Survival (5 page)

They sat in the boat and gazed at the island ahead of them. It was typical of the smaller Indonesian islands they had already visited on the voyage. There was a volcanic peak rising steeply and narrowing to a blunted point at the top, giving the island a shape like a battered witch's hat against the reddening sky. Lush rainforest, fed by the monsoon rains of the area, darkened the lower slopes of the mountain. The forest spread downwards and outwards to form a wide green brim, fringed with mangrove swamps and lagoons. It was nothing like the gently sloping paradise of white sand and palm trees that most people imagine a tropical island to be, but at least it was land, and that was just what they needed right now.

'Active or extinct?' asked Hex, gazing at the flattened tip of the volcanic peak.

'Hard to tell from here,' said Li. 'But my guess is it's extinct, or at least dormant. I can't see any smoke or steam near the top and the sides are well covered with undergrowth – no fresh lava channels.'

'There are reefs,' said Paulo, briefly, noting the white frill of sea around the island. 'And that must be big surf if we can see it this far off. It will be difficult to land.'

'Slow down, cowboy,' muttered Amber, staring down at Alex's compass. 'Don't get ahead of yourself.' She paused, squinting up at the island again. 'Let's just see if we can reach it first. OK?'

They waited in silence while Amber frowned and muttered her way through her calculations, judging distances, speed of drift and the direction of the current.

'Hmmm,' she said, finally. 'There's good news and bad news. The good news is, as long as this current doesn't change direction, we should drift very close to the eastern tip of the island.'

Li let out a relieved breath. 'Just as well,' she said, sweeping an arm around the empty horizon. 'Because it's the only land in sight.'

'And the bad news?' asked Hex.

'At the rate we're drifting, its going to take us half the night to get there,' said Amber flatly.

'But it will be dark soon,' breathed Li, pointing towards where the sun was beginning to sink below the horizon.

'We'd better get going, then,' said Alex, scrambling to his feet. 'There's a lot to do before then.'

The island sighting had given them a common aim and they started working as a team again. Amber took over the Watch Duty without complaint, while Li and Hex tied down or stowed away anything that could be lost overboard. Paulo and Alex were in the stern, working as fast as they could in the fading light. They were using a length of rope and the single oar to rig up a sculling mechanism which would power and steer the boat when they reached the island. After a few failed attempts, Paulo came up with a type of flexible, criss-cross lashing which held the oar firmly in place against the stern but allowed him to push the paddle from side to side through the water. He experimented with different paddling strokes and soon worked out the best way to propel the boat forward and even to make it turn from side to side. His teeth gleamed in the growing gloom as he smiled and gave Alex a shadowy thumbs-up.

'Good,' said Alex. 'Well done, Paulo. Now come and sit down. We've done all we can.'

A few minutes later, it was totally dark. For the next two hours all they could do was to drift along through velvety blackness, listening to the sea slapping against the bows of the boat. Every now and then, Amber took out the button compass and checked their direction by the glow of the beta-light crystal. As far as she could tell, they were still drifting north, but the island was a small dot in a very big sea. There was no way to be sure whether the current was still taking them towards the island or gradually edging them away from it. Finally, the moon rose and gave them enough light to see the silhouette of the island, much closer now and still directly ahead of them.

'Right on target,' said Hex and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Soon they could smell the island on the breeze. It was a rich, cloying scent, a mixture of rotting vegetation, swamp water and fresh, green leaves. Alex breathed in and was reminded of the smell of the compost heap on his grandfather's allotment after rain. The island loomed larger on their left-hand side as they drifted closer and closer, until it was too big for them to take it all in with one look. The boat inched towards the eastern tip of the island, dwarfed by the volcanic slopes which towered over them.

They began to hear the booming crash of waves hitting the reef up ahead and the sea around the boat was becoming choppier as the deep ocean swells suddenly came up against a steeply rising sea bed.

Paulo looked over at Alex and the whites of his eyes shone in the moonlight.

'Now?' he asked. Alex nodded. Paulo moved over to the stern and took a firm grip on the sculling-oar.

