by Chris Ryan
'To the all-night pharmacy?' interrupted Hex. 'Come on, Alex. I'm too old for bed-time stories. This island is uninhabited.'
'It is now,' agreed Alex. 'But what about in the war? Think about it! We already found one Japanese soldier. I reckon he was up there on look-out duty. He had the radio to keep in touch with the rest of his unit.'
'So there must have been other soldiers on the island,' said Paulo.
'Exactly! I think they might have had a base or a camp of some sort on the other side of the island. There could be another radio. There could be medical supplies. Antibiotics—'
'Did they have antibiotics then?' asked Hex.
'Yeah, sure they did,' said Amber confidently. 'Penicillin, definitely.'
'They'll be a bit past their sell-by date,' said Hex, but there was a flicker of hope in his eyes.
'Li has already worked out the best route,' said Alex. 'Want to talk us through it, Li?'
'OK. We had a good view of the lie of the land when we were up on the headland the other day. Remember, Amber?'
Amber nodded, although it all seemed a long time ago.
'We can't skirt the coast,' continued Li. 'There are mangrove swamps beyond this lagoon, both ways. Besides, it would take too long. I – I mean—' She stumbled to a halt, glancing quickly at Hex, then away again. 'What I mean is, we wouldn't do it in a day that way.'
'So where do we go?' asked Paulo. 'Through the rainforest?'
'Again, that would take more than a day, and it's very easy to get lost when you can't see more than a few metres ahead. We could end up going in circles. No, I think the best way is up. We should get out of the rainforest onto the lower slopes as soon as we can, then work our way round the eastern shoulder of the mountain to the other side. That way we can see where we're going and the distance is much shorter.'
'Any climbing?' asked Paulo.
'It's mostly just hard walking. There is one outcrop curving all the way round the shoulder to the other side, but I think I could free-climb that, then anchor the rope for the rest of you. Remember, Amber? The way we did it?'
'Yeah. That was OK,' said Amber.
'But we can't just abandon the camp and the signal fire,' said Hex.
'We'll leave a marker arrow, pointing the way we go,' said Alex.
'But we could split up,' insisted Hex. 'Amber could stay here with me until the rest of you come back.'
Alex nodded. He had been expecting this question. The truth was that Hex only had enough time left for a one-way trip, but that was not the answer Alex gave.
'It's not safe to split up,' he said, smoothly. 'Not with komodos hunting in this part of the island. Besides, it's going to take four of us to carry the stretcher.'
'Stretcher?' said Hex. 'You think I'll need a stretcher?'
Alex could have kicked himself. They had decided to keep quiet about how quickly the blood poisoning would develop. Now here he was shooting his mouth off about stretchers. He forced himself to grin down at Hex.
'You mean you don't want to be carried in state around the island, watching the rest of us sweat?'
'I'm not that sick,' said Hex, glaring up at them from fever-bright eyes. 'I'll walk. I'm not too sick to walk. Am I?'
'No,' lied Alex, 'but it would be better to rest that leg.' He started getting to his feet but Hex reached out and caught his wrist in a hard grip.
'You haven't said it yet,' said Hex.
'Said what?' asked Alex.
'Come on,' said Hex, still gripping Alex's wrist. 'Say what you always say. Look me in the eye and tell me I'll live.'
Alex looked down at Hex. He was not sure he could make such a promise. He knew how bad the odds were for Hex. This trek across the island was a desperate measure, but anything was better than sitting back in camp and watching him die. The chances of finding another radio or a cache of usable penicillin were remote, but it was Hex's only hope. Alex concentrated on that hope and pushed everything else to the back of his mind.
'You'll live,' he said, looking Hex squarely in the eye.
'And you always keep your word. Right, Alex?'
'Right,' said Alex.
While Paulo nursed Hex, the rest of them spent the hour or so left before nightfall getting ready for the trek. Amber and Li boiled up water and collected fruit. There was no point in keeping the remains of the komodo tail – meat went off too quickly in the tropical heat – so they buried it well away from the camp. Alex cut a couple of strong, fibrous vines and sat by the fire, splitting and plaiting them into one long and four short lengths of rope.
