The Island (2 page)

“He made it to shore,” said Pathik. He thought about the night before: about the wave that washed Nipper from the boat, about the boat capsizing. They were all so very lucky. He reached out and took Rachel’s hand.

“He could just be injured.” Rachel tried not to think about what the bloody print might mean. 

“Whatever could injure Nipper enough to cause that much blood . . .” Pathik shook his head. “We’d better get back to the others. We’ll need to find a safer place to camp—something less exposed.” They’d all been so exhausted the night before that they had dragged themselves up the beach a bit and called it good. But it appeared that there were things to hide from on Salishan. 

“Maybe there are Woollies here, too, just like Away. Maybe that print belongs to one of
them
.” Rachel sounded like she was trying to convince herself.

“Maybe.” Pathik drew her toward him and held her for a moment. There had been too much death already. “Let’s go back.” He turned to go, but he only got one step.

Rachel didn’t understand what was happening at first. She thought maybe Pathik was playing, trying to make her bump into him again so he could tease her about her trekking skills. He just . . . fell. One moment he was turning, walking, the next he was slumped on the ground. She knelt next to him, felt his pulse. He was breathing. She ran her hands over his body—neck, arms, chest—and couldn’t find any injury.

That was all she had time to do.

There were four of them: two men and two women. They were standing a few feet away, watching Rachel. Instinctively, she tried to cover Pathik’s body with her own, to shield him from whatever might come.

“What did you do to him?” Rachel couldn’t stop her voice from shaking.

“He’s fine,” said one of the women. She raised her eyebrows at one of the men. “Right, Jim?”

The man she addressed scowled at her, but made no reply. She turned to the second man. “Well? What do they have?”

The man dropped his gaze to Pathik. “He has something, but not strong enough to worry about.” He looked at Rachel. “She’s got
nothing
. I say we take her along home, find out if she’s a stray or what.”

Rachel didn’t have to hear more—she opened her mouth and started screaming.

For about two seconds.

The sound just stopped. Her mouth was still wide open, her lungs still pushing air out, but the
sound
of her scream cut off almost immediately. She tried again, taking another huge gulp of air and screaming as loud as she could—nothing. She saw that the other woman, the one who hadn’t said anything yet, had her eyes closed, concentrating. She had the strangest feeling the woman could somehow see her anyway, that she was looking straight at her.

Things happened fast. The two men started toward her. Pathik groaned, seemed to be coming back to consciousness, but fell limp again. The women just stood, one watching, the other one with her eyes still closed. Rachel scrambled to her feet, too late, and the men grabbed her arms.

“How long will he be out?” The woman directed the question to the man she called Jim.

“Half hour, at least.” Jim tightened his grip on Rachel’s arm. “Stop thrashing around. Won’t do you any good.”

She didn’t stop though. She fought as hard as she could, pulling one way and then another, trying to slip herself free. She kept screaming too, though it didn’t matter. It was one of the most frightening sensations she’d ever experienced—screaming and screaming, unable to make a sound.

They kept hold of her, but they couldn’t do much else. The second man spoke.

“She’s too wild. We won’t get far with her like this. Not fast enough, anyway.”

The first woman, who seemed to be the one in charge, considered. “You’re right, David. Better she doesn’t see the way, too.” The woman looked at Jim. “I know it’s two, but I can amp it for you. We won’t have to doze him for long, anyway—just until we’re gone.”

Jim nodded, looked down at Pathik for a moment, then fixed his gaze on Rachel. 

Everything went black.

W
e’ve got to go
now
!” Pathik was bent over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Malgam, who had been the only one awake when Pathik ran back into camp, had already checked him for injuries. Vivian, Daniel, and Nandy were gathered around, trying to understand what had happened.

“
Who
took her? What do you mean they—” Vivian couldn’t continue. The idea that Rachel was gone—again—lost to her when she’d just got her family back together, was too much. She swayed on her feet, allowing Daniel to hold her steady.

“I don’t know who took her.” Pain and anger shone out like hard lights from Pathik’s eyes. “I never saw them. All I know is one minute I was walking and the next I was unconscious. When I came to, Rachel was gone.”

