Matsuri strode over. “Hoi? Akane. What are you doing here?”
Akane lay listless, wedged between two large root-fins. Her face, hands, and clothes were covered in sweat and grime. She was lying on a silvery survival blanket.
The orange color came from the coveralls she was wearing—a standard-issue SSA uniform for flight crew. She had on a survival vest, which was covered with pockets large and small and held up by suspenders.
Akane slowly turned in the direction of the voice. “Matsuri?” A look of surprise came into her vacant eyes. When she sat up, it was with a frailty that made her seem three times her age.
“Want something to eat? They’re yummy.”
“Yes!” Akane’s eyes went wide.
For the next ten seconds, she attacked Matsuri’s stash with a vengeance. Then she looked up. “Thank you, but I really shouldn’t be doing this. I’m not supposed to let anyone help me.”
“Hoi? Why not?”
“I’m doing solo survival training—except it’s more of a test than training.”
“Oh.” Matsuri nodded. Solo survival training was widely known as the most severe regimen used by the military—and by the SSA, as it happened. Personnel doing the training were given a limited amount of water, food, and gear and dropped off by helicopter in the middle of nowhere. Then they would have to navigate back to a designated place within a set amount of time, entirely on their own.
It was a test of decision-making ability, stamina, survival skills, and psychological resilience in the noisy solitude of the jungle. The training was famous in the military for higher-than-normal rates of attrition due to mental instability and in some cases, death.
Yukari had undergone solo survival training herself. In her case, it had gone rather smoothly after she met Matsuri on her first day in the jungle. With Matsuri’s expert guidance, she’d had no trouble making it back home. As a test, it’d been a failure, but the SSA had already been committed to using Yukari before the test, and the addition of Matsuri to the team had been an added bonus.
“I had no idea you were even still on the island.”
“It was supposed to be a secret. They were afraid that if you knew, one of you would try to help me. I camped overnight in the security forces’ training area and trained for three days, then they brought me out here by helicopter.”
“Wait, so how many days have you been in the jungle?”
“This is my third day. But if I don’t make it home by midnight, I’ll fail.”
Akane lowered her eyes.
They had only given her a day’s worth of food. She’d received general survival skills training for tropical and subtropical regions, but they hadn’t taught her anything specific about the geography or edible flora of this particular island.
Akane had divided the food she was given into three portions, taking care not to eat too much on any day, but she was already at her limit with hunger. No matter how much she rested, once her strength failed it did not come back.
“We heard that you dropped out and went back to Japan.”
“That’s what they told you, huh.”
“Yukari was very upset. She still is. She wanted to apologize to you.”
“What? It was my choice to come here. Yukari has nothing to be sorry about!” Using the roots on either side as handholds, Akane staggered to her feet. She folded her blanket carefully and stashed it in her pack. Then she began to walk across the loamy soil, one step at a time.
“I have to get back…have to get back by midnight.”
“Hoi! Well, if you want a shortcut—”
“No! Don’t tell me!” Akane said sharply. “Don’t help me. If you help me, I won’t pass. Please.”
Matsuri saw the look in Akane’s eyes and fell silent. After a few moments she said, “You’ll be fine, Akane. The weather’s on your side today.”
“Thanks. I’m going to give it one last shot.”
Matsuri scanned their surroundings. Then she pointed up in the sky. “Look! Swallows! Ooh! Look at all of them!”
Akane followed the direction her fingers were pointing. Indeed, something was darting through the air beyond the dense foliage of the trees.
“Those are swallows?”
“Yep. They’re awful good at flying, those swallows.” Matsuri picked up her satchel and stood. “Hoi! I’m going to go gather some more fruit before I head back home.” She walked off into the jungle, disappearing within moments, leaving Akane to ponder what she had said.
If she’s going to gather more fruit, that means she’s probably not headed straight back to base…
Akane was sure the other girl had been trying to tell her something indirectly, but what?
She looked back up at the wheeling swallows.
For some reason, it was a relief to see their familiar sweptback wing shape again. Swallows were common near her home in Japan. When they had first dropped her off in the jungle two days before, Akane had stared wide-eyed at everything, amazed by the rich abundance of life. Her joy hadn’t lasted long.
Akane prided herself on having paid attention during biology class, but for whatever reason, she had never learned much about the tropics. If I’d only studied more, I might know what around here is edible…
Something brushed across the back corner of her mind. The wheeling swallows—swallows wheeled like that when they were catching insects to eat.
Which meant that there were insects up there. Probably a lot of them. Insects tended to swarm most immediately following eclosion—their emergence from a chrysalis, in other words.
Akane pricked up her ears. She could hear it now, a mass thrumming of wings. It was high-pitched. Flies? No, bees. They were most definitely small bees or wasps. She had read something about jungle wasps in a book about parasitic life-forms.
Akane wracked her brains for any shred of memory that might prove helpful.
Then it hit her: fig wasps!
Fig flowers bloomed internally—they were hard to see from the outside. For pollination, fig trees relied on wasps. Her biology teacher had called it a “masterpiece of symbiosis.”