They worked in silence, each wrapped in their own thoughts. Every now and then one of them would stare out to sea or search the sky, but no rescuers appeared and slowly the hope that their SOS signal had been picked up began to fade.
By the time the sun began to sink below the horizon, the camp was neat and tidy and the two rucksacks were packed, ready for the morning. Everyone had showered under the bamboo aqueduct and their socks were laid out in a row on the bench in front of the fire to dry. Alex looked around and nodded. He only had one more thing to do, but he had to wait until Hex was asleep first.
'How're you doing?' he asked, moving over to Hex's bed.
'I'm still here,' said Hex, struggling up onto his elbows. His face was flushed and his shirt was soaked with sweat. He grimaced with pain as Paulo gently removed the poultice and checked the wound. The swelling was beginning to spread up the leg and the whole area was red and angry-looking. The poultice had absorbed a lot of the poison, but the cut was full of pus and there was a bad smell coming off it. Paulo looked at Alex and shook his head before going off to make a new poultice.
'Time for some more aspirin,' said Alex, reaching for his survival tin.
'How am I doing?' asked Hex, after he had swallowed the tablets.
'Great,' lied Alex. 'Looking good.'
Alex took the first watch. One by one the other three smeared fresh coconut oil over any exposed skin and climbed, yawning into their beds. Alex sat by the fire, piling green branches onto the flames to create a protective haze of smoke against mosquitoes. He was waiting for Hex to fall asleep. The sun had set and the sudden, tropical night had arrived before he was finally sure.
Silently, Alex picked up the four shorter ropes he had made and moved over to Hex's bed. He stood for a moment, listening to Hex's fever-fast breathing, then he crouched down in the glow from the fire and began the job of converting the bed into a stretcher.
TWENTY-ONE
Li stared up at the cliff face. It towered above her: a vertical slab of dark, volcanic rock rising out of the mountainside. it looked smooth and featureless at first glance, but Li had been studying it for a good five minutes as she planned her route to the top and her sharp eyes had picked out hundreds of tiny ledges and crevices.
A little way down the slope behind her, the others were sitting with their backs against a group of rocks. It was only mid-morning but they were glad of the rest. Drenched in sweat, they had been on the move since dawn, struggling through primary rainforest to reach the lower slopes of the mountain. As well as carrying two rucksacks, two coils of rope and the rolled bunk blankets on their backs, they were also hauling Hex along on a makeshift stretcher-bed. Alex and Paulo had taken the heavier, head-end of the stretcher, with Amber and Li bringing up the rear. Alex had secured his vine ropes to each corner of the stretcher, where they served as four shoulder straps and helped to distribute the weight more evenly, but still the constant friction of the bamboo stretcher poles had rubbed blisters into the palms of their hands.
Li glanced over at the rest of the group, then turned back to the cliff. She mapped the route one more time, turning her head from side to side and squinting as she concentrated.
'Easy peasy,' she murmured, stepping back. She backed straight into Paulo, who had left the others and was hovering anxiously behind her.
'Li. You should not climb first,' he said. 'Not without a rope. Let me climb for you. Please.'
&nbs
p; Li sighed. 'Listen to me, Paulo. It was funny on the Phoenix. Here, it's just a pain.'
'I am sorry?' said Paulo.
'Stop treating me as though I'm made of glass, Paulo!'
'But I am only caring for you.'
'Don't be ridiculous!' snapped Li. 'I could climb that with my eyes shut, so why not let me get on with it?'
Paulo hung his head. 'I could not bear it if you fell.'
He looked so miserable that Li reached up and put her arms around his neck. 'I won't,' she said softly. 'I promise.'
Paulo beamed down at her, then they both went to join the others.
'OK,' said Li, tying one end of the thinner, nylon line around her waist with a bowline. 'Here's the plan. I go first. The rest of you, watch where I put my hands and feet. Once I'm up here, I'll anchor the rope and keep it taut for the next climber.'
