Survival (10 page)

The other four looked at one another, feeling vaguely ashamed of themselves.

'Sorry,' said Paulo.

'What for?' asked Amber.

'All that snappy behaviour - and demanding to be fed,' said Li. 'We thought you were just--'

'Spoilt? Selfish?' Amber grinned. 'I am! I'm a spoilt, selfish diabetic! Now gimme some food!'

Alex, Li and Paulo burst out laughing. Hex did not join in. Instead, he got to his feet and handed one of the banana-leaf plates to Amber. Then he picked up his own food and scraped half of it onto Amber's plate. Startled, she looked up into his face. Hex met her eyes, nodded once, then sat back down, scowling fiercely. Amber swallowed, but the lump in her throat would not go away.

'Don't worry, Amber,' said Li. 'We'll be rescued within a month, you'll see.'

'Yeah, course we will,' said Amber, through a mouthful of crab.

And there's plenty of food here,' said Alex. 'You'll be fine. We'll make sure of it.'

'I know,' nodded Amber, but her gaze was turned towards the empty sea.

'Good,' said Alex, into the awkward silence. 'As long as you know. Eat up, everyone - and don't hang about. This afternoon we're going to build ourselves a camp.'

THIRTEEN

Amber sat in state under a temporary shelter of banana leaves, eating wild figs while the camp slowly grew around her. It was good to rest with a belly full of food. The grey tinge was leaving her skin and she was feeling better by the minute. Even though she was sitting still, she had plenty to do. She was keeping the fire going, gradually feeding two long logs into the centre of the flames a section at a time, and she was boiling the remains of the fresh water to make sure it was sterile. The storage tin was suspended over the flames, hanging from a stick which rested in the clefts of two upright sticks, one on each side of the fire. Her hands were busy weaving strips of palm fronds into five flower-pot style sun-hats and her eyes were busy scanning sea and sky for a glimpse of a ship or a plane.

Under Alex's instruction, the others had nearly finished constructing A-frame beds, which were raised above the ground to keep them clear of sandflies, centipedes and scorpions. First they had made the head and foot of the beds by driving two pairs of bamboo posts into the sand at an angle and lashing the tops together with split vines. The beds themselves were two long bamboo poles with a mattress of cross-woven vines holding the poles together. Once the beds were finished it was a simple matter to slide the ends of the long poles down the outside of the two A-frames until the vine mattress was pulled taut, leaving the bed suspended well above the ground.

'How are those coconut drinks coming along, Hex?' called Alex, as he and Paulo slotted the last bed into place on its A-frame. 'We're about ready for a break.'

Hex had been using a sharpened bamboo stake to break open the husks of five coconuts. Then he had wedged each coconut into the sand and hammered a sharp stone into one of the black eyes until it pierced through to the sweet milk inside.

'All done,' said Hex, handing round the coconuts.

They sat down, tipped up the coconuts and let the milk pour into their mouths.

'Good,' said Li, briefly, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand before tipping up the nut again for another swig.

'Take your time,' warned Alex. 'Too much too fast and you might be sick.' He laid his coconut aside and checked the wooden handles on the flexible saw. They were holding up well so he put that back into his belt pouch and took out his knife. It was a good, strong, single-bladed knife with a wooden handle and it had been invaluable throughout the afternoon's work. Alex inspected the blade, then took out his piece of sandstone and began to sharpen the knife.

'Didn't you just do that, like, an hour ago?' asked Amber.

'You have to look after your knife,' said Alex, calmly, steadily honing the blade. 'It's the most important tool you have in a situation like this.'

Paulo finished his drink, then took one of the bunk blankets, spread it across the vine mattress of his bed and lay down with a satisfied groan.

'Don't get too comfortable,' said Alex, glancing at his watch and the position of the sun. 'There's a lot more to do before sunset.'

They cooled off with a quick dip in the lagoon then went back to work, wearing the sun-hats Amber had made. Before he left the fire, Alex smashed open the coconut shells for Amber and showed her how to heat the chopped meat by laying it on a flat stone next to the fire. He picked up one of the empty coconut half-shells and handed it to Amber.

'Once the oil starts coming out of the coconut meat and running off the edge of the stone here,' explained Alex, 'you collect it in this half-shell.'

'What's the point of that?' asked Amber, suspiciously. 'Are you sure you're not just finding stuff for me to do, to make me feel better?'

'Definitely not,' said Alex. 'We really do need as much oil as you can collect. It has lots of uses. We can smear it on and it'll protect our skin from the sun and keep the mosquitoes away. And if we mix it with wood ash, it turns into soap.'

'Cool,' said Amber, happily settling to her task.

By the end of the afternoon, the camp was finished. They had rigged up five shelters over the beds, each made from a frame of bamboo poles lashed together, with a thatch of banana leaves and palm fronds. There was even a little shelter over the woodpile for the campfire. Next to the fire, there were two simple, bamboo benches, again set under their own, thatched shelters.

