Grady put his sweets away and we sped over the moor, feet pounding on the grass, kicking up clumps of mud and grunting with the weight of our equipment.
The ground passed in a blur under my feet; I trampled flowers, thistles and oatmeal-coloured grass. Soon we were jogging beside a rushing stream and I couldn’t resist. I paused, kneeled and splashed water on my face, cooling off.
Lizzie saw me and held up her hand. “Quick break, guys?”
Carmen flopped down beside me and drank from her bottle. She allowed her head to tip back when she was done, her pale throat open to the sky. Lizzie filled her own bottle from the stream and added a water purification tablet.
“You don’t think this water’s pure enough already?” I raised my eyebrows. The stream was as clear as a screen.
Lizzie snorted. “Even with my glasses I can’t see bacteria, can you?”
“Guess not.” I smiled as she put the bottle back in her rucksack and copied me, splashing her face and hands. Droplets clung to her wrists, which seemed fragile and delicate, like the bare veins of an autumn leaf.
An otter was a dark flash and gone, winding sinuously between the rocks and speeding away from us upstream.
“You know … they fill the water at home … with special chemicals to feminize men?” Grady gasped as he took a drink. “That’s why there’re hardly any protests against the government these days – not enough … testosterone in the population.”
Lizzie shook her head with a smile. “How’re you getting on with that rucksack, Grady?” she asked. “Is this pace all right for you?”
“I’ll manage.” He put his hands on his knees.
“We’re making good time.” She checked her watch. “It’s not sunset for a while yet. We might even get to the third checkpoint today – what do you think?”
Will stood a little apart, waiting for us to get running again. He tapped his useless watch. “Five million pounds?” he said.
Lizzie leaped up. “Show me where we’re heading.”
Will pointed to the map, then off into the distance. “See that lake?” Maybe three-quarters of a mile away the lake shimmered. “That’s where we’re going.”
By the time Will was four, Mum didn’t have many friends left – only a couple of diehards from when she had me: Auntie Ros and Auntie Anne.
I remember the last play date I had with my best friend, Matthew. Auntie Anne was pregnant with Matthew’s little sister. Will walked up to her, cocked his head to one side and asked, “Is there a baby inside your tummy?”
Auntie Anne nodded. “Yes, there is, Will. You were inside your mummy’s tummy once too.”
Will looked at her for a long time. Then he walked away without saying anything. Auntie Anne smiled at Mum, and Matthew and I carried on playing with my trains.
The next thing I knew, Auntie Anne was screaming. Will had wandered back up to her holding a thick hardback book and hit her across the stomach as hard as he could.
The whole time, the thoughtful expression never left his face.
“I can’t do this any more, Carrie.” Auntie Anne hustled Matthew away, sobbing and clutching her belly. “He’s out of control. You’ve created a monster – you never tell him off, never punish him. If you let this carry on, what’s he going to be like when he gets to school?”
The last thing she said as she propelled a shocked Matthew out of the door was that he wasn’t going to be able to see me again.
Mum cuddled Will for an hour after that. No one seemed to care that my best friend was gone.
By the time we were nearing the lake, we had all slowed to a jog.
“I need to get fitter,” Carmen gasped as she staggered to a halt.
“We’ll walk for a while.” Lizzie wiped her steamed glasses on her sleeve. “But we should keep up a good pace, at least until we reach the trees.” She kept her feet moving, jogging on the spot.
Grady was barely able to speak. He put his hands on his knees and wobbled.
“Dios, Grady, are you having a heart attack?” Carmen stared.
Grady held up a hand. “I’m … all right.”
“Five million pounds is all very well –” I patted Grady on the shoulder – “but we don’t want to kill Grady.”
“Wait a minute!” Carmen rushed to a patch of grass sheltered by a leaning rock. Mushrooms clustered beneath the overhang. “Check these out.”
“Don’t pick wild mushrooms, Car.” I rolled my shoulders. “Could be poisonous.”
