CHAPTER NINETEEN

Amber's breath heaved; her heart was pounding so loud that it felt like it was going to burst straight out of her chest. She was pelting through the undergrowth, having used the ensuing chaos from Stella being spotted to swim for her life as the drug dealers were otherwise distracted, but it wasn't the exertion that was causing either of these things. It was fear. She felt totally lost in the thick rainforest, had no idea where anyone else was, all she knew was she had to get away from that lagoon, away from that beach, as quickly as she could.

Not able to hear anything over her breath, her heartbeat, Amber forced herself to come to a stop, just for a moment. She needed to try and get her bearings, needed to try and hear her surroundings. As she forced herself to take some slower, quieter breaths, she realised with a sudden growing horror that she could still hear crashing behind her. Someone was coming- rapidly, and in her direction. She whirled around, ready to fight for her life, and almost instantly was almost knocked off her feet by Hex.

"Move," he snapped, grabbing hold of her arm and dragging her along in his wake as he powered past. "They're still coming!"

For once, Amber didn't argue, and the pair continued to bash their way through the rainforest, vines and branches cutting their skin with every step; while thankfully she did have her boat shoes on, wet and chaffing as they were, Amber was also only in her bikini still and it was not at all providing any level of protection against the assault from the island plant life. Amber became aware of sounds around them, and bile rose in her mouth as she realised just how closer their pursuers sounded. They were gaining ground, her and Hex were losing the race, and it was only going to be a matter of seconds before they were right in the men's sights.

Realising they were not winning by trying to run, Hex changed tactics. There were numerous large trees around, with towering buttress roots that provided at least some level of protection if they sat very still. Without a word, he seized Amber's arm again and hurled them both suddenly to the left, dragging her in his wake down a slight dip and into the cover of some of these roots.

"Are you crazy?" Amber hissed, struggling against his grip and getting to her feet from where he had pulled her down beside him.

He kept hold of her wrist. "Sit down," he snapped. "They're going to catch us if we keep running."

"So we're just going to sit and wait for them to find us?"

"If you shut up and sit still, they'll run right past us."

Amber tugged against Hex's iron grip once more, but it was without much force this time. He was right, as painful as that was to admit. Their pursuers were gaining ground, this was at least more of a chance than they had trying to keep running blindly through the rainforest. There was no time to change her mind and set off again anyway, as the crashing sounds that had been following them reached a crescendo, and they could hear heavy breathing not more than a few metres off to their left.

The man was out of sight of them, which made Amber and Hex hopeful that they were just as hidden to him, but to their horror he had slowed down. In the near silence that followed, Amber and Hex did everything they could to barely even breath as the man's footsteps went from fast and confident, to slow, deliberate steps punctured by the crackle of a stick or some dried leaves each time his shoe hit the earth.

Amber whimpered, and Hex slapped a hand over her mouth. He shook his head silently, trying not to let his own fear show as he stared at her; her eyes were bulging with fear. One of her hands grabbed his arm, her nails digging into his skin and causing Hex to grimace.

In the near silence that followed, the only sound was the occasional soft footsteps of the man creeping slowly around through the rainforest nearby. Hex held his breath for so long he thought his chest would burst, not wanting to risk even a whisper in case the man heard them. The time seemed to drag out endlessly, and Hex closed his eyes, although all that did was bring into his imagination their capture, the man suddenly rounding the tree roots and looking down and seeing them, his shouts of triumph, their shouts of fear, as the man seized them and hauled them to their feet and-

Nothing.

Hex forced his eyes open as the man's footsteps faded. It sounded like he was heading back the way he had come, the way he had chased them, leaving them behind and heading back to the lagoon and the beach and the boats. Hex and Amber sat in a tense silence for at least another two minutes, both too afraid to move a muscle still even though, by that stage, the peace and silence had returned to the island around them, broken only by the occasional bird song or far less ominous rustle as one of the native wildlife landed on or took off from a branch.

Finally, Amber let out a massive breath beside him, the air whooshing into the silence. She sagged back against the tree, finally releasing her death grip on Hex's arm and leaving sizeable indents from her long nails. She looked like she was going to cry, her head dropped, and her shoulders started shaking. Hex sat awkwardly beside her, not sure what to do, but then Amber raised her head and he realised she was laughing.

"That was… close." She grinned, in spite of the situation. "We have some pretty good luck."

"That's an understatement." Hex also slouched back against the tree, feeling tension in his body release that he hadn't even been aware was there. "I don't think they would have just let us go a second time." He took a deep breath, then turned to Amber with sudden urgency. "Radio. Did you get to it?"

