Desperate Measures (5 page)

T
he light was dimming fast when Carter stumbled onto the mud bank of the river. He'd ridden the current as far as he could. Now, the water had slowed to a near standstill, and gone shallow.

There was no knowing how far he'd come. It was all a blur of white water, rock, and mud. Both his knees were bloody, and he'd have some new bruises for sure, but at least nothing was broken.

He stood on the bank and listened. The jungle gave back its usual insect buzz and hum, and he could hear the soft sound of ocean waves somewhere. The drumming from the eastern shore had stopped.
He was completely turned around now, with no real sense of direction.

Carter turned and looked for the sun. It was too late in the day for that, but through the trees behind him, he could make out the red-orange glow of a sunset. That meant west, didn't it? His mind felt thick and slow. He needed food. Fresh water. Rest. But he couldn't have any of those things.

It was tempting to drop right there in the mud and close his eyes. Falling asleep would have been beyond easy. But the darkening sky was like a ticking clock he couldn't afford to ignore. So he put the sunset at his back and pushed on, one step at a time.

His path took him over a small rise through the forest and back down again, into a patch of wetter and muddier ground. The river hadn't dried up so much as fed into a swamp of some kind.

The island around him had narrowed, too. He could see the ocean, first on his left and soon after on his right. But his pace was miserable. The ground was just a murky slime under his tattered sneakers. It felt like walking through wet cement.

With the next step, he was up to his calf in scum-covered water. He stumbled, caught himself on the trunk of a dead tree, and kept moving.

Jane . . .

Buzz . . .

Vanessa . . .

Mima . . .

Their names passed through his mind, over and over. Each name was a step. It was all he had to keep him moving as the darkness deepened around him. And for now, that would have to be enough.

Vanessa peered into the tunnel ahead. It felt as though they were still heading west, but it was hard to say. At least there were no choices to make, no forks or turns to choose from. The passage cut a single straight path, wherever it was taking them.

“Carter wouldn't head back for the village, would he?” Buzz asked.

“Not if he's thinking straight,” Vanessa said. But that was no guarantee with Carter. He usually made
decisions first and thought second, if at all. “We don't know anything for sure,” she added.

“I do,” Jane said. “He's coming for us.”

Jane had known Carter all her life, the same way Buzz and Vanessa had known each other all of their lives. It was only a few months ago that they'd all become brothers and sisters. And Jane sounded as sure of herself now as she'd ever been.

Soon, the soft thudding of their footsteps turned into a wet slapping sound. The ground was becoming muddier as they traveled west. The idea of rats and other animals scratched at Vanessa's mind, too. But there was nothing they could do about that. Hopefully, they were alone down here.

“Where is this
going
?” Buzz asked, the frustration heavy in his voice. Nobody answered. All they could do now was stick with the gamble they'd made.

After several more minutes, something showed in the dark up ahead. It was just a ragged crack of light, but Vanessa nearly cried when she saw it.

“Do you see that?” she asked, and they all hurried toward it.

They seemed to be traveling uphill. By the time they came to the tunnel's dead end, Vanessa could touch the dripping, rocky ceiling. And there, just above their heads, was the crevice of light they'd been moving toward. She pressed her fingers into it and felt around.

“There's a rock here,” she said. “A big one. Give me a hand.”

Jane stepped back to let Buzz through and held the torch up to shed some light. The flame was tiny by now. It wouldn't last much longer.

Vanessa held her breath while she and Buzz pressed their hands flat against the small boulder and pushed. It rocked away from them once, then thudded back into place.

“Again!” Buzz said. “Jane, help!”

The torch was down to a tiny match light by now, and it went out completely when Jane set it down. Vanessa's adrenaline surged in the dark. With the next push, the rock rolled away from her hands, leaving behind a hole just big enough to climb through.

“I'll go,” she said, and scurried out.

She came into a small alcove of some kind, with curved woody walls on either side. They were close enough that she had to wriggle forward just to get free of the small space.

