The Other Side of Nowhere Read online

  She looked at Nick as if willing him to have the answer. But his face was a complete blank. After a moment or two he just shrugged and shook his head. ‘I don’t know … But hey, we’ve made it this far. We’ll think of something.’

  George was chewing at her lip nervously.

  ‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘We’ll think of something. So c’mon. Let’s go.’

  As we neared the entrance into Matt’s cave, I motioned for them to creep forward silently to the boulder I’d hidden behind before. I stuck my head around.

  Matt and the little girl were where I had left them near the stream. They saw me the moment I poked my head into the cave.

  ‘All clear?’ I whispered.

  Matt looked out through the cave entrance. ‘Yep, no sign of them.’

  Nick and George followed me into the cave. They stared in amazement at the huddle of people. Dozens of faces stared back at us, their eyes filled with a mixture of fear, suspicion and hope. No-one moved or spoke.

  After a moment, George broke the silent spell. She skipped across the stream and swept Matt up in a long hug. Then she knelt down in front of the small child. The little girl, who couldn’t have been more than six years old, stared at George, smiling at her friendly face.

  ‘Hi there,’ George said, slowly. ‘My name is Georgina. What’s yours?’

  I don’t know if she understood George or not, but in a small, uncertain voice she said something that sounded like ‘Amira’.

  ‘What a pretty name,’ said George, smiling.

  The tall man who had approached me before stepped forward again. He placed a protective arm around the little girl’s shoulder.

  ‘I am Ali. How did you get here?’ His thick accent made the question sound more abrupt than probably intended.

  George wasn’t fazed, though, and offered her hand for Ali to shake. ‘That’s kind of a long story, but not as long as yours I bet.’

  The man smiled politely, but there was a sadness in his eyes. ‘Unfortunately our journey has not gone as we had hoped.’

  ‘But how did you end up here?’ asked George.

  The man offered a wry smile. ‘Here? I do not even know where here is. And I fear the men who brought us here do not have our best interests in their heart.’

  ‘Who are they?’

  He paused for a moment, his eyes narrowing. ‘They are jackals. Dogs that prey on the weak.’

  Nick was standing beside me watching Ali. I noticed he had a distasteful look on his face, as if he’d eaten something that was off.

  ‘What’s up?’ I said to him.

  ‘I think now we’ve found Matt we should just get the hell out of here,’ he answered in a low tone. ‘I mean … What are we going to do with this lot?’

  I looked around the cave at the tired, drawn faces, bowed heads and sagging shoulders. For a moment they reminded me of the terrified, bug-eyed cattle in the truck that had nearly run over Matt on the way into Shell Harbour. I knew nothing of these people, where they came from or how they got here. But they looked like they’d been to hell and back.

  Ali stepped closer to Nick, reading the expression on his face. ‘Perhaps you are not sure of us?’ he said evenly. ‘To you, we are illegal immigrants? Even criminals, perhaps?’

  Nick shrugged dismissively. ‘I didn’t say that.’

  Ali nodded slowly, his eyes lingering on Nick. ‘There is a saying in my country. There is no colour blacker than black. Where we have come from – the place we once could call home – it is now a very black place.’

  He laid his hands out before us.

  I gave an involuntary gasp. Two of his fingers had been severed and in their place were raw, still-healing stumps.

  ‘For my family, there was no choice but to take a journey that I would not wish on anyone. All I can ask is that you do not judge what you cannot understand.’

  Nick held Ali’s stare but said nothing.

  ‘Mr Ali,’ said George softly, ‘did someone manage to escape?’

  I looked at her in surprise, momentarily unsure why she would ask such a thing. Then I remembered the body on the rocks.

  Ali’s eyes lit up hopefully. ‘Yes, my brother, Farouk. You have seen him?’

  George looked down and swallowed hard. She tried to be brave and tell him the horrible truth, but she faltered. ‘I’m sorry … We found him.’

  Ali sagged, and it was clear he understood. The hopefulness drained from his face as quickly as it had come.

  George looked at me with a deep sadness in her eyes, mirroring my own. Even though we knew nothing about these people, it was impossible not to feel bad for them.

