by Chris Ryan
'A back-pack radio!' Paulo dropped to his knees beside the box, his fingers exploring the dials and wires. 'We have one very like this on the ranch. It is in one of the most remote bunk houses, where we stay when we are checking the boundaries. It is very old but it still works perfectly.'
Hex kneeled beside Paulo. 'What do you think?' he said, his voice full of a controlled excitement.
'The batteries will be long dead, but we do not need batteries to transmit, only the generator. It is hand-cranked, see?' Paulo pointed to the handle on the side. 'If I can get the generator working just long enough to send a message—'
'There's a morse code key,' said Hex. 'I know morse code. I could send an SOS . . .'
They all shared a look of excitement. Then Hex sat back and winced at the pain in his leg. The gash was deep and still bleeding freely.
'Come on, then,' said Alex. 'Let's get you and this radio back to the beach and get you both fixed up.'
They hauled the heavy radio over the rock pile and strapped it to one of the sledges. Then Paulo and Alex went back into the cave and cut the tail from the komodo dragon with the flexible saw.
'Our next meal,' Paulo explained to Hex and Amber as they slammed the bleeding tail down onto a second sledge and tied it on. 'Trust me. It'll be delicious.'
EIGHTEEN
The afternoon was drawing to a close by the time they arrived back at the beach. Hex was limping badly and the skin around the gash in his leg was looking stretched and shiny. Alex filled up the storage tin from their bamboo aqueduct and put it to boil on the fire. Then he added potassium permanganate from his survival kit and took the steaming, red brew over to the bed where Hex lay.
Carefully he began to clean the wound. Hex barely noticed except to wince and glare when Alex pressed too hard. He was propped up on his elbows, working on the radio with Paulo. Alex frowned at the wound in Hex's leg. Something was not right. The leg was becoming more swollen by the minute and pus was already forming in the cut. He laid the back of his hand against the leg. It felt very hot.
'How're you feeling, Hex?' he said, casually.
'Fine,' said Hex, glancing at Alex with a slightly irritated look before returning to the radio. The back was off and Hex was making sure all the wires and switches were still connected up. His cheeks were flushed, but Alex could not tell whether that was from fever or excitement.
Paulo was concentrating on the generator. He had finished cleaning the rust from all the connections and now he was using coconut oil on the stiffened crank handle. His clever fingers worked on the handle until he could turn it easily. His face was intent, with no trace of his usual wide smile, as he checked and re-checked the connections. He was concentrating so hard that, when Amber laid a hand on his shoulder, he jumped.
'Sure you know what you're doing?' asked Amber, leaning over his shoulder to stare at the radio.
'Shut up, Amber,' said Hex, automatically, arming the sweat from his face as he squinted at the dials. For some reason, he was finding it hard to focus and he had a thumping headache.
Paulo grinned up at Amber. 'My father calls me his hombre de la maquina – his Machine Man. I can fix most things. If this radio has even a spark of life left in it, I will find it.'
'Make sure it's on channel sixteen,' warned Amber. 'That's the emergency channel.'
Hex checked his dials, then nodded, his fingers hovering above the morse code key. He looked at Paulo. 'Ready?' he asked.
Alex stopped cleaning Hex's wound and Li stepped closer to watch as Paulo began to crank the handle, slowly at first, until he was sure it would keep turning. 'Anything?' he asked.
'Keep going,' said Hex, staring at the dials. 'Step up the speed a bit.'
Paulo cranked until the sweat was dripping from his face. He was about to give up when Amber yelled, 'Something's happening!'
A light began to flicker behind the clouded dial window. There was a crackle of static. Then the generator handle began to squeal. Paulo gave it an anxious glance. 'Now, Hex!' he called. 'Send the message. Quickly! It will not last much longer.'
Hex tapped out the SOS signal on the morse key.
Dot, dot, dot – dash, dash, dash – dot, dot, dot.
'Again!' yelled Paulo as the squeal of the generator handle turned into a shriek and a thin line of smoke rose from the box.
Dot, dot, dot – dash, dash, dash – dot, dot dot.
Dot, dot, dot – dash, dash—
The crank handle snapped off with a sharp crack and Paulo fell forward onto the sand. Startled, Hex stopped signalling but Paulo frantically waved him on.
