The Other Side of Nowhere Read online

  George leant forward, Amira under her. ‘Johnno, I hear what you’re saying, but what can we do?’

  ‘I don’t know. But doesn’t it feel like we’re just running away? They need our help,’ I blurted out.

  George shook her head. ‘Johnno, the best way we can help them is to get to the police when we get back to Shell Harbour.’

  George sat back, looking at Nick for an answer. But he just kicked with his foot at a translucent container that was connected to the motor. A dark smudge sloshed around inside, barely covering the base.

  Nick bent down and picked the container up. He screwed up his face in dismay.

  ‘What?’ George demanded.

  ‘There’s not much petrol …’ he announced, sounding grim. ‘We’re not going to make it.’

  ‘How far will it get us?’

  Nick paused as if trying to calculate it his head. ‘Not far enough to make it to the mainland.’

  For a moment, no-one said anything. The only sound was the waves lifting the little boat up and down in a steady rhythm.

  ‘Could we at least make it to the other side of the island?’ George asked, finally. ‘Just to get away from Zaffar and his mates?’

  Nick shrugged, looking doubtful about the idea. ‘Look, I just don’t know. But you saw – it’s pretty much rock all the way round to the other side. If we ran out of juice, we’d have to take our chances at sea.’

  George groaned.

  Nick looked over at the beach and then grinned. ‘But there might be people, tourists over on the other side of the island … It might be worth a try. We might be able to get some help. Let’s go in here and make it across to the other side on foot.’

  ‘How long will that take?’ I asked.

  Nick shot a look at Amira. ‘Well, we won’t be breaking any records. But it might be the safest option.’

  ‘Okay, then,’ said George, making the decision. ‘Let’s go in and start walking.’

  Nick opened up the throttle and turned the inflatable towards shore. As the whining engine picked up again, the drumming in my temples started up too. Big time. And, as we hit a couple of waves on the way to the beach, it felt like all the pain receptors in my body had banded together to throw a party. Everything started to blur and I felt myself slumping forward.

  When I opened my eyes I was staring at George’s face. Worry was written all over it.

  ‘Johnno, you okay?’

  ‘Sure,’ I mumbled. I started to get up, but fell back again as the inflatable ran up onto the sand and stuck fast.

  Nick and Matt jumped out and held the inflatable steady while George helped Amira and then me onto the sand. Nick tried to pull the inflatable further up the beach but it wouldn’t budge.

  ‘Just leave it,’ said George. ‘It’ll take too long to drag all the way up the beach. Better to just push it out to sea and let it drift.’

  ‘What about the money?’ said Matt, staring at the bags at the bottom of the boat.

  ‘Leave it,’ I said. ‘Doesn’t belong to us, anyway.’

  Matt turned on me with an astonished look. ‘No way. It’s totally ours now,’ he said defiantly.

  ‘It’s not ours at all,’ George started to argue.

  Nick cut her off. ‘Why don’t we bury it? We can figure out what to do with it later.’

  ‘Yeah, buried treasure!’ Matt cheered.

  George looked disapproving, but didn’t say anything. She grabbed the little girl’s hand and started up the beach.

  Nick reached into the inflatable and pulled out the suitcase first. When all the bags were on the sand, he waded into the water and gave the inflatable a big shove to set it free. At first it drifted along the beach, but soon the tide pulled it out to sea.

  ‘C’mon, we’re wasting time,’ said Nick.

  The three of us grabbed a bag each and headed up the beach to George, who had found a narrow path winding through the trees.

  Nick took the lead and we followed him up the track. As I trudged along behind, I wondered if Zaffar and Baldy would try to save themselves or come after us. If they did, they’d probably spot the empty inflatable and figure out the way we must have come. And one thing was for sure – they’d be mad as hell.

  Walking tracks crisscrossed through the bush, but we blindly trudged along behind Nick as he led the way. Suddenly the hut magically appeared. We waited quietly for a few minutes among the trees to make sure there was no-one there and then moved cautiously onto the verandah. I creaked open the door. There was no sign that anyone had been back there since earlier that day.

