by Steph Matuku
Eva let out a snort of disbelief. ‘As in, kill him?’
Jahmin gave her a significant look.
‘Oh please,’ Eva groaned. ‘I mean, I get that Liam’s got this whole soldier boy thing going on, but killing someone? This isn’t TV. It’s real life. You don’t just go around killing people.’
Devin looked away, remembering the insults, dirty innuendo and physical abuse she’d suffered at the hands of Eugene over the years. If Liam had gone after him, she wouldn’t blame him in the slightest.
‘I don’t get it,’ Rocky persisted. ‘Why would Liam want to hurt Eugene? First he tries to save him, and then he tries to kill him? It doesn’t make sense.’
‘Yeah. He didn’t know it was Eugene at first. And once he realised who it was …’
Jahmin quickly explained about Beth.
Rocky struggled to sit up, his face drawn. ‘We’ve got to stop him.’
‘Liam’s on his own buzz,’ Jahmin said. ‘He could be anywhere by now.’
‘But what about Eugene?’ Eva said.
Devin spoke out loud for the first time since Jahmin had entered their hut. ‘I can’t believe you’re worried about him.’
‘Why shouldn’t I be?’ Eva said, firing up. ‘It’s hardly fair – surviving a bus crash only to get murdered. I mean, I didn’t like him or anything, but we still need to get up there, do something.’
‘Well, go on then,’ Devin muttered. ‘No one’s stopping you.’
Eva was taken aback. Devin had never, ever stood up for herself before. She was almost impressed. ‘What did you say?’
Devin glared at Eva. ‘If you want to go traipsing through the bush in the rain to help that nasty, horrible bully, then go for it. But just so you know, if Liam hurts him, I’m not going to cry about it.’
Jahmin raised a hand for calm. ‘Hold up, ladies. It won’t come to that. Eugene didn’t make it out. He can’t have. He was trapped. He went down a waterfall. There’s no way he could have survived. Besides, I didn’t see or hear anything to make me think he was running around the bush spying on us. That’s just mental.’
‘So what you’re saying,’ Eva said, ‘is that Liam’s either a murderer or a psycho. Great. Hope we catch up soon.’
‘He hasn’t murdered anyone!’ Jahmin said, exasperated.
‘Not yet,’ muttered Eva.
Jahmin’s watch burst into a chorus of frenzied beeps, effectively drowning out any further conversation. He eventually had to take it outside and throw it away as far as he could, into the rain, into the dark.
27
The day dawned bright and clear. White puffy clouds perched jauntily in a deep blue sky, and the air smelled fresh and clean. It felt like a new beginning.
Theo had just up and gone, Idelle told herself firmly. Perhaps he’d never even been there in the first place. Perhaps she was concussed or something and had hallucinated him. Her head had been so sore, she could well have been delusional.
Anyway, Theo certainly wasn’t there now, and now was all that mattered. Surviving until the rescuers came. Theo’s disappearance had nothing to do with her. If he’d even been there in the first place. Which she was almost sure he hadn’t been. And if he had been, he was gone now. Wandered off into the bush. It wasn’t her fault.
Idelle’s head began to ache again, just a little.
She picked through the dwindling supply of food scavenged from various bags and pockets and bit into an apple. It was soft and mushy, but she ate it anyway. Then she crawled out of the stuffy tent and went down to the river for a wash. She glanced at the little hollow where she’d thrown all the electronics because they just wouldn’t shut up. They were still busily beeping and flashing, even after a night spent in a puddle in the rain. That particular bit of weirdness she couldn’t even be bothered contemplating.
She passed Theo’s head bandage on the muddy slope. It seemed to glare at her accusingly. She trampled it into the sludge and didn’t look at it again.
At the water’s edge, she cupped her hands and drank from the pool created by the slip. The water was muddy and tasted like balls. She lifted up her skirt and peed in it, just to show it what she thought of it.
