Survival (4 page)

'Such as . . . ?' asked Li.

'Six hundred pairs of running shoes delivered to the school with his name on the order sheet. Last-minute cancellation of his summer holiday. One month's wages donated to Battersea Dogs' Home. Next month he should get his redundancy notice.'

'Amazing!' giggled Li. 'Do the school know who did it?'

'They know,' said Hex. 'They just can't prove anything. They got their own back on me, though.'

'What did they do?' asked Paulo.

'Sent me on this trip,' muttered Hex.

Li burst out laughing.

'What?' scowled Hex.

'The look on your face,' giggled Li. The laughter was infectious. Even Hex was beginning to smile.

'I'm serious,' said Hex. 'I didn't want to be here. They only sent me because they're scared of what I might do next. As if being out here is going to stop me from hacking.' Automatically he reached for his palmtop, then remembered that the pouch at his belt was empty. A spasm of pain crossed his face and he turned to give Amber a hard stare. One by one, the others stopped laughing and there was an awkward silence.

Until Paulo belched.

It was loud, deep and lasted for a very long time.

'Pardon me,' he said, patting his mouth delicately as though he held a napkin in his fingers. Everyone laughed, even Hex. The tension was broken. They settled back in a companionable silence and watched dappled light playing across the hull of the
Phoenix.
The day was still hot and sticky, but it was cooler next to the water and the counter-stern above their heads sheltered them from the glare of the sun.

The gentle rocking of the boat started to make them sleepy and, one by one, the five members of A-Watch closed their eyes and drifted off to sleep . . .

FOUR

Alex dreamed he was back home in Northumberland, lying in the hammock his dad had tied between two trees in their back garden. The sun was shining and the hammock swung gently to and fro in the breeze, but something was not right. Alex frowned in his sleep as he felt the sun beating down on his hot face. The hammock started to swing more violently and Alex came awake with a start.

He opened his eyes, then closed them again quickly against the glare of the sun. He was still rocking and, for a second, he could not remember where he was. Then he smiled. Of course! He was in the tender with the rest of A-Watch, bobbing along behind the
Phoenix.

Except, the little boat was moving differently, wallowing from side to side. And the sun should not be able to reach into their sheltered spot under the counter-stern of the ship. Unless . . .

Alex sat up sharply, shading his eyes to see through the sun-glare. Amber, Li, Paulo and Hex were all sprawled around him in the little boat, fast asleep - and the
Phoenix
was gone.

'Wake up!' yelled Alex, a wave of shock and horror flooding through his body. He turned in a full circle, scanning the horizon. The
Phoenix
was nowhere in sight.

The others were waking up, stretching and yawning.

'What's all the shouting for . . . ?' grumbled Amber.

'We're adrift,' said Alex, curtly. He watched as the same wave of shock hit the other four and they all looked wildly about them for any sign of the
Phoenix.

'That's impossible,' said Li, faintly.

Alex clambered past Hex into the bows of the little boat and began to haul in the rope that should have still been attached to the aft-deck of the schooner.

'Who secured the painter?' demanded Amber, looking for someone to blame.

'I did,' said Hex.

'Oh, that's just great. What did you do? Tie it in a pretty bow?'

'It was secure,' said Hex. 'I'm sure of it. There's no way that rope could've come loose.'

'Well it did!' yelled Amber.

'No it didn't,' said Alex quietly as he hauled the last length of rope out of the water. He held it up for the others to see. The end of the rope was frayed.

'It is because we pulled it around to the side of the ship,' said Paulo, examining the rope. 'It must have been rubbing against something and, with the weight of all of us, plus the boat--' He shrugged. 'The rope frayed in two . . .'

'Thank you, Einstein,' muttered Hex. 'Question is, what do we do now?'

The boat rocked as Amber jumped to her feet and started to yell at the top of her voice. 'Help! Help!
Phoenix
ahoy! Anybody! Help--'

Paulo stood up too and slapped Amber across the face. She came to an abrupt halt and stared at him with a mixture of shock and anger.

'Ow!'

'Sorry,' said Paulo. 'You were panicking.'

'I was not panicking, you idiot!' yelled Amber, and she slapped Paulo back.

'You were doing the mad shouting,' said Paulo, rubbing his cheek.

'Sound travels well across water, you total loser!'

'But, there is no-one to hear,' said Paulo, sweeping an arm to indicate the empty sea all around them.

Amber sighed. 'We're low in the water, which means we can't see very far - and the
Phoenix
could be just over the horizon--'

'No, she couldn't,' said Alex, tapping his watch. 'We've been asleep for a good two hours. And - there's something else.'

Silently, Amber and Paulo returned to their places and everyone looked at Alex.

'The
Phoenix
was travelling east,' he explained. 'But, judging by the position of the sun, we're moving north.'

