‘Yeah, I know. Be nice. He’s hurt his leg. Poor boy. Can’t even do his watch duty.’ She shook her head and left. Nate sighed again and followed. Pan heard them scrambling up the cliff face. She sat down next to Sanjit.
‘She didn’t mean it,’ she said. ‘She just gets . . . frustrated.’
‘I know,’ said Sanjit. ‘Just as I know she did mean it.’
Pan laughed. ‘Yeah, I guess she did. But trust me, the rest of us don’t think that way.’
‘Maybe you should,’ said Sanjit, and Pan couldn’t think of a suitable reply.
She turned to Sam and Karl, who were sitting at the cave’s entrance and staring out towards the sea. They held hands. Pan suddenly felt something of the anger that Jen had expressed. This was pointless. It was frustrating. And the longer it went on, the worse it was going to get. Irritation, followed by argument? The sense of being a team was starting to fall apart. Boredom was a dangerous thing, an insidious drain on their strength. They all felt it, but only Jen had the honesty to express it so forcefully. Pan almost envied her. She sighed, squeezed Sanjit’s shoulder and left the cave. She climbed the cliff face. She hoped Nate wouldn’t object to two sentries, and there was nothing for her to do down there anyway. She lay down at his side.
‘What was that about the cuts in the trees?’ she asked.
‘Sam wanted us to keep the compass with the larger group, in case we had to relocate. We worked out the likeliest path back to the river, given what we remembered from yesterday. Wei-Lin suggested there might be game beyond the river – further away from the village.’ He scratched his head. ‘So, once they get to the river, they are heading into the unknown, and the cuts on the trees are to help them find their way back.’
‘Jen is so angry.’
‘Yeah,’ said Nate. ‘She is. It worries me. She’ll get us all into trouble unless she learns to curb that temper.’
‘Are you going to talk to her?’
Nate smiled. ‘Not me,’ he said. ‘I value my life too much.’
After that, they didn’t say much. Pan rested her head on her forearms and gazed at the sea. She had memories of doing exactly this, but they were scrambled and vague. A family occasion, maybe. Sitting on a beach with her mother and her brother, a completely blue sky and people splashing in the foam. Surfing. Ice creams. Rubbing lotion into her mother’s back. The memories were slippery and she felt her eyelids drooping closed. A weariness overcame her. Sea, a big sky and nothing to do. Somewhere at the back of her mind, she knew it had always made her tired.
Nate’s voice jolted her from a doziness that was accelerating towards deep sleep.
‘We’ve got company, Pan,’ he said. ‘Get the others. Now!’
Chapter 22
She wasn’t sure whether she heard it first or saw it. A motorbike, its engine a distant whine, far off to her left, just a speck on the beach, following the shoreline. For a moment she was paralysed. Not by fear, though that came quickly enough. But rather by the unexpectedness of company. The ocean had done that. Made the world seem empty. The motorbike was coming towards them, its back wheel weaving and drifting slightly in the sand.
‘Now!’ repeated Nate. His voice wasn’t loud, but there was no mistaking the urgency in it.
Pan edged over the cliff face and shimmied down. She dropped the last metre or so and landed with a grunt. Sam and Karl were as she had left them, sitting close together, staring at the sea.
‘They’re coming,’ said Pan. ‘Get up the cliff face now.’
She didn’t wait for an answer but ran into the cave. Sanjit had curled up in the corner and was sleeping, deeply, as far as Pan could tell. She shook him by the arm. He woke with a startled expression and tried, instinctively, to get to his feet.
‘Hurry,’ said Pan. ‘A motorbike. Coming this way.’
She helped him to his feet. He grabbed the makeshift crutch and hobbled to the front of the cave. His ankle hasn’t improved, Pan thought. He is still the weak link. This was going to be difficult. Outside, she took the crutch off him and threw it up onto the cliff face – there was no time to worry about who she might hit. Then she grabbed him under the arm and helped him find purchase on the cliff face. He made better progress than might be expected given his injury. Adrenaline, probably. He favoured his better foot, but still made it to the top in good time. Pan followed.
The team lay side by side next to Nate. All of them were watching the progress of the motorbike. It was much closer now.
‘Damn it!’ muttered Nate. ‘I knew I should have disabled that thing. It would have been so easy. Slash both tyres. Goddamn.’
‘Too late to worry about that now,’ said Sam. ‘What do we do?’