'In a minute, Paulo's going to try to steer us in over the reef,' said Alex to the others. 'It's going to get pretty rough, so we need to hunker down low in the boat and hang onto the safety line I rigged up earlier. Even better, anchor it around your waist or your arm if you can.'

'Couldn't we try to find a beach without a reef in front of it?' asked Li, sending a nervous sideways glance at the pounding surf.

Alex shook his head. 'It's too risky. We don't know how well we can handle the boat with only one oar. If we tried to get round the eastern tip of the island, the current might be too strong for us. We might get carried away from the island.'

The four of them got down into the bottom of the boat and each grabbed their own section of the safety line. Paulo began moving the oar back and forth with a smooth, powerful rhythm which made the muscles in his arms stand out in the moonlight. The boat turned sluggishly and started heading slowly towards the reef.

'One more thing,' shouted Alex, over the growing roar of the surf. 'If the boat doesn't make it over the reef, try to use a breaker to body-surf into the lagoon. Don't wait for anyone else. Don't try to turn back. If you get caught on the reef, it'll cut you to ribbons. Just get clear of it as fast as you can.'

The boat began to pitch and roll as the peaks and troughs of the ocean swells became sharper and deeper. They braced their feet against the hull and tightened their grip on the rope. In the stern, Paulo hung onto the oar, sometimes sculling it back and forth, sometimes letting the sea do the work. All the while he was watching the surf ahead and then turning to look at the moonlit swells behind him, trying to judge which one might carry the boat safely over the reef and into the lagoon.

At last, Paulo looked behind him one more time, then began sculling furiously. The boat caught the growing breaker just at the right moment. The bows tilted upwards as it rode the sloping crest of the wave, climbing higher and higher. Seawater poured in on them and the roar of the surf grew deafening.

The breaker, with the boat caught up in it, reached its peak and began to curl over. With a sickening, roller-coaster lurch, the boat turned its nose down-wards and fell with the breaking wave.

Paulo abandoned the oar and crashed down into the bottom of the boat beside Hex, frantically grabbing for a handful of the safety line. The breaker smashed the boat down into the surf and they were lifted helplessly into the air, then flung back down onto the floor of the boat with an impact that knocked all the breath out of their lungs. Before they had the chance to take another breath, they were swamped by the foaming, churning water. Then they were out in the air again, as the bows of the little boat miraculously rose out of the surf.

Alex choked the seawater out of his throat and took a painful breath as the boat lurched forward. He had been totally unprepared for the power of the breaker but, unbelievably, it seemed that the boat was going to clear the reef. Then his hope turned to horror as the boat slowed, stopped and began to slide back towards the reef, caught up in the pull of the retreating breaker.

'Hang on!' he yelled.

The boat hit hard. It juddered backwards across the reef with a splintering scraping noise. A jagged spur of coral punched through the bottom of the boat, missing Li's thigh by a few centimetres. The boat came to a sudden halt and, for a few seconds, it see-sawed back and forth, impaled on the reef with the surf crashing down on top of it. Then, with a crack like a rifle shot, the spine of the boat broke in two and the last thing Alex remembered was being thrown into the tumbling, roaring water.

'There's always a fuse,' croaked Alex, waving his arms weakly as he tried to swim back up to the surface. 'Don't light the fuse . . .'

Someone took hold of his hands and gently lowered them to his chest. Someone else leaned in so close to his head that he could feel warm breath tickling his ear.

'It's all right,' whispered the voice. 'You're on the island. We all are.'

'Li. . . ?' Alex opened his eyes and bright daylight burned into his retinas, sending drum-beats of pain through his head. He groaned, squeezed his eyes into slits and peered up at the four grinning faces above him.

'Good to have you back,' said Li.

'Are you OK?' asked Paulo. Alex made the mistake of nodding and the drum-beats in his head exploded into dizzying pain. He turned on his side and vomited up seawater.

'Eeeuuwww!' shrieked Amber, taking a step back. 'Gross!'

Alex had to agree with her. He had never felt so gross. Every inch of his body felt battered and bruised, but the back of his head and his left wrist hurt most of all. He lifted his arm up to his face and squinted at his wrist, trying to work out why it hurt so much. His first impression was that he was wearing some sort of tight, red bracelet, then he realized that the bracelet was a strip of raw flesh.

