The Other Side of Nowhere Read online

  ‘So much for the flat battery,’ Nick muttered as Zaffar began speaking excitedly into the phone.

  ‘A gun!’ George hissed. ‘He pointed a gun at you!’

  Nick raised an eyebrow wryly. ‘Yeah, I got that. Man, I knew something wasn’t right about them.’

  ‘But a gun!’ whispered George. ‘I mean, who are they?’

  ‘Bank robbers? Drug runners? Who knows? Maybe they’re just a couple of mates playing gangsters,’ replied Nick tetchily.

  ‘We’ve gotta get out of here,’ I said, stating the obvious.

  Nick scratched the back of his neck. ‘Open to ideas.’

  Zaffar turned back towards us. The gun was tucked into the front of his pants, its handle intentionally visible. He seemed to have regained some composure but the insincere smile had vanished, replaced by a hard stare devoid of any emotion.

  ‘Listen,’ he told us, ‘I have no reason to harm you. I don’t. But if you give me a reason, any reason at all, it will not end well for you. Yes?’ He paused. ‘Good. We understand each other –’

  The shrill ring of the phone interrupted him mid-sentence. As Zaffar turned away and moved off down the beach, Baldy pulled up a chair next to Matt.

  Matt looked shell-shocked by it all. He edged uneasily away from Baldy.

  At that moment, George stood up and dusted the sand from her shorts, clearing her throat. ‘Um, excuse me. I need to go to the bathroom.’

  ‘Sit,’ grunted Baldy, waving her down.

  George shifted uncomfortably from side to side. ‘Look, I’ll just go behind that bush,’ she said, pointing to a shrub no more than ten metres away.

  Baldy glanced down the beach. Zaffar was a good way off listening intently on the phone. He could neither offer approval, nor overrule.

  ‘Fast, yes?’ Baldy relented. ‘And stay where I can see you.’

  George shot him an indignant look. ‘It’s not a spectator sport,’ she said.

  ‘Just go …’

  With the grace of a ballerina exiting the stage, George ran over to the bush and crouched down, disappearing from sight.

  As soon as she did, Baldy must have realised he had made a mistake. His eyes swivelled between the bush and his partner on the beach. As he watched, Zaffar turned and began to walk back in our direction. Baldy heaved himself from the chair and headed for the bush.

  Nick rose to his feet. ‘Give her some privacy, you meathead.’

  Baldy stopped and turned to Nick. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘You heard.’

  Baldy stepped towards Nick, who stiffened but didn’t back down.

  ‘What is it?’ barked Zaffar as he entered the camp. ‘Where’s the girl?’

  ‘She go to bathroom,’ Baldy said gruffly, pointing at the bush.

  ‘Fool! Go and get her,’ Zaffar said, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘Get out here, girl!’ he yelled. But there was no reply and no sign of movement in the bushes.

  Slowly, reluctantly, Baldy backed away from Nick and loped towards the bush.

  ‘Don’t play with us, girl,’ Zaffar snarled angrily, pulling the gun from his waistband.

  He turned on Matt, hoisting him by the arm out of his chair. Matt looked startled as Zaffar held him in front of him. Zaffar clipped him on the side of the head with the gun in one swift movement, and Matt squawked in pain, slumping forward. But Zaffar jerked him up by his hair.

  Nick stepped closer, his fists raised.

  ‘Just try me, Nicky,’ Zaffar hissed. ‘If I have to tell you to sit one more time, you’ll hear more than that small little yell.’

  Baldy’s voice came from the bush. ‘She not here.’

  Zaffar’s eyes scanned the bushes and the cliff, looking for any sign of movement. He cupped one hand around his mouth and called out. ‘Girl, I’m going to count to five. If you’re not out, things are going to get very bad, very quickly …’

  A shrill squeal rang out from deep in the scrub. A flock of startled birds shot into the air, followed by another scream that was definitely George. ‘Get it off me, get it off me!’

  Zaffar’s eyes narrowed. ‘You think I’m a fool?’ he yelled angrily. ‘One …’

  ‘Help, help me! Get it off!’

  ‘TWO!’

  Nick took a step towards him. ‘She needs help …’

  ‘Sit down! THREE!’

