Authors: Ronan Cray
Colin nodded.
Dragos spoke carefully, more grammatically. “She told us something we didn’t know. We are like you. We were stranded here six years ago. Nearly everyone on our ship died. We waited for rescue, but it never came. Tuk organized our survival. We thought we owe our lives to him. When he decided to stay, build a permanent camp here, we agree. We had faith in him, like god.”
“But not anymore.”
“No, not anymore.” Dragos spit in the water. “He lied to us. That night, at dinner, your friend Amy said our ship was stolen. Only one person could have known.”
“Tuk.”
“Yes. If he tried to steal the ship, our crash was no accident. It was
his
fault. The reason he never tried for rescue is that he didn’t want it. He feared going back.”
“Can’t you just leave? Get on a boat and leave?”
“No. Tuk would kill us if we stole boat. He has that Pinoy, Angel, always watching us. We tried to build raft in early years, but failed. Tuk found out.”
“What did he do?”
“Nothing, to us. But Paul he sent outside the wall.”
“Paul was in on it?”
“Yes.”
“Why was he singled out?”
“Because he was new, then. And because he is vegetarian.”
That made no sense, but Carter didn’t ask.
“So we need to take out Tuk.” Eddie had calmed down enough to re-enter the conversation.
“No! We can’t. That would be… wrong.”
“Wrong? He marooned you here! Are you the least bit pissed off?”
“Yes, but killing Tuk is not the answer.”
“Then what is?”
Neither Colin nor Dragos answered.
Colin knew. Tuk had kept them alive for six years. Even if this was his fault, even if he betrayed them, they still owed their lives to his organization. Power endures. That meant they had only one thing in mind. Escape.
Carter had the good sense not to ask about it in front of the others. This was informational gold. Either he escaped with them, or he informed on them to gain the good graces of Tuk. This was a win-win.
“So what happened to Emily?” Amy asked.
Dragos sighed. “She knew too much.”
“Wait, you’re saying Tuk had her killed?”
“Wanted her, had her, who knows? Easy to die on this island. Maybe he didn’t even try.”
“Emily ran away,” Amy said. “I saw her run out of the Camp.” That was new. She hadn’t admitted that before. “Someone ran after her. She didn’t come back.”
Across the plain, Angel appeared on his rounds. Colin motioned everyone back to work. Conversation ceased. They worked for nearly an hour in silence. Dragos finally launched into a non-stop description of his mother’s cooking. No one else spoke. It just made them homesick.
Eventually, the red mess gave way to black rock, like open sores scabbing over. When their shovels scraped basalt, they took turns pumping water back in. A hose trailing in from the ocean attached to a pump powered by an exercise bike. Nothing felt more surreal than pedaling a stationary on a desert island, and Carter couldn’t begin to know where they got it. Each pool had one.
When full, they wrestled the large tarpaulins back across the pool, stretched them tight, and left buckets on the downhill end to collect condensation. The process worked in rotation. In a few days this pool would evaporate and they’d be back to clean out the salt. With all this done, Colin released them.
As Eddie and Amy walked away, Colin took hold of Carter’s arm. He wanted to speak to him in private. He nodded to Dragos.
“You maybe saved his life. He is thankful.”
“Sure, no problem,” Carter replied.
Colin jerked his head toward Carter, eyes on Dragos. He wanted something more.
“Really?” Dragos asked, his eyes wide open. “Yeah, ok. Why not?”
“What?” Carter asked, confused. “What am I missing?”
“He wants to tell you our plan.”
“Escape,” Carter said. He wanted them to know he knew.
Dragos nodded. “Tonight.”
That was a surprise. That didn’t give Carter much time to decide.
One way or another, this would be his last night at Departure Camp. “How?” he asked.
Colin smiled. He pointed upward.
“By air,” Dragos slurred.
Paul never left the campfire until everyone fell asleep. Carter needed to get out of camp for his rendezvous, so he tried to outlast him. He waited until only he and Paul remained around the campfire. Paul didn’t speak, but it troubled Carter to hear him humming 99 Red Balloons.
Did he know?
Carter feigned a yawn and headed toward his bungalow. Carter waited an hour until the camp settled into muffled snoring.
He had just risen to leave when he heard someone else walking around outside. He focused on his breathing and heart rate for several minutes until the sound disappeared. He peered through the crack in his door. No one remained around the embers of the fire pit which meant even Paul had finally called it a night.
Carter had a knack for silence. He slipped away through the sand as quietly as the tall grasses blew in the breeze.
He made sure to urinate prior to leaving the camp. He walked so as not to work up a sweat. He even kept his mouth closed. He had no intention of adding liquids to this soil. Lauren’s body had taught him that.
He had no trouble seeing in the dark. Even without a moon, the Great Salt Wall loomed like a phantom beacon, darker than the night and sparkling with a million more stars. No one stood watch outside the Gate overnight. Still, he kept off the main path. When he reached the Wall itself, he followed it past where it died into Mt. Elvis, then just a bit more to where Dragos and Colin promised to leave a knotted rope for him to climb.
It wasn’t there.
He held his breath in the dark.
What a fool.
Had this been an elaborate trick to draw him away from camp? Was this how the others disappeared, lured by the promise of escape?
Carter never trusted anyone, but he read people well enough to know when someone wasn’t lying. Dragos and Colin were too simple to play a role in a conspiracy. Even Colin, without speech, would give it away.
Carter waited.
He heard footsteps. Sandals scraped against the salt on top of the wall. He had never seen C&C patrol up there, but then he never came out at night, either.
He pulled himself into a narrow cleft like a hermit crab. He always picked his moment, gaining the upper hand on his victims, taking them when they were most vulnerable. Waiting like a cornered fox was not his forte. He balled up his ineffectual fists and held them out against the darkness.