Nate was silent for a moment. It was clear he was deciding upon the best course of action. Pan was glad she wasn’t a leader. Too much responsibility. One mistake and everyone suffers. Maybe everyone dies. Nate screwed up his eyes in concentration.
‘Is that what I think it is?’ he asked.
Everyone looked in the direction of the motorbike. Behind it, painfully slow in comparison, a group of men stalked the shoreline. Seven or eight, it was difficult to tell at that distance. The motorbike was probably about three hundred metres ahead of the group and was closing rapidly on the cave.
‘Too late to get rid of the evidence of our occupation,’ muttered Nate. It was as if he was talking to himself, speaking aloud only to clarify his thought processes. ‘Footprints coming from the sea. Wei-Lin’s fishing expedition. And we forgot to get rid of the traces. They are bound to spot it. No. Only one option.’ He turned to the rest of the group. ‘The forest. Sanjit, how’s the leg?’
‘Okay. Not too bad. Improving.’
‘No, I mean, can you run?’
Sanjit thought for a moment, balancing the impulse towards honesty with the desire to give good news. He plumped for honesty.
‘I don’t think so.’
Nate’s eyes cleared. When he spoke it was authoritative.
‘Right. We crawl to the forest. No one is to get up until we have cover. If we can see them, they can see us. Once into the forest, we try to find the marks that Jen and Wei-Lin have made. It is important that we find them. We do not split up, we keep close. I will help Sanjit. Karl, you stay at the rear and you take the axe. Protect our backs. Okay, guys. Let’s move.’
It was probably only about twenty or thirty metres to the forest’s edge, but the crawl seemed to take forever. The worst part for Pan was taking her eyes off the pursuing group. The louder the drone of the motorbike’s engine, the more vulnerable she felt. As soon as they made it to the forest, they got to their feet and headed into the interior, Pan and Sam taking the lead. The impulse to run as fast as they could was almost overpowering, but they were aware of Nate’s and Sanjit’s slow progress behind them. Sanjit’s face was screwed in pain, but he was limping along courageously. Nate was at his side offering quiet encouragement. Karl was at the back of the group. He kept casting his eyes behind and he gripped the axe firmly in his right hand. Their pace was reasonable, but it would be inadequate if they were being actively pursued. And they all knew it. Ten or fifteen minutes, Pan estimated. The motorbike would reach the cave in less than three or four. She wondered if the rider would wait for the rest of the group to catch up. An inspection of the cave would reveal that whoever had been there had left recently. After that realisation, it would be easy to guess which way they had gone. There was only one path that they could have taken to escape – the path they were on now. Fifteen minutes, if they were lucky, and they could expect the sounds of pursuit. The thought almost made Pan run faster and she had to deliberately slow her pace. The group could not split up. They had to look out for each other. But they needed a plan and they needed it quickly. Or a miracle, she thought. She slowed a little and waited for Nate and Sanjit to catch up.
‘I know,’ said Nate. ‘I know. We have to do something.’
‘Leave me,’ said Sanjit. ‘We can’t get away. What’s the point of all of u
s getting caught because of one weak link?’
‘Because we are a team,’ said Nate. ‘And that means we do not leave anyone behind.’ He pointed to a gash on a tree a few metres ahead. ‘This way.’
Wei-Lin and Jen. They are on this path, Pan thought. We are leading our pursuers straight to them. She glanced at Nate’s face as they pushed further on into the forest. The thought must also have occurred to him.
‘I know what you’re thinking, Pan,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry. It’s under control.’
Pan had no idea how it was under control. Whichever way she looked at it, the notion of control just didn’t figure. But she followed him. It was twenty minutes before they heard the sound of pursuit. Faint at first, the distant rustling of branches, but getting louder and closer. Nate slowed and brought the group together into a huddle.
‘Listen up,’ he whispered. ‘I don’t want a discussion. I don’t want a debate. This is what is going to happen. You will all go in that direction.’ He gestured to his left. ‘Find somewhere to hide. Dig down into the undergrowth, cover yourself with leaves. Or climb a tree. Be quick. Stay there until it’s safe. Then stay longer. I’m talking a minimum of an hour. Listen up for Wei-Lin and Jen. If you don’t hear them after an hour, follow the gashes in the trees until you do.’