  Nick took another step and Zaffar turned on him. For a second, he loosened his grip on Matt to extend the gun. A second was all Matt needed. He pitched sharply forward and at the same time kicked back hard. With a guttural roar, he spun around, grabbing his captor’s wrist and then biting down on the exposed flesh.

  Nick rushed forward, too, slamming his shoulder low and hard into Zaffar. All three fell to the ground, fighting, and the gun jolted free.

  Like a thrashing machine, Nick let fly with a flurry of punches. As his arm rained down I saw a rock clutched between his fingers and realised it was the one he pocketed earlier. But Zaffar wasn’t giving up. Not by a long shot. He locked his forearm around Matt’s throat, pulling him closer, strangling him.

  Matt squirmed and twisted but couldn’t break free.

  While all this was going on, I barely moved. Everything had happened so fast and I felt like I was rooted to the spot. Just as I took a stuttering step forward, Baldy burst through the scrub, his nostrils flared, charging towards us like a bull.

  ‘Look out,’ I yelled.

  Matt heard me. But instead of fighting harder to get free, he pulled Zaffar closer.

  ‘Go, go … get out of here!’ Matt yelled out.

  Nick hesitated, still desperately looking for a way to free Matt, but it was impossible. With one last swipe at Zaffar, Nick stepped back, turned and started to run.

  I locked eyes with Matt.

  ‘Run, Johnno … Go!’ Matt managed to yell, despite the choking hold around his neck.

  And I did. I spun round and ran like I’d been stung. Racing across the beach, I expected at any moment to feel a hand grabbing me and pulling me down. I saw Nick up ahead, racing up the path. I scrambled after him.

  Tripping, I sprawled headlong into the mud, scraping my hands and knees on the sharp rocks. It hurt like hell, but I got up and kept running. Even when my lungs started burning, I ran. The pain in my body was nothing. With the vision of Matt fixed in my mind, every step brought with it a wretched, unbearable ache. The truth was, I wasn’t escaping – I was just running away.

  I could make out Nick’s shape up ahead in the fading light. He was collapsed on his back, gulping for air. I crashed down beside him, my pounding heart reverberating throughout my entire body like a jackhammer. Slowly my breath returned to normal. But as it did, the realisation of what had just happened pressed down on me like the weight of the world. Never before in my entire life had I felt like such a complete coward.

  Nick pulled himself up and sat with his back against a tree. ‘Man, you’ve got to give it to Matt. That took some guts,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘And that cousin of yours. She should get an Oscar.’

  I was too choked up to speak.

  ‘She’ll be okay,’ Nick said confidently. ‘They won’t find her. She’s just got to hide out and bide her time.’

  ‘We’ve gotta go back for Matt,’ I muttered. ‘I just ran away … I just left him and ran…’

  ‘We didn’t run away,’ Nick said. ‘We got away. There’s a difference. Now we’re free to do something …’

  ‘Like what? And what if he’s …’ I could barely say the words, ‘dead already?’

  ‘Johnno,’ Nick said glaring at me. ‘They’ve got no reason to hurt him. Now that we’ve escaped, we might get help from the mainland. They’re hardly going to want a dead thirteen-year-old to explain away.’ He sounded scathing.

  I could feel fury bubbling up inside of me. I was furious at myself for being weak, at Nick for his indifference, at the shipwreck, Baldy and Zaffar, and even Matt and George for being so recklessly brave when I was such a coward.

/>   ‘So you don’t reckon being smashed with a rock might piss Zaffar off a bit?’ I exploded.

  Nick looked stunned. ‘I was trying to help us, Johnno,’ he shot back. ‘Matt getting caught wasn’t my fault.’

  ‘What! It’s all your fault!’ I spat out the words like venom and Nick reeled back like he’d been hit.

  I hung my head as a heavy silence descended on us. The thought of Matt back there alone was unbearable. I couldn’t fathom that there was anything good about leaving him.

  But as much as I loathed myself for leaving him and desperately wanted to go back, a small, reluctant part of me sensed that Nick was right. To go back now, without a plan, would be insane. We had to be smart about it.

  I also knew that in order to come up with the best plan possible, what Nick and I needed most was each other. But the fractures in our friendship had already felt deep enough before. Now I’d just made things worse.

