CHAPTER 11

As they moved along the river, Carter stuck with Jane, Vanessa, Buzz, and Mima. It wasn’t long before Chizo and his friends passed them, but they never lost sight of the larger group. By his count, there were twenty-eight runners still in it. Somewhere along the way, four had been left behind.

Before long, the river led them to the mouth of a bay that cut into the island’s coastline. The bay was several hundred yards across, with more jungle rimming the far shore. Beyond that, Carter could just see the spiked peaks of Cloud Ridge in the distance.

“What’s that?” Buzz asked. He pointed farther up the beach, where a tall wooden post was planted in the sand. It wasn’t hard to recognize the red, black, and white markings of Raku Nau by now. They were faded but noticeable, as though the post had been painted a long time ago. Its wood was worn smooth in places, and the top was hatched in a kind of zigzag pattern.

Most of the Nukula seemed to know something about it. They glanced in its direction several times as they began spreading out along the shore.

“Are we making camp?” Jane asked hopefully.

“It looks that way,” Vanessa said. She pointed over to where Mima had already begun picking up dry wood. The other groups seemed to be staking out different sites for the night.

Carter didn’t say much, but it was a relief to stop. The sun was headed for the horizon, and it would be dark before too long.

He kept his eye on Chizo as they worked, and he thought about everything he wished he could do to wipe the conceited look off that kid’s face. Back home, Chizo probably would have been in high school, or at least eighth grade. Carter was big and strong for his age, but he was still a few months shy of middle school.

At least, he would start middle school if he ever got home again. Back to the other side of the world.

“Car-tare!” Mima called over. She had been working her way up the shore, but now she set down her pile of firewood and was motioning for him to come over.

“What is it?” he asked, as he reached her.

She held out her hand to show him a ball of greenish mud. Without pausing, she took him by the wrist and pressed the mud into the cut on his hand.

“Ow! What are you doing?” he asked.

It stung as she rubbed it in, working it down to a kind of second skin that covered the wound. When she was done, she put the rest of the mud ball—it was really more like clay—into his other hand, and pointed across the bay.

“What?” he asked.

“You’re supposed to take it with you,” Jane said.

Carter hadn’t even known Jane had followed him over. She was pretty good at sneaking around when she wanted to.

He looked down at the mud again, and then across the bay.

“That way?” he asked. “That’s where we go tomorrow? Straight across?”

“That’s a long swim,” Jane said.

Carter nodded and put the mud into his side pocket. But now Mima was laughing for some reason.

“What?” he asked again, shrugging to show his meaning.

Mima plucked a waxy leaf off a low bush from the edge of the woods. It was the size of her palm, and she held it out.

“Ekka, Car-tare,” she said. He liked her knowing his name, anyway. But mostly he felt stupid for not knowing he should have wrapped the mud in a leaf.

“Thanks,” he said, looking down while his face burned a little.

Way to go, Benson, he thought. All smooth, all the time.

When he looked up again, Mima had already turned away. She was looking at something out toward the ocean.

Several others had taken notice, too, and were heading over. That’s when Carter saw Ani, and the two elders from before. They were rowing an outrigger in from the open water. Behind them was a simple bamboo raft, tethered to their boat.

“What’s going on?” Jane said. Buzz and Vanessa were there now, along with all the other runners. The energy in the camp had just jumped. Something was about to happen, and as far as Carter could tell, Jane, Vanessa, Buzz, and he were the only ones who didn’t know what it was.

Vanessa watched as Ani and the others paddled closer. Then, just as she expected them to come to shore, they turned and aimed themselves for the middle of the wide bay.

“Ani! What’s happening?” she called out, not even expecting him to reply.

What he did was turn to face the group on the shore while the other two paddled. He reached down and picked something up from the floor of the outrigger. It was a painted and carved piece of wood, some kind of animal figure. Its markings were immediately familiar. The striped pattern matched the ones on the post that sat farther up the beach. And in fact, Vanessa realized, they were like puzzle pieces. The sawtooth cut at the base of the totem in Ani’s hand was the same as the zigzag pattern cut into the top of the post.

