Boy X (11 page)

‘What? Just like that?'

Isabel put out a hand to touch the white streak. ‘It looks cool.'

‘Will it all go like that? All of my hair?'

‘I don't know.'

‘But it did for the person you heard about?'

‘I guess.'

Ash continued to stare at it. ‘But it's so . . . perfect. Like a perfect streak. The same all the way along. And that's not the only thing.' He tore himself away from the mirror and sat down on the toilet, turning his foot for Isabel to see. ‘Look at this.'

‘They don't look too bad,' Isabel said.

‘Exactly. But it felt so much worse. And I'm sure when I looked at them before, the cuts were bigger.'

‘Bigger how?'

Ash looked up at Isabel. ‘Something strange is happening to me. I can hear better than before, smell things I couldn't smell before. I can even see better. I
look
different, I feel stronger, and now it's like . . . I dunno, like my feet are healing faster than they should.'

Isabel shook her head as if she didn't understand.

‘There's something here,' Ash said. ‘Something in the BioSphere, or something on this island, that's changing me. There has to be; I can
feel
it.'

‘It hasn't changed
me
. I think maybe . . . maybe you're—'

‘I'm not imagining it,' Ash said. ‘Don't tell me I'm imagining it.'

‘I wasn't going to—'

‘This place is for research, right? Well, maybe there's some kind of weird research going on; something in the air. Maybe that's what's happening to me.'

‘I don't know.' Isabel shrugged. ‘I can't explain.'

‘Pierce said this was the Devil's island, that there's stuff out there . . . Maybe there's something going on here that
you don't know about.'

Isabel sighed. ‘Well, this island is different, yes, but not the people.'

‘Different how?'

‘The plants. And the animals.'

‘How are they different?' Ash noticed that Isabel's eyes were a little bloodshot, and her face was drained of colour. ‘It takes too long to explain.

It is best to see for yourself.' She opened the first-aid kit and handed him a bandage and a tube of antiseptic cream. ‘Finish fixing your feet.' She placed another two bandages on the floor beside him. ‘And when you're done, wrap these around your boots. You will leave not so many prints in the ground. It will make us more difficult to follow.'

‘Are you all right?' Ash had been so preoccupied with himself that he hadn't thought to ask. ‘You look tired.'

‘It's been a hard day.' Isabel raised her eyebrows.

‘Yeah. I guess it has.' But Ash watched her for a moment longer, seeing how hot and exhausted she looked.
He
had almost never felt stronger or fitter than he did right then, but Isabel looked terrible. And she had a new smell about her. The same thing he had detected when they first entered the lab area of the BioSphere: the odour of unburnt cooker gas.

The sneering voice in his head spoke again, but this time it only had one word to say to him:

Kronos.

They didn't stay in the house for any longer than necessary.
Isabel grabbed what they needed and stuffed some of it into the satchel they had taken from the storage facility. She jammed the rest into a small rucksack that she threw over her back, then pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

‘You carry this.' She gave the satchel to Ash. ‘And take this.' She handed him a thick belt. ‘You don't go out there without one.'

Ash took the belt from her and buckled it round his waist before pulling the knife from the sheath attached to it. It was the same as the one now hanging from Isabel's belt – with a black rubberized grip and a dark blade that looked huge in his small hand. It was serrated near the hilt, tapering to an upturned point. On the front of the sheath, there was a pocket containing a fire steel.

Isabel turned and bustled towards the back door and Ash was about to put the knife away when he had an idea. He touched the blade against the edge of his palm and drew it across the skin in one quick, short motion. The razor-sharp steel sliced a shallow cut and beads of dark red blood welled up.

‘Come on,' Isabel called.

Ash shoved the knife back into its sheath and fastened the Velcro. He put the cut to his mouth, sucking away the blood, then followed Isabel out the back and let the screen door slam behind him.

‘He won't find us in the forest,' Isabel said as they passed the other houses, jogging across the grass towards the far edge of the clearing.

Ash was grateful for Isabel's spare boots, even if they
weren't a good fit. With two pairs of socks and the bandages, though, they were snug, so his feet didn't bother him as he ran. Over his shoulder, the satchel bounced against his back. ‘How will
we
find
them
, though?' he asked. ‘Cain and Pierce?'

‘I know this forest.' Isabel sounded out of breath already. ‘We'll find them or get to the boat first.'

‘Then what? We have to get
Zeus
– the antiviral your dad told us about. The cure.'

‘I know that,' Isabel said. ‘I just don't know
how
.'

‘We'll think of something,' he said, as much to persuade himself as Isabel.

‘Yeah.'

‘Is that yours?' Ash pointed at the rifle she was carrying. She had taken it from the rack on her bedroom wall as they were leaving. ‘Is it real?'

‘No, it's a toy.'

‘So why did—'

‘
Duh.
Of course it's real,' Isabel said.

‘Could you . . . could you kill someone with it?'

‘Easily.' Isabel reached the door in the fence at the far edge of the compound and came to a stop. ‘Look.' She crouched and pointed at a footprint in the soft ground close to a large root. ‘They must have followed the track out here. They came this way.'

‘You sure?'

‘Of course.' Isabel stood and unlatched the gate. She turned to Ash with a serious expression. ‘When we go into the forest, you must do as I say. Go where I go. Step where
I step. Don't touch anything. Don't leave any trail for Thorn to follow. Always look before you sit. There are many dangerous things in there. Easy to get hurt, easy to get lost.'

‘All right.' Ash nodded. ‘I've been in a jungle before and—'

‘This jungle is different. Do not touch anything. Step where I step.'

