Desperate Measures (4 page)

C
arter pushed deeper into the woods. The trees were close, but the ground was free of brush. It gave him an easy head start. By the time the first shouts came up behind him, he'd already covered a good hundred yards or more.

But that lead couldn't last forever. Even on a good day, he'd never outpace a group of Nukula through the woods. If there were such a thing as a home-field advantage, they definitely had it.

Maybe he'd be caught. A million punishments might be coming his way. But none of that mattered more than getting to Jane, Vanessa, and Buzz. He
kept his chin down, his eyes on the ground, and his feet moving.

Finally, when his lungs felt ready to burst, Carter stopped and took a knee in the tall grass. His own heart pounded in his ears, but he could still hear the drums from the east, too. That was good.

And then another sound emerged. Rushing water. Even better.

His paper-dry throat clenched. He hadn't noticed how desperate he was for a drink until now. The sound of the river, if that's what it was, came from just ahead and to the left. If anything was worth making a run for, this was it.

He stood up and took off again, heading toward the sound. Before long, the forest thinned enough to show him the rolling white breakers of a riverbed. The water was flowing east, but it looked dangerous, like a highway of rapids and boulders as far as Carter could see.

Still, this was a way out. Maybe he couldn't outrun the others, but he could ride the river as fast as anyone. If he was lucky, he'd be washed straight downstream.
If he was unlucky, he'd get smashed against one of those rocks.

Or even worse, he'd wind up held under by a recirculating current. It was called the washing machine effect. He'd heard about it when the family went rafting on the Wolf River in Wisconsin. That was the last thing you wanted if you fell into rapids. Once that happened, drowning was the easy part.

Before there was time to think anymore, a shout came up from the woods. Someone was coming.

Another shout, even closer, was all the push Carter needed. With a deep breath, he waded in, picked up his feet, and let the river take him.

The current pulled him along even faster than he'd expected. For several seconds, he was underwater, rising and falling with the river's swells. As soon as he left one stretch of white water behind, he was into the next.

It was all a blur until a fallen tree caught him up short. Branches scratched at his arms and legs, and across his face, until he managed to land a hand on one of the sturdier limbs.

His fingers closed around the moss-slick bark. There was no getting a firm grip, but it slowed him down. He slid several more feet, until his hand lodged into the crook between two branches. His body jerked to a stop, and a sharp pain ran up his arm.

Still, the water was rushing over his head. He needed air—now. Carter reached around blindly for something else to hold on to, anything he could grab to get himself above the surface. He found a second branch, which snapped off, but then another that held. It was enough to let him shift his weight and free his stuck hand. Then he pulled himself up and out for a quick gulp of air.

He could see the bank now. And there, clear enough, were three of the runners he'd left behind at the mouth of the gorge. They hadn't seen him. Not yet. They were scanning the river and the woods on the far side.

Carter kept as low as he could. The rise and fall of the water hid him from view, but he couldn't stay here much longer. His grip wasn't going to last, and the river seemed to want nothing more than to suck him farther downstream.

Carter squeezed his eyes shut. He focused every thought on his hands.

Hold on. Don't let go. Hold on. . . .

He just had to keep this position for a few more seconds. Just until the others turned away. Why were they taking so long to move on? His hand cramped. He could feel it giving way.

One of the runners on the bank pointed into the woods. The others looked in that direction, and they all turned to run farther upstream.

Half a second later, Carter's fingers slipped free. He was moving again, tossing through swells and dips like a piece of driftwood as he scraped past one unseen rock after another. The river was carrying him east, anyway. But that didn't mean he was safe.

It didn't even mean he was going to survive this.

Buzz's head swam as he pulled his arm out of the hot red dye. He'd gone as long as he could, but if he didn't stop now, he was going to pass out. And there was no way he'd let these people see him hit
the dirt. Everyone else had stayed on their feet including Vanessa, who had finished first. If they could get through it, Buzz thought, so would he.

“You did well,” Ani said. With three flicks of his stone knife, he cut the cords around Buzz's screen and let it drop to the floor.

His whole arm tingled. He stared at the pattern left behind on his skin—red diamond shapes, bigger around his shoulder and smaller toward the wrist. It was like the full-sleeve tattoos he'd seen on lots of people back home. But never on kids. And definitely never on someone like him, an eleven-year-old gamer who didn't exactly have a reputation for being tough. Not before all this, anyway.

Jane eased her arm out next. Her face was wet with sweat, but not tears. At nine years old, she was the youngest one out here, but nobody complained less than Jane.

That left only Mima. All of the others had finished. She stayed steadfast, up to her armpit in the hot liquid. Her eyes were like glass. Her mouth was set in a line that showed no emotion, no pain. Buzz had
never known anyone so unafraid of anything as her.