'What about Hex?' asked Amber, quietly. They all looked over at the stretcher. Hex was sweating too, but with fever, not exertion. His leg was swollen, despite their attempts to keep the wound as clean as possible, and his face was pale and gaunt.
'That's what this is for,' said Alex, picking up the thicker rope that had originally tied the tender up to the Phoenix. 'Once you and Paulo are up there, I'm going to tie one end of this rope to the nylon line and make a sort of a cradle out of the other end for the stretcher to rest in. Then you pull up the thicker rope—'
'And use that to haul him to the top,' finished Paulo, nodding with understanding.
'Good,' said Li. She sat down and began untying her boot laces. 'I'm going barefoot,' she said, hauling off her boots and socks and stuffing them into the top of one of the rucksacks. 'Just to test the footholds for the rest of you. See ya!'
She walked to the base of the cliff and let the coiled nylon rope drop to the ground. Paulo hurried to pick it up and she turned to wink at him then, casually, began to climb. It was like watching a slow dance. Li seemed to flow up the cliff, gripping tiny ledges of rock with her fingers or toes. She moved one hand or foot at a time, then made sure of her holds before moving again. The coil of rope Paulo held grew smaller and smaller as she made her way higher, a tail of rope swinging behind her. In less than five minutes, she was on the mountain slope at the top of the cliff and securing the rope to a large boulder.
The other three shared out the rucksacks and bunk blankets and strapped them on, then Amber climbed next, with Li belaying the rope for her. Paulo followed more slowly. He was not a natural climber, and his arm and leg muscles were shaking with the strain by the time he hauled himself over the higher slopes and collapsed onto the stony ground.
Alex used a bunk blanket and the longer length of vine rope to secure Hex to the stretcher like a baby in a papoose. Hex groaned as the rope tightened over his injured leg.
'Sorry,' muttered Alex.
'You will be,' said Hex faintly.
Alex grinned at Hex, then he tested the knots of the rope cradle one last time before giving the signal to the others to start hauling. He held onto the stretcher until it was above head height, steadying it for as long as he could, then he stepped back and watched as it made its slow, spinning way up the cliff. When the stretcher finally disappeared over the top of the stone outcrop, Alex sucked in a lungful of air and realized he had been holding his breath through the whole procedure.
While he waited for Li to drop the nylon line back down to him, Alex put down another trail-marker. This time he used three small rocks, one resting on top of another and the third placed ahead of the first two to show the direction of travel. He had left direction-markers all the way along the route. Sometimes it was a cleft stick with another stick resting in the cleft, pointing the way ahead. Sometimes it was a clump of tall grasses, tied together in an overhand knot, with the tops of the grasses nodding the way to go.
Alex stared back along their route, visualizing each marker all the way back to their lagoon. There he had used stones to make a large direction arrow in the sand, above the high-tide line. The markers were a way of trying to stop the doubts which were building up in his mind. What if he had made the wrong decision? What if rescuers were, even now, arriving at the lagoon, pulling their boats up onto the empty beach, walking around the deserted camp? Surely they would spot the stone arrow? Surely they would follow his markers across the island? Again, Alex had an image of the rescuers shaking their heads in puzzlement as they left the lagoon behind and headed back out to sea. He groaned quietly. The lagoon was hidden away in a fold of the rainforest, but Alex scanned the sea around it, checking one last time for any sign of boats before they left this side of the island. Then the rope dropped down the cliff again and Alex wiped the sweat from his face and hands before tying the rope around his waist and starting to climb.
Half an hour later, they had made their way around the shoulder of the mountain and were standing on the lower slopes, looking down on the northern side of the island. The south side, with the lagoon and their camp, was now hidden behind the mountain.
'What do you think?' asked Paulo, peering down into the green blanket of rainforest spread out at their feet.
'I think we just wasted our time,' groaned Amber, easing her T-shirt away from her sweaty neck. 'It looks just the same as the other side! And I can't see any camp.'
'What were you expecting?' giggled Li. A big sign, maybe? "Follow the red arrows to secret Japanese wartime camp"?'
Paulo sniggered behind his hand and even Alex could not stop a tired smile spreading across his face. Amber turned her back on them and sat down beside the stretcher to loosen her boots for a moment.
