Desperate Measures (7 page)

T
he pit had been dug during
Ohzooka.
It was the same size and shape as the one on the western beach, where Vanessa had been trapped the first day. Jane looked down inside, but there was nothing to see, just a flat bottom and sand walls that gave way to dirt lower down. It was definitely too far to jump in or climb out.

The pit sat at the far edge of the main clearing, in the direction of
Trehila
and the canoes. Two guards stuck tall torches in the ground all around it and lit them as Carter, Jane, Vanessa, and Buzz were lowered in, one by one, with a vine rope.

As soon as Jane hit the bottom next to Carter, she threw her arms around him.

“I'm so sorry!” she said.

“What are you sorry for?” he asked.

“You must have been so scared on your own!” she said. “At least the three of us have been together.”

“I'm okay,” Carter said, playing it off the way he always did. But Jane could tell from the tightness in his voice that he felt otherwise. He blamed himself for all of this. If it hadn't been for Carter's sacrifice at the end of
Raku Nau
, they could have been gone by now.

But none of that was worth saying out loud, Jane thought. It was behind them. And the truth was, she might have done the same thing.

“Betzo!”
someone said.

Jane turned and saw it was Mima. She'd come down into the pit and was holding more of the thin vines they'd used during the marking ceremony.

Ani stood at the top, along with Laki and several others. Everyone watched from above as Mima continued what seemed to be her job here. She'd
captured Carter, and now she would bind all of them for the night.

“You must all sit and have your hands tied,” Ani told them.

“What for?” Buzz said. “It's not like we can climb out.”

Jane didn't even hear the answer. She was staring at Mima, trying to get her to look back. Mima only kept her eyes down and wrapped Jane's wrist with the vine, then tied it off. The whole thing was so confusing, she didn't even know where to start. Mima had so quickly become a friend, even like a family member to them. This new change was just as sudden, but twice as perplexing.

“Mima?” she said, more than once. But she never got an answer. She never even got a glance. Jane felt a lump in her throat, but her eyes stayed dry. There were simply no more tears to give.

Soon, they were all sitting with their hands tied and their backs propped against the dirt walls. Mima used the vine to walk herself up and out of the pit, then pulled it up behind her. Not once did she look back.

The next surprise came in the form of food and water. The guards dropped down four leaf bundles and two waterskins to share. It was awkward to eat with their hands tied in front of them, but nobody worried about that. There was no conversation, either. After forty-eight hours of starving, there was nothing they needed as much as this.

Just the smell, much less the taste, of the meat and the stringy vegetables in the leaf packet was like a miracle. At home, it all would have tasted like nothing, Jane thought. They probably would have thrown the food away. But here, the idea of throwing away
anything
to eat was inconceivable.

It was amazing what even a little food could do. Carter, especially, seemed to wake up from the trance they'd found him in. It was like watching him come back to life. Jane could have drunk gallons more water than they'd been given, too. Even so, she felt stronger than she had in days.

And then, finally, the conversation began.

There were questions first. Lots of questions. Carter listened as they explained what had happened
without him, and how
Ohzooka
had been called after his escape.

Then he told them about his own strange turn with Chizo. It had been Chizo himself who had pointed the way for Carter to run.

“Maybe he was hoping you'd get lost in the jungle,” Buzz said.

“Or worse,” Vanessa said.

“I don't know,” Carter told them, looking up. “It was weird. I could have really taken him out in that fight, and I didn't. I think he was paying me back.”

“Yeah, well . . .” Vanessa said, and held up her bound wrists. “I guess it
almost
worked. Thanks for nothing, Mima.”

“I can't believe she'd do this,” Jane said.

“Don't say that,” Carter told her. He looked up again, Jane noticed, but there was nothing to see. Just the starry sky and the back of one of the guards.

“Why not?” Vanessa asked. “Listen, I get it. She had to do what she had to do. But meanwhile . . . well, never mind.”

Vanessa sat back again and shut her mouth.

“You can say it,” Jane told her. “We're stuck. They're going to try and take us away from Carter in the morning. And there's nothing we can do about it now.”

“Did Mima really need the blood ring that badly?” Buzz asked. “She already had the
seccu
.”

