by Tom Hoyle
Outside the hut had already become a remote and lethal place.
But it was a small hut with no toilet, so it was only a matter of time before someone had to venture outside.
‘I need a piss,’ said Matt, peering through one of the basic plastic windows. ‘And I’m not going to do it in a bottle.’
I offered to accompany him. ‘It can’t be that dangerous. We’ve been outside all day and nothing happened while we stuck together,’ I said.
‘Be careful, Matt,’ said Nick. ‘You don’t want to get caught with your pants down and Georgey nearby.’ He just never stopped niggling at me.
Outside, the land was lit by the glorious early evening sun. We went a little way from the hut and looked around first before making two yellow rivers that ran away from us across the rock-hard soil.
‘This ordeal won’t go on forever,’ I said to Matt after we had finished. ‘If we keep going, and Jason can remember the way, we’ll be at the next camp tomorrow – and, if that’s wrecked, we’ll meet up with the girls the day after at the planned halfway stop.’
Suddenly, I got the feeling that we were being watched. Maybe I heard a rustle. Maybe I saw a tree twitch. I nudged Matt.
‘Look casual,’ I muttered, but it took all my willpower to stand there fearing a bullet or an arrow at any second. I put my hand in front of my mouth to shield what I was saying: ‘Matt, go back inside and press the bleep button on channel twenty-one of the walkie-talkie. Just keep pressing it.’
He didn’t ask any questions, though it must have seemed like a really random request.
I knelt down and strained to hear. Incredibly, in the distance was the thinnest of bleeps straining to reach me on the breeze, not that I could work out exactly where it was coming from.
Jason and the others then came out of the hut. Matt must have been seen using the walkie-talkie, or perhaps he said something. In any case, they were making noise at exactly the time I needed complete silence.
‘Is someone out there?’ yelled Jason. ‘You bastard! Come out where we can see you!’
Something stirred in the thickest part of the woodland, a few hundred yards away. It could have been an animal, but judging by the speed and size of the rustling, it was human. For an instant, there was a silhouette of someone – darkly dressed, or in shadow, it was hard to tell.
‘I think that’s a person,’ said Alastair, his hand to his mouth. ‘Oh my God.’
Nick swore strongly. ‘I say we get the [word deleted].’ He started down the slope and turned for support. ‘Let’s do this while we’re all together.’
Jason was soon with him and I followed, calling to the others, trying to keep us together. We advanced as one group down the slope, but as soon as we hit the trees and undergrowth we became scattered. I couldn’t tell if we were gaining on the person or not: they could have fled in any direction. And maybe it wasn’t even a person in the first place.
‘We need to get back together,’ I shouted. ‘Guys, we’ve got to go back.’ Silence. I couldn’t see more than a few paces in any direction through the bushes.
I wandered around for maybe ten minutes, but it might have been twenty. Every ten or twenty seconds I stopped and listened. Eventually . . . A snap. A rustle. I instinctively froze and went tense.
Behind me. Somewhere behind me. I breathed quietly through my mouth.
Nick was coming towards me. He was sweating and dirty. ‘I can see that you didn’t find anyone either. No surprise there. I fell over a branch and nearly broke my arm, but I’ll be OK.’
‘We should have stayed together by the hut,’ I said. ‘This is insane. If you lot had listened, I would have kept us organized.’ I realize that this sounded annoying and I should have kept my mouth shut.
‘Shut the [word deleted] up!’ shouted Nick. ‘If we weren’t stuck out here, I would have smashed your pretty face in a long time ago.’
‘Killing your thing, is it?’ Again, it was a stupid thing to say.
‘I just wanna teach you a lesson, Georgey. Make you show some respect. I don’t wanna shank you, just grind your girly face into the dirt,’ Nick snarled, and leant forward. We stared at one another for seconds that felt like minutes.
‘C’mon,’ I said, but without taking my eyes off him. ‘We feel the same way, but we’d be stupid to take it out on one another here.’
