by Chris Ryan
'Didn't you just do that, like, an hour ago?' asked Amber.
'You have to look after your knife,' said Alex, calmly, steadily honing the blade. 'It's the most important tool you have in a situation like this.'
Paulo finished his drink, then took one of the bunk blankets, spread it across the vine mattress of his bed and lay down with a satisfied groan.
'Don't get too comfortable,' said Alex, glancing at his watch and the position of the sun. 'There's a lot more to do before sunset.'
They cooled off with a quick dip in the lagoon then went back to work, wearing the sun-hats Amber had made. Before he left the fire, Alex smashed open the coconut shells for Amber and showed her how to heat the chopped meat by laying it on a flat stone next to the fire. He picked up one of the empty coconut half-shells and handed it to Amber.
'Once the oil starts coming out of the coconut meat and running off the edge of the stone here,' explained Alex, 'you collect it in this half-shell.'
'What's the point of that?' asked Amber, suspiciously. 'Are you sure you're not just finding stuff for me to do, to make me feel better?'
'Definitely not,' said Alex. 'We really do need as much oil as you can collect. It has lots of uses. We can smear it on and it'll protect our skin from the sun and keep the mosquitoes away. And if we mix it with wood ash, it turns into soap.'
'Cool,' said Amber, happily settling to her task.
By the end of the afternoon, the camp was finished. They had rigged up five shelters over the beds, each made from a frame of bamboo poles lashed together, with a thatch of banana leaves and palm fronds. There was even a little shelter over the woodpile for the campfire. Next to the fire, there were two simple, bamboo benches, again set under their own, thatched shelters.
They sat on the two benches, looking around the camp in quiet satisfaction. Two more crabs were cooking in the storage tin over the fire and Paulo had packed the top sections of three green bamboo canes with young bamboo shoots and leaned them over the fire. The lower sections were full of seawater, which was just coming to the boil.
'They will cook in the steam,' said Paulo. 'Beautiful. Like asparagus.'
'If Heather could see us now,' giggled Li, gazing around the camp, 'she wouldn't believe it!'
'We're nearly ready for the night,' said Alex. 'Just a couple more things to do.'
Carefully, he filled a coconut half-shell with boiled water and added potassium permanganate from his medical kit until the water turned deep pink. 'Antiseptic,' he explained. 'In the tropics, a wound'll get infected very easily. So, anyone with cuts, grazes, burns or mosquito bites, step forward.'
'Yeah, well that's all of us!' laughed Amber.
'OK, we'll start with you, Amber,' said Alex. 'It's even more important for diabetics to make sure a wound heals properly. And we need to check for chiggers, too, so everybody take your boots off.'
'What the hell are chiggers?' asked Hex.
'They're a type of flea,' explained Alex. 'Chigoes is the proper name for them. They attach themselves to the shafts of hairs on your skin, then they feed off you by injecting saliva under the skin then sucking—'
'OK,' said Amber, hastily, 'I get the idea.'
'If you don't winkle them out, the bite'll become infected.' Alex had removed his boots and socks and was checking his feet and ankles. He pointed to three red dots just above his ankle bone. 'There. Chiggers. If we had some vaseline, I could smear some on and suffocate them. As it is, I'll have to use a sterilized needle to dig them out.'
'OK. Now I'm really grossed out,' said Amber.
'Is everything on this island out to get us?' groaned Hex.
Alex grinned. 'Just keep your boots on during the day, wash your socks every night, and you should avoid getting too many of them.'
They took it in turn to bathe their scrapes and bites and remove any chiggers while the food cooked. Li gave Alex's raw wrist and head wound extra attention, but both wounds seemed to be healing well.
Next Alex produced a small pack of anti-malaria tablets. 'These are special,' he said. 'They're not like the ones they were doling out every day on the Phoenix. You only need to take one and you have protection against malaria for a month. I have just enough for one each.
'And finally,' said Alex, once they had taken the tablets, 'we have the coconut oil.' Carefully, he picked up the two half-shells that Amber had managed to collect and handed one to each bench. 'Smear it on any exposed flesh. The smoke from the fire'll keep some of the mosquitoes away, but this'll deter the rest.'