And in fact, they weren't walls, she realized. They were the tall roots of a tree, like the banyans back in the Nukula village. The rock they'd moved had clearly been wedged in there to block the tunnel's entrance. Or maybe to hide it.

Buzz came right behind. He turned around then and lay flat on his stomach to help pull Jane out while Vanessa scanned their new surroundings.

They'd arrived in a marshland. The ground where they stood was one big mud puddle. Straight ahead was a large pool, mostly covered in green scum and ringed with more of the same odd trees. Their lower branches were heavy with thick moss that hung like old tattered sheets out to dry.

It would be getting dark soon, Vanessa realized. In fact, the days were getting just a bit shorter. It was hard to believe they'd been in the South Pacific for
over three weeks—long enough for something like that to change. But they had. She tried to remember the last time she'd even looked at a clock.

The outside world was slipping away, bit by bit. And from the look of the dead, empty landscape around them, so were their chances of ever getting out of here.

“This is exactly what Ani told us about,” Jane said. “He told us we'd be crossing the island's narrowest point. That has to be here, don't you think?”

The land had thinned to no more than a few hundred yards across. She could see the ocean in both directions. It seemed as though the Nukula had dug the westward tunnel as far as they could. Any farther and it would be underwater.

“Do you think Carter could have gotten this far already?” Vanessa asked.

“I doubt it,” Buzz said. “He's got to still be coming this way, right?”

“Right,” Jane said. But it was nothing more than a guess. That was all they had.

Continuing west through the swamp was going to
be exhausting. That much was clear. Still, however tired and hungry Jane felt, she knew Carter had to feel worse. At least she, Vanessa, and Buzz had been given some water and a tiny bit of rest. Their brother didn't have that advantage.

Suddenly, Vanessa clutched Jane's shoulder.

“Someone's over there!” she said.

“Who?” Jane said, looking around. “Where?”

“I see her,” Buzz said, and pointed straight into the marsh. “Up there.”

And then Jane saw her, too. The girl was sitting on the lowermost branch of a dead tree in the middle of the swamp. The vine she'd brought was coiled over her shoulder, and she seemed to be tying one end of it into a loop.

She was setting a trap, Jane realized. For Carter.

“And there!” Buzz whispered, pointing off to the right this time.

“And there, too! Behind us!” Vanessa said.

The more Jane peered around the marsh, the more of them she saw. It was like a seek-and-find puzzle, one shadow after another emerging from the gloom.
In the twilight, it was hard to tell the boys from the girls, or if Mima was among them.

Everyone seemed to be betting on the same thing. If Carter was heading east, he'd have to cross this narrow land bridge. And that's where
someone
was going to capture him.

Jane's heart sank. They'd made up some ground, but it almost didn't matter. How were they supposed to find Carter first, much less get him back to the eastern shore in secret?

Unless. . . .

“What now?” Vanessa asked. “Any ideas?”

“Even if we can find him, everyone's going to know about it,” Buzz said.

“That's true,” Jane said. “I was thinking the same thing, but . . .” An idea was flickering to life in her mind.

“What is it?” Vanessa asked.

“Well . . .” she said. She squeezed her eyes shut, thinking it through. “We have to figure out something we can do that they can't. Or something we have that they don't.”

“Okay?” Buzz said. “Keep going.”

“They're all hiding and staying as quiet as possible, right?” Jane said. “What if we do the opposite?”

“What does that even mean?” Vanessa asked.

“This,” Jane said. Then she took a deep breath and screamed their brother's name as loud as she possibly could.

B
uzz froze. He couldn't believe what he was hearing from Jane.

“CARTER!” she screamed. “IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, DON'T SAY ANYTHING!
DO NOT SAY ANYTHING!
JUST LISTEN!”

The swamp seemed to echo with her voice. Everything else was still.

“Are you crazy?” Vanessa yelled. She grabbed Jane by both arms. “What are you doing?”

