Survivor

by Tom Hoyle

But it was always going to end up just the two of us, Georgey.

  The final scene.

  Greater love hath no man than he who lays down his friend for his life.

  So you may want to look away when he arrives.

  Because

  it’ll be

  BYE-BYE.

  And then we’ll be alone at last and I CAN DESTROY YOU AND BE KING.

  I remember standing with everyone by that hut after the radio had been smashed. AND I REALIZED THAT I WAS IN TOTAL CONTROL.

  I

  WAS

  IN

  TOTAL

  CONTROL,

  YET

  IN

  ANOTHER

  WAY

  I

  CAN’T

  CONTROL

  MYSELF.

  [Radio noise]

  Ah. And here he is.

  [Person enters]

  TA DAH. Surprised?

  NOTES FROM THE UNSOLVED CASE OF GEORGE MURMAN, 1946

  IN DECEMBER 1945, A BRUTALLY MURDERED WOMAN WAS DISCOVERED IN HER APARTMENT IN CHICAGO. THE MURDERER HAD WRITTEN A MESSAGE IN LIPSTICK ON THE WALL: FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE, CATCH ME BEFORE I KILL MORE. I CANNOT CONTROL MYSELF.

  SIX MONTHS LATER, SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD WILLIAM HEIRENS WAS ARRESTED DURING A BURGLARY AND THE POLICE SAID HIS FINGERPRINTS MATCHED THOSE FOUND AT A MURDER SCENE.

  WILLIAM HEIRENS WAS GIVEN A TRUTH SERUM AND INTERROGATED. UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE DRUG, HEIRENS SPOKE OF AN ALTER-EGO CALLED GEORGE. ACCORDING TO THE POLICE, DURING LATER QUESTIONING HEIRENS SAID THAT SOMEONE CALLED GEORGE MURMAN HAD COMMITED THE MURDER OF THE WOMAN, AS WELL AS A NUMBER OF OTHER RECENTLY COMMITED MURDERS. WHAT HEIRENS SAID WAS RECORDED, BUT THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOW MISSING.

  HEIRENS DENIED THAT HE WAS GEORGE MURMAN. HE CLAIMED HE WAS INNOCENT. SOME SAY THAT THE PHYSICAL EVIDENCE IS INCONCLUSIVE.

  WE WILL NEVER KNOW.

  HEIRENS DIED IN PRISON IN 2012, AGED EIGHTY-THREE.

  CHAPTER 13

  (18 HOURS BEFORE):

  THE THIRTEENTH PART OF GEORGE’S STATEMENT

  The midnight darkness was absolute. This wasn’t the darkness of the city, with a dull yellow glow in the sky and the sound of traffic in the distance. It was a sort of darkness that you don’t get anywhere in England. It was as dark with your eyes open as with them closed.

  That night was unlike any I’ve ever known. There were tents stored in the hut, which was too small to sleep in even if Alastair hadn’t been in there. Jason and I went in to get them.

  We put the tents up in silence. They were designed for two, but Jason, Nick and Lee all shared one. Despite the terror, as we lay down with Alastair dead just thirty yards away, I turned to Matt and said, ‘Come on, Matt, mate. It’s your job to say something funny.’ It was partly to help Matt get back to normal; partly for myself.

  Matt leant over to me and whispered, ‘I wonder if they still make Batman underpants?’ It was the silliest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Sitting here now in a cell, typing this, I don’t think anyone has said anything to me since that is remotely as funny. ‘I wonder if they still make Batman underpants?’ I’m not even sure why it’s funny. But it was Matt’s way of showing that he wanted me to know he wasn’t going mad. I loved him for that.

  It was horrible, getting tiny snatches of sleep and then being woken up by the slightest noise, sitting bolt upright, sometimes looking outside, but then realizing it was just a gust of wind or rustle of nearby leaves.

  On one occasion I saw Jason looking out of his tent as I peered out of mine. We both clambered out and met halfway. He was holding the mallet that we had used to drive the tent pegs in.

  ‘G’day, mate,’ he said.

  ‘Hi, Jase,’ I whispered, a wary eye on the hammer. ‘Have you seen anything?’

