Stranded (19 page)

The soup tasted like diluted ocean water with lumps of chewy sea creatures she presumed were mussels. But the broth was hot and she was cold and she drank every bit of it. When her body stopped shaking and she could put two words together, she told them about the Japanese garden.

“Those soldiers took a long time carving out this cave and planting that garden.” Betty’s voice was somber. “They made this island their home, didn’t they?”

“Well, we’re not.” The words blazed from Eve’s heart. She had a promise to keep. “Tomorrow, Jake will be back and he’ll start repairing the boat. In a few days we’ll sail for the sea-lane.”

She paced the floor, restless for Jake to return, restless to end the day and start a new one. The cloud cover and rain shut out the sun, so they had to guess when evening came.

“I’ll wait up for Jake in case he comes back tonight.” Betty shooed them to the sleeping ledges. “Get your sleep. You’re going to have a busy day tomorrow.”

But when Eve arose the next morning, he hadn’t returned. They waited all day through a whipping rain, and he still didn’t show up.

Sunlight was poking through the cave windows when Eve got up. Her heart jumped. No more rain. No more sitting in the dark inhaling the acrid stench of soggy ashes, with only cold chowder to eat. Today they would get something done so they could finally get off the island.

She glanced around the cave. If Jake had returned last night, there was no sign of him. His bed was empty, the firewood in the cave hadn’t been replenished, and there was no good-morning fruit dumped on the table. Today made three days.

Her stomach tightened into double knots. Why hadn’t she insisted on going with him—or would she, too, have vanished, leaving Betty and Crystal to fend for themselves?

She fought the sparking across her nerves. She had to get ahold of herself before Betty and Crystal woke up. Have a plan ready for the three of them. Crystal could take over the chores of gathering fruit and firewood since Eve would be off working on the boat. It would only be for a few days.

She stopped. Maybe that’s where Jake was, repairing the boat. It would be just like him to make the repair, rainstorm or not, and sail pleased as could be into the cove today, not a thought given to their worry about where he’d been.

She shook Betty and Crystal awake. “The rain has stopped, and Jake’s not back. I’d like to take Crystal with me to get fruit and firewood—”

“Nonsense.” Betty sat up. Wisps of dried grass from the bed tangled in her hair. “You should look for Jake, not fool around with what we’ve already got. Crystal can fetch firewood from under the canvas, and we can make more soup.”

“I could be gone for several days, and you’d have no—”

“Look for Jake. We don’t need fruit. If we run out of wood, Crystal can go upstream for it.”

Eve sighed. She’d just have to say it straight out. “What if I disappear too?”

Betty took Eve’s hand. “Look for Jake. He saved our lives, and we’re not abandoning him.”

Guilt stabbed
her. Once again, without even thinking about it, she’d chosen Romero’s trial over Jake. “All right.” She helped Betty hobble to the table. “I’m going to the boat first. Maybe he’s there, repairing it. But, please, be careful while I’m gone. Don’t take any chances.” She picked up one of the bayonets and left.

A sharp wind rustled the stalks of grass in the Lone Soldier’s field and whipped her hair into her eyes. Gray clouds hovered around the sun, boxing it in, promising rain. Ignoring the hunger pinching her stomach, she trotted across the trench, stopped at the top of the incline to check the broad expanse on the other side for Jake, and hurried to the stream for a drink. She hadn’t climbed the rocky cliff beyond the stream since they had arrived at the cove a week ago. Scaling the precipice was easy with her moccasins, but farther on, at the ocean cliff, with its sheer rock face and seething water far below, her heart pounded. Had they really climbed up the side of this?

She should have listened better to Jake’s description of the path he’d made through the jungle to circumvent the cliff. She’d made a mistake by assuming he’d be there to show it to her. A mistake to think he’d be there to protect and lead her and Betty and Crystal. She should have known better. It was best, always best, to make sure you had control over what was happening in your life.

Rain spattered cold drops that in minutes soaked her clothes. The jungle path was clearly her only option. In spite of the time it would take to follow the path, fighting vegetation beat a fatal misstep on the cliff’s wet side. This way, too, she’d be prepared for getting Betty and Crystal back down to the boat. Besides, she was hungry. She’d find something to eat along the path and get out of the rain.

