Shame riddled me.
“You can’t fight for me,” she hissed, “but you can run to the last checkpoint and keep Reece from … getting that money.” She lurched on down the hillside.
“If they can’t get into the next box, they’ll still be at the checkpoint,” Lizzie shouted. “They’ll be waiting for someone who can.”
Carmen turned round one more time, her eyes narrowed. “I’m not giving up.”
I moved to stand beside Will and lowered my voice. “Lizzie’s right. If we go to the next checkpoint, we’re offering ourselves to whatever team is waiting. It could be Reece, it could be the cheats who took my tooth. It could be someone we haven’t met yet.”
Will gestured helplessly towards Carmen. “We’ll just have to be careful.”
Chapter Thirteen
The ground was flat and, from our vantage point between a rock and a cluster of prickly bushes, we could see the cottage tucked inside the bend on the river. It was a stone hut, thick-walled with two storeys. Half the roof had caved in. There had once been a small garden; a riot of wild flowers grew among the broken tiles.
We were lying next to one another. Carmen was exhausted – her head lay on Will’s arm and her arm was tucked inside her jacket.
I panned my binoculars around. To the south I could see the lake we’d passed on our way to the second checkpoint.
“Have they gone?” Grady whispered.
I nodded.
Another team had appeared from around the back of the cottage, forcing us to drop to the ground. They had hiked northwards without seeing us. My heart was still pounding.
“Who were they, do you think?” Grady pressed.
“No way to know.” I focused the lenses. “It wasn’t Prisha’s team, and it wasn’t Reece’s.”
The biggest of them, a tough-looking girl with a buzz cut, had worn a machete on her belt.
“Can you see anyone else?” Will asked. He was leaning on his elbows, scanning the river ahead.
“Not yet.” I turned my eyes towards the trees that had sheltered us the day before. “I think there’s movement over there.”
“How long do we have to wait?” Lizzie groaned. “Carmen’s freezing.”
“We’ve got to cross the river to get to the house,” Grady said. “We’re going to have to carry her.”
I trained my lenses on the water. “I think there are rocks over there where it forks – stepping stones. It could be a proper crossing.”
“You guys go over with the bags.” Lizzie gave Carmen’s shoulder a squeeze. “I’ll stay here with Car – you can come back for us.”
“I don’t like leaving you alone.” I frowned.
“You can’t carry your bag, Carmen’s bag and Carmen. And I’m going to need help crossing, too.”
I took one last look around. “All right. Give Grady your bag, Lizzie.” I moved up to a crouch and settled Carmen’s bag back over my arms.
Lizzie unhooked the rope that had been dangling from my rucksack and threaded it through my belt. I offered one end to Will and the other to Grady.
Grady moaned as he took the weight of Lizzie’s pack, but he held on to the rope.
“There’s a sandbank on the other side of the river. We’ll leave the bags there.” I swallowed. “See you in a bit.”
“Give me the glasses.” Lizzie held out her hands.
I nodded and handed her the binoculars.
“Be safe.” She planted a quick kiss on my jaw, then looked away before I could meet her eyes.
We scuttled along the edge of the river, but with every step away from Lizzie and Carmen, I panicked more. What if another team found them?
“Hurry, hurry,” I muttered and shifted into a faster jog, forcing Grady to match me, or be dragged behind.
We stopped at the water’s edge. To our left the river forked. A weir foamed a little further along the right tributary. Here, just before the junction, the banks were further apart, the water was shallower and studded with slippery rocks green with algae.
Will stepped out to the first one. It was barely bigger than his foot, and he quickly leaped to the second – wider, but more slick. He waved his arms for a moment, then stabilized.
I looked at Grady, swallowed and leaped out. My balance was good – I was a skateboarder, after all – but I was wearing two heavy bags. I landed on my good leg and left my weak one sticking out into mid-air. I thrust my arms out to either side and fixed my eyes on a curl of fossilized shell in the side of Will’s stone.