Sadly, Amber shook her head. "I thought I would get lucky, they might have a sat phone someone easily accessible. But nope. I was going to check the cockpit, but… It was so exposed, they would have seen me and then I would have been trapped up there, and…" She trailed off, looking dejected and frustrated with herself. "They'd have one, though. They'd have to."

"I don't think they're going to just let us borrow it."

She rolled her eyes. "Duh. But if we get a chance to get back on the boat-"

This time, Hex was the one doing the eye rolling. "I think we're just going to stay the hell away from that lagoon, actually. I mean," he added, voice dripping with sarcasm, "we can put it to a vote when we find the others, if they're all still alive and managed to escape the psychopathic drug dealers, but-" Hex became aware his words were just bouncing around and Amber wasn't actually listening; she was staring down at her bare midsection. "What?"

Amber's eyes met his, and the fear that was reflected in them was unmatched with what had been there before, even with the man chasing after them. "My pouch," she croaked out. Her hands patted at her waist, as if that would somehow make it appear. "I've lost my- It must have-" She leapt to her feet, searching frantically in the surrounding undergrowth, clambering over the roots of the tree until she stopped suddenly, staring back in the direction they had come racing from. "The stupid clasp must have snapped. Oh god it could be anywhere."

To Hex's alarm, she started to rapidly retrace their path from earlier, heading back towards the lagoon. Hex rushed over and grabbed her elbow, halting her progress. She wrenched her arm free and shot him a furious scowl.

"Where do you think you're going?" Hex demanded.

"Back."

"Back?"

Amber jabbed a hand in the direction she had been trying to head, towards the out of sight beach.

"Woah! Are you insane? We're running away from the gun toting criminal maniacs who want to kill us, not towards them."

"My pouch," Amber said. "I dropped my pouch."

"Your pouch?"

"My pouch!" she snapped, pointing to her waist.

Hex looked at her like she had grown two additional heads. "So?"

"So?" Now Amber was mirroring the expression back at him. "Really? I need to find it."

"You don't even know where you dropped it."

"Somewhere back there," she said, waving behind her.

"You are insane. Seriously, Amber; it's not worth it."

"Yes, it is."

"Nothing's that important."

She rolled her eyes. "Says the guy who was on the verge of throwing himself into the ocean after his stupid computer went swimming. I need my kit, Hex."

"Kit?" Hex frowned at her choice of words. "What kit? What the heck's in that bag?"

"None of your business," Amber replied hotly, folding her arms across her chest in a gesture that stipulated Hex shut up and stop prying.

Another eye roll. "Yet here we are, discussing going back and looking for it."

"Still doesn't make it your business. I don't need your help. I don't want your help," she added. "And we're not 'discussing' anything. You're arguing with me about something that doesn't concern you."

"Actually," Hex said, "it does."

"And how do you figure that?"

"Have you checked in, lately? Just took even the tiniest step outside of your own self absorbed head-" he gave a sharp tap on her forehead to puncture the word, and Amber stepped back, her scowl deepening, "and realised the actual extent of the insanely bad situation we've ended up stuck in?"

She scoffed. "I'm not deluded, Hex."

"Could have fooled me," he muttered.

Amber turned and went to stomp off, but Hex seized her wrist again. He was starting to make a habit of that and she did not appreciate it. "Let go," she snapped.

"Not until you give me at least one good reason why we absolutely have to go back and look for your stupid bag."

She twisted herself free and took several quick steps back away from him. "I don't have to give you any reasons," she said hotly. "How many languages do I need to say this in? I. Don't. Need. Your. Help. No necesito su ayuda. Ich brauche deine hilfe nicht. Je ne suis pas besoin de votre aide. Ik heb-"

"Yeah, right, because it'd be a completely brilliant idea to split up and go wandering blindly across an island when there are people who clearly want to catch up with us. And not just for a chat." Hex was scowling as well now. "It's not about 'help,' Amber, it's about staying together and watching each other's backs."

"Ha!" Amber gave a short bark of laughter, finding the whole situation just ridiculous. A lecture, on teamwork of all things, from quite possibly the least likely team player she had ever met in her life. "I think I'd have a better shot at making this out alive without you."

Hex paused for a moment, then sighed. "Is this about the bag thing? Still?"

It wasn't, at least not singly, but his bringing it up just reminded her again at the absolute incompetence. "You couldn't even load my luggage onto the tender without dropping it into the ocean. I'm hardly going to rely on you for- or even consult you on- anything even slightly more important."