'Keep going,' he snapped, spitting sand out of his mouth. 'There may be stored power . . .'
Hex turned back to the morse key and resumed sending the SOS message, but everyone could tell it was hopeless. The radio was completely dead.
'Maybe that was enough,' said Li, into the silence.
'Two and half SOSs? I don't think so,' said Hex, lying back on his bed.
'It might be,' persisted Li.
'Even if it was enough,' sighed Hex, 'I couldn't give them our position.' He laughed without humour. 'How could I? We don't know where we are!' The smile turned into a grimace of pain as he shifted his wounded leg, trying to get comfortable.
'But what if a – a satellite picked up the signal? The satellite could pinpoint our position, couldn't it?' Li sent Alex a pleading look. He smiled, but did not know what to say. Li was clutching at straws and, in reality, she knew it.
Alex stood up and walked over to the fire. Spitted chunks of the komodo's tail were roasting over the flames. Amber followed him reluctantly. She was supposed to be keeping an eye on the meat.
'Oh, that is gross,' she said, softly, peering down at the pieces of tail. 'Paulo! The skin is splitting open!'
Paulo was still tinkering with the radio, but his heart was no longer in it. 'Good,' he called over his shoulder. 'That's exactly why we've been roasting them. You should be able to peel the skin back now. Cut the meat into chunks and put it into the bamboo steamers.'
'Do I have to?' muttered Amber, gazing with barely disguised disgust at the pink meat bulging from the split tail skin. 'Give me a hand, will you, Li?'
'One minute,' said Li. She was watching Alex. 'We need to talk,' she said, softly. Alex looked up, saw Li's serious expression, and nodded. Li walked a little way away from the campsite and Alex followed.
'How's the leg wound looking?' she asked, glancing back at Hex.
'Not good,' said Alex.
Li sighed. 'Do you have any antibiotics in your survival tin?' she asked.
'Why?'
'Do you?' repeated Li, biting her lip and looking at him hopefully.
'No,' said Alex.
Li groaned and sank down onto the sand. Her eyes were brimming with tears. Alex felt a cold chill run down his back.
'Tell me,' he said, sitting down beside her.
'If a komodo doesn't manage to disembowel its prey right away, it has another, slower way of killing,' said Li. 'All it needs is one bite. It doesn't even need to be a serious bite. They have special grooves in their teeth. Shreds of meat collect in the grooves and rot – it's a bacteria breeding ground. Even their saliva has over fifty different strains of bacteria – and at least seven of those strains are highly septic. Once an animal is bitten, it may run off, but all the komodo has to do is follow along behind.'
Li looked at Alex and saw in his face that he understood exactly what she was saying.
'Septicaemia,' he said, flatly. 'Blood poisoning.'
Li nodded.
'How long has he got?' asked Alex.
'Without antibiotics?' Li looked over at Hex and felt her throat close up. 'Three days at the most. Probably less.'
NINETEEN
Alex rested his head in his hands. Suddenly he felt very tired. He had worked so hard to keep everyone alive and healthy. All the basic survival problems had been solved. They had established a good camp, with a separate latrine. They had food, water and
fire. But this? Alex sighed. This problem was beyond him.
'Alex?' whispered Li. 'Maybe our SOS got through. And maybe they have the technology to locate us just from that message. What do you think?'
Alex lifted his head and stared out to sea. His expression was bleak and a muscle jumped in the angle of his jaw. 'We'll know soon enough,' he said. 'If someone pinpointed our position, they'll be here before nightfall.'
'And if they're not?' asked Li.
Alex shrugged and looked down at his hands.
'Don't,' said Li in a quavering voice. 'Please don't.'
Alex turned to look at Li. Her chin was trembling and her eyes were brimming with tears. 'Don't what?' he asked.
'Don't give up,' said Li. She shook her head and the tears spilled over onto her cheeks. Alex put an arm around her shoulders and she turned her face into his shoulder. 'You can't give up, Alex,' she wept. 'Not you. You're the strong one. You keep us all going. If you give up, then we're all going to end up like – like that Japanese soldier in the cave. We'll all be skeletons, picked clean by the insects—'
Li stopped as Alex grabbed her shoulders, turning her to face him. 'What did you say?' he said.