‘OK. I understand.'

‘And the forest is not like the BioSphere,' Isabel said. ‘In there we had Thorn. In here' – she pointed at the trees – ‘we have Thorn
and
everything else.'

21 hrs and 03 mins until Shut-Down

T
hey had been in the forest less than half an hour and already it was like they were a million miles from the rest of the world. There was nothing but trees, heat and the thick, musky smell of damp earth and decaying leaves. And when Ash tested the air, he could pick out all kinds of unusual scents he didn't recognize.

Ahead and behind them, the forest hummed with the sound of cicadas and the call of unseen birds, but immediately around them was a cocoon of silence as everything lay still, waiting for them to pass.

Ash had been in a jungle in India, with Dad, and thought he knew what to expect, but this was different. Isabel had been right when she said he would have to see it for
himself, because it would have been hard for her to explain the uncomfortable feeling he experienced the deeper they travelled into the forest. The further they went, the more it was as if he were being watched. It was a similar feeling to the one he'd had when they were in the dark of the BioSphere. He could hear things moving about in the treetops, and in the thick jungle around them, but whatever was out there sensed when he focused on it, and fell silent and still.

And then there were those insects. Ash had seen enough mosquitoes to know what they were, but instead of being tiny, these were as big as his fingernail, with black and white striped bodies and spindly legs hanging beneath them. Isabel told Ash to spread dirt on his face to keep them from biting him, so now they were both painted with dry mud. As far as he could tell, none of them had yet bitten him, but already a few bumps had formed on Isabel's face.

Isabel moved through the jungle like it was second nature to her. She warned Ash whenever they came across something dangerous – trees covered with spikes like six-inch nails, others with tiny hairs that could pierce the skin like splinters and cause weeks of itching. He saw a bright red caterpillar as fat as his thumb, bristling with long spines that Isabel told him could give him a terrible rash. He spotted a huge praying mantis perched on a low hanging branch, eyes twitching, and Isabel pointed out something the size of a rat scuttling beneath the leaves at her feet.

‘Scorpion spider,' she said. ‘Not poisonous, but it can bite. Most places they like the dark, but here . . .' She shrugged. ‘Here, it is different.'

‘Scorpion spider?' Ash watched the spot where it had disappeared into the trees. ‘But it's massive. And who thought
that
was a good idea? A cross between a scorpion and a spider?'

‘You like that, you will love this.' Isabel nodded towards a huge web strung between two trees. In the centre of it sat a yellow narrow-bodied spider with a leg span that was wide enough to cover the top of Ash's head.

Ash shuddered.

‘I see what you mean about this place,' he said. ‘There's something not right about it.'

‘Now you understand?'

‘Yeah. Everything looks a bit bigger. I mean, the trees are enormous, so
high
, and the bugs . . .' He shivered. ‘Is it something to do with the BioSphere?'

‘Papa says
Isla Negra
was a place for research for many years. Not just the BioSphere, but also before. He thinks maybe something escaped.'

‘Something like what?' Ash looked around, trying to see what was hiding in the trees.

‘Not monsters,' said Isabel. ‘Bugs. Very small. In the air.'

‘You mean like bacteria and stuff?'

‘Yes. Or maybe animals used for research. He has been trying to find out what made it happen.'

‘And he hasn't figured it out yet?'

‘No.'

Ash wondered if that was why he felt different. Maybe it was something to do with the air. But if that was true, then why didn't it have the same effect on Isabel?

‘There's some really bad smells too,' Ash said. ‘I can smell something ahead that's dis
gusting
. It's like there must be a gigantic dog in here somewhere and it's just done a massive poo.' He shook his head and banished the smell, focusing on something else.

‘I don't smell it.'

‘Well, if we keep going in this direction, I have a feeling you will.'

Sure enough, the deeper they went into the jungle, the stronger it became until eventually Isabel looked back at Ash. ‘I smell it now. But only
just
now.'

Ash shrugged and they kept on going a few more metres until they came upon a brown fleshy plant the size of a football. It was split so that it opened like a giant mouth, and was red inside. Around the lips there were hundreds of white tendrils that, from a distance, looked like teeth. The smell that it gave off was worse than dog mess, and it made both of them gag as they hurried past.

From time to time Isabel stopped and pointed out a footprint, or a place where the foliage was damaged. ‘They came this way,' she would say. ‘See how they broke this branch?' Or she would mutter to herself, ‘They are clumsy. Such a trail.'

Ash was concerned that he was also leaving an obvious trail, and watched Isabel closely. He did as she told him, avoiding what she avoided, stepping where she stepped, touching what she touched. As they progressed through the forest, he began to feel more at ease, like when Dad had taken him into the jungle in India.

After another half hour or so of trekking, Isabel stopped and crouched to examine the trail left by Pierce and the others. ‘They went
that
way.' She pointed straight ahead, then stood and adjusted the pack she was carrying. She looked to her left, where the jungle was thicker. ‘
We
go this way.'

‘What? Why not that way? Why not follow them?'

‘We need to get ahead. This way is more difficult, but it's quicker. And Thorn will follow
their
prints instead of coming after us.'

Ash looked back to see that their bandage-wrapped boots had hardly left any prints, even in the soft ground. If they moved carefully – if Ash didn't leave a trail like a rampaging elephant – then Pierce and Cain's trail would be the more obvious route to follow. Isabel's idea made sense, but Ash still didn't like the thought of losing the trail, and he also wasn't so sure that taking a more difficult route would be a good idea, because Isabel looked exhausted.