CHAPTER SIXTEEN

By the time they reached the beach again, the teenagers were sweaty, hot and tired. The temperature and humidity was rapidly increasing as the sun climbed higher, and it was weather that most of them were not accustomed to and had only spent the last several days trying to adjust to. Clothes drenched in sweat, faces red and heads throbbing, they collapsed in the shade and welcomed the cooler breeze blowing in over the water.

"We need food, Alex," Amber mumbled for the millionth time. She was flat on her back in the shaded sand, one arm splayed across her eyes.

"Actually," he said, "food is the lowest priority if we're looking at the necessities of survival as a hierarchy." He wasn't looking at her so missed her arm being raised and a scowl getting shot his way. Counting off on his fingers, he continued, "Shelter, water, then food. You can last up to three weeks without food, three days without water, but- in unfavourable weather- as little as only three hours without shelter. And," he added gesturing around them, "let's not forget we are in the tropics, in summer, so the weather can get very unfavourable very quickly. This is prime cyclone season for this part of the world."

"I don't care, I need to eat. So we're going to compromise here and reshuffle that list, buddy."

Hex snorted. "Do you even know the meaning of 'compromise'?" he asked. "And the proper meaning. Not the one that you've twisted to always get your way." He didn't wait around to hear her response, getting to his feet and setting off further down the beach with his hands in his pockets and a deep scowl on his face. The reality of their situation was rapidly setting in, and he just needed some alone time to clear his head.

A testament to how fatigued she was, Amber didn't even turn her head in Hex's direction. She was staring at Alex; her skin had that grey, sickly tinge that it had taken on when they were bobbing in the ocean. She looked clammy and unwell, and Alex realised that- for a change- she wasn't being demanding or selfish: she was just asking for help.

"Coconuts should be easy to find," he said, struggling to his feet. Sitting down in the soft sand had been a mistake; his bones felt like lead, and every movement made the ache in his head pound. "Bonus as well is if we can get some immature greens one down they will have water packed full of electrolytes- so two ticks off the list."

Li perked up. "Getting things down from trees sounds like a me job," she said brightly, pleased to have something to do now she had had a chance to recharge her batteries. She bounced to her feet and set off down the beach, eyes upward and considering the tops of the palms lining the edge of the sand.

Paulo watched her go for a moment, clearly torn between following to help- or hinder, more likely- and the strong desire to sit and rest his very weary body. Li found a suitable palm tree and started to shimmy up it, and his alarm at what she was attempting spurred him as quickly to his feet as he could manage. He scrambled off down the beach, although not even half as quick as Li was ascending the palm.

Amber had returned to laying with her arm over her face, her other limbs resting limply on the sand. Alex hesitated, about to ask her if she was okay, however felt that the comment and concern would get silence at best, and a snapped remark at worst. So, instead, he gingerly asked her for the map that she had taken from the lookout. With a grumble, Amber sat up and unzipped the pouch secured to her waist before she carefully fished out the bit of paper.

She handed it to him, but as he went to take it from her she tightened her grip and met his eyes. "Are we going to die here, Alex?" Her voice was low and solemn and tinged with fear, a far cry from the usual brash confidence she seemed to exude from every pore of her body.

"Not if I can help it," was all he could think of to say back, in the most reassuring tone he could muster.

Amber held the map for a second longer before releasing it and sinking back to lay down on the sand once more. Her downcast expression said she didn't believe him, that he couldn't help them, something that Alex knew he was going to have to fix- low morale was not something that was going to increase their chances of surviving. Nor would not working together as a team, he thought with a glance down the beach to Hex's hunched shape as he continued to wander along the sand. Unfortunately teamwork hadn't really been a strong suite in their trip so far.

Map in hand, Alex left Amber and headed down the beach and towards the water. Despite his words, his survival kit that everyone had so far dismissed, and despite how confident he could rattle off any number of facts and strategies for surviving in almost any environment, truth be told he was scared. All of this knowledge aside, he had never actually been in a situation where the difference between life and death rested so clearly on choices that he made. And to make it ten times worse, it wasn't just his life in his hands- it was four other people as well, people who seemed to be looking directly to him to lead and make decisions. He felt his stomach flip, his head pound, and couldn't be sure if it was thirst and hunger or just plain anxiety that was causing it.

Feeling his own morale starting to wallow, Alex straightened his shoulders up and gave himself something productive to do: figure out the next step. He spread the map out in his grasp, holding it out in front of him towards the channel. His eyes roamed first the larger island across the water, and then the paper in front of him. While staying on the beach made sense in some ways, it didn't in others. They had no fresh water that wasn't contained in a coconut, and while Alex could make a solar still using the thermal blanket in his survival tin, between the five of them needing water- and a lot of it, given the climate- he didn't think that was going to be a sustainable choice. And eventually the coconuts would run out, although the prospect of being stuck on the island for that long was almost too much to consider at the present time so he pushed that thought straight out of his brain as soon as it entered.