“OK, Will,” I called. The water’s rushing filled my ears and the wind seemed to become stronger. Splashes wet my shins.
Will leaped to the next rock; I followed him to the wider, flatter stone and felt the rope behind me tighten and then relax as Grady hopped on to the first one.
My foot slid wildly on the next stone, but I caught myself just before I went to my knees, managing not to grab the rope.
“OK?” Grady shouted.
“I’m good,” I replied.
Will jumped again. We were halfway across when I heard Lizzie’s cry. My throat closed and I turned to see her gesturing desperately towards the trees at the river bend on her side of the river. We were no longer alone.
The newcomers were still a couple of hundred metres away and they froze when they saw us.
I looked frantically between Will and Lizzie. “We have to go back!”
“No!” Will dived forwards, forcing me to follow him. Four more jumps that I barely registered and we were on the other side, Grady staggering into my back. I dropped the two rucksacks on to the thin line of dry sand that bordered the riverbank as fast as I could, and spun back round.
The other team had put on speed.
Will bounded back on to the stepping stones; I was a second behind him. “Stay with the bags, Grady,” Will yelled.
Frantically, Grady looked from us to the team that was now coming up fast. He hopped from foot to foot and eventually settled on grabbing his pick and pressing it to his chest.
I pulled my axe out of my belt as I bounded on to the bank, ignoring the last stone completely and landing half in the freezing water. We had to get to Lizzie and Carmen first. I put my head down and sprinted.
Without our bags, we were fast enough. I skidded to a halt between the girls and the oncoming team, raised the axe and yelled.
Will slid into place beside me and lifted his pick.
Carmen was on her knees. Lizzie braced her spear against the ground and aimed the blade forwards. “Stop right there!” she cried.
The other team leader held up his hand and everyone froze. We faced one another and I stared, chest heaving. He looked Chinese, and two of his team-mates – a boy and a girl – were also Asian. Like us, they held weapons – knives, a small axe, climbing spikes. There was also a tall, blonde, athletic-looking girl and a skinny lad with a bushy monobrow who had twisted himself into a karate pose.
“What do you think, Will?” I asked without breaking eye contact.
“Wang An, perhaps,” Will said. He raised his voice. “Is that right?”
The leader dropped his fists slightly. “You can call me An.” He leaned slightly to look around us, then sneered. “You use your team member like this!” He gestured at Carmen.
Lizzie’s eyes widened. “We didn’t do this!”
An nodded his understanding.
“What about you?” I rasped. “What did you do about the first geocache?”
The tall girl opened her mouth. She pointed to the gap where her right canine had been. After a slight hesitation, I opened my own mouth. My missing molar was more difficult to see, but she got the idea.
“There’re teams out there going a different way.” I didn’t lower my axe.
“I know, we saw. One team reached the checkpoint ahead of us. The smallest guy on their side wasn’t given any choice.”
“We think there’s something even worse at the next checkpoint,” I offered. “Carmen’s hand, maybe…”
&n
bsp; An looked at his team. “We did wonder…”
“But you carried on?” I frowned.
“A million pounds,” the tall girl said, as if that explained everything.
“Then you’re still in the game.” I tightened my grip on my axe.
“So are you,” she snarled.
“We’re just getting to the end so we can find someone to help Carmen. There has to be someone waiting for the finishers.”
An held up a hand and the girl stepped back. “You aren’t going for the money?”
“It’s not important any more. Carmen is!”
“Hey.” Lizzie called. “Maybe they can help.” She looked at An. “Our electrics got wet. Have you got a working pho…” She saw the look on his face and tailed off. “You haven’t.”
An spread his hands. “Nothing’s worked since we got here.”
“That’s strange.” Will frowned. “Don’t you think so? A tech billionaire should have a phone signal and Wi-Fi on his private island.”
An looked at his teammates. “You reckon this whole thing is something to do with the Gold Foundation?”
“No, we don’t,” Lizzie snapped. “That’s stupid. Some idiots in the first team are playing dirty tricks and people are falling for them.”