“You never
felt
them, either?” Malgam frowned. “You checked, right?”

Pathik’s eyes widened as he realized the implications of Malgam’s question. “I did check. There was nothing. And if they were anywhere near us, I would have picked up on them unless—”

“Unless they had some way to block you. Block your gift with one of their own.” Daniel looked worried. “Sounds like they don’t practice Usage here.”

“So we know there are people, we know they have gifts—at least one—and there’s no reason to think they don’t have others, just like we do. And now we know they have no qualms using them on others.” Nandy sighed. “Not the best scenario.”

Malgam nodded. “Indigo always said without Usage we were lost. Too many ways to hurt each other without rules.” 

“We need to go find Rachel.” Vivian had recovered herself enough to be impatient with all the discussion. “Now.”

Daniel nodded. “You and Malgam move camp—someplace with more cover, further into the trees there.” He held up a hand at Malgam’s expression—he didn’t look pleased at being relegated to camp detail. “You’re still not back to a hundred percent Malgam. Better if Pathik, Nandy and I go right now.”

“You’re not exactly back to normal either, Daniel.” Malgam scowled at his friend. Both men had recently suffered physically—Daniel from being captured and tortured by the Roberts, Malgam from being gravely ill. The journey to Salishan hadn’t been all that easy either.

Vivian was already gathering their things. “Malgam, come on. We’re wasting time.” She shook out one of the blankets they’d managed to dry out and folded it, as if the faster she moved the sooner she might see Rachel again.

Nandy grabbed one of the water containers and shook it. From the sloshing she heard she judged it to be about half full. “We’ll take this one.” She went to Malgam and hugged him. “Be careful.”

“
You
be careful,” he said, hugging her back. “I’ll be watching, if you don’t mind.”

Nandy smiled. “I don’t mind at all, but I think you’d better conserve your strength. Using your gift right now might not be the best thing. We might need you later.”

Malgam frowned. His gift was sight—he could see, with great effort, through the eyes of others—at least others he knew well. He wanted to argue, but he knew Nandy was right. He was still weak.

Daniel interrupted Vivian’s mad scramble to pack up camp by taking hold of her shoulders. “We’ll find her,” he whispered into her ear. He could feel the tightness in her; he knew how afraid she must be for their daughter. He was just as afraid.

“Bring her back.” Vivian looked into his eyes—this man she’d thought was dead for so many years, standing right in front of her. It still felt like some sort of miracle to her.

Pathik had been watching the farewells impatiently. “Let’s go,” he said, checking that his knife was secure in his leg sheath. He turned and started walking the way he and Rachel had gone when they left camp.

Nandy fell in behind him. Daniel squeezed Vivian’s shoulders one more time and joined the two. Malgam and Vivian watched them walk away, watched until they disappeared over a bluff. Then Malgam turned to her.

“They’ll bring her back,” he said, his voice rough. “Nandy said I could check in, so once we have the camp moved I may need you to keep watch while I do.” He didn’t mention that Nandy had said
not
to check in.

“Daniel told me about that. Your gift.” She hesitated. “Is it considered rude to ask about it?”

Malgam laughed. “I never thought about that. We just all knew about them, Away. By the time you were five, if you had one, everyone in camp knew what it was.” He knelt, stuffed some of the clothes they had laid out to dry into a duffle bag. “It’s not rude.”

Vivian studied him. “You were a big part of Daniel being rescued from the Roberts—you and your gift. He said if you hadn’t been able to see what he was seeing, he never would have been found.”

Malgam grunted. “Me and Nandy’s spoiled old Woolly. He was as big a part of it as I was.” Malgam kept hoping Nipper would appear. He had no special affection for the thing, but he did love Nandy and she was inconsolable at the thought that Nipper had drowned.

“So that’s what it is, though? You just—see what another person is looking at?” Vivian still didn’t understand how the Others were able to do the things they did—she knew it was some sort of genetic mutation from the bombs. Daniel had told her the Others didn’t fully understand the gifts, themselves.