The circled area on the map was interesting. Did it mark something useful? Something that existed, a structure like the lookout, or a spot where something was to be built? Was someone just trying to get a pen to work and didn't have access to any spare paper? Who knew. But, Alex decided, if they could rest and fuel up enough, he thought it would probably be worthwhile a scouting trip to see what was there. The island wasn't overly large, about eight kilometres long and half as wide according to the scale on the map, and exploring it would let them get the lay of the land, see what options they had to make a camp, hopefully find a source of fresh water, and check whether there were any other islands within spitting distance. His next steps decided, Alex turned back to where he had left Amber, feeling a lot more calm. He grinned as he spotted Li and Paulo coming back along the beach, Li bouncing ahead and Paulo carefully picking his way along in her wake, him arms full of assorted coconuts.

"We got the mother-load," Li announced proudly as they reached Amber.

Paulo deposited the fruit at Amber's feet, narrowly missing squashing her buried toes with a particularly robust coconut. "Many green ones," he said as he knelt down in the sand and started to sort through the pile. "And some ripe ones that we can use for breakfast."

The talk of possible food roused Amber from her prone position, and she sat up, one hand pressed to her head; her brain felt like it was pulsing in her skull and her vision swam. "Less talking, more cracking," she said. "Get your knife out, Alex."

Alex shrank back, his hand protectively and instinctively reaching for the prized position on his side. "Absolutely not. Some sharpened sticks and rocks will be much better suited." He quickly went off into the undergrowth to find such items before Amber tackled him in a hunger-induced haze and forcibly removed the knife from his belt.

When Alex returned from his scouting, so had Hex. The hacker looked positively thunderous, the scowl he had been wearing when he set off down the beach now set even deeper on his face. Not being able to do much about the other teen's attitude at the moment, Alex instead concentrated on carefully using his knife to hone the ends of three sturdy sticks into sharpened points, then distributed one of them and a rock each to Li and Paulo. The knife was quickly and securely stowed back in its sheath, out of reach from Amber.

"Just like this," he instructed, and the pair watched carefully as Alex dug a shallow bowl into the sand to nestle one of the green coconuts in. Once it was secured, he placed the pointed end of the stick into the black eye of the coconut, and gave some firm whacks on the other end with his own flat rock. Within seconds he had a neatly pierced coconut that he handed to Amber. "Start with that," he said with a sigh as she frowned and opened her mouth, no doubt about to remind him that she 'needed food right now'. "Let's just all have a drink and then we can crack open some of the ripe coconuts."

With Li and Paulo's help, soon Alex had a selection of green coconuts pierced and ready to be guzzled. Alex tilted the fruit up and his head back and could have almost wept when the slightly sweet liquid trickled into his mouth. He knew the dehydration wouldn't be fixed just like that, but he did feel ten times better once he had drained every last drop out of the coconut. To his relief, he could see similar reactions from the others around him, as everyone got something into their empty stomachs and started to feel less pinched and thirsty.

Before Amber could start whinging again, Alex got onto removing the brown hairy husk and splitting open three of the ripe coconuts before he dished out slabs of thick white coconut meat. Peace descended over the group as the five of them became totally pre-occupied with eating the nutrient rich meat, mouths too full for anything other than chewing. When the food had all been eaten, and another round of green coconuts drunk, they settled back into the warm sand, finding some level of peace in finally not feeling hungry or thirsty.

Alex shot a cautious glance at the other teenagers, noting the more relaxed faces about him. Now, he figured, was probably as good a time as any to break the news. He cleared his throat. "We can't stay here," he said, gesturing at their surroundings. "So-"

"No shit, Sherlock," Amber said before he could get another word in. The food had definitely perked her up, and returned her quick mouth back to full force. "But I don't think we can just opt out."

Hex shot her a withering look. "How about you let him finish," he grated.

"How about-"

"We need to get a better idea of the island, what we have to work with." Alex raised his voice and just cut right over the top of Amber, desperate to avoid another argument between her and Hex where nothing would actually be accomplished. "We need to find a place to set up camp, somewhere we can be safe but where we also could try and flag down a boat or a plane if it comes past."

Paulo sighed wearily. "This sounds like we will be walking, si?"

