Chris Ryan - Survival

'Make sure it's on channel sixteen,' warned Amber. 'That's the emergency channel.'

Hex checked his dials, then nodded, his fingers hovering above the morse code key. He looked at Paulo. 'Ready?' he asked.

Alex stopped cleaning Hex's wound and Li stepped closer to watch as Paulo began to crank the handle, slowly at first, until he was sure it would keep turning. 'Anything?' he asked.

'Keep going,' said Hex, staring at the dials. 'Step up the speed a bit.'

Paulo cranked until the sweat was dripping from his face. He was about to give up when Amber yelled, 'Something's happening!'

A light began to flicker behind the clouded dial window. There was a crackle of static. Then the generator handle began to squeal. Paulo gave it an anxious glance. 'Now, Hex!' he called. 'Send the message. Quickly! It will not last much longer.'

Hex tapped out the SOS signal on the morse key.

Dot, dot, dot – dash, dash, dash – dot, dot, dot.

'Again!' yelled Paulo as the squeal of the generator handle turned into a shriek and a thin line of smoke rose from the box.

Dot, dot, dot – dash, dash, dash – dot, dot dot.

Dot, dot, dot – dash, dash -

The crank handle snapped off with a sharp crack and Paulo fell forward onto the sand. Startled, Hex stopped signalling but Paulo frantically waved him on.

'Keep going,' he snapped, spitting sand out of his mouth. 'There may be stored power…'

Hex turned back to the morse key and resumed sending the SOS message, but everyone could tell it was hopeless. The radio was completely dead.

'Maybe that was enough,' said Li, into the silence.

'Two and half SOSs? I don't think so,' said Hex, lying back on his bed.

'It might be,' persisted Li.

'Even if it was enough,' sighed Hex, 'I couldn't give them our position.' He laughed without humour. 'How could I? We don't know where we are!' The smile turned into a grimace of pain as he shifted his wounded leg, trying to get comfortable.

'But what if a – a satellite picked up the signal? The satellite could pinpoint our position, couldn't it?' Li sent Alex a pleading look. He smiled, but did not know what to say. Li was clutching at straws and, in reality, she knew it.

Alex stood up and walked over to the fire. Spitted chunks of the komodo's tail were roasting over the flames. Amber followed him reluctantly. She was supposed to be keeping an eye on the meat.

'Oh, that is gross,' she said, softly, peering down at the pieces of tail. 'Paulo! The skin is splitting open!'

Paulo was still tinkering with the radio, but his heart was no longer in it. 'Good,' he called over his shoulder. 'That's exactly why we've been roasting them. You should be able to peel the skin back now. Cut the meat into chunks and put it into the bamboo steamers.'

'Do I have to?' muttered Amber, gazing with barely disguised disgust at the pink meat bulging from the split tail skin. 'Give me a hand, will you, Li?'

'One minute,' said Li. She was watching Alex. 'We need to talk,' she said, softly. Alex looked up, saw Li's serious expression, and nodded. Li walked a little way away from the campsite and Alex followed.

'How's the leg wound looking?' she asked, glancing back at Hex.

'Not good,' said Alex.

Li sighed. 'Do you have any antibiotics in your survival tin?' she asked.

'Why?'

'Do you?' repeated Li, biting her lip and looking at him hopefully.

'No,' said Alex.

Li groaned and sank down onto the sand. Her eyes were brimming with tears. Alex felt a cold chill run down his back.

'Tell me,' he said, sitting down beside her.

'If a komodo doesn't manage to disembowel its prey right away, it has another, slower way of killing,' said Li. 'All it needs is one bite. It doesn't even need to be a serious bite. They have special grooves in their teeth. Shreds of meat collect in the grooves and rot – it's a bacteria breeding ground. Even their saliva has over fifty different strains of bacteria – and at least seven of those strains are highly septic. Once an animal is bitten, it may run off, but all the komodo has to do is follow along behind.'

Li looked at Alex and saw in his face that he understood exactly what she was saying.

'Septicaemia,' he said, flatly. 'Blood poisoning.'

Li nodded.

'How long has he got?' asked Alex.

'Without antibiotics?' Li looked over at Hex and felt her throat close up. 'Three days at the most. Probably less.'

Alex rested his head in his hands. Suddenly he felt very tired. He had worked so hard to keep everyone alive and healthy. All the basic survival problems had been solved. They had established a good camp, with a separate latrine. They had food, water and fire. But this? Alex sighed. This problem was beyond him.

'Alex?' whispered Li. 'Maybe our SOS got through. And maybe they have the technology to locate us just from that message. What do you think?'

Alex lifted his head and stared out to sea. His expression was bleak and a muscle jumped in the angle of his jaw. 'We'll know soon enough,' he said. 'If someone pinpointed our position, they'll be here before nightfall.'

'And if they're not?' asked Li.

Alex shrugged and looked down at his hands.

'Don't,' said Li in a quavering voice. 'Please don't.'

Alex turned to look at Li. Her chin was trembling and her eyes were brimming with tears. 'Don't what?' he asked.

'Don't give up,' said Li. She shook her head and the tears spilled over onto her cheeks. Alex put an arm around her shoulders and she turned her face into his shoulder. 'You can't give up, Alex,' she wept. 'Not you. You're the strong one. You keep us all going. If you give up, then we're all going to end up like – like that Japanese soldier in the cave. We'll all be skeletons, picked clean by the insects-'

Li stopped as Alex grabbed her shoulders, turning her to face him. 'What did you say?' he said.

'I – I said, we'll all end up as skeletons, like-'

'- like that Japanese soldier,' finished Alex. He let go of Li's shoulders. 'I wonder…?'

Alex turned to stare up at the mountain, lost in thought. His back was straight and his eyes were sharp and focused again. Li held her breath and waited. Finally, he gave a decisive nod. 'Right,' he said, turning to face Li once more. 'Here's what we're going to do.'

'The lizard's ready!' called Amber, shaking the white chunks of meat out of the bamboo steamer onto a banana-leaf plate. 'Yum, yum,' she added in an undertone as she stared down at the steaming mound of komodo flesh.

'We shall mix it with this,' said Paulo, mashing boiled yams with a stone. 'And pretend it is chicken. It will be fine.'

'Yeah, right,' muttered Amber. She put her hands on her hips and turned to glare at Hex. 'I said, come and get it!'

Hex sat up slowly, then sank back onto his bed. 'Not hungry,' he said, turning his face away.

'Well that's just great,' said Amber. 'I slave over a hot fire cooking a lovely meal of giant reptile and you turn your nose up at it.'

Hex did not answer. Amber tutted and looked across at Alex and Li. They were still huddled further down the beach with their heads close together, deep in conversation. They had been like that for the past twenty minutes. Li had drawn some sort of diagram in the sand and they were both studying it intently. Li was doing most of the talking, pointing to the sand, then pointing up at the mountainside.

'Hey!' yelled Amber. 'I said, come and get it!'

Alex and Li looked at one another and shared one last nod. Then they both clambered to their feet and walked up the beach towards Amber.

While Paulo and Amber finished preparing the food, Alex poured some boiled drinking water into a coconut half-shell and took it over to Hex. 'Don't you fancy any lizard then?' he asked, sitting on the edge of the camp bed.