Fig flowers had male flowers, female flowers, and a third kind where wasps laid their eggs. Two wasps would actually mate inside the fruit, in contact with a male flower. Then, with the pollen still attached, the female wasp would fly off in search of an appropriate flower in which to lay her eggs. Since the female flower of the same plant was not shaped well for egg-laying, the wasp would look for a different tree, and pollination was accomplished.
How did I not realize this before now?
She had heard the humming of wasp wings several times already during the last two days and avoided them, fearing a sting. But she had never put two and two together to realize that where there were fig wasps, there were figs!
Akane walked closer to where the swallows danced in the sky. It didn’t take her long to find a fig tree laden with fruit. She pulled off a fig and split it in half. It was perfectly ripe and full of juice. Akane crammed it in her mouth without even peeling off the skin, the sweet juice filling her mouth.
Her eyes watered with tears. She ate three of the figs, one right after the other. The fourth had a wasp inside it. After that, she was a little more careful in choosing her fruit. When she was satisfied, she stopped eating, afraid of a bellyache.
She picked off another ten good-looking figs and stashed them in her pack. The feeling of strength flowing back into her body was palpable. She checked her watch and found it was just after two o’clock.
I might just make it home. I’ve got another ten hours—four until sundown.
Matsuri must have walked from base, she reasoned. And if she can do it, so can I.
Then a troubling thought occurred to her. Had Matsuri helped her find the figs? All she had done was point out the swallows. It certainly hadn’t seemed like a hint at the time. But Matsuri might’ve meant it as one. She had known that where there were swallows, there were figs.
But I was the on
e who put it all together.
She decided that if she made it back before the deadline, she would tell them what had happened. Even if it disqualifies me, at least I’ll be honest, and that has to count for something.
Akane pulled out her compass and verified her course. She didn’t need a guide. Hints were everywhere if she just looked: the lay of the land, the vegetation, flocks of birds, flowing streams. She wouldn’t miss another clue. Not this close to victory.
[ACT 10]
YUKARI WAS ON break, but she didn’t much feel like doing anything, so instead of going out she lay on her bed in her room and read one of the books she’d bought in Yokohama. This one was titled Zionism and Islamic Society.
She heard the quick path of footsteps approaching and someone opened her door without knocking.
“Hoi! You won’t believe how much fruit I nabbed, Yukari! Let’s eat.”
Yukari groaned and set her book down next to her pillow. “Just no durian, please.”
“No problem! I’ve got nuts and rambutan and jackfruits and figs.”
Yukari frowned. “Hey! No dirty sacks on my bed!”
Matsuri moved her satchel onto the floor and sat crosslegged on a chair. “What will it be?”
“A fig, I guess.”
Matsuri handed her the fruit and Yukari began peeling it, a disinterested look on her face. Matsuri dug the flesh out of a rambutan with her army knife. The two ate their tropical meal in silence, tossing skins and seeds into a wastebasket and using tissues to wipe the juice from their lips. Only their hands and jaws moved.
Though Matsuri was customarily cheerful, she had never been a big talker. By comparison, Yukari hardly ever stopped talking, until now. She hadn’t been much in the mood for conversation since Akane had left.
After several minutes of eating in silence, Matsuri wiped her mouth with the back of one hand and said, “So I met Akane in the jungle.”
Yukari froze. “What did you say?”
“I said I met Akane in the jungle.”
Yukari jumped from her chair. “You met Akane?” she shouted, fig seeds spraying from her lips. “In the jungle! Here?”
“Where else?” Matsuri asked.
“Why? How? Where?”
“I already told you. In the jungle. She was doing solo survival training. She’s going to fail if she doesn’t make it back before midnight tonight.”
“Wait, but that means—” Yukari’s eyes swam as her brain worked overtime to process the new information. “That means Akane hasn’t failed! They lied to us!”
“Sounds like it. They probably lied so we wouldn’t help her.”
Yukari’s face flushed with rage. Why that weasel! She dashed for the door, then stopped and whirled around. “Where was she, exactly? Was she far?”
“She was in the hills about three klicks from the eastern edge of the runway. She seemed pretty pooped.”
Three kilometers was a long way in the jungle.
“She was tired? Well, what did you do? You helped her, right?”
“Nope. I left her there and went looking for more fruit.”
“You didn’t even show her the way back?”
“She asked me not to help her.”
“Of all the—!”
Yukari stormed out of the room in a rage, ranting under her breath as she went. I don’t care why she did it. I’m going to give that woman a piece of my mind! I don’t care if it was technically the right thing to do.
Yukari ran, first to the women’s dormitory in search of Satsuki Asahikawa, and when she wasn’t to be found there, on to the training center. She ran up the stairs and knocked on the door to the lab.
The door was locked, but no one was inside.
Yukari checked around the center until she was sure no one was there.
“If she comes walking up tomorrow like nothing’s happened—”
It was time for Plan B. She could go help her, but then again, Akane was one to play by the rules to a fault. Yukari wondered if there were any way she could lead Akane to the base without her even knowing it.
She checked her watch. It was five o’clock. Hardly any time left to do anything.