The jungle’s edge offered several entries. One bore fresh cuts on its trees that had to have been sliced by Jake’s katana sword. The farther she went, however, the more obscure the trail became. The cuts and obvious broken branches that guided her at first became difficult to find. She doubled back and corrected her path three times before she gave up and hacked her own trail with the bayonet.

She found mangosteens and ate, swatting away tiny, winged competitors at every bite. They crawled into her hair and under her clothing and inside her moccasins, leaving itching gravesites when she smashed them. As soon as she got out of this jungle, she was going to strip down in the rain and scrub every inch of her body.

Would she ever get out, though? For all she knew, she was looping circles, or worse, heading straight into the interior of the island. At some point, the path needed to veer back toward the ocean. She should be moving downhill, too, from the top of the ocean cliff to the plateau where they’d rested.

The logic calmed her. She bore left in what she hoped was a turn seaward and oriented herself to journey in a descent instead of climbing. At the sight of chopped tree branches that all but glowed like neon signs, she let out a whoop. She had found Jake’s path! Soon the scraggly trees of the ocean coastline crowded into the jungle against a backdrop of gray sky and drizzling rain. The crash of ocean waves against rock boomed louder as she trudged through the thinning trees.

Unwilling to overlook anyplace she might find Jake, she climbed the stony path to the plateau where they had rested at the bottom of the cliff. Nothing. Nothing on the rocks far below where white foam frothed like spittle. Ridiculous to peer over, flattened on her belly, whimpering as the wind lashed her shirt and hair, but she had to look.

No stripping down to wash the bug bites, either. Water ran from the top of her head down every inch of her body and pooled inside her moccasins. By the time she descended to the next level of jungle, she was shivering uncontrollably. The warm air was no deterrent to wet skin chilled by the wind off the ocean.

She passed the clearing where Jake had cut the moccasins for her, climbed down to the beach where Betty had challenged her that Jake was a good man, and at last stepped onto the long stretch of sand she had stumbled across holding onto Jake’s and Betty’s shoulders. Their journey to the cove ten days ago seemed like ages now, so much had happened.

The tree line at the back of the beach afforded little protection against the rain. The wind swirled the drops in a heavy mist between the trunks of the towering palms and tossed it far back into the slapping leaves of green vegetation. Rubbing her arms, teeth chattering, she plodded one squishy step after another, squinting for a glimpse of the boat among the trees.

“Eve!”

She halted. “Jake?”

He stepped onto the beach. She ran to him, laughing, crying, furious. Should she hug him for being alive, or smack him for making them worry?

He grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the pummeling rain to the boat. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you, what do you think?” Anger flashed heat to her skin but subsided in a snap when she saw him shivering, fists jammed into his armpits to warm his hands. “Why didn’t you come back to the cave? Did you find something on the other side of the island?”

“Nothing but sand and trees—except for these.” He pointed to a pile of thick bamboo poles propped upright against the boat. Their tips were poked between the branches of a nearby tree to keep the wind from blowing them down. “Took me two days to drag them here. Look at those babies, they’re perfect for building outriggers for the boat.”

She forgot all about chiding him. “How long will it take?”

“A day, two at the most, once the sap leaches out.”

“Sap? We have to wait on that?” She touched the wood. It was slick beneath her fingertips, supple, far from hard like the bamboo table and chairs in the cave.

“If we want the boat to float, we do.”

“How long will that take?”

He shrugged. “I’ll have to keep checking. Days. A week. Two weeks.”

She held her breath to keep from screaming. “Can’t we use some other kind of wood?”

“Why would we do that when bamboo is exactly what we want?”

Her huff punched a hole in the mist. “I told you. I’ve got an important deadline coming up. I’ve got to be there.”

“What kind of deadline? Be where?”

“A court date.” There, she’d told him! She folded her arms across her chest, defying him to ask more questions.

But he did anyway. “When?”

“August 24, nine weeks from now.”

