Missing

by Gabrielle Lord

  ‘Any ideas?’ I asked.

  ‘Not right now,’ she said. ‘But soon, I hope.’

  11:02 pm

  Later that evening, I snuck out of the dormitory to call BB and got lucky with my phone reception. ‘I’ve seen Sophie and she’s totally fine,’ I said. I could hear BB’s sigh of relief down the phone line. ‘But listen, I want to stay longer,’ and I explained my idea of swapping with Ryan to find out more about the Paradise People.

  ‘As long as you’re confident you can handle the situation,’ BB said, ‘we’ll let it play out for now. Just keep us posted and we’ll wait to arrange your pick-up. Over and out.’

  DAY 19

  72 days to go …

  Paradise People Resort

  11:04 am

  ‘Ryan Ormond, please report to Damien’s office immediately.’ The announcement jolted me out of my thoughts as my name was blared over the loudspeaker. Did this mean trouble? I thought I’d blended in over the last day or so. Maybe not.

  I hurried over to the main building and sat on a bench outside where a sign read: ‘Please wait here to see the team leader.’ I waited for ten minutes, wondering what this was all about. Had Dean said something about finding ‘Ryan’ out of bounds the other day?

  I was getting more and more anxious when suddenly Damien himself appeared at the doorway, his powerful body almost filling the space. ‘Follow me, please, Ryan,’ he said, his face giving nothing away. I did so, taking in the steel staircase leading up to a second floor, with a number of doors leading off a corridor. At the end, we came to Damien’s office.

  ‘In here, please,’ he said, opening the door. I walked into a square room, two sides of which were thick glass overlooking the resort main square and many of the buildings, with a view to the mountain beyond. A long dark timber desk ran parallel to the eastern window. Along the opposite wall, a bank of monitor screens flickered, sending back live feed from the closed-circuit television cameras situated around the resort compound. A couple of the images were moving. Did Damien have roving hand-held cameras? Next to the screen on the wall, a number of keys hung on hooks.

  As Damien ushered me to a chair, I tried to take a closer look. I could just make out some of the labels—’main gate’, ‘D-1’, ‘D-2’, ‘D-11’, ‘submersible’. None particularly stood out, but could one of them be what Brittany Philips was scared of?

  I took a seat in front of the desk. Damien could keep the resort under surveillance from this point, as well as watching a lot of the action of the Paradise People on the courts and grassy area at the beach. Two laptop computers on his desk rolled their screensavers.

  He stood for a moment, his back to me, watching a fast-moving basketball game down below, then turned to me and leaned forward on his desk. With an uncannily broad smile, he said, ‘Are you ready to give me an answer, Ryan? I’d hate for you to miss your chance. What do you say?’

  Thank goodness Ryan had briefed me on this, I thought. I forced myself to return his big grin. ‘My answer is yes. I’d be honoured to join The Edge.’

  Damien straightened up. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘Now that you’re on board, I can tell you a little more about the squads. It’s a progrm designed to help build strong, healthy bodies and minds. We combine adventure, healthy physical activities and survival challenges to nurture everyone’s individual strengths. How does that sound to you?’

  ‘Sounds pretty good,’ I said enthusiastically. I was warming up to my role now.

  ‘When young people come here, they’re often lost and lonely. We help them to reach their full potential with a great reward system—so they can strive to become the best they can be.’ He paused. ‘There is some pretty advanced training offered to the very best of them. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The next group after The Edge is extremely exclusive.’

  So there was another level, I thought to myself, even within the special program. Damien was smiling widely again. ‘There is however, the need for discretion. Your agreement to joining The Edge means you must not talk about it or about any of the extra activities that we offer. Not everyone who comes here is suitable for the program, and we can’t provide it for everyone. It would be hurtful for other kids to find out and feel excluded, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘Sure, I understand,’ I said.

  ‘So, not a word. When we’re ready for you, one of the trainers will fly a small flag underneath the Paradise People Resort standard.’