'I – I said, we'll all end up as skeletons, like—'
'– like that Japanese soldier,' finished Alex. He let go of Li's shoulders. 'I wonder . . . ?'
Alex turned to stare up at the mountain, lost in thought. His back was straight and his eyes were sharp and focused again. Li held her breath and waited. Finally, he gave a decisive nod. 'Right,' he said, turning to face Li once more. 'Here's what we're going to do.'
'The lizard's ready!' called Amber, shaking the white chunks of meat out of the bamboo steamer onto a banana-leaf plate. 'Yum, yum,' she added in an undertone as she stared down at the steaming mound of komodo flesh.
'We shall mix it with this,' said Paulo, mashing boiled yams with a stone. 'And pretend it is chicken. It will be fine.'
'Yeah, right,' muttered Amber. She put her hands on her hips and turned to glare at Hex. 'I said, come and get it!'
Hex sat up slowly, then sank back onto his bed. 'Not hungry,' he said, turning his face away.
'Well that's just great,' said Amber. 'I slave over a hot fire cooking a lovely meal of giant reptile and you turn your nose up at it.'
Hex did not answer. Amber tutted and looked across at Alex and Li. They were still huddled further down the beach with their heads close together, deep in conversation. They had been like that for the past twenty minutes. Li had drawn some sort of diagram in the sand and they were both studying it intently. Li was doing most of the talking, pointing to the sand, then pointing up at the mountainside.
'Hey!' yelled Amber. 'I said, come and get it!'
Alex and Li looked at one another and shared one last nod. Then they both clambered to their feet and walked up the beach towards Amber.
While Paulo and Amber finished preparing the food, Alex poured some boiled drinking water into a coconut half-shell and took it over to Hex. 'Don't you fancy any lizard then?' he asked, sitting on the edge of the camp bed.
'It's not that,' said Hex. 'I don't feel too great.'
Alex laid a hand on Hex's forehead. 'Yeah, I know,' he said, casually. 'You have a fever. Sit up and take these. They'll help.'
Hex dragged himself into a sitting position and Alex handed over two of the precious aspirin from his survival tin. He noted the time as Hex swallowed the tablets, working out when he could safely give him the next dose. While Hex drank the rest of the water, Alex bent to examine the leg wound. It did not look good. The komodo's tooth had opened up a gash starting just below the knee and ending at the top of Hex's walking boot. The wound had partly closed but pus was oozing out from under the forming scab and the surrounding skin was red and puffy.
'So, what do you think?'
Alex jumped and looked up. Hex had finished the water and was watching him with sharp eyes. Alex quickly replaced his worried expression with a bland smile. 'You're doing fine,' he said.
Hex regarded him with a keen intelligence. 'That bad?' he drawled.
'OK. There's some infection,' admitted Alex. 'We'll eat first. That'll give the aspirin time to work. Then I'll clean it up for you.'
Hex again refused his portion of the food, so Amber put it on a flat stone by the fire and covered it with another banana leaf. Alex did not feel much like eating either, but Amber, Li and Paulo were all watching him, so he pushed a chunk of lizard meat into his mouth and forced himself to chew. 'Good,' he said. 'A bit like . . .'
'Chicken?' suggested Paulo.
'Chicken,' agreed Alex.
Paulo and Li both took a bite.
Amber watched them, then looked down at her own portion. 'It's chicken,' she said, closing her eyes. 'It's chicken. It is chicken. It. Is. Chicken . . .' She bit into a chunk of lizard meat, chewed, and swallowed. A surprised smile spread across her face and she opened her eyes. 'You know, that's not at all bad,' she said. 'For – um – chicken.'
They finished off with mangoes and as much fresh water as they could drink.
'You know, things could be a lot worse,' said Amber, settling back on the bench. 'And now we have our very own water supply just up the beach there. It's almost like home.'
'Like home,' agreed Paulo, beaming proudly as he watched a steady stream of water pouring from the last section of his bamboo aqueduct onto the beach. 'We will be fine here until we are rescued.'
Alex and Li shared a look, then glanced over at Hex. He had fallen into a restless sleep. His face was flushed and his hair was damp with sweat.