“These aren’t poisonous, chico.” Carmen bent and picked three. “Don’t you recognize them?”
Will leaned close to her hand. “Psilocybin mushrooms.”
“That’s right – magic mushrooms. A little for each of us.”
“Are you kidding?” But Lizzie’s eyes had brightened with humour. “We have to stay focused.”
“Just a tiny bit, chica, enough so all this running becomes fun. You promised me fun.” Carmen was already lifting the shiny brown top to her lips.
“I don’t think you should, Car.” I frowned. “If that is poisonous—”
“It isn’t.” Will’s eyes were on Carmen’s mouth now.
“But what if it is?” I insisted. “We have no way to call for help. Some mushrooms are lethal.”
“Let me see.” Grady had got his breath back and he pulled Carmen’s hand closer to him and squinted. “It does look like the pictures Dad made me memorize. And I do have this.” He patted the pocket of his rucksack that contained his medical kit. “I can at least induce vomiting.”
“If she poisons herself, she’ll already be vomiting.” I glared.
“I’m taking it.” Carmen bit the mushroom. “If I’m still OK in five minutes, you can take some too.”
“Carmen!” Lizzie cried. But she swallowed and there was nothing any of us could do.
We stared at her in horrified fascination. Nothing happened. Nothing continued to happen.
“See, I’m fine.” Carmen laughed. “Give me half an hour and the fun should kick in. Then I can run again.”
“Or you’ll be falling over a lot,” I muttered.
Carmen wrapped her mushrooms and put them in her jacket pocket, then we all started to hike around the lake towards the trees.
“It’s really beautiful here, isn’t it?” Lizzie murmured as she strode beside me. Her nose piercing sparkled in the same light that caught the lake, and her hair stood up in wild, wind-blown spikes.
I nodded. “In a desolate way.”
The lake lapped the shore beside us. I allowed my hand to brush against hers and she leaned slightly towards me. At least, I thought she did. Internally I was at war – sometimes I wondered if I should push things between us before she went to university and someone else got there first. Most times I knew I’d be ruining everything if I did. She was my best friend.
She tensed up in the way that told me she had something to say.
I sighed. “Spit it out.”
“You’re really going to give up your future to keep an eye on Will?”
I opened my mouth, but she kept going.
“At least tell me that once Will graduates, you’ll try again with civil engineering? If we win, you could use your money to pay your tuition fees – you wouldn’t have to rely on your mum.”
I closed my eyes briefly. “I don’t know, Lizzie. I don’t want to be three or four years older than everyone else on the course and … what if Will decides to do a PhD or something?”
“Haven’t you heard of mature students?” Lizzie hit me with her cap. “This has been your dream for three years, Ben. And it’s important. You could be doing some real good in the world. Can’t you plan a cut-off point? Like, when Will is eighteen you’ve done your time.”
“It’s not prison, Liz. I—”
Grady gave a shout. “There’s another team!”
They were approaching the trees from a different direction around the coast and it looked like they would reach cover before us.
“He
y, Will, d’you think they went to the wrong coordinates?” I called.
Will gave his lopsided smirk. “Looks like it.”
A girl walked in front with a very long black ponytail. Her skin was brown and she was slim and long-legged. Her rucksack was bright purple. There was a smaller girl on her team and a boy who looked like her twin – or brother, at least. Two larger guys marched alongside the younger girl like personal bodyguards, one dark-skinned, one light.
“Could be team one,” I said. “Prisha something, wasn’t it?”
“And they’re not much ahead of us.” Lizzie grinned. “That’s excellent.”
She called over to Carmen. “How are you feeling?”
Carmen was staring at the water, her head on one side, mouth slightly open.
“Car?”
“It’s so pretty. You guys need to try this. Look at the sparkles.”
I laughed.
Lizzie took Carmen’s arm. “C’mon, babe – we’re walking.”
Carmen giggled. “Your voice sounds like bells.”
Lizzie laughed. “Can you run?”
Carmen shambled happily into a jog. Lizzie guided her towards Will.
