by Clare Revell
“Here,” Jim said, handing her one. “Do you want a fire lit?”
“Please.” Ailsa half-filled the pan with river water and then tore the leaves into small pieces. She put them into the pan and then placed it on top of the fire.
Lou watched with interest. “How long do you heat it for, Ailsa?”
“About an hour or so.”
Staci came back. “What’s cooking?” she asked.
“Painkillers of some description,” Lou told her. “Why?”
“I thought it was lunch.”
“You don’t want to eat again already, surely?” Ailsa said.
“That’s our Staci—permanently hungry,” Lou grinned. “She takes after her brother.”
Jim tossed the pen at her again. “It takes one to know one. Once Ailsa has finished with the fire, kiddo, I’ll do you lunch.”
Staci smiled. “Thank you.”
Lou tossed the pen back. “Throw that again and I’m keeping it. So is this an ointment I rub in?”
Ailsa shook her head. “No, you drink it.”
Drink it? Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
As soon as Ailsa took the pan off the fire, Jim opened a couple of tins and put them in the remaining pan. He whistled as he heated them.
Ailsa strained the now green liquid through a T-shirt into a bowl. She then poured the liquid into an empty water bottle. “Done,” she said. “It might taste a little strange at first, but it works. You don’t need much. One mouthful usually does it.”
“Looks pretty.” Lou took the bottle and sniffed. “Smells interesting. Tastes…” She took a mouthful and retched trying to swallow it. “It’s horrid.” She spluttered, and then gulped it, trying not to let the liquid touch her tongue again.
“Give it a few minutes. I think you’ll find it worth it. It lasts a good six hours before it wears off. “
Jim dished up.
Staci looked at hers. “Is that all?”
“It’s better than nothing, kiddo.” He gave bowls to Ailsa and Lou, before continuing to speak. “The only chance we have of being rescued is to get to the other side of Agrihan. I looked at the map and chart last night. There is an abandoned air force base on the far side of the island. There might be a radio or something there we could use to call for help.”
Lou snorted. “Jim. Ailsa’s been here for six years. Surely she’d have found it?”
Ailsa shook her head. “First I’ve heard of it, but it‘s a big island. As I said earlier, the tribe never goes more than one day’s journey from the village. All the crops are grown locally. The hunters go out in search of meat occasionally, but the women never accompany them.”
“What sort of animals?” Staci asked, looking nervously over her shoulder.
“Wild boar, rabbits mainly. They set traps for them. Nasty metal ones, which they hide. We lost six villagers to them last year, but they still keep using them.”
Lou suddenly realized that her leg no longer hurt. It ached, but it didn’t hurt anymore. “You were right about that green stuff, Ailsa.”
“It is working?”
“Fantastic. Heaps better than pain reliever. I can’t feel a thing. Does it work for migraine?”
“I don’t know. I don’t get headaches at all.”
“Lucky you.” Lou tucked the bottle into her bag. Hopefully it’d ward off any migraines she might get. She hadn’t had one in a while, which wasn’t a good sign. She would go weeks, and then have several cluster headaches which always left her drained.
They spent the afternoon swimming in the river, as Staci said they could wash their clothes at the same time if they wore them in the water.
Lou watched enviously from the bank as Deefer and the others splashed in the river.
Ailsa glanced over at Lou. “Want a hand into the water? You shouldn’t have to miss out.”
Lou looked across at Jim and then back at Ailsa. “What about my leg? If it’s infected shouldn’t I keep it dry?”
“There are ways around that problem.” Jim mimed sawing his leg just above the knee.
Lou poked her tongue out at him. “It’d be nice if it were possible, preferably without doing that. I don’t want to be a pirate…” She laughed. “Hey, I just thought, Captain Kirk could also be “Arrrr, Jim Lad” and find himself a parrot and an eye patch and then he’d be right at home on our desert island in the sun.”
The others squealed with laughter.
Jim stuck his hands on his hips and looked daggers at her.