“Listen,” Carter said. “We wouldn't turn on each other, would we? Mima wouldn't do that to us, either.”

“What are you talking about?” Buzz shot back. “She just did!”

“Omigosh, do you still
like
her?” Vanessa asked. “What's wrong with you? This is about way more than a crush, Carter.”

Carter didn't take the bait. He kept his voice low. “I'm just saying, we're going to be okay,” he told them.

“How can you say that?” Buzz asked.

“And why do you keep looking up?” Jane added.

When she looked for herself, the guard had stepped away from the edge of the pit. She could hear him talking to the other one, nearby.

Carter glanced up once more. Then he leaned forward and rolled to the side, showing them the dirt wall behind his back. It was too dark to see much in the pit, but Jane could tell something was there. It had been shoved into the soft earth, she saw, just before Carter moved back into place.

When she looked up again, the guard was there, staring down at them.

“What was that?” she asked Carter in a whisper.

Carter looked around at each of them in turn. “This is what I've been trying to tell you,” he said quietly. “Right after Mima tied me up, she gave me her knife.”

Carter laughed for the first time since he could remember. The wide eyes on all three of his siblings were clear, even in the dark pit.

“I knew it!” Jane said. “I knew she couldn't just turn her back on us.”

“Why didn't you say something?” Vanessa asked.

“I just did,” Carter said.

“But what does it mean?” Jane asked. “What are we supposed to do with it?”

“It's not like we're going to . . . stab anyone,” Vanessa said.

“And even if we cut ourselves free, how do we get out? And past the guards?” Buzz asked.

It was still strange, speaking out loud for anyone to hear. But the guard didn't even turn around.

“I don't know,” Carter said. “But I knew something had to be up.”

“She didn't have any choice!” Jane said. He could tell how relieved she was. All of them loved Mima, but for Jane, it had seemed especially hard to see her turn on them. “She had to take Carter, or someone else would have.”

“And she had to be convincing,” Carter said. “Otherwise, she couldn't . . .”

He trailed off, not sure what to say.

“She couldn't what?” Jane asked.

“I don't know,” he said. “But this isn't over.”

“Maybe we're supposed to use the knife for digging,” Buzz said.

“Dig where?” Vanessa asked.

There was no answer for that one. Carter didn't know the encampment as well as the others, but he'd seen enough to know there was nowhere to go from this level.

“She probably wasn't planning on all four of us being down here,” Buzz said.

“That's my fault,” Vanessa answered. She sounded upset all over again.

“No,” Carter said. “If it's anyone's fault, you guys—”

“It's nobody's fault!” Jane interrupted. “Okay? And even if it were, so what? None of that changes anything now. Not anymore.”

“Well, I hope Mima has a
really
good idea,” Vanessa said.

“She does,” Carter said.

“How can you be so sure?” Buzz asked.

Carter didn't have to think about his answer. Somehow, everything they'd been through—even the day they'd just had—was so impossible, it made anything seem just a little more possible.

“Because she's amazing,” he said. “She's the most
amazing person I've ever met. And it's not because I
like
her, okay?”

“Yeah, right,” Vanessa said, giving her I'm-older-and-I-know-better look. “Not
just
because you like her, anyway.”

“Whatever,” Carter said. “I also trust her. And so should you. Because if you ask me, this night's just getting started.”

B
uzz woke up to the smell of smoke.

After everything that had happened, he never thought for a second he'd fall asleep in that pit. But the hours had worn on, and the long day had caught up to him. Somewhere along the way, each of them had dropped off.

Now he was sitting up again, wide awake.

“Do you hear that?” Jane asked.

People were shouting. Buzz could hear the crackle of burning wood, too, far louder than any single campfire. When he looked up, a glowing light showed from the direction of the main clearing.

“Something's wrong—” Vanessa started to say, but she was cut off by the crashing sound of a burning limb hitting the ground.

“That was a branch,” Buzz said. “A big one.”

“It's the trees,” Jane said. “It sounds like they're on fire.”

Carter was the first onto his feet. “This is it!” he said. Already, he had Mima's knife clasped between his bound hands.

The guards were nowhere Buzz could see. From the sound of all the voices, it made sense they would have gone to help. There was no knowing for sure.

