Survival (6 page)

Paulo and Alex walked to the other end of the lagoon and started a systematic search of the fringe of rainforest which edged the beach. For nearly two hours, they worked their way along the forest fringe, moving in a series of small squares which always started and ended on the beach.

The trees were smaller and more widely spaced at the edge of the forest and sunlight penetrated through their branches to the forest floor, where dense undergrowth grew in the rich covering of leaf mulch. Alex and Paulo had to fight a way through and progress was frustratingly slow. The undergrowth was full of thorns and they kept a constant look-out for snakes. It was hard going, but it was also very successful. Because the trees were smaller and draped with vines, it was easy to climb up to the level where fruit or leaves grew and, every time they emerged from the forest, they brought something out with them.

When they took a rest after two hours, Alex and Paulo had gathered a good selection of supplies, which were laid out on the beach beside them. There was a bunch of small, green tropical bananas, a pile of enormous, glossy banana leaves, a few yams and mangoes, some cut vines and a big stack of green bamboo canes. It was a good result, but still Alex was starting to get worried. He had been searching all morning and still had not found the one thing he really wanted. A game trail. Once they had a game trail to follow, he was pretty sure it would lead them to fresh water.

Alex picked up a mango and split it open with his knife. He cut the flesh away from the flat stone at the centre of the fruit, then handed half of it to Paulo.

Paulo armed the sweat from his face. 'That is enough, I think?' he said, hopefully, nodding to the pile of supplies. 'We have found a lot.'

'No,' said Alex. 'We need to go back in.'

Paulo groaned. 'I knew you were going to say that.'

'Not yet, though,' grinned Alex. 'We'll rest a while first.'

Paulo immediately settled back against the trunk of the shady tree they were resting under and closed his eyes. Soon he was snoring gently. Alex was too worried to doze. Back home in Northumberland, listening to his father, he had been sure he could survive in a tropical rainforest. Now he was actually in that situation, he felt a lot less certain of everything. What if he had already stumbled right over a game trail without noticing it? Alex looked across at Paulo and felt slightly reassured. At least the South American had some practical experience of tropical conditions, but how could he sleep so easily? Alex scowled in irritation as he finished his half of the mango. He took out his knife and whittled two new wooden handles for the flexible saw, then he took a small piece of sandstone from his knife sheath and honed the blade of his knife until it was back to full sharpness.

When he had finished, Paulo was still deeply asleep, but Alex could not delay the search for water any longer. His head was thudding with pain again and he knew it was only partly caused by his scalp wound. A headache was also a sign of dehydration. He forced himself to his feet and woke Paulo. This time, he had decided that they would plunge into the forest and keep going on as straight a line as they could manage until they found what they were looking for.

By the time they stumbled onto a game trail, they were both sweating hard and panting for breath. Their arms were streaked with thin lines of blood from thorn scratches and the mixture of blood and sweat had attracted a cloud of whining mosquitoes.

'This is a game trail?' asked Paulo.

'Yes,' grinned Alex, still slightly dizzy with relief that he had found one. 'Quite a well-used one too.'

'How can you tell?'

'See all the tracks in the mud there?' asked Alex. 'They look like deer tracks to me. And see how there are no twigs or branches growing over the trail? That's because there's a regular flow of traffic moving along here. There'll be water at the end of this trail.'

'
Infierno
!' cursed Paulo, standing in the middle of the game trail and swatting mosquitoes. 'They are fierce – and so annoying!' He grinned. 'They remind me of my little sisters.'

'Here,' said Alex, bending and scooping up a handful of soft mud from the side of the trail. 'Use some of this. It might help.'

They smeared the mud all over their faces, necks and arms in a thick layer. It was wonderfully cooling and it did seem to give some protection against the mosquitoes.

'Ah, yes,' said Paulo. 'The mud pack. Good for the skin. I will be even more handsome after this.'

Alex gave Paulo a sideways glance, wondering whether he was serious. Paulo looked back at him, his face caked with stinking mud and his eyes dancing with amusement. He was sending himself up. Alex grinned and shook his head as he hammered a stick into the ground to mark the spot where they had come out of the forest. He was beginning to like Paulo. He might have a lazy streak a mile wide, but he worked hard when he had to and he always seemed to stay cheerful.

'How long left before we meet up with the others again?' asked Alex.

Paulo cleared the mud from the face of his Rolex watch. 'Just under half an hour.'

Alex stared along the game trail which led into the deeper, primary forest on the lower slopes of the mountain. There was water that way, he was almost sure of it, and water was essential to their survival. Without it, they would not live for more than three days.

'Right,' he decided. 'We'll give ourselves ten minutes to explore the trail before we turn back.'

They had taken only a few steps along the trail when a single, high shriek, full of pain and fear, rang out from somewhere up ahead. Instantly, the steady singing of the crickets was switched off and the forest was plunged into silence. Alex and Paulo froze where they stood.

'
Dios Mio!
' whispered Paulo. 'The girls!'

'No,' said Alex, relaxing a little as the crickets resumed their song. 'It came from further up the trail. An animal. A dying animal.'

