'Whoa! Back off!' she hissed. 'Mind the drugs! Don't squash the drugs!'
'You got them?' said Alex, grabbing her by the shoulders, holding her at arm's-length to look into her eyes.
Amber patted the dripping plastic bag which hung at her neck and Alex took her face between his hands and kissed her full on the mouth.
'Wow!' said Amber. 'I must swim in shark-infested waters more often.'
'We thought you were dead,' said Paulo, grinning hugely. 'We thought the sharks had eaten you.'
'Sheesh,' sneered Amber. 'It'd take more than three sharks to get rid of me. Now, let me through to Hex. I need to get these antibiotics into him. And I meant what I said earlier. I have to eat. Now.'
Paulo looked more closely at Amber, noting the sweaty face and the greyness around the mouth. 'Me and Li will go and find you something,' he said.
Paulo and Li disappeared into the forest together, grinning back at Amber as they went, still not quite believing she had come back to them. Amber knelt down beside Hex. 'Jeez, he looks nearly as bad as I do,' she murmured, staring down at his pale face.
Alex put a blanket around Amber's shoulders and brought a couple of glucose tablets from her pouch, which she chewed as she prepared the injection. First, she ripped open the wrapping on a disposable syringe. Then she lined up four of the little rubber topped vials which held the antibiotic powder, together with the ampoules of sterile water.
'Is that the right dosage?' asked Alex, watching her work.
'Philippe said to give a double dose to start with. That's four vials,' said Amber. 'Here, break these open for me, one at a time.'
Alex took the four glass ampoules. He snapped the top off the first one and Amber drew the liquid up into the syringe, then injected it through the top of one of the vials. She shook the vial to dissolve the drug into the water, then they did the same for the other three vials. Finally, Amber turned each vial upside down and slowly drew the liquid from each one into the body of the syringe.
'OK,' she said. 'Here we go.' Alex held the syringe while Amber tied the plastic bag around Hex's arm above the elbow to act as a tourniquet. She tapped her fingers against the crook of his elbow until the vein stood out, then she broke open an antiseptic wipe from her own pouch and cleaned the area.
'You sure you can do this?' asked Alex as Amber took the syringe and tapped it to get rid of any air bubbles. Amber gave him her best withering look then bent over Hex's arm. She stretched the skin with her other hand then carefully found a vein with the needle. She pulled back the plunger slightly and gave a satisfied grunt when a swirl of blood clouded the clear liquid.
'Untie the tourniquet,' she instructed. Alex loosened the bag around Hex's arm and, slowly, Amber pressed down the plunger of the syringe. They both watched in silence as the antibiotics flowed into Hex's bloodstream.
'Let's hope that's not too late,' said Amber as she slumped back against the trunk of a tree and pulled the blanket more tightly around her. 'I had a real job picking up the prescription.'
Li reappeared first, carrying a small collection of figs and mangoes which Alex opened up with his knife and fed to Amber. Paulo arrived not long after Li. In one hand he carried a whole branch heavily laden with clusters of yellow, apple-sized fruits. In his other hand, he held a carefully folded leaf.
'I thought these looked good,' he said, dropping the branch at Amber's feet. Hungrily, she reached for a fruit, but Li grabbed her by the wrist.
'Wait a minute,' she said. She snapped one of the fruits from the branch, then picked up a stone and smashed it open. Three large seeds nestled inside. 'Yep. I thought so,' Li continued. 'These are physic nuts. Their seeds are poisonous.'
Amber tutted and pushed the branch to one side with her bare foot. 'What's in the leaf, Paulo?' she asked.
Paulo laid the leaf on the ground and opened it up to reveal nine or ten plump, squirming beetle grubs. 'I found them under the bark of a rotting tree trunk,' he said proudly.
'You don't expect me to eat them, do you?' whispered Amber, staring in horror at the grubs. They were each a good four inches long. Their stubby legs waved in the air as they bent their bodies back and forth. Their white skin gleamed in the dim green light under the trees.
Paulo hurried to explain. 'I ate them on my rainforest trek back home. Our instructor told us they were the best source of fat, carbohydrates and protein in the jungle.'
'And you believed him?' said Amber, swallowing as she watched the squirming grubs.
'But you must eat, Amber,' said Paulo. 'For your diabetes, yes? You wait, once they are roasted-'
'We can't have a fire,' interrupted Alex. 'The pirates might see the smoke.'
'Ah,' said Paulo. 'Well, you can eat them raw-'
'Forget it!' hissed Amber.
Paulo frowned down at the squirming grubs, then his face brightened again as he had an idea. 'Leave it to me,' he said. He emptied the grubs onto a flat stone, then picked up a second stone and pressed it down on top of them. They popped with a loud squishing sound.
'Oh, gross,' said Amber, turning away as Paulo enthusiastically ground the grubs into a thick, white paste. Alex was watching her from his place beside the stretcher.
'What?' said Amber.
Alex hesitated. 'Amber, I need to ask you. Did you manage to get to the satellite phone?'
Amber felt a flush spread across her face. She looked down. Her knees were poking through the blanket and she occupied herself with picking at a scabbed mosquito bite. Alex waited. Finally, she lifted her head again and looked him straight in the eye.
'I goofed,' she said.
Alex, Li and Paulo listened quietly as she explained what had happened.
'Right,' said Alex, briskly, when she had finished. 'Amber, you did brilliantly out there. You've probably saved Hex's life. But, the fact is, nobody knows we're here. We're still on our own. Whatever happens next has to be up to us. So, what are we going to do about Philippe and his family?'
'I have been thinking about that,' said Paulo. 'It would be easy enough to distract the pirates in some way while we let the family out of the cage. But then, where do we go? There's no way we can all get out to the yacht. The water is full of sharks and the pirates have rifles. Even if we managed to escape into the rainforest, we would be moving so slowly that the pirates would track us down in no time.'
'We have to do something,' said Li. 'When the other pirates come back, they're probably going to kill them. Even the children. We can't let that happen.'
'If we could only disable the pirates in some way…' muttered Alex, gazing around him. He stopped as he spotted the branch of physic nuts and a thoughtful look came over his face.
Paulo hurried across to Amber, carrying a leaf piled with what looked like balls of pink ice cream. 'What's that?' asked Amber, glaring at him suspiciously.
'This is mashed grubs mixed with mango.'
'No!'
'But it is delicious. Watch!' Paulo picked up one of the pink balls and popped it into his mouth.
'No,' said Amber. 'N – O. No.'
'I think you'd better try,' said Alex, quietly. 'You're going to need the energy.'
'Why?' asked Amber.
'Eat up and I'll tell you.'
Amber sighed loudly, then grabbed the leaf from Paulo. 'Water,' she demanded. Li poured some into the coconut shell and handed it over. Amber took a deep breath, then grabbed a ball, shoved it into her mouth and swallowed it down with a gulp of water. Doggedly she carried on until the leaf was clear, then she flung the leaf away from her and swallowed the rest of the water in big gulps. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and glared fiercely at the others.