“Buzz, here!” Carter said. “Let me cut you free.”

Buzz held out his hands, and Carter sawed at the vines around his wrists.

“Careful!” Buzz said.

“Just stay still,” he said. It wasn't long before the cordage split and popped open. Buzz shook his fingers and rubbed at his wrists to get the circulation back.

“Now me,” Carter said.

It didn't take long to cut everyone loose. Even if
they were caught, Buzz thought, there wasn't much the guards could do but retie them. Still, his heart was going like he'd just sprinted a mile. Because if they
didn't
get caught . . .

The possibilities stretched all the way to Chicago.

“I'll go up first,” Vanessa said.

There was no discussion. Carter and Buzz each took a leg and boosted Vanessa as high as they could. Vanessa kept her body stiff. Even now, after weeks of struggling to survive, her years of gymnastics showed. In a moment, she had her hands on the edge of the pit. But as she grabbed on, the sandy edge crumbled away, faster than she could climb out.

Sand fell into Buzz's eyes and mouth. He spit and shook his head, trying to see without letting go. They still had to get Vanessa out.

“Can you get me any higher?” she asked.

“One, two, three—
push
!” Carter said.

Buzz heaved as hard as he could. He had her by the bottom of the foot now. Carter, too. She rose another several inches, wavered, and nearly tipped over. But in the next second, Vanessa was pushing off
from their hands and kicking her way up the last few feet to keep from sliding back in.

“Is anyone around?” Buzz asked.

“Hang on,” Vanessa said. And then, “This fire's huge, you guys! Everyone's over there—”

“Find something to get us out!” Carter said. “Hurry!”

“It's right here,” Vanessa answered. One end of the vine rope tumbled into the pit. “Jane, you come first! You're the lightest. Then we can get the guys out.”

Jane was up and out a few seconds later. Then Carter, then Buzz.

As Buzz came onto flat ground again, the scene in front of him was like something from a movie. The trees at the opposite end of the encampment were all one huge curtain of fire now. People were running in and out of the light, bringing water from the beach. Others were throwing sand, or chopping away what they could. There were shouts everywhere. It was chaos.

Which was maybe the whole idea.

“This is our chance!” Jane said. “We need to get to Ani's canoe, and someone needs to open that screen.”

“Where?” Carter asked, looking around.

It took a second for Buzz to remember Carter had not been this way before.

“There!” Buzz said, pointing toward the trail, and they all sprinted straight for it.

The screen they were headed toward was huge, Vanessa knew. It was going to take a miracle to open it. But she kept her thoughts to herself. They'd do what they could when they got there.

Meanwhile, she watched her footing as they moved along the dark path. The fire behind them was enough to penetrate the woods with a small amount of light, but not much.

“I'll get the boat ready when we get there,” Jane said. “Carter, give me the knife. I can cut it loose while you three work on the screen. Then I'll meet you downstream.”

“We can't split up!” Vanessa said. “Are you crazy?”

“Is there anything about this that
isn't
crazy?” Jane asked.

“She's right, Nessa,” Buzz said. “We don't have time to mess around.”

They'd just arrived at the canoes. A dozen or more of them bobbed and shifted together, where they were tethered in the fast-moving water. The screen was another fifty yards or more off to their right, where the channel flowed into the ocean.

“That boat?” Jane asked. She pointed to Ani's outrigger, on the downstream side of all the others.

“That's it,” Buzz said.

It had been the last one in, which meant it would be easy to get it away. Maybe Ani had even planned it like that.

Still, there had been no time to talk about what it would mean to get back onto the open ocean. Ani had promised coconuts and water. Hopefully, those were already on board. Whatever else Jane could pull together right now would have to be enough.

“Do what you can,” Vanessa told her. “Cut some fronds. We can use them for shade. And grab anything else you can find. But don't cut the boat loose until we're back.”

“It'll be faster if I cut it when I'm ready and meet you down there,” Jane said.

“The current's too tricky,” Vanessa said. “You'll get washed right past us if we're not careful.”

Jane didn't argue. The one thing they didn't have right now was time. Without another word, Vanessa turned downstream with Buzz and Carter to head for the enormous gate at the far end of the channel.