'You mean something – killed it?' Paulo shuddered. 'Do we go on?'

Alex stared along the narrow track, trying to see what lay ahead, but the forest crowded right up to the edge of the trail. Finally, he shrugged. 'I think we must,' he said, starting to walk again. 'We have to find water.'

'And the animal?'

Animals mean water,' said Alex, over his shoulder.

Paulo hesitated, then grasped his stick more tightly and followed Alex. 'I hope the others are safe,' he muttered uneasily.

Amber shrieked loudly, then shrieked again.

'Eeeuuww! Get it off me! Get it off!'

Li rolled her eyes heavenwards and turned to see what the problem was this time. Amber was balancing on one foot in the mangrove swamp and holding the other leg clear of the green, stinking water.

'What?' said Li.

Amber pointed a shaking finger at the back of her knee. A very large leech was hanging there. It was olive green in colour, with lines of small, black dots along its length. The body below the mouth was distended into the shape of a pear, the rounded end full of blood. The leech was pulsing slightly and its glistening skin was streaked with Amber's blood, which was also dripping steadily into the swamp water.

'That's going to attract more of them,' observed Li, pointing to the pink tinged water.

Amber flinched, then turned and scrambled up the gnarled root of a mangrove tree until she could perch clear of the water. Li swung herself up beside Amber with one, easy motion, then bent to look at the leech.

'It's nearly full,' she said, calmly. 'It'll drop off soon.'

'Take if off now!' demanded Amber.

'I can't do that,' said Li. 'We need some heat or alcohol or something to make it let go. If I try to pull it, the head will come off and the jaws will be stuck in your leg. Then it'll get infected and—'

'I want it off now,' moaned Amber.

'Hey! It's your fault we're up to our knees in a mangrove swamp!' snapped Li. 'You're the one who insisted we came back this way!'

She turned away from Amber and pushed her long, black hair away from her sweaty face, trying to figure out when things had started to turn sour. The first part of the morning had gone well. They had worked their way around the coastline until they came to the mangrove swamp. Then they had headed inland, following a game trail and stopping to gather ripe, orange pawpaws and wild figs on the way. The game trail had taken them neatly around the swamp to the base of the headland. From there, it had been mainly hard, uphill walking, with one final, short section of real climbing, which Li had managed easily. Once she reached the top, Li had anchored the nylon line to a rock outcrop and lowered the other end for Amber to tie around her waist with a bowline. To Li's surprise, Amber had climbed slowly but well, following her route almost exactly. Li made sure she kept taking in the rope as Amber climbed, keeping it taut just in case, but it was never really needed.

At the top of the headland, they had discovered a tiny, fresh-water run-off, where they filled the plastic bottle to take back with them. Then they had found a rock to lean against as they rested together, sharing the can of lemonade and looking out to sea. They had scanned the sea again and again but saw only featureless water, stretching to the far horizon. There were no planes, no ships and no other islands.

Discouraged, they had turned their backs on the sea to study the geography of this side of the island. Below and to the east was their lagoon, with the reef beyond. It was the only stretch of sand in sight. The rest of the coastline was a hostile mixture of mangrove swamps and rocky headlands. Behind them the rainforest stretched like a huge green, moving sea and above them the mountain climbed skyward. Li studied the shape and contours of the island for a long time. Finally, she sat back, satisfied that she had worked out and memorized the best route round to the other side of the mountain.

'Looks like we're on our own,' she said, looking out to sea again. 'The
Phoenix
could be anywhere out there.'

'But they must be missing us by now!' protested Amber.

'They may be missing us, but that doesn't mean they know where to find us,' Li had replied. 'They don't know about the current. They don't know we lost an oar. They have to search the most obvious places first. Today, they'll double back and search yesterday's route.'

That was when things had started to go wrong. Amber had turned sullen and difficult on the way back and had insisted that she did not have the energy to walk much further, so against Li's better judgement they had cut through the swamp instead of going round it.

Now Li snorted as she squatted next to Amber on the roots of the mangrove tree. 'Some short cut this turned out to be,' she said, swatting a persistent mosquito.

Amber was talking to herself in a trembling monotone. 'I can't believe it. Ten days ago I was sitting in the Savoy, having afternoon tea with my uncle. I was wearing a Prada dress and a pair of simple, diamond earrings. We shared a pot of Earl Grey and talked about buying a house in London. Now, I'm in the middle of a swamp, covered in mosquito bites with a leech hanging off my leg!'

Li hid a smile and turned back to the problem of the leech. 'You're wrong about one thing,' she said, looking at the back of Amber's knee. 'You don't have a leech hanging off your leg. It finished its lunch and left quietly, just like I said it would. See?'

Amber twisted to look at the back of her knee, then gave Li a weak smile. 'Sorry about the swamp,' she said. 'I was so tired and I thought it would be quicker. I was wrong.'