  That must have been the darker pennant I’d noticed flying beneath the resort flag on my earlier reconnaissance.

  Damien’s mobile rang and he hastily grabbed it, turning away from me. There was a few moments’ silence as he listened to the caller, then in an urgent voice he said, ‘He can’t have gone far. Deal with it!’ He turned to me, flashing his smile again. ‘A lost dog,’ he explained.

  I knew it was a lie. Damien was talking about someone who had gotten away. Someone who couldn’t have gone far. Far from where? I still couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong with this place. I didn’t let any of my misgivings show as I put out my hand to shake his. ‘When do we start?’ I said.

  ‘Now is as good a time as any,’ he said. He pressed a button on a keyboard and within moments, a powerfully-built man in army fatigues, his head shaven and with a jet earring flashing from his left ear, appeared at the doorway. ‘This is Hamish, Ryan. He’ll take you to the others and put you through your paces. See what your strengths are so we can put you into the best program for your skill level.’

  He nodded to both of us to show that we were dismissed and I followed Hamish down the steel stairs, but this time we exited the building on the other side and into a large covered area that was easily as big as six basketball courts. Groups of kids were working through a gymnastics routine, others were wrestling, and a small group in white outfits were practising martial arts with an instructor. This could be fun, I thought. Hamish turned to me and said, ‘Let’s see what you can do. Start with push-ups.’

  I managed thirty-six.

  ‘Not bad for a newbie,’ said Hamish, ‘I’ll have you doing a hundred before long.’

  DAY 23

  68 days to go …

  Shadow Island Beach

  8:52 pm

  Over the next few days, I started training with eight other guys about my age. We also had a lot of fun kicking balls around and I was stoked to start learning abseiling with them.

  At night, everyone would gather around a campfire on the beach, watching the moon rise out of the sea and singing at the tops of our voices while Damien joined in.

  One night Sophie plopped down in the sand next to me, blowing on a sausage to cool it down, reaching out for the barbecue sauce that was being passed around the circle.

  ‘I heard something interesting today. There’s a rumour going round,’ she whispered to me as everybody laughed at one of Damien’s jokes, ‘that there’s someone on a rocky outcrop just south of the beach.’

  ‘What? Who?’ I asked. But Sophie shook her head. ‘Nobody knows. It’s just a rumour. It’s probably not even true.’

  I looked across at Damien who was conducting some crazy song, using a piece of driftwood as a baton. ‘But it just might be,’ I whispered back.

  11:13 pm

  Later that night, I sneaked away to take food saved from our campfire feast to Ryan. As Ryan demolished a few cold sausages, we discussed the odd phone conversation I’d heard in Damien’s office. ‘At least it wasn’t me he was talking about,’ said Ryan.

  ‘Maybe it was one of the runaways?’ I suggested. ‘And Sophie told me a rumour she’d heard about somebody being kept prisoner on a rocky outcrop just past the island.’

  Ryan nodded. ‘I’d heard that too, but I just thought it was kids mucking about—a camp fire ghost story. But now I’m not so sure.’

  DAY 26

  65 days to go …

  Paradise People Resort

  10:30 am

  In the following days, our little gang went on ten-kilometre runs
, getting to see some of the amazing beauty of the island. With Hamish showing us where it was safe to go, we ran through lush jungle, along cliff tops with breathtaking views, and past a spectacular waterfall, where we often finished by jumping into the sparkling water and splashing each other. The uphill jogs carrying heavy packs to build up our endurance were less fun though.

  In our stinger suits, we practised our distance swimming and had a chance to enjoy the ocean too. As I swam past the rocky outcrop, I spotted a large square cement block behind the boulders and rocks of the small island. Could there be someone trapped out here? It seemed just too unbelievable.

  Back in the covered court area behind the main building, we trained with weights, barbells and dumbbells. Hamish offered prizes and turned it into a competition. I did pretty well, but the super-strong guy in our group, Alex, seemed to be the best at winning extra desserts at dinner.