  I looked at Matt and noticed that he had moved closer to the little girl again, as if he was protecting her. Then it occurred to me that I needed to protect him in the same way.

  Maybe Nick was right. Maybe we should just take him with us now and hide out in the deep crevices and maze of tunnels at the back of the cave until Baldy and Zaffar had done what they had come here to do. It would be easy enough.

  But when I shot a look at Matt, I didn’t get the impression he would come quietly with us. I felt sure that if I asked Matt to come, he wouldn’t. That he would feel as I was beginning to feel: that it was no longer just about us.

  I turned to Nick to tell him what I was thinking, but he wasn’t there. He was standing at the cave’s entrance, peering outside.

  He caught my eye and mouthed, ‘Just going to take a look outside. Back in a sec.’

  ‘What? Wait,’ I hissed, but it was too late. With a fugitive’s glance left and right he stepped into the shaft of light and vanished.

  George was so focused on Ali that I don’t think she even realised Nick was gone. ‘Can you tell us how you ended up in here?’ she asked Ali.

  At first Ali didn’t respond. His nervous energy had vanished and now he seemed distant, hollow and dark, as if a light inside him had been switched off. But when Amira reached up and clutched his hand, tucking herself tightly against his leg, he gave a faint smile and took a deep breath.

  ‘First we walked and sometimes hid in trucks and cars. Then we boarded a boat for what was meant to be the last part of our journey to your country and to a new life, free of fear and hate. We were on the boat for some few days. Everything was good, we were very happy to be nearly there.’

  For an instant the light in Ali switched back on, as if for a moment he recalled the joy he’d felt at being so close to his final goal.

  ‘But then there was a plane. It saw us and circled many times. The man, Zaffar, at first he became angry but then I think he became scared. You see we are very valuable cargo for men like him, but we are also a great risk.’

  George was listening intently. ‘So he brought you here to hide out?’

  ‘Perhaps. I don’t know. Perhaps he wanted to come here the whole time. We were told we would wait for another boat and that it would be the one to take us to freedom.’

  George turned to me. ‘I bet that’s why there was someone staying in that hut, to meet Zaffar’s boat when it came in.’

  I nodded back in vague agreement. It made sense that the island might be used as some sort of rendezvous point before heading to the mainland.

  ‘Then came a very bad storm and even though the plane could no longer see us, Zaffar and the crew, they yelled and argued with each other. I could tell they were fearful and didn’t know what to do. They kept speaking to someone on the phone but still they argued. We didn’t know what they were going to do with us. In the end, we came here.’ He looked at Matt and smiled. ‘To an island, I believe it is.’

  ‘What happened to the boat?’ I asked. If what Ali was saying was right, we had both arrived on the island at about the same time. But we hadn’t seen any sign of another boat.

  ‘As soon as we were all on the beach, it left. We have not seen it again.’

  ‘You said you didn’t know what they were going to do with you,’ said George. She was frowning and seemed to be choosing her words
carefully. ‘Why don’t you think they’ll take you to the mainland?’

  Again Ali paused and pulled his daughter closer to him. ‘These men have little regard for human life. Since the plane, I think they are now more desperate.’ Ali paused and looked longingly at the entrance to the cave. ‘It is why Farouk ran. He was certain something bad was going to happen to us, that we would never be free. I suppose now he is free after all …’

  Tears welled in Ali’s eyes as he spoke and he clasped the shoulder of his daughter even tighter. ‘You too have seen too much, my young friends. I am very afraid for what they might do to us – to all of us.’

  Ali’s words pulsed through me like an electric shock. I was sure he was right. Whatever was going on, things weren’t going as planned for Zaffar, and that meant we were all in danger. It suddenly occurred to me that even though we were in a cave full of adults, they were scared and helpless and looking to us, a bunch of kids, to help them out. Strangely, I was okay with that, and despite not having a clue what to do, I felt myself standing straighter as if trying to show my resolve.