  As keen as we were to keep moving, we were exhausted. Even Matt looked done in as he sat on the step clutching Amira’s hand. George sat with her knees tucked up against her chest on the other side of the little girl. She couldn’t even be bothered to push away the hair that was hanging in front of her face. Nick lay down on the overgrown grass, gazing upwards, while I gingerly felt my ribs, half-expecting to find a couple of them poking through my skin. None of us had an ounce of energy left, but it was simply not an option to hang out and rest. I checked my watch. Somewhere along the way its face had been smashed, but it still seemed to be working.

  ‘It’s five o’clock now. It’ll be dark soon. Look, there’s a shed over there. I’ll see if there’s a shovel or something. Let’s bury these bags here and get moving.’

  George lifted herself up and beckoned Amira to follow her. ‘C’mon, Amira, let’s get some water from the stream while the pirates bury their treasure.’

  I found three rusty shovels in the back shed. I passed one each to Matt and Nick, and we headed over to the trees at the front of the house. Choosing a large tree with an ugly brown bulge halfway up its trunk, I picked up a sharp-edged rock and carved a small ‘X’ in the bark.

  We got digging next to the tree. It took ages to dig a hole deep enough to fit the bags and suitcase. By the time we were done, we were exhausted. Nick and I dropped the bags in and covered them over with sandy soil. Then we sprinkled some leaves and twigs over the top. It might not fool the guys at CSI but for anyone else, finding it would be a total fluke. We returned the shovels to the shed and then came back around to the front of the house to find George with a saucepan full of water for us to share.

  Nick was sure that there would be a way across the middle of the island, so we walked around the back of the house and searched for another path through the bush. We found a narrow opening almost hidden by overhanging trees and pushed our way into the bush again. It wasn’t long before the path we were on started to rise and once again we found ourselves stepping up over a crosshatching of tree roots. As I started to breathe deeper the pain in my side returned, like a white hot poker between my ribs each time my lungs expanded.

  As it grew darker, Amira began complaining in a whiny voice. We couldn’t really understand her, but it was obvious she was too tired to walk. Nick leant down and lifted her onto his shoulders. Almost without breaking stride, he started off up the hill again.

  So many times I thought we’d reached the top, but each time the flat stretch ended the same, with more steps and a steady rise up to another false peak, and then another and another.

  Daylight was fading as we climbed and Nick pulled out the torch to light our way. After we’d been walking for the best part of three hours, Matt said he needed a leak and dashed off the track into the undergrowth. The rest of us sat down to take a break. Amira slumped against George, her eyes struggling to stay open. Nick was kneading his shoulders and I wanted to say to him that I could take a turn carrying Amira but I seriously doubted that I could. I could barely make it up on my own.

  There was a rustle in the bushes nearby and Matt reappeared. ‘Hey guys, you might want to check this out.’

  George stayed with Amira as Nick and I followed Matt through the bush to the edge of the ridge we’d been walking up. The forest canopy opened up and, with the light of the moon, we could see all the way out to the ocean.

  ‘What is it?’
I asked.

  ‘Lights,’ Matt said, pointing.

  Sure enough, there were two pinpricks of light bouncing around in a jerky pattern, disappearing for a moment then reappearing shortly afterwards.

  ‘Looks like we’ve got company,’ said Nick.

  ‘How far off d’you reckon?’ I asked.

  ‘Hard to say … But wherever they are, they’re moving a heap faster than us. Let’s go.’

  We pushed our way back through the bush to find George playing some kind of game with Amira.

  ‘What is it?’ George asked.

  ‘We’re being followed,’ said Nick grimly. ‘They’re still a way off, but they’ll soon catch up.’

  He looked down at Amira sitting innocently next to George. We all knew there was no way we could go much faster. The inevitability that Zaffar and Baldy and whoever else was down there would soon catch up to us made me feel sick.

  Then Nick turned to me. ‘You guys go ahead, I’m going to see if I can slow them down.’

  ‘No way!’ cried George rising to her feet. She reached for his hand and held on tight as if there was no way she was going to let him go.

  ‘George, at the pace we’re going they’ll catch us before we get to the top.’

