubt into my mind. It was the very first time I considered that my near-accident when climbing, Luke’s illness, maybe even Matt’s allergic reaction on the plane, and what was happening now were all connected. I feared that meant someone seriously evil was inside the group. I immediately thought of Nick: he had the physical strength – and probably the character – to do something hideous. ‘Keep an eye on Nick,’ I whispered to Matt as he passed. ‘I don’t trust him.’

  Matt was pale with anxiety. ‘OK, mate. Yeah, OK. Let’s stick close.’

  We gathered in a circle outside.

  ‘Boys,’ said Jason. ‘Now that Toby isn’t with us, it’s my job to get you to the second hut.’ He waved the map. ‘I’ve done this before and it’s the easiest route of the week. Everything will soon be over. I’ll take care of everything.’

  It was a fairly straightforward walk – to begin with, we were basically heading down one slope, across a valley and up the other side – but it would have been difficult without Jason’s maps and compass. He had two maps: one was a fairly standard OS-style Geography-lesson map, and the other was marked with a very detailed description of the route to take: after going down the slope bear NE for about 500 metres along the bank of a stream (perhaps dry at some times of the year) – that sort of thing. I probably could have found my way on my own with this guidance.

  We walked in near silence and single file. Jason was first, followed by Nick. I wanted to keep an eye on everyone, especially Nick, so went last with Matt in front of me.

  Reg, suffering badly in the heat, his clothes soaked in sweat, was in front of Matt. He sometimes fell back until he was close to me.

  I quietly told him that everything would be OK. I still thought it would be. ‘This’ll be over soon. We just need to be brave,’ I said each time.

  After maybe five or six miles we had climbed up the other side of the valley and now stood on the ridge. All around us was really colourful landscape. Birds flapped nearby and there was the hum of the jungle. There was no sign of anyone else.

  It was hot, so Jason said we should stop for lunch. ‘The hut is over there on the hills, about two or three hours away,’ he explained. The terrain was more complicated and uneven – often thick with trees, but with some open bits.

  We spread ourselves out and nibbled at c
rackers and cheese and apples. I don’t think anyone was very hungry, but we drank lots. I walked off to go to the toilet and looked over to the east, wondering about the girls. Flicking through the different channel settings on the walkie-talkie, I spoke into each one: ‘Is anyone there?’

  Channel 19: ‘Is anyone there?’ (Wait. Nothing.)

  Channel 20: ‘Is anyone there?’ (Wait. Nothing.)

  Channel 21: ‘Is anyone there?’

  There was a moment of fuzzy cracking, and I was about to try the next channel – but then, fizzing and indistinct: ‘Is that you?’ More crackling, then: ‘I’ve sorted it.’

  I should have played it cleverly, but was surprised and excited, my sweaty hands slipping on the walkie-talkie. ‘Who is it?’ I gabbled. ‘Can you help us?’

  There was nothing more, just uninterrupted dull static.

  ‘Come in!’ I said, my lips brushing the microphone. ‘Come in!’

  I jogged back to the group and found Matt walking towards me. ‘Have you been on the radio? I thought I might have heard something. Channel twenty-one?’ I asked.

  ‘No,’ he replied. ‘I’ve been on channel nine – the one Jason told us to use.’

  I was about to say what I’d heard when my brain started to work. I’ve sorted it. I didn’t like it. I’ve sorted it.

  I swore, but hoped I was over-thinking it. ‘Is everyone else OK?’

  ‘Yeah. I think we’re going to be—’

  The sound that interrupted Matt wasn’t exactly a scream – it was something from nearer the back of the throat, terror and pain at once, a caveman’s cry rather than a shout.

  The noise came again, even more urgent, louder, more chilling. It was the sound of someone who had completely lost it.

  Matt and I ran back to the others. Jason was the first person we saw. He looked like he was about to crack. ‘Who’s making that noise? Where’s it coming from?’ he yelled.

  With Jason and Matt, I jogged in the general direction of the noise, half hoping that we would hear it again and be able to follow it, but half hoping there would be no more of it. Others came into view, now converging on us. I saw Nick and Lee. Then there was Alastair.