“Dirty tricks,” An repeated thoughtfully.
The Asian girl leaned into An and whispered urgently in his ear. I heard the words ‘team up’ and caught Lizzie’s eye.
An shushed her. “They aren’t going for the money,” he said. “We are.” He looked at us. “There has to be a way of getting the prize that doesn’t involve…” He pointed at Carmen.
I looked at An. Sweat patches were spreading under the straps of his rucksack.
“Nervous?” I asked.
An licked his lips. “It’s hot.”
Monobrow cleared his throat. “Where’re you headed? Maybe we can walk together for a while. Get one another’s backs.” He looked at Carmen. “Looks like you could use the help.”
Lizzie opened her mouth, but I jumped in first.
“You seem like nice guys.” I glanced at Will and sensed him shift his weight. “If you’re still going for the money, what are you planning to do about the next geocache?”
An’s gaze slid from mine, but Monobrow laughed awkwardly. “Can’t we deal with that when we get to it?”
“I think we’re better on our own, thanks. Like you say, we’ve got different aims.”
Lizzie tilted the knife end of her spear. “I’m just wondering, did you come from back there –” she pointed in the direction of the second checkpoint – “or have you circled round?” She glared. “What’s in the next geocache box, An?”
An swallowed.
“You’ve been to the third checkpoint already, haven’t you?” I said.
“I…”
“Don’t say anything,” Monobrow snapped.
“You have!” Lizzie spat. “You were coming back to find someone … someone like Carmen.”
“You’ve got us wrong,” the Asian girl said. “We aren’t bad guys.”
I lifted my axe. “Then what did you leave in the box?”
“It was just—”
“Shut up, Casey.” Monobrow silenced her.
“We can still do it, An,” the boy behind him urged. “Get them.”
“So, you thought you could take us by surprise?” I shifted my gaze to Monobrow. “Harder now we’re on to you, huh?”
“What’s in the next box?” Will leaned closer. “Is it a finger?”
An nodded, white-faced, and I gripped my axe tighter.
“Do you really think you’ll win the money with a bag of body parts?” Lizzie cried. “When you get to the end, the Foundation is more likely to call the police than give you the prize.”
“We think otherwise.” An shuffled closer.
“That’s far enough.” Lizzie thrust her spear. “There’s no need for anyone to get hurt right now. Why don’t we just … go our separate ways?”
“Pretend we never saw each other?” An asked.
He looked at Monobrow and there was a long moment of silent communication between them. Eventually Monobrow nodded.
“All right,” An said. “We’re heading north.”
I stepped to one side, symbolically more than anything, but kept my axe raised as An and his team sidled around us.
As they passed, the other Asian boy turned back. “I’m making a spear, Four-eyes,” he called. “Maybe we come back for you.”
As soon as they were far enough away, I dropped the axe from fingers as limp as noodles and put my head between my knees.
Lizzie rested a hand on my shoulder. “Well done, Ben.”
“Carmen needs to get out of this wind,” Will said. He pulled Carmen to her feet and put her over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift. “Are you coming?”
“Yeah.” I picked up my axe, got back to my feet and began to help Lizzie towards the river.
I looked wistfully at the cottage fireplace.
“Wishing we could build a fire?” Lizzie was cuddled up to Carmen beneath two sleeping bags in a corner clear of rubble.
“Talk about signalling our position.” I chewed on a piece of chicken from the snack pack Grady had shared with us while trying not to look at the sheep droppings that covered the floor like black marbles. Carmen had the beef jerky.
Will was sitting by a shattered window, staring out with his binoculars. The glass splinters that stubbornly clung to the frame were opaque with dust and sticky with clumping cobwebs and dried flies.
I sat on the other side of the room, guarding the door. The stairs had long ago collapsed – if another team wanted to shelter in the house, we had nowhere to hide.