  ‘Well, why don’t we get off the track and just hide? They’ll never find us in the dark,’ she suggested.

  ‘It’s a jungle – if we get lost in there we might never get out. And besides, hiding is not going to help Ali and the others,’ I said, raising my eyebrows at Nick. ‘Isn’t that right, Nick?’

  ‘Yep,’ Nick replied.

  George looked mad at me and even madder with Nick. ‘What are you going to do anyway? Throw more rocks at them?’

  ‘George, it’ll be okay. I’ll be careful,’ he said, grabbing her hand.

  But she pulled it away. ‘You don’t even know what careful means.’

  Amira started to cry. George brushed past Nick and knelt down beside her, cupping her face and gently stroking her hair. ‘It’s okay, sweetie,’ she whispered.

  I looked at Nick, still so determined and full of fight even after everything we’d been through. Part of me didn’t want him to go because he would be putting himself right in the path of danger, again. But I knew he was right. Even if we could hide from Zaffar and Baldy for a bit, time was against us now. We had to take them on.

  Nick grabbed my elbow and pulled me out of earshot from the others.

  ‘When you reach the top, it’s going to take you a good few hours to get down, but it’s the tourist side of the island. When you do, there should be some tourist boats moored in the bay. Get to one and call the police as soon as you can … You got me?’

  ‘Okay, yep. Find a boat and call the cops. We’ll wait for you.’

  ‘Don’t worry about waiting, just do what you have to do to get help,’ he said.

  I was struck by a sudden, uneasy feeling that we couldn’t part like this with so much left unsaid between us. ‘Nick, I know we’ve been kind of bitching at each other a bit lately …’

  Nick cut me off. ‘Not now, mate. We’ll speak about it later, all right?’

  I guessed he was right. This wasn’t the best time … But there was just one thing I had to say to him right then and there.

  ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t hold onto you in the water … You know, in the storm.’ It just blurted out, with no context.

  Nick tilted his head and frowned, like he had no idea what I was talking about. But then he gave a weary smile as if the memory was slowly coming back. ‘Dude, I freaked in the water. Totally panicked. An army couldn’t have held me down.’

  He slid his hand down my arm and clasped my hand in a kind of monkey grip. ‘Johnno, it was me who got us into this mess in the first place and you’ve been trying to get us out of it ever since. Thanks to you, we got Matt back. And you know what I think is really cool? You want to help the rest of them. I’m not sure I would do it without you, but you are right. So let’s do it.’

  We shook hands and, as unsure as I was about what we still had to do, I felt buoyed by his unexpected confidence in me. There was no way I was going to let him down – not this time.

  Nick caught George’s eye and gave her a sheepish grin. ‘I’ll be good … I promise. Take care of these two, won’t you?’

  George looked away.

  He gave me an oh well kind of shrug, then surprised me again by leaning in for a quick hug. It might have been just because it made my ribs ache, but I felt tears spring into my eyes. Then, without a word, he passed me the torch and began to jog back down the dark track. In an instant he was swallowed up by the night.

  ‘Let’s get moving,’ I said, and Amira reached up and grabbed my hand.

  ‘Baba,’ she whimpered. She looked up at me, her big almond-shaped eyes shiny with tears. I guessed Baba was her word for father. More than ever I felt the weight of responsibility we had taken on.

  ‘Hey, what’s your favourite colour?’

  She tilted her head with a confused look on her face. I pointed to a small flower printed on her dress. ‘Is it pink?’

  She still looked confused, but I went with it anyway. ‘Well what do you know … That’s Matt’s favourite colour, too!’

  I clapped Matt on the shoulder and reached back down for the little girl’s hand. ‘C’mon Matty, let’s see if we can find a pink rescue boat for you and Amira.’

  It was after midnight when we finally reached the top. Neither Matt, George nor I could carry the dead weight of a sleeping six year old for more than a couple of hundred metres at a time before needing a break. After we must have passed Amira between us for the hundredth time, when we were all aching, sweating and dog tired, suddenly a star-filled sky appeared through the thinning canopy of trees. We fell to the ground, totally wrecked, and lay on our backs under a distant crescent moon. A cool sea breeze rustled the leaves and provided a welcome relief from the sticky trapped heat of the forest.