  It was when we started practising taking people by surprise from behind that I started to worry a bit. Why were we being trained in this sort of thing?

  Then this morning at training there were only six of us. Puzzled, I asked Hamish. ‘Where are the other two guys?’

  He fixed me with a steely gaze. ‘That’s not something for us to worry about. Try sixty push-ups. Now.’

  As I puffed and grunted and sweated, straining over the last five, questions kept circling in my mind. Why were we training like this? Where had the missing two guys gone? Every day, Shadow Island and its popular and powerful leader raised more questions. From the basketball court I heard cheering and clapping as someone scored a basket. Other kids seemed to be happy, just having fun. Why was I so troubled about this place?

  From now on, I needed to focus on finding the answers. At the back of mind, I also had the nagging worry that almost four weeks had gone by since I’d received that mysterious text message. I was no nearer to figuring it out, but the days were still counting down.

  1:41 pm

  I saw Sophie Bellamy playing table tennis with another girl in the recreation room, her fair hair tied back into two braids, freckled face tense with concentration. I waited until she’d won the rally and sidled over to her. ‘Can we talk, in private?’

  She nodded, and continued returning her opponent’s serves with a killer spin until she’d won the game. She put her bat down, shook hands with her opponent, threw a towel over her shoulder and dawdled over to join me. We stepped outside and I looked around to see where the nearest CCTV camera was positioned. I didn’t want to be seen at all if I could help it.

  ‘Let’s go over to the cemetery,’ I said.

  First we made as if we were preparing the kayaks to go out, scooping the water out of them, brushing sand off the hulls, then when we were certain no-one was watching, we crawled past the bushes into the old graveyard.

  ‘This place is creepy,’ Sophie said, looking around at the leaning tombstones and the almost obliterated names and dates on them.

  ‘They’re OK,’ I said, ‘they’re not going to say anything to Damien about us being out of bounds,’ I grinned.

  ‘Where have you been?’ Sophie demanded. ‘I’ve hardly seen you the last few days.’

  ‘I was invited to join The Edge,’ I said quietly. ‘I’m not supposed to say anything about it to anyone. I’ve been doing adventuring and training hard.’

  ‘Me too. Damien asked me a few days ago. I joined the girls’ squad and got the same instructions about keeping it quiet. More secrecy.’

  I told her about the weird conversation I’d heard in Damien’s office. Sophie was very sceptical. ‘Lost dog! There are no dogs here. He was talking about a person for sure. Let’s see if Ryan has had any more ideas about it.’

  4:42 pm

  As we crept out in the late afternoon to take food up to Ryan, I paused. ‘Sophie,’ I said. ‘I think you should leave.’

  ‘With you and Ryan still here? And all the other kids? No way!’

  ‘OK, OK,’ I said. I knew exactly what she meant. I decided to make a call to BB later that night to brief him on our suspicions. But what we really needed was proof that something was up. ‘Sophie, I’m definitely going to stay here until we get some answers. So that way, you can go home, knowing that Ryan and I can deal with whatever is happening here.’

  I saw the look on her face. It said, You’re joking, right? She rolled her eyes. ‘If Ryan’s staying, and you are staying, so am I. Ryan is my friend!’

  For the time being, I let the matter drop. I thought of her father and how he would worry if he knew about our concerns.

  The three of us settled into Ryan’s hide-out to discuss what to do.

  ‘What do you think’s going on here?’ I asked my brother. ‘You’ve been here longer than me.’

  Ryan thought for a moment. ‘I get the feeling that there’s some sort of selection process going on. Damien picks out certain kids who are really good at sports.’

  ‘What are they being selected for?’ asked Sophie.

  I was just about to ask another question when a sound made the three of us freeze. Someone or something was moving stealthily through the jungle near us. We shrank further back into our overhanging shelter, trying to be as invisible as possible.