'What?' said Paulo. 'What is going on?'
'Come over here,' whispered Li, leading them out of Hex's hearing. 'We need to talk.'
Five minutes later, a grim-faced Paulo leaned over Hex and inspected the swollen leg.
'What do you think?' asked Alex.
'We need to get as much poison out as we can,' said Paulo, sniffing at the wound. 'Already it is beginning to smell bad. I think I know what to do.'
He hurried to the fire where Li was trying to comfort a softly crying Amber.
'Come on,' he said as he pushed the remaining mashed yams back over the flames to heat up. 'You must stop crying. Hex might wake up and hear you.'
Amber scowled at Paulo but he was concentrating on mixing a solution of antiseptic. Once he had done that, he turned one of his shorts pockets inside out and cut away the inner lining with Alex's knife.
Amber sniffed a few times, then wiped her eyes. 'What's that for?' she asked, watching Paulo dip the pocket lining into the antiseptic solution.
'I am making a poultice,' said Paulo, softly. 'To draw out the poison. I have done this often with horses when they develop the poison in the hoof. I hope it will work here, too.' He laid the pocket lining on a banana leaf and stuffed it with the steaming hot mashed yams. Finally, he turned to Alex.
'I need something from your tin.'
Alex stared at Paulo, then nodded and opened his survival tin. Paulo took out a foil sachet.
'What's that—?' began Li, then stopped as Paulo split open the sachet and removed a surgical scalpel blade. Li's eyes widened and she fell silent.
'Ready? asked Paulo, handing the coconut bowl of antiseptic to Li.
Li swallowed hard, then nodded and carried the antiseptic over to Hex's bed. She stroked his face until he woke up.
'Hello, nurse,' he said, grinning weakly. 'Time for my bed bath?'
'Those aspirin must be working,' joked Li.
Paulo studied Hex's face. He did look slightly better. His cheeks were not so flushed and he seemed to be in less pain, but Paulo knew that would only last until the aspirin wore off. It was time to get going.
'Listen to me, Hex,' he said firmly. 'I will clean the wound first with antiseptic, OK? Then I will make a quick cut with this scalpel and put this hot poultice over it—'
'Scalpel?' interrupted Hex, his voice loud with shock.
'I cannot let the wound close up,' explained Pau
lo. 'The pus has to drain.'
'Are you sure you know what you're doing?' demanded Amber.
'The pus has to drain,' repeated Paulo, looking into Hex's eyes. 'I'll be as quick as I can.'
Hex looked back at Paulo for the longest time, searching his face. Paulo kept his gaze steady. Finally, Hex tightened his lips and nodded.
TWENTY
Hex made no sound when the scalpel went in, but his whole body stiffened. Quickly, Paulo drew the blade down through the crusted scab and the pus spurted out. Hex bit his lip and flung his head from side to side. His eyes were glazed with pain and the tendons stood out in his neck.
'Nearly over,' said Paulo, dropping the scalpel blade into the bowl of antiseptic. He picked up the hot poultice and pressed it over the newly opened wound. 'That is it. All done.'
Hex groaned and relaxed into the bed. His forehead was beaded with sweat and he was pale under his tan. 'Remind me to do the same for you some time,' he panted, glaring at Paulo.
'That was so gross,' said Amber faintly.
'But it's over,' said Hex. 'It'll get better now.' He looked up at the others, gathered around his bed. 'Won't it?'
This was the moment they had been dreading. They all looked down at Hex and nobody knew what to say. Finally, Alex spoke. 'Keeping the wound clean will help,' he said, carefully.
'But. . . ?' said Hex, narrowing his eyes. 'I hear a "but".'
'But komodos have a lot of bacteria on their teeth,' said Li softly. 'Some of those bacteria are pretty bad. They can lead to septicaemia.'
'Blood poisoning,' said Hex quietly. He looked straight at Alex. 'Am I going to get better?'
'Not without antibiotics,' said Alex.
'Do you have antibiotics in your kit?' asked Hex.
'No.'
Hex nodded, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
'But we're going to get some,' continued Alex, firmly. 'Tonight we rest up because at dawn tomorrow, we're leaving the camp. We're going to trek across to the other side of the island—'