From where I sat I had a view towards the small loch. Rabbits, scared by our initial approach, were now hopping around the garden and birds had returned to roost in the roof. A butterfly fluttered across a clutch of heather. I wrapped my arms around my chest and shivered.
I strained my ears and caught the distant shush of the sea. The map had shown an inlet in the cliffs not far from the house.
“How long should we wait here?” Grady asked anxiously.
“Until Carmen feels up to moving,” Will answered.
Lizzie shook her head. “I don’t want us to set off while the sun’s up.”
“That’s a lot of time to sit things out.” Grady sighed. “We were meant to do three checkpoints today. If we leave them till tomorrow, we have to get through all five in one day and I’m not sure we can—”
“I didn’t say we should leave them till tomorrow.” Lizzie chafed Carmen’s shoulders with her hands. “If we wait till it’s almost dark, there’s less chance of us being seen. It’s the best time to travel – poor light for binoculars, but not dark enough for night vision. We’ll head out then and see how far we can get.”
“So we’re going out when the bats do.” I looked up. Seabirds circled.
“It gives Carmen plenty of time to rest,” Lizzie said. “And it’ll be safest for us. Some of the other teams are bound to be camped out.”
I nodded. “We aren’t that far from the next checkpoint.”
“When we get there, I want to be in and out,” Lizzie said. “No hanging around, so if you’re bored, Grady, work out the clue.”
“I’d forgotten about the clue.” I took another look out of the door. Was that movement beyond the garden’s drystone wall? I froze.
An old ram raised its head, tugged ivy from the stone and ambled on. My heart started beating again.
“In my rucksack, Grady.” Lizzie nudged it with her toe.
Grady dug around until he found her notebook.
“There was a coin, wasn’t there?” I remembered Lizzie taking the rubbing.
“And this nonsense word.” Grady held up the book and Will turned.
“See if you can crack the code.” Lizzie settled back with Carmen, who had closed her eyes.
Grady nodded, took a pencil from his jacket an
d started to scribble.
Dad was staring at Mum. “I think I’m seeing you clearly for the first time.”
“What a strange thing to say.”
Mum was doing the washing-up. I was in the porch cleaning mud off the wheels of my new skateboard. Dad hadn’t seen me behind the kitchen door.
“What you said on Ben’s birthday last week – that you understand Will. It’s because you’re the same as he is.”
“Don’t be rid—”
“The more I look at Will, the more I see you.” Dad sighed. “I can see him learning. He’s turning into a charmer. And you’ve had me wrapped around your little finger from the start.”
I froze, fingers on my wheelbase.
Dad carried on. “I’m beginning to wonder about some things. How everything always ends up your way, no matter what I think. Everything always on your terms. Why haven’t I seen my brother in ten years?” He cleared his throat. “I’ve been trying to remember, but all I can think is that you didn’t like him.”
Dad had a brother? I laid my board and scrubbing brush down on the step.
“There’s nothing wrong with Will … or me.” There was a splash. “Why do you make things so difficult, Dean? It’s like you’re always trying to find fault with me.” A little sniffle. “I thought you loved me.”
Dad moved towards the door. “That won’t work on me any more,” he said.
After a while, Will lowered his binoculars. “Swap?” he asked.
I nodded and moved to the window, Grady handed Will the notebook and took my place by the door.
Now I could see back towards the river. The hill with the checkpoint cairn loomed in the near distance. I shuddered.
“What’ve you tried, Grady?” Will turned the notebook upside down and frowned at it.
“Transposing letters, mainly.” Grady shrugged his shoulders.
“The coin has to be a clue,” I suggested.
“Probably.” Will looked at Lizzie’s rubbing.
“Is there a date or some writing or something on it?”
“Just the word Caesar.”
“So it’s Roman.”
“Duh.”
Suddenly Lizzie snorted. A strange, out-of-place sound. “The coin was stuck on to the box – it’s a Caesar Cipher. We did it in maths a year or so ago – Mr Goode said Caesar was the first person to invent codes.”
Savage Island Page 12
