Night on Terror Island

by Philip Caveney

  Rose nodded. She hooked a leg over the metal rail and climbed down into the boat. When Rose was safely aboard, Tamara started coming down the rungs herself. She dropped the last few feet, making the boat wallow in the water.

  ‘Be careful!’ Rose chided her. ‘You’ll turn us over.’

  ‘Sorry.’ Tamara put her arm protectively around Rose and the two of them sank onto a padded bench on one side of the boat. Now another person was coming down the rungs, while Captain Holder shouted at him to hurry. He seemed to be doing an awful lot of shouting. A young man with long hair and horn-rimmed glasses dropped into the boat and settled himself down opposite Rose and Tamara.

  ‘Where did the kid come from?’ he asked.

  ‘I don’t know, Tad, ‘Tamara told him. ‘She was …’

  ‘There was a bright light and then I was here,’ said Rose, trying to be helpful.

  ‘Interesting,’ said Tad. ‘Sounds like some kind of teleportation.’ He smiled at Rose. ‘I’m Tad Baxter,’ he said. ‘Were you sent here from the island?’

  ‘No, I was in the pictures,’ said Rose.

  ‘Pictures?’ asked Tad. ‘You mean like … paintings?’

  Rose glared at him.

  ‘No, I mean like a cinema.’

  ‘A cinema?’ Tad looked around at the raging sea all around them, then glared at Tamara. ‘There’s a cinema on the boat? How come nobody told me?’

  ‘You’re stupid,’ said Rose, and Tad looked offended.

  A slim, dark-haired woman who was wearing a halterneck and a pair of skimpy denim shorts climbed down into the boat too. She had a rucksack over one shoulder, from which several rolls of paper stuck out.

  ‘I managed to grab some of your charts before the cabin flooded,’ she told Tamara. ‘And I sent out a distress call on the radio. Somebody might hear it and come looking for us.’

  ‘Good work, Jade. Er … this is Rose.’

  Jade dropped into a seat beside Rose. She looked at Tamara in surprise.

  ‘Well, you sure kept her quiet,’ she said.

  ‘Oh, she’s not mine,’ protested Tamara. ‘She just kind of … turned up.’

  ‘Then I guess she’s a stowaway,’ said Jade.

  ‘I’m not a stowaway,’ said Rose, irritably. ‘Why does everyone keep saying that? I don’t know how I got here; I just know I want to go home.’

  ‘Where is home?’ asked Tamara, trying to be helpful.

  ‘Forty-two, Napier Road,’ said Rose and thought for a moment. ‘I can’t remember the postcode.’ Tamara and Jade gave each other baffled looks.

  ‘You mean the zip code?’ asked Jade.

  ‘I think postcodes are from the UK,’ said Tamara. ‘And her accent sounds kind of English to me.’

  Captain Holder was the last to descend the ladder. He jumped into the boat and glared at a grizzled old man in a yellow raincoat, who was slumped in the prow. ‘Nice job, Sam,’ he growled.

  ‘Captain, I had no chance, so I didn’t,’ shouted Sam. He sounded Irish or Scottish, Rose thought. Or perhaps even an American who was trying to sound Irish or Scottish. ‘That blasted reef just came out of nowhere, so it did.’

  ‘I’d be more convinced if I couldn’t smell the whiskey fumes on your breath,’ snarled Captain Holder. ‘When we’ve got more time, you and me are gonna have a little talk about this.’ He moved to the outboard motor and pulled a length of cord. It took a couple of attempts to get going but then the engine fired up and they started moving forward. ‘Keep your eyes peeled for more reefs!’ he yelled to the people in the prow. The boat had only moved off a short distance when the yacht gave a last convulsive shudder and began to slip beneath the waves. Captain Holder stood there, watching in silence as his ship sank to the bottom of the ocean. For a few moments, the masts still stuck up from the swaying surface of the water, but then they too were gone.

  ‘I’m sorry, Captain,’ blubbered Sam. ‘She was a fine ship, so she was.’

  ‘She was my dad’s ship,’ said Captain Holder. ‘He managed to sail her for thirty years without a serious incident. Now she’s gone.’ He lowered his head for a moment and Rose thought that he might be about to burst into tears – but then he seemed to make a huge effort and snapped round to look at Tamara. ‘Well, Doctor Flyte, looks like we found your mysterious island, after all. Let’s just hope it’s worth the price we paid to get here.’

