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by Robert Muchamore

  door. ‘Is that the other engine gone?’ ‘We’re working on it,’ the pilot shouted. ‘No need to panic yet.’ ‘Adam, I need you out of the way,’ Dad said ‘Go and sit with Jake.’ Adam scrambled onto my lap and put his arm round my neck. ‘How long can we stay up without engines?’ I asked. ‘We’re not that high. Ten, maybe twelve minutes,’ the pilot said. ‘I don’t think we’ll be able to restart. There’s three parachutes in the back. If anyone wants to jump, they’ve got to do it in the next four minutes or we’ll be too low.’ ‘But there’s six of us,’ I said. ‘Why only three parachutes?’ ‘It’s a cargo plane,’ Dad said. ‘Two crew, one passenger.’ ‘There’s a chute for the two boys,’ the pilot said. ‘Third chute is between you and the two bodyguards.

  You’ll have to draw lots.’ Adam’s fingers dug into my back. I don’t know why it took so long, but it only hit me now that most of us were going to die. I had this image in my head of my class coming back after summer holidays. My desk is empty and my form teacher is telling everyone that I’m dead. I started to shake all over. ‘What about you?’ Dad asked. The pilot smiled, ‘The Captain always goes down with his ship. I’ll keep this crate up for as long as I

  can; try and ditch somewhere flat. You never know, we might get a miracle.’ We heard this rushing noise from the back of the plane. Dad opened the door into the cargo bay.

  Banky and Tim had put on parachutes and opened the rear passenger door. Banky jumped out. Tim gave my Dad an arrogant wave and followed him into the blackness. Me and Adam were standing behind Dad. We both worked it out instantly: Dad had to pick one of us to get the last parachute. ‘Jake, come here.’ Dad shouted. Dad grabbed the parachute. I couldn’t look back at Adam. I put my arms though the shoulder straps

  and Dad fastened the harness around my stomach. I wondered why he’d picked me, Adam was the littlest. ‘Don’t pull the cord straight away.’ Dad said, placing it in my hand. ‘If you don’t build a bit of speed first, the parachute will tangle up. But don’t leave it too long. Count to about six seconds after you jump, then pull.’ ‘OK,’ I said. It was hard to speak. There were tears round my eyes, but I was too shocked to sob. ‘Adam, come here,’ Dad shouted. Dad had a plan. He got Adam to jump onto me, wrap his arms around my shoulders and lock his feet together behind my thighs. Our noses were almost touching. Dad stripped his belt out of his trousers. It was big enough to go around both our tummies. Dad strapped us together so tight we could hardly breathe.

  ‘Grip each other as tight as you can. If the rush of air gets between your bodies, it will tear you apart.’ I nodded.

  ‘Have you still got the cord in you hand?’ ‘YesDad,’ Isaid. ‘How many seconds Jake?’ ‘Six seconds,’ I said ‘Try and bend your knees when you hit the ground.’ ‘What about all the trees?’ I asked. ‘You’ve just got to hope for the best.’ I couldn’t see where I was going because Adam’s head was in the way, and I could hardly stand with all

  the weight strapped to me. Dad shoved his Swiss army knife in the back of my shorts. ‘You might need that,’ Dad said. The pilot shouted in from the cockpit, ‘Going below safe parachute height in about fifteen seconds.’ Below a certain height, you smash into the ground before the parachute has time to slow you down. I stood in the open doorway, the air was pushing me back inside. ‘Good luck boys.’ I saw Dad’s face for the last time as he kissed us both on the cheek. ‘Look after each other. I love you.’ ‘I love you Dad,’ I shouted over the wind ‘Five seconds to go,’ the pilot shouted. ‘Get them out of here, now.’ It was pitch black. I’d die if I stayed on the plane, but I still didn’t have the guts to jump. Dad gave me

  an almighty shove and I started to fall. I was absolutely shitting myself. It was dark, the wind blasted my ears. Then I realised, I’d forgotten to

  count. How long had it been? Were we going fast enough? ‘Pull it now you idiot,’ Adam shouted, ‘It’s already eight seconds.’ I yanked the cord. It seemed to take forever, but the silk spilled out behind my head. It felt like we were

  being jerked upwards, but that was the chute slowing our rate of descent. Now all I could think about was the ground. I’d seen loads of war movies and people who parachuted into trees always seem to end up getting strangled. I couldn’t see what was below me, but in the middle of the jungle, crashing into trees seemed like a good bet.