He smiled, no doubt pleased he’d pulled the information out of her. “Not a problem. A few sunny days to build the outriggers, and we’ll be off this island long before then. I promise.”

Promise? She huffed another hole into the mist. How good was he for that?

“What’s with the torches?” Jake tumbled an armload of dripping fruits onto the table and sloshed wet footprints to the hearth. Fingers too numb to bend, he fumbled out of his drenched shirt and moccasins to stand shivering before the fire.

“Crystal and I want to see the burial chamber.” Eve shoved the torches away from the wet fruits and began cutting them. “Will you take us?”

The force of her whops on the starfruit left no doubt what his answer had to be. Ten days and the sap still wasn’t finished exiting the bamboo. Every other day, either he or Eve or both had checked on the progress. The Japanese garden had proven a pleasant diversion during the wait, but the moments of sunshine had been rare. The burial chamber would serve as a good distraction. Besides, the cave still held secrets. Barring the presence of giant pythons, he wouldn’t mind exploring that escape tunnel.

“All right, let’s go after we eat.” No sense waiting to dry his clothes. The rain would soak him all over again, but that didn’t mean he’d forego toasting his skin now and seeing if his toes were still alive.

They formulated a plan while they ate. They’d leave Crystal at the entry until he and Eve ascertained that it was safe for her to join them. He didn’t mention searching for the escape tunnel. It only made sense that Eve would return with Crystal to Betty while he scoped out where the second tunnel led.

Sheltering coals crammed into the small cast-iron pot, they tucked the four new torches under their clothes and dashed to the burial cave’s entryway. Inside, the sound of their pants echoed in the blackness, as if the ghouls had crept up and hovered nearby. Add the prospect of a snake or two, and the spookiness pricked Jake’s arms with mountain-sized goose bumps.

He held the first torch against the coals. It hissed to life and filled the close space with the stink of burning synthetic rubber. Everyone coughed until the odor expanded into the tunnel and dissipated. When he raised the torch from the pot, a dim halo of light softened the darkness.

He rose to a crouch. “Watch your head, Eve. You can’t stand up all the way. You okay here, Crystal?”

Her answer was a squeaky mew. Eve reached a hand to the ceiling and got to her feet in a stoop.

He slid the katana sword out of its scabbard and held it at his side between him and the wall, ready for action. “Grab my belt in back so you don’t stumble into me, and we’ll head out.”

“Got it—ready, Colonel, sir.”

He grinned. As far as he was concerned, she could call him that all day. “Twenty steps forward, then we’ll hit a sharp right turn.” He refrained from adding,
Forward, march
.

At the corner, he peered back for a glimpse of Crystal. A faint glow from the rim of the pot gave the only evidence she was there. “We’re going to disappear around a corner, Crystal. Hang tight until Eve comes back for you, okay?”

“I will.” The courage in her voice puffed his chest with pride. It was going to be hard to leave this little gal when they got off the island.

He straightened as they entered the burial chamber, waited for Eve to do the same, and shifted to position the torch between them. “Can you see them?”

“I sure can smell them. Phew-ee! And I thought the birds were bad.”

“If there’s trouble, I want you to run back to Crystal and get out.”

“You didn’t leave me in the ocean. I’m not leaving you in the cave.”

A lump formed in his throat. Sometimes the woman deserved kudos, in spite of her cussed orneriness.

He sidled around the chamber, holding the torch low to the floor to spot snakes, the katana sword ready in his right hand for an attack. When they arrived at the niches
occupied by the corpses, he ignored the skeletons and checked, first quickly, then more thoroughly, for animal life in each bed. When he was sure they were in no danger, he exhaled what felt like
an M1 Abrams tank. “Okay, let’s light the second torch and send you for Crystal.”

While Eve was gone, he gathered up bayonets and looped them in their scabbards over his neck and shoulders. A Marine could never have too many weapons.

“It’s horrid,” Eve warned Crystal as they joined him. The two inched toward the skeletons, Crystal hugging Eve’s arm, her free hand pressed over her nose and mouth.