‘But—’
‘No time, Karl. When you meet up with Jen and Wei-Lin, head for the beach, quietly. But don’t leave the forest. They will probably have left someone to keep guard. Wait until five-thirty in the morning and then swim out to the meeting point, wait for Gwynne. His arrival will attract attention and I don’t want you guys on the beach when that happens. Is that understood?’
‘What about you?’ said Sam.
‘I’m the decoy. I’ll run through the forest, away from the path that Wei-Lin and Jen have left. With luck they’ll follow me.’
Pan knew what he wasn’t saying. Without luck, their pursuers would split up and search until they found them all. He was banking on them being undisciplined. He was betting all their lives on it.
‘What happened to “the team stays together”?’ said Karl.
‘I’ll meet you at the rendezvous point at six in the morning.’ Nate continued as if Karl hadn’t spoken. ‘They won’t be able to track me all day and all night. I will lose them. But I will not join you until the last possible moment. Now go. Quickly. Hide. And don’t make a sound.’
His tone didn’t brook any argument. And the plan made sense. They knew that. Perhaps if Sanjit had been fully fit they could have outrun them as a group, but under these circumstances, it was not an option. Nate’s plan was their only chance. The group made to leave and Nate grabbed Pan’s arm as she turned away.
‘You are in charge, Pan, until you find Jen. Then she is. Tell her.’
Pan nodded. Nate suddenly leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. It was over almost before she was aware what was happening. Her mouth tingled and a shiver ran down her spine. Nate stepped back and grinned.
‘I’m in no danger,’ he said. ‘It’s what I do, Pan. Run. No one can run like me. No one can run as fast or as long. You know that.’
‘You should take a weapon.’
‘No. I won’t need one and it would slow me down. Trust me, I’ll run them ragged. I’ll lead them all over the island. Now go and hide.’
And then he was gone. He struck off to his right and pounded through the undergrowth. The noise he made was an assault on her ears, but Pan guessed that was the point. She turned and followed the other members of the group. Sanjit was still limping. In fact, his ankle appeared to have got worse from putting it under so much strain. It was clear that he was slowing with each step and it could only be a matter of minutes before he was forced to stop entirely. Pan urged him on, got him to lean on her shoulder and relieve some of the weight. She could hear the men, much closer and loud with danger.
They found an area where the leaf fall was deep, a brown and yellow drift of rotting vegetation. Pan stood guard as they buried themselves under the litter. She smoothed leaves over the humps in the undergrowth until they blended completely into the forest floor. When she was satisfied, she dug down and covered herself as best she could. It was possible they might have left tracks to their hiding place, but Pan hoped the very noisy Nate was leading them in the opposite direction. Someone would have to step on them before they were discovered.
The forest floor smelled of dampness and rot. Pan felt insects crawling over her neck and face and she had to resist the temptation to sneeze. She closed her eyes and held her breath. The noise of thumping feet was much louder now and she prayed that Wei-Lin and Jen would hear them approaching. She heard voices, speaking in that same guttural language she’d heard back at the village. They sounded out of breath already, which was an encouraging sign. Nate was right. There was no way they could catch him. They might have guns and supplies, but they didn’t have his legs. The noise drowned out any that Nate might be making, but Pan knew he would be creating plenty to draw them away. The footsteps gradually faded. After what felt like fifteen minutes, she could hear only the sound of her own breathing and the thumping of her heart. Pan waited another ten before she rose from the drift of leaves.
Even though she knew the others were buried, it was still difficult to spot them. She moved from one mound to the other and whispered the all-clear. Nate had specified an hour but her survival instinct overwhelmed her intention to follow his orders. They needed to keep guard, to watch for the return of Wei-Lin and Jen. She was in charge now. Until Jen came back. The group didn’t speak. They brushed the remains of leaves and earth from their faces and sat quietly. A tree, wounded by a white gash, was within eyesight, and they watched and listened.
~~~
The girls appeared without warning, and once again Pan was impressed with the silence of their movements. When Karl stood up to greet them, Jen instinctively adopted a fighting pose. The knife flashed in her hand and she crouched, knees spread and balanced on her toes. Even when she recognised the group she did not entirely relax. Pan explained what had happened and Jen accepted the leadership role without comment. She agreed that they must hide in the forest until Gwynne turned up. Pan glanced at her watch. It was just past ten in the morning. They had twenty hours to remain undiscovered.
