by R T Green
I crouched down, felt around my ankle to see if I could feel anything broken. It didn’t seem like it, but it wasn’t much consolation when it hurt like hell anyway. I glanced back to the invisible ship. No signs of life.
The tears tried to come, mingle with the raindrops on my face. Tears for Lisa, tears for Zana. I was about to walk away from you both, save my own skin.
But if I was to do anything to make a difference, I could only do it on the back of my freedom.
I checked the time, turned and headed into the blackness of the forest.
I’d been on the move for twenty minutes when my virtually-useless right foot caught on a tree root, and I crashed to the ground. The side of my face hit something hard, and for a moment I could see stars.
I sat up, cried out in agony. The fall had done nothing to help the ankle. Already the thin dress was ripped, my hair soaked into matted streaks that stuck to my face. There was a gash just below the eye, when I shone the faint light from the watch onto my fingers I could see blood.
It wasn’t much. I’d known worse. Keep going.
The gash wasn’t so bad but my head was throbbing. Get on with it, walk it off. Walk? Hop might be nearer the mark. I managed to get to my feet, began to move again.
Another fifteen minutes, and the rain stopped. Small mercies. But it wasn’t helping the ankle, now all but useless. I needed a crutch of some kind, otherwise this would be over before it had hardly started.
The moon poked out from behind the breaking clouds, helping me to see a little way in front. And then my world turned spooky. Wisps of mist began to curl upwards from the warm, damp ground, filling the deathly-still air around me with whiteness, building in minutes into a transparent foggy blanket that seemed to invade all my senses.
I could hardly see twenty feet in front of me. I stood motionless, trying to gather myself together, stop the panic welling up inside me. I could hear something... in the undergrowth to my left. It wasn’t on the track, so it was likely an animal of some kind.
Or a snake.
There are snakes in the rainforest. Lots of them. My eyes fell to the ground, I couldn’t help it. Fucking bare feet.
Nice.
Get your kit together, deWinter. Afghanistan was worse than this.
Just not so many friggin’ trees.
My hesitant footsteps seemed to echo in my tiny little world. I needed to find a branch or something to support me, but I dare not leave the track to find it. Already my feet were sore and bleeding... do snakes smell blood, like sharks? I had no idea.
I was getting nowhere. Half of me was starting to ache, my twisted, hobbling body using muscles in a way it wasn’t used to. How much further to the road?
Probably the equivalent of a hundred miles, at this rate.
I came to a small clearing. Trees had been felled, the undergrowth cleared. It felt like the desert after the suffocating effects of the track. A pile of trimmed branches lay to one side... there had to be something useful there. I began to pull out the top branches, until one of them moved, hissed at me.
Shit. I leapt back, but one working leg wasn’t enough, and my butt hit the sodden ground. The snake didn’t seem to want to move. But I could see its eyes, watching me. Ok buddy, I don’t want to steal your bed... just one bit of it. And you’re in the way of that.
Oh Christ... I don’t have a snake phobia, but my current situation was close to giving me one. I felt around, found one of the small branches that had fallen to the ground along with me, managed to struggle to my feet, and raised my arm above my head. For god’s sake, Jane of the Jungle, just whack it...
I whacked it, more than once, crying out like a crazed ninja until I realised I could probably be heard for miles. My opponent didn’t seem to like being clobbered by a manic psychopath, slithered away to safety.
Sorry Sid, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
My panic levels reduced, and that allowed other emotions loose. The tears welled up again, the pain and the helplessness ramming their unwelcome effects home. Do something useful.
I ripped the pile of branches apart like my life depended on it. My life did depend on it. And I found what I needed, looked it over with a stupid grin on my face, like I’d just won Lotto.
My progress was faster then. The branch with its slight fork at the top dug into my right armpit and added another pain to the growing list, but my makeshift crutch was doing its job. My left hand tightened its grip on the silver disc. Guard it with your life.