“The only thing we can!” Jane said, not even trying to quiet down. “CARTER, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, THERE ARE PEOPLE HERE TRYING TO CATCH
YOU. STAY OUT OF SIGHT, AND LISTEN TO MY VOICE!”

Buzz stared at her hard. He trusted Jane, but he didn't understand.

“Jane?” he said.

“If Carter's coming through here, there's literally no way for us to get to him without people noticing,” she explained. “So maybe he can get to us.”

“What good does that do?” Vanessa asked. “Everyone knows we're here.”

“That's the point,” Jane said. “First, we create as much of a distraction as we can. And then we get Carter into that tunnel. It seems like we're the only ones out here right now who know about it. That's worth a lot.”

“Yeah, but the tunnel's pitch-black,” Buzz said. “Without any fire, what good does it do us now?”

“It would be hard to get back that way, but not impossible,” Jane said. “Remember the caves on Nowhere Island?”

They'd all had to feel their way through the pitch-black before. It had been one of the hardest things they'd done, but they'd made it through.

“Carter can do this,” Jane added. “I know he can.”

“Hang on,” Buzz said. “Why just Carter?”

Jane put a hand over her eyes. She seemed to be making up parts of the plan with every new second.

“We'll . . . tell him where the tunnel is,” she said. “If Carter can get back and stay out of sight underground until we find him, then we can try to sneak him over to Ani's canoe. Everyone else is going to have to go back by land at some point, and we'll follow them that way. Or we'll find our own way—”

“Hang on,” Vanessa said. “Do you know how many things you just named that could go wrong?”

“What if Carter isn't anywhere near here?” Buzz said. “We don't even know if he can hear us.”

“We'll keep yelling for him, over and over,” Jane said. “All night, if we have to. Ani's the only other one on this island who speaks English.”

“What if one of the guards finds him at the other end?” Vanessa said. “Or one of the elders?”

Jane took an impatient breath. “And what if someone here finds him first?” she said. “And what if the tide rises and fills the tunnel with water? And
what if
anything,
you guys! Do either of you have a better idea
?
Because I sure would like to hear it!”

Buzz swallowed hard. He felt stunned, the same way Jane looked. She'd never taken charge like this, or even spoken to them so forcefully.

“One more thing,” she said. “We should spread out. Buzz and I can keep going into the swamp near the others. Vanessa, see if you can roll that rock back to hide the tunnel after we're gone. We'll try to distract everyone so they don't see you doing it. Then you should move away from it, too. We don't want to be anywhere near it if Carter . . . well, hopefully
when
Carter gets this far.”

“Got it,” Buzz said.

Maybe Jane's idea was crazy, or maybe it was brilliant, but they had to go with it. This was about what they could do
right now,
because there wasn't anything else.

Without another word, they moved out. Jane went left. Buzz went right. Vanessa hung back. And then Jane started up, yelling all over again.

“CARTER! IF YOU CAN HEAR MY VOICE . . .”

“. . . DON'T SAY ANYTHING! JUST LISTEN! THERE ARE PEOPLE HERE LOOKING FOR YOU . . .”

Carter couldn't believe his ears. It was Jane, coming from somewhere ahead. Somewhere not that far off. How was this even happening?

“STAY OUT OF SIGHT, AND IF YOU CAN COME THIS WAY, DO IT. THERE'S A TUNNEL YOU HAVE TO FIND, NEAR VANESSA.”

And then Vanessa's voice was there.

“CARTER, THIS WAY!” she shouted from a different place. “IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, LOOK FOR THE BIG TREE ON THE EDGE OF THE SWAMP. THE TUNNEL ENTRANCE IS RIGHT THERE, UNDER A BIG ROCK. THAT'S WHERE YOU NEED TO GO!”

“JUST KEEP LISTENING!” Buzz shouted from another direction. “AND KEEP TRYING TO MOVE TOWARD VANESSA. JANE AND I ARE GOING TO MAKE AS MUCH OF A DIVERSION AS WE CAN!”

Of course,
Carter thought. He was the only one who could understand them. Mima knew a few English words, but Mima wasn't their problem right now. Everyone else was.