  Rose gazed ahead at the gradually approaching outline of the island, silhouetted against a blood-red sunset. Once again, she was reminded of the horrible trailer she had seen, last week. Hadn’t there been a view of the same island in that? Wasn’t this the island where the monsters lived?

  ‘We can’t go there,’ she told Tamara, pointing.

  ‘What do you mean, honey? We have to.’

  ‘It’s a bad place,’ said Rose. ‘There are horrible things there. Monsters.’

  Tamara looked intrigued.

  ‘But how could you know that?’ she asked. ‘Have you been there before?’

  ‘No, but I’ve seen it.’

  ‘Fascinating,’ said Tad. ‘Sounds like some kind of clairvoyance.’

  Everyone ignored him.

  ‘Well, whatever you think of the place, we have to go there,’ said Tamara. ‘We just don’t have any other choice.’

  The boat continued on its way towards the distant island.

  ‘Let me get this straight,’ said Beth. ‘You’re saying that Mr Lazarus can put people into films?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Kip. He was gazing through the hatch at the screen, where he could see Rose crammed into a lifeboat with the rest of the yacht’s passengers. She looked pretty scared, which was understandable.

  ‘You mean, like, really put them in?’

  ‘Yeah. I went into one myself. Public Enemy Number One. It wasn’t for long, but I was in it, all right.’

  Beth stared at him enviously.

  ‘Wow!’ she said. ‘That must have been brilliant.’

  ‘It wasn’t,’ Kip told her. ‘It was scary. I was nearly killed.’

  ‘But, how? It’s just a film, right?’

  ‘It’s complicated,’ said Kip, tearing himself away from the hatch. He glared at Mr Lazarus. ‘I’m going to have to go in and get her, aren’t I?’ he said.

  Mr Lazarus frowned. ‘I’m afraid so,’ he said. ‘I can’t think of any other way of doing it. Still, at least it will give us a chance to try out the modifications I made to the Retriever.’

  ‘Oh, that’s fine then,’ said Kip. ‘So long as it’s not all bad news.’ He ran his hands through his hair. ‘I don’t believe this,’ he said. ‘Rose hates films like Terror Island. She’ll be scared out of her wits.’ He looked apprehensively at the wooden platform. ‘Should I go in now?’

  Mr Lazarus frowned.

  ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to,’ he said. ‘Time is rather pressing.’

  Beth frowned.

  ‘But won’t people in the audience recognise you?’ she asked. ‘Maybe you should wait until the audience have gone home and then run the film again.’

  ‘We can’t do that,’ said Mr Lazarus. ‘If she’s still there when the closing credits roll, she’s there for ever.’

  Kip scowled. ‘Just tell me you didn’t plan this,’ he said.

  ‘Of course I didn’t plan it! Kip, what do you take me for? I wouldn’t put somebody into a film who didn’t ask to go there.’

  ‘I didn’t ask to go in,’ Kip reminded him.

  ‘You didn’t exactly protest, either.’

  ‘Yes, but I didn’t even know what was going to happen, did I? You tricked me and then you wouldn’t let me out until I’d nicked John Dillinger’s hat.’

  ‘Whoah, hold on a minute!’ said Beth. ‘You nicked John Dillinger’s hat?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Kip told her. ‘Oh, don’t worry. It’s just this thing that Mr Lazarus does. Gets kids to steal stuff for him.’

  ‘But you make me sound like a criminal!’ protested Mr Lazarus. He looked at Beth imploringly. ‘It�
��s a little sideline I have. Absolutely harmless. And I only ask children to do it occasionally. Special children. Children who love cinema.’

  Kip turned back to look through the hatch. Now the lifeboat was approaching a stretch of deserted beach. He turned away again. ‘I can’t stand this,’ he said. ‘I want to watch it, but I daren’t. What if something bad happens to Rose?’

  ‘Try not to worry about it,’ Mr Lazarus assured him. ‘I have faith in you, Kip. I’m sure you’ll get to her before she’s—’

  ‘Before she’s what?’ cried Kip. ‘Eaten?’

  ‘Oh, I’m sure it won’t come to that,’ said Mr Lazarus. ‘But then, I suppose we have to be realistic. It is a monster movie.’

  ‘Hold on a minute,’ said Beth. ‘You’re saying that Rose could get properly eaten? Like, really chewed up and swallowed?’

  Mr Lazarus looked slightly nauseated.

  ‘Not the nicest way of putting it,’ he said. ‘But yes, when you are in the film, it’s all real. Everything.’