Ailsa elbowed him. “Jim, can you give me a hand?”
Together they headed back over to Lou.
Staci took Lou’s crutches.
Jim lifted her in his arms. “You weigh a ton,” he joked. He waded into the river.
Ailsa held Lou’s injured leg above the water.
Jim gently lowered Lou below the surface.
The water was wonderfully cool. Lou didn’t want to get out.
But Jim carried her out of the water and into the sunlight to dry.
“Thank you,” she said.
Jim grinned. “You’re welcome. At least you won’t smell now.”
Lou rolled her eyes. “And I thought you were my friend.”
“Oh, I am,” he said seriously. “That’s why I hadn’t told you before.” He set her down on the river bank. “Now if you don’t mind, I have a sister I need to drown.”
6
Lou watched the others play, her clothes steaming in the hot sunlight.
As they all climbed out of the water to join her, the ground shook again.
Jim frowned. “How often does this happen, Ailsa?”
“I’ve only known it to happen once before. Nothing came of it, though.”
“Maybe that was your disaster, Lou,” Staci said thoughtfully.
“My what?” Lou replied, puzzled.
“You know, the one that wiped out all those people.”
“Oh, the pictographs in the temple? It could be. Although that said it was some kind of divine retribution. You can hardly call a volcano or earthquake that. They are an act of nature. Not an act of God. Not that I believe in God. Not like you and Jim do anyway.” Lou brushed the thought off, not wanting to scare Staci, but thinking about it, the scenario fitted perfectly.
“So, Jim, where’s this air force base, then?” Staci asked, changing the subject again.
Jim got out the map and showed them. “It’s here. It’s marked abandoned, but hopefully they left radio equipment behind.”
“And if they didn’t?”
“We’ll cross that bridge if we get to it.”
“We’ll have to pass the volcano to get there,” Staci said worriedly.
“That’s not a problem,” Jim said. He looked at Ailsa. “Is it?”
Ailsa looked at him. “The volcano is taboo. It’s forbidden territory. It’s the one place the natives really fear. They won’t go anywhere near it. Especially with all these tremors.”
“That’s due to normal seismic activity—nothing worse.”
“There haven’t been tremors for two years. The volcano hasn’t erupted since I’ve been here and from what I gathered from the natives, not for at least fifty years before that.”
“Knowing our luck—” Staci began.
Jim cut her off sharply. “Don’t say it, kiddo.”
Lou looked up, the memory of her dream coming back to her, along with an overwhelming desire to get as far away from here as possible. “The other statue—the one in the temple. There were three in the inner chamber, in the place of honor. Each with their own altar. Oneki and Xantic I told you about. The other is the reason for the circular pattern to everything. The amulet and why the village is built around a central point. Jim, we have to get away from here.”
“What are you talking about? Ailsa, do you know?”
“I had as little to do with their religion as possible, but she does make sense. They respected my beliefs and didn’t make me go to any of the ceremonies.”
“Why?”
“Kuriarikan.”
“Who?”
”Kuriarikan. The cushions and covers we used were taken from his altar.”
Jim shook his head. “So....?”
“Kuriarikan is the god of fire and brimstone.”
“Satan, then? The fallen angel of hell?”
“The volcano god?” Staci asked.
Ailsa nodded. “Annual sacrifices are made to appease him and keep him sweet, that sort of thing. He was personified in the volcano. If the temple was violated, a blood sacrifice had to be made or he would bring a great disaster on the village and surrounding land.”
“They don’t seriously think that the volcano would erupt?” Jim laughed.
Ailsa and Lou exchanged looks. “I don’t know,” Ailsa replied. “They haven’t risked it since I’ve been there. There are other obscure laws concerning the volcano. Mainly about women and what they can and can’t do. Being seen and not heard, for example. I may have made things worse by speaking to Amio the way I did.”
Jim rolled his eyes. “Oops.”
“Yeah, oops. Lou’s right. We need to get further away—at least a day’s journey. They won’t follow us further than that.”