It was starting to make sense, and it was incredibly smart. This was probably Jane's idea. Just the sound of their voices flooded him with relief and gave him a surge of energy, too.

And then they started over, with all of the same instructions.

“CARTER! IF YOU CAN HEAR MY VOICE, DON'T SAY ANYTHING!” Jane screamed. “JUST LISTEN . . .”

Jane and Buzz were on the move, from the sound of it. And Carter needed to be, too. But carefully.

He took a deep breath. Going slow wasn't his strong suit. Still, he crouched down and tried to get a read on the landscape before he did anything else.

Through the swamp, maybe fifty yards ahead, he spotted two runners. One was stringing vines between two trees. The other was pushing through the bog, up to his chest in the scummy water. He spoke to a third
Nukula as he passed, someone Carter hadn't even noticed until that moment.

The Nukula were masters of camouflage and not being seen. That much Carter knew. And maybe he could take a page from their playbook.

He crept backward and took a position behind one of the half-dead trees that grew all around. There was no shortage of mud here, and he scooped up two big handfuls. It went onto his arms, his legs, his face—even his clothes and hair—like a paste.

The whole time, Vanessa, Jane, and Buzz were shouting themselves hoarse, repeating the same ideas over and over.

“CARTER, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME . . .”

“FOLLOW MY VOICE . . .”

“THERE'S A TUNNEL . . .”

I hear you, I hear you!
He wanted to yell it out more than anything. Instead, he stayed out of sight behind the tree and stood up slowly. Reaching a little higher, he pulled down a thick sheet of the gray moss that grew over the tree's branches. Most of it crumbled away in his hands, but it left enough to do one arm.
And there was plenty more where that came from.

Working as quickly as he could, he plastered himself in a rough coat of the moss. Hopefully, between that and the oncoming darkness, he'd have the cover he needed to get across the bog. A lot of the moss would wash away in the water, but there was nothing he could do about that. All he could really do was stay low, move carefully, and keep his eyes open.

Carter scanned a full 360 one more time. The nearest runner he could spot was still a good distance off. This was his chance to get going.

He lowered himself all the way to the ground. He took a breath for focus. And then he started a silent, methodical crawl toward the sound of his sister's voice.

Jane moved deeper into the swamp, pulling her feet through the thick, muddy bottom. The water was up to her chest now. She couldn't see Buzz anymore, either, but she could hear him. Both of them kept calling out, giving Carter instructions and creating as much distraction for the other runners as they could.

“THERE'S ONE IN A TREE RIGHT ABOVE ME!” she shouted.

“TWO MORE OVER HERE!” Buzz answered back. “ONE OF THEM'S STILL HEADING WEST.”

“I THINK IT'S ALL CLEAR HERE!” Vanessa shouted. “BUT CARTER, IF YOU CAN HEAR US, PLEASE BE CAREFUL! THEY COULD BE ANYWHERE!”

It felt good to scream, just to let off some of the nervous energy inside. Meanwhile, Jane forced herself
not
to look back in Vanessa's direction. If Carter was moving that way, they needed to keep everyone else's focus away from the tunnel.

They'd definitely gotten some attention. Above her, a Nukula boy sat on a branch, looking down as she passed. He said something to her that sounded angry, but she ignored him and kept moving as though she knew exactly where she was going. Two others had begun to follow her, too, not even trying to hide anymore.

“ANY OF YOU GUYS SEE MIMA ANYWHERE?” Vanessa called over.

“NOT YET!” Buzz called back.

“ME, NEITHER!” Jane answered. It would have been completely like Mima to continue west and separate herself from the larger group. But it was impossible to know where she was.

I hope you're out there somewhere, Mima. Please, help us if you can.

The longer it all went on, the more Nukula voices started cropping up around the swamp. They all seemed confused now, which was good news. It was no guarantee, but it gave Jane, Buzz, and Vanessa more to work with than they'd had a few minutes earlier.

And right now, they needed any advantage they could get.