  A noise outside made me jump. It was a raspy cough followed by a phlegm-filled spit. Matt and I locked eyes, momentarily frozen in fear. The girl’s father grabbed her roughly and, despite her protests, pushed her ahead of him into a throng of waiting arms. In the blink of an eye, she was hidden among a shroud of cloaks and shawls. Matt dropped to the ground and pulled a blanket up to his chin.

  George grabbed my arm, pulling me into the shadows, just as the hulking frame of Baldy entered the cave.

  ‘Okay, boy. Time to help, yes?’

  I listened intently from behind the relative safety of a rock boulder, barely breathing for fear of being heard. At first, Matt didn’t make a sound.

  ‘I said, get up.’

  ‘Hey, ouch,’ Matt said indignantly. ‘What was that for?’

  ‘Shut your mouth and get up!’

  I clenched both fists and George tightened her grip on my wrist.

  Then Baldy spoke in a language we couldn’t understand. It sounded like he was barking orders or giving some sort of command or instruction. There was shuffling in the sand as he spoke and we could hear the murmur of hushed voices, but couldn’t understand what was being said. Then, more forcefully, he urged them to action with words in English.

  ‘Go on, off you go. Go, go, to the boat.’

  This time the shuffling was more purposeful. George and I looked at each other without speaking. We didn’t need to. Everyone was being ushered from the cave, Matt included. I felt a surge of panic but felt utterly powerless to do anything.

  ‘Here, take this bag,’ we heard Baldy grunt.

  ‘Take it where?’ asked Matt.

  ‘You’ll see.’

  ‘It’s too heavy,’ complained Matt. ‘I can’t lift it.’

  ‘Then drag it.’

  I heard the sound of something scraping across the sand. Gradually the noises softened and everything became quiet. As George eased her grip on my arm, I poked my head around the rock. There were a few blankets on the ground and a couple of bags and even a suitcase against the cave wall, but everyone had gone.

  I dashed across to the cave’s entrance and blinked cautiously out into the sunlight. Matt was about halfway down the beach, struggling with a large duffel bag. He was the last in a line of hunched figures heading towards the water, where Zaffar was standing by the side of the inflatable.

  George appeared at my elbow. ‘Can you see Nick?’

  Nick? God, I’d forgotten about him. I looked up and down the beach, but there was no sign of him.

  George and I stood watching the procession of people reach the water’s edge. When Matt reached them he dropped the bag then slumped down on the sand. As soon as he did, Baldy gave him a nudge, forcing him to stand up again. Then Baldy shoved Matt back in the direction of the cave. With his shoulders sagging, Matt trudged back up the beach towards us with Baldy close behind, giving Matt an occasional, unnecessary prod in the back.

  ‘They’re coming back,’ said George.

  There was no time to think. Any moment now Matt could be in serious danger, or off on the boat. Everything was a risk. We had to do something.

  ‘Come on,’ I said, grabbing George’s hand and taking off across the sand towards the tents. For a few seconds we were completely exposed. We hit the tents at full speed and flung ourselves onto the sand, rolling out of view. I waited, my heart pounding, half-expecting that at any moment Baldy would appear.

  Then a face did poke around the side of the tent. We both jumped and I nearly screamed in fright.

  ‘Nice of you to drop in,’ whispered Nick, grinning. He motioned for us to follow him around the side of the tent where he had created some cover in between the cardboard boxes I had seen the other day. I lifted one of the box flaps and saw it was half full of bottles of water and cans of food.

  Nick threw me a bottle he’d been sipping from. ‘Here, help yourself.’ Then he pressed a finger against his lips motioning for us to be quiet as Matt and Baldy walked past us, back into the cave.

  As soon as they were inside, Nick nodded towards the inflatable at the water’s edge. ‘They won’t get far in that thing – must be using it to ferry everyone out to another boat.’

  ‘Ali said the boat they came here on took off once they dropped them on the beach,’ I said. ‘Maybe it’s come back.’

  ‘Yeah, maybe,’ Nick replied. ‘But it’s kind of weird they didn’t just go straight to the mainland in the first place.’

  George started to fill Nick in on the conversation with Ali and I chimed in when I remembered something she’d left out.