Nick stared at me just as unwaveringly. ‘Some other time . . .’
I walked off in the general direction of the hut, glancing over my shoulder a few times, just in case, but Nick kept his distance.
Suddenly I could see movement ahead – definitely a person this time – and turned round to beckon Nick on, hissing at him to catch up, our animosity instantly forgotten. My enemy’s enemy is my friend is an expression I’ve heard since. Approaching slowly, unable to see clearly and stay hidden, I snapped a fallen branch and the figure turned around. I could just make out that it was Matt.
‘God, George,’ he said as I approached. ‘Why are you creeping up on me? You nearly frightened me to death. This is hell.’ He saw Nick just behind me. ‘Hi, Nick,’ he added, awkwardly.
‘I know. We need to be more organized,’ I said. ‘But without Toby . . .’
‘You need to organize us, George,’ Matt said. (I wish I could have, but, despite what I’d said to Nick before, I didn’t actually know what to do, the others wouldn’t have followed me, and Jason was in charge – we were sixteen and he was twenty-one and those five years seemed to make a massive difference.)
Nick swore again and pushed past Matt, making him stumble backwards. With Nick disappearing into the distance, Matt came forward conspiratorially: ‘Mate, I need to tell you something.’
‘What?’ I put my hand on his shoulder, but kept looking around warily.
‘When we ran off, I kept the walkie-talkie with me. I didn’t actually, you know, think to use it – my head is such a mess.’ He whispered so that I could hardly hear. ‘But then someone’s voice was on it. Channel twenty-one. The one you mentioned before.’
‘And what did it say?’
‘Another one has bitten the dust. You know, like the song.’
‘What?’ I clenched my teeth and felt giddy. ‘Had you heard the voice before?’
‘No. Yeah. Probably not. Oh hell, I just don’t know anything any more, George.’ He strained to think. ‘It wasn’t a ranger, but there was something about it . . .’
I felt hysteria rise within me. We both knew what those words meant. Another one has bitten the dust.
‘But, George, it’s even worse. There was another voice. I’m sure it was a different one. It said Good. Really long and low: Goooooooooood. And that was it.’ Matt put his elbows into his chest and both hands to his mouth.
‘We have to get back to the hut right now.’
We had some difficulty finding the hut even though it was on a hill that overlooked where we had been. Everywhere looked the same. Nick was there when we arrived, as was Lee – he said that he came back to the hut after ten or fifteen minutes as he knew from the start that running off was a stupid idea. ‘Someone had to stay here and guard the bags. Someone brave and manly. But don’t leave me alone again.’
I was beginning to be seriously worried. ‘Have you seen Al and Jason?’ I asked.
He hadn’t – Lee said that he hadn’t heard or spoken to anyone at all.
As the four of us watched together, our attention was drawn to someone approaching. At first we could just see moving bushes and shadowy glimpses, but before long there was a distinct shape, and then Jason’s ginger hair and grey T-shirt appeared. He was drenched in sweat and wiped his forehead. ‘I went as far as an old dried-up stream,’ he said, ‘but I couldn’t catch him, if anyone was ever there. I didn’t see a thing. Where did you all go?’
‘It was bloody chaos,’ I said. ‘We were all over the place. We really have to work together – like we said.’
Nick shot back immediately. ‘And we really have to catch this bastard – befo
re he catches us.’
‘Or he catches Al!’ I retorted. I let out a frustrated groan. ‘I don’t believe this. Please say one of you saw Al . . .’
No one answered. We all just stared at the trees. Fear rose and hope left with every passing minute. Matt and I shot one another anxious glances, but neither of us mentioned what he had heard on the walkie-talkie.
Another one has bitten the dust. It sounded sick. Like kids playing a game.
The sun fell below the western hills and darkness descended fast. My mind was spinning about what to do. I couldn’t very well go off on my own – if there were one (or two?) people out there I would be in big trouble if they jumped me in the dark. I didn’t want to go with Nick, but neither did I really want to leave Nick with Matt, who I felt a special responsibility for (I know that sounds a bit excessive, but I did especially want to look after Matt). ‘Matt, why don’t we go and look for Al?’ I said. At least that left Jason to keep an eye on Nick.
