Desperate Measures Page 5

  The more Jane peered around the marsh, the more of them she saw. It was like a seek-and-find puzzle, one shadow after another emerging from the gloom. In the twilight, it was hard to tell the boys from the girls, or if Mima was among them.

  Everyone seemed to be betting on the same thing. If Carter was heading east, he’d have to cross this narrow land bridge. And that’s where someone was going to capture him.

  Jane’s heart sank. They’d made up some ground, but it almost didn’t matter. How were they supposed to find Carter first, much less get him back to the eastern shore in secret?

  Unless. . . .

  “What now?” Vanessa asked. “Any ideas?”

  “Even if we can find him, everyone’s going to know about it,” Buzz said.

  “That’s true,” Jane said. “I was thinking the same thing, but . . .” An idea was flickering to life in her mind.

  “What is it?” Vanessa asked.

  “Well . . .” she said. She squeezed her eyes shut, thinking it through. “We have to figure out something we can do that they can’t. Or something we have that they don’t.”

  “Okay?” Buzz said. “Keep going.”

  “They’re all hiding and staying as quiet as possible, right?” Jane said. “What if we do the opposite?”

  “What does that even mean?” Vanessa asked.

  “This,” Jane said. Then she took a deep breath and screamed their brother’s name as loud as she possibly could.

  CHAPTER 8

  Buzz froze. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing from Jane.

  “CARTER!” she screamed. “IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, DON’T SAY ANYTHING! DO NOT SAY ANYTHING! JUST LISTEN!”

  The swamp seemed to echo with her voice. Everything else was still.

  “Are you crazy?” Vanessa yelled. She grabbed Jane by both arms. “What are you doing?”

  “The only thing we can!” Jane said, not even trying to quiet down. “CARTER, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, THERE ARE PEOPLE HERE TRYING TO CATCH YOU. STAY OUT OF SIGHT, AND LISTEN TO MY VOICE!”

  Buzz stared at her hard. He trusted Jane, but he didn’t understand.

  “Jane?” he said.

  “If Carter’s coming through here, there’s literally no way for us to get to him without people noticing,” she explained. “So maybe he can get to us.”

  “What good does that do?” Vanessa asked. “Everyone knows we’re here.”

  “That’s the point,” Jane said. “First, we create as much of a distraction as we can. And then we get Carter into that tunnel. It seems like we’re the only ones out here right now who know about it. That’s worth a lot.”

  “Yeah, but the tunnel’s pitch-black,” Buzz said. “Without any fire, what good does it do us now?”

  “It would be hard to get back that way, but not impossible,” Jane said. “Remember the caves on Nowhere Island?”

  They’d all had to feel their way through the pitch-black before. It had been one of the hardest things they’d done, but they’d made it through.

  “Carter can do this,” Jane added. “I know he can.”

  “Hang on,” Buzz said. “Why just Carter?”

  Jane put a hand over her eyes. She seemed to be making up parts of the plan with every new second.

  “We’ll . . . tell him where the tunnel is,” she said. “If Carter can get back and stay out of sight underground until we find him, then we can try to sneak him over to Ani’s canoe. Everyone else is going to have to go back by land at some point, and we’ll follow them that way. Or we’ll find our own way—”

  “Hang on,” Vanessa said. “Do you know how many things you just named that could go wrong?”

  “What if Carter isn’t anywhere near here?” Buzz said. “We don’t even know if he can hear us.”

  “We’ll keep yelling for him, over and over,” Jane said. “All night, if we have to. Ani’s the only other one on this island who speaks English.”

  “What if one of the guards finds him at the other end?” Vanessa said. “Or one of the elders?”

  Jane took an impatient breath. “And what if someone here finds him first?” she said. “And what if the tide rises and fills the tunnel with water? And what if anything, you guys! Do either of you have a better idea? Because I sure would like to hear it!”

  Buzz swallowed hard. He felt stunned, the same way Jane looked. She’d never taken charge like this, or even spoken to them so forcefully.

