Jahmin and Liam clambered uphill through the thick undergrowth, all the while listening out for the river to guide them in the right direction. Between the bush and the river was a swamp, thick with reeds and mozzies. The bush, although hard work, was a lot better than being eaten alive.
Liam heard Jahmin call out to him a few times to slow down, but he ploughed on regardless. If he concentrated on moving his legs, maybe he wouldn’t have to think about anything else.
He crashed through a grove of nīkau palms, came out the other side and paused. His breathing was ragged and harsh, and he could feel his pulse beating in his eardrums. The birds had fallen silent. After a minute or so, he retraced his steps a little.
‘Jahmin?’ he called, once, twice. He cocked his head. What was that? He squinted through the palms, but the breeze was making the leaves rustle and sway, and it was impossible to tell if anything was there.
But what would be there? Liam pressed his back against a tree trunk, wanting the security of something solid behind him. Possums? No, nocturnal. A pig, maybe. Lion? Whatever. Dinosaur? Zombie?
There it was again. Liam held his breath, straining to hear. A deliberate, soft crunching; slow footsteps on dead leaves. Something was there … something that didn’t want to be seen … something sneaking up on him.
A hand came down on his arm, and he jerked round. ‘Goddammit!’
‘Whoa, bro.’ Jahmin backed away, hands raised. ‘Just jokes. I got stuck in a tree, look.’ He showed Liam the spiky stick woven into his ginger hair. ‘By the time I’d snapped it off, you’d gone.’
Liam put a palm to his chest and felt the sharp tattoo of his heartbeat. ‘There’s something out there, man. I’m telling you!’
‘Yeah, me,’ Jahmin said, frowning.
‘No, over there, I think …’
He frowned, unsure. A little fantail flitted down through the kaleidoscope of lacy fern fronds and perched on a branch nearby. It tilted its head, eyeing the boys with one knowing black eye and then the other, its distinctive brown and white tail flipping back and forth, echoing the shifting shadows of light and dark among the trees.
‘Are you sure you’re okay?’
Liam bent over at the waist, wheezing, hands on his hips.
‘Yeah, nah – it’s …’ He caught his breath, forced himself to slow it down. Easy now. ‘It’s just that ... heart thing of mine, remember? Gets a bit full on sometimes. And I lost my pills.’
‘Shit, I forgot about that. You’re not going to kark it on me or anything, are you?’
Jahmin helped Liam to sit. After a few moments, his breathing eased.
‘Nah. I’ll be sweet. I’m supposed to be chucking them in a couple of months anyway.’
Liam got to his feet, laughing off Jahmin’s concerned expression. ‘It’s all good, man.’ He unhooked the branch woven into Jahmin’s hair and tossed it into the ferns. ‘We’d better get going.’
‘Just don’t go so fast this time.’
‘What’s the matter, man? Fancy sneakers can’t keep up?’
‘Whatever. I meant, because of your dodgy heart.’
‘Lead the way, then.’
‘So your bush monster can eat me first, right?’
Liam tried to smile. ‘That’s the one.’
They pushed on through the bush, passing beside a curtain of vines obscuring a recess in a bank.
‘I s’pose that’s the first rule of the jungle though, right?’ said Jahmin.
‘What is?’
‘Survival, bro.’
Liam thought of Eugene. Survival. That’s what it was. His survival over Eugene’s. A life for a life. Manslaughter or murder?
Without thinking, he quickened his pace. Jahmin had to pull him back.
