Gold, however, was watching the spectacle avidly, his eyes sparkling.
“Mr Gold!” Grady squeaked.
Will reached out and grabbed the front of his shirt. There was a ripping sound as Grady twisted away.
Then another noise shattered the air – a high-pitched ding. We all jumped and I shook my arm to reveal Grandad’s watch. It was shuddering on my wrist as the alarm sounded.
“The estuary,” Lizzie said, with wonder in her voice. “The tide’s going out, the crossing is rising.” She grabbed Will’s arm. “If we can get out, we can go home.”
Will punched Grady as hard as he could in the forehead. Grady’s head smacked back, cracked against the wall and he slid to the floor.
I lurched to my feet and staggered to the knife lying on the floor. It was slick in my hands, wet with Carmen’s blood.
I picked it up.
Lizzie froze. “Ben, what are you doing?”
I staggered to the monitors and took the black wire in my fingers. The plastic surrounding it was almost tacky, organic.
“Worst case, it kills the lights and opens the door to the other teams,” I said tiredly. “We can tell them what Gold really wants – that he intends for most of us to die in that plane crash.”
“They’ll have to be on our side.” Lizzie’s fingers went to her hair, twisting.
“It could kill the power and trap us here for ever,” Will muttered.
I shrugged and placed the blade under the wire.
“Ben!” Lizzie cried out and I looked round. A yellowish gas was spreading into the room from the edges of the floor.
“Hurry, Ben!” Will pulled his T-shirt over his face and I saw Lizzie’s pale belly as she did the same thing.
The gas rose faster than I could have imagined and I took a deep breath, trying to hold it as it started to fill the air.
I began to saw.
The blade was slippery, the wire strong, and my hands shaking.
Lizzie and Will met in the centre of the room, standing back to back.
My eyes watered.
Will collapsed to his knees.
With a final heave of my shoulders, I jerked hard and felt the knife bite into the sheath. Then I yanked my arm backwards and sliced through.
Instantly the bright lights flooding the room went out.
I could no longer see Lizzie or Will – or the gas. What would happen if I took a tiny breath? Flashes of red light burst inside my eyes as my body fought for air, and then a blue glow. It took me a moment to realize that the blue was some kind of emergency lighting.
I squinted into the dimness and heard, as much as saw, the click and shush of an opening door. Immediately fresher air started to dissipate the gas being piped into the room.
The monitors flickered and revealed Gold’s face again.
Will was coughing. I could hear him over the hiss of the gas and realized he had fallen on his face. I pulled my T-shirt over my broken nose and stumbled across to him. I was running on empty; my adrenalin had gone; my body was on its last reserves. All I wanted to do was sleep. I found Will’s arm and hoisted him up with a grunt.
There was a thud, a yell and footsteps on the stairs. Will was right, cutting the wire had opened the main door. The other teams were on their way.
Then Lizzie’s face was next to mine. It seemed distorted – stretched out of all proportion, like a distended balloon. She was pointing frantically.
I turned to see her gesture at a second doorway, a rectangle that opened into darkness – one I hadn’t seen before.
“A secret door,” I said. “Secret door. Se-cret-door. See-crit—” The words tasted like insects scuttling across my tongue.
“It’s the gas,” Lizzie shouted. She caught my shoulder and shoved me towards the opening.
“Stop!” Gold ordered. “There’s nothing for you that way. If you leave, I’ll destroy you. I’ll ruin your families – everyone you’ve ever cared about.”
I showed him a middle finger and felt Will trying to regain his feet. “Come on, bro, we’re going home.”
I used the door frame to pull us into another corridor. The emergency lights turned everything blue, so that it was almost like swimming. Will coughed in my ear. Lizzie was ahead, holding on to the wall. The echoing corridor seemed endless, but we were definitely heading downhill; the clean air swept the gas from my lungs and I began to think more clearly.
Will took his own weight and I let him go. He looked back. “Can you hear them?”
“Yeah.”