  “One more thing,” she said. “We should spread out. Buzz and I can keep going into the swamp near the others. Vanessa, see if you can roll that rock back to hide the tunnel after we’re gone. We’ll try to distract everyone so they don’t see you doing it. Then you should move away from it, too. We don’t want to be anywhere near it if Carter . . . well, hopefully when Carter gets this far.”

  “Got it,” Buzz said.

  Maybe Jane’s idea was crazy, or maybe it was brilliant, but they had to go with it. This was about what they could do right now, because there wasn’t anything else.

  Without another word, they moved out. Jane went left. Buzz went right. Vanessa hung back. And then Jane started up, yelling all over again.

  “CARTER! IF YOU CAN HEAR MY VOICE . . .”

  “. . . DON’T SAY ANYTHING! JUST LISTEN! THERE ARE PEOPLE HERE LOOKING FOR YOU . . .”

  Carter couldn’t believe his ears. It was Jane, coming from somewhere ahead. Somewhere not that far off. How was this even happening?

  “STAY OUT OF SIGHT, AND IF YOU CAN COME THIS WAY, DO IT. THERE’S A TUNNEL YOU HAVE TO FIND, NEAR VANESSA.”

  And then Vanessa’s voice was there.

  “CARTER, THIS WAY!” she shouted from a different place. “IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, LOOK FOR THE BIG TREE ON THE EDGE OF THE SWAMP. THE TUNNEL ENTRANCE IS RIGHT THERE, UNDER A BIG ROCK. THAT’S WHERE YOU NEED TO GO!”

  “JUST KEEP LISTENING!” Buzz shouted from another direction. “AND KEEP TRYING TO MOVE TOWARD VANESSA. JANE AND I ARE GOING TO MAKE AS MUCH OF A DIVERSION AS WE CAN!”

  Of course, Carter thought. He was the only one who could understand them. Mima knew a few English words, but Mima wasn’t their problem right now. Everyone else was.

  It was starting to make sense, and it was incredibly smart. This was probably Jane’s idea. Just the sound of their voices flooded him with relief and gave him a surge of energy, too.

  And then they started over, with all of the same instructions.

  “CARTER! IF YOU CAN HEAR MY VOICE, DON’T SAY ANYTHING!” Jane screamed. “JUST LISTEN . . .”

  Jane and Buzz were on the move, from the sound of it. And Carter needed to be, too. But carefully.

  He took a deep breath. Going slow wasn’t his strong suit. Still, he crouched down and tried to get a read on the landscape before he did anything else.

  Through the swamp, maybe fifty yards ahead, he spotted two runners. One was stringing vines between two trees. The other was pushing through the bog, up to his chest in the scummy water. He spoke to a third Nukula as he passed, someone Carter hadn’t even noticed until that moment.

  The Nukula were masters of camouflage and not being seen. That much Carter knew. And maybe he could take a page from their playbook.

  He crept backward and took a position behind one of the half-dead trees that grew all around. There was no shortage of mud here, and he scooped up two big handfuls. It went onto his arms, his legs, his face—even his clothes and hair—like a paste.

  The whole time, Vanessa, Jane, and Buzz were shouting themselves hoarse, repeating the same ideas over and over.

  “CARTER, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME . . .”

  “FOLLOW MY VOICE . . .”

  “THERE’S A TUNNEL . . .”

  I hear you, I hear you! He wanted to yell it out more than anything. Instead, he stayed out of sight behind the tree and stood up slowly. Reaching a lit
tle higher, he pulled down a thick sheet of the gray moss that grew over the tree’s branches. Most of it crumbled away in his hands, but it left enough to do one arm. And there was plenty more where that came from.

  Working as quickly as he could, he plastered himself in a rough coat of the moss. Hopefully, between that and the oncoming darkness, he’d have the cover he needed to get across the bog. A lot of the moss would wash away in the water, but there was nothing he could do about that. All he could really do was stay low, move carefully, and keep his eyes open.

  Carter scanned a full 360 one more time. The nearest runner he could spot was still a good distance off. This was his chance to get going.

  He lowered himself all the way to the ground. He took a breath for focus. And then he started a silent, methodical crawl toward the sound of his sister’s voice.