  I felt my trainer hit something, then it was like we were getting sucked into tunnel of leaves. Adam was screaming in my ear. I felt this sharp pain like someone had torn off the back of my head. I was out cold.

  4. TREES

  It was light when I came around. Adam must have hit the release. The parachute was trapped in the leaves about ten metres above. The back of my head surged with the most unbelievable pain. I ran my hand around. There was a flap of loose flesh hanging off the back of my head and dried blood soaked through my t-shirt. I’d also got burns across my back where Dad’s belt snapped.

  I turned my head a bit. I was about two metres off the ground, suspended awkwardly between branches. There was no sign of Adam, but the trees cut out most of the light and it was tough to see. I grabbed one branch with both hands, then pulled my legs off the other one so I was dangling by my fingers. I let go and tried to land upright, but I’d lost loads of blood and there was no strength in me. I rolled up on the ground, coughing.

  My legs and arms started tickling. Hundreds of insects crawled onto me. Spiders, beetles, flies, giant millipedes, ants. I was desperate to get up, but I was too weak to move. Then they started getting in places. In my ears, up my shorts, down my back. I don’t now how long I was out for. Adam pinched my cheek to wake me up. ‘Are you dead Jake?’ I could hear him, but everything looked blurry and my mouth wouldn’t move. ‘Jake.’ ‘Jake… Please wake up.’ Adam sounded really desperate. ‘Please wake up Jake.’ I moved my lips and croaked.

  ‘Aaaa.’ Adam smiled a bit. ‘You look terrible.’ Adam said. ‘I tried to find the plane.’ ‘It’s not near here,’ I said. The plane was going at nearly two hundred kilometres an hour. If it crashed five minutes after we

  jumped out, it would be fifteen kilometres away. Adam gave me a bit of help to sit up. He started flicking all the bugs off me. ‘What’s around here?’ I asked. ‘Did you find any water?’ ‘Nothing,’ Adam said, ‘There’s trees wherever you go. There’s this massive yellow snake up in the branches.’

  I leant against a tree trunk and tried to stand. It was roasting and I felt all light headed. I wouldn’t last long without something to drink. I dug Dad’s knife out of my shorts. It had a tiny compass in the side, as well as a little saw and a blade. ‘Pick one direction and try going in a straight line,’ I said. ‘Hopefully we’ll find a path or something.’ ‘Downhill is easier,’ Adam said. ‘And it usually leads to water.’ ‘Who says it leads to water?’ ‘I learned it at Beavers,’ Adam said. ‘We’ll move as fast as we can. I’m not gonna last long in this state.’ ‘But what if they’re coming to rescue us? Adam asked. ‘Shouldn’t we stay here?’ ‘Nobody will come looking out here. Even if they did, how would they spot us under the trees?’ In mature jungle, the giant trees suck all the light and goodness from the soil. Only a few mosses and fungi grow in the creepy spaces between trunks. Adam had to help me move. I found a walking stick, but I was still all over the place. I started wondering if Adam’s best chance would be if he went on his own. He’d cover loads more ground without me.

  I was so out if it, I don’t know how long we walked. I gave up flicking off flies and tics, there were too many of them. Everything looked like green and orange blurs. My muscles all felt tight and hard. The only thing in my mind was the pain and thirst. Every step was a fight with part of myself that didn’t want to carry on and it seemed to keep getting bigger. There was no water and no sign of rain. More earth, more wood, more steps. Adams voice begging me to keep going. The jungle went for thousands of kilometres. It felt hopeless: we could be days away from human contact.

  Late afternoon we finally reached a dirt road.
It was about a truck’s width and it was all the excuse my body needed to give up. I collapsed. I ran my hand over my hair and it was dry. My body was too dehydrated to sweat and my skull was hot to touch. I looked for Adam, he was all blurry. ‘I’m gonna pass out.’ I rolled on my side and heaved like I was throwing up, but I only managed a dry rasp. ‘You better go along the road,’ I said. ‘Try and find someone before it gets dark.’ ‘There’s tire tracks in the dust,’ Adam said. ‘We could stay together. Cars must go down here.’ ‘There’s no point me holding you up any more,’ I said. ‘You’ll be as sick as me if you don’t get some

  water soon.’ Adam stood in front of me and put out his hand. I couldn’t work out what he wanted. ‘Shake hands,’ Adam said. So I did. It seemed weird, I’d never shaken his hand before. Occasionally we hugged, but mostly we got on each others nerves. I was in such a state, Adam was sure I’d be dead before he found help. He thought shaking hands was a proper, grown up, way to say goodbye. I crawled to the edge of the road and watched until he disappeared around a bend. The last few steps,

  all I could see was his arm swinging. Once he was gone I slumped into the dust. When I closed my eyes everything turned white. It felt like all my energy was getting sucked into a hole. I’d seen it on TV; like when people come out of a coma and they describe death as this white light that’s calling them. I thought dying would come as a relief, but once I saw the light I was desperate to fight it.

