froze,
eyeing the wall of rainforest. “Did that sound like footsteps to
you?”
He turned his
head and listened. “Maybe.”
Shit. “Come!
We have to get out of here!” How could he be so calm?
“No. Stay.
We’ll be fine.”
“How do you
know that?”
“We’ll be
fine, really.”
“Oh yeah, you
know these guys. That’s why they’ve killed two of us, huh?”
“I tell you,
we’ll be fine.”
“In the same
way Martin and the other guy were fine? I don’t think so. I don’t
believe you. You’ve been having me on these past few days. What was
this about going the other way this morning? Why didn’t you tell me
what it was you saw, or heard? You’ve been telling me shit—”
“It was not my
fault, I—”
“I don’t care.
I don’t believe you anymore. I don’t care if you’re happy to let
those gun-happy idiots get us, but I’m going to—”
Bushes rustled
behind him.
There was no
time to think, no time to find a place to hide. Jessica ran to the
jagged edge where the escarpment fell away. Bloody hell, what a
gaping drop. At least a few hundred metres, all the way down to the
marshland. Small shrubs clung to the cliff face, the rock soft
yellow. A bit to the right, the cliff had eroded to form a little
valley. Jessica ran in that direction and hesitated again,
teetering at the cliff edge.
Branches
cracked, and a bush moved violently. The pursuers were at the edge
of the forest. There would be twenty, maybe thirty seconds before
they saw her. She glanced down the gully.
“Brian, if you
want to save your arse, come over here!”
God, it was
steep.
Brian turned
to the forest but didn’t move.
There was
nothing for it. No time to wait for him. She launched herself down
the slope. Her feet landed in loose gravel and slid out from under
her. For a terrifying split second she realised she was falling,
and powerless to stop it. Bushes and rocks whizzed past like blurs.
She clawed at the rock, grabbed at passing branches, and tried to
find purchase in the gravel with her feet. Her hands slid over
stone; branches broke; whole bushes ripped out by the roots,
spraying dust and gravel in her eyes.
With a jolt,
she came to a halt in a pile of stones and was, a few seconds
later, blasted in the back by an avalanche of gravel. Stones
bounced around her, over the rocks into the reed bed.
When her heart
had calmed and the roaring of blood in her ears had stopped,
Jessica became aware of an unmusical clattering, like thousands of
sticks rapped against one another in quick, staccato beats, so loud
it hurt her ears.
She pushed
herself to her feet.
Behind her,
the cliff rose in a towering wall of yellow rock. A white trail
marked the rockslide she had just come down.
A bit further
along the base of the cliff the reed beds gave way to a beach,
which ended perhaps a few hundred metres ahead in a spit of sand.
That beach looked inviting. She could take off her clothes there,
and wash them. Maybe, too, she could find something to eat
there.
Jessica
scrambled down the gravel, shook stones out of her shoes, and
pushed through the shoulder-high vegetation. The clattering noise
was even stronger here, as if an entire army of cicadas lived
amongst the reeds. Mud sopped under her feet and sucked at her
shoes with every step, but eventually she made it to the beach.
At that
moment, the cloud at the horizon moved away and sunlight flooded
the sand, eerie and wan.
Jessica
squinted into the light. Weird. The sun looked so small and blue,
and such an unusual glare gilded the bottom of the cloud that had
just moved away. Almost as if behind that cloud
hid . . .
No, that
couldn’t be possible.
Jessica
stared, her heart pounding.
The cloud
continued to move away; the gilded edge intensified,
until . . .
A second glow
of light flooded the marshlands, more yellow, brighter than the
first.
Jessica turned
around. In the low sunlight, her body cast a long shadow over the
sand. Two shadows rather, which mostly
eyeing the wall of rainforest. “Did that sound like footsteps to
you?”
He turned his
head and listened. “Maybe.”
Shit. “Come!
We have to get out of here!” How could he be so calm?
“No. Stay.
We’ll be fine.”
“How do you
know that?”
“We’ll be
fine, really.”
“Oh yeah, you
know these guys. That’s why they’ve killed two of us, huh?”
“I tell you,
we’ll be fine.”
“In the same
way Martin and the other guy were fine? I don’t think so. I don’t
believe you. You’ve been having me on these past few days. What was
this about going the other way this morning? Why didn’t you tell me
what it was you saw, or heard? You’ve been telling me shit—”
“It was not my
fault, I—”
“I don’t care.
I don’t believe you anymore. I don’t care if you’re happy to let
those gun-happy idiots get us, but I’m going to—”
Bushes rustled
behind him.
There was no
time to think, no time to find a place to hide. Jessica ran to the
jagged edge where the escarpment fell away. Bloody hell, what a
gaping drop. At least a few hundred metres, all the way down to the
marshland. Small shrubs clung to the cliff face, the rock soft
yellow. A bit to the right, the cliff had eroded to form a little
valley. Jessica ran in that direction and hesitated again,
teetering at the cliff edge.
Branches
cracked, and a bush moved violently. The pursuers were at the edge
of the forest. There would be twenty, maybe thirty seconds before
they saw her. She glanced down the gully.
“Brian, if you
want to save your arse, come over here!”
God, it was
steep.
Brian turned
to the forest but didn’t move.
There was
nothing for it. No time to wait for him. She launched herself down
the slope. Her feet landed in loose gravel and slid out from under
her. For a terrifying split second she realised she was falling,
and powerless to stop it. Bushes and rocks whizzed past like blurs.
She clawed at the rock, grabbed at passing branches, and tried to
find purchase in the gravel with her feet. Her hands slid over
stone; branches broke; whole bushes ripped out by the roots,
spraying dust and gravel in her eyes.
With a jolt,
she came to a halt in a pile of stones and was, a few seconds
later, blasted in the back by an avalanche of gravel. Stones
bounced around her, over the rocks into the reed bed.
When her heart
had calmed and the roaring of blood in her ears had stopped,
Jessica became aware of an unmusical clattering, like thousands of
sticks rapped against one another in quick, staccato beats, so loud
it hurt her ears.
She pushed
herself to her feet.
Behind her,
the cliff rose in a towering wall of yellow rock. A white trail
marked the rockslide she had just come down.
A bit further
along the base of the cliff the reed beds gave way to a beach,
which ended perhaps a few hundred metres ahead in a spit of sand.
That beach looked inviting. She could take off her clothes there,
and wash them. Maybe, too, she could find something to eat
there.
Jessica
scrambled down the gravel, shook stones out of her shoes, and
pushed through the shoulder-high vegetation. The clattering noise
was even stronger here, as if an entire army of cicadas lived
amongst the reeds. Mud sopped under her feet and sucked at her
shoes with every step, but eventually she made it to the beach.
At that
moment, the cloud at the horizon moved away and sunlight flooded
the sand, eerie and wan.
Jessica
squinted into the light. Weird. The sun looked so small and blue,
and such an unusual glare gilded the bottom of the cloud that had
just moved away. Almost as if behind that cloud
hid . . .
No, that
couldn’t be possible.
Jessica
stared, her heart pounding.
The cloud
continued to move away; the gilded edge intensified,
until . . .
A second glow
of light flooded the marshlands, more yellow, brighter than the
first.
Jessica turned
around. In the low sunlight, her body cast a long shadow over the
sand. Two shadows rather, which mostly
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