'Li's right,' said Alex, scanning the land below. 'It's not going to be obvious – and it's not going to be out here in the open, either.'
'OK, Mister Clever,' pouted Amber. 'You tell me. Where do we start looking?'
Alex let his gaze travel down to the sea, then he followed the coastline until he came to a V-shaped wedge of blue where the sea showed through the forest. He pulled out his compass and took a reading. The blue wedge was directly north north-west of their position. 'See that?' he said, pointing down to the coast. 'We can't see it from up here, but I think that's a rivermouth. There's probably a cove down there where a large boat could be hidden – and a stretch of beach to build a camp. If I was looking for a good wartime base, that would be it.'
'OK,' said Li. 'I'll buy that. Shall we go?'
'Guys?' said Amber, uncertainly. They turned around and she pointed to the stretcher. Hex was staring sightlessly up at the sky with fever-bright eyes. His skin had taken on a yellow tinge and a red rash had appeared on his chest. Alex hurried over and laid a hand on Hex's forehead. It was burning with a dry heat.
'I'll walk,' said Hex, staring past Alex's shoulder. 'I can walk!'
Hex's eyes fluttered closed again and Amber and Alex shared a look across the stretcher.
'We'd better find this army camp soon,' whispered Amber. 'I don't think we have much time.'
They picked up the stretcher and hurried on down the mountain. Everyone was getting tired now and the stretcher tugged at their arms, threatening to pull them down the slope with it. Soon the muscles down the backs of their legs ached with the effort of holding back but they stumbled on, filled with a new sense of urgency. Gradually the slope grew gentler as they reached the tangled undergrowth of the rainforest fringe. They found a game trail and followed it until they were in the shade of the primary rainforest.
There they stopped and laid the stretcher down while Alex took a reading from his compass. Nobody spoke – they just stood there like exhausted horses, covered in a sheen of sweat and breathing hard. Hex tossed and turned beneath the high, green canopy of leaves. His white face seemed to shine with a pale light in the shadows. Li looked down at him and her lower lip trembled.
'He looks like a ghost already,' she whispered.
'This way,' said Alex grimly, pocketing the compass. He moved off, setting the pace, forcing them on through the forest and stopping only to take compass readings
. He had made a promise and he would not give up, even though he could see that Hex was growing steadily worse as the bacteria multiplied in his blood. The doubts were loud in his head, now. If there was a camp, it might take them days to find it. And what were the chances of finding a second radio or some antibiotics? The doubts marched around his head in time with his marching feet until, at last, something interrupted his thoughts. Alex stumbled to a halt and lifted his head.
'Listen,' he said. 'Can you hear – surf?'
At first all they could hear was the harsh breath wheezing in their throats and their own hearts drumming in their ears, but gradually their breathing eased. Amber cocked her head, trying to filter out the rustle of the leaves and the song of the crickets.
'I hear it,' she said.
The canopy grew thinner and sunlight began to filter through as they hurried on. Finally, there was only a thin barrier of undergrowth between them and the sea. Gently, they laid down the stretcher and Alex pushed his way through the bushes, ignoring the thorns. He parted the leaves with his hands and looked out into the bright sunshine. The air hissed through his teeth as he drew in a sharp breath and he became very still.
'What?' said Amber, pushing through behind him, Paulo and Li on her heels. 'What can you see? Is it an army camp?'
'No,' said Alex. 'It's better than that.'
TWENTY-TWO
Alex stood hack to let the others see. They stared out through the leaves and their faces slackened with shock. There was the rivermouth, the sandy beach and the sheltered cove, all as Alex had predicted. But there was also something else. Floating in the middle of the cove like a shimmering, white mirage, was a beautiful, sleek, ocean-going motor yacht.
'Dios Mio,' said Paulo as he saw the bristling collection of communications masts and aerials rising from the highest deck of the yacht. 'We are saved!'
Alex said nothing. He was too full of emotion to speak. He pushed past the others, knelt by the stretcher and squeezed Hex's hand, trying to let him know that everything was going to be all right.