Li glanced at Amber in surprise. She did look exhausted. Her face was covered in a sheen of sweat and the skin around her mouth had an unhealthy grey tinge to it. 'Come on,' said Li, softly. 'We're nearly through it, see?' She pointed to the green dome of the rainforest, rising above the swamp. 'We can pick up the game trail again just over there—'

Li stopped in mid-sentence as a series of hisses and deep, grunting roars came out of the rainforest and travelled clearly across the still waters of the swamp. An explosion of brightly coloured birds shot out of the top of the rainforest canopy and the undergrowth shook as something big thrashed and crashed about amongst the trees.

'What is that?' whispered Amber.

'I'm not sure,' said Li, gazing at the fringes of the rainforest. 'But I have a feeling it wasn't such a mistake coming back through the swamp after all.'

'Why?'

'Because if we'd gone around the edge of it again, we would've met – whatever that is.'

Amber stared over at the threshing undergrowth and listened to the hissing roars. 'Trouble is, we have to go back into the forest at some time,' she said, in a wobbly voice. 'It's the only way back to the beach.'

'Alex. It is time to head back.'

Reluctantly, Alex came to a stop in the middle of the game trail.

'We have walked for ten minutes,' said Paulo, tapping his watch. 'We must be back on the beach at the rendezvous time,'

Alex nodded but stayed where he was. He did not want to retrace his steps when a stream of fresh, gurgling water could be waiting for them just around the next bend. He put a hand to his aching head, trying to decide whether to keep walking for another five minutes.

Paulo waited patiently for Alex to make up his mind, letting the peace of the primary rainforest settle around him. The trees were massive here, with huge trunks supporting a high, green canopy of leaves so dense that the sun could not break through. Under the canopy, it was cool and dim, and there was a constant background noise made up of the singing of crickets and birds, the rustle of leaves and the tiny scrabblings of millions of insects. Paulo tilted his head, listening. The forest sounded busy, purposeful. He smiled. It reminded him of the hum of a huge piece of machinery, and he liked machines. Suddenly, his head came up and his eyes widened as he realized he was hearing a new noise.

'Listen,' he hissed.

Alex tensed and raised his stick, then he saw the look of sheer delight on Paulo's face.

'I hear water,' said Paulo.

They ran, dodging low branches and swinging vines. The trail was climbing steeply now and the light grew stronger as the canopy thinned above them. They burst out of the forest into a clearing at the base of a rock outcrop on the lower slopes of the mountain. Alex and Paulo stumbled to a halt and stared. Directly ahead of them, water poured from a hole in the face of the rock, cascading down to a shallow pool which had been hollowed out of the ground beneath.

Alex unclipped the pouch from his belt and dropped it next to their sticks and the rucksack, then they both ran into the pool, fully dressed and still in their boots. The water was cold, clear and refreshing after its journey down through the centre of the mountain.

'Don't drink any,' warned Alex, as Paulo plunged straight under the waterfall. He stood there, whooping and yelling as the water washed away the sticky layers of salt, sweat and blood. Alex stayed in the quieter waters, grinning with relief because they had finally found their fresh water supply. He studied the area, looking for signs that the water was good. There were plants and vines hanging from the outcrop around the waterfall and the rocks were covered with bright green mosses. The vegetation around the pool was cropped short and there were many hoofprints in the wet clay edging the water.

Alex nodded in satisfaction. If animals were using it and plants grew beside it, the signs were good. He relaxed a little, easing into the water until he was floating on his back. He looked up at the face of the outcrop, noting that there were other openings in the rock, including a cave entrance at ground level on the far edge of the pool.

Alex frowned and sat up, clearing the water from his face. There was something lying in front of the cave. He stood up to get a better look but still could not make out what the thing was. Alex waded over to the edge of the pool and then stumbled to a halt a few metres from the dark cave opening as all the pieces of the jigsaw slotted into place. His eyes widened with horror as, finally, he understood what he was seeing.

It looked like a gruesome piece of modern art. Splashes of red stained the ground, darkening to black where blood had collected in the rock hollows. Ants scurried everywhere. A sour green pool of bile leaked from a shredded piece of liver and matted scraps of brown pelt were scattered around like confetti. A nub of blue-white bone poked from one tiny cloven hoof, which stood neatly in the middle of the carnage, as black and shiny as a child's patent-leather shoe.

'What is that?' breathed Paulo.

'That is what screamed,' said Alex. 'A small deer, I think. Hard to tell.'

'But, there is so little left! What could have eaten a whole deer so quickly?'

Alex peered warily into the dark cave mouth, then scanned the forest around the pool. 'I don't know.'

Paulo backed away from the cave. 'I think it is time to leave,' he said.

'We will,' said Alex. 'As soon as we've collected some water.'

They waded back into the pool with the condom from Alex's survival tin and held it under the waterfall until it was filled to capacity. Alex tied the top in a knot, his fingers fumbling on the wet latex, then they eased it into the empty rucksack, sending wary glances at the cave and the forest. As soon as the rucksack straps were secured, they plunged back into the forest again, moving fast and silently along the game trail, checking every shadow and wondering whether they would make it back to the beach.