Survival

'Eeeuuwww!' shrieked Amber, taking a step back. 'Gross!'

Alex had to agree with her. He had never felt so gross. Every inch of his body felt battered and bruised, but the back of his head and his left wrist hurt most of all. He lifted his arm up to his face and squinted at his wrist, trying to work out why it hurt so much. His first impression was that he was wearing some sort of tight, red bracelet, then he realized that the bracelet was a strip of raw flesh.

'What…?' he croaked, holding up his arm.

'What happened?' guessed Paulo. Alex nodded again and immediately wished he hadn't.

'It is a bad rope burn,' explained Paulo. 'But it probably saved your life. We think part of the boat must have hit you on the head and made you – what is the word – not awake, yes?'

'Yes,' agreed Alex, remembering the stunning blow to the back of his head as he struggled to swim ashore.

'You would have drowned, I think,' continued Paulo. 'Except your wrist got caught in the safety line, which was still tied to the broken boat. So you were washed ashore. We found you-'

'And I gave you CPR!' announced Amber, proudly. 'You know, the kiss of life and all that stuff? See, I know how to do that, because of the sailing-'

'Shut up, Amber,' said Hex.

'But I saved his life-'

'Then I guess that makes you even, doesn't it?' said Li.

Alex felt much better now that he was rid of a stomach full of seawater. His head was clearing and the thudding pain was subsiding. With the help of Paulo and Hex, he sat up and took his first look around. They were at the top of the beach leading from the lagoon to the rainforest. All around them, above the high-tide line, were strewn bits of wreckage from the boat. He tried to see whether there was anything useful amongst the wreckage, but Paulo moved in front of him and held up three fingers.

'How many?' he demanded.

'Twenty-three,' said Alex with a deadpan expression.

Paulo grinned but persisted with his questioning. 'What is your name?' he asked.

'Barbara,' replied Alex, still playing it straight.

Paulo laughed out loud. 'OK, joker. No concussion. Your skull must be made of steel.'

Alex put his fingers to the back of his head and gently explored. He could feel a crusted-over gash about two inches long. The flesh surrounding the wound was swollen and bruised, but the damage was less than he was expecting to find.

'I'll live,' he said with a relieved grin. His eyes sharpened and he scanned the others, looking for signs of injury. Like him, they were liberally covered with scrapes and bruises, but that seemed to be all. 'Look's like we'll all live,' he concluded.

'That's the second time you've promised me that,' drawled Hex. He was trying to appear casual, but kept sending wary glances into the jungle at the top of the beach. 'Do you always keep your word, Alex?'

'Always,' said Alex, firmly. 'We're going to be fine. My dad's been in rainforest like this before. He taught me all about it. It's not too hard to survive if you know what you're doing.'

'I agree,' said Paulo. 'I too have been on a trek through the rainforest, back home in South America. For one week we were walking and camping. I especially liked to learn about the campfire cooking.'

'Always the food,' giggled Li and Paulo beamed at her.

'So, you two have the experience,' said Hex, looking at Alex and Paulo. 'You tell us, what do we do now?'

Alex looked at the debris scattered across the beach. 'You can start by giving me an update on what's been salvaged.'

It turned out that most of the boat, including the piece he had been attached to, had washed up on the beach at some time during the night. The stern of the boat had come ashore with the locker doors still firmly latched shut and the boots, socks and blankets stowed away inside, as well as a coil of thin, nylon line. They had even managed to salvage the two rucksacks, both still tied securely to the safety line Alex had been caught up in.

'The boots and socks will be useful, once they have dried out,' said Paulo. Alex nodded in agreement. He had lost his deck shoes in the sea, and so had Amber. Li, Hex and Paulo were still wearing theirs, but the thin canvas would not last long in the rainforest. With good boots and socks, at least their feet would be protected.

'The blankets too,' said Li, looking around at the thin shorts and T-shirts they were all wearing. 'We'll need the blankets at night.'

And you have your survival kit,' said Paulo, pointing to Alex's belt. Alex patted the pouch there and felt the reassuring shape of the tobacco tin. He pulled it out and checked the contents. Everything was dry. He picked out the little bottle of aspirin and hesitated, wondering whether he should take some now or try to conserve them. He decided that, if he was going to function properly over the next few, crucial hours, he needed to have a clear, pain-free head.

Alex shook the tablets onto his hand and was about to chew and dry-swallow them when Li held out a lemonade can, filled with water from the big plastic bottle. 'Go on,' she said. 'We've all had some. That's your share.'

Resisting the urge to ask her how much water was left, Alex smiled gratefully and took the can. He sipped slowly, letting the water wash around his dry mouth before swallowing. It tasted fantastic.

'And this is your share of the food,' said Paulo, handing Alex a glossy, green leaf-plate, holding a small mound of mashed banana and squashed apple, and a cereal bar, still wrapped in foil. Alex frowned.

'You've all had this much for breakfast?' he asked. 'Have you saved any food at all?'

There was an uneasy silence.

'There's half a storage tin of cooked rice. That's all,' admitted Li.

'It's her fault,' said Hex, jerking his head towards Amber who folded her arms and stuck her chin in the air. 'She wouldn't take no for an answer, just kept saying how she had to eat right now, like she expected a butler to come running out of the jungle with a silver tray or something.'

'I see,' said Alex, mentally rearranging his list of priorities. The food was nearly gone and nothing he could say would bring it back. With a shrug, he reached for his share. He slipped the cereal bar into his pouch, determined not to eat that until they had found a fresh water supply. The fruit was a different matter. It was bruised and mashed from the battering in the boat and he could see that it would soon spoil in the tropical heat. He lifted the leaf to his mouth and, suddenly realizing how hungry he was, he wolfed it down and licked the leaf clean while they pointed out the rows of blankets, socks and boots they had laid out to dry on the sand. They had also collected a pile of wood from the shattered boat and stacked it above the high-tide line, ready to light at the first sign of a plane or a ship.

'Only trouble is,' said Amber, looking out at the empty sea, 'there's nothing to signal to.'

They were silent, remembering how far they were from any flight path or shipping lane. Their chances of rescue were looking very slim.

Alex shook himself. 'Come on! They'll be searching for us right now,' he said. 'But we're going to need some green wood piled up next to the signal fire. Leaves and ferns, too. If we want to send a signal during the day, we pile them on the fire once it's burning well. They'll make plenty of pale smoke which will stand out against the forest. At night, when we want good, bright flames, we only use the dry wood.'

'OK,' said Paulo. 'Let's get going.'

They worked quickly, gathering green wood from the fringes of the forest and piling it next to the wood from the boat wreckage. Alex made a nest of kindling in the base of the dry woodpile and, finally, covered the whole thing with the plastic sack which had held the boots. Although it was officially the drier season in the archipelago, there were still evenings when hours of monsoon-heavy rain fell after the humid heat of the day. If the dry wood and kindling became soaked, they would not be able to light the fire quickly when they needed to signal, and that could prove to be disastrous.