“It’s like a haunted house at Halloween, except for the smell.” Crystal glued herself to Eve’s side as they examined the soldiers.

“The torches will burn out any minute now. Time to head back.” He would use the last two torches to explore the escape tunnel once Crystal and Eve left.

“Wait, Jake. Over here.” Eve stooped. “Another passageway. I bet it’s the escape tunnel you told us about.”

Great. “Probably. It’s where the snakes went, anyway. I’m going to check it out as soon as you and Crystal leave.”

“Not by yourself, you aren’t.”

He sighed. “We don’t know what’s in there. It might be a whole den of snakes.”

“Uh-uh. This tunnel was carved to go somewhere.”

“Then take Crystal back to Betty first.”

“I want to go with you guys. I’m not scared.”

“Oh, c’mon, Jake. Let’s light the third torch and go for it. You lead the way, and we’ll be fine. If something happens, I’ll make sure Crystal’s not hurt.”

“Pleeeeeeease, Jake!”

He growled at their stubbornness, at the sputtering torch expiring in his hand, at his own reckless impatience to push ahead. “All right, give me that torch—but put plenty of space between you and me in case you need to get out of here.”

He lit the third torch, handed Eve’s back to her, and entered the passageway. Like the entry tunnel, this one forced him to walk at a stoop. He held the katana sword ready, every nerve end zinging on Code Alert. The monster head that had lifted from the pile of coils two weeks ago was fresh in his memory. Would his torch distinguish the snake’s camouflaged skin from the gray hues of the cave walls? His mouth was dry at the prospect that it wouldn’t.

“Coming in,” Eve shouted behind him. Her voice reverberated off the walls. “Crystal is holding onto my waistband. My torch is about to go out, but I can see yours.”

The tunnel sloped steadily upward. Pain shot up his back as he was forced to stoop lower and lower. His head scraped the ceiling and a gritty powder dropped onto his brow and eyelashes. “It’s getting narrow up here. We’re going to have to crawl.” He lowered himself to his hands and knees. Carrying the torch in one hand and the sword in the other was awkward. Sharp cinders in the cave floor stung his knees. “Stay a safe distance back. This is going to be slow going.”

The katana thudded a flat clank each time he moved forward. He had to be careful not to jerk the torch so the head wouldn’t fall off, but he didn’t want to go so slow it would burn out before he saw the end of the tunnel. Or ran into a snake.

“Our torch is out,” Eve called, “but we can still see yours. We’re on our hands and knees now.”

He couldn’t afford to pause and glance back. “My torch is still good.”

“You okay, Crystal?” Eve asked.

“I can’t see you, but I can touch your moccasin ahead of me.” Crystal’s voice sounded farther away than he liked. As soon as he saw the end of the escape tunnel, he’d tell them to catch up with him.

The walls began to squeeze in on him. The top of his head. Then his shoulders. “I’m on my belly now,” he shouted. Why had the soldiers narrowed the tunnel? It would slow down their escape.

He scooted forward on his stomach, squinting to see what the halo of light revealed ahead of him.

The tip of his sword rammed into stone. His heart stopped. Had he been fooled into entering a faux tunnel? Was that why it narrowed—because he’d arrived at a dead end?

His torch hissed with a sudden spike of light. No! It shouldn’t be dying already!

Then it clicked. Air! Somewhere, fresh air was entering the tunnel. He let go of the sword, switched the torch to his left hand, and ran his right hand over the wall. There! Partway up the wall, the tunnel turned a corner. He held the torch up to the opening. The head hissed with another spark.

His shoulders pressed too tightly against the wall for him to turn. He was like a huge human plug. “Eve, can you hear me? The tunnel turns a corner to the right up here. We’re almost at the end.”

“I can’t see the torch anymore.” Her voice was faint.

“My body is blocking it. I’ll wait for you and Crystal.”

“No, go ahead before the torch goes out. We’re fine, aren’t we, Crystal?”

He didn’t hear an answer, but evidently Eve did. “She’s right behind me. Go on.”

