CHAPTER FIVE
After lunch (which was a spread of assemble-them-yourself sandwiches that hardly warranted Charlie's announcement about it being served), everyone bar Justin piled onto a rickety old bus that came complete with several large arachnids in the luggage holds over their heads, and the occasional rather alarming whisper of black smoke snaking out from under the bonnet.
With Justin spaced out up to his eyeballs on painkillers, they'd left him lying in the rec room with his leg elevated and a daytime soap rerun marathon on the TV. Allison had been in two minds about leaving him alone, but he was as good as unconscious, couldn't walk more than a couple of steps without dissolving into a blubbering pile, and leaving Charlie with him would have probably done more harm than good- and there was no way she was letting him take the other seven kids hiking by himself. She wanted to avoid a negligence lawsuit and multiple manslaughter charges- if it were at all possible.
Charlie captained the coughing vehicle inland, towards the undulating ranges that rose from the island's heart. They'd barely started to climb up one when Charlie swung a sudden left and the bus shuddered to a halt in a small, empty clearing that served as a car park.
They filed out in a single line except for Charlie, who tipped his hat over his eyes, propped his feet up on the wheel and settled in for a siesta. Paulo looked somewhat longingly from Charlie's surprisingly comfortable slumber choice to the wooden sign announcing the half a dozen tracks of varying, torturous lengths.
"Hats on," Allison ordered, her eyes scanning the seven teens around her to check for any desertion. Her hand twitched, ready to snatch a wide brimmed bucket hat from the box at her feet and fling it at anyone who had neglected to bring such a basic piece of sun safe equipment, or something that didn't suit that description.
Somewhat disappointed that everyone had followed the guidelines and she didn't get to inflict the hideous floral number on anyone- this time, at least- she dug underneath it to retrieve a pile of light, long sleeved shirts.
"Isn't it a bit hot?" Hex grumbled. He'd been denied a ticket out of the afternoon's activities, Allison insisting that he didn't need his nose for a vigorous late afternoon hike through the rainforest, and so far the bus ride and ensuing sing along Li had insisted on starting had done little to brighten his mood.
"Precisely." Allison thrust the last shirt into his hands. "Sun safety first."
"Like the water safety-"
"Enough!" Her frown deepened for a moment, then cleared and she was back to her generally agreeable self. "We're going to burn off some of that energy you all seem to have."
Amber made a face. "What are we? Puppies?"
"Something like that. Shirts on. Now. Just chuck them over the top of what you've got on; they're lightweight and breathable."
Stella's lips pursed as she eased the shirt over her head. "Isn't this the rainforest?" she asked. "Like, not much sun."
"There are also ticks, leaches, thorns, and tonnes of other delightful parts of nature that will maim you if given the opportunity. Hence the shirts, and," she added, pointing at her legs, "the long pants- that I'm pleased you've all worn."
Amber breathed a quiet sigh of relief. She'd questioned the logic and almost ignored the wardrobe suggestion Allison had made, but a lecture from Alex that had been along the same lines as Allison's just then (but a lot more long winded) had sent her scurrying back to the dorm to change- if only to get him to shut up.
"Insect repellent," was Allison's final specification, delivered seconds before a cloud of tropical strength Aeroguard was sprayed out of an aerosol can all around them. "Are we all good?"
Paulo coughed, waving one hand frantically in front of his face to try and clear the air. "Apart from not being able to breath, si." He coughed again, words dissolving into a wheeze. "Bueno."
"Excellent."
Allison set a cracking pace, leading them past the wooden sign and down the track beside it that cut into the rainforest. They stayed single file on the narrow trail, Allison at the head, Amber at the rear, and the others in a ragged line between them.
The track ran level for about half a kilometre before beginning a gentle yet insistent slope upwards as they started to curve around the mountain and head for the summit. Li's eyes were shining with excitement, and despite her legs being the shortest of the entire group, she kept her second place position right on Allison's heels with an ease that had most of the others struggling to keep up.
Suddenly, Allison stopped, one hand held up, palm facing forwards. Paulo, behind Li and not entirely paying attention, smacked into her back with an audible, startled yelp, followed by a rushed apology that Li ignored, and merely served to earn him a terse frown from Allison. Still glancing over her shoulder, she pressed one finger to her lips and pointed a little bit further up the path, just off to their left, at a tree that looked a lot like the hundred of others they'd passed and would continue to on their way up the mountain.
