The Beach

He wiped beads of sweat off the back of his neck. 'They're all crazy. It's worse being straight. It's doing my fucking head in just watching them.'

'Yes,' said Etienne. 'Really, I do not like this. When can we go?'

I checked my watch for the fifteenth time in as many minutes. To the extent that I'd thought it out, I'd imagined leaving at around two or three a.m., when there'd be a bit of light creeping in to the sky. But Etienne was right. I didn't like the way things were either, and at a pinch, we could probably set off while it was still dark.

'Give it an hour,' I said. 'I think we might be able to leave in an hour.'

What It Is Ain't Exactly Clear

But an hour was no good. At ten thirty, things started to go wrong.

Up until then I'd felt I was in control of the situation. Perhaps I even was in control of the situation. A number of difficulties –Francoise drunk, Christo breathing – had been solved; we'd got through the meal without anyone noticing that we were throwing our stew away; aside from Jed, there were no further loose ends to be tied; Tet was winding down. All we had to do was bide our time and then make our move.

But at ten thirty Mister Duck appeared in the marquee, and I knew I had a problem.

He appeared out of the shadows, stepping over the outer ring of candles. Then walked over to Sal and Bugs, and after acknowledging me with a vague grin, sat down beside them.

'Where are you going?' said Francoise, as I stood up. It was the first thing she'd said in a while. Since the dancing she'd been lying with her head in Etienne's lap, staring intently at the sheets on the marquee. From her colour I'd assumed she was feeling the effects of her afternoon boozing, but when she spoke I realized that she was also scared. Obviously, considering the circumstances, but I wasn't in a very empathic frame of mind. Neither was I in the right frame of mind to reassure anyone.

'We could be fucked,' I said, stupidly speaking my thoughts out loud.

Etienne began looking around. 'What? What is it?'

'…I've got to check something out. The three of you don't move from this spot. Clear?'

'Not fucking clear.' Keaty caught me by the leg. 'What's going on, Richard?'

'I've got to do something.'

'You're going nowhere unless you tell me what's going on.'. '

'Let go of my leg. Greg is watching us.'

Keaty squeezed tighter. 'I don't care. You tell us what the fuck…'

I bent down and clamped my fingers on the soft underside of Keaty's wrist, blocking the blood. A couple of seconds later his hand fell away.

'Hi,' I said to Sal.

'Richard,' she replied happily. 'Richard, my right-hand man. How are you, right-hand man?'

'Left-handed. I've started seeing fucked-up stuff.' The last words were directed at Mister Duck, who seemed amused.

'Sit down with us.'

'I need to get some cigarettes from the longhouse.'

'If you were sitting with us…' Sal drifted off briefly, then picked up the thread. 'I'd know that you and Bugs were friends again.'

'We are friends.'

Mister Duck guffawed, but Bugs nodded, full of dreamy goodwill. 'Yeah, man,' he said. 'All friends here.'

'It was… this was the last thing I was worried about… I needed you two to be friends…'

I patted Sal's shoulder. 'There's nothing more for you to worry about. Things are back to normal, just how you wanted.'

'Yes… We did it, Richard.'

'You did it.'

'I'm sorry for shouting at you, Richard. All those times… I'm sorry.'

I smiled. 'I need to get the cigarettes. We'll talk later.'

'And you'll sit with us.'

'Sure.'

When Mister Duck walked through the longhouse door, I grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the inside wall. 'Right,' I said. 'Tell me what you're doing here.'

He stared with a slightly baffled, innocent expression, then chuckled.

'Are you here to stop us?'

No answer.

'Tell me why you're here!'

'The horror,' he said.

'…What?'

'The horror.'

'What horror?'

'The horror!'

'What horror? '

He sighed, and with a quick movement, twisted out of my grip. 'The horror,' he said a final time, ducked through the doorway and was gone.

For a few seconds I stayed where I was, my arms still pointlessly raised in the position they'd been holding Mister Duck. Then I came to my senses and started jogging back to the marquee, making only the most cursory attempt at casualness in my haste.

'OK,' I whispered, when I reached Keaty and the other two. 'Get ready. We're going.'

'Right now?'

'Yes.'

'But… it's still pitch-black out there!'

'We'll manage. I'll go first so I can get Jed and pick up the water bottles, then Etienne and Francoise leave five minutes later, then Keaty. We'll meet by the beach path in…'

That Sound

At the exact moment I said 'path' Bugs jumped to his feet. His dreamy goodwill was out of the window. His eyes were wide and his teeth were bared. 'What the fuck was that noise?' he hissed.

Everyone turned to look at him.

'What was that fucking noise ?'

Unhygienix laughed sleepily. 'Can you hear noises, Bugs?'

'It was… a branch being pushed. It was somebody pushing through branches.'

Sal pulled herself out of the lotus position to sit on her knees. '…Are we all here?' she said, scanning around the sprawled figures.

'I'm not really here,' drawled Jesse. 'I'm not really anywhere.'

Bugs took a step away from the blackness outside the marquee. 'Somebody is definitely out there.'

'Maybe it's Karl…' someone offered.

Several heads turned to me.

'It isn't Karl.'

'Jed?'

'Jed's in the hospital tent.'

'Well if it isn't Karl or Jed…'

'Wait!' Cassie was standing too. 'I heard something! …There!'

We all strained our ears.

'It's nothing,' Jesse began to say. 'Will you all relax? It's just this strange trip…'

'This is no fucking trip.' Bugs interrupted. 'Everyone, get your heads together. I'm telling you there's people coming.'

'People?'

And suddenly we were all rising to our feet, because we could all hear the noise. It was unmistakable. People, pushing through branches, walking on leaves, coming our way from the waterfall path.

'Run!' Sal shouted. 'Everyone run! Now!'

Too late.

A figure materialized within four metres of us, picked out by the oily flames around the marquee. Within seconds, more appeared by his side. They all had their guns up, levelled straight at us. None seemed wet, so they couldn't have jumped from the waterfall. Maybe they knew a secret route into the lagoon or had used ropes to abseil the cliffs, or maybe they simply floated down. The way they hovered in the darkness, it didn't seem unlikely.

I turned to look at my companions. Apart from Etienne and Francoise, I doubt any of them had seen the VC before and I was interested to see their reaction. It was suitably awed. A couple had dropped to their knees, Moshe and one of the gardeners, and the others were frozen in a perfect tableau of fright. Slack jaws, tensed jaws, arms bunched up to chests. I almost envied them. For a first encounter, it took some beating.

Apocalypse

I had realized that escape was not an option and we were all about to get killed, and accepted the realization without bitterness. There wasn't anything I could do to stop it happening, and I felt I'd be dying with a clear conscience. Although I'd known that Vietnam might end this way, I hadn't run. I'd selflessly stuck around until I was sure that my friends would be able to run with me. For once, I'd done the right thing.