'He's right,' conceded Amber, squinting up at the sun. 'And we're doing more than just drifting. The boat's moving quite fast. I think we must be caught up in a warm-water current.' She and Alex shared a worried look.

'And that's bad because . . . ?' asked Li.

'Our boat and the
Phoenix
have been travelling in two different directions,' said Hex.

'And that means,' added Paulo, reluctantly, 'we are going to be much harder to find. Even if the
Phoenix
turned back and retraced her course exactly, we are not going to be there.'

'What do you mean, "if"?' said Li. 'Of course they'll come back for us!' She looked from face to face, waiting for a reassuring nod. 'Won't they?'

'Yeah, well. The thing is . . .' Amber swallowed, then tried again. 'The thing is, Heather told us to stay out of her sight until morning. And everyone else will know about us being banned from the mess or watching the film with them. So . . .' Amber stopped and looked down at her hands.

'So we won't be missed,' finished Hex, flatly. 'We're on our own.'

They sat in silence as the full gravity of the situation finally sank in. Suddenly, the boat felt like a very small speck in a very big sea. Alex remembered his father telling him that open water covered four-fifths of the Earth's surface, and it was the most difficult environment to survive in. He grimaced, then looked up and saw the shocked faces of the rest of A-Watch. Quickly, he pulled himself together. Unzipping his belt pouch, he brought out a small tobacco tin, sealed with waterproof tape. He began to peel away the tape, whistling quietly to himself and, as he had hoped, the others began to get curious.

'OK,' said Amber, finally. 'What's in the tin?'

'This,' said Alex, filling his voice with more confidence than he felt inside, 'is a survival kit.'

'Oh, yeah? What's in there? An inflatable island?'

Alex carefully rewrapped the waterproof tape around the base of the tin, then he pried the lid off. The inside of the lid was highly polished and, as Alex turned it back and forth in his hand, it sent out blinding flashes of reflected sunlight.

'To signal with,' said Alex. 'When a plane or a boat appears.' He slipped the lid into his shirt pocket, then held out the base of the tin so that everyone could see. Inside, there was a whole collection of different items and packages, all nestling in a layer of cotton wool.

'My dad gave me this,' said Alex. 'I always carry it with me. The tin - and my knife.' He patted the knife, which he carried in a sheath at his belt. 'It doesn't look much, but this tin could make all the difference in a survival situation.'

'So, seriously, what's in there?' asked Hex.

Alex reeled off a list of the contents, pointing to each little package as he named it. 'OK. For lighting fires, I have waterproof matches, a candle, a flint and a magnifying glass. Those are needles and thread. A liquid-filled compass--' Alex stopped to hook the little button compass out with his finger. He slipped it into his shirt pocket with the tin lid before continuing. 'Fish hooks and line, aspirin, a beta-light - that's a special crystal which gives off enough light to say, read a map in the dark. Then over here, I've got a snare wire, a flexible saw--'

'It does not look like a saw to me,' said Paulo, leaning forward to prod at the coil of metal wire.

'It is though. See those loops at each end? Well, when I want to use it, I cut two sticks to size, slip them through the loops for handles--'

'Ah, I see!' grinned Paulo. 'That is good. It would cut down a tree?'

'Eventually,' said Alex.

'Yeah, right,' muttered Amber. 'Just what we need right now. A saw.'

Alex ignored her and carried on with his tour of the survival tin. 'That's a medical kit, surgical blades, butterfly sutures, plasters - oh, and a condom.'

'That's for you, Paulo,' giggled Li. 'In case you finally get lucky and find a girl who can't do judo.'

Paulo felt a blush spread across his face as he grinned shame-facedly at Li. He had tried to make a move on her at the start of the voyage. He had come up behind her and wrapped her in his arms. A second later he had been flat on his back, gasping for air. She had simply grasped his arm, shifted her weight and thrown him over her shoulder.

Alex shook his head at Li, pretending to be irritated, but secretly he was pleased to hear her laugh. 'That condom will hold up to a litre of water, Li. It makes a good water-bag in an emergency.' He took the lid from his shirt pocket and closed up the tin. Then he sealed the join once more with the waterproof tape.

'Shouldn't you keep that handy for signalling?' asked Paulo.

'It's more important to keep the tin dry,' said Alex, carefully packing the tin away in his belt pouch. 'I'll be able to reach it quickly enough when we need it. So,' he continued, 'we already have one signalling device to attract attention if a ship or a plane comes along, but we'd better check the stern lockers too. Li and Paulo, have a look, will you? You never know, we might find some flares or an air-horn.'

'Yeah, right,' said Amber, her voice full of mockery. 'Would you like to ask the wish fairy for a VHF radio while you're at it? Or a transponder? Maybe even a satellite EPIRB? Then the wish-fairy helicopter will pinpoint our signal and--'