For years, Mima had lived as an outcast among the Nukula, ever since her parents had committed the unpardonable crime of trying to leave the tribe. They'd paid with their lives in the island's killer tides and left behind a daughter whose only chance for redemption was
Raku Nau
itself.

Now, with a
seccu
around her neck, Mima had a chance to claim her place as an adult in the tribe. Even Laki watched with approving eyes while Mima gutted it out longer than anyone.

Up to now, the marking ceremony had taken place in silence. All Buzz heard was the hiss and spitting of the fire. But a sudden commotion from overhead seemed to fill the room with noise. Several people were moving through the jungle nearby. And then a voice came down through the foliage-covered bamboo ceiling. Whoever it was sounded urgent, but the only word Buzz understood was “Chizo.”

Before the messenger had even finished, Laki was on the move. He headed up the tunnel toward the canoes and
Trehila.
Ani whispered to Mima, who
slowly pulled her arm out of the dye, as all of the others began to follow the chief out of the arena.

“Chizo has arrived on the eastern shore,” Ani told them. “He will be sent straight to the top of
Trehila
, while the tribe witnesses his exile.”

“How long does he have to stay up there?” Vanessa asked.

“Perhaps for a season or more. Perhaps a year,” Ani said.

“A
year
?” Jane asked.

“I never thought I could feel sorry for him,” Vanessa said, “But—”

“Don't even,” Buzz interrupted her.

Buzz had been the one taken captive by Chizo, in the midst of
Raku Nau
. He was the one who'd been tied up and attacked by an army of fire ants while Chizo watched, and even laughed. Sympathy was the last thing on Buzz's mind right now.

“Come on,” he said, and moved toward the tunnel behind all the others. “I don't want to miss this.”

Everyone had gathered at the base of
Trehila
by the time Vanessa, Buzz, Jane, Mima, and Ani got there. The giant screen still stood in the closed position, but Chizo was there now, along with the two guards Laki had sent to retrieve him.

Vanessa had never noticed how much Chizo and Laki looked alike. Chizo seemed to be pleading with his father, from the way his voice went up and the way he kept trying to catch Laki's eye.

Laki stood with his hands behind his back, staring at the ocean as though Chizo wasn't even there. A few murmured to Laki from the side, but he ignored them, too.

Finally, Chizo stopped trying. He turned away from Laki and stepped onto the first rung of the vine ladder that ran to the top of
Trehila.
As he did, Laki broke his own silence with a single word.

“Shesto!
”
he said.

Chizo slowly turned back to look at Laki again, and Laki held out a hand. His palm was flat, as though he was expecting something.

“Ma betta e tikko fotza, Chizo!”
Laki said.

Several in the crowd gasped, but not Chizo. Without a word, he slipped a small ring off his left pinkie and dropped it into his father's hand. The ring was wood, or maybe bone. Vanessa couldn't tell from where she stood. As soon as Chizo had given it up, he turned once more and started his climb without looking back.

“That was the blood ring
,
” Ani said quietly. “It marked Chizo as Laki's son.”

“And now . . . he's not?” Jane asked.

Ani shook his head. “This has never happened before” was all he said.

While everyone watched, Chizo moved quickly up the side of the huge palm. Soon, he was above the jungle canopy, lit by the westward sunlight that streamed over the other treetops. It was scary to watch him go so high. There were no jacklines, no safety nets, and nothing but the vine ladder to hold on to as he followed the curve of the tree, all the way out over the water.

When he reached the tiny guard hut built into
Trehila'
s crown, he maneuvered onto the platform and disappeared. Almost right away, another boy appeared and started his own climb down.

It was a strange turn of events, Vanessa thought. Just as Mima was finding a place in the tribe, Chizo was losing his, exiled by his own father. The Nukula had their own customs, that was for sure. But if the faces of the other tribe members were any clue, not everyone here seemed to approve of this choice.

And already, something else was happening. The climbing boy had barely started down when Chizo's voice rang out from the top of the tree. The climber stopped and looked, then pointed toward the beach with one hand.

Vanessa peered out through the gaps in the big screen. A swimmer had just arrived on the shore. It was the female elder who had followed them through
Raku Nau
. Now she was running toward them and yelling some sort of announcement to the tribe.

Or maybe it was a warning. When Vanessa looked to Ani, even he seemed concerned. Laki motioned the woman over while everyone else began to buzz and chatter.

“What is it?” Jane asked. “What's going on?”

“It is your brother,” Ani said.

Vanessa's breath caught in her throat. “Carter?” she said. “Is he okay?” All kinds of possibilities ran through her mind before Ani could even answer.

“He has run off,” Ani said, just as Laki boomed out a single word to the assembled tribe.

“Ohzooka!
”
he shouted.

And everything changed again.

“
A
ni, what's happening?” Buzz said. “What's
oh-zoo—
”

“Ohzooka,”
Ani said. “It is a hunt. The last time it was declared was the day you came to the island.”