“You keep an eye on her.”
Will lifted his head from the map. “Dreamer-says-what?”
“You said she could take the mushrooms,” Lizzie snapped. “So you’re in charge.”
“I’m reading the map.”
“We can all read a map,” I said. “Give it to Grady.”
Carmen started to sing as she ran. “Grady, Grady, give me your answer do…” Then she forgot the rest of the song and switched to a Spanish lullaby. “Din dan, din don dan, campanitas sonarán…”
When she finished her song, she quietly translated the final verse. “Close your eyes and go to sleep, because the night is coming soon.” She paused. “Din, don, dan.”
Will sped up to catch her.
“I’m tempted,” Lizzie whispered. “She’s definitely having the most fun.”
I looked at Will and grinned. He was already frustrated with preventing her from wandering off.
I watched for a moment as Will slid his arm around Carmen’s waist, under her rucksack. He looked back at me and our eyes met. Then he smiled and turned his attention back to guiding Carmen. He was fine.
I squeezed Lizzie’s shoulder. “I do want that million pounds. You’re right, I can do the course later and what’s left could be seed money for important projects, once I’ve got some experience under my belt.”
She smiled at me. “I’m so pleased, Ben. I’m not sure you’d be you if you weren’t planning to save at least a bit of the world.”
“We’re going to have to leave the lake and head for the trees,” Grady said, flapping the map importantly. “There’s quite a dip ahead; I think we should go around.”
“Will?” I couldn’t help checking.
Will looked up from Carmen and nodded. “That was my plan.”
“See.” Grady sniffed.
“OK, sorry.”
We stepped out in the direction Grady pointed and Carmen started to sing again. An old song and a favourite of Lizzie’s. Lizzie joined in, her voice higher than Carmen’s. Grady hesitated and then he too started to sing. Will met my eye.
I grinned. “Run to the rock, rock won’t you hide me…”
We were all singing loudly as we jogged across the moor towards the first leaning copse of rowan, long-trunked and red-berried. Birches clustered behind them, silver-grey. The ground underfoot became boggier, making it more difficult to maintain the pace, but Carmen’s singing kept going.
“Did you know,” Grady’s voice raised above the singing, “Paul McCartney has been dead for years? He was replaced by a lookalike in 1966.”
Chapter Six
By the time we got to the trees, the sun had slipped behind the hill. As the sun dropped, so did the temperature, and the wind found us again. Shivering, I ducked gratefully under the shelter of the canopy. As the day turned to twilight, the first moths fluttered around us. Carmen squeaked as a bat flew low between the branches.
I swung my bag from my shoulders and found a jumper.
“It’s going to get properly dark in an hour or so,” I commented as I pulled it over my head. Colours were already bleeding from my vision, leaving only muted greens and reds among shades of grey.
“We could set up camp here.” Grady shifted his rucksack. “It’s sheltered, at least.”
I returned my pack to my shoulders, as Lizzie shook her head. “I want to reach the second checkpoint. We’ve still got light – we should keep going.”
“Lizzie’s right,” Will said. “The other teams won’t be stopping yet.”
“I’m tired,” Grady groaned.
I patted his shoulder. “We all are, but we agreed to push ourselves.”
“The trees are breathing.” Carmen was leaning close to a birch, her arms wrapped around the trunk.
“Think of the money, Grady,” Lizzie said as she found her torch. “You can rest at the checkpoint.”
“I think I’d almost pay a million pounds for a rest,” Grady muttered, but he set off, still clanking.
Lizzie slapped her face and arms as she strode. “I hate midges!”
They clouded around us with tiny bites, getting in my eyes and up my nose.
“This is disgusting,” Will muttered as he wrapped a travel towel around his neck and over his mouth.
“I’m going to be itching like the devil in the morning,” Lizzie groaned, slapping her neck. Already I could see marks on her pale skin where she had been bitten.
Only Carmen didn’t seem bothered by the midges; she was skipping ahead, occasionally wafting her hand in front of her face to clear them away.