The ground shook slightly beneath their feet.
Staci looked scared. “Jim…”
“Easy, kiddo,” he said, reaching out for her. “Nothing to worry about.”
“Jim, the tremors will make them come after us. We have to go now,” Ailsa said.
“But it’s getting dark,” Staci objected.
“We can’t stay here,” Ailsa insisted. She covered over the remains of the fire.
Jim gathered up all their things.
“Do we follow the river?” he asked her.
Ailsa shook her head emphatically. “No, they’ll expect that. Our best bet is to head for the volcano. We should be safe there.”
Staci looked at Lou. “From the unfriendly natives perhaps. Don’t tremors precede a volcanic eruption?”
“Not always. Only harmonic ones, not ordinary ones.” She held out a hand. “Can you help me up please?”
Staci pulled Lou up and then shouldered her rucksack. “How do you tell the difference?”
“With a lot of scientific equipment. But Jim thinks we’ll be all right…so lead on.”
The ground shook again and Staci grabbed Jim’s arm. “Are you sure that heading towards the volcano is a good idea?”
“It’s the safest way, kiddo.”
Staci frowned. “I don’t see how, but if you insist.”
Jim took Deefer’s lead and they set off through the forest.
The ground shook at regular intervals.
Lou hated them because she lost her footing with each tremor.
Staci was terrified, obvious by the way she stuck to her side.
Jim may not seem bothered, but Lou knew him well enough to know he was disturbed. He was probably praying as he walked. Not that praying would do them any good. After all, it hadn’t so far.
They walked until first light.
Lou stopped. “Jim, that’s enough. I’m tired. My leg hurts. Staci’s exhausted. We have to stop.”
Jim shook his head. “We need to keep going.”
“You keep going.” She leaned against the tree, slowly sliding down it. “I need to rest.”
“Fine. Two hours.”
“And the rest. I can’t go any further. Deefer’ll keep watch in his sleep if we ask him to.”
Ailsa looked around. “We should be all right here.”
“Too bad if we’re not,” Lou muttered.
“I’ll take first watch,” Jim said.
The girls settled down. Staci and Ailsa were soon asleep.
Deefer put his head on his paws and cocked an ear.
Jim took out the logbook and plumped down on the ground next to Lou. “Budge up a bit, mate.”
Lou shifted slightly so Jim could lean against the tree, too. “How’s it going?”
He opened the book and began to write. “Slowly. I decided to number the days now,” he said. “I’ll put the date in, followed by day whatever to indicate how long we’ve been on the island. For example, today is November twentieth and day three.”
“Sounds good to me, but really, only day three? It seems so much longer than that, already. Are we really in no danger from the volcano?” she asked.
Jim glanced over at her. “We can’t outrun it if we are. And at your pace we can’t cover more than half a mile a day. That isn’t a problem, before you say anything. I know we came looking for my parents, and I also know we’re now just as lost. But there is nothing I can do about that. We just have to pray that if the volcano does blow, the blast goes the other way and not towards us.”
“But we’re not sharing that piece of information with Staci, I take it.”
He shook his head. “That’s between you and me and the logbook. And we both know she doesn’t read it.”
“OK.” The sun blazed down and the heat and humidity rose. Lou let her eyes slide shut.
“Want some more painkiller stuff?”
“Later. I’m exhausted now. Might just check my eyelids for holes for a few minutes.”
~*~
As light dawned on their fifth day on the island, they reached the edge of the lava fields. The volcano towered above them, still about a mile away.
Jim would have gone faster if he could. He was convinced he could see a faint jet of steam issuing from the crater, but he merely left a passing note in the logbook.
He was more concerned about Lou—but he didn’t write anything about that in the logbook.
What little color she’d had when they’d been shipwrecked had long since gone. She grew tired far quicker than anyone else, yet rarely seemed to sleep. And although she laughed and joked, the hollow look in her eyes was evidence that she was playing along and hiding pain. She wouldn’t talk about it, no matter how much he tried to draw her out.