“They go together,” Jane said, recognizing it, too.

Ani began speaking then, but in Nukula. All the runners on either side of Vanessa knelt at the water’s edge, with one palm flat on the ground. It was like the start of Raku Nau, all over again. She took up the same position with her siblings.

Vanessa couldn’t help feeling more nervous than ever. She looked to Mima, who seemed calm, or at least focused. That helped a little. They’d have to follow along and figure this out—whatever it was—once it started.

But then Ani gave them the few words in English they needed to understand.

“The first to place the totem atop the post on the beach will be free to use the raft however he or she wishes,” he called out.

All at once, the stakes went up. Vanessa eyed the far side of the bay. Knowing they’d be traveling in that direction, it was clear now just how much they needed the advantage of the raft. Swimming across would be exhausting. Hiking all the way around could take hours of extra time they didn’t have.

It was also a chance to do something for Mima. She’d started Raku Nau on her own, but this was a challenge that no one person was going to be able to complete alone.

Finally, Ani held the wooden piece high over his head. He pulled the raft closer, placed the totem in the middle of its deck, and then untied the vine-rope tether from the outrigger.

“Ma tikka sematikka!” he shouted. “By any means necessary!”

With that, he dropped the rope and set the raft free. At the same moment, all twenty-eight runners sprinted into the water, including Vanessa, Carter, Jane, Buzz—and, at the front of the pack, Mima.

Even as Buzz splashed into the chill water with the others, he thought about what Ani had just said: By any means necessary. This was going to get ugly, he could tell.

“Vanessa, Jane, stay here!” Carter said to the girls as they swam out. “We need a line of defense. Buzz, come with me!”

Buzz didn’t question it. He let Carter call the shots and focused instead on what they had to do.

Looking back, he saw that several of the others had done the same. Chizo was headed for the raft, but two of his group were treading water nearby, halfway between the raft and the red, black, and white post on the shore.

It was a long swim. Buzz quickly fell behind, but he didn’t stop. By the time he reached the raft, all of the others were swarming around it. Three of them—two boys and a girl—had climbed up on top. All three had their hands on the totem, trying to pull it loose from one another. Everyone else seemed to be waiting to see who came up with it first.

It seemed like a hugely uneven contest. The groups were all different sizes, and Chizo was obviously one of the strongest in the competition, if not the strongest. But then again, there were lots of things about the Nukula that were hard to understand. Not necessarily better or worse, just different.

“Over there!” Carter said. Buzz swam again, following him around to the back of the raft where it was less crowded.

“Wait here!” Carter told him. He didn’t know what Carter had in mind, but it was a relief just to catch his breath for a second.

Carter had barely pulled himself up onto the raft deck before one of the girls reached out and shoved him off with both hands. He plunged in, popped right back up, and jumped on board again. This time Mima was beside him. They both stayed low, which Buzz saw made it harder to push them off.

“Get it!” he yelled. The adrenaline was pumping. He could feel himself rising to the challenge.

Carter was on his knees now, both hands on the totem. With a fast jerk, he pulled it free from the other three and fell onto his back on the raft. Mima was right there to take it from him.

“YES!” Buzz shouted out.

It didn’t last long. Before she could even dive, the whole raft rose up in the water. Chizo and two others were there, underneath, raising it into a hard tilt that sent everyone on top sprawling.

Mima fell right toward Buzz, still holding the totem, but it slipped out of her hands when she splashed into the water next to him.

This was his chance. Buzz wrapped his arms around the rough wooden piece and dove down under the surface. If he could disappear with it, even for a few seconds, it might buy them an edge.

He kicked toward the shore, eyes open underwater as a dozen pair of legs twisted around in every direction. They were looking for him, he could tell. His heart surged—he was actually getting somewhere. But there was no way it could last, and he knew it.