  ‘No, mate,’ he replied quietly. ‘But I can’t sleep. Feel . . . as if I’m needed.’ This was a side to him I hadn’t seen. He moved the hammer slightly. ‘Just in case.’ He squinted into the pitch black.

  ‘I’ll help you all I can,’ I said.

  ‘I know. Georgey, I’d really like you to see the real me.’

  ‘Likewise,’ I said.

  ‘I promise you that I will be with you at the very end of all this.’ He gave me a gentle mock punch and waited until I was back in my tent before he went back to his.

  The wilderness came alive as soon as there was half-light, and after that I lay still, tired but a long way from sleep, and thought about the coming day – though the horrors of the past twenty-four hours kept tormenting me. We then heard Jason and Lee talking outside their tent and clambered out of our own to join them.

  Jason reminded us that this was the most challenging of all the days: we had to pass along a narrow path – called, by Jason at least, the Devil’s Crack – that led us to some kayaks and down a gentle part of the river. (The kayaks, we had been told before, were brought back as the group after us did the route in reverse.) ‘I don’t know any other way,’ he said.

  ‘Maybe we shouldn’t wait two days to meet up with the girls,’ said Lee. He was looking up and to the left as if trying to recall something he had seen. ‘Can’t we go downriver until it meets the sea? No one could track us down a river. Then we can go along the coast until we see someone?’

  Jason thought it was a good idea to take our chances with the river.

  Why didn’t I run? Of course, I wish that I had. I wish I had taken Matt and run away with the other innocent pair. But the size of the place was beyond what you can imagine – it stretched endlessly, identically, in every direction. Even if we found water, how would we survive without food? We might walk round and round for days.

  And, most importantly, at that time, I didn’t know who to run with.

  Nick was so unpleasant he had killer written all over him – but I wondered if he was too selfish to do something that would end up with him getting caught. Maybe he was just bad, not mad.

  Jason had been nearly as unpleasant in his own way, though leadership had brought out the best in him. He had plenty of chances to lead us astray and had done all the right things. And he could have whacked me over the head with the mallet in the night and killed me there and then – no one would have known.

  Lee? There was a deep weirdness about him. But I would have squashed him in a fight, and Toby certainly would. He might have been a nerdy mastermind, but a get-your-hands-dirty killer?

  Matt? It didn’t occur to me. Not in a million years.

  I write this to show how confused I was. And I had to decide right then.

  Before we left, I looked at Alastair again. He was still lying there, agony and shock frozen on his face. I wished that I had spent longer with him, got to know him better, included him in more things, made his last days fun. He was on the trip because he had been attacked, and now he was dead. I promised myself that if I ever got through this I wouldn’t waste a single day ever again.

  We walked for over two hours in the same order: Jason then Nick then Lee then Matt, with me last. As before, I liked being at the end, apart from the need to keep looking behind. We went down and down into the valley, then began to go up towards the cliff path. We pushed ourselves hard.

  The midday sun burnt down on us, but we had to move as quickly as possible.

  Jason was certain it was the right way. ‘There it is,’ he said. ‘The Devil’s Crack.’ It was a narrow pass through a line of hills that looked like it had been chiselled out by a giant.

  The path, which was little more than two paces wide, was about halfway up a steep and high slope – rocks hung down from above and there was a vertical drop below. I felt uneasy as I remembered Toby and Peter and what had happened to them. But it would have taken a lot longer to climb up the hillside and then get down the other side – and, more than anything, I just wanted this to be over.

  Jason stopped. ‘This is the one part of the whole journey that has been prepared. In about fifty-metre lengths, a rope is threaded through bolts hammered into the cliff. We
’re meant to go very slowly and attach ourselves with our ropes.’ In the outer pocket of our rucksacks we all had a basic harness and rope.

  ‘Forget that,’ said Nick. ‘We just hold on with our hands and get through as quickly as we can. Health and safety is the last thing we need to worry about.’

  ‘You’re right, mate,’ said Jason. ‘The path is wide enough, and we need to get to the river as soon as poss.’ Jason then said he would go last in case anyone got into difficulties.

  I agreed that the longer it took the more dangerous it was – and, again, I couldn’t foresee what would happen next. Somehow, I ended up going first.