“We should be safe now,” Ailsa said. “They won’t follow us here.”
Jim nodded. “OK, then. We rest here for the day.”
Lou sank to the ground. “I don’t feel so good,” she said. The ground shook again and she half-heartedly tapped it with her fist. “I wish you would stop doing that.”
As Jim made a fire, Staci and Ailsa made breakfast.
Staci looked across at Lou. “She’s asleep.”
“She ought to eat something though,” Jim said. “I’ll wake her.” He shook her. “Lou?”
She groaned, but didn’t wake up.
Jim felt her forehead. “She’s burning up.”
Ailsa went over to him. “She hasn’t felt well all night, but didn’t want to hold us up. The pain killer I made isn’t helping anymore.”
Deefer nuzzled Lou worriedly and Staci pulled him away.
Jim gently removed the splints and pulled Lou’s trouser leg up. He groaned.
Red streaks ran the length of her leg and pus oozed from some of the wounds.
Ailsa frowned. “She didn’t say it was this bad.”
“She wouldn’t. I need to clean and dress this. I’ll go and get some water.”
When he came back, Staci and Ailsa had changed Lou into a pair of shorts. He knelt by her side and prayed before starting to gently clean her leg. “We need to bring her temperature down.”
Ailsa put a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll make something to help. Can you start a fire and put some water on?”
“Sure.”
Ailsa disappeared into the forest.
Jim relit the fire and heated some water.
Ailsa came back, tossed some leaves into the pan and wrapped the rest up. She put them into her rucksack. When the leaves had infused into the water, she tore her veil into strips and soaked them in it. She rubbed the cloth over Lou’s face and arms and placed the wet leaves over the wounds.
Staci looked at
Jim. “Now what?”
“Now we let her sleep and pray she’ll pull through.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“She will.”
Staci shot him one of her ‘don’t treat me like a child’ looks. “And if she doesn’t?” she persisted.
Jim sighed. “I really don’t know. We’ll stay put for now and see how she is when she wakes.”
7
Jim sat by Lou, lost in thought, praying. Staci told him it was pointless, but he carried on nonetheless.
Over the next few hours, Lou’s fever raged. Finally in the late afternoon, her fever broke. Her eyes flickered open. “Are you still there?”
Relief flooded him. “I could say the same for you. How are you feeling?”
“Better than I was.”
“Why didn’t you say something? Ailsa made something to help. But next time, please say something. I can’t do much to heal your leg, but at least I can make sure you rest more.”
Lou sat up, shifting slowly backwards to lean against the tree. “I didn’t want to be a burden. The sooner we get to this air base, the sooner we can call for help, right?”
“You’re not a burden. If you were, we’d’ve tossed you overboard weeks ago. And we’ve had this conversation. For better or worse we stick together. It’s the only way to get through this and get home.”
“Yeah.” Lou tilted her head. “What about the earthquakes?”
“Nothing really noticeable since you told them to stop. I guess they were listening.”
“Funny. We should keep going. We need to find that base. See if they located your parents yet and call someone to get you guys out of here to see them or find them.”
Jim frowned, tempted to call her on that, but decided against it. Now wasn’t the time to pick a fight. “We will. Tomorrow.”
“No, now. We’ve wasted enough time.”
“Tomorrow.” Jim gave her one of his looks. “I won’t argue, but you will do as you’re told for once.” He lowered his voice. “Your leg is infected.”
“Then the sooner we get help the better, right? And that ain’t gonna happen sitting here.” She scowled. “But fine, if that’s what you want.”
He nodded. “Yes, it is.”
“Where are the others?”
“Gathering firewood and something to eat. They should be back any minute, so I’ll get the fire going with what wood we have.” He gave her one of his long looks and noticed her shift uncomfortably. “And I want you to eat something this time. You’re losing weight again, and I don’t want Staci following your example and skipping meals.”