“Fuck you, Greg. Just fuck you!”
“Everyone, stop fighting.” AJ couldn’t take any more. What was happening to them? They were friends.
Not right now we’re not.
The serpent struck the boat again, and this time AJ whacked an elbow against the side wall. Pain flared up his arm and injected itself into his injured shoulder. It was only his fear that kept the pain from sending him into a blubbering mess.
The snake thrashed in the water, sending up more water. Steam filled the air, making it hard to breathe.
“Get us the fuck out of here,” said Ben. “Isn’t there a GO button on this thing?”
“It’s automated,” said AJ.
The serpent hissed again, blasting them with its fetid breath. It rose up even taller, looking down on them like a god.
Then it lunged.
The sudden attack startled everyone, and AJ threw his hands up to protect himself. He felt himself scream, but then it got trapped in his throat and he fell to silence. Pain flared through him, a white-hot agony like fish hooks in his veins.
The beast reared back, ready to strike again. Ashley lifted her camera and took a picture. The flash lit up the darkness and, like with the rat earlier, dazzled the serpent. It screeched and turned away. Mercifully, the boat lurched forward, barging the serpent aside. They rocked back and forth, almost capsizing, but they made it through. On to the next part of the ride. The next horror.
AJ was still screaming.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
Under the dim light of the fake stars, he held up his hands in front of his face. Only one hand entered his vision, however, because the other was missing, a bleeding stump in its place.
AJ threw up over the side of the boat.
Chapter Eighteen
The fishing boat entered a desert scene, cactus hanging over the river from both sides. Vultures squawked hungrily. AJ had resumed his screaming – he had no control over it now. Tasha realised he was hurt, but when she saw the bleeding stump where his right hand used to be, she reacted badly. “Oh! Oh, hell! Shit shit shit! Fuck it!”
AJ stopped screaming and spoke weakly. A shard of bone jutted from his bloody flesh. “H-Help me!”
Tasha turned to the others. “AJ needs help. He really needs help.”
Greg leant forward and saw what she was talking about. “Oh! Jesus, is that… is that real?”
“Please, help me. Please!” AJ felt his heart banging against his ribs. His hand was missing. His goddamn hand was just not there any more. A serpent, two storeys high, had bitten it clean off. His vision tilted to and fro and he found himself vomiting over the side of the boat. It felt like he was watching himself rather than experiencing anything first-hand. Was he dying? Was he leaving his body?
“We need to get off this boat,” said Greg. “We need to tie off his wrist or he’s going to… I don’t believe any of this. It’s just not… I mean, come on, man!”
“Yeah, okay,” said Ben, sounding like he was fighting panic of his own. “How do we stop this goddamn boat?”
The boat was still bobbing up and down and heading along its path, but it did so slowly. The arid scene around them was decorated by baked yellow grass and hot red clay. Flies buzzed around a large rotting carcass somewhere near the back of the room, and a pack of emaciated wolves huddled together at the edge of the river, emitting low growls as vultures perched on a withered tree branch overhead.
“Get off here,” said Greg. “There’s room.”
Tasha protested. “What? We’re still moving.”
“Only slowly. Come on, everyone out! Quickly!”
Ashley jumped out first as Greg almost threw her. Then Tasha hopped out. Ben and Greg then grabbed AJ around the torso and bundled him over the side of the boat into both girls’ arms. AJ did little to help himself, stunned motionless by the loss of his limb. He hit the ground awkwardly and was dragged along on his face as Tasha and Ashley fought to pull him to safety.
Greg jumped out and got AJ in a sitting position. He raised his bleeding stump and told Ashley to hold it there. She did so with a look of horrified revulsion.
“Hey, I need help here!” Ben was leaning over the edge of the boat with both arms outstretched. The boat was starting to pick up speed and it was taking him with it. “Pull me out, Greg.”
“Shit!” Greg rushed back to the edge of the river and grabbed Ben under the armpits. With no way of pushing with his legs, Ben was a dead weight. Greg found it hard to heave him over the edge. The lap bar was trapping him.