Jane shuddered just thinking about it. The pit Vanessa had fallen into when they landed on Shadow Island had seemed like the end of the road. Then Jane and Carter had been taken as well. It was part of the young Nukulas' training, to capture them, but there was no knowing that at the time.

Everything was happening so fast. All of the tribe's new leaders—those Nukula who had earned the
seccu
that day—gathered around Laki. He held the blood ring over his head and continued to address the group.

Mima looked back once, but Ani waved her on to join the others. Then he spoke to Jane, Vanessa, and Buzz in a fast burst of instructions.

“Listen to me,” Ani said. “Nothing about today has gone as expected. Laki is offering the blood ring to anyone who will bring Carter here to the eastern shore. This is an opportunity, and you must seize it.”

“An opportunity for . . . what, exactly?” Buzz asked. “To get that ring? To lead the tribe? That's crazy!”

Ani's mouth shut tight. But for Jane, even his silence had something to say, and it wasn't about winning the blood ring.

“This is our chance to find Carter and get away!” she said. Now Ani looked at her approvingly, and she kept going. “We can escape! If we can find him first—”

“How are we going to do that?” Buzz asked, nervously eyeing the thirteen other runners.

“I don't know,” Jane said. “But we have to. This is our chance.”

Ani spoke up again. “If your brother is trying to reach you—”

“He is,” Jane said. There was no doubt in her mind.

“—then he will travel in this direction,” Ani said. He pointed across to Cloud Ridge but pivoted to the right, indicating the curve of land around the bay. “It is the narrowest part of the island. The ground is not easy to navigate there. In places, it is impossible. That is why the tribe travels here by water.”

“But Carter doesn't know any of that,” Vanessa said. “He's just running blind, straight toward it.”

“Yes,” Ani said simply. The Nukula always seemed to take obstacles as facts, not problems.

So maybe it was time to start thinking like a Nukula, Jane thought.

“What happens if someone else finds him?” she asked.

“I suspect Laki will leave him here when we depart for the village tomorrow,” Ani said.

“We can't be separated!” Vanessa said. “Not again. I won't let it happen.”

“Then do not fail,” Ani said.

He wasn't going to tell them to disobey Laki, Jane realized. Not exactly. But if they could get to Carter first, and get him back here to the eastern shore without anyone seeing, at least they'd have a chance for escape. One
last
chance.

Now Ani looked upstream, along the channel to where the boats were tethered. “My canoe has a small store of coconuts and water on board,” he told them.

“But . . . we can't take your canoe,” Jane said. “It's yours.”

“It is mine to give,” Ani answered.

Even now, he hadn't told them what to do. He was only stating facts. This was an opportunity. His canoe held some supplies. It was his boat to give.

What they did with those facts was up to them. And even then, it was a terrible risk Ani was taking. His own place in the tribe could be threatened if they betrayed his trust in any way.

“Whatever happens, it will be decided by sunrise,” Ani added. “That is how much time you have.”

Jane looked up. Already, the light was turning gold
and orange with the end of the day. Before long, night would set in.

“How are we going to do this?” Buzz asked. “We can't compete against these guys. They're going to leave us in the dust.”

“We got this far, didn't we?” Jane asked.

“Yeah. With Mima's help,” Buzz said.

“What's Mima doing?” Vanessa asked.

Mima was still with the other group of
seccu
winners, waiting for the start of
Ohzooka
. She knelt on the ground, sharpening a smaller rock against a boulder for a makeshift blade. Already, she'd broken off a crude handle from a piece of bamboo. Everyone was working fast to get ready—cutting and coiling vines, gauging the landscape, and speaking low with their family members.

For all of them, it was about more than just a hunt now. It was about earning the blood ring, and securing a place of leadership in the tribe.

“Mima will run her own
Ohzooka
,” Ani said. “You must allow her that.”

“But we need her,” Buzz said. “We're a team. She
wouldn't have even gotten to the end if it wasn't for Carter! She owes us!”

“If it wasn't for Mima, we never would have made it that far to begin with,” Jane said. It made sense, at least to her. This was a chance for Mima to turn her life around beyond anything she'd probably imagined. And who was to say Mima's life was any less important than their lives?

There was nothing more to do about it, anyway. Mima was as stubborn as Carter. If she'd decided to run this alone, then that was that.

“When does it start?” Vanessa asked.

“Immediately,” Ani said, raising his chin in Laki's direction.

Laki stood in the middle of the group, his hand raised high over his head, with the small blood ring grasped in his fingers. He called out then, in a long, sustained note. As he did, everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to face west.

With no more warning than that, Laki's call ended, his hand came down to his side, and the group of runners sprang into motion.

This was it—the beginning of
Ohzooka.

The hunt for Carter was on.

