Desperate Measures (8 page)

Carter still hadn't let go. He hung five or six feet above the water now, and quickly pulled himself up to sit on the frame itself. The current rushed by underneath him.

“What now?” Buzz asked.

“Actually . . .” Carter said.

It was hard to gauge in the dark, but it looked very much like there was enough room on this side of the channel for a canoe to slip under the tilted gate.

“We can still do this!” he said—just before several voices came up from the woods.

Carter looked in that direction and saw the flame of a torch. Then another. Someone was coming their way.

They'd been
spotted.

B
uzz saw the torches, and his heart dropped.

“We've got to go. Like, right now,” he told Vanessa. She was farther down the bank and hadn't seen anyone coming yet.

“All right, let's go!” she said, and pointed upstream. “Carter! This way!”

“No, I mean, there's no time for that,” Buzz said.

“He's right,” Carter said, and yelled up the channel. “
Jane!
Change of plans. We have to go! Cut the boat loose!”

There was a tense pause. Not a silence, though. The fire and the chaos in camp filled the air with sound
and light. So did the torch carriers, coming closer through the woods.

“Now?”
Jane's voice came back.

“Yes!” Carter yelled. “Bring the canoe! There's no time to explain!”

“What about the current?” Vanessa asked. “She's going to wash right past us!”

“Not if we catch her,” Carter said. “Everyone spread out. Buzz, grab one of those pieces of bamboo and hold it over the water. We just need to slow her down enough to get in, and then we're gone.”

Buzz looked up. Carter was already on the frame of the gate itself, sliding farther out over the channel. The whole thing sat cockeyed, with the far corner stuck in the water. The other corner, nearest them, was at least four feet above the channel. That's where the canoe could pass. But first they'd have to slow the boat enough to get in.

“Nessa!” Buzz said. “Up there! Next to Carter.” Vanessa was the tallest. She was the gymnast, too. “If you hang upside down, you'll be able to reach anything that passes by. I'll work from here with Mima.”

He bent down and picked up an end of the heaviest bamboo he could spot. Several pieces had been used as braces to keep the screen in place when it was closed. He held it with both arms and turned clumsily to pivot it over the water, like another kind of gate. If nothing else, it would help slow the boat while Vanessa and Carter worked from above.

“Mima, help me with this!” he said. He was pointing to the bamboo and then upstream, desperate to get his meaning across. Everyone else was better at communicating with her. But she'd gotten pretty good at understanding them, too. “Jane's coming!” he said.

Mima came and stood with him on the bank, securing the pole together from one end. Even she didn't try wading into the current. There would be no keeping their footing that way. They'd have a better chance of giving Jane a barrier to crash into by holding it steady from where they were.

“JANE!” Carter yelled again. “Have you got it? Can you do this?”

More Nukula shouts filled the air. Some of them
were closer than ever. In the noise, Buzz couldn't even tell if Jane had answered.

But it was too late to do anything else. Now they had to wait and hope she showed up with the boat soon.

Really
soon.

Jane looked downstream. All she could see was the fast current running off into the dark. The screen was too far to make out, but she could hear the others shouting for her. And the voices in the woods, too. They all blended together.

Her hands shook as she stood up in the boat. She leaned out as far as she could and pressed the edge of the stone knife into the vine tether that held the canoe in place.

This was it. As soon as she sawed through the vine, they were going to be thrown into a whole new kind of unknown. They were just as unprepared for this as they'd been for Nowhere Island, for Shadow Island, for all of it. The realization hit like a heavy weight in the bottom of her stomach.

What were they thinking? How were they possibly going to survive out there, maybe for days—or even weeks? They were going to need so much more than the few supplies they had. Even something like the vine rope in her hand could be a lifesaver out on the open ocean. In fact—

Jane didn't think—she moved. She jumped out of the canoe and ran up the bank to where the vine was tied off to a tree. If she could cut it from this end, that would be at least fifteen feet of rope they could bring with them.

She grabbed the vine near the tree trunk and spiraled her hand around it, until it was tight on her wrist. Then she gripped it hard and reached with the other hand to cut the whole thing free.

“Jane!” Vanessa called. “Where are you?”

“Here I come!” she said. “Get ready!”

“We got you!” Carter yelled. “Don't worry!”

Too late,
Jane thought.

Here went everything. She sawed into the vine several times with the edge of the blade. The vine tore, but held. She sawed even harder—once, twice, three times—and then it popped.

The outrigger's response was immediate. It turned on the current, away from the other boats, and started downstream. Jane ran and then stumbled down the bank to catch up. She threw the knife into the canoe and dove to get inside, a fraction too late. Instead, she hit the water. The rope snapped tight on her wrist and yanked her downstream, towing her behind the canoe toward the others.

Everything was a dark blur of movement and water. Jane reached and pulled herself higher on the vine as it continued along the channel. It was like climbing sideways toward the boat, hand over hand, working against the water, the momentum, all of it.

With the next pull, she felt something solid. It was the side of the boat. She reached up again, grabbed on, and heaved herself inside. The whole thing nearly tipped over as she did, just before she landed on her back in the well of the canoe.

“JANE! NOW!” Vanessa's voice came right away.

Jane sprang back up and looked around. The enormous screen was straight ahead and approaching fast. The whole thing was crooked now, half in the
water and half out. She saw the others, too. Carter and Vanessa hung off the gate itself, with Buzz and Mima holding something out from the shore. It was a big piece of bamboo. She recognized it just as the canoe crashed into it, knocking the pole right out of Buzz's and Mima's hands.

“NO!” Buzz yelled. “Vanessa! Get her!”