  I sat back up and opened my eyes. Every time I felt myself start to drift out of consciousness, I jammed my finger into the cut on my head and the pain and nausea sparked me up. I tried to keep my mind occupied. I started humming a tune. I couldn’t work out what it was for ages, then I realised it was the music from the Thomas the Tank Engine video Adam had when he was about three. He’d put the damn video on and watch it over and over, until it made me want to scream. I hated that music, but I couldn’t get it out of my head. Then I started imagining I had bottle of Sprite in my hand. Really cold, with all condensation dribbling down the side. Twisting off the plastic lid. Tiny bubbles hitting my top lip and gulping the fizz down my throat.

  That’s when I heard an engine. I was half convinced it was my head playing tricks. I tried to stand up but I couldn’t, so I crawled into the middle of the road and laid on my belly. They either had to stop or run me over.

  It was a Subaru pickup. Dents, cracked glass in the windscreen, a sprinkling of bullet holes and bald tyres with repair patches everywhere. The driver was going at about 30 kilometres an hour, which doesn’t sound fast, but looks it when you’re spraying up dust and jamming into a pothole every few seconds. I thought they were gonna run me over. There was only a couple of meters between me and the radiator when it stopped moving.

  A man got out the drivers side of the cab. He looked about seventeen. I found out later he was called Ben. He had army boots, a rifle on his back, camouflage trousers and a filthy Madonna t-shirt full of rips and holes. The passenger was smaller, wearing full camouflage with a pistol drawn. They both looked around, suspecting an ambush. It was only when the smaller one spoke that I realised it was a girl. ‘Where did you crawl out from?’ The girl asked. ‘Water,’ I croaked. ‘He’s worthless Sami,’ Ben said. ‘I should have squished him. Lets roll.’ Sami walked up. She put her boot on my head, rocked it to one side and inspected the cut. ‘He wont last long in that state,’ she said. ‘Might be kinder if we finish him.’ ‘Who gives a shit?’ Ben laughed, ‘Waste of a bullet. Someone’s left him out here to die for a reason.

  He’s probably a government traitor.’ Sami crouched down low and pressed the pistol against my temple. She looked about a year older than

  me. She had big round eyes with curled lashes. It was tough to believe she was about to kill me. ‘Looks like the end of the line Mr Traitor,’ she said. ‘Don’t,’ I begged. ‘Give us some water.’ She got a plastic bottle out of her jacket and rattled the water inside. ‘How bad do you want it?’ She asked. ‘Please,’ I gasped. She unscrewed the lid and tipped some of the water into the dust. I’d have cried if there’d been enough

  liquid in me to make a tear. ‘Spilled some,’ she giggled. ‘What will you do for me?’

  ‘Anything.’ ‘Come on Sami,’ Ben shouted. ‘Were vulnerable out here. Stop messing.’ Sami smiled at me, ‘Lick my boot, traitor.’ I crawled forward and ran my tongue up Sami’s boot. It was all dusty and smelled like she’d stepped in animal shit or something. She laughed, then handed me the plastic bottle. I drank the whole lot down in three massive gulps. I needed a lot more. ‘Screw it,’ Sami said. ‘Help me load him on the back.’ ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ Ben said. ‘He’s worthless. What can we do with him?’ ‘I don’t know. He’s only a kid. I can’t kill him and leaving him here to die is even worse.’ ‘Fine, give us the pistol and I’ll do it,’ Ben said. ‘We’ve got to get out of here, we’re a sitting target if the

  army turns up.’ ‘No. Help us lift him on the back.’ Sami put her hands under my armpits and started dragging me. Ben dashed over and grabbed me by

  the ankles. I got tossed onto the open rear platform of the pickup, amongst cans of petrol and sacks of food. They got in the cab, stuck the pickup in gear and tore off. Every bump in the road threw me off the dusty metal floor. Sami slid through the back window of the cab while Ben was still driving and sat near my head. ‘So who are you mystery man?’ She asked, not expecting an answer. She undid my G-Shock watch and put it on her arm. Then she went in my shorts and found the knife.