I knew I was moving faster than I should, but I’d just got myself a new pair of running shoes and I wanted to see what they were capable of. Pace yourself, you stupid cow. This is a marathon, not the hundred metres.
I listened to my sensible self even though she was infuriating the hell out of me, slowed a little. I just want this over with. As I walked on, my world seemed to turn into some kind of evil fairytale. The mist felt like it was swirling around me. The undergrowth seemed to be a sea of evil red eyes, waiting for me to stumble. My own little piece of hell was doing its best to finish me off.
I daren’t even look at my feet. The sight of them could well be the tipping point.
How many more trees? Going on forever, suffocating me, reaching down with their knurled, angry branches to pluck me into oblivion.
Not forever.
I fell into clear space. A wide grassy bank, and beyond that, on the edge of my misty world, an asphalt road. I stood motionless, wiped away tears of relief with a damp hand. Then I moved again, stood on the edge of the road, the hardness of the tarmac stinging into my battered feet.
Which way? The mist had faded a little now the rainforest was behind me, but still I could only see a hundred metres or so. Nothing to give me a clue which direction would lead to safety.
Come on, think. It was getting harder to find logic, the pain and exhaustion starting to filter into a subconscious that was becoming as foggy as my surroundings. It looked like the road dropped a little to the left. That had to be the choice. Everything on Tobago was at a lower level next to the shore. Going higher would very likely lead into more rainforest.
More trees? No way. It had to be left.
Rest a little. No, don’t. If you sit down, you’ll never get up again. I glanced at my watch. Just gone three. My horror-trek through the forest had lasted over an hour. Time to go.
I turned to the left, looked along what I could see of the road. For ten feet to the side, a strip of grassland separated it from the trees. It was bumpy, uneven, the rough grass a foot or so high.
It would be softer on my feet, but one good leg and a makeshift crutch wasn’t going to cope with the undulations.
The asphalt would very likely destroy the last of the skin on my feet, but I was going to have to walk on the road.
Chapter 113
‘This is all we need.’
‘Tell me about it.’
Coop flicked the button on the key fob, and the lights on the old Nissan flashed three times out of the mist. He and Miles walked across the deserted hotel car park and sank into the front seats.
‘Guess it’s better than the rain though, bud.’
‘Only just.’
It was three in the morning. A few hours earlier they’d left a dejected Tami and David, and driven back to the hotel to grab a couple of hours sleep. Just as they’d woken and brewed a quick coffee the heavy rain stopped, but by the time they reached the car park the mist had fallen.
Coop turned the key, and the old diesel coughed to life. ‘Don’t take your eyes off that pendant, Miles,’ he said as they drove through the hotel gates. ‘Just in case something moves!’
The process of elimination had begun. Miles had discovered a few more things about the pendant, but still only the one tiny red light showed on the map, and still it was unclear which shuttle was hidden a mile or so inside the rainforest.
Coop groaned silently to himself, frustrated that the process of elimination was going to take time they might
not have. But first they had to know which shuttle it was they were now heading for. Forty-five minutes or so in the car, then the rest of the trip on foot, and they would find out.
They’d timed it so when they’d made the trek through the rainforest and reached the shuttle, it would be just before dawn. A short while then to use the cover of darkness to familiarise themselves with their immediate surroundings, and make sure they were well hidden for when the sun rose and gave them a little light to hopefully see something useful.
It wouldn’t be difficult to know which shuttle it was, even though they were both almost certainly cloaked. Coop already knew Zana’s pendant was linked to her craft. All Miles had to do was press the right button, and something would happen to tell them if it was hers or not.
If nothing happened, then it would be the enemy craft they were right next to, with Madeline and Zana aboard. And then... well, then they had to make some decisions.
A pang of nervousness brought the nausea back. He prayed silently to himself it would be the enemy shuttle they found. At least then they would know it was still on the island.
Still on Earth.
Keep going. Getting so hard. My feet were numb, another small mercy. One unfeeling foot in front of the other, my legs on autopilot, still somehow holding me up.
