Boy X (13 page)

‘
Shoot
it,' Ash whispered. ‘
Just kill it.
'

Isabel reloaded the rifle with a quick movement of the bolt, but as she looked down the barrel, preparing to put the next bullet into the creature's head, Ash realized that it was not looking at
them
.

It was looking at
him
.

Its small, black, marble-like eyes were fixed on
him
.

And as Ash returned the stare, the boar shifted its gaze. It looked once to its left, then to the right, as if it didn't know what to do. It snorted and lowered its head, then turned and trotted back into the forest.

Ash stared at the empty space where the monster had been.

Beside him, Isabel remained motionless with the rifle still aimed into the trees. ‘It was you,' she said. ‘It stopped because of you.'

Ash continued to look at the small grooves in the ground where the boar had skidded to a halt. ‘You missed.'

‘They don't see good, but it saw you. It smelt you.'

‘You missed,' Ash said again, still staring.

‘Yes. To scare it away. We don't kill things unless—'

‘You
should
have killed it.'

‘We don't kill anything. The animals on
Isla Negra
are like nowhere else.
Muy raro.
Very important.' She frowned. ‘Like in the lab. You saw those monkeys there, right? But Papa tells me they only study them. Never kill.'

Ash blinked and looked at her. ‘You've seen one of those things before?'

‘
Sí.
Three times in the jungle. And one time there was one in the BioSphere – for study.'

‘That's why there's an electric fence.' Ash was starting to understand now. ‘To keep them out. Because they're dangerous.'

‘They don't often come close.'

‘What is
wrong
with this place?' Ash kicked the ferns at his feet, then shook his head and took a deep breath to calm himself. ‘Look, next time you shoot it, OK? Promise me. I thought it was going to kill us.'

‘Usually it works with the animals. A gunshot usually scares them—'

‘
Promise
me.'

‘OK. I promise.' Isabel held up her hand. ‘But it saw you and stopped. Why did it do that? And then it walked away. What did you do?'

‘I didn't do anything.'

Isabel clicked on the safety and lowered the rifle.

‘Don't look at me like that,' Ash said.

‘Like what?'

‘Like . . . I'm weird or something.'

‘You
are
weird.' Isabel stepped closer and put a hand on his arm. She squeezed it once and tried to smile. ‘But you are still my friend.'

‘So why didn't you tell me about those things?'

‘I didn't want to scare you.'

‘Is there anything
else
out here I should be scared of?'

‘Yes.' Isabel slung the rifle over her shoulder. ‘Lots of things. Come on. Thorn will have heard the shots.'

They fell into an uneasy silence as they moved on. So many things battled for thinking space inside Ash's head, and the boar attack had alerted him to even more of the dangers in the forest. He was sure the animal was bigger than it was supposed to be. It was bigger than any boar
he'd
ever heard of. He wanted to ask Isabel about it, but he couldn't stop thinking about the way she had looked at him – almost as if she were afraid of him – but
he
didn't know why the boar had stopped. He had no idea why it had turned and walked away. Perhaps it was the same reason why the mosquitoes didn't bite him, and the leaves of some plants curled up when he came close to them.

The most important thing, though, was to be alert for other boars, so he kept his ears tuned to the sound it had made, and had no difficulty remembering the smell it carried. He reassured himself that Isabel had the rifle, and
was a good shot; she had planted two shots right between its legs, so he guessed she could have put one between its eyes if she wanted to. As she walked ahead of him, Ash watched the weapon bouncing against her back and thought about her promise. If they were attacked again, she would shoot to kill. It made him wonder though; what if it was a person who attacked them? Would she be prepared to shoot
then
?

As the day wore on, the sky began to darken and a low rumbling sounded in the distance.

Isabel stopped to look up. ‘There's rain coming.'

Ash scanned the canopy, looking through a spot where the trees were thinner. The sky was grey now, instead of the wonderful blue it had been when they had escaped the BioSphere.

‘Well.' She shrugged. ‘It
is
the rainforest.'

Within minutes, the rain came down like nails. It hammered the leaves of the canopy and broke through to pound Ash and Isabel with huge drops that drenched them in seconds. The ground turned to black rivers of mud under their feet.

‘At least it will cover our tracks,' Isabel shouted over the sound of the deluge.

They were climbing a steep bank, making their way towards the top of a hill, and it was becoming more and more difficult to walk. Their trousers were caked in mud, their boots heavy with it, and every step was an effort. Where they could, they clung to tree trunks and branches, helping to haul each other up, afraid they were going to slip
and be washed right back down to the bottom.

At the top, they stopped to rest, but only for a few minutes. Cain might not rest. Thorn might not rest. They couldn't take the risk that one would get too far ahead, or the other would catch up, so they stopped just long enough for Isabel to catch her breath.

The trees were a little thinner up here, spaced further apart, and there were places where Ash could look across the forest at the sea of leaves being pounded by the storm. Sheets of rain drove down, and the jungle stretched on into the haze, rising as it clung to the slopes of low mountains whose craggy peaks burst free of the trees in the distance, and reached for the sky.

‘It's amazing,' Ash said.

‘You should see it when the sun is shining. Papa says there's nothing as beautiful. It is worth the danger of the forest just to see this.'

Ash looked at Isabel standing beside him, hair plastered to her face, drips beading in her eyelashes, clothes drenched and covered with mud.

‘We'll save them,' he said, ‘won't we?'

Isabel bit her lip and looked away. ‘We should get moving.'

Ash was suddenly aware of the heat coming off her, of the increased rate of her heartbeat. The word
Kronos
drifted into his thoughts.