  ‘Look there,’ George said, pointing to a cluster of lights twinkling way across the water. ‘That must be Shell Harbour.’

  Far below us was the sheltered bay, night lights marking the spots where a handful of boats were moored.

  ‘Not far now. There’ll be someone down there that can help us,’ I said, feeling hopeful.

  ‘I sure hope so …’ started George, but she was cut short by a distant crack that pierced the night from the forest below us. Then another shot rang out and another and then a short volley, too many to count. Then, as abruptly as it had begun, the last echo died away and the forest fell quiet again.

  George’s hand went to cover her mouth, like she was trying to stifle a scream.

  ‘It’s okay, George. He’ll be okay.’ It was an attempt to be encouraging but instead it sounded like fear masked by wishful thinking. It was impossible not to imagine Nick lying in the bush somewhere below, bleeding to death.

  ‘That sounded pretty close,’ said Matt.

  ‘C’mon then, let’s move,’ I barked. ‘It’s all downhill now.’

  The walk took hours and no-one spoke the entire way down. I felt we were all near breaking point, exhausted and full of anxiety for Nick.

  At last the sky began to lighten and we could start to see where we were going without the torch. As we neared the bottom of the final hill, I saw an orange tinge appear on the horizon and when we finally took our first step on the sand, half the sun was visible, appearing to sit perfectly balanced on the rocky ridge of Shell Harbour.

  I placed the sleeping Amira onto the sand and lay down beside her, stretching out from fingertips to toes until the pain in my side became too much and I had to sit back up. There was a kind of gurgling in my gut and even though there was bugger all food in me, a frothy white stream spewed from my mouth onto the sand.

  Matt screwed up his nose and moved away.

  ‘Are you okay?’ asked George placing a steadying hand in the small of my back.

  ‘Yeah,’ I said weakly. ‘It’s just … I don’t know
… Everything’

  She smiled and snuggled in close, rubbing my back until the nausea passed.

  The beach on this side of the island was exactly as Nick had described it. A long, wide expanse of white sand melding into crystal clear water of the most amazing blue I’d ever seen.

  ‘Nice spot, this – don’t know why we didn’t come here in the first place,’ said George, as if she was reading my mind.

  I felt her leaning on me more heavily and noticed out of the corner of my eye that her eyes had closed. I longed for the chance to lie back on the sand, but knew at the same time that we couldn’t rest until we’d found help. As I watched her, I realised I was thinking of Nick and, curiously, I had the strong feeling that it was important that they should be together. She hadn’t mentioned him since we had heard the gun shots.

  ‘He’s going to be all right, George,’ I whispered gently.

  She didn’t open her eyes, just snuggled in closer. ‘I bet he brings all his girlfriends here,’ she said offhandedly.

  ‘Only the best for Nick’s girls …’

  George smiled and opened her eyes. She clasped my hand and squeezed it tight, then let her head drop back onto my shoulder.

  I counted three boats anchored off the beach: two yachts and a motor boat. The motor boat would probably be best, but it was the furthest away and my first thought was that I’d rather not walk any more than I really had to. The nearest yacht was maybe a third of the way along the beach and not far offshore. It was a huge one, with a dark blue ribbon around a gleaming white hull. I noticed the American flag hanging limply at the stern. On the beach, almost in line with the yacht, was a small dinghy, pulled up high above the water line. I pointed it out to George.

  ‘Well it’s not pink, but I guess it’ll have to do,’ she said, struggling to her feet. She extended both arms towards me and pulled me up.

  I picked up the sleeping Amira, ignoring my screaming muscles, and gave Matt a prod with my foot. Together we shuffled down the beach to the water’s edge. As soon as we reached the dinghy, I knew it had to belong to the big white yacht. Not only was it beached directly in line with the moored yacht, but it had the same sparkly new look about it, as if this was the first time it had been in water. There were two sets of footprints in the sand, leading from the dinghy away from the shore and up over a small sand dune.