  Nick made a show of looking at his watch. ‘We’d better keep going,’ he said quietly. ‘Try to get back to the campsite before it gets too dark.’

  Before I had a chance to reply, he was off.

  We waited in the dark in a brooding silence. The minutes passed slowly as I crouched next to Nick behind the boulders at the edge of our camp.

  The whole way back along the beach neither of us had spoken. I’d followed about ten paces behind Nick and he’d never once looked over his shoulder. The only time he’d even slowed down was as he approached our camp. At that point he slowed to snails’ pace and circled around to the rocks, crouching down behind them.

  When I joined him, he wordlessly shifted over to make room. The two of us just crouched there, squinting into the dark. We were listening for human sounds, but the only noises I could hear were the hoots and chirps and clicks of night-time. There was no sign of anyone in our camp area and, as far as I could tell, it was exactly as we’d left it.

  ‘What do you think?’ I whispered, finally.

  ‘Seems okay, I guess.’

  I bobbed up slowly from behind the boulder to get a better view. But the more I stared into the darkness, the more the black and grey shadows morphed into shape-shifting figures. I shook my head, hoping my eyes were just playing tricks on me.

  ‘Wait here,’ hissed Nick suddenly.

  ‘What are you –?’

  But he was gone. I slunk down low, curled up against the rock. Above the treetops I could see a sliver of moon and found myself wondering if George was looking at it, too. I stared into the darkness, willing her to stay safe and far away from Zaffar and Baldy.

  Alone with my thoughts, a vision came to me. It was the hurt I’d seen in Nick’s eyes when I’d blamed him for everything that had happened. At the time, I was too angry to even register it. But now in the darkness it was all I could think about. Where is Nick anyway? I wondered, peeking over the boulder. But I couldn’t see or hear anything.

  Crouching back down, grim thoughts filled my head. My whole body shivered as I thought about what might be happening to Matt right at that moment, imagining Zaffar’s fury at our escape. In a split second, my body went from cold with fear to burning with rage. For the first time since our escape, my mind was sharp and clear.

  Who is Zaffar? I asked myself. And what possible reason is there for him and Baldy to be on this island? I turned these questions over in my head, but all I could work out was what I already knew: that we’d stumbled into something we shouldn’t have. And there were no parents to help us, no phone to call the cops, no escape from this island. This was our problem. And there was no point pretending it wasn’t happening. We had to fix this. We had to make our own solution.

  A twig snapped.

  ‘Nick?’ I whispered, shrinking back against the rock. ‘Is that you?’ My senses were on high alert. I heard a wave breaking on the distant shore and a mosquito buzzed near my ear. But otherwise everything was quiet. Then a body appeared next to me and I gasped in fright.

  ‘Sorry,’ Nick said casually. He twisted something and then I heard the gulping sound of him drinking. ‘No-one’s been here,’ he said, passing me the water bottle. ‘I got the peanut butter.’

  I shifted out of my crouching position and sat with my back against the boulder. We took turns drinking the water and picking at the peanut butter. I licked the sticky paste from my fingers and let it sit on my tongue, trying to suck it slowly. I was hoping to fool my brain into thinking it was a meal, that it would fill me up.

  Neither of us spoke. I guess we were both feeling too proud or embarrassed to be the one to try to patch things up. Back when we were younger and got really pissed with each other we’d go home, stew on it for a bit and then come back the next day as if nothing had happened – the slate wiped clean. But I wasn’t sure if that would work these days, even if we’d had the time to stew. It felt different. Nick felt different.

  As the minutes of silence ticked by, I was sure it would be me who would speak first. I just had to work out what to say.

  Then, to my surprise, Nick cleared his throat. ‘I saw Mum,’ he said quietly.

  To say that this was the last thing I expected to hear from Nick – as we sat in the dark on Lion Island, hiding from madmen who had kidnapped my brother – would be the understatement of the century.

  ‘Your mum?’ I couldn’t hide the confusion in my voice. ‘What? Where?’

  ‘About a month ago,’ Nick said, pausing for a swig of water. ‘She called. Out of the blue. Said she wanted to see me.’