It was amazing, the way the Nukula runners took to the trees. Within seconds, the canopy was full of people moving from branch to limb, to the ground, and back up into the next tree again—all heading west.

“What do we do now?” Jane asked.

“Mima!” Vanessa shouted, but Mima was already gone.

Maybe it was even for the best, Buzz thought. She could travel faster without them. At least that meant they had an ally at the front of the pack. And none of them—Buzz, Jane, Vanessa, or even Carter, who was the strongest—had come anywhere near mastering the
parkour
-like moves of the Nukula.

“We're losing them already!” Jane said as they pushed into the forest. “Come on! We have to try!”

“Hang on a second!” Vanessa said.

Buzz turned to look. Vanessa's gaze pivoted inland. Her eyebrows knit together.

“What is it?” Buzz asked.

“This way!” she said, and crashed through the brush ahead of them.

“Vanessa? Where are you going?” Jane asked.

Vanessa looked around before she answered. None of the other runners spoke English, but still, she only mouthed the words.

To the tunnels,
she said.

The one advantage of being behind the pack was that nobody noticed as they veered to an alternate route. Vanessa led the way, pushing a rough path through the tall brush that Buzz and Jane could follow. It wasn't easy going, but she seemed to be onto something. And right now, a fast, risky decision was better than no decision at all. If one of those tunnels headed in the right direction, at least they'd have some chance of catching up to the others.

“Vanessa!” Jane said before they'd gone too far. “What about the guards?”

Vanessa stopped short, breathing hard as she turned. “You're right,” she said. “We don't know if they'll stop us or not.”

“But that guard hut isn't the only way in,” Buzz said.

“Do you mean the other tunnels?” Jane asked. “We don't have time to get all the way over—”

“No,” Buzz said. “Not the other tunnels. There's something else we can try.”

He brushed past his sisters and moved into the lead, taking them in a slightly new direction. The scratch of the brambles and undergrowth on his legs was nothing new. Buzz ignored it as he pushed farther into the woods.

Before long, the domed bamboo ceiling that covered the underground chamber came into sight. They looked at one another in the silence as they approached it. Maybe there were guards at the hut nearby, and maybe there weren't. But the safest bet right now was to move as quietly as possible.

Buzz parted some of the brush that grew over the bamboo to look down inside. The place was empty. He scanned the arena, looking for a vine that grew all the way to the dirt floor inside.

That's the way in
, he mouthed to his sisters.
Vanessa and Jane both nodded back. They understood.

Buzz pointed to himself and then down in again.
I'll go first,
he told them.

The ceiling's bamboo crosspieces were laid close together. Even the widest gaps looked small for squeezing through. And he was the heaviest of them all. If he couldn't fit, he'd have to send the girls on without him.

You'll fit,
Jane mouthed, as if reading his thoughts, or at least his expression.

Buzz wasn't so sure, but worrying was just one more way to waste time. He could hear the other runners crashing through the forest and heading farther west by the minute.

He sat himself on the first crossbar of bamboo and swung his legs over to dangle his feet inside. The ground was more than a story below, maybe even two stories. Falling could mean a broken leg, or worse. And there was no knowing if these vines would hold his weight, even if he did squeeze through.

With another deep breath, he leaned in and gripped
the longest vine he could spot. There was no turning back now.

Sliding forward, he was surprised to feel his belly slip right through the gap. In fact, there wasn't much belly left. Not after eating so little for so many days. The painful scrape of his ribs against the bamboo told him so.

For a fraction of a second, he dropped. Then the vine snapped taut in his hands and he swung crazily back and forth. As he did, he lowered himself toward the ground, hand over hand with all the strength he could muster.

It didn't last. He was halfway down when his grip gave out. The woody vine tore into his palms like a million splinters before he dropped the last several feet to the dirt below. It wasn't pretty, but he was in. He rubbed his palms to put out the fiery feeling, and motioned to the girls to go for it.

Jane was the monkey of the group. She managed to lower herself all the way without any trouble. Vanessa climbed and then slid, like Buzz had done.

That way?
Vanessa mouthed. She pointed down
the tunnel that led directly under the guard hut.

Jane and Buzz nodded. The tunnel definitely set out to the west, but it was impossible to say how far it went, or what kind of turns it might take. From where they stood, it was just a black hole.

The only thing to compare it to was the tunnel leading in the opposite direction, toward
Trehila
and the canoes. That one had been a straight shot, and not very long. But it didn't mean this one would be the same way. Which was the whole point. They had no idea.

Here!
Jane indicated, and bent down to pick up an abandoned torch from the marking ceremony. She used it to stir the ashes in the fire pit and quickly turned up a few orange embers. Soon after that, they had a small flame to carry with them.

Jane went first, with Buzz and Vanessa close behind. They moved cautiously past the ladder that led up to the guard hut, and then picked up their pace over the uneven tunnel floor, continuing west.

Hopefully, toward Carter.