The torch was burning faster with the new supply of oxygen. He should at least check out the turn in the tunnel before he had to use the torch tucked in his belt. If he could see daylight, he wouldn’t need to use their last torch. “I’ll go ahead a ways and make sure we’re at the end.”

He poked the lit torch into the hole and squirmed in after it, trying not to scrape the blade of the sword against the wall. Dust from volcanic ash sifted into his eyes, nose, and mouth as he wriggled through the tight quarters. He’d be covered with it from head to toe by the time he got out.

And there up ahead, at the top of a steep flight of stairs, was the exit. He grinned. Not far away at all. He rushed as fast as his legs could climb. With his body plugging the light, Eve wouldn’t be able to see where to go.

At the top, he crawled under a short overhang of rock and stood up. A haze of sunshine lit the surroundings. The scent of flowers permeated the air. He should have known.

“I’m out!” he hollered down the hole. “I’m in the Japanese garden!”

Crystal squirmed sideways to run her palm over the bumpy cave floor. If she didn’t find her sandal, she’d have to leave it behind and walk around outside with one shoe off, one shoe on. The escape tunnel was supposed to be short, not long and creepy like this one. She wiped at her eyes. She hated having to pretend to be brave, when all she wanted to do was cry.

“Still okay, Crystal?” Ahead of her, the noise of Eve’s shuffling crawl stopped. “We’re going to have to scoot on our stomachs from here on.” A grunt followed. “Whoo, the floor is cold!”

“Wait a minute, I lost my sandal.” Crystal swallowed a sob and backed up until her knee struck the hard leather sole. “Okay, I’ve got it now.” It wouldn’t slip onto her foot. If only she could sit up instead of trying to wriggle her toes into it.

The
schlip-schlip
of Eve’s moccasins dragging against the floor made a different kind of echo. Like what a big snake would make. Chills ran down Crystal’s spine. She pushed the sandal forward with her knee and slid her right hand into the leather straps. There, she didn’t need the stupid thing on her foot anyway.

She crawled after Eve but had to flop onto her belly before her fingertips found Eve’s moccasins.
Schlip, schlip
. Nothing to worry about. She gulped back the whimper scratching at her throat.

“I’m at the corner. Are you okay, Crystal?”

A corner? Crystal’s heart beat faster. She bit her bottom lip to keep from yelling
Wait for meeee!
like a big scaredy-cat. She’d told them she wasn’t afraid, so she’d better act like it or they’d never take her anywhere again. “I’m okay.”

She wriggled forward, holding her breath as the floor pinched her bare arms and legs. “Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.” Saying it out loud helped it not hurt so bad.

At Eve’s call, she hushed. All she could hear was “see light.” Eve sounded far away, but she couldn’t be. Maybe it was because the corner stopped the echo from being so loud.

She scooted forward, rubbing her left palm against the wall until it slipped off into emptiness. She’d found the corner! Tears jumped to her eyes. Using both hands to define the turn, she wormed her way into it. “I’m right behind you!” She inhaled a stuttering breath of relief. Any minute now she’d see the light too.

But where, oh where was it? The tunnel tightened around her. Dust prickled into her nose, and her eyeballs stung like she was in a sandstorm. She squeezed her eyes shut and covered her nose and mouth with her free hand. It slowed her down, but that was okay. She’d get to the end, no matter how slow or fast she went.

Strange roots poked at her, so close they rubbed against her head and down her body. Good thing she had the sandal covering her hand to push them aside. If there were roots, then there was a tree somewhere above her. She must be close to the end of the tunnel. She opened her eyes. Nope, no light.

Her free hand touched one of the roots. She squealed. The root was pointed and sharp. Pinpricks zipped down her neck to her tailbone. She stuck her finger into her mouth and gagged at the taste of gritty ash soaked with blood.

A howl crashed out of her lungs, bursting from the dam where she’d stuffed the ghouls and the darkness and getting left behind. “Help!” She yelled it over and over.

“Crystal!” Jake’s voice grabbed hold of her like a big hug. “I’m coming. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’m stuck.”

“Can you back up?”

“No. I’m in a trap with sharp sticks.”

“Don’t move! Stay absolutely still until I get there.”