  I peered through a gap in the hanging vines. Two boys and a girl, all wearing bright red and blue shirts, were creeping along the pathway. Ryan leaned closer, whispering in my ear. ‘I haven’t seen these guys for weeks. What are they doing here?’

  I waited until the small group had vanished from sight. ‘I’m going after them,’ I hissed.

  ‘Me too,’ said Sophie.

  ‘No, only me. Two people will make too much noise.’

  Lifting the veil of vines and creepers, I crept out from our hiding place, my eyes fixed on the spot where I’d last seen the trio. Moving as quickly as I dared, I went after them.

  Ahead of me, I could see movement and the occasional flash of red and blue as I followed them further up the mountain. We were now high above the resort compound. Keeping my eyes peeled for pythons and stinging trees, I followed them for almost ten minutes. Then the sound of quiet voices carried on the wind to me. They seem to have stopped for a conversation.

  Very carefully, I moved closer. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but I could see them quite clearly now, standing under a dense group of rainforest trees. The girl took out something small and black from her pocket and pointed it ahead of her. I noticed a wound on her upper left arm, just under what looked like a new tattoo—three lines, like a ‘Z’. In surprise I saw that the boys had similar wounds and tattoos on their arms.

  Before I had any more time to consider what it might mean, I heard a whirring sound. I crept closer and closer, trying to see what they were doing. Then I jumped back. I’d almost walked into another Gympie Gympie tree! I ducked around to avoid it, and when I’d straightened up the sound had stopped. I came forward, pressing close to a large rainforest tree, hoping to overhear their conversation. Now there was only silence and the occasional piercing sound of a rainforest bird. I peered around the tree, keeping my body well hidden.

  The trio had vanished! There was no-one there. I blinked a couple of times, scarcely able to believe my eyes. One minute they’d been there, huddled together talking—the next minute they’d simply disappeared. I stepped out from behind the tree, wary of a trap. Maybe they knew they were being followed and set me up for an ambush. I took a few more careful steps towards the spot where I’d last seen the group. There was nothing to show anyone had been standing there apart from a faint footprint in the damp soil.

  Ryan’s Hide-out

  5:29 pm

  I jogged back to Sophie and Ryan, pushing aside the curtain of vines and creepers and squatted down beside them. They listened intently as I described what had happened. ‘They just disappeared,’ I said finally.

  ‘But that’s not possible,’ said Ryan. ‘Three people can’t just vanish like that.’

  ‘I’m telling you what I saw. I know it sounds impossible
.’

  ‘Did you hear anything strange?’ asked Sophie.

  ‘I did,’ I nodded. ‘Why? Have you heard something too?’

  ‘Once I was up here exploring and I heard this odd noise, like machinery or an engine of some kind. I was surprised because I was in the middle of nowhere up in the rainforest.’

  ‘That’s it!’ I cried excitedly. ‘That’s the sound I heard, too. A kind of mechanical sound.’

  The three of us looked at each other.

  ‘Right,’ said Ryan. ‘So, some kind of machine?’

  ‘The weird thing was,’ I said, ‘that all three of them had identical cuts and tattoos on their left arms—’ I held my thumb and forefinger about an inch and a half apart—’the cut was really neat, and the tattoo was shaped like a zed.’

  ‘How about we go back there and take a look around?’ Sophie suggested after a pause. ‘Three pairs of eyes are better than one.’

  I could see Ryan’s ankle was finally healing well as we walked along the path the disappearing trio had taken until we came to the spot where I’d last seen them. We searched around, trying to find something—anything—that would explain what had just happened. But all we found was more rainforest and a massive rock face, dripping with moisture and mosses.

  ‘I’d like to climb that,’ said Ryan, ‘if I had my gear.’

  ‘Wait till your ankle is completely healed,’ Sophie suggested. ‘There’s climbing gear in the sports storeroom.’

  Finally, we had to give up searching. It was getting close to evening rollcall and Sophie and I needed to be back at the resort.