'What. . . ?' he croaked, holding up his arm.

'What happened?' guessed Paulo. Alex nodded again and immediately wished he hadn't.

'It is a bad rope burn,' explained Paulo. 'But it probably saved your life. We think part of the boat must have hit you on the head and made you – what is the word – not awake, yes?'

'Yes,' agreed Alex, remembering the stunning blow to the back of his head as he struggled to swim ashore.

'You would have drowned, I think,' continued Paulo. 'Except your wrist got caught in the safety line, which was still tied to the broken boat. So you were washed ashore. We found you—'

'And I gave you CPR!' announced Amber, proudly. 'You know, the kiss of life and all that stuff? See, I know how to do that, because of the sailing—'

'Shut up, Amber,' said Hex.

'But I saved his life—'

'Then I guess that makes you even, doesn't it?' said Li.

Alex felt much better now that he was rid of a stomach full of seawater. His head was clearing and the thudding pain was subsiding. With the help of Paulo and Hex, he sat up and took his first look around. They were at the top of the beach leading from the lagoon to the rainforest. All around them, above the high-tide line, were strewn bits of wreckage from the boat. He tried to see whether there was anything useful amongst the wreckage, but Paulo moved in front of him and held up three fingers.

'How many?' he demanded.

'Twenty-three,' said Alex with a deadpan expression.

Paulo grinned but persisted with his questioning. 'What is your name?' he asked.

'Barbara,' replied Alex, still playing it straight.

Paulo laughed out loud. 'OK, joker. No concussion. Your skull must be made of steel.'

Alex put his fingers to the back of his head and gently explored. He could feel a crusted-over gash about two inches long. The flesh surrounding the wound was swollen and bruised, but the damage was less than he was expecting to find.

'I'll live,' he said with a relieved grin. His eyes sharpened and he scanned the others, looking for signs of injury. Like him, they were liberally covered with scrapes and bruises, but that seemed to be all. 'Look's like we'll all live,' he concluded.

'That's the second time you've promised me that,' drawled Hex. He was trying to appear casual, but kept sending wary glances into the jungle at the top of the beach. 'Do you always keep your word, Alex?'

'Always,' said Alex, firmly. 'We're going to be fine. My dad's been in rainforest like this before. He taught me all about it. It's not too hard to survive if you know what you're doing.'

'I agree,' said Paulo. 'I too have been on a trek through the rainforest, back home in South America. For one week we were walking and camping. I especially liked to learn about the campfire cooking.'

'Always the food,' giggled Li and Paulo beamed at her.

'So, you two have the experience,' said Hex, looking at Alex and Paulo. 'You tell us, what do we do now?'

Alex looked at the debris scattered across the beach. 'You can start by giving me an update on what's been salvaged.'

It turned out that most of the boat, including the piece he had been attached to, had washed up on the beach at some time during the night. The stern of the boat had come ashore with the locker doors still firmly latched shut and the boots, socks and blankets stowed away inside, as well as a coil of thin, nylon line. They had even managed to salvage the two rucksacks, both still tied securely to the safety line Alex had been caught up in.

'The boots and socks will be useful, once they have dried out,' said Paulo. Alex nodded in agreement. He had lost his deck shoes in the sea, and so had Amber. Li, Hex and Paulo were still wearing theirs, but the thin canvas would not last long in the rainforest. With good boots and socks, at least their feet would be protected.

'The blankets too,' said Li, looking around at the thin shorts and T-shirts they were all wearing. 'We'll need the blankets at night.'

And you have your survival kit,' said Paulo, pointing to Alex's belt. Alex patted the pouch there and felt the reassuring shape of the tobacco tin. He pulled it out and checked the contents. Everything was dry. He picked out the little bottle of aspirin and hesitated, wondering whether he should take some now or try to conserve them. He decided that, if he was going to function properly over the next few, crucial hours, he needed to have a clear, pain-free head.

Alex shook the tablets onto his hand and was about to chew and dry-swallow them when Li held out a lemonade can, filled with water from the big plastic bottle. 'Go on,' she said. 'We've all had some. That's your share.'

