Watcher's Web by Patty Jansen

of thing she would comment on, in a normal
situation.
    She heaved the
pack up. Her shoulders protested with a stab of pain. God, not more
hills to climb. More moss boulders, more tangled tree roots, there
was no end to it. She peered at the tree canopy, trying to
determine the direction of the sun. West—the direction they had
been heading since leaving the wreck. She plodded off, but after a
few paces noticed the absence of footsteps behind her. Brian still
stood at the creek bank, his face turned up, looking at the tree
canopy.
    “Aren’t you
coming?”
    “Is there
. . . much point in going that way?”
    “Should we be
going any other way?” What did he know about navigation? He’d said
nothing all day yesterday, had been absolutely no help whatsoever
in making decisions. Why the change of mind?
    He shrugged.
“We don’t seem to be getting anywhere.”
    “ Tell
me, where is this anywhere we’re supposed to be getting? Out of this fucking jungle
would do me.” She couldn’t help irritation seeping into her voice.
Hunger stabbed at her belly, made her head pound. She wasn’t in the
mood for arguing. Having a fight would solve nothing either.
They needed each
other. She breathed out heavily, stifling jangled nerves. “Do you
recognise anything? Did you hear anything?” Of course he didn’t. He
was just trying to play boss again.
    When he spoke,
his voice was hesitant. “I thought, maybe
yesterday . . .”
    What
the fuck? “Yesterday? What did you hear yesterday? Why didn’t you say
anything yesterday?”
    Does
he even speak the truth? But her heart jumped in spite of her suspicions. Anything
to get out of this bloody mess.
    “I wasn’t
sure.”
    “What was it?
What did you hear?”
    “I thought I
heard branches cracking. That way.” He pointed downstream from the
creek.
    “That’s a
reason not to go that way. If those trigger-happy lunatics are
following . . .  What else could it be? If they
were true rescuers, they’d call.”
    Shit,
shit, shit.
    He stared at
her, as if that thought hadn’t occurred to him.
    “Come on,
let’s go before they catch up.”
    She started
off, up the hill. This time, Brian followed.
    *     *     *
    Some time much
later, when the light was turning golden, Jessica scrambled onto an
area of land free of trees at the top of a hill. Cloud brushed the
ground, but within a few steps of the tree line, the mist thinned
and then disappeared altogether. A warm, dry breeze touched her
face.
    “Hey, Brian,
look!”
    They had
arrived at the top of an escarpment, and below lay a marshy
landscape. Cloud-brushed cliffs stretched to her left and right as
far as she could see. Ahead, a large cloud blocked the sun, its
edges ringed with light. The marsh disappeared from view in a glare
reflected off the water. This looked just like . . . Yes,
she remembered the vision just before the crash. That meant there
would be . . . She scanned the horizon. The island, with
its jagged profile, protruded from the bath of silver like the back
of a barnacle-encrusted whale. Even from this distance, the square
outlines of buildings were clearly visible.
    “Where the
hell are we?”
    Brian just
stared, his mouth open, green smudges on his face.
    “Come on,
where are we?”
    Not the
Australian bush.
    “I
. . . don’t know.”
    “I don’t
believe that. You’ve been hiding something. What is it?”
    “I don’t—”
    “Yes, you do.
What’s your name? Who are you? You have something to do with this,
don’t you?”
    “I tell you—I
don’t know where we are.”
    “Does this
look like the Australian bush to you?”
    “No, but we
could be somewhere north.”
    “ Where
the sun sets in the ocean? Rubbish! The sun rises from the water on the east coast. Who are you? Not
‘Brian’. Not Australian, not even from New Zealand. You’ve been
gawking at me all along. Just what are you after?”
    “I swear, I
have nothing to do—”
    A branch
cracked in the forest.
    Jessica