“Grady, you OK?” I looked back. He winced as he re-shouldered his rucksack, then he sprayed himself with insect repellant. “Can I have some of that?”
Grady held out the bottle. “Sure. This is the good stuff.”
“Thanks.” I did my own face and neck, then Lizzie’s, Will’s and a squirming Carmen’s.
Lizzie gasped with relief. “Thanks, Grady!” She swung a stick she had picked up. “We ought to think about eating. We haven’t had anything except sweets since lunch on the plane.”
“You want to break for tea?” I looked up through the trees – I could see the moon, but it wasn’t yet night.
Lizzie shook her head. “Not just yet. We can’t be far from the check—” She cried out and grabbed my arm as her leg buckled beneath her. Her eyes were wide with alarm and sharp pain lined her face. Carefully I lowered her to the ground and she bit her lip as she touched her right ankle.
Lizzie’s walking boots weren’t as strong as my army boots. A dark hollow showed me what had happened: she had stepped over a tree root and into a rabbit hole.
“I think I twisted it!”
Immediately Grady was on his knees beside her, pulling out his medical kit. “It’s not sprained?”
“I hope not.” Her voice was as pale as her face and her hand was shaking where she touched the swelling.
Grady frowned. “I said we should stop. Should I undo your laces?”
“No.” I closed my hand around Lizzie’s ankle. It felt hot even through her boot, and I could feel the swelling pressing against the leather. “Her boot is keeping some of the swelling down.”
Grady handed me an instant cold pack. I squeezed to break the water pouch inside and shook it. Quickly it became ice cold. I pressed it against Lizzie’s ankle and she groaned.
Grady passed her some paracetamol and ibuprofen. “Alternate these, every two hours.”
Lizzie nodded. “You should be a pharmacist, Grady.”
He snorted.
Will tapped me on the shoulder and I looked up. He was holding a long birch branch with a perfect Y-shape at one end.
“You found me a crutch!” Lizzie exclaimed.
“You don’t have to use it tonight.” I frowned. “We can stop now and keep goin
g in the morning.”
“We need to keep moving.” Lizzie held up her hand and, reluctantly, I pulled her to her feet.
Grady sighed. “We need to stop injuring ourselves. Even my medical kit isn’t bottomless.”
Grady put his supplies away and found himself a cereal bar. I put one arm around Lizzie’s waist. “Let’s find this checkpoint then.”
We were almost out of the trees and the full moon had risen higher, casting shadows of its own. Twigs cracked underfoot and I noticed that the scents of the island had changed – become colder and fresher. The sounds around us had changed too. The gulls had gone, but now I could hear the buzz of bats’ wings and the distant hooting of owls.
We moved more slowly as Lizzie carefully tested each step with her stick.
“Are you sure you want to keep walking?” I asked again as I helped her over a rotting trunk.
“I’m sure.” Lizzie forced a smile. “I’m excited to get to the second checkpoint, aren’t you?”
“Absolutely. It’s just that I know how much you’re hurting – remember last year?”
I’d wiped out doing a fifty-fifty grind on my skateboard and landed hard, with my wrist twisted under me.
“Lucky you didn’t break your arm that time.” Lizzie grinned, then flinched and paled again as she put too much weight on her ankle.
Finally, we stepped into the open. The wind ruffled my hair again, but gently now, as though it too was considering turning in for the night.
“Can you see any other teams?” Lizzie whispered as if leaving the trees meant we had to drop our voices.
Reluctantly I released her and put the binoculars to my eyes. “I can’t see anyone.”
The river was directly ahead, too long to walk around. “We’re going to have to ford that, aren’t we?” Lizzie sighed.
Will nodded.
We made our way to the river, no longer trying to push the pace. When we got to the bank, I touched Will’s shoulder. “You want to test the depth?”
He tilted his head. “You’ll have to watch Carmen. Give me your crutch, Lizzie.”
I balanced Lizzie as she handed the stick over.
Savage Island Page 5