‘Yes, OK,’ said Matt.
Jason wasn’t convinced that we should go off alone, but desperation was rising in me – it was nearly dark, and there’s no way that Alastair would have stayed away from the camp unless something had gone wrong. ‘OK, but keep in touch by walkie-talkie,’ Jason insisted. ‘And we’ll keep our torches shining up here – though I wish you’d show me the respect I deserve and stay put.’
‘Too right. Arrogant turd.’ It was Nick, of course.
We took torches: they cast a pathetic light over distance though were very good up to about ten feet, so Matt looked left and me right as we walked together through the undergrowth. Some of it was impassable and we had to go round, but there were also a few clearings. But there was no sign of Alastair.
I was on channel 9. ‘This is George. We haven’t seen anything yet. Is Al back?’
Jason answered: ‘Nothing yet.’
Then it was Nick, on another radio set: ‘Don’t be out there too long, you idiot. We’re exposed up here and it’ll be totally your fault if we’re hacked to death by some lunatic.’
Finally, we heard Lee. ‘We can see your torches. Don’t drift too far left. You’re going away from the course we took earlier.’
‘Got it,’ I said.
Soon after we left I got Matt to put his radio on channel 21. It wasn’t too long after Lee’s words that five clear bleeps came over that channel. Matt and I froze. A few seconds later there were three more.
‘What the hell?’ rasped Matt.
There were then more bleeps. We were transfixed, counting them, though we had no idea what it meant or who had sent it – or to whom.
Nine bleeps.
‘Nine o’clock?’ I mouthed, guessing. ‘Or go to channel nine?’
We switched to channel 9, and a few seconds later a message came through: ‘How much longer are you going to be out there?’ It was Lee.
‘Any sign of Al?’ Now it was Jason.
Channel 21 was silent.
‘George, is someone back there involved in this?’ asked Matt. ‘Do you think it’s Nick?’
‘I don’t know,’ I replied. ‘But it’s possible, yes. We need to watch one another’s backs. I hate to say it, but I don’t fully trust any of those three.’
We went round and round, contacting the others every now and again, perhaps revisiting places that we had already checked, perhaps finding new ones. It was impossible to tell. Hopeless – and no sign of Alastair. Our torch beams were yellow and flickering when we returned nearly an hour later.
The other three were still outside the hut when we returned. They had collected their rucksacks from where we’d all left them outside the hut and were sitting on them.
‘We found nothing,’ I said, dejected. ‘Nothing at all. Let’s get some sleep – we need to get going first thing tomorrow.’
‘Like I said: arrogant turd. He thinks he’s in charge. Jason’s in charge.’
I ignored Nick and strode on, picking up my rucksack from where it was on the grass and going straight into the hut. But I immediately sprang back: lying on the table in the middle, his neck twisted round, ugly and terrible, tongue lolling out and eyes pointing upwards, was Alastair.
‘Help! Help!’ I shouted. ‘Come here – all of you come here right now!’ I screamed fully and loudly. There was absolutely no doubt that Alastair was dead.
Jason was the first to arrive. He pushed me back slightly and approached Alastair, looking carefully at his face. Then he retreated and all five of us stood in the doorway, reluctant to go in. Horrified.
‘Try for a pulse,’ said Matt from behind me. ‘Maybe he’s not dead. Maybe we can do something. Maybe this isn’t as bad as it looks. Please. Please.’
‘Matt – believe me, he’s dead. Another one of us is dead.’ I had seen people on television try for pulses in neck and arm, but had no real idea about what to do, so I crept forward and put my hand on his head by his ear and used my thumb to pull up his eyelid slightly. Alastair’s head moved in a terrible way that I can’t bring myself to write about. His neck had been broken with some force.