  As usual, George hadn’t just been listening, she’d been processing the information at the same time, piecing things together far quicker than I ever could.

  ‘You know that plane we saw? I doubt it was looking for us after all, I bet it had come back to find the boat again,’ she whispered.

  ‘Which ain’t great news if you’re trying to smuggle a boatload of people into the country,’ said Nick.

  ‘Exactly,’ said George. ‘If I was Zaffar, I’d be freaking out about getting caught.’

  I had heard Ali tell his story and seen the anxiety written all over his face, but it was only now listening to George that I started to realise the magnitude of what was happening.

  I looked at the gathering of people near the water’s edge and felt a strange churning in my stomach. ‘What are you saying, George? What do you think Zaffar is going to do to them?’

  ‘I don’t know, but I’m scared of what might happen to them when they leave the island.’

  I swallowed nervously. Whatever danger Ali and the others were in at the hands of a desperate Zaffar, Matt was in the same boat, perhaps literally.

  ‘Then we can’t let them get off the island,’ I said.

  ‘Okay, listen. I’ve got an idea,’ Nick said, his voice low and urgent. ‘Not a great idea, but it might work.’

  I shot a glance down the beach. Zaffar was at the water’s edge, organising people into small groups. It was clear they were getting ready to leave the island. Whatever Nick had in mind, there wasn’t a moment to lose.

  ‘I reckon I can get to the water without anyone seeing. The tide’s in, so the water’s all the way up to the rocks on the other side of the beach. If I can stay in the shadow of the cliffs, they won’t see me. When I’m in the water I’ll get in behind the inflatable … But I’m going to need a diversion.’

  The frown on George’s face was etched so deep it looked like her forehead was caving in.

  But Nick paid no attention. ‘I’ll need you guys to distract Zaffar –’

  ‘Distract him?’

  ‘So I can tackle him from behind.’

  ‘Tackle him?’ blurted George.

  Nick slapped his hand on his knee. ‘Are you going to repeat everything I say?’

  Just then Baldy reappeared at the cave entrance. He stood waiting until Matt walked past him, dra
gging another bag across the sand.

  ‘Zaffar’ll never expect a tackle,’ Nick whispered when they’d passed. ‘If I can get him off balance and into the water … Then maybe we can even the odds a bit. And Matt and the others can bolt.’

  George stared, shaking her head. ‘You’re crazy. Those people can hardly walk, let alone run away or fight back. And what are you going to do with Zaffar in the water?’

  ‘He’s got a gun,’ I added, in case Nick had forgotten.

  Nick didn’t say anything to defend his plan or add anything to make it sound more plausible. That was the moment we all knew that we had no real plan. Whatever we did next, we did out of sheer desperation.

  Nick sat back and drew a deep breath. ‘Don’t worry about me. You guys just have to distract Zaffar and keep Baldy away from the water.’

  George sat with her shoulders sagging forward in resignation.

  Nick gave her his trademark smile as he got up into a crouched position. ‘George, we can do it. We can stop them getting off this beach.’

  George held his gaze and sighed. ‘You better get going then, I guess. When we see you in the water, we’ll, I don’t know, throw a rock or something,’ she said.

  Nick winked at her and, making a fist, placed it between us. First George and then I did the same and the three of us touched knuckles in a show of solidarity.

  Nick stood up, ready to run. As I crouched behind him, I saw, edging slowly into view from around the point, the bow of a fishing trawler. My heart leapt at the thought that someone had come for us at last, but I sensed Nick stiffen. He dropped back down onto one knee and tucked in close to the tent.

  ‘What is it?’ I whispered. I peeked out again and noticed Zaffar waving to the trawler as it slowly came about and began to head into the bay.

  ‘I know that boat,’ said Nick frowning. ‘That’s Joe Freeman’s boat, from Shell Harbour.’

  At the mention of the name Freeman, I realised that I knew the boat too. ‘The Free Man,’ I muttered.

  ‘Yeah, that’s right. How did you know its name?’ asked Nick, surprised.

  ‘Matt and I saw that boat at the jetty. The guy with the sleeping bag I told you about, we saw him getting off The Free Man.’