The rescuers must surely come today. Day Three, it was. Just Day Three! It felt like she’d been here a week. Surely someone should be here by now? The place should be swarming with rescue helicopters and hot guys in fireman uniforms, or whatever it was they wore. Sure, it was a remote area, but it wasn’t deepest Africa, it was bloody New Zealand. That road they’d been on wasn’t exactly a goat track, although it had been pretty rough. People must travel along that road heaps! Tourists and trampers and Department of Conservation weirdos and film crews maybe? As scenery went, it wasn’t bad. Unless you were stuck in the middle of it. Then it was just a big fat pain in the arse.
She thought back to the journey. She couldn’t recall seeing any other traffic on the road, not that she’d been looking for any, being too busy yapping with Chanti and tormenting Dickhead Devin. She did remember an argument between the bus driver and old Harlow. She’d tried to make him turn back, but he’d insisted the turnoff was further along. He’d won only because he was driving, but Idelle remembered him poking at the GPS unit with a puzzled expression.
As though it wasn’t working properly.
Her heart quickened. What if he’d taken the wrong turnoff? What if no one knew where they were? Someone should be here by now. But they weren’t. What if the rescuers’ phones and equipment had all gone haywire too? What the hell then?
Idelle kicked at the mud furiously. That goddamn bus driver. If he wasn’t already dead, she would be more than happy to do the honours.
Just like Theo.
Shut up.
Her nose was dripping blood again. It didn’t hurt, it was just annoying. She wiped it away on Awhina Thomas’s lacy sleeve and turned to head back up the hill.
And that’s when she saw it.
She hadn’t noticed it before; she’d been standing at the wrong angle. But now she had seen it, she wondered how she could ever have missed it.
Uncovered by the slip, jutting out from the hillside, was a sight so bizarre, so incongruous, so … out of this world that she did a double take, an actual real double take like they did in the movies, and even then, it felt like an under-reaction.
‘No way,’ breathed Idelle. ‘No bloody way.’
It looked like … although she knew it couldn’t possibly be …
A goddamn spaceship?!
28
Spear fishing was as hard as Devin had imagined it would be, and she hadn’t even thrown her spear at anything yet. The swirling water was so brown and muddy that she couldn’t see a thing.
Eva gave her a hopeful double-thumbs-up from the ridge. She and Jahmin had been detailed to find dry wood for the fire. They were expecting to be cooking something soon. Devin jabbed her spear between her feet in frustration. Apart from everything else, she was so sick of being wet.
She decided to head downriver over the flat to the stream that Jahmin had crossed. The current wouldn’t be as fierce or the water as deep. The visibility might be better too. Her stomach rumbled in anticipation. Using her spear like a walking stick, she set off.
Jahmin was in no mood to look for wood. ‘It’s all going to be wet,’ he complained. ‘Typical. Longest, hottest summer on record and the minute we find ourselves lost in the bush, it pisses down.’
Eva sighed. Although Jahmin had worked hard to lose his spoiled brat status, sometimes his heritage won out and the spoiled brat reasserted itself with a vengeance.
‘You have to look under bushes and things,’ she said. ‘There’ll be some. Devin said mānuka burns even when it’s wet.’
‘What does mānuka look like?’
‘Dunno.’
‘I’m not even hungry.’
‘Well, I am, so put a bloody lid on it, would you?’
Jahmin watched Devin make her way along the riverbank.
‘What’s
the deal with you and Devin, anyway?’
‘Huh?’
‘You guys being nice to her. It’s … different. I never heard her talk so much before.’
‘I know, right?’
Eva headed off towards a little cluster of trees, Jahmin following, wearing his wet sneakers and grey shorts, irritably tugging at the tight sleeves of Mandy’s pink cardy. It was way too small for him, but it was the only piece of clothing that was dry and available, so it would have to do. He’d quite enjoyed making everyone laugh when he’d put his outfit on earlier, but now he just felt ridiculous.
‘She saved us. She didn’t care that we weren’t friends or anything. She helped us. She’s a good person.’
‘I haven’t talked to her for like, years.’