The boat was about to enter a tunnel at the end of the scene. If he didn’t get Ben out now, he would get carried away into the depths by himself.
“Come on, man,” Ben pleaded. “Put those muscles to good use for once.”
“You’re heavier than you look, you fat git.”
“More weight for you to shift. So shift!”
“Okay, after three. One… two… THREE!”
AJ watched in a daze as Ben flew through the air, yanked upwards by his armpits. In a strange way, he looked like a toddler being swung around by his dad, but then he hit the ground and crumpled into a heap. His chin smashed against the ground, making him swear.
Tasha went to help her brother, but he waved her off and then glared at Greg. “You couldn’t put me down a little more gently, man?”
Greg was visibly trembling, which made him somehow seem smaller. “Sorry, you okay?”
Ben rubbed at his chin. It was bleeding from a small penny-sized gash, but with all the rat bites covering him, it was pretty inconsequential. “I might never walk again, you asshole.”
Greg managed to smile.
“Help AJ,” Ashley urged, redirecting their attention. AJ was ashamed for being a burden, but he couldn’t do anything but lie on his side and stare into space. He thought Tasha might have been stroking his back, but he was too numb to know for sure.
Greg hurried over. He examined AJ’s bleeding stump while Ashley continued holding it aloft. Blood jetted rhythmically down his wrist. “He’s going to bleed out if we don’t stem the flow,” said Greg. “I’m not wearing a belt. Does anyone have one?”
“I’m wearing one,” said Tasha.
“Well, take it off. Quickly!”
Tasha fumbled at her waist and whipped off a funky gem-studded belt. Greg took it from her and frowned. “Not perfect, but it’ll have to do.”
AJ watched, a spectator of his own fate, as Greg fastened the belt around his bleeding stump and cinched it tight. AJ expected it to hurt, but he only felt a wave of ice run through his arm. He couldn’t stop staring at the sharp dagger of bone jutting out from his wrist.
“Hold him still,” said Greg. “I need to get this as tight as I can.” AJ flinched as a flash of pain finally entered his consciousness, but it was gone so quickly that he wondered if he might have imagined it. “There, okay, think I got it. The bleeding has stopped.”
There was a collective sigh, and Ashley looked at Greg. “Is he going to be all right?”
“We need to get him to a hospital.”
“That thing was real,” said Ben, staring at the river. “That giant snake chewed his hand off for real.”
No one said anything.
AJ stared at his stump. Now that it had stopped pissing blood, he could make out the blood vessels and other bits of bone. The appendage no longer seemed like it belonged to him. It was meat.
Meat with a sharp slither of bone sticking out from it. Like a turkey leg.
Ashley stroked AJ’s cheek and looked at him. “We’re going to get you out of here. Just try to relax.”
Greg huffed. “Yeah, just relax.”
Tasha hissed. “Shut up. You’re not helping.”
“Not helping? I just stopped him bleeding to death. Oh, and I dragged your brother’s deadweight ass out of the boat.”
Ben tutted. “Easy, man.”
Ashley shoved Greg in the chest. “Can you please try not to be an utter twat for five
minutes? I can’t cope with it right now.”
Greg opened his mouth to speak, but then he swallowed his words and nodded. “Yeah, okay, I’m sorry. This is all just a bit much, you know? Being an arsehole keeps me from freaking out.”
“What should we do?” asked Tasha. “I can’t move my brother without his chair, and there’s no way out other than the way we came.”
“I’m thirsty,” AJ muttered.
Greg patted his back. “It’s the blood loss. We need to find you some fluids.”
“What do we do?” Tasha asked again.
“I don’t know! I have no fucking idea. If I start to think for one second about what’s actually going on, I end up questioning my own sanity. We’re trapped in a sodding theme park ride with a life of its own and my best friend just got chewed up by a goddamn river monster. I have no idea what to do. We are in deep, deep shit.”
