Alex Garland - The Beach

'There's only five people with Walkmans in the camp, and I've refused all of them batteries in the past.'

'Oh... Then we're fucked.'

'Mmm,' Keaty agreed. 'Looks like it.'

Invisible Wires

But as fate turned out, we weren't fucked. Help arrived from an unexpected source.

We went over to the cooking hut to tell Unhygienix about the batteries, and as I began to explain he turned from the fire, his face an angry red and shining with sweat. I took an instinctive step backwards, amazed he was taking the news so hard.

'Batteries?' he said, in an alarmingly quiet voice.

'Uh... Yes...'

'What about the rice?'

'The rice?'

Unhygienix began swiftly marching to one of the storeroom huts, so we followed behind.

'There!'

We looked inside. I could see three empty canvas sacks and two more, full.

'What's the problem?' said Keaty.

Unhygienix tore open the top of the nearest full sack and rice poured out; black and green, puffed up into fat clods of fungus, completely rotten.

'Jesus,' I muttered, covering my nose and mouth to block the appalling smell. 'That's horrible.'

Unhygienix pointed to the roof.

'It leaked?'

He nodded, too furious to speak. Then marched back to his cooking.

'Well,' said Keaty, as we walked back to his tent. 'It isn't all bad news about the rice. You should be glad, Rich.'

'How's that?'

'No more rice means a Rice Run. Now we get some new batteries.'

Keaty lay on his back, smoking one of my cigarettes. I was down to one hundred, but seeing as I'd finished up his EverReadies I couldn't really refuse him.

'I think,' he said, 'there's two main reasons people don't like doing the Rice Run. Number one, it's a complete hassle. Number two, it means visiting the world.'

'The world?'

'The world. It's another Daffy thing. The world is everything outside the beach.'

I smiled. I knew exactly where Daffy had picked up the term — the same place I had. Keaty noticed and propped himself up on his elbows. 'What's so funny?'

'Nothing. Just... The GIs used that word in the same way, to describe America... I don't know. I just thought it was funny.'

Keaty nodded slowly. 'Hysterical.'

'So what happens on the Rice Run?'

'A couple of people take the boat and head for Ko Pha-Ngan. Then they pick up some rice, and head back here.'

'We've got a boat?'

'Of course. Not all of us are such good swimmers as you, Rich.'

'I didn't realize... I didn't think about that... Well, a quick trip to Ko Pha-Ngan doesn't sound too bad.'

'Yeah.' Now Keaty was grinning. 'But you haven't seen the boat yet.'

An hour later the entire camp sat in a circle — all except Étienne and Françoise, who still weren't back from the corals. The news about the rice had been passed around quickly, and Sal had called a meeting.

Keaty nudged me while we waited for the talking to start. 'I bet you Jed volunteers,' he whispered.

'Jed?'

'He loves taking on missions. Just watch him.'

I was about to reply when Sal clapped her hands and stood up. 'OK,' she said briskly. 'As everyone knows, we've got a problem.'

'Too fuckin' right,' drawled an Australian voice from the other side of the circle.

'We thought we had another seven weeks of rice, but it turns out we've only got enough for two days. Now, this isn't a major catastrophe, nobody's going to be starving to death, but it is a minor one.' Sal paused. 'Well, you know what's coming. We need to go on a Rice Run.'

Several people booed; mainly, I guessed, out of a sense of duty.

'So... Who's volunteering?'

Jed's hand shot up.

'What did I tell you?' hissed Keaty.

'Thank you, Jed. So OK... that's one... Who else?' Sal scanned the faces, most of whom had noticeably downcast eyes. 'Come on... We all know Jed can't do it alone...'

Just as when I jumped from the waterfall, I only realized what I was doing after I'd started doing it; an invisible wire seemed to have attached itself to my wrist and was pulling it upwards.

Sal noticed, then glanced at Bugs. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him shrug.

'Are you volunteering too, Richard?'

'Yeah,' I answered, still a little surprised to find that I was. 'I mean... Yeah. I'm volunteering.'

Sal smiled. 'Good. That's sorted then. You'll leave tomorrow morning.'

There wasn't much preparation to be done. All we needed was money and the clothes on our backs, and Sal produced the money. I spent the rest of the afternoon fielding Keaty's accusations about my sanity.

Étienne and Françoise finally returned from the corals as it was getting dark. They were also surprised I'd volunteered.

'I hope you are not bored with life here,' Françoise said, as we chatted outside the longhouse entrance.

I laughed. 'No way. I just thought it might be interesting. Anyway, I haven't seen Ko Pha-Ngan yet.'

'Good. It would be sad to be bored of Eden, no? If you are bored of Eden, what is left?'

'Eden?'

'Yes, you remember. Zeph called this place Eden.'

'Zeph...' I frowned, because, of course, I hadn't remembered. 'Yeah, that's right... He did.'

'Toon Time

I stared hard at the water. I needed to stare hard. The image under the surface kept shifting, and I had to concentrate to work out what I was seeing.

One moment I was looking at coral. Red corals with curving white fingers. The next moment I was looking at bare ribs poking out of bloody corpses. Ten or twenty ruined bodies, or as many bodies as there were coral beds.

'Rorschach,' said Mister Duck.

'Mmm.'

'Is it a cloud of butterflies? Is it a bed of flowers? No. It's a pile of dead Cambodians.' He laughed quietly. 'That's a test I don't see you passing.'

'I don't see you passing it either.'

'Well said, Rich. A salient point.'

Mister Duck looked down at his wrists. Large black scabs had formed around his hands and lower arms. It seemed he'd finally stopped bleeding.

'I tell you, Rich,' he said. 'Getting these bastards to close up has been a nightmare... A total fucking nightmare, I'm not kidding.'

'How did you do it?'

'Well, I tied a cloth around the top of each arm, really tight, and that slowed the blood enough to let me clot. Clever, huh?'

'That's the boy...' I began, seeing my chance, but he interrupted me.

'All right, Rich. That'll do.' He rocked on his heels like a kid with some good news to tell. 'So, ah... do you want to know why I did it?'

'Healed the cuts?'

'Yes.'

'OK.'

Mister Duck smiled proudly. 'I did it because you wanted to shake me by the hand.'

I raised my eyebrows.

'Remember? You were walking back from the carved tree and you decided you wanted to shake me by the hand. So I said to myself, I'm not going to let Rich shake my hand if I'm bleeding all over the place! No fucking way!' He emphasized his words with a jabbing finger. 'Rich is going to get a clean hand to shake! A dry hand! The kind of hand he deserves!'

I wondered how to respond. Actually, I'd completely forgotten about shaking his hand, and wasn't even sure I still wanted to.

'Well...'

'Put it there, Rich!' A darkly stained palm shot out.

'I...'

'Come on, Rich! You wouldn't refuse to shake a guy's hand, would you?'

He was right. I never could turn down an extended hand, even from enemies. 'No. Of course not...' I replied, and added 'Daffy' as an afterthought.

I reached out.

His wrists exploded. They burst apart into two red fountains, spraying like high-pressure garden hoses, soaking me and blinding me, filling my mouth.

'Stop it!' I yelled, spitting and spinning away from the jets.

'I can't, Rich!'

'Just fucking stop it!'

'I...!'

'Jesus!'

'Wait...! Wait, wait... They're getting back to normal...'