‘Wise. Although Lucy seems OK on it. Besides, I took a sip and I feel fine.’
He mutters what might be a ‘Hmm.’
They keep walking, and as the decline increases she starts to feel the burn in the front of her thighs. ‘What drink are you hoping for down there?’
‘Well . . . I think Scott’s choice is a good one, but a bit obvious. I mean, it’s a tiki hut. It looks like the set of Cocktail.’ He pauses, looks at her. ‘You probably don’t even know what that is.’
‘Eighties film. Tom Cruise. The Beach Boys sang the theme song.’
‘“Kokomo”! What. A. Tune,’ he says. He starts humming it. ‘Sometimes I think I’m the only eighties movie fan I know. And far too many people dismiss Tom these days . . .’
‘Oh, come on. Tom Cruise is excellent. He might have a questionable personal life – although I’m not one to judge – but he is the perfect action hero. Did you see that stunt he did on the wing of a plane for one of the MI movies?’
‘Legend. Only surpassed by him smashing his ankle when he jumped across a rooftop for—’
His sentence is cut short when they hear a piercing scream from somewhere below them. They both speak at the same time.
‘Scott.’
‘Guys, can you hurry?’ Lucy’s voice now, yelling up at them from further down the path. They can’t see her, but she can’t be too far ahead.
They pick up the pace, marching faster but trying not to step on any loose stones and staying as far from the edge as they can. Her thighs are burning now, but she ignores it – adrenaline kicking in. Their march turns into a jog, until Amelia slips on the path. Stumbles.
‘Careful,’ James says, grabbing her arm. ‘We don’t need another casualty.’
They slow down, and soon the path dips and they can see the others. Lucy is crouching next to Scott, who is lying across the path, one leg dangling over the cliff edge, the other bent at the knee, his foot turned inward. He is shaking and blubbering and, despite his earlier histrionics, clearly in real pain.
‘What happened?’ Amelia hurries around to the other side of him, keeping close to the inside of the path.
‘Tripped over that, I think.’ Lucy nods towards what looks like a gnarled tree root pushing out from the side of the bank. The tree is some kind of shrub – scratchy with thorns and bent from the wind. But the roots are wiry, and she can see it would have been easy to dismiss them. He’s lucky too, where he’s landed. He could have gone right over the side. The footpath is perilously close to the edge here.
James walks over and tugs at the clump. ‘Hard as nails and bedded in tight.’ He turns to Scott. ‘Unlucky, mate.’
‘You’re telling me,’ Scott says between groans. ‘I wish I’d brought some of my new painkiller formula with me. I could sure use it right now.’
Amelia leans in towards his foot. ‘May I?’
Scott lets loose a burst of expletives, ending with, ‘Don’t touch it!’
She leans away from him. ‘I won’t hurt you, I promise. I’ve dealt with this kind of thing before. I know how to set it, so that you’ll be able to walk on it.’
‘First aid training?’ Lucy says, crouching down beside them.
‘A little.’ She takes Scott’s hand. ‘Please? Otherwise I’m not sure what we’re going to do. I don’t think any of us can carry you.’
‘They’ll send someone, won’t they?’ Lucy says. ‘They know we’re here. Scott, tell your tracker you need some assistance.’
Scott groans again.
‘You know,’ Lucy says, ‘there was a wee flash of light, just before he fell. Like it came out of the bushes or something.’
‘It flashed right in my goddamn eyes,’ Scott says. ‘Coulda blinded me.’
James flinches. ‘Maybe a bit of broken glass or something. Sun just caught it. Like I said . . . unlucky.’ He goes back to the offending bush and rummages around underneath it. ‘Can’t see anything.’
‘Never mind that now.’ Amelia drops from a crouch to her knees. ‘James? Could you try and get a straight piece of wood for me? And maybe something flat . . .’ She looks around at the landscape. Frowns. ‘Whatever you can find.’
‘Roger that.’ James turns away and starts to hike back up the hill, stopping now and again to pull at various plants, looking for something suitable to take back.
Scott is breathing heavily now, but he’s stopped whimpering. Lucy hands him a bottle of water and he gulps it down. Then he lies back into the bank and closes his eyes.
Amelia is still trying to work out what to do with his foot. In the jungle, she’d once used banana leaves and twine to strap up one of her fellow workers’ ankles. But this place has nothing so obvious at hand. She tries to think back to the bushcraft course she took in Australia. There has to be a way to fix this, if she could only remember how. It’s funny what the mind can lock away from you when you need it most.
‘So,’ Lucy says to her, ‘what’s your story? We didn’t get to hear it back at base. Is Tiggy right to wonder why you’re really here?’
Amelia’s head snaps up. ‘I’m trying to fix Scott’s foot, and you’re questioning why I’m here?’
‘Jeez, OK. Chill out. I was just making conversation.’
‘In a bit of a confrontational way, don’t you think?’
Lucy blinks. ‘Not really. Don’t you think you’re overreacting? I only asked . . .’
Amelia wipes a hand across her brow. Is it her imagination or is it hotter now? They’re quite exposed to the elements, and the sun has definitely changed position. She sighs. ‘Look . . . I’m sorry, OK? I just get a bit flustered when people talk to me when I’m trying to concentrate. Let’s sort out Scott, then you can interrogate me all you like. Deal?’ She gives Lucy a smile.
‘Deal.’ Lucy raises a hand and gives Amelia the peace sign.
They both turn back to Scott, who seems to be fast asleep.
They look at each other. That water. There’s definitely something in that water.
Lucy lays a hand on his shoulder. ‘Scott—’
James comes bounding down the hill, panting. He has something in each hand, but Amelia can’t see what it is yet. Something whitish and straight. She stands up, ready to greet him.
‘Brilliant, you found something . . .’ Her voice trails off when she sees what he’s carrying. Sees the expression on his face. He holds his hands out towards her, and she can see they’re shaking.
‘Woah,’ Lucy says. ‘Are those . . . ?’
‘Yep,’ says Amelia. ‘Unless I’m mistaken, those look very much like bones.’
Tiggy
‘Come on, Tigs. No one’s going to see us.’
He pokes her in the ribs and slides a hand up her T-shirt. She bats his hand away and pouts.
‘They could come back any minute. We don’t even know them yet. I’d rather not be caught in flagrante by a bunch of randoms, thank you very much.’ She flips over onto her side and pulls the blanket up to her neck.
She’s grinning, but he can’t see her face.