Tasha lowered her gaze. “Sorry. You’re right. This isn’t on you, Greg.”
“It’s on me,” said AJ. “I’m sorry. I just… I just wanted to see you all one last time.”
Greg grunted. “You’re going to America, not the moon. We’ll still see each other. Hell, we get out of this, I’ll visit you in the States every chance I get. Bit of sun, sand, and Yankee pussy. Count me in.”
Ashley slapped him. “You complete and utter shit. To think I wanted to marry you.”
Greg held his face in shock. “I… shit, I was just making a joke.”
“Some joke,” said Tasha, shaking her head in disgust.
“Come on, guys.” Ben waved a hand at them all. “Let’s not lose it with each other, okay? Your relationship issues are not really the priority right now.”
“I’m not going to America,” said AJ, making everyone look at him. Now that the words were out of his mouth, he couldn’t stop himself from adding to them. “I never got offered any deal to wrestle in the big leagues. An agent came to watch me, that much is true, but I blew my chance. I dropped Dillon and broke his arm. I chopped Tractor until he was bloody in the ring. Then, after the show, Tractor and I came to blows in the locker room. I knocked him right on his fat ass the exact moment the agent walked in to speak with me. He said I was a dangerous amateur, and a disappointment compared to the things he’d heard.” AJ huffed and shook his head. “Any other night, I would have brought the house down and got that offer to wrestle in the big leagues. That night… Everything went wrong.”
Greg frowned. “You never make mistakes in the ring. What the hell happened? There’s something you’re not telling us.”
“I went blind.”
Ben shuffled closer on his butt. “You what?”
AJ felt tears brimming, which felt like yet another betrayal by his eyes. “My vision went, and all of a sudden I was blind. I’m going blind.”
“Like your mum?” Ashley looked at him, horrified. “You have the same thing?”
“Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy. I went to my doctor the day after the match. I got the result a couple of days ago. I have it.”
Ben lowered his head. “I’m sorry, mate. That’s shit. Really shit.”
AJ sighed. “This weekend might just be the last clear memories I have of you guys. I wanted it to be special.”
“That’s why this has all been so important to you?” said Greg. “To make a few memories?”
AJ nodded. “When my mum first went blind, she stopped being who she was. She became this useless lump that couldn’t do anything for herself. She was a burden I couldn’t escape. Now I’m getting what I deserve for being so selfish. I’m going to be a burden too, and you’re all going to go on with your lives and forget about me. And I won’t blame you at all.”
Greg actually seemed to have tears in his eyes, but as much as he appeared to be sad, he was angry too. “Are you really that much of an idiot? We love you, man. If you’re going to go through this, then we’re all going to be there with you. You should have just told us. I knew you were full of shit about getting an offer to wrestle abroad. Tractor told me what happened with the agent. You’d be lucky to get a wrestling gig in this country after knocking out a promoter.”
AJ looked at him. “You knew?”
“Of course I knew. I see Tractor and his guys all the time, don’t I? You really think I wouldn’t have heard about it if you’d got some great offer from an agent?”
“W-Why didn’t you say something?”
Greg shrugged. “You’re my mate. I’m not about to embarrass you. I figured you had a reason for lying. Didn’t expect this though. I’m sorry, man.”
“Me too,” said Ashley. “I know how frightened you’ve always been of your sight going like your mum.”
AJ felt a tear strike a path down his cheek. “I always knew there was a chance. It was only denial that allowed me to get up every morning and face the days. It’s been like this sword hanging over my head. Now it’s finally fallen and the lights are going to go out.”
Greg put his hand on AJ’s shoulder. “Is there anything they can do for you? I mean, medicine’s moved on since your mum lost her sight, right?”
AJ shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe. Things haven’t progressed to that stage yet. I’ve only just got the diagnosis.” He held up his bloody stump. “I guess I have bigger problems for today.”
“I’m going back to the camp we made,” said Greg. “I’ll grab some food and water, and the first aid kit I brought in my rucksack. Then I’m going to kill whoever is responsible for this.”