  It was a spectacular setting and just for a split second my mind drifted to thinking that it would have been an awesome place to visit in different circumstances. (Normal thoughts did creep into your mind even with all of that horror and shock.) The path wasn’t difficult to walk along, but it was knotted with roots – trees were dotted around, clinging to the side of the cliff, forcing their roots into the thinnest of cracks.

  About halfway along, at the very worst point, rocks started falling from above. At first it was just a pebble or two, but then they were proper stones that would crack your head open if they landed on you. Either a mini-avalanche was happening, or someone was throwing or kicking them down. We all retreated right next to the cliff, hands on our heads as a feeble attempt to shield ourselves.

  After a brief pause, I looked up to see a white stone the size of my hand heading straight towards me at terminal velocity. I flipped my head out of the way – the stone missed me by inches and bounced down and down, breaking up as it went and then shattering completely on the rocks below. The next stone thumped on to my rucksack and ricocheted out and downwards before exploding on a boulder at the bottom. But at this point I was shielded by an overhanging rock.

  I could see the next two in the line, Lee (behind me) and Matt (coming round the corner), dodging stones in the same way. Sooner or later one of us was going to get hit.

  I’m turning back!’ Matt said. But Lee kept on coming until he was alongside me, under the same overhang.

  ‘You go first,’ I said. ‘Put your rucksack over your head and go for it.’

  Lee then made a break for it, one stone hitting his hand as it held his rucksack, drawing blood immediately.

  I decided to run for it as well, rucksack also held over my head. This would get me to where Lee was, on the path round the corner ahead where rocks didn’t seem to be falling. But it was an uneven track, and I had to keep glancing up to see if more stones were on their way. It took a split second to catch my foot on a twisted tree root and go sprawling forward. It was terrifying – my legs buckled and I went flying through the air, unable to stop myself, and then slid forward pathetically towards the edge. My rucksack went ahead of me, and the momentum kept me going until – despite struggling for anything to hold on to, something to stop my trajectory – I went over the edge.

  And then I stopped, dangling helplessly, holding on to a tree root that was slowly freeing itself from the rocks, sending rock dust down into my face.

  I heard one thud, presumably my rucksack bouncing off the cliff below, and then another more distant one as it hit the bottom.

  ‘Help!’ I shouted. ‘Somebody help!’ I was dangling by one arm, struggling to get the other one up for a more secure hold. ‘Help! Somebody help!’

  But Lee had run ahead and Matt had stayed back.

  I glanced down. The simple truth was that if I let go I would die. This wasn’t the forty feet of a Climbers’ Kingdom-type adventure park climb; this was a couple of hundred feet of freefall before smashing on to boulders below.

  ‘Help! Help me!’ I knew that I couldn’t hold on forever, and that the root was getting weaker and weaker as it was dragged further out of the cliff face.

  The rocks had stopped falling, though, and I heard a voice: Jason’s. ‘Georgey?’ he said. ‘Georgey?’

  ‘I’m here! Please! Help!’ My words came out in desperate snatches.

  A face appeared above. Jason looked at me and then at the huge drop below. His eyes widened. ‘You’re going to have to trust me,’ he said. ‘You’re going to have to put your life in my hands.’

  We were completely alone. If he was the killer, this was his perfect opportunity. No one would ever know. I simply would have fallen off the cliff.

  Like Toby and Peter.

  ‘I trust you,’ I said, looking into his eyes.

  ‘That’s what I want to hear,’ he said, and he described how he was bracing himself by putting his foot into a crack in the path and holding a root with his right hand. Then his left hand came towards me.

  It was a struggle for me to reach up, but I managed to hold his hand and help him pull me up by scrabbling with my feet and then . . .

  I had to let go with my other hand.

  For two or three seconds nothing held me up apart from Jason’s grip – my life was in his hands. My feet dangled above the abyss below as I was heaved back up to the path.

  Then I was able to hold on to a different root, one on the path itself, with my right hand. My legs swung up and I was safe – right on the edge, lying parallel to the drop, but out of immediate danger. Jason looked down at me again, and for a terrible moment I thought he was going to push me off – but then he hauled me back and helped me to my feet.