  I felt him shuffling beside me. I glanced over, but couldn’t make out his face clearly. In my mind his expression was as flat as his voice.

  ‘So you saw her? What happened?’

  ‘Tried to get out of it. Told her I couldn’t get away from the farm. But then Dad made me. He said I should give her a chance. That what happened wasn’t her fault. So I went to see her.’

  I did a quick mental calculation. It must have been, like, eight years with nothing, no contact at all. I mean he’d never really even spoken about her.

  ‘It must have been like hearing from a ghost,’ I blurted, and immediately regretted it. What a dumb thing to say. Where was George when you needed her? She was so much better at this stuff than me. Then I remembered how George said I should ask Nick more stuff about how he felt about things. ‘How did you, er, feel about that?’ I asked cautiously.

  ‘Pissed off – what d’you reckon?’ Nick said, sounding irritated at me. Then he sighed. ‘Well, I mean, why call? Why call now?’ He paused. ‘Anyway, so I saw her. She lives near you, actually.’

  ‘What?’ I said in disbelief. ‘You came to the city and didn’t come to see me?’

  ‘Yeah, I know. It’s just that … Well, I guess I just wanted to get in and out and back to Dad … Look, yeah, sorry about that.’

  I felt hurt that he hadn’t wanted to see me. But then I remembered his big blow-up the night before about leaving the city and having no choices anymore. I wondered if maybe he hadn’t come to see me on purpose. That he didn’t want to be reminded of his old life. Maybe it was just easier for him that way.

  ‘Anyway,’ Nick said, breaking into my thoughts. ‘She’s married to some banker dude, got the big house, four-wheel drive and all that. Said she was really sorry about everything that happened and that she was good now. And that I should come and live with them and that they’d put me in some fancy school.’

  I felt a rush of excitement at the thought of Nick moving back home. ‘Wow. So what are you gonna do?’

  ‘Stay on the farm, of course. I’m not leaving Dad. No way.’

  Nick made it sound like a no-brainer, like I was stupid to even ask. The rush of excitement gave way to a surge of disappointment. I was confused, too – what about what he’d said the night before, about not being happy on the farm anymore?

  ‘But what about what you were saying about not having any choices?’ I said carefully. ‘You do have choices now.’

  ‘Johnno, come on. It’s not really a choice. Ther
e’s no way I’m leaving Dad to look after the place on his own.’

  We sat quietly. His reaction to my stupid prank with George on the yacht sort of made sense now. No wonder he was anti-surprises; only a few weeks ago his mum had surprised him big time, by making contact, by offering him a choice. It all made sense to me now, why he had been so desperate to go to the island. He probably just wanted to relax, to think it over, and maybe even to talk when the time was right.

  A wave of guilt swept over me. I thought about what George had said to me. If I’d been a real friend I would have ‘heard’ Nick, even when he wasn’t saying anything, maybe especially when he wasn’t saying anything.

  ‘Nick … about what I said before, when we escaped –’

  ‘Forget it.’

  ‘It’s just –’

  ‘Johnno, it’s cool, mate. Don’t worry –’

  ‘But I do. I do worry.’ I realised the simple truth of it. ‘That’s what I do … I worry.’

  Nick chuckled. ‘Well, that’s true, dude. You’ll make an awesome nanna one day.’

  I grinned at his wind-up and then glugged down some more water. When I lowered the bottle, Nick’s tone was serious, decisive.

  ‘Johnno, you and me, we go about things a bit differently. But that doesn’t mean we see things differently. I’ve known Matt just about as long as you have. And, look, I know it’s not the same, him being your brother and all, but I’m not going to leave him, you know.’

  ‘So, what do we do?’

  ‘We’ve just got to wait here for George. I’m sure she’ll find her way back when it gets light. Then, when we’re all together, we can figure out what to do. But there’s nothing we can do right now, so we might as well try to get some rest. I reckon we’re gonna to need it.’

  He got to his feet. ‘I’m going for a leak. Seriously, Johnno, try to get some sleep. You don’t have to worry about Matt, you know – he’s tougher than all of us put together.’

  I got up, feeling tired but frustrated that we weren’t doing anything. But I figured Nick was probably right. He was certainly right about one thing: Matt was tough, and determined too.