"It was an accident," Hex grated. "I've apologised."

"Yeah. Right. Like the burn on my arm?" She waved said arm as an exclamation point, the pink welt still visible.

"It was a scald." Hex threw his arms in the air, absolutely beyond the point of being able to reason with her any longer. "And you nearly broke my nose! I think we're quits."

"Not even close."

"You're-"

They had been so engrossed in the argument, the fact that they had, just ten minutes or so earlier, been running for their lives from someone who wanted to cause them serious harm, had escaped them. But some sudden furious rustling from a nearby patch of dense foliage had them both shutting up in an instant, the breath-snatching fear returning in a second. Without another word, they leapt back into the relative cover and safety of the buttress roots they had sheltered in before.

Both held their breath, sitting in tense silence, as the rustling continued and then faded. Whatever it was, human or otherwise, had moved on. Probably just an animal, since they hadn't exactly been keeping their arguing in whispers and anyone looking for them specifically would have had more than half a chance at pinpointing and sneaking up on them while they were snapping at each other.

The situation, the reality and gravity of it, sunk on them both like a heavy weight, and suddenly the soggy duffle bag, and the drowned computer, and the burn versus scald, and Hex's bruised nose, all seemed very irrelevant. An actual apology was really not going to come out of either of them, but the silence almost served as one.

After a couple more moments, Amber turned to Hex, waited a second longer than said in a very small voice, "I'm diabetic. The bag's got my insulin pens and blood sugar testing kit in it. And glucose sweets, which I've been heavily relying on given… Well this mess." She took a deep, shaky breath. "I need it, Hex." She refused to actually look at him, glaring at some leaves just to his right. "I'm already struggling here to manage it, we're burning up what little food we're actually getting, my blood sugar is all over the place…"

Hex sat silently for a moment, absorbing the information that had just been dumped on him. Then, with a sigh, he said, "Fine."

"Good." Amber couldn't help shooting him another scowl, though. "And maybe next time you'll just listen to what I'm saying and agree without wasting both of our time on a pointless argument."

Hex scoffed. "You have a very high opinion of yourself, don't you. I was being completely reasonable; you were the one doing all of the arguing."

"Aaaaand you're still rabbiting on. Don't you have an off switch? Or even a mute button? A volume control?" She mimed a remote, pointing it at him and pressing the imaginary buttons.

They cautiously started back through the vegetation heading the way that they had come from, keeping their eyes peeled and ears trained for any out of the ordinary noises, although that was a ridiculously tall order given that they were in a foreign place that seemed to be positively teaming with unseen small critters that liked to suddenly break cover and scuttle, setting up an ominous rustling of foliage that made Hex and Amber both jump and freeze every time. It made for slow progress, stopping what seemed like every two seconds, and combined with the fact that neither of them really knew the direction they were going in because, in the blind panic that they had run in, they didn't know the direction they had set off in. The vegetation around them was thick, the canopy blocking out a huge amount of the sunlight and making it feel like late afternoon even though it was still barely mid morning.

They had been picking their way along in silence for a while, eyes trained on the ground in an absolutely vain attempt to spot Amber's wayward pouch, when Hex cleared his throat. "So… Not meaning to be insensitive-"

Amber let out a little surprised huff of air. "There's a change," she muttered.

"-but what sort of things happen if you don't have the stuff in your pouch? When you need it?"

Amber stopped and turned to him, hands on her hips. "What do I look like? WebMD?"

A shrug. "Just making conversation."

"Shitty topic." She started walking again. "I preferred it when you didn't talk at all, just as an FYI."

Ignoring the jab, Hex said, "Just in case we don't find your bag-

"We will find my bag."

"But if we don't- which is a very real possibility, actually," he said, gesturing at their surroundings, the situation, their deluded thought that they might just stumble across the pouch that Amber could have lost anywhere from in the lagoon itself to onto the boat to the surrounding rainforest. "Are you going to be okay?"

Amber smirked. "Gee, careful there, code boy. You sound like you actually care a little bit."

Hex's turn to roll his eyes. "This whole situation sucks enough without having to lug you about the place. You're only slightly useful as it is. And that's only when you're in the right mood, and doing something that benefits yourself directly."

"And we're back to regularly scheduled programming."

"Seriously, Amber."

She was going to snap out something dismissive again but Hex actually did sound serious. She turned her head and glanced over at him, taking in his frown as he considered her, and she sighed and shrugged. "Short answer? No. It's diabetes, Hex; I don't get to pause it when injecting insulin becomes a little bit inconvenient."

"So…" he prompted when she didn't offer any more insight.