  ‘Wow,’ said Beth. ‘That’s cool.’ She looked at Kip. ‘Right,’ she said. ‘I’m coming with you.’

  ‘No way! I don’t want you getting mixed up in this.’

  ‘Can’t be helped. There’s no way I’m going to let my boyfriend go to Terror Island without being there to back him up.’

  Kip stared at her.

  ‘Since when have I been your boyfriend?’ he cried.

  ‘Well, you’re a boy aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes …’

  ‘And you’re a friend, so—’

  ‘That’s not the same thing!’

  ‘Never mind, we’re wasting time. We need to get in there.’

  ‘We can’t do that,’ protested Kip.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because … because …’ He had a flash of inspiration. ‘Because Mr Lazarus can only send one person into each film.’ He glared at the projectionist. ‘That’s right, isn’t it?’

  Mr Lazarus considered for a moment, missing the point entirely.

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘Not at all. If you both stand on the platform and hold hands, there’s no reason why you can’t go in together. And if you’re doing the same thing when the Retriever button is pressed, all three of you can come out again.’

  Kip groaned. ‘Couldn’t you have lied?’ he snapped.

  ‘Oh sorry, did you want me to lie?’ Mr Lazarus looked crestfallen.

  ‘That’s settled then,’ said Beth. ‘We’re both going in.’ She looked at Mr Lazarus. ‘That’s if this isn’t some big joke you’re playing on us.’

  ‘How can it be a joke?’ asked Mr Lazarus. ‘We can all see Rose up there on the screen, can’t we? How could anybody have faked that?’

  Beth frowned. It was a good question.

  ‘Well,’ said Mr Lazarus. ‘I suppose we’d better get on with it.’ He got the holster off the workbench and helped Kip strap it around his waist. Then he pulled out the earpiece and popped it into Kip’s ear. He looked apologetically at Beth. ‘I’m afraid I only have one Communicator,’ he said.

  ‘Er … that’s OK,’ said Beth, mystified. ‘I guess.’ She thought for a moment. ‘What tariff is that thing on?’ she asked.

  ‘It isn’t on any tariff,’ said Mr Lazarus. ‘Calls are free.’

  ‘Yeah? Wow, where can I get one?’

  ‘Never mind that,’ Kip told her. ‘We need to concentrate. And we’re wasting time. We have to go after Rose.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Mr Lazarus, lifting a gloved hand to point at the ceiling. ‘Time is of the essence.’ He looked through the hatch at the screen. Rose’s boat was just about to come ashore on a deserted stretch of beach. ‘If we can get you in right beside her, you may be able to grab her and come straight back with her. But, of course, what we can never allow for in these films are the edits.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Beth.

  ‘A film jumps along in time because of all the edits,’ said Mr Lazarus. ‘Rose can be in one place one moment and the very next, she could be ten miles away in a different location entirely. But when you’re in the film, everything runs in real time, so it’s possible, you might have a little catching up to do.’

  ‘Oh, that’s great,’ said Kip. ‘You never mentioned this before.’

  ‘I didn’t think I needed to. But think of all the cuts and dissolves and flashbacks there are in a modern film. You’d go crazy trying to deal with that! The Lazarus Enigma makes everything run just as it does in real life. But if you’re unlucky and come in just as a cut takes place, your quarry could be a hundred miles away, two years later.’

  ‘That would be a disaster,’ said Kip.

  ‘Hopefully it won’t come to that. Anyway, enough talk. We’d better stop wasting time and get you onto Terror Island.’ Mr Lazarus reached in his pocket and pulled out the Retriever.

  ‘What’s that thing?’ asked Beth.

  ‘The piece of equipment that will bring you back safe and sound,’ said Mr Lazarus. ‘But I must warn you. When the button is pressed, you must all be hanging tightly onto each other. If one person breaks contact, they’ll be left behind.’ He handed the device to Kip, who slung it around his neck and slipped it safely beneath his T-shirt.

  ‘OK, let’s do this,’ he said. He looked at Beth. ‘It’s not too late to change your mind,’ he told her.

  ‘No way,’ said Beth. ‘I’m going with you. What kind of a girlfriend would I be if I left you to it?’

  ‘There you go again,’ said Kip. ‘Girlfriend.’

  ‘It’s just an expression,’ Beth assured him.

  ‘Very well,’ said Mr Lazarus. ‘We’re all ready. Step up onto the platform.’