Although it was surprisingly cool beneath the canopy, it was stickier and far more humid than down on the coast, and the afternoon was still too early for the majority of animals to be doing much more than sleeping, or hiding away. All followed the line of Allison's finger, but it took Li's sharp eyes and experience to pick the camouflaged critter out.
"Oh!" she breathed. "That's awesome."
"One of the proper covert masters," Allison whispered. She glanced back down the line. "Anyone else spot our feathered friend?"
No one had, but Paulo refocused on the 'feathered', the single additional description helping to narrow his focus and pull the hunched shape out of the bark. "That is brilliant," he said in awe. "How clever."
"Very," Li agreed. "Tawny frogmouth. They're nocturnal. This little guy will be in the middle of his nap."
Although her voice had been quiet, the frogmouth's beady eyes opened and his head swivelled, narrowing in on the people who'd dared to interrupt his sleep. Without a sound, he flapped his mottled wings and took flight. Even in the air, he made barely a whisper. To the others, who still hadn't pinpointed the bird's location, it looked for all he world like a piece of bark had just grown wings and flew off.
"Okay," Stella relented. "That's kind of cool."
"Nature at its finest," Allison said.
They started walking again, all eyes now more peeled and roaming for the next discovery.
"Good spot," Allison said to Li, sounding impressed. "You wouldn't believe the amount of tourists I bring up here, and the amount of wildlife we walk past- even the ones that I point out- and we get to the end, get back to the bus, and I have to listen to them whinge about not seeing a single animal, all the way back to the house."
Li laughed. "Some of them are a bit tricky though, so you have to give them a bit of credit."
"I guess." The answer came with a silent question for Li, conveyed in a curious glance over Allison's shoulder at the petite Anglo-Chinese girl.
"My parents are zoologists," Li explained. "I'm lucky; they take me along- always have- and let me help out, teach me all sorts of stuff that I don't get in my correspondence courses."
"That's brilliant. I'm actually a biologist. Well," she added on second thought, "I'm now a tour guide with a mostly useless biology degree that I don't get to use."
"Really?"
"Mhmm."
"Wow. Um." Li hesitated. "No offence, but how come you've ended up chaperoning a bunch of whiney teenagers?"
Allison laughed. "I chaperone bunches of whiney adults as well. You guys are so far actually easier to manage- even including the coral and volleyball incidents."
Despite not being directly involved in either of the aforementioned hiccups, Li couldn't help the sheepish grin that slipped onto her face.
"I grew up here," Allison continued, "and I wouldn't have come back except there was a… family emergency, drama, situation- whatever you want to call it with my nephew Toby. I used to do proper biologist stuff. Some, er… 'non-proper' biologist stuff as well, but that's kind of another story entirely." She shrugged, looking suddenly wistful. "And now I'm here. Chaperoning whinging teenagers." She winked, the dig delivered in good humour.
Li looked sad. "That sucks," she said. "You had to give up doing what you loved."
"I like this too. Mostly. It has its good days and its bad; same as any other job. Least it's not nine to five in an office."
"But you don't love it."
Allison just shrugged. "It's called being an adult, Li. Give it a few years and you'll unfortunately learn about it first hand."
The track that Allison had set them on was a circuit, something that no one else knew until she suddenly announced, "Ten minutes or so, guys, and we'll be back on the bus."
A chorus of relieved sighs from sweaty, tired teenagers met her words.
A strange looking lizard sunning itself in a faint ray of sunshine breaking through a chink in the canopy had Allison, Li and Paulo pulling to one side, just off the path. Stella, the next in line, suddenly found herself leading and her pace automatically slowed as she turned back to halt the line.
Allison waved her ahead. "Go on," she said. "We'll catch up."
"But-"
"Supervisor decision, Stella. I'm sure you can all walk a well worn trail without incident."
"Would have thought the same thing about snorkelling and beach volleyball," Hex muttered. He pretended not to notice the frown Allison shot him.
"Okay then…" Stella hadn't quite stopped walking as she'd turned back and checked what Allison was doing, and her extra couple of unfocused steps took her to a slight bend in the trail. As she straightened her path out, facing the right way again, she stopped, one foot still raised, entire body frozen.