The mist wasn’t shifting, I could see no lights of civilisation, nothing to tell me how far I had to go. Nothing but yard after yard of hard, deserted road.
My vision was blurring, the pain in every part of my body trying to cripple me. My little world was silent, punctuated only by the clunk of the crutch on the asphalt, rhythmic, hypnotic, like the tick of a metronome. My mind was starting to wander, thoughts and images I did not want forcing my conscious and subconscious selves into a mess of confusion.
Stay awake. Zana, what are you going to tell me? My fingers were locked solid, gripping the silver disc so tightly I couldn’t feel them anymore. Lisa... please don’t get into trouble for what you did. The road, seeming to move underneath me, conscious thought slipping away...
Don’t lose it... not now. Keep going. So hard, so much pain. Nothing left, my world spinning around.
I stopped walking, stood still a moment, shaking my head. It hurt like hell, but it helped. The space around me stopped spinning. A weird kind of cold wrapped around me. My skin was warm, and yet pimpling up. Cold sweat.
Walk. You’re not safe, not yet. Have to get home. Dad, Tami, you must be worried to death.
No... consciousness fading again. Pull yourself together.
A few more yards. How many more... how much further? I could hardly see, total exhaustion, tears, pain... helplessness. Strange visions, tearing me apart...
A sound. A vehicle, the muffled hum of an engine in the mist.
Your mind playing tricks, you know it is. Keep going...
Headlights, flashing past my almost-blind eyes. Moving fast, it seemed. Gone again.
The screech of tyres, somewhere in the back of my mind.
A car, shuddering to a halt beside me. Consciousness, fading fast.
A dark shape, grabbing my dead arms, a voice I knew, hoarse, emotional...
‘Ain’t really the weather for a walk in the countryside is it, Maddie?’
No... a cruel mirage...
Somehow I mumbled the words.
‘Don’t call me Maddie...’
Blackness.
Chapter 114
Coop pulled the car up to the front door of the shack, as close as he could get it, glanced over his shoulder to Miles, sitting in the back with Madeline’s head cradled in his lap. ‘How is she?’
Miles shook his head. ‘Still out, mate. She’s not looking so good.’
The shack door flew open, and Tami and David were there, opening the rear door of the car. ‘Oh my god, look at the state of her.’ David picked up his daughter in his arms, ran into the house.
‘Put her in her bed, David,’ Tami said. ‘My med kit is already there.’
He laid her out gently, and Coop and Miles ran in to join them. The bright light of the bedroom illuminated the full horror for the first time, and Coop put a hand across his mouth.
There was little left of the dress. It looked like her whole body was covered in cuts. There was a bruise on one side of her face, a gash on the other. Bits of the forest were tangled up in her matted, soaking wet hair.
Her feet were bare, a total mess of sores, congealed and fresh blood. Her right ankle was badly swollen, what was left of the skin tinted with what seemed like every colour of the spectrum. The fingers of her right hand were blue, some of the skin gone from where she’d gripped the branch that had supported her, and probably saved her life.
Her left hand was white, tightly clenched. He could see something, and gently prized open fingers that did not want to let go. He held the silver disc up to Miles.
‘Whatever this is mate, I get the feeling it’s really important.’
Tami called out. ‘We need water, lots of it. And towels. You moving your butts, gentlemen?’
They moved their butts, organised the stuff Tami needed. ‘She’s an outreach nurse,’ David explained. ‘So there’s a decent bit of medical stuff here, thank god.’
And then they were shoved out of the bedroom. ‘It’s girl-time now boys, so you’s all go get yourself a coffee or something.’
The boys sat around the table, drinking their coffee as ordered. The morning light began to filter through the shack windows, the dawn of a new day bringing with it a whole lot more unanswered questions.
Coop turned the disc over and over in his hands. ‘So what’s so important about this, Miles?’
