The Sabotage Page 6

  That would make sense. They’d been greeted by the adults at the end of the first day and forced to compete in a grueling challenge before they could make camp. Jane suspected it would happen again, but she hoped not. Was it even the end of the day yet?

  “What time do you think it is?” she asked. It was hard to tell, with the half cover of clouds overhead.

  “Time to run,” Carter said, and pointed up the slope behind them. “Here they come.”

  Jane turned to see the other team cresting the hill—the same one she and the others had just cut through, using the cave. Their few moments with the glowworms was going to have to pass for a rest break.

  “This way,” she said, and kept moving.

  She scrambled down a nearly vertical rock face to the ledge she’d spotted from above. Then she sat down, dangled her legs, and made the jump to the soft ground below. Carter, Mima, Buzz, and Vanessa came right behind.

  Jane could hear the other team as they worked their way down the slope, several hundred yards behind now. They were calling out as they came, maybe with some kind of taunting, she wasn’t sure. But one thing was clear—the competition was still on.

  As soon as her own team was on the ground, Jane started running again and didn’t look back.

  Buzz couldn’t believe it felt good to run, but after the chill of the cavern, and with a sense that something else was about to happen, the adrenaline pushed him on. It wasn’t food and water, but it was a burst of energy, anyway.

  He was still the slowest in the group, and he worked hard to keep up. The downhill slope made for easier going. It was better than climbing, anyway. They still had plenty of that ahead of them, with Cloud Ridge looming ever closer.

  Soon, they ran past the area Vanessa had pointed out. It looked as though some dry brush had been collected. Two freshly cut stumps spoke of the need for firewood as well. No sooner had they run by it all than Buzz saw the camp ahead.

  Most of the other Raku Nau runners were already there. They sat gathered in groups around a single, large fire. Unlike the day before, this camp seemed to have been prepared for them. Some of the runners were eating. Others appeared to be sleeping. Those who had been there the longest had clearly had time for both.

  Off to the side, Ani stood with two elders from the village. All three of them had been acting as some kind of observers, or officials, from the start of Raku Nau. They’d appeared at the beginning and end of the first day. And now here they were again.

  Buzz’s gut squirmed with anticipation as they all drew near the camp.

  “Oh, man,” he said. “The last time this happened—”

  “I know,” Vanessa said, with a twinge of dread in her voice.

  The last time they’d been greeted at the end of the day, it wasn’t just about making camp. There had been a punishing challenge waiting for them—the one that had won them the raft.

  “Something tells me this isn’t going to be easy,” Carter said.

  Buzz couldn’t argue with that. Nothing about Raku Nau had gotten easier along the way. Just the opposite.

  So what would it be now?

  Vanessa scanned the camp as they arrived. She counted nineteen runners. With the five on her own team, plus four more coming in somewhere behind them, that was twenty-eight in all. Everyone who had set out that morning had made it through the day. It was a pretty impressive accomplishment by all the competitors and a strong reminder that getting to the end was going to take everything they had.

  Chizo was sitting with the four other boys who made up his team. For a moment—less than a second—his eyes widened. He hadn’t expected them, at least not ahead of any of the others. That much seemed clear. But he didn’t spend any more time on it than that. A moment later, he’d gone back to the food in front of him.

  None of the other runners paid much attention to their arrival, either. Everyone who wasn’t napping was intent on eating. Each of them had a green leaf bundle, which seemed to hold some kind of steaming food. Back in the Nukula village, that was how they’d cooked meat, Vanessa remembered. Her stomach roared to life as she watched them shoving handfuls of it into their mouths almost as if that, too, were a competition.

  Ani pointed them toward a spot by the fire as they came in. More leaf bundles were piled there, next to several waterskins on the ground. Most of the skins looked flat—which meant empty.

  Vanessa didn’t know what was inside the leaves, but she went for the water first. All of them did, including Mima. The thirst was overwhelming, and the signs of dehydration had become a familiar burden by now—the headache, the dizziness, and always, the painfully dry mouth and throat.

  The first skin she picked up was empty. Not even a drop came out of the open neck when she held it over her mouth.

  “There’s a little here,” Carter said, handing one to Jane, but she gave it back.

  “You found it, you drink it,” she said. Carter started to object, but Jane had already turned away, scavenging through the pile.

  “You should hurry,” Ani said quietly as he walked past.

  “Why?” Vanessa looked up at him. She had a whole list of other questions she wanted to ask, but not until they’d gotten something to eat and drink.

  “Because the last ones are almost here,” Ani said.

  It didn’t quite make sense, but there was no reason to doubt him. Ani hadn’t lied to them yet, and when Vanessa looked over her shoulder, the last team was sprinting around the bend into sight.

  Working faster, she picked up three skins at once and shook them. One had a sip of water at the bottom but the other two were completely full. She drained the small one even as she gave the other two to Jane and Buzz.

  Jane drank too quickly, losing a good amount of water out the sides of her mouth. Buzz was like a machine. His head tilted back, and he drank without losing a precious drop, as though it were the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted.