  Kip climbed on and Beth came to stand beside him. They found that standing face to face, they could just about manage it. Mr Lazarus made a final check on the equipment. ‘Hold on tight to each other,’ he warned them and they held hands. ‘Here we go,’ he said; and he put a foot onto the side of the platform. ‘Good luck,’ he added and pushed it forward into the light.

  ‘Will it hurt?’ asked Beth anxiously.

  ‘Not really,’ said Kip. ‘It just feels a little weir—’

  And then the light was blazing in his eyes and he realised he had no need to tell her what it felt like because that freaky melting feeling was coming over him again and he was falling, falling into a blinding white light.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  KIP’S FEET THUDDED onto sand and he stood for a moment, letting his breathing settle back to normal. He could still feel other hands clutched in both of his and when he opened his eyes, there was Beth. She was staring around as though she could hardly believe what had happened.

  ‘Oh my God!’ whispered Beth. ‘We’re here. We’re really here!’

  And it was amazing. Even in the midst of all his worries about Rose, Kip had to take a moment to just marvel at his surroundings, which were perfect in every detail. He was standing on a long stretch of beach. To his left, the ocean rushed back and forth beneath the lurid red glow of the dying sun. Several hundred yards to his right, a stretch of dense jungle waited, the palm leaves stirring restlessly in the wind. Above them, the tropical sky was fading to grey, and he could already see the light of millions of stars and the cold orb of a full moon. And it wasn’t just the look of the place. He could smell the salty tang of sea air. He could feel the grains of sand settling beneath his feet. The island was as real as any place he had ever visited.

  Then Beth said, ‘You can let go of my hands now.’

  ‘Huh?’ He looked at her and realised he had been squeezing her hands in his. ‘Sorry.’ He let go and turned to look around. There was the lifeboat already beached on the sand, completely empty – and there was a line of freshly made footprints, leading up the beach and away into the jungle.

  ‘Oh no,’ said Kip. ‘She’s already gone.’

  ‘Must have been an edit,’ suggested Beth. ‘I guess we’d better follow the footprints. Hopefully they’re not too far ahead.
’

  Kip stared into the dense jungle that lay ahead of them. He didn’t much fancy the idea of wandering in there, but what other choice did he have?

  Just then his mobile phone trilled the Star Wars theme. Wondering why Mr Lazarus was calling him on his regular phone, he snatched it from his pocket and lifted it to his ear, without thinking to look at the display.

  ‘Why are you phoning me like this?’ he asked.

  ‘I was just checking you’re all right,’ said Dad’s voice, sounding rather put out. Kip nearly fell down with shock. It hadn’t occurred to him that other people would be able to contact him here.

  ‘Oh er … Hi, Dad!’ he stammered, aware of the horrified reaction from Beth. ‘I was just er … surprised to hear from you so soon. How … how’s Grannie?’

  ‘She’s fine,’ said Dad. ‘They’ve taken her into surgery, so I’ll have to stay here till she comes out and they’ve got her settled. I’ve texted your mum but there’s been no reply yet. How have you and Rose been getting along?’

  ‘Rose? Oh … great! Yeah, she’s great, Dad. But she’s gone …’

  ‘Gone? Gone where?’

  ‘Gone … to the loo! Yes, I’m just waiting for her. Outside. Obviously, I can’t go into the ladies, can I? So I’m just waiting by the door. You know, watching her like a hawk. Like you told me to. So … you … won’t be able to talk to her right now.’

  ‘Well, she won’t be long, will she?’

  ‘Er … I don’t know. Depends whether she’s doing a wee or a poo.’

  ‘Thanks for the information! Well, I’ll hang on for a while, just in case. I wanted to—’ He broke off. ‘Is it my imagination, or … can I hear the sea?’

  ‘Umm? Oh, it’s just … the … sound of the film from the auditorium,’ said Kip hopelessly. ‘Yes. The first bit is set at sea … I think.’ He was aware of Beth staring at him, her mouth open.

  ‘Kip, you’re not in watching the film are you?’

  ‘Of course not.’ Kip laughed nervously. ‘You know Rose, she’d never watch something like that.’ He began to walk up the beach towards the jungle and Beth trailed after him. ‘Ah, Rose is coming out now,’ he said. ‘Hi, Rose, you OK? We’ll just head back to the ticket office now.’ As they moved away from the water’s edge, so the volume decreased. He stepped onto the jungle footpath and started walking briskly along it. Beth followed.