'Can't we do it after we eat?' asked Paulo, gazing longingly at the steaming bamboo tubes.
'Nope. This is important. It's something we need to do every night. If we don't keep clean in humid heat like this, we've had it.'
The food was wonderful. To drink, they had half coconuts full of fresh boiled water. Alex crumbled a salt tablet into it before he served it out, to make sure everyone replaced the salt they had lost through the hot, sweaty day. They finished off the meal with the pawpaw fruit which Amber and Li had brought back with them that morning. It tasted rather like a melon and the soft flesh was full of juice. Once the pawpaw had all disappeared, they sat back in a tired, companionable silence, staring into the fire as the sun began to set behind the mountain. After a few minutes, Amber got up quietly and headed down to the tide line, where she sat with her back to them.
'Is she all right?' Alex asked, looking at Li.
'I think she's gone to do her injection,' said Li. 'Best leave her to it.'
'Poor kid,' muttered Hex to himself. The others looked at him in surprise. 'What?' he demanded, scowling fiercely.
'How did her parents die?' asked Li, looking at Hex with frank curiosity.
'Plane crash,' he answered. 'Just over a year ago. It was a small, private plane, with just the two of them in it. Her dad was piloting. Amber was due to fly with them, but changed her mind at the last minute and stayed on with friends instead. One of the engines caught fire over the Alps, and the plane crashed into the side of a mountain.'
'Did they find the bodies?' asked Paulo.
'Yeah,' said Hex. 'Apparently, they were badly burned. From what I read, the authorities wouldn't let Amber see them.' He frowned. 'Maybe that's why she's having a hard time moving on. You know that twist of gold she wears around her neck? Shaped like a broken circle?'
'Yes,' said Alex. 'Does it have some special meaning?'
Hex hesitated. 'I think so,' he said. 'That's an Omega sign.'
'Omega?' asked Li.
'It's the last letter in the Greek alphabet. Omega. The End.'
'The end of what?' asked Paulo.
Hex rubbed his nose while he tried to think of the right words to explain. 'Remember, back on the Phoenix, she said she didn't want a new beginning? She said her parents were dead. The End. Remember?'
Hex looked around at the others and they all nodded. 'And have you noticed how the gold is all rough and unpolished, as though it was beaten into shape? I think that golden Omega sign was probably made by hammering her parents' wedding rings together. The End. Do you see what I'm getting at? Amber can't move on. She doesn't want to.'
'Ten out of ten, code boy,' said Amber, softly, making Hex jump. 'I forgot, you're pretty good at puzzles, aren't you?' She moved into the circle of firelight and sat down on the bench, giving Hex a cool stare.
'So, I guessed right?' asked Hex.
'Yeah,' said Amber. 'You guessed right, code boy. But there is one thing you're wrong about.'
'What's that?' asked Hex.
'Back on the Phoenix you accused me of thinking money fixes everything.' Amber held out the golden Omega sign so that it glittered dully in the firelight. She looked at Hex with eyes full of a deep sadness. 'So, you tell me, Hex. How does money fix this?'
FOURTEEN
Paulo was deeply asleep, lying flat on his back, when his bed started shaking. He tried to ignore it, but the shaking persisted. Then something light and feathery stroked a ticklish path ba
ck and forth across his face. He groaned and opened his eyes. Li was bending over him, tickling him under the chin with a handful of her long, black hair.
'C'mon, sleepyhead,' she whispered. 'Time to get up. You're on breakfast duty.'
'Go 'way,' muttered Paulo and closed his eyes again. They had all gone to bed with the sunset, exhausted by the day's activities and subdued by Amber's sad face, but Paulo's sleep had been broken when Alex woke him in the middle of the night to take his turn on watch. Now, all he wanted to do was sleep for another ten hours.
'Wakey wakey,' persisted Li, moving the hank of hair round to Paulo's ear. He did not shift. 'OK,' warned Li, 'I'm going for the belly now, so you'd better move.'