Alex, not anticipating the sudden brake application, just stopped himself from bumping into her. "Stella?" he asked. "What is it?"
One of her hands darted back just enough to dig into Alex's arm. Her nails bit into his skin as she inflicted her panicked death grip. "Sss- Sss- Sss-" she stuttered.
"Sss?" Alex peered around her shoulder, trying to get a better idea of what her sudden issue was- and his eyes landed on the reptile stretched out across the path, following the lizard's example and stealing some afternoon rays, the sharp biting heat of the day gone, finally making the sunshine pleasant and not unbearable.
Stella's raised foot was hovering just in front of the snake; if she put it down, her toes would graze the side of the creature, who still seemed completely unaware of how close it had come having a lot thinner of a middle section.
Noting the lack of forward movement, Allison heaved a weary sigh and shuffled through the line until she was at Alex's back. "Good grief, what now?" She took stock of the situation and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good," she said happily. "I thought it was something serious."
"This is serious," Stella hissed, none too pleased at the supervisor's blasé attitude. "This is a snake."
"Yes. A python. A small python. It won't kill you. I doubt it'd even try to bite you."
"Ah, maybe not helping," Alex muttered back to Allison as Stella's nails gouged even deeper into his arm.
"Just walk backwards slowly, Stella," Allison said, still far too calmly for Stella's liking.
"I don't do snakes." Stella's breathing was coming in short, sharp gasps, and her already pale skin had drained of every ounce of colour.
"And you won't have to if you just walk back," Amber cut in, her Boston drawl sounding particularly confident from the very back of the line.
"Definitely not helping," Alex grated. He gently took hold of Stella's other arm- the one not attached to the fingers that were currently inflicting some pretty deep holes in his skin- with his free hand. "Stella? Stella," he added, slightly louder when she didn't respond. He gave a- gentle- squeeze on her arm for good measure. "I get that you're a bit scared, but I promise you, it'll be alright. You just have to step backwards. Okay?"
"I can't."
She did seem almost catatonic, her balance not even shaking despite the unstable angle her supporting leg was on, and how long she'd been holding the other up.
"Sure you can," he said instead. "I'm right behind you."
"Yeah, going backwards, with me in between you and the snake."
Fair point, but he didn't dwell on it and tried not to let her either.
"It's just a couple of steps," he said. "Slow steps. Then we'll be fine. Okay?"
"I can't move, Alex." Although her body was holding firm, her voice was quavering like she was going to burst into tears at any moment.
"Sure you can." He gave a little tug on the arm he was holding, upsetting her balance just enough that, with a startled squeak, her raised foot fell to earth, back a step and almost on the toes of Alex's boot. "See?"
Her glare was interrupted by the snake as the sleepy reptile became more aware of its surroundings. It was little- by certain standards, and certainly not if you asked Stella- at around four feet long, and a rather weedy specimen, but the slight movements it made as it contracted its muscles, swivelling its head to suss out its surroundings, had Stella entering a new round of hysterics.
Realising that getting her to beat a calm retreat was now out of the question, Alex opted for plan b, relying on the snake to do the moving. He clamped down his hand on Stella's arm, bracing her and halting the frantic retreat she'd attempted to start.
"What happened to slowly walking backwards?" she shrieked.
Alex cringed, but held firm. Sure enough, as Stella continued to try and wriggle free, the snake took one more look at them before slithering off, seemingly unimpressed with the company it had fallen into.
Stella's blind panic subsided as soon as the snake was out of view. As Allison took the lead again, Stella uncurled her fingers from Alex's arm, biting her lip as she noticed the indent she'd left on his skin. "Oh my god," she said, patting at the marks like it would make them vanish. "I'm so sorry."
"It's fine," he assured her weakly, arm tingling as the blood started to rush back to the previously constricted limb. "All good."
She looked sheepish. "I have a teensy problem with snakes. And a few other things."
"You don't say."
"Yeah… It's the one silver lining of dad sending me to the city for boarding school- they're kind of thin on the ground there."
Allison got them moving again with a sharp clap and a reminder that the bus was just around the corner. She fought back a tired sigh, and the overwhelming urge to drop her head into her hands. She was more than ready to shove the kids into the rec room with some board games, DVD selections, and call it a day.