We weren’t the only ones in the corridor.
I broke into a shambling run, pushing Lizzie to speed up. Behind us came an wailing howl: some jerk pretending to be a wolf. The sound was taken up by others and, despite myself, I trembled. Perhaps it was the gas, but it was all too easy to picture slavering beasts behind us, rather than kids our own age.
Not just kids. I shook my head. Psychopaths. More than one in each team.
Lizzie gave an exhausted sob, but I couldn’t help her; I could barely keep moving myself. It felt as if I was falling – my body was numb from the waist down, my feet only moving because it was the last command I’d given them. I wasn’t sure I even knew how to stop any more; only that if I did, I wouldn’t get up again.
Abruptly the corridor ended. Somehow, I’d ended up in front. When had I overtaken Lizzie? I stared stupidly at the door in front of me.
“It’s another door,” I said.
Will came up behind me, then Lizzie.
“No! It’s not fair.” Lizzie collapsed against the door with a wail … and fell forwards into the light.
“It opened.” I looked at Will. “It just … opened.”
Will nodded and we stepped out into rain – where had the sun gone?
The door shut behind us and I looked back. Then I blinked. The door had vanished; in its place, nothing but a crack in a rock wall.
I looked down. I was standing on soaking shingle. I lifted my head, then I started to laugh. We had emerged on the edge of a beach, surrounded by cliffs. In front of us, sharp, tooth-like rocks were ranged in a half-circle and, still caught on a stone spur, tangled in the shrinking pools, I could see Grady’s paracord belt.
“What is it?” Will frowned.
I could only point.
“You mean … we’re back where we started?” Lizzie rasped.
I sniggered, then laughed. My sides ached and I held them tight, but I couldn’t stop. I was hysterical. Raindrops pattered hard on my forehead and ran down my face – cooling, refreshing. Ahead of us, the crossing was rising, straight edges appearing in the sand. In the far distance, a splash of red – a phone box, civilization.
Lizzie dragged a hand through her short hair and her eyes were haunted. I saw with shame that silenced me that her throat was bruised. “We have to get back to the first checkpoint if we want to use Gold’s crossing. The tide isn’t all the way out either.”
She was right. Although patches of wet sand were dotting the distance, the water near us was still at least neck-high; the currents would be too dangerous if we tried to leave now. I nodded. “The only way off this beach was up that cliff, remember?” I swallowed. “I’m not sure I can climb it right now.”
“We don’t have a choice,” Will said.
Lizzie nodded. I looked behind me. The door had closed on Curtis’s howls, but he had to be right behind us.
Chapter Twenty-four
Lizzie propelled herself into movement; small, jerky actions as she started to make her way across the rocks. With no alternative, my feet doing as they always had, I followed her, slipping and sliding on the barbed crags. Will was right behind me. We just had to stay far enough ahead to get to the crossing in front of our pursuers.
The noise as Curtis and his team tumbled out of the door was sudden and brutal. Yipping and yowling, they broke into the rain.
Lizzie twitched as if she was going to clutch my arm, then she wrapped her arms around herself instead. I looked back at
Will, who tiredly raised a hand. For the first time, I noticed how pale he was; his grey eyes almost colourless, his hair hanging in wet and greasy hanks.
Curtis was first out. His blue eyes bulged and his freckles stood out like scars. He raised both fists and grinned, his howl cutting off mid-bellow.
“The crossing is raised,” Lizzie called. “We can all get out of here.”
“Yeah?” Curtis stepped nearer. The rain slicked his wiry hair to his head and streamed down his face. Behind him the skinny lad showed his teeth.
“Yes! There’s no one here to stop us leaving. We can go home. It’s over.”
Curtis kept moving towards Will.
“Will,” I called. “Careful.”
Will cleared his throat. “Before we leave, we should make a pact of silence. We don’t tell anyone what happened here. No one has to pay. We leave, then go our separate ways. We never have to see each other again.”
“That so?” Curtis said.