He kicked for several more yards, until his lungs couldn’t take another moment. Then he aimed for an open place in the water and surfaced.

The swarm was on him immediately.

“Carter!” he yelled. “Mima!”

Before he could spot them, one of Chizo’s teammates enveloped Buzz with both arms and pulled him under. There was no contest now. A second later, the boy had yanked the totem from his grasp and was headed toward shore.

They were getting closer to the beach, Buzz realized. All the participants who had hung back were heading toward the swimmers for another face-off. Carter and Mima were swimming ahead of Buzz. He was exhausted, with arms like rubber, but there was no way he could give up now.

As Chizo’s teammate moved toward the center of the action, he was met by a storm of opposition. Mima grabbed him from behind and took him under, followed quickly by several others piling on. The water churned. It looked like a piranha feeding frenzy.

Buzz stopped long enough to take stock, and Mima popped up just in front of him, clutching the totem to her chest.

“HERE!” Carter screamed. “Here!” He’d pulled a football move—even Buzz recognized it. Carter had gone wide, away from the group. Mima pivoted and seemed to spot him. She shouldered the totem and tossed it high over the others’ heads—only to have it intercepted at the last second by another girl, the tallest Nukula in the group. As soon as the girl had the totem, she turned and started running for shore.

One of the other boys was the first to get to her. He threw a tackle from behind, and they went down in the shallow water. Jane and Vanessa were in it now, too, with Carter coming in fast.

Within seconds, the entire group was scrambling in the same spot. It gave Buzz enough time to catch up, but by then, it was like trying to break through a wall even to see the totem anymore.

“Buzz! Here!” Vanessa screamed. He saw her then, holding the piece by her fingertips. Somehow she’d reached the edge of the group with it, but not for long. Chizo was there to snatch it. He pulled it out of her hands—just before Mima blindsided him from behind. She leaped onto his back, grabbed the totem, slid off, and kept moving.

“Run!” Carter called to her. She’d bought just a few feet of advantage, and it was enough to get her sprinting the last few yards onto the beach.

But it wasn’t over. Everyone was headed out of the water now. Buzz felt himself jostled and pushed along, nearly against his will. Carter was on his right, and Chizo was just ahead. Without any plan, both of them grabbed onto Chizo from behind, each taking an arm.

All three boys hit the sand hard. Buzz felt both of the others roll over him—and then they were on their feet again, faster than he ever could have managed.

Meanwhile, Mima had made some good headway. With the totem tucked under one arm, she’d climbed onto Vanessa’s shoulders and leaped from there to a point more than halfway up the fifteen-foot post. Others were scrambling behind her, but she still had a good lead. She shimmied several feet higher. Jane and Vanessa were pulling on the legs of those who were either climbing or reaching to yank Mima down. Carter and Chizo were both sprinting to join the fray.

As Buzz watched, Mima covered that last few feet to the top. She took hold of the post with both legs to free up her hands—and dropped the zigzag edge of the totem into place.

At the same moment, one of the boys managed to get a hold of her ankle. With a hard grab, he pulled her right off, and they both fell in a heap to the sand.

Buzz’s eyes were locked on the top of the post. It seemed everyone else’s were, too. As Mima had fallen, the whole post had jerked to the side. Now, the totem rocked one way . . . and back again, ready to tip all the way off, or not.

Buzz held his breath. He could feel the pulse pounding in his throat. The whole beach seemed to go silent—just before the totem rocked once more and and fell cleanly into place, where it stayed.

“YES!” Carter screamed. He threw his arms around Jane and spun her around. Vanessa grabbed Mima by the hand and helped her onto her feet as Buzz ran over. Even Mima was smiling now.

Looking at the faces of everyone else around them, Buzz could see they all seemed to be thinking the same thing. Nobody—including himself—could believe they’d just pulled this off.

But guess what? Buzz thought. We did it.

And right now, that was all that mattered.