“You shouldn’t go off on your own,” said Ashley. “What if you don’t come back?”
“I will, I promise.” He stood up, then eased Ashley up to stand beside him. “I’m sorry about what you heard,” he told her. “I’m a twat, I know.”
“You said you didn’t love me any more. Is that true?”
“No. I do love you. I’m just not sure what that means right now. Once we get out of this place, we can talk properly.”
Ashley didn’t look happy, but she gave a nod. That was all Greg needed to plunge into the knee-high river and begin wading back the way they had come.
“Be careful, man,” Ben shouted after him. “That thing that attacked AJ is in the next room. I think it’s a bad idea you walking off on your own.”
Greg slowed a second, as if he had forgotten what would await him and now realised his stupidity, but then he rediscovered his resolve and continued wading towards the tunnel. “If I see it, I’ll come back, but the mood I’m in right now, it would be better off hiding from me.”
“Maybe you should think about this?” Tasha shouted after him. “There’s no good you getting hurt as well.”
“If I don’t get some supplies, we could lose AJ. I’m not going to risk that.”
Nobody said anything else. They watched Greg go.
“It should be me,” said AJ. “I should be the one going to get help.”
“Yeah, well…” said Ben. “Welcome to the club. Some guys are heroes. Other guys have to sit and watch.”
AJ frowned. “What are you talking about?”
He chuckled. “My two best friends are Hulk Hogan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. You have any idea what it’s like going down the pub with you and Greg? There’s a reason I’ve been single a long time.”
AJ cleared his throat, not knowing how to take his friend’s comment. “Sorry, I thought you had game, man. You have women eating out the palm of your hand most nights.”
“Yeah, but they never leave with me, do they? I can crack a girl up, but I can’t get one to open up.”
“That’s gross,” said Tasha.
“I didn’t mean it like that, sis. I mean girls are just uptight around a guy in a wheelchair. They toy with the idea of being that lovely, sweet girl who doesn’t see the chair, but then they become a fantasy of themselves rather than anything real. They miss the point that I want a girl that doesn’t have to be anything but herself with me. I don’t need a goddamn saint.”
“Ben…” Tasha moved over to her bro
ther and rubbed his back, but he shrugged her off.
“Sis, I love you more than anyone, but it’s like AJ said about his mum – I’m a burden. You shouldn’t be sharing a flat with your thirty-year-old brother. You should be backpacking around the world or sleeping around.”
“Hey!”
“I just mean you should be having fun. Not stuck watching Peep Show reruns while you wait to pick me up from physio. It’s not your fault I was born with a damaged spinal cord.”
“Why are you saying this?”
Ben looked at her like she was stupid. “Because we’re going to die. You said this place was all wrong. I should have listened to you.”
“I had a bad feeling, yeah, but deep down I didn’t believe anything this bad would happen. I was just freaking out.”
“No, sis, you have a gut instinct about these things. You always have. It’s your superpower.”
She huffed. “What’s your power then?
“I can take really hot baths. The world will be a worse place without me.”
“Stop talking like that. We’re making it out of here.”
AJ couldn’t listen to them any more. Talking wasn’t going to help them. Surprisingly, he found strength and climbed to his feet.
Ashley fussed over him. “Hey, sit back down. You’re hurt.”
“I am, which is why we need to get out of here. I need a hospital. If my wrestling career wasn’t over before, it is now, but I would still like to live.”
“Greg’s already gone to get help. We should wait for him.”
“And we will, but we should be doing something in the meantime. Come on, let’s check this place out while I’m still able to stand.”
Tasha looked at Ben. “You need anything?”
“Nah, go lend AJ a hand. He needs one.”
And so they started searching. No one had any idea what to look for, but a way out was priority number one.
Chapter Nineteen
The edges of the desert scene were lined with beige-painted cement. Sand had been mixed in with the paint to create an image of desert rock, but up close the facade was less convincing. You could see the creases between the different sections of wall.
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