Wei-Lin held up the two birds she had killed, but they all knew there was no way they could cook what she had caught. She dropped them in the undergrowth and buried the carcasses beneath leaves. The group watched and their stomachs tightened.
Jen led them very carefully back towards the beach and the cliff. They made camp just inside the cover of the forest, protected by the heavy shadows, but still able to see through the leaves towards the beach. Nothing moved. Pan could see the top of the cliff where they had kept watch, but it was deserted. If Nate was right, there would be a guard within a few metres, probably hiding in the cave itself in case they returned. All they could do was sit and watch and wait. Somewhere Nate was leading the group of men away from them, but no sounds of that chase could be heard. The silence meant safety. For now. The hours crept by and the sun disappeared behind thick cloud.
And then it rained.
None of them slept at all that night. Occasionally, Pan would stretch her muscles very carefully when cramp threatened. She sipped water, but it didn’t do much to keep her hunger at bay. Only when her bladder was bursting did she steal off through the undergrowth to relieve herself. The temptation to move to a more comfortable hiding place was almost unbearable. The cave was dry and relatively warm, but she had had to endure the cold rain that had soaked through to her skin. She couldn’t even sneeze, though once or twice she had to fight hard against the impulse.
Sometime before dawn, Pan saw tendrils of smoke creep above the cliff face and dissolve in the air. She nudged Jen and pointed. Everyone in the group peered towards the cave. Nobody said anything. They hugged themselves and huddled closer for warmth.
At five in the morning, Jen beckoned Pan away from
the group. They took ten minutes to move just a few metres. Jen put her mouth up to Pan’s ear.
‘The situation will have to be dealt with. Sooner or later. And sooner is better. I’ll do it now.’
‘If there’s more than one guard, you’ll need help,’ Pan whispered.
For a moment it seemed like Jen would argue, but then she nodded.
‘I’ll check it out first. But if it’s just one, I’ll deal with him immediately.’
Pan squeezed Jen’s arm. There was no alternative and Jen was the logical choice. With luck, the sounds of the sea and the patter of falling rain would mask her approach. She watched as Jen moved quietly towards the cave. She took fifteen minutes to crawl the distance to the top of the cliff, and once there she eased herself over the edge. Pan held her breath and waited, her ears straining for any sound. But she heard nothing.
Suddenly a dark shape was moving towards them and the whole group froze. When Jen spoke, it was in an urgent whisper.
‘One guard,’ she said. ‘Now it’s clear. We should move.’
She wiped the blade of the knife against her leg before tucking it back into her waistband. Pan looked away from the dark stain on her pants.
The group rose as one and moved out of the forest towards the cliff. On the horizon, the very first tinges of pink were smeared on the border of sea and sky. One by one they dropped over the cliff edge and climbed down. The cave’s mouth yawned before them but no one looked inside. Jen led them down to the sea’s edge. She bent her head to her watch.
‘Right,’ she said. ‘Dawn will be here in twenty minutes and we don’t want to be on the beach when that happens. We swim out now and tread water. Wait for Gwynne. Anyone have any problems with that?’
Pan did. She wasn’t sure if she could tread water for so long and the cold would be intense. Sanjit was another concern. He wasn’t strong to start with and his leg was getting worse and worse. She’d noticed during the night that his ankle was badly swollen. But at least once he was in the water, he wouldn’t have to put weight on it, and perhaps the cold would help with the swelling. If they could survive hypothermia then this was the safest course of action. So she said nothing. Karl went first. He held the axe in his hand until he was waist deep in the water and then he dropped it. There was nothing to be gained by keeping their weapons and it would only make swimming more difficult. Pan followed and dropped the rope in about the same spot. She was glad to get rid of it. It had been of virtually no use and she wouldn’t miss its weight. As she kicked off into deeper water the cold gripped her like a vice. It took her breath away and all the muscles in her body stiffened. Relax, she thought. Stay loose. She didn’t glance back, but she knew the others were following. She concentrated on the dark form of Karl as he swam out. Her breaststroke was still painfully slow, and he was outstripping her with every stroke. Soon Jen overtook her, and then Wei-Lin and Sam. Sanjit would be the only member of the group slower than her. She worried about him, but there was nothing she could do. Pan doubted she could keep someone else afloat. She doubted if she would be able to keep herself afloat. So she swam and tried to empty her mind of everything other than the thought of one stroke following another.
Pandora Jones: Admission Page 24