  Jane moved deeper into the swamp, pulling her feet through the thick, muddy bottom. The water was up to her chest now. She couldn’t see Buzz anymore, either, but she could hear him. Both of them kept calling out, giving Carter instructions and creating as much distraction for the other runners as they could.

  “THERE’S ONE IN A TREE RIGHT ABOVE ME!” she shouted.

  “TWO MORE OVER HERE!” Buzz answered back. “ONE OF THEM’S STILL HEADING WEST.”

  “I THINK IT’S ALL CLEAR HERE!” Vanessa shouted. “BUT CARTER, IF YOU CAN HEAR US, PLEASE BE CAREFUL! THEY COULD BE ANYWHERE!”

  It felt good to scream, just to let off some of the nervous energy inside. Meanwhile, Jane forced herself not to look back in Vanessa’s direction. If Carter was moving that way, they needed to keep everyone else’s focus away from the tunnel.

  They’d definitely gotten some attention. Above her, a Nukula boy sat on a branch, looking down as she passed. He said something to her that sounded angry, but she ignored him and kept moving as though she knew exactly where she was going. Two others had begun to follow her, too, not even trying to hide anymore.

  “ANY OF YOU GUYS SEE MIMA ANYWHERE?” Vanessa called over.

  “NOT YET!” Buzz called back.

  “ME, NEITHER!” Jane answered. It would have been completely like Mima to continue west and separate herself from the larger group. But it was impossible to know where she was.

  I hope you’re out there somewhere, Mima. Please, help us if you can.

  The longer it all went on, the more Nukula voices started cropping up around the swamp. They all seemed confused now, which was good news. It was no guarantee, but it gave Jane, Buzz, and Vanessa more to work with than they’d had a few minutes earlier.

  And right now, they needed any advantage they could get.

  CHAPTER 9

  Carter slid through the swamp one step at a time, keeping low in the water. His head was still covered with a makeshift hood of the moss, and he probably looked like something out of a scary movie, he thought. Or better yet, he’d look like nothing at all and blend right into the bog around him.

  The whole idea was to stay as far from any of the Nukula as he could manage. It reminded him of something Dad had said before, about getting downfield in a game. Go where the other guys aren’t. It was so simple, but so true.

  Of course, it was a whole lot easier when the other team wasn’t practically invisible in the dark. But it was something to think about, anyway.

  “CARTER, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME . . .” Jane started up again. This time, she was off to his left.

  “CARTER!” Buzz yelled from farther off. “HEAD TOWARD VANESSA!”

  “OVER HERE! CARTER!” Vanessa’s voice followed theirs. “THE ENTRANCE TO THE TUNNEL IS BETWEEN THE ROOTS OF A BIG TREE.”

  He could hear them talking to each other, too.

  “How long should we do this?” Buzz asked from wherever he was.

  “I don’t know,” Jane called back. “As long as we can. Carter wouldn’t give up on us, and we can’t give up on him.”

  It was a bizarre feeling to know they were right there, yet to stay perfectly still. Everything in him wanted to jump up and race over to Jane.

  Instead, he waited like a statue for several minutes until the one Nukula boy he could spot had moved on. Then Carter pointed himself east again and continued toward the far side of the deep pool.

  Finally, straight ahead, he saw it. The water gave way to a muddy shore, and beyond that, a tree sat with a large rock wedged between its roots. That had to be it.

  As he moved into the shallower water, he sank down even more, bending his knees at first, then lying flat when he had to. He pulled himself along by his hands now, with only his eyes and the top of his head breaking the surface.

  When he couldn’t go any farther without standing up, he stopped again. There was just a short patch of open ground between him and the tree he was trying to reach. That meant one more big move, if he could manage to make it without being seen.

  But that was a big if.

  Vanessa’s skin prickled when she saw Carter at the water’s edge. He was maybe fifty feet off to her left, and less than half that distance from the tunnel entrance.

  It was amazing. Jane’s plan was actually working!

  She turned to face west again, her heart racing. It was too risky to look Carter’s way for very long. There was no knowing who was watching who out here.