Lizzie started to retreat towards the sea. Spray splashed my calves as waves were pushed against the rocks, only to be pulled free with the sound of a toddler with a straw. The clouds overhead were so grey that the day seemed later than it was, colour bleeding into the chattering rain.
Will headed for me, but kept his eyes on Curtis. “What do you think?”
Curtis sniffed. “Here’s the thing, mate. Gold’s made a pretty good offer. We bring you back in and we get a million pounds each, no question. No need to look at our time through the checkpoints – we just win.”
“He’s lying,” Lizzie called. “There’s only one winner – Gold already told us so. The rest of us get gassed.”
“Yeah, right!” Curtis laughed.
“There was gas in the room with the monitors. Didn’t it affect you? Couldn’t you smell it?” I was at the edge of the rocks now with Lizzie and we had nowhere left to go. The tide was going out but we couldn’t risk walking across the sand without using the crossing; it was too dangerous. The sea looked like it was chest-high now, but if we tried to swim for it, we’d be swept away.
Curtis snorted. “You think I’m stupid? You’re coming with us.” There were six of them now. I don’t know what had happened to the others. The groups had naturally split into two, the remains of Reece’s team and that of Curtis’s. And now they were closing in on us from two directions. Only two choices: go back with Curtis or into the sea.
I met Will’s eyes. He gave a slight nod, then he raced towards me and together the three of us leaped into the waves.
The wind lifted me forwards and then bitter cold slammed into me as I hit the water. My ankle jarred as I landed half on a submerged rock and slipped sideways. Will grabbed my shoulder and steadied me, but the current was already pulling.
Lizzie turned her pale face to mine and I grabbed her elbow; if we stuck close, forged forwards together, we might prove stronger than the current. We had to be lucky, but if we aimed for the bobbing buoys, we would intercept the crossing.
We started out, away from the rocks, Will in front. Seaweed dragged against my legs and the further from the rock we waded, the more strongly the invisible hands grasping at my knees hauled me sideways.
“Come back!” Curtis yelled. He spotted Grady’s forgotten belt, grabbed it and swung it over his head. “Catch this and I’ll pull you in.”
We ignored him.
“Take it!” Curtis roared. Then he wrapped the cord around his own waist and chucked it back to the skinny lad. “Hold this, Elliot.”
He followed us into the sea. Lizzie’s shoulders heaved and I realized that she was crying silently.
My feet went out from under me and I gasped, inhaling water. I spluttered and waved madly, but there was nothing to catch hold of. I was yanked sideways, then Lizzie’s hand was on mine, pulling at me, but who was holding on to her?
I slammed into a rock beneath the water and then scrambled back to my feet. Lizzie crashed into my chest and I wrapped my arms around her while I looked frantically for Will. He was still standing where I had been, Curtis approaching.
“This way,” I waved furiously. “I’ll catch you.”
Will offered me his odd half-smile. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” Lizzie yelled. “Let the current take you.”
“I can’t,” Will repeated.
“What do you mean you can’t?” My gut twisted.
“I’m not going anywhere.” Will spread his hands and I saw that he was lower in the water than he had been. Quicksand.
Curtis staggered to a stop, holding tightly to the paracord, frowning.
“No!” I tried to push off from the rock holding us in place, but Lizzie shoved me back down.
“Don’t struggle, Will,” she yelled.
Will rolled his eyes.
Curtis folded his arms. “We just have to wait for the tide to go out and there you’ll be – trapped in the sand.”
Elliot giggled at the end of the rope.
“I’m coming!” I tried to push off again and Lizzie punched me in the nose. An explosion of agony and I was blind. I tasted blood.
When I could see again, Lizzie was glaring at me. “You can’t get him out.”
“She’s right.” Will was shivering, his lips almost blue with cold. “You can’t. But you can go for help.” He looked at Curtis. “They can’t touch me until the water’s gone down. At least I’m marking the quicksand for you. Get to the crossing. Run to Fetlar, tell someone what’s happened and bring them here.”