She would just have to wait and trust in Akane’s ability. Even though she didn’t trust it at all.
What if she’s already here, just a little ways away? Yukari walked faster. The light outside was already an orange yellow. She made for the main gate, trailing a long shadow behind her. She told the guard she was just going out for a stroll and went through. Outside the base, Yukari stopped and held her breath. She was looking at the back of a white lab coat.
There you are.
Satsuki turned around, a look of surprise on her face. “Yukari? What are you doing outside at this time of day?”
“Just going for a little walk,” Yukari replied, a bit too quickly.
Satsuki wouldn’t know that her secret was out yet, and Yukari had nothing to gain by telling her. But what was she doing outside? Surely not waiting here for Akane’s return?
“Here to meet someone, Satsuki?”
“You might say that.”
“A guy?”
“Could be.”
“You’re not telling?”
“Do I have to?”
“No. Not really,” Yukari said.
The conversation died on the spot. The two stood, about five meters apart, both standing facing toward the jungle.
It wasn’t long before the sun brushed the ridgeline of the mountains to the west.
A hum rose from the forest as birds sang to one another, ascertaining the safety of their roosts. Far away, over the tops of the trees, Yukari saw something like a stream of black smoke.
“Bats,” she said.
“That’s what that is?” the doctor asked.
“They fly out of their caves in the evening like that. Matsuri told me.”
“They don’t attack people, do they?”
“Who knows?”
The last rays of light disappeared behind the tips of the trees.
“Yukari?”
“Yeah?”
“Look—”
“Yeah?”
They heard footsteps behind them. The two women turned. It was Kinoshita.
“Well, what do we have here?” he said bemusedly. He was dressed casually in a cotton shirt and loose-fitting slacks, but his hair was carefully combed back.
“Ooh! So you were waiting for Kinoshita?” Yukari teased.
Kinoshita and Satsuki exchanged quick glances.
“I’ll leave that to your imagination,” Kinoshita replied.
“I don’t want to be a third wheel…”
“Not at all.”
Kinoshita joined Satsuki by the big SOLOMON SPACE ASSOCIATION sign and the two stood there, showing no indications of going anywhere.
Because the sun set straight down in the tropics, it got dark very quickly. Yukari squinted, peering into the jungle, but she couldn’t see any movement at all. Already an hour had passed since she came through the gate. Satsuki had made no attempt to restart their earlier conversation, and standing around in silence was growing pretty boring.
Frustratingly enough, her anger had entirely disappeared. She was still upset that no one had trusted her, but she wasn’t entirely sure that she could have kept herself from interfering had she known. She could find absolutely no fault with them wanting Akane’s final test to be a fair one. By now, they had probably realized she was onto them, anyway. Still, if the cover story was that Kinoshita and Satsuki were having a dalliance, she didn’t want them to think she was being rude. Yukari was just about to say something when a fourth person came up behind them.
“Hoi, Yukari! Akane show up yet?”
With a few simple words, Matsuri turned the situation on its head.
Yukari looked up. Satsuki and Kinoshita were staring at the two of them in silence.
“Not yet.”
“Well, she’s still got six hours. She’ll be fine.”
“
So you knew,” Kinoshita said. It wasn’t a question.
“Oh, I ran into her in the jungle today around lunchtime.”
Kinoshita and Satsuki both turned to look at the guard by the gate, then back at Yukari.
“We were hoping to avoid that. Sorry we had to lie.”
“It’s okay. And Matsuri didn’t help her,” Yukari explained. “Akane told her not to.”
“That so?”
“You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to, but that’s what she said.”
“No, I believe you.”
“Look, I see what you’re doing, but isn’t it a little abrupt to throw a girl fresh off the boat from Japan into a solo survival scenario?”
“We spent a whole week getting ready. And we’ve been far kinder than we would be to the usual applicants. There aren’t any dangerous animals on the island, and she’s carrying a transceiver. She’ll have plenty of difficulties, but not so much danger.”
“What about the poisonous snakes and poisonous frogs?”
“We took what preventative measures we could. We taught her how to inject herself with penicillin if it came to that,” Satsuki said. “For what it’s worth, this test wasn’t my idea.”
“It was mine,” Kinoshita said. “Don’t take it out on her.”
“Whatever. It’s fine.” Yukari’s shoulders slumped. She regretted not getting a chance to chew Satsuki out, but now she was too concerned for Akane’s safety to worry much about that.
Kinoshita turned to Matsuri. “So, where was Akane when you found her?”
“About three klicks from the eastern edge of the runway.”
“And when did you see her?”
“A little after noontime.”
“I see. She’s making good progress, then.” Kinoshita walked over to the guardhouse and quickly returned.
A few moments later, a spotlight began sweeping across the sky. It came from behind the main complex and the training center—probably from the runway.
“Don’t think I’m giving her any special treatment. This level of illumination is standard. Just don’t ask me to set off the sirens.”
Thanking him was the furthest thing from Yukari’s mind, though she regretted not having thought of turning on the lights herself.
Rocket Girls: The Last Planet Page 10