Malgam scanned the beach, looking for anything else that might have washed ashore from their boat. “That’s what it is.” He stood. “Only through the eyes of those I know, though, and know pretty well.” Talking about it made him remember his father, Indigo. It made him see those last moments of his father’s life again, moments he wished with all his being he could change. “I think we’d better get going.”

Vivian nodded. She looked around. “Not much to move, is there?”

“I know. We’re going to have to find water soon, and hope there’s some sort of food here.” Malgam shrugged. “Maybe some more of our things will show up on the beach.”

They started moving inland.

“I forgot about that.” Pathik stared at the blood, wincing. Nandy had cried out when she saw the paw print. “I’m sorry, Nandy. That’s what we were looking at when they took Rachel.”

Nandy knelt, touched the dried blood. “Too much of it to think he’s still alive.” She stood again. “He made it to shore through that storm, just to have someone . . .” She set her jaw and turned away from the blood.

“You don’t remember anything? Not where they stood, how many there were?” Daniel looked around, seeking any sort of clue to what happened to Rachel.

“Nothing. Like I said, I just blacked out.” Pathik nudged one of the flat stones that made up the path; it had been dislodged from the sand. “She put up a fight, judging from this.”

“Here.” Nandy had walked a few feet away. She pointed to the ground. “There were at least two. A man and a woman. Maybe more.”

Daniel and Pathik joined her and stared at the footprints in the sand. They were indistinct, but it was clear that some were much larger and made by someone heavier than the others.

“They headed that way.” Pathik looked in the direction the prints led. Without another word he started walking, slowly, studying the ground.

Nandy and Daniel exchanged a look.

“He’s not going to be easy to hold down if he finds them,” said Nandy. “He’s blaming himself.” She hesitated. “And he loves her.”

Daniel nodded. “I know he does. And he shouldn’t blame himself. But I have to say, I’m not going to be easy to hold down either, if they’ve harmed her.” He started after Pathik.

Nandy watched the two of them for a moment before she followed. “Let’s hope they haven’t hurt her,” she whispered.

The trail was scant—a half footprint here and there, not even really prints, because once they left the sand around the stone path, tree needles blanketed everything like carpet. They found places where feet had disturbed the needles slightly and followed. It was quiet now that they were out of earshot of the shore. The only sounds came from some sort of birds trilling high above them in the trees. After what seemed like forever to Pathik, they emerged from the trees onto open ground. A rocky field stretched before them and beyond it, craggy foothills turned into a distant mountain of stone.

“How big
is
this island?” Daniel shaded his eyes from the sun with one hand. He scanned the rough field, hoping to see some movement, some sign of Rachel.

“Indigo never said—I doubt he knew. We didn’t have good records, either.” Nandy tried to calculate how far the mountain was from where they stood.

“Do you see that—is that a trail? To the right of that big rock there?” Daniel pointed at a faint line far off in the foot hills. It meandered up toward the mountain, too regular to be completely natural.

Nandy nodded. “It has to be.” She squinted. “But it seems to end, just there—see? Like a path to nowhere. They couldn’t have taken her there, could they?”

“We have to go find out.” Pathik started forward again, but Nandy called him back.

“Pathik, we need to stay together. This looks like it’s going to be more of a trek than a day trip. We need to go back, get Vivian and Malgam, find some water. That path will take us the rest of the day to reach.”

Pathik started to protest, but he knew Nandy was right. Still, all he could think about was Rachel, being taken further and further away. “Let’s move it.” He turned and headed back the way they had come, moving quickly.

Nandy watched him go. She shrugged at Daniel. “I guess we’d better step it up.”

They found Vivian and Malgam up the bluff from the beach. Malgam had made three trips back and forth from the shoreline to the new campsite with various items from their boat—they
had
washed ashore, at least some of them. There were twelve precious water containers in one pack, some more bags of clothes, the water-proofed bag that contained Vivian’s portfolio and other documents, more freeze-dried food packs. Vivian had nearly cried when she saw the orchid cubes that Rachel had carefully packed—they were a mess. Seawater had made its way inside each of them. All the orchid crosses Ms. Moore had helped Rachel prepare for the journey when they were still on The Property were dead.