They sat on the two benches, looking around the camp in quiet satisfaction. Two more crabs were cooking in the storage tin over the fire and Paulo had packed the top sections of three green bamboo canes with young bamboo shoots and leaned them over the fire. The lower sections were full of seawater, which was just coming to the boil.

'They will cook in the steam,' said Paulo. 'Beautiful. Like asparagus.'

'If Heather could see us now,' giggled Li, gazing around the camp, 'she wouldn't believe it!'

'We're nearly ready for the night,' said Alex. 'Just a couple more things to do.'

Carefully, he filled a coconut half-shell with boiled water and added potassium permanganate from his medical kit until the water turned deep pink. 'Antiseptic,' he explained. 'In the tropics, a wound'll get infected very easily. So, anyone with cuts, grazes, burns or mosquito bites, step forward.'

'Yeah, well that's all of us!' laughed Amber.

'OK, we'll start with you, Amber,' said Alex. 'It's even more important for diabetics to make sure a wound heals properly. And we need to check for chiggers, too, so everybody take your boots off.'

'What the hell are chiggers?' asked Hex.

'They're a type of flea,' explained Alex. 'Chigoes is the proper name for them. They attach themselves to the shafts of hairs on your skin, then they feed off you by injecting saliva under the skin then sucking--'

'OK,' said Amber, hastily, 'I get the idea.'

'If you don't winkle them out, the bite'll become infected.' Alex had removed his boots and socks and was checking his feet and ankles. He pointed to three red dots just above his ankle bone. 'There. Chiggers. If we had some vaseline, I could smear some on and suffocate them. As it is, I'll have to use a sterilized needle to dig them out.'

'OK. Now I'm really grossed out,' said Amber.

'Is everything on this island out to get us?' groaned Hex.

Alex grinned. 'Just keep your boots on during the day, wash your socks every night, and you should avoid getting too many of them.'

They took it in turn to bathe their scrapes and bites and remove any chiggers while the food cooked. Li gave Alex's raw wrist and head wound extra attention, but both wounds seemed to be healing well.

Next Alex produced a small pack of anti-malaria tablets. 'These are special,' he said. 'They're not like the ones they were doling out every day on the
Phoenix.
You only need to take one and you have protection against malaria for a month. I have just enough for one each.

'And finally,' said Alex, once they had taken the tablets, 'we have the coconut oil.' Carefully, he picked up the two half-shells that Amber had managed to collect and handed one to each bench. 'Smear it on any exposed flesh. The smoke from the fire'll keep some of the mosquitoes away, but this'll deter the rest.'

'Can't we do it after we eat?' asked Paulo, gazing longingly at the steaming bamboo tubes.

'Nope. This is important. It's something we need to do every night. If we don't keep clean in humid heat like this, we've had it.'

The food was wonderful. To drink, they had half coconuts full of fresh boiled water. Alex crumbled a salt tablet into it before he served it out, to make sure everyone replaced the salt they had lost through the hot, sweaty day. They finished off the meal with the pawpaw fruit which Amber and Li had brought back with them that morning. It tasted rather like a melon and the soft flesh was full of juice. Once the pawpaw had all disappeared, they sat back in a tired, companionable silence, staring into the fire as the sun began to set behind the mountain. After a few minutes, Amber got up quietly and headed down to the tide line, where she sat with her back to them.

'Is she all right?' Alex asked, looking at Li.

'I think she's gone to do her injection,' said Li. 'Best leave her to it.'

'Poor kid,' muttered Hex to himself. The others looked at him in surprise. 'What?' he demanded, scowling fiercely.

'How did her parents die?' asked Li, looking at Hex with frank curiosity.

'Plane crash,' he answered. 'Just over a year ago. It was a small, private plane, with just the two of them in it. Her dad was piloting. Amber was due to fly with them, but changed her mind at the last minute and stayed on with friends instead. One of the engines caught fire over the Alps, and the plane crashed into the side of a mountain.'

'Did they find the bodies?' asked Paulo.

'Yeah,' said Hex. 'Apparently, they were badly burned. From what I read, the authorities wouldn't let Amber see them.' He frowned. 'Maybe that's why she's having a hard time moving on. You know that twist of gold she wears around her neck? Shaped like a broken circle?'

'Yes,' said Alex. 'Does it have some special meaning?'

Hex hesitated. 'I think so,' he said. 'That's an Omega sign.'

'Omega?' asked Li.

'It's the last letter in the Greek alphabet. Omega. The End.'

'The end of what?' asked Paulo.

Hex rubbed his nose while he tried to think of the right words to explain. 'Remember, back on the
Phoenix,
she said she didn't want a new beginning? She said her parents were dead. The End. Remember?'

Hex looked around at the others and they all nodded. 'And have you noticed how the gold is all rough and unpolished, as though it was beaten into shape? I think that golden Omega sign was probably made by hammering her parents' wedding rings together. The End. Do you see what I'm getting at? Amber can't move on. She doesn't want to.'