“No one there.” Dragos’ voice drifted over the rustling of a knotted plastic rope dropping down the cliff face.
“I am,” he said, as he took the end of it, tugged, and began to climb. His sore arms barely functioned after the day’s labor.
Dragos carried plastic sacks with various food and supplies. A flagon of water weighted Colin down. Carter, ever the opportunist, did not ask to help. He brought nothing. He kept light on his feet.
Nevertheless, it took some effort to keep up with them as they wove through the night over fields of fallen boulders and slanting crevices, ascending the face of the mountain. It had probably only been half an hour, but it seemed as if he would see the sun before he saw the end of this journey.
A roar of hot, rushing air echoed across the stones like dragon breath. Carter stopped. Was that the volcano? Would it blow? Dragos and Colin didn't take notice, moving on ahead and dangerously out of sight. Carter ran to catch up.
Just around the bend, a hidden plateau emerged. A jagged ring fault surrounded the remnants of a small caldera, completely sheltering this spot from view. A bright glow lit the walls, but it wasn't lava. Two flames hissed like nostrils into the semitransparent walls of a gossamer balloon.
Three men already stood in the basket. Carter recognized Sammy, one of Tuk’s closest advisors. The other two were from other boat crews. Jealousy and admiration filled him. How did they get invited to escape before Carter? He picked the wrong associates.
Emily unleashed a tectonic shift greater than the one that formed this volcano. Colin, Dragos, and Sammy made up half of Tuk’s core contingent. Only a great sense of betrayal could have driven them to escape after six years of harmony. Carter still didn’t fully understand it, but he knew one thing: if three members of the Manor House were moving out, he should turn back now, turn them in, and claim one of those empty spots for himself.
But he couldn't. The balloon captivated him.
Flight! What a glorious double entendre!
Carter didn't know anything about balloons, but this one looked ready to leave.
“You’re just in time!” Sammy shouted out to them. “We couldn’t wait for you and risk being found out. Five minutes and we’re leaving. Help throw the rest of the supplies up.”
Carter stood transfixed, admiring the balloon. “How did you build it?”
“Tie this!” Dragos grabbed a bundle of plastic bags filled with dried fish. He secured it to a series of ropes hanging on the outside of the basket. “Sammy’s idea. He is like dark MacGuyver. Used to be Tamil Tiger, recruited from his village at fourteen, fought in Sri Lanka for ten years. When peace came, he escape.”
“Escaped?”
“After peace, Government purged his unit. Somehow, he saw it coming and managed to get away. Based on his military experience, he was hired on as radio man for ferryboat outside of… I can’t pronounce it. Somewhere in India. He is crafty. I’ve never seen anybody able to build something from nothing the way he can.”
Carter, in his wonder, did not fail to notice the size of the basket. It wasn’t built for six. He was odd man out. Would Sammy let him fly? He needed a back-up plan. There must be something around them he could use.
A considerable amount of debris littered the plateau. It must have taken them some time to build the balloon. At least two weeks. Carter feigned an interest in the construction process as he dug through the remains. “Where did you get the fabric?”
“Parachutes. From an airplane crash.”
Carter found backpacks, flight suits, dried and broken grasses, more plastic bags than he could count, and plenty of discarded fish bones. He checked the flight suits for something useful. He found it. A round cylinder protruded from a holster. It wasn’t a gun, at least not the kind Carter would have preferred. It only shot flares. He hid it under his shirt, in the waistband of his jeans. “Where do you expect to go?” He tried to sound natural.
“Don’t know. Maybe Africa. Maybe when we’re up there, we see ship.”
“Or maybe there’s another island.”
“No.” Dragos didn’t hesitate. “Not another island.”
He tied on the last of the bundles. Already, the balloon lifted a few feet off the ground, straining at the long strands of braided plastic still holding it to Mount Elvis.
Carter made a move toward the basket. Sammy put up a thin, strong hand. “Thanks, Carter, but you’re not coming.”
The flame pulsed again, breathing life into the beast.
“In fact, none of you are. I appreciate your help, but we’re leaving this island without you. I can’t risk the weight of six people in the basket. Don’t give me that look, Colin, you’re the one who brought a stranger. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve put us all at risk. Now throw off those guy lines and find some place to hide.”
Carter suspected this. He shivered with excitement. He couldn’t wait to let them to know they were in his power. He drew the flare gun, smiling. “I have a place in the basket,” he spoke slowly, taking aim at the balloon. “I know Tuk prefers arrivals to departures.”
They did not respond as he expected. In fact, just the opposite. They laughed at him.
“He doesn’t know.” Sammy leered at him.
Carter didn’t like this. He feigned a confidence that seeped out his soles every second. “I know I have you where I want you.”
Sammy settled in the basket like a schoolteacher on a desk. “Sure, go tell Tuk. See what he says. Carter, just because this is fun for me, I have to ask. What do you think happened to your ship?”
“The Princess Anne?”
“Yes.”
“It sank.” He felt like a four year old.
“Of course it sank. But why? I understand you were a Steward on the ship. Did the captain share anything with you? Did you have any clue that the ship would sink that night?”
Carter thought back. He’d sat near the Captain at dinner. There was no indication of distress, no impending sense of doom in the Captain’s demeanor. There were no rumors. No urgent messages passed to the crew. One moment they sailed on calm seas. The next moment Carter found himself in the water.
“Why?” he asked.
“Tell him,” said one of the other Princess Anne survivors.
“No, I don’t want to make it easy for him.”
“Tell him. I want to see the look on his face.”
Carter felt helpless. A moment ago, he held all the cards, but now…