  ‘Go forward to the end of the track,’ he said. ‘Nick and Matt are back there and I want to help them through to safety. I wonder whether the rockfall was man-made or natural.’

  I went on very carefully, staying as far away from the outside of the ledge as possible, feeling pretty shaky. Lee was waiting for me at another overhanging section that was right next to the point where the rocky path turned back to thick vegetation on a gentle decline down to the river.

  ‘Everything OK?’ asked Lee. ‘You took your time.’

  ‘I slipped,’ I said, my voice trembling. ‘But Jason rescued me. He saved my life.’

  Just imagine being able to say that about someone: HE SAVED MY LIFE. It does make you see someone differently.

  [Here ends the thirteenth part of George’s statement]

  STATEMENT #9

  SERGEANT MARTIN DURRELL OF THE QUEENSLAND POLICE, FROM THE FIRST CAMP

  We arrived at about 16:45 this afternoon (Thursday 30 July). It was a standard call-out because of the failure of a parallel girls’ team to make contact with the group. Initially, Constable Farrer and I found nothing out of the ordinary at the site.

  As routine we then checked the static radio, which was found not to be working. Upon further investigation we ascertained that wires had been cut. But there was no sign of a disturbance and the group seemed to have left peacefully.

  We contacted the station and undertook a routine scan of the surrounding area. The topography there is challenging, but we proceeded along the path that went round the outcrop of land surrounding the hut. During this investigation, we saw a body among boulders at the bottom of a cliff.

  It appears that the fatality was caused by injuries sustained in a fall. The cause of that fall is still a matter of speculation, and evidence at the scene was inconclusive.

  We again contacted headquarters and asked for helicopter assistance.

  The whereabouts of the remaining members of the group are currently unknown.

  There has been no formal identification yet of the fatality discovered at the scene, but we believe it to be Mr Toby Jones, the group leader.

  Initial report filed by email at 19:14 on Thursday 30 July.

  THE OTHER CHAPTER 13

  (SAID IN THE HOUR BEFORE):

  HIM

  You can stop playing dead now, Peter.

  Pretty clever, eh?

  It’s so easy to play dead. You just lie there! Fooled everyone. Toby – that snivelling piece of nothing – was dead, and once you’ve seen one dead body you’ve seen them all.

  HA!

  You did well, Pete. We really fooled them, didn’
t we?

  I knew you’d find us. Couldn’t miss the boats, and this hill does look like a tit. But well done.

  Pete, look – we have someone to look after. Someone I SAVED for us.

  Pete and I have something AMAZING in common. We both share an interest.

  Pete here has had some terrible problems. He’s been a very naughty boy. Not quite right in the head. Or that’s the way they see it. So Mummy and Daddy sent him on a trip so that he could become so much better.

  We had great fun with fat Reg’s clothes and Lukey’s dreadful out-of-all-proportion fear of us re-enacting some of his past with him.

  And then we really got into our stride, didn’t we, Pete?

  NOW, I want you both to listen.

  YOU first.

  And then you, Petey.

  Why did you have to do everything as if you were so perfect, Georgey?

  Right to the last. Even sitting there now, I can see those stupid tolerant eyes.

  I’ll come back to YOU.

  Pete. Come here.

  I couldn’t have done it without you.

  They shouldn’t send naughty boys like you on these trips. It just gives you an opportunity.

  You always did everything perfectly.

  But I have to tell you something.

  Peter Pan, you’ve played your part and now it’s time to EXIT. It’s time for you to fly with the other Lost Boys. I have to be here alone with him – that’s the plan. It’s our destiny.

  Come this way and you can leave in a civilized manner.

  No. Don’t try to struggle.

  DON’T YOU DARE TRY TO STRUGGLE!

  You’ve done your work and

  now YOU HAVE TO GO.

  LET’S GO TO THE EDGE TOGETHER.

  COME ON.

  I’ll go over with you if you like. Really, I will. If that’s what it takes.

  GOING GOING GOING GOING GOING GOING GOING

  GONE.

  Thank you, Petey.

  It was good while it lasted. But a worker has to realize when his job is done.

  He’s nothing compared to you, Georgey.

  YOU’RE ONE MAIN CHARACTER. AND I AM THE OTHER. The rest are just nothing.