‘At the bottom, we'll cross the river,' Isabel said. ‘From there it's a short walk to the shelter. In good weather it wouldn't take long.'

‘And in this rain?'

‘I don't know. And maybe the river . . .' Isabel shook her head.

‘Maybe the river what?' Ash asked.

‘Nothing. Let's go.'

19 hrs and 15 mins until Shut-Down

C
limbing the hill had been difficult, but the descent was harder. Every time Ash put his foot down, it either sank or slipped in the mud, and grabbing at the trees meant puncturing his hands on spiky branches or burning his skin as they whipped through his fingers.

Halfway down the slope, Isabel cut a long straight branch from a nearby tree and skinned the thorns from it. When it was smooth, she handed it to Ash before cutting another for herself. ‘Walking stick,' she said. ‘It might help.'

It didn't. He continued to slip and slide his way down as the rain battered them and the sky rumbled. Almost every speck of light had now gone, and the world had become a miserable, dirty place. Ash had been relieved to escape the
BioSphere, but now he wished he was back. At least it had been dry in there.

But he wasn't going to be beaten. He looked down the slope, unable to see the bottom because it was lost in the rain, and touched the identity tag around his neck.
The best survivors never give up
is what Dad had told him.
They stay positive and keep moving forward. That's why they survive.
Stay strong, stay positive, and keep moving forward. And as he stared at the slope, trying to lift his spirits, he remembered the park near their house. It had a steep bank that was great for sledging in the winter. Ash used to go there with Dad, each dragging a bright-red plastic sled. They would trudge to the top and race down, usually turning over and spilling into the snow. Sometimes they would run down, trying not to slip, and Ash had always thought it was easier to just run full pelt. It was more fun too.

Maybe that would work with mud.

Without giving himself a chance to back out, Ash dropped the stick, lifted his head and took off down the slope. He moved so quickly that his boots didn't even have time to sink or slip on the mud; he just kept going, rushing down, sidestepping the trees. He was like a crazed maniac, with the rain splashing in his face and his hair stuck to his scalp, but it felt fantastic.

For that moment, there was no
Kronos
or Thorn; there was no Mum, no Isabel. There was just Ash running down a muddy slope, muscles pumping, chest pounding, rain crashing around him. And unlike his clumsy runs down the snowy slopes at home, he was aware of everything. He
could see the individual raindrops falling in slow motion before his eyes. He could sense the ground beneath his feet, and see the pattern of the bark on the trees. He could pick out the individual spines, the insects nestling in the knots. His breathing was regular, his legs were strong, he saw and heard and smelt everything. He was invincible. Unstoppable. Indestructible. He could not . . . slip.

His right foot skidded out from beneath him, shooting upwards, flipping him over onto his back. He landed hard and continued to slide along the torrent of mud flowing downhill, picking up speed as he went. The bubble of slow motion popped as Ash tried to dig his heels in, but they just swept through the soft ground. He floundered, grabbing at branches that were out of reach. Trees zipped past on either side and he knew he would crash into one at any moment, maybe breaking a leg or an arm, or both.

But it was worse than that. When he caught sight of the bottom of the slope, appearing out of the misty rain, Ash realized it didn't level out to a safe, flat area.

Several metres below his position, the slope came to an abrupt stop and then fell away to a sheer drop where there was nothing but space.

A cliff.

Ash twisted onto his front and dug his hands into the mud. He clawed at it, ripping his fingertips and cracking his nails as he started to slow down; but not enough.

The sound of rain crashed in his ears. Terror burnt through his veins. The edge came closer and closer, emptying into space beyond.

‘No.' He frantically snatched at roots and trunks and branches. ‘
No!
'

And then his fingers closed around a sapling that bent with his weight and allowed him to grip it tight. His arm reached its full stretch, then yanked hard, pulling at his shoulder, bringing him to an abrupt stop. His legs whipped out over the cliff edge, touching nothing, and his heart lurched. If he loosened his grip, he would slip and be gone, falling into nothing.

Full of panic, he reached up with his other arm and grasped the sapling, hardly aware of how easily he dragged his full weight away from the edge. He pulled himself up and hugged the tree like a drowned rat clinging on for life.

The rain continued to pound him as he looked up the slope at Isabel's dark shape moving down through the trees. The noise of it filled his head, threatening to drive him mad, until another sound broke through. Something he hadn't expected to hear.

Isabel was bent over, laughing so hard she couldn't even talk.

‘What's so funny?' Ash shouted, feeling his eyes sting. ‘What's so funny?' His voice was hoarse, his throat sore. ‘I could have died!'

Isabel continued to laugh, both hands on her stick that was now planted firmly in the ground, and in that moment Ash hated her with all his heart. He hated this place and he hated
everything
. All the fear and anger and confusion was rising up and boiling in him now. He'd had enough of being strong and positive. He wanted to hit something or break
something or make someone pay for what had happened to him over the last few hours. He hadn't asked for any of it. He hadn't
wanted
any of it.

‘Stop laughing!' he shouted. ‘I could have died! I. Could. Have.
Died!
'

Isabel stopped and looked down at him, peering through sodden hair that had come loose from her ponytail and hung across her face. ‘
Lo siento.
I'm sorry.' She shifted, pulling her stick from the ground, and came to where Ash was kneeling. She eased down and sat in the mud beside him. ‘Look.' She waved a hand towards the edge of the cliff. ‘No one was going to die.'

Ash took a deep breath, then turned and sat beside her, still holding onto the sapling that had saved his life. He wiped the rain and tears from his eyes and squinted through the downpour at the edge of the cliff.