Matt was hysterical, screaming in short gasps and pleading for it all to end. I felt helpless.
Nick responded with a burst of aggression. ‘We’ve got to fight back. This is kill or be killed. We’ve gotta do something.’
Jason and Lee were silent. Was silence a strange response? Having been in the same place, full of the extreme horror of seeing such a thing, I’m not surprised. There is a place beyond panic where there are too many emotions. This time, I didn’t cry.
I couldn’t turn my back on Alastair’s body so spoke to the others at an angle. ‘Has no one been in here? I can’t believe we didn’t check in here! This is hell. Four people have died in twenty-four hours! We need to get help – now!’
We shuffled outside, switching on torches, shutting the door on Alastair.
‘I want to get away from here,’ said Matt. ‘How did this all happen?’
I shook my head with confusion. Again, it just didn’t make sense – the hut could only have been unattended for ten or fifteen minutes, if what Lee said was true. Unless Lee was responsible – but would he have had the strength to do that to Alastair?
‘Our first rule is that no one goes into that cabin from now on,’ I said. ‘There’s probably evidence in there that we need to leave for the police.’
Matt burst out with a torrent of words: ‘I think we should all go separate ways – it’s not safe together – and I think someone here has been involved in this – one of you is a sick killer or gone in the head and helping someone who is a sick killer.’ He had lost control and wasn’t thinking about what he was saying.
I grabbed hold of him. ‘Matt,’ I hissed to him through my teeth. ‘You need to calm down, man. You’ve gotta be strong.’
‘I know you’re OK, George,’ he said tearfully, clinging hold of my upper arm so tightly that it hurt. ‘I just want this to end.’
Nick was furious. ‘If that’s the way you two benders feel, we’re best off without you. Take your chances out there. Go on.’ At least, that was more or less what he said.
‘We’re all scared and confused,’ I said, standing my ground, refusing to let Nick’s intimidation move me. ‘And there’s a chance someone here is involved.’ I looked to Jason for support. ‘But it’s stupid to wander around out there in hundreds of miles of wilderness without a map.’
‘No one has died while we’ve been together,’ said Lee. ‘And now there are only five of us. We need to stay together as a group at all times. With no exceptions. But there’s no telling if the next cabin will be operational.’
Jason took his time. ‘Agreed. We need to stay together. We will have to stay around here tonight, but can move on and find help tomorrow.’
‘In two days we meet up with the girls,’ said Nick.
‘In two days we’ll all be DEAD!’ shouted Matt.
[Here ends the twelth part of George’s statement]
THE OTHER CHAPTER 12
(SAID IN THE HOUR BEFORE):
HIM
Another one has bitten the dust.
YEAH!
D’ya know? My helper was nearly caught when we arrived at the next hut.
We were using channel twenty-one, just as NOW.
He ran like a headless chicken – damn near broke his neck.
My MASTER PLAN was pretty well polished by then, but Alastair was a bonus. A bonus ball.
I was back there with him within two minutes.
This is silly. We’ll be much safer at the hut, he said.
Safe? Bollocks. Absolute bollocks.
Shame, really. I quite liked Alastair. Interesting. He could have been a pupil if it had all turned out differently.
But I couldn’t be there next to the body when everyone arrived back, could I?
COULD I?
I’ll tell you the thing I really liked about my actual assistant. He never said no.
We started small. Incy-wincy small, on the first day, with the fat one’s clothes.
On the second day we started messing with Lukey’s mind. He was scared and twisted long before we got to him. I began to realize my assistant and I might be able to do something SPECIAL together.
[Radio: I’m nearly there. Is he with you?]
Oh yes. He is very much here and very much ready for us to play with. Don’t be long. He hasn’t worked out who you are yet!
[Radio: laughter]
I couldn’t have done it without my assistant.
I’ll tell you another thing – but, hush, hush, it’s a secret. You must promise not to tell.
He’s doing it because he’s a workman who enjoys his job.
HA!
It’s like pulling the wings off flies. Just better.