‘I know, me neither. I’ve been thinking about it heaps. Everyone ostracising her and stuff. And I have this theory. It was a habit. Just a really bad habit. You know? We gave her those screwed-up names and they stuck to her, and soon all we saw were the names and not the person. Like Budget Brand baked beans, right? It’s just baked beans, who cares. But you’re not going to buy budget, cos if it says it’s budget, then it is budget. But really? At the end of the day, it’s still baked beans.’
Jahmin clapped in mock awe. ‘Awesome analogy, Evs.’
Eva inclined her head graciously. ‘Thank you.’
‘She was pretty weird, though. It wasn’t like we didn’t like her for no reason.’
‘Yeah, but they were dumb reasons. So she was a bit thick when it came to schoolwork and stuff. She wasn’t the only one. And so what if she looked a bit … rough. Her mum died when she was little. She was brought up by her dad. She never learnt about clothes and haircuts and stuff.’
‘She used to eat hedgehogs. Remember?’
‘She doesn’t any more. And you used to eat bagels with cream cheese and smoked fish. No one teased you.’
‘You did. “Fish breath, stink breath,” as I recall.’
‘Oh, that’s right, blame me. Everyone called you that.’
‘You started it.’
‘Someone had to.’
They had reached the trees. Beneath them the ground was almost dry. It was littered with long, papery tī tree leaves and fallen sticks. Eva gestured expansively. ‘What’d I tell you?’
As they headed back to the hut with as many sticks and tī tree leaves as they could carry, Eva said, ‘It’s Rocky I’m worried about. His leg is munted.’
‘Yeah, it’s not too pretty. Devin did a good job, though.’
‘Lucky for him. There was no way I was going to touch it.’
They found Rocky sprawled outside the shelter, enjoying the sunshine.
‘What do you reckon about moving up there?’ Jahmin suggested, gesturing back towards the trees. ‘It’s more sheltered. Firewood too.’
Eva dumped her heavy bundle on the ground. ‘Why didn’t you say that before and save us a trip?’
Jahmin grinned. ‘Thought you might need the exercise.’
Before Eva could retaliate, Rocky cut in. ‘All good, bro. Not now though, ay? I’ve only just got outside.’
‘Sweet as. Rest up. We’ve got all day.’
Jahmin fetched a few rocks from the riverside, set them into a perfectly round circle and stacked the wood and tī tree leaves into a little pyramid in the exact centre.
‘That’s how they do it in the cowboy movies,’ he said with satisfaction. He slotted another rock into place and stepped back to admire his handiwork.
Rocky smiled. ‘If you build it up on one side, it’ll help protect it from the breeze. The rocks’ll heat up too. Give off more heat.’
‘Oh,’ said Jahmin, a little crestfallen. ‘Yeah, that makes sense.’
‘Ancient Māori wisdom,’ Rocky said sagely. ‘Handed down from my tipuna.’
Eva waited until Jahmin was out of earshot before saying, ‘You are so full of shit. Devin showed you that.’
Down at the river, Jahmin was considering the physical attributes of one round rock over another when he heard a shout. Devin was waving frantically at him. He strained to hear what she was saying, and then dropped the rocks and ran towards her, shouting to Eva and Rocky over his shoulder. ‘Devin’s found someone!’
29
Jahmin and Devin looked unhappily down at the body. They could tell it was male, although he was face down in the water, an arm snagged in the crook of a tree growing out of the bank. The top of his head was missing.
‘We should get him out,’ Devin murmured.
Jahmin shuddered. ‘And then what?’
‘Bury him, I suppose.’
‘No spades.’
‘We can’t leave him there.’
Devin knelt and grabbed the body under his free arm, remembering how she had hauled Rocky out of the water in much the same way, wondering why that had seemed so much scarier than this dead body did.
Jahmin made no move.
‘Can you give me a hand? He’s heavy.’
Jahmin gulped down a wave of revulsion and knelt next to her. He unhooked the arm from the tree branch, and the two of them hauled the body up onto the bank and rolled it over.
It didn’t look like a person. It looked like a prosthetic model from a horror film. The top half of his head had been bashed to a jellied pulp, and in the centre of what was left of his skull were the remains of a mobile phone. The lower half of his face was alternately livid with bruising and chalky white.