Alex nodded, and fished the map out of his belt pouch, spreading it out on the sand between them all. "The island isn't that long, and the topography seems in our favour if we hug the coastline- there's some cliffs and ridges, but if we make our way around the edge as close to the water as we can, we can check it out and see what we come up with. By the water is going to be where we need to set up camp anyway- gives us the best chance of flagging down a boat or a plane if it comes past." Satisfied with his plan, Alex sat back from where he had been pointing and tracing on the map, and looked at the faces around him. He felt his satisfaction deflate slightly, when he saw the less than enthusiastic expressions staring back at him, but he wasn't going to let their lack of oomph get to him any more.

His body still protested, but with a lot less insistency this time as he got to his feet. "Come on," he said. "The quicker we get started the quicker we get finished."


The topography was indeed in their favour- to start, anyway.

In a single file, Amber at the head of the line as she was the most experienced with reading maps and navigating in general, then Paulo, Li, Hex and finally Alex bringing up the rear, the five teenagers started out from the beach. Back on the main island, this time heading to the right hand side and away from the lagoon where they had been dumped by their captors, they hugged the coastline and were treated to a relatively gentle walk for the first fifteen minutes. The ground sloped delicately on an incline that was almost unnoticeable, and the rainforest trees and undergrowth wasn't anywhere near as dense as it had been on the smaller secondary island.

Amber set a steady pace that everyone could easily maintain, and the map was really just a guide; it was easy just to follow the edge of the tree line with the water in clear sight on their right shoulders. However, as the hike continued, it became less of a pleasant wander and more of a bush bash, as the ground rose beneath their feet and they found themselves tackling a densely forested ridge that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Another five minutes of half walking, half scrambling, with sweat dripping off them and heavy breathing the soundtrack, Alex called a halt from the back of the line. Surprisingly, for the first time, not a single person argued and the group stopped in their tracks immediately.

"Can I just…" Alex shuffled past Hex, Li and Paulo up beside Amber, considering the map again. "We can probably cut this section out," he said, indicating the steep section that they were currently battling.

Amber frowned. "You said hug the coastline."

"Yes, but there is going to be nowhere suitable for us to set up a camp along here." With a sweep of his arm, Alex indicated their less than ideal current surroundings. "We need somewhere relatively cleared, near the water, and without a massive cliff face that we have to climb up and down to get to the beach."

"So… The lagoon we were dropped off at," Hex said. He got shot a series of looks that told him exactly how helpful that suggestion was, and he raised his hands in surrender. "I'm just saying."

"Well don't," Amber snapped. "The less you say the better." She looked hot and bothered, tired and exhausted, and still had that sickly grey tinge around her mouth. Frustrated and over the whole thing, she thrust the map at Alex. "You lead the way, then."

"Amber…" Alex sighed. "I wasn't criticising-"

But she had already stomped off to the side and dropped down onto a rock. With a scowl on her face, she fixed her gaze on the bit of blue water they could still just see poking through the foliage. Her bottom lip wobbled, her eyes filled with tears, but she blinked them furiously away before they could fall and anyone could see.

The slightly more positive outlook that the coconuts had brought had lasted a record twenty minutes, and Alex knew he had to come up with something fast before they were right back to the arguing and pity party from earlier. Unfortunately, the only answer he had was more walking. "Let's head back," he suggested, pointing the way they had struggled up from. "Downhill," he added with a grin that he hoped would buoy everyone again, "and then we can see if we can find a better way that avoids this ridge. We might even be able to find a game trail."

"And that could lead us to fresh water!" Paulo added, mirroring Alex's hopeful expression. "Si, amigo. A good plan."

The good plan in place, they set back off down the ridge at a must faster pace than they had been going up. As the vegetation began to thin, and the ground even out again, they stopped and consulted the map.

"Maybe we should check that out." Li dropped a finger onto the middle of the map, onto the randomly circled spot.

Alex pondered the suggestion. "Whatever it is, it won't do as a permanent camp," he said after a moment's thought, instantly regretting the choice of words as he heard Hex mutter something about 'nothing about this better be bloody permanent' from somewhere off to his right. "Too far from the beach, we would miss anyone coming past that we could signal to."

"But it might do for tonight," Li insisted. "Or it might be water. Or another lookout." She moved her finger over to where the aforementioned lookout was marked, with the red X. "If that was marked, this must be something just as important."

Alex didn't want to rain on her enthusiasm by mentioning that a sloppy, faded circle was hardly the same as the printed X, and he could see that Li's theories were injecting a little more energy back into the group. Hope was really what they needed now, not hard facts, and if it got everyone moving with some degree of purpose, then towards the fading circle they would go. And he did want to check out the marked spot on the map…

"Okay," he said with another smile that was only just a little forced. He felt tired to his bones- and it was barely mid morning. "Let's go and check this circle out."