“We'll see you in a minute,” she called back, and kept on moving.

Jane worked with what little light she had from the fires. She ran up and down the bank, cutting every big leaf and frond she could reach, then piling them into Ani's canoe. There was no time to pick and choose. They could be caught by the elders or the guards at any second.

She could see some waterskins were already in the boat, and two big bunches of coconuts, still on the stem. It didn't look like much. They'd have to ration.

But first, and most of all, they had to get away.

After three trips up and down the bank, she turned again—and stopped short. Someone was coming up the trail. She could see a torch but nothing else.

Jane stepped back and dropped into Ani's canoe. Had she been seen? Was it all over, just like that? Lying flat, she stayed out of sight, listening for whoever it was.

There were footsteps. And then a voice.

“Car-tare? Jane?”

Mima's voice.

“Buzz? Ba-nessa?”
she said.

Jane's breath was fast and shaky. There was no knowing anything for sure right now, but she took the risk and sat up.

“Mima?” she said.

“
Jane!”
she said.
“Betta a tikka, Car-tare? Buzz betto, Ba-nessa?”

Jane shot out of the canoe and up the bank. Mima went stiff when Jane tried to hug her, but it wasn't like before when she'd captured Carter. That was just the way Mima was. She busied herself instead, scraping her torch against the ground to put it out.
She was probably trying to avoid being seen, now that they'd found each other.

It was all making sense. And Mima was as strong as any of them. Stronger, in fact. She'd be able to help get the screen open.

“Over there!” Jane said, pointing downstream. “
Ekka-ka!
Go and help them, please!
Ekka-ka?
”

“Ekka-ka,”
Mima said.

Even now, it was a relief to hear the
ka—
for
friends
. Mima had been so full of anger before. Or at least, she'd been acting like it for the tribe.

She pressed a bundle of some kind into Jane's hands. Then she said something else in Nukula and disappeared downstream to go help the others.

The bundle was probably more supplies, Jane thought. It was tied up with a vine, and she dropped it into the canoe. Her time was better spent gathering fronds right now. They'd sort everything else out later.

It was only after Mima had moved on that Jane realized who had probably started this whole fire. And why.

Thank you, Mima. Thank you, thank you.

Forever.

“How does this work?” Carter asked.

They'd told him about the bamboo-and-foliage gate, but seeing it was different. He'd imagined something smaller. This thing was as tall as a house.

“It slides open,” Vanessa said. “At least, it did when they had a whole bunch of people on both sides of it.”

“All right. We've got this,” Carter said, though it was hard to know for sure. “Let's go. I want to get back to Jane.”

“Wait!” Buzz said. He looked upstream. “Someone's coming.”

“Let's go then! Hurry!” Carter said. He already had his hands on the bamboo frame.

“Car-tare!”

Mima's voice stopped him. She was there now, not much more than a shadow. But even the shadow moved just like her.

“Over here!” Vanessa said. She motioned for Mima, trying to show what they wanted to do.

Carter could tell she understood right away—not just what had to happen, but the need to keep moving. She had her hands on the frame next to him before Vanessa and Buzz were even in position.

“So, do we just—” Vanessa started to say.

“PULL!” Carter said. He bore down with his feet in the dirt as hard as he could. Then he locked his fingers around the fat piece of bamboo and heaved with the others.

Amazingly, the gate moved on the first pull. There was a groove in the ground, and the whole thing slid several feet before they lost momentum.

Carter's heart surged.

“Again!” he said.

“Etto
farka!”
Mima said.
Farka
was the word for
storm
. And they were fighting like one right now.

They heaved a second time. The frame seemed to stick in the ground, but then gave way all at once. Carter fell back, jumped up, and grabbed on again.

“Keep going!” he said, and they did.

The screen dragged toward them like the wall of a house moving through the dirt. Carter managed a step back. Then another.

“It's working!” he said.

All at once, the whole thing gave a hard jerk as the opposite side of the screen left the far bank of the channel. The frame suddenly rose in his hands, pulling him right off the ground while the other side dropped toward the water.

“No, no, no!” Vanessa yelled.

It was too heavy. There was no time to switch tactics. The far corner of the frame crashed down, wedging itself into the channel at a crazy angle.