Jahmin gulped a little and quickly turned away, ‘What happened to him? He fell on a phone?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Someone did that to him?’
‘I s’pose.’
‘Who is it? I can’t … I don’t recognise his … jaw.’
‘It’s Theo.’ Devin said softly. ‘Theo Brannigan. He only started a fortnight ago.’
She abruptly stood and rubbed dirt off her kneecaps. ‘Come on, let’s tell the others and then we can eat.’
Jahmin’s mouth dropped open. He backed away a couple of steps. ‘Bloody hell, they won’t be that hungry!’
Devin blinked and then let out a peal of laughter, laughter that seemed quite wrong, given that she had a dead body sprawled at her feet.
‘No, no,’ she spluttered. ‘I meant eel. I caught two.’
30
Idelle sat on the clay slope just below the thing. The spaceship. She’d been looking up at it for hours, admiring its dull, silvery sheen, the strange, fan-shaped patterns embossed on the metallic surface that was curiously free of mud and debris. It looked like a huge frisbee sticking out of the side of the cliff, and from the curved section that was jutting out of the cliff she could tell it was big. Huge, even.
She had so many questions. Why was it here? How long had it been here? Where was it from? Were the owners ever coming back to get it?
The one thing she didn’t bother to query was why she’d been the one to discover it. She already knew it was because she was special. She’d always known there was something different about her, something that set her above everyone else. Her future lay somewhere far grander and far more fabulous than stupid Kōtuku High in Loser Nowheresville. She was going to be famous. She was no longer just a girl. She was The Girl Who Discovered the Spaceship. She’d be on every news broadcast, every chat show, every magazine cover, every everything, all over the world. People would pay millions for her story. This was her time. This was her destiny.
She sat in the shadow of the alien craft, her nose dripping blood, her head pounding.
31
The flash of blue appeared again through a grove of nīkau palms. Liam crept forward, his fingers almost touching the ground, careful not to make any sound.
Crashing through the undergrowth in the rain had been a waste of time. Eugene had simply vanished. He was sly and cunning, the classic hallmarks of a career bully, so he would need to be taken down by sly and cunning means.
It had taken Liam all morning to get this close, after a freezing nig
ht huddled under some fallen logs. He’d followed the signs. A smudged bare footprint in the mud, ferns bent back to show their silver undersides, a trampled little hollow under some trees.
He suspected he was being led, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to make sure Eugene was dead. He wasn’t even sure why, now. He just knew it had to happen. It was either Eugene or him.
Manslaughter. Murder. Self-defence. The annoying chant was going round and round in his head, keeping time with the pulse that hammered in his eardrums. Manslaughter. Murder. Self-defence.
A shrill whistling filled the air. Liam flinched back, one arm raised, as a frantic weka erupted out of the nīkau and tore off screaming into the bush. Other weka responded with a clamour of high-pitched calls. Liam swore. Needless to say, the flash of blue had disappeared.
He scrambled forward into the cluster of nīkau. Nothing but muted browns and emerald green and flashes of sunlight through the filigree of tree ferns, no sound but his own harsh panting and the drumbeat inside him. The smell of wet earth was cloying, ancient, suffocating.
Liam. It was a whisper on the wind, a sigh in his mind. It may not have even been there at all. Liam. Come closer …
He plunged deeper into the bush.
32
Jahmin, Devin and Eva dragged Theo’s body to a shallow depression away from the water and stacked stones over it. Jahmin suggested they get some wood and light it like a funeral pyre, but Eva vetoed that.
‘Yuck. What about the ash and the smoke? No way. I don’t want Essence of Theo in my lungs, thanks.’
‘True. I s’pose his olds wouldn’t thank us for burning him. This way, they can still come get him. Take him home.’
‘Maybe they can take us home too.’
Devin set the last rock on the cairn then reared back, startled.
‘Is that The Simpsons?’ Jahmin said.
‘Shit!’ Eva said. ‘The phone – it’s working!’