"So," she said bluntly, "we need to find my bag."

"And if we don't…"

Another sigh. He just wasn't letting this go. "Then," she said, "we need to find a way off this island. Pronto."

"Oh of course, because before it wasn't important at all."

Amber shot him a look. "Silence is probably best," she said tightly. "What with the people trying to track us down, and needing to concentrate on finding my bag."

Hex opened his mouth to retort, however decided against it, grudgingly realising she had a point. They continued their careful, slow pace along, hoping they were somewhat retracing their steps but having no idea at all if they were even remotely close to the path that Amber had beat through the bush. Considering the speed that they had all been moving, there was very little to notice in their surroundings, something that was good in terms of people trying to follow them, but bad for them trying to follow themselves. It also gave way to the sneaking suspicion that they were way off the mark and heading in the completely wrong direction.

Moving at such speed and without much thought or planning other than 'get away' hadn't leant itself to navigational ease, and the surrounding vegetation looked painfully similar, erasing out any hope of picking out anything slightly familiar. As they moved further and further along, and the minutes stretched into each other, it wasn't only Amber's bag that they were hoping they would come across.

There were four other teenagers out there who had also scattered, and both Amber and Hex were just quietly hoping that they had all made it out and away unscathed. Neither wanted to bring that reminder up, though. It was hard enough facing their own potential reality, let alone that. It also was not an attractive possibility that they were the only two left. That would require a level of cooperation from them both that they definitely had not reached, they needed mediators. And witnesses.

Their searching led them closer and closer to the beach, as the vegetation begun to thin and both Amber and Hex subconsciously slowed their pace until they both got to a point where neither felt comfortable continuing. The men may still have been searching the island, but it was more likely that they had headed back to the lagoon, onto their boats, and if they pressed forward for much longer they were definitely going to be a target. And while they may have gotten away this time, and the men may have been happy to leave them to perish on the island, the wilderness doing their dirty work, a second attempt to get out onto the sand may not be received with quite as much apathy.

Hex turned around, gesturing that Amber needed to follow him quietly and quickly back into deeper undergrowth, and hopefully this time heading in the right direction to rejoin the others back at the huts, if they had also made it there. Amber hesitated, cast one look back in the direction of the lagoon, and then reluctantly joined him. Her expression was completely unmasked, worry creasing every part of her face.

When she finally spoke, though, Hex was a bit caught off guard by the point she wanted to hammer home. "You don't say a word about this to anyone."

Hex glanced across at her, confused. "Huh?"

"You don't say a word to anyone else about this. My diabetes. My pouch."

"Amber-"

She took an extra step ahead to block his path, holding a hand up, her expression stern. "I'm serious. Keep your mouth shut. You haven't made a habit of caring and sharing so far, so let's just continue that."

Hex ignored the jab. "You have a serious medical condition, and are currently without supplies to manage that condition. And we aren't just around the corner from a chemist or a doctor. Or a hospital," he added ominously, hoping that his point would reach through Amber's stubbornness. "If you need-"

"I don't need anything from any one of you, except for you to keep your mouth shut."

Hex stared at her, absolutely flabbergasted that this was the hill she was insisting on staking herself on. "Why is it such a big deal?"

"It's not," she argued. "Which is why I don't want anyone else knowing. You say anything, to anyone, and you're dead."

"Yeah, because that only ever so slight overreaction really backs up your 'it's not a big deal' claim." On closer inspection, underneath the threats and demands, Amber actually looked anxious; Hex found himself faltering slightly, the rawness under the façade unexpected and a bit unsettling. He was glad he hadn't decided to start his response with what had been his initial reaction, which was a defensive yeah and so are you if we don't find your bloody kit. "It's none of my business," he said, a lot gentler than he had been before. "I won't say anything."

"I don't trust you."

"Well that's too bad then because I'm not putting it in writing and signing a contract."

Amber went to snap something back, maybe resort to another demanding threat, but realised that perhaps annoying Hex wasn't the best course of action given that he now knew something she wanted kept quiet, and quietly shut her mouth. They continued their walk further into the island in silence, the gravity of the situation they were in settling like a heavy weight around them.

Feeling lost, upset and unsure, Amber's hand automatically went to her neck, to clutch the necklace made of the wedding rings of her deceased parents, only for her fingers to find nothing more than her own skin. Her step faltered, sharp tears stung in her eyes. Her necklace… the last thing she felt she had left of her mother and father, and that too was gone. Lost, without a trace, just like they all were. It was all Amber could do not to sink down onto the ground and bawl her eyes out.