  Just as the last four runners arrived, the female elder stepped forward and called out with a long, trilling note. It was clearly a signal. Everyone around them responded as they had at the beginning of the first day and just before the previous challenge. They put down whatever they had in their hands, went to one knee, and placed one palm flat on the ground. Even the incoming runners knelt down, still heaving to catch their breaths. Those four had left camp that morning well before Vanessa and her team, she knew. They must have gotten lost along the way. Or maybe someone had sabotaged them, too.

  Vanessa had another waterskin halfway to her mouth when the male elder shouted out a word she didn’t recognize, but one that was obviously aimed at her. Ani was already there to take the skin out of her hand.

  “Please?” she said. The small amount she’d had was like a tease more than anything. “Just let me finish that one.”

  But Ani shook his head. “Those who arrive earliest receive the most,” he said. “Those who arrive later receive the least.”

  Ani ducked his chin, indicating the ground where Mima had already knelt. He waited until the rest of them had done the same before he went on.

  Vanessa saw that the other runners were glancing around now. When she looked again, she realized they were all examining the trees surrounding camp. Many of them were painted with the familiar shades of brick red, black, and milky white, in zigzagging patterns, wavy lines, and symbols that may or may not have told a story. The colors were familiar by now. They’d been used to mark the Raku Nau course from the start. But the symbols were impossible to interpret.

  Each tree held a large woven-leaf basket in its lowest limbs. From each of those, a braided cord hung down. At a glance, it seemed there was probably one tree and one basket for each runner.

  “This will determine which of you will continue on toward Cloud Ridge,” Ani told them.

  “What do you mean?” Carter said.

  “Five will end their
journey here,” he said.

  “In other words—this is do or die,” Vanessa said, and swallowed hard.

  Ani’s words were somehow a surprise, and not, at the same time. Raku Nau was a relentless competition and always changing.

  The lingering smell of cooked meat didn’t help, either. They’d barely had time to drink water. Now there would be no food and no rest before this next challenge began. The only ones who had it worse were the four who had arrived behind them.

  “So, what do we have to do?” Vanessa asked. But before Ani could say another word, Carter let out a low growl.

  Vanessa turned to see him looking at Chizo, who knelt on the other side of the fire.

  “Issa tonna atzo—Car-tare,” he called out, flashing his usual cocky grin.

  “I’m going to wipe that stupid smile right off his face.” Carter said under his breath.

  “But not now. Not here,” Vanessa told him.

  To her surprise, Carter nodded.

  “I know,” he said. “He’s just trying to throw me off. But his time’s coming.”

  Normally, her brother would have jumped at Chizo first and thought about it later. This kind of patience was a whole new thing for Carter. It looked as if he was finally learning to play the game.

  They all were.

  Carter listened carefully as Ani knelt with them and explained the upcoming challenge. He spoke in English while the other elders addressed the larger group in Nukula.

  “The next phase of Raku Nau is beginning. You will choose a tree, in the order that you have arrived,” he said. “Each one will hold the basket’s cord over your head. If your arm drops, the cord will tear the weave and release the atzo inside.”

  “Atzo?” Jane asked.

  “Blue paint,” Ani said. “It signifies death. The end of Raku Nau. Red is the fire that began it. Blue is the color that ends it.”

  “That’s it?” Carter asked, looking at the prepared trees around them. “That doesn’t sound so hard.”

  “No. It is very simple,” Ani said. “The question is, how long can you do this very simple thing? It is a test of the body, and of the mind.”

  “You said five people won’t continue?” Vanessa asked.

  “That’s correct,” Ani said.

  Carter took a deep breath. Chizo would just love it if he blew this now. He had to focus. And he had to be strong, for himself, but also to help keep the others going.

  “So we just have to last longer than five of them,” he said. “We can do this, you guys.”

  “We have to,” Jane said.

  And, of course, she was right. He just hoped they could pull this off. Because if not, it would all end right here.

  Buzz was twenty-fourth to pick his spot in the challenge. The elders had been watching carefully, and they had noted who arrived at camp ahead of whom. He’d been the last of his group to reach the fire circle, and the twenty-fourth overall.

  That gave him a choice of five trees remaining. He went to each them and tried to figure out which offered any kind of advantage. It was nerve-wracking, not knowing what might be important here, or if he could do this, or how long the challenge would last. Most of the Nukula kids had all eaten and had a rest—not to mention, they’d all seemed stronger than him to begin with.

  We only have to outlast five, he reminded himself. It wasn’t just about endurance. One slip of the arm, and you were out. There was going to be some luck, as well as some strategy, to all this.

  Some trees offered more canopy overhead, but the real distinction seemed to be the surface on which they’d be standing underneath. Those who had chosen first had selected stations with flat ground. Buzz was left to choose between large exposed tree roots or uneven rocky ground, both of which meant dealing with a tricky stance.

  Finally, he picked a station with two large crisscrossing roots, mainly because it was closest to members of his own team. If he was going to be uncomfortable, at least he’d be able to see Carter and Vanessa from this spot, though not Jane or Mima.