He took it, looked it over. A thin piece of metal about two inches in diameter, there was not a single feature to tell him it was anything other than a lump of silver.
He shook his head, just as Tami joined them. David poured her a coffee. ‘I’ve cleaned her up, tended her wounds as best I can, and given her some glucose. I don’t think the ankle is broken, just sprained. Oh David, what has she been through?’
He wrapped an arm around her, his eyes misted up. ‘Has she woken at all?’
‘Just for a moment. She seemed confused, muttered something about a disc, then she fell asleep. She’s totally exhausted.’
Coop picked up the silver disc. ‘That’ll be this one then. Seems to me it holds answers, we just need Madeline to tell us how to unlock them.’
‘Let her sleep, Coop. She is in no fit state to even talk yet, let alone anything else.’
He nodded, knowing he had to reign in his impatience. ‘My guess is she’s somehow escaped. And given where we found her, it’s pretty clear now which shuttle it was we were heading for.’
David shook his head, stood up. ‘I’ll make us some breakfast. Full English, guys. I doubt any of us feel much like eating, but we might have to keep our strength up.’
As they ate, an uneasy feeling grew in Coop’s gut. For sure Madeline had escaped, and it was a pretty safe bet her captors knew she’d gone, or at the very least were just about find out. He had to say something, but was dreading piling yet more bad news onto an already horrible situation. He drew a deep breath.
‘Guys, I hate to shove any more onto this heap of shit, but I think we might be in danger here. It’s obvious Madeline has escaped, and those fucking aliens ain’t gonna be too pleased about it. They know where she lives, so we might be sitting on a time-bomb of retaliation here.’
Tami looked up, her eyes wide. ‘Coop, Madeline is in no state to be moved, not for a while.’
And then from the doorway, a voice they hadn’t expected to hear spoke shakily.
‘It’s ok... as long as I’m here she won’t harm you.’
Chapter 115
My dad leapt up from his chair, grabbed me just as I was about to collapse into an embarrassing heap on the floor.
‘Madeline, you shouldn’t be out of bed.’
‘Oh yeah I should, dad. I have to know what’s on that disc. Help me
to the table.’
He looked reluctant, but did as I asked. Well, demanded I suppose. The others looked at me like I was a ghost as I sat gingerly on one of the chairs. ‘Yeah, it’s me. Get over it.’
Coop grinned, a bit inanely. ‘We just weren’t expecting to see you for a few hours. Welcome home, kid.’
‘And... and what the hell, Coop? What are you doing here?’
‘Saving your sorry ass... again.’
‘I didn’t ask you to.’
‘Maybe it’s a good job I did anyway, judging by the state of you.’
‘I... I’ve been going through hell, Coop...’
And that was it. Stupid, pathetic tears I couldn’t stop poured out over his shoulder, as I let it all go. He didn’t seem to mind, holding me tight, letting me blubber away my physical and emotional pain.
Eventually I pulled myself together, he eased me back. ‘You feel better now?’
I nodded, sniffed in a very unfeminine way. ‘Hello Miles. You’re here too.’
He looked a bit embarrassed. ‘Hello, Madeline.’
‘I’m sorry I thumped you, back in London.’
‘Don’t worry about it.’
My dad looked a bit curious, I whispered. ‘Long story... I’ll tell you one day.’
Coop looked puzzled too. ‘What did you mean, she won’t harm us?’
‘Oh Coop, you won’t believe the story I’ve got to tell you. Is anyone going to get me some breakfast?’
As I ate like a horse, I told them the whole thing. All the chess moves, all the shocks, all the green-eyed jealousy. And when I’d finished, Coop sat back looking like he’d just been hit by a bus.
‘Oh my. I didn’t see any of that coming.’
‘How do you think I felt?’
My head was starting to thump again, my dear old friend the jackhammer back to say hello. I was struggling to focus, and I knew despite the false bravado I had to sleep. But that wasn’t going to happen, not until I knew what Zana had to say to me.