  “Jane? Buzz?” she called out. “I think he’s here. I don’t want to say too much, but Carter, I can see you. Don’t look around. Just keep going. As far as I can tell, you’re clear to go. The tree’s straight ahead. It’s the one with the rock between the roots.”

  She cut her eyes over one more time. It was hard to tell in the dim light, but it looked as though Carter was nodding.

  “Jane?” she called again. “Buzz? Don’t do anything. Just wait.”

  “Got it!” Buzz yelled.

  “You can do it, Carter!” Jane called back.

  But then Vanessa heard a Nukula voice, too. It came out of the dark, closer in than Jane or Buzz. “Runaka, okolo!” the boy said.

  Then another. “Betta eh fatzo, tikka-ko, tikka!”

  That was followed quickly by splashing and footsteps, all of it coming closer.

  “They may have spotted him!” Vanessa reported. “Carter. Just go! I can’t see them, but hurry if you can!”

  “HEY! HEY! HEY!” Jane yelled from her place in the bog. “OVER HERE, EVERYONE! OVER HERE!”

  “OVER HERE!” Buzz yelled, picking up Jane’s cue. It was more important than ever to keep everyone else distracted.

  Vanessa held her breath. She watched as Carter came onto his feet and made a low run toward the tunnel entrance. It was too dark to see much, but the others were definitely moving in, and fast.

  This was going to be close.

  CHAPTER 10

  Carter’s feet slipped over the mud as he tried to get some traction. He stumbled, went down, scrambled back up, and kept moving.

  This was it. He’d either make it to the tunnel or he wouldn’t.

  In a second he’d reached the big rock between the roots of the tree. He threw his arms over the top of it and heaved. The rock pulled away in one fast motion. His exhaustion was nothing. Right now, adrenaline was everything.

  Before he could make his next move, another yell came from much closer, this time in Nukula.

  “Runaka! Betzo aztet! Runaka looko!”

  “CARTER, WATCH OUT!” Vanessa shouted.

  He froze. Should he keep going? Try to disappear into the tunnel? Run back to the swamp?

  “OVER HERE!” Buzz yelled. “OVER HERE!” He was trying to keep up the diversion, but it was too late.

  Carter turned to see several shadows closing in. He bent his knees and put his hands up, ready to tackle his way out of this if he had to. But before any of the others could get there, a vine loop dropped into his field of vision. He noticed it at the same moment
it slipped around his head.

  Carter reached up to snatch the vine off, too late. It already had him, and pulled up tight under his chin.

  Someone dropped from a branch overhead. The slack in the vine went even tighter, and nearly yanked Carter off his feet. Whoever it was hit the ground behind him and snaked both arms around his shoulders. The loop tightened again, cutting into his windpipe.

  Carter’s first thought was Chizo. But it couldn’t be. Or could it?

  He twisted around trying to see just as his attacker threw him to the ground—but not before he got a glimpse of her face.

  It was Mima.

  Jane was rushing back toward the shallow water when she saw it happen. Mima dropped from the tree, holding one end of a vine. The other end looped over the limb she’d left behind and back down to where it had Carter by the neck.

  Mima landed on him and brought him up with both hands around his shoulders. There was a fast tussle, even as all of the others closed in from several directions.

  “CARTER!” Jane screamed. She didn’t stop as she ran out of the water and right to him, squeezing through the group to get to her brother.

  “FAH!” Mima reached out with one hand and knocked Jane straight back.

  Jane stumbled and fell hard in the mud. The shock of the hit was as strong as anything she’d felt since coming to this place. Her mind reeled, trying to make sense of what was happening. Did Mima think she was someone else?

  Buzz and Vanessa were there now, too. Several Nukula were trying to take Carter for themselves, but Mima was having none of it. She screeched at them all, and slashed at the air with her stone knife in a warning. It brought the chaos to a fast standstill, and everyone backed up.

  “Carter!” Jane tried again from where she stood.

  Carter didn’t move. He couldn’t. When he tried to turn toward Jane, he coughed and gagged. Mima had drawn up the slack in the vine, keeping herself between him and everyone else. Now she turned and cut the vine with two quick swipes of the knife, freeing it from the branch above.