The canoe shimmied on the water and cut toward the bank. Vanessa was straight ahead now. Carter was off to the side, too far to reach.

Vanessa dropped even lower to hang by her knees. Jane stood up to get to her, but the boat was too unsteady and she fell right back down again.

“Buzz, get in the boat!” Carter yelled.

“I can't!” he said. “It's too far! This was a mistake!”

“I've got her!” Vanessa screamed. “Get up, Jane! Give me your hand!”

Jane popped back up in the wobbling canoe and reached as high as she could for Vanessa's grasp.

Vanessa squeezed the bamboo gate tightly with her
legs. Her knees were either going to hold, or they weren't. There was no time to change position.

She stretched her hands down toward Jane's as her little sister and the canoe rushed under her. Their fingers found one another and locked together.

“I've got you!” she said.

Her knuckles strained and cracked from the tight grip. Jane screamed out in pain.

Still, it wasn't going to be enough. Vanessa groaned, digging for the strength to hold on. If she let go to get a better grip, Jane would wash away. But they couldn't stay like this, either.

“CARTER!” she yelled.

“I'm coming!” he said. He was close but not there yet.

Jane had her feet hooked into the canoe's frame now. The current was pulling on it, like gravity toward the ocean.

“Just let go of the boat!” Vanessa said. “Forget about it!”

“No! We can do this!” Jane screamed back. Her eyes were wide with fear, but she wasn't letting go.

“CARTER! NOW!” Vanessa said.

“I'm here!” he said. He flipped down next to her. “Jane, give me your hand!”

Jane turned to look at him. Then she pulled one hand free from Vanessa's grip and reached his way.

“Wait! Don't!” Vanessa shouted, but it was too late. Before Carter could grab her, Jane's other hand slipped free. Vanessa felt their fingers untangle, and she could only watch as Jane fell back once more. The last thing she saw was Jane's head hitting the side of the canoe, hard.

“JANE!” she screamed.

Jane didn't answer.

“JANE!”

Already, the current had carried her past the screen, through the mouth of the channel, and out toward the dark ocean
beyond.

C
arter jumped from the giant frame down to the bank and ran toward the shore, calling his sister's name as the canoe slipped away.

He didn't get far. Mima was right there, pulling him back before he even reached the beach.

“What are you doing? We have to get her!” he yelled.

“Mima, let him go!” Vanessa said.

“Fah!”
Mima answered, and pointed straight up instead of out toward the boat.
“Trehila! Trehila!”
she said.

Carter looked up. The trunk of the enormous palm was right over their heads, where it curved like a one-way bridge above the ocean. In the tree's crown, the
guard hut sat at the farthest point over the water—and also well ahead of the canoe itself.

“She's right!” Vanessa said. “We'll never swim fast enough to catch up, but if we hurry—”

“We can jump from up there!” Carter said.

There was no time to weigh options. And Mima's instincts had never steered them wrong. They were already moving toward the base of the tree, with Mima in the lead.

“What about Chizo?” Vanessa asked. “We don't know if he's still up there.”

“It'll be okay,” Carter said.

“How do you know?” Vanessa asked.

The other Nukula had reached the boat depot now. They were starting to make their way downstream. Carter could hear them and see the torches coming closer.

“It'll have to be,” he said, and started up the ladder behind Mima.

“And what about the jump?” Buzz said. “That's almost a hundred feet up. We've never done anything like that. Not even close.”

“That'll have to be okay, too,” Carter said grimly. And he kept on climbing.

Vanessa was twenty feet off the ground before she had to slow down at all. The ladder was lashed to the trunk, and the climbing was easy so far. Now she practically had Carter's heels in her face with every step.

“Go, go, go, go, go!” she said. “We have to hurry!”

“I am!” Carter said.

Mima led the way, and she moved faster than any of them. She quickly put some distance between herself and their group, while Vanessa, Carter, and Buzz worked to keep up.

Gradually, the tree curved out toward the water. It grew at an impossible angle, as if it were too huge and proud ever to go down.

As they passed the treetops of the forest around them, the trunk thinned, and the climbing got harder. Vanessa kept her body pressed close to the ladder, and to the tree itself. It was turning into less of a climb
and more of a pull as she dragged herself along.

The vines of the ladder started to get in the way, too. Vanessa's foot caught in one of the rungs, and she lurched out over the side of the trunk.

Suddenly, she was looking straight down. They were already far higher than she had even realized. The ocean below was just a flat expanse of black, except near the shore, where the fires lit up the water.

“There she is!” Vanessa said as she spotted the canoe.

Jane was on her back, and barely stirring. The canoe had slowed, but it wasn't stopping and it wasn't changing direction. Every second took it farther away from the island.

“Jane!” she yelled. “Jane! Up here!”

“Nessa?” Jane called out. Just the sound of her weak voice through the night air was a relief. At least Jane was conscious.

“We're coming! Just stay put!” Vanessa yelled back. The only thing to do now was to keep climbing.

Slowly—horribly slowly—they progressed toward the top. The tree continued to curve until it had all
but flattened out near the end, where the guard hut waited.

Vanessa stayed low, pulling herself along, bumping over the vine rungs and the rough bark. The trunk was barely as wide as her body now, and a fall felt much more likely. All it would take was one more slip like the last one.

“Buzz? Are you okay?” she called back, without looking.

“Unh,”
was all Buzz answered. It was a yes, but even words were too much of an effort right now.

“Almost there!” Carter called out.

Vanessa risked a quick glance ahead. Maybe thirty feet in front of her, the guard hut stood against a backdrop of
Trehila
's enormous fronds. Mima was nearly to it. Carter was right behind her.

And there on the platform stood Chizo, watching them
approach.