  Once he’d chosen, one of the elders came over. He indicated for Buzz to reach above his head and straighten his arm. Buzz did as he’d been shown, and the man knotted the cord into a loop where it hung to Buzz’s wrist. Then he used a stone blade to cut the cord just beneath the loop.

  That was how they equalized the competition, Buzz realized. Everyone’s arm would be extended the same way, and each cord was cut according to the size of the competitor. It was the strain on each person’s arm that would be the determining factor. Buzz could already feel the pain, and they hadn’t even started.

  “You got this, Buzz,” Carter called over. “Put your arm down and rest until we have to start.”

  Nobody had said so, but it seemed like a good guess that the next day of the competition would be its last—all about the final ascent to Cloud Ridge, where the sixteen seccu were waiting to be claimed.

  Buzz thought about what would happen if they didn’t all make it through this challenge. What then? Did they give up at that point? It was a scary thought and probably best not to dwell on it.

  Ani walked from tree to tree as they got ready. Buzz used the chance of his passing to find out what he could.

  “How far ahead did everyone else get here before us?” he asked.

  “Enough time to eat and rest,” Ani said.

  Chizo had been the seventh to choose a tree, which meant he’d been seventh into camp. There was some small satisfaction, knowing that he hadn’t come in first, after everything he’d done to them. Buzz’s memory of his own capture was still hard to shake off. With any luck, Chizo would go down in flames on this challenge. Then they wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore.

  “Ani, this morning Chizo stole our raft,” he blurted out. “I mean, actually, he stole me first. Kidnapped me right out of camp. Then, when the others came after us, he took the raft, too. Is he even allowed to do that?”

  Ani seemed unperturbed by the question. “If you allowed him to do it, then yes,” he answered. “As I told you before, Raku Nau is achieved—”

  “I know, by any means necessary,” Buzz said. “But that doesn’t seem fair.”

  Ani stared back at him, offering no further explanation. He hadn’t even blinked at Buzz’s story. It was one more reminder that life was very different here.

  “What’s Chizo’s deal, anyway? Why’s he such a jerk?” Buzz asked. “Nobody else is running Raku Nau the way he is.”

  “Chizo is like his father,” Ani said quietly. “Farka. It means ‘storm.’ The Nukula believe these traits come from nature—from the trees and the earth. And they are passed on through the blood. Farka. It is Chizo’s nature.”

  Ani had previously told them that Chizo’s father was chief. Everyone in the village expected Chizo to take that role one day. But that couldn’t happen unless he did well in Raku Nau. Without a seccu, Chizo would have no chance of advancement in the tribe, just like anybody else.

  “I have another question,” Buzz said, but he was cut off. The two other elders had begun calling the group to attention. Once again, all the competitors came into their starting position, each at the base of his or her tree. Buzz did the same, pressing his right palm into the ground.

  He took a deep breath and exchanged a look with Carter, who squeezed his fist and nodded, as if to say, We got this. When Buzz looked to Vanessa, she gave a nervous smile. But even that helped. Buzz was nervous, too.

  The start of the challenge was a familiar process by now. The male elder stood near the fire in the middle of camp. The woman next to him let out another long, sung call, and as it ended, the man brought his hand down to his side. With that, the competitors all came up to a standing position.

  Buzz took another deep breath, settled his feet as evenly as he could, and slipped his hand through the looped cord over his head.

 
The challenge had begun.

  The first fifteen minutes or so were harder than the second fifteen minutes. Jane was guessing at time. It took a while to find a good posture, and for her heart to slow down, as the challenge stretched on.

  Occasionally, a drip of milky blue paint caught the top of her head, or landed near her feet, giving a clue of what was inside. Jane tried to keep as still as possible, leaving no chance of disturbing the woven basket above her.

  Most of the people she could see did the same, with one hand straight up and the other arm bent over the tops of their heads. A few of the Nukula around her were more fidgety, never staying in one position for long. And yet, their upper bodies never wavered. It seemed unlikely they’d be among the first to get eliminated.

  Jane didn’t want anyone to lose a chance here, but it was complicated. If she, Buzz, Vanessa, or Carter made a mistake now, the whole thing was over. They’d either continue on from here as a group, or they weren’t going anywhere.

  She imagined what her parents would think if they could see this crazy challenge—twenty-eight kids in a jungle clearing, each of them with one arm held high, a paint-filled basket waiting to splash down on them if they so much as twitched. It was like a strange tribal version of a “time-out” that might happen back home for the really bad kids at school.

  If only this were just a time-out, Jane thought. But the stakes were far bigger than no Internet for a week, or no recess. In fact, this was as big as could be.

  A shout and a splashing sound came from somewhere nearby. It brought Jane’s thoughts back to the forested arena where the challenge was taking place. She looked over and saw a Nukula boy dripping in milky blue liquid. His arm was down, and the basket over him had split open at the bottom. He shouted out a word Jane didn’t know, then ripped the cord from his wrist.

  “Jane!” Carter shouted over. “Watch it!”

  Looking up, she realized her own hand had begun to droop. It was like being woken from a standing dream. She hadn’t been asleep exactly, but when she realized how close she’d come to ruining everything, she snapped wide awake.