She lifted the hem of Paulo's T-shirt, then froze, eyes wide, staring down at his stomach. 'Paulo,' she said, quietly. 'Don't move.'
'Move, do not move,' grumbled Paulo, starting to turn onto his side. 'Make up your mind—'
'I said, don't move!'
Li's voice was sharp with urgency and suddenly Paulo was fully awake. He could feel something lying heavily on his stomach. Slowly he raised his head to see what was there. Equally slowly, Li eased his T-shirt away from his stomach and folded it back onto his chest.
For two seconds, Paulo stared at the sleeping snake coiled on his belly. He wanted to jump up and knock it away from him, but he forced himself to stay calm while he tried to identify it. The snake was about the same length as his arm. The head was small and the body was ringed with thick, alternating, black and white bands.
Paulo closed his eyes and took a slow breath. He was almost sure the snake was a small krait. The only thing he had going for him was that kraits were rarely aggressive. They had no need to be. Their bite was fatal.
'Krait?' he breathed, looking up at Li.
She nodded, staring at the snake with big eyes. 'What shall I do?'
'Step back,' whispered Paulo. 'Then make some noise.'
Carefully, Li moved backwards, one step at a time. She reached the campfire and picked up the storage tin and a coconut shell.
'Sure?' she whispered, looking uncertainly at Paulo. He gave the faintest of nods and she started bashing the coconut shell against the side of the tin. The snake stirred. It reared its head and turned, focusing its beady, black eyes on Li.
The other three woke up, complaining about the noise as Li continued to bash the tin. Li pointed to Paulo and, one by one, they saw the snake and froze.
The krait uncoiled and darted its head back and forth. It was disturbed by the noise, but reluctant to abandon the warm spot it had found. It moved up onto Paulo's chest and looked down into his face. The forked tongue flickered in and out of its mouth as it tested the air. Paulo held his breath but he could not stop his heart from pounding and his chest jumped under the snake with every beat. Finally, the krait decided it was time to move on. With one fluid motion, it slid down onto the sand and slithered away into the forest.
'So, it's true,' drawled Hex, into the stunned silence. 'Paulo really doesn't care what he sleeps with.'
Ten minutes later, Alex, Li and Hex were threading their way single file along the game trail that led through the forest to the pool. They carried stout sticks and Hex and Alex had a rucksack each, full of empty containers. They were out of water and had no option but to return to the pool to stock up, leaving Amber and Paulo behind on watch and breakfast duty.
Moving quickly and quietly, the three of them checked from left to right as they hurried along the trail, but the early morning forest was quiet and they reached the pool without meeting anything.
Outside the cave, the insect cleaning squads had been at work. Every remaining scrap of the slaughtered deer had gone and the rock was smooth and clean. Warily, the three of them waded into the pool and began to fill up their water containers, scanning the cave mouth and the forest all the while. Nothing stirred and they began to relax.
Alex and Li were washing themselves under the waterfall when a deep growl issued from the cave in the cliff. Their heads came up and they began to back slowly out of the pool. Alex turned, looking for Hex, but Hex had disappeared. He turned back to stare into the cave mouth, feeling his neck prickle with fear. Had something come out of the cave, grabbed Hex and dragged him inside without either of them noticing? If so, they were facing a deadly hunter.
The growl came again, echoing from inside the cave. Alex moved in front of Li, gripping his stick tightly. Then Hex popped his head out of the cave mouth and grinned at them. 'Admit it,' he said. 'I had you going then.'
'Hex! Get out of there!' yelled Alex.
'But there's nothing in here. It only goes back a little way, then it's blocked by a rock fall.' He turned and looked back into the cave. 'Hang on a minute, there's something sticking out of the bottom of the rock fall. I wonder what it is? I'll just go back in and have a look.'
Hex started to head back into the cave but Alex bounded out of the water and shoved him hard in the chest.
'You will not go back in there!'
'What?' said Hex, looking into Alex's furious face with genuine surprise.