“Will…”
“He’s right.” Lizzie’s voice was soft.
Curtis sneered. “You two can’t go any further until the tide’s out. You’re all coming back to Gold.”
I looked at Lizzie and she looked at me. All I could see were her blue eyes, rimmed with black lashes, her short dark hair plastered to her pale face. It could be my last chance to speak to her.
“What happened back there, that wasn’t me,” I insisted.
“I—”
“Listen.” I closed my eyes and the words fell out of me. “Here’s the truth.” I caught my breath. “I love you. Not just because you’re beautiful,” I opened my eyes and touched her cold cheek, “but because you get angry with me when I skateboard without you, and because you hum old songs when you’re concentrating, and you fiddle with your hair when you’re worried. I love you so much it hurts to breathe. When you’re happy, I am, too, because I love your smile. And you’re smarter than me, which is hot. And you make me laugh, and I need that.”
It was her turn to close her eyes.
“We’re going to die, Lizzie. Please – tell me you feel something for me.”
She was silent and my heart broke a little.
“If you don’t … it’s OK. I’ll always be your best friend. But throw me a line here. Say … something.”
“We’re not going to die.” Lizzie opened her eyes again. “I love you, Ben, and we’re not going to die.”
She twisted out of my grip and started to swim.
For a few heartbeats, I clung on to the rock and watched her, gaping. The rain pounded mercilessly on her head, and she kicked and pulled determinedly towards the floating buoys.
Curtis and his team started to yell again and I looked back at Will.
He tilted his head. “Stop mothering me, Ben. Go!”
“I’ll come back for you – do you hear me?”
Will nodded, then I launched from the rock and started after Lizzie.
The rain lashed into my eyes, but all I had to do was keep myself pointed towards that crossing.
I focused on Lizzie’s kicking legs, unable to see how far we had travelled. The current tugged and pulled, heaving me sideways, and my shoulders ached. I decided to put my feet down, to wade for a while.
I dropped my legs, and water went into my mouth. There was no seabed. My eyes widened and I propelled myself back to a swimming position, trying to see. The current had taken us and I could barely locate the crossing now.
&nbs
p; And where was Lizzie? I looked around frantically. While I had been submerged, she had disappeared. “Lizzie!” I yelled. There was no answer.
I had to keep swimming. I kicked and pulled. A bigger island was in view, a grey hump through the rain. I had to get there, to save Will. To expose Gold.
Suddenly, through a weary haze, it struck me – if I didn’t expose him, Gold would win. In a decade or so, he would be at the head of a global power run by business people with no conscience, all completely under his control. He’d be king of the world.
I set my jaw and swam harder. The sea clutched me with icy black hands, trying to drag me out to its depths. I couldn’t let it defeat me. I kicked and pulled, kicked and pulled. Where was Lizzie?
My whole world shrank to just my arms and legs, stroking and kicking; I had a future with Lizzie and I would not let Gold win.
End
Mum’s voice, calling at me to get up. I had to watch Will while she ran to the corner shop.
I groaned and rolled. Or tried to. My limbs were not receiving messages. It felt as though I were made of sand: soggy and crumbling. “He’s almost seventeen,” I wanted to say, but I couldn’t speak.
My eyes were glued together. I tried to blink and couldn’t make them move. My right cheek was crushed into my pillow, my left was wet.
I didn’t remember getting home, but I must have done. Mum was insistent.
Was Lizzie OK? I tried to sit up, but my battered body ignored me. Was I sick? That would explain why I couldn’t remember. I should be in hoispital, shouldn’t I? I twitched – it was all the movement I could make.
Mum’s voice again, angrier now. I tried to respond; my throat was closed. I coughed. Spasms went through my chest. I spat and twitched again. Yes, I should be in a hospital.
Finally, I managed to open one eye. Bright sunlight was streaming in through my curtains. I winced and closed it again.
Slowly I reopened my eye. Something was nagging at my attention, something … not quite right.
Savage Island Page 22