Resisting the urge to ask her how much water was left, Alex smiled gratefully and took the can. He sipped slowly, letting the water wash around his dry mouth before swallowing. It tasted fantastic.

'And this is your share of the food,' said Paulo, handing Alex a glossy, green leaf-plate, holding a small mound of mashed banana and squashed apple, and a cereal bar, still wrapped in foil. Alex frowned.

'You've all had this much for breakfast?' he asked. 'Have you saved any food at all?'

There was an uneasy silence.

'There's half a storage tin of cooked rice. That's all,' admitted Li.

'It's her fault,' said Hex, jerking his head towards Amber who folded her arms and stuck her chin in the air. 'She wouldn't take no for an answer, just kept saying how she had to eat right now, like she expected a butler to come running out of the jungle with a silver tray or something.'

'I see,' said Alex, mentally rearranging his list of priorities. The food was nearly gone and nothing he could say would bring it back. With a shrug, he reached for his share. He slipped the cereal bar into his pouch, determined not to eat that until they had found a fresh water supply. The fruit was a different matter. It was bruised and mashed from the battering in the boat and he could see that it would soon spoil in the tropical heat. He lifted the leaf to his mouth and, suddenly realizing how hungry he was, he wolfed it down and licked the leaf clean while they pointed out the rows of blankets, socks and boots they had laid out to dry on the sand. They had also collected a pile of wood from the shattered boat and stacked it above the high-tide line, ready to light at the first sign of a plane or a ship.

'Only trouble is,' said Amber, looking out at the empty sea, 'there's nothing to signal to.'

They were silent, remembering how far they were from any flight path or shipping lane. Their chances of rescue were looking very slim.

Alex shook himself. 'Come on! They'll be searching for us right now,' he said. 'But we're going to need some green wood piled up next to the signal fire. Leaves and ferns, too. If we want to send a signal during the day, we pile them on the fire once it's burning well. They'll make plenty of pale smoke which will stand out against the forest. At night, when we want good, bright flames, we only use the dry wood.'

'OK,' said Paulo. 'Let's get going.'

They worked quickly, gathering green wood from the fringes of the forest and piling it next to the wood from the boat wreckage. Alex made a nest of kindling in the base of the dry woodpile and, finally, covered the whole thing with the plastic sack which had held the boots. Although it was officially the drier season in the archipelago, there were still evenings when hours of monsoon-heavy rain fell after the humid heat of the day. If the dry wood and kindling became soaked, they would not be able to light the fire quickly when they needed to signal, and that could prove to be disastrous.

'Good,' said Alex, stepping back and mentally ticking one task off his list.

'What now?' asked Li.

'Shelter, water, food,' said Paulo, simply. He pointed to the rainforest. 'We should find everything we need in there.'

After a short discussion about who was to do what, Alex showed Hex how to use the flint from his survival tin and they left him on Watch Duty on the beach, ready to light the signal fire if necessary. The other four changed into their walking boots and arranged to meet back at the signal fire in three hours' time.

Li and Amber struck out along the beach to climb the headland that lay beyond the eastern end of the lagoon. They had Alex's compass and were planning to map out as much of the island as they could from a higher vantage point. They also carried a can of lemonade, a rucksack for storing any food they managed to find, the coil of nylon rope and the empty plastic water bottle in case they came across a fresh water stream.

'Remember,' called Alex. 'If you find water, bring it back to camp! No matter how fresh and clear it looks, we need to boil it first!'

Li lifted her hand, acknowledging that she had heard him, but neither of them looked back.

'Perhaps I should go with them, for protection?' said Paulo, gazing after Li.

Alex watched the two girls striding away from them along the beach, each carrying a stout stick. They looked much fitter than he felt and very capable of looking after themselves.

'Listen to me, Paulo,' he sighed. 'Li is trained in martial arts, she could climb a greasy pole if she needed to and she can probably put a name to every plant and animal on this island. And Amber – she can navigate and read maps better than any of us. What could you add to that?'

'My strength,' said Paulo, sticking out his chest and flexing his muscles.

Alex laughed. 'Yeah, well I need your strength more than they do. We'll be doing the heavy work. Come on, let's go.'