'Grow up, Hex! This is real life, not some computer game! You can't just say "game over" and start again if you get eaten by something or buried under a rock fall! You'll just be dead!'
Hex raised his hands, palm up. 'OK,' he said, backing off. 'I'll leave it.'
Alex slammed an empty bottle into Hex's chest. 'Fill that,' he grated. 'And stay where I can see you.'
Alex led the way on the return journey. He was still angry with Hex and stalked on ahead without looking back.
Hex marched along after Alex, the heavy rucksack dragging on his shoulders and the bottles of water bumping against his back. It sucked, being a castaway. The physical work was no problem – his body was toned and fit from regular work-outs at his local gym – but Hex felt completely out of place in this environment. He could surf the wilder regions of the Net with the ease of a total expert but he knew nothing about how to survive in this sort of wilderness. Over the past thirty-six hours, he had spent most of his time blundering about like a complete idiot and having to be told what to do by some Northerner who probably thought a megabyte was someone who could eat three Weetabix in one go. Hex glared at Alex's retreating back and quickened his pace to catch up.
Li brought up the rear, also wrapped in her own thoughts. She was going through a mental list of the larger carnivores to be found in this part of the world, but still she could not put a name to the creatures they had heard in the rainforest. She was thinking so hard that she did not notice that Alex and Hex were leaving her further and further behind. A twig snapped over to her right, bringing her out of her thoughts. Li lifted her head, saw the distance between her and the boys and was about to break into a jog to catch up when she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye.
She came to a halt and stared closely at the large bush to the right of the trail just in front of her. She frowned. She was almost certain she had caught a movement from the far side of the bush, but now everything was still. In fact, everything was very still and absolutely silent. Li felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck as she realized that there was no bird noise in this part of the forest. Even the crickets had stopped their two-note song.
Li swallowed and took a deep breath. As she did so, she caught a hint of a smell. A bad smell, like rotting meat. She hesitated, then cautiously took one step forward and bent to peer through the leafy branches.
The smell was stronger nearer the bush and Li wrinkled her nose. There was definitely something there, behind the branches, but the rustling leaves were good camouflage and, at first, Li could not make sense of what she was seeing. Then a single, reptilian eye jumped into focus.
It was looking right at her.
FIFTEEN
Li leapt straight into the air from a standing start as a huge, dragon-like creature burst out of the undergrowth. It pounced onto the exact spot on the trail where Li had been standing a split second earlier, but she h
ad already grabbed a tree branch and was swinging her legs up out of harm's way. She nearly didn't make it. The reptile reared up with amazing speed and she heard its razor-sharp claws scrabbling up the tree trunk towards her.
Li screamed as she scrambled to reach the safety of the higher branches. For one awful moment, she thought the creature could climb trees. She looked down, and relief flooded through her as she saw that its hind legs were still on the ground. It was using its tail to balance as it reached up the tree trunk towards her and it stood taller than a man. Suddenly it lashed out with a powerful foreleg and Li screamed again as a three-inch-long, razor-sharp claw hooked through the hem of her shorts.
There was a yell from further up the trail and Li nearly lost her grip on the branch as the creature dropped back to the ground, ripping its claw through her shorts as though the material was tissue paper.
Alex and Hex were running back to Li and, for a second, the huge reptile stood still, looking up at her then back along the trail, as though it was choosing from a dinner menu. Its eyes were sunk into each side of its long, spade-shaped head. Thick, white ropes of saliva dripped from its jaws and a long, pink forked tongue slid in and out of its mouth. It had a mottled, brown scaly hide, which thickened into ridges at its neck and around the tops of its powerfully squat legs.
'Komodo,' breathed Li and the dragon lifted its head to look at her, as though it recognized its own name. It opened its jaws wide, showing jagged teeth with shreds of meat hanging from them, and gave a hissing roar. A foul stench of rotting flesh rose through the humid air.
Then the creature made its decision. It lowered its head and charged towards Alex and Hex, slinging its legs forward with a rolling gait and raking up the earth of the trail as its claws dug in. The boys came to a halt, then turned back, looking behind them as they ran.