  She picked out all the different blades and looked impressed. ‘That must have cost some serious dollars, traitor,’ she said. ‘It was worth picking you up just for that.’ She pocketed the knife. Then she cradled my head and tipped more water in my mouth. Half of it missed, because the pickup was jerking everywhere. I coughed a couple of times. She found a piece of fruit in one of the sacks, crushed it in her hand and dribbled the pieces into my mouth. I hadn’t eaten for a whole day, it tasted amazing. Then she got a plastic tub out of her jacket and let me suck grains of cooked rice off her fingers. ‘My plane crashed,’ I gasped. ‘I didn’t see any plane,’ Sami laughed. ‘You must think I’m soft in the head.’ The pain was still hell, but my mind felt clearer after a drop of liquid. I knew I had a chance. ‘I lost my brother,’ I said. ‘He walked the way you came. Did you see him?’ Sami shrugged, ‘I saw a little guy.’ ‘He’s eight,’ I said. ‘In a green striped shirt.’

  ‘Yeah.’ ‘Can we go back for him?’ ‘I should have already killed you,’ Sami said. ‘Don’t push your luck.’ ‘Where are we going?’ ‘Back to our camp. You’re gonna be asked a lot of questions, so you better drop that dumb aeroplane

  story and start making some sense.’ We turned off the main road into a clearing not much wider than the car. Sami jumped out the back. She moved loads of branches and swung a giant log out the way, revealing another road. I doubt I could have lifted the log, she had biceps like Popeye. Ben drove the car a few meters, then they both got out and replaced the log and everything so the road was hidden again. Sami got back in the cab.

  The road was steep; a thirty degree slope. A couple of times the Subaru lost it’s grip and slid downwards. Ben had to roll back and attack the path at speed. I grabbed the sides of the pickup, frightened I’d get flung out. A can of petrol fell on my guts and my back slammed the metal a couple of times. When the road got too narrow, there was a spot for the pickup to park under trees alongside a truck and a Nissan 4WD. Ben and Sami picked up palms and branches and covered the car with them. They loaded themselves up with food sacks from the pickup. ‘It’s a kilometre to camp,’ Sami said. ‘Mostly uphill. You up to it?’ ‘I’ll try,’ I said. ‘We’ll I’m not carrying you,’ Ben said. ‘And now you know where our camp is, we can’t let you escape.

  So if you don’t make it…’ Ben made a gun with his fingers and pointed it at my head. ‘Bang.’

  5. CAPTAIN

  The rebel camp was built around the administrative office of an
abandoned copper mine. It was long concrete shed with a corrugated metal roof, surrounded by the shacks where everyone lived. These were made out of scrap: clapboard, wood, plastic sheeting.

  I got washed and bandaged by a woman called Amo and her twelve year old son, Beck. They gave me a bowl of hot mashed banana and what looked like white sausages. The cut in my head still killed me and I was covered in insect bites, but it was nothing compared to a few hours earlier. When I closed my eyes the white light wasn’t there. If I fell asleep now, it wouldn’t be forever.

  The sun had gone and the only light came from a couple of flickering candles. I’d been dumped on the floor in the concrete building. Everyone who lived on camp sat around me. Nine People, twelve if you included the little ones fighting sleep. The discussion was about if I should be allowed to live.

  Leading the no voters were two guys standing against one wall called Don and Amin. Muscular chests, glazed in sweat. Don said I was a security risk. He offered to take me outside and strangle me. He looked hard enough to do it as well. In fact, he looked hard enough to do it, laugh while he was doing it and never have a twinge of conscience for as long as he lived. Every time I looked their way, their eyes were drilling into me. It was like getting touched by death.

  Sami, Beck and Amo reckoned I was harmless; even if they didn’t believe I’d jumped out of an aeroplane. Beck was a nice kid, maybe a bit limited in the brains department. He went round with his shoulders slouched and this dippy grin on the end of a skinny neck.

  Sami wasn’t so much on my side, she was on her own side. Everyone was digging at her, wanting to know why she’d picked me out of the road. I don’t think she understood herself. I mean, one minute I was licking shit off her boot, then she’s picking me up and feeding me. She had a tough look on her face, but when everyone was having a go at her, she looked close to crying. The others, including Ben, seemed happy to sit back and watch.