It was Danny who stopped him. 'I don't think it's a good idea to go past the plane again,' he shouted. Ben and Angelo turned to look at him. 'Look, Ben,' he continued, 'I'm not saying you did the wrong thing stopping to try and free the hijacker, but we lost a lot of time back there. If something's burning, we'd be idiots to approach the plane again. We need to stay well away, even if it means splitting up from the others.'
Ben hesitated. He knew that what Danny was saying made sense, but at the same time he didn't like losing the safety they would have in numbers.
Suddenly, however, the decision was made for him.
There were two explosions. The first made more noise than anything else — a great thunderclap that shook Ben's body to its very core.
'Run!' he yelled.
It was the second explosion that threw them all to the earth. They had started sprinting away from the plane when it happened, and as the force of it hurled them through the air and onto the ground, they all instinctively covered their heads with their arms. The first thing they felt was the heat. With all the energy of a thousand ovens, it felt for a few grisly seconds as if it was scorching the skin from their bodies. Ben heard Angelo yelling in terror before he started to feel bits of debris raining down on them. He didn't dare look up in case something hit him in the eye, but he knew they had to get out of range of the debris as quickly as possible to avoid being injured.
Danny had obviously had the same thought. 'Get up!' he yelled. 'We need to keep running!'
Ben and Angelo didn't have to be told twice. They pushed themselves to their feet and started sprinting away from the horrific, burning fireball that had exploded only metres behind them.
Chapter Eight
They ran and they ran.
None of them looked behind them. They didn't need to — it was clear that the explosion had been massive. The heat was still fierce and the debris, blown high in the air, was now falling randomly to the ground, scattered all over the place by the high winds. Ben stumbled and almost fell; as he did so, he felt Danny's strong hand grip his arm and pull him up. They carried on running.
They only stopped when they seemed to be out of range of the debris. Gasping for breath, they turned round and finally looked back. The plane was a blazing inferno. Now it was alight, it seemed much bigger than it had done before. Chunks of burning metal were strewn all over the path, mini bonfires that occasionally popped and exploded dangerously. The high winds made the flames dance and Ben saw — with alarm — that the dry grass on the road that they were following was catching fire, which was slowly approaching them.
He spun round in the opposite direction. The road trailed off into the distance. It was too murky to see where it led.
It was Angelo who spoke first. 'We need to let someone know we're here,' he said. Pulling out his mobile phone, he looked at the screen.
'Anything?' Ben asked.
The Italian shook his head. 'Nothing. It must be the storms.' He looked around. 'Where are we?' he asked.
Ben had been thinking the same thing, and he reckoned he had an answer. 'I think it must be the Everglades,' he called above the wind.
Angelo's brow furrowed. 'I've never been here before…' he said uncertainly. 'I've heard people talking about it, of course…'
'It's a national park,' Ben said. He couldn't quite remember where he'd learned this stuff. 'Marshlands, mangrove swamps, cypress glades — that kind of thing.' He looked around. 'Goes on for miles.'
'Great,' Angelo murmured. 'How do we get out?'
There was pause. Danny spoke next. He pointed across the marshland to his right. 'The plane came from that direction,' he shouted. 'So that must be south. That means the track we're on must go from east to west.'
Ben cursed. 'We need to head east,' he said. 'That's the way out of the park but…' His voice trailed off. There was no way they were going to get past the burning plane. To make matters worse, the dry grass had continued to catch alight and with the aid of the winds the flames were coming closer and closer. 'We haven't got a choice,' he shouted. 'We need to head west.' He pointed out to the swamps. 'Unless anyone fancies a swim.'
'In that?' Angelo pointed to the tempestuous waters. 'No thanks.'
Danny looked west. 'So are we agreed, then?' he asked. 'We keep going that way.'
Ben and Angelo nodded and the three hurried off again.
They half walked, half ran. It was difficult to move. The gusts of wind were unpredictable and things were flying in the air. None of them could tell what the debris was, or where it came from, but more than once Ben had to cover his head suddenly to protect himself from some unknown flying object. Now and then he would stop to look behind them: the plane was still burning fiercely and no matter how much distance they put between them and the blazing aircraft, it still seemed to light up the whole sky.
The wind was whipping itself up into even more of a frenzy now. It felt like the hurricane was getting stronger and closer. 'We need shelter!' Ben shouted as they hurried grimly on. As he spoke, a gust of wind caught the water of the marshland near him and a wave of muddy water splashed over the grassy road, soaking the three of them and knocking Angelo to the ground. Ben and Danny helped him up, and together they carried on going.
They had been heading west for perhaps fifteen minutes when they noticed the road becoming wider. Up ahead, through the gloom, Ben thought he saw a building of some description. They hurried towards it.
It was a single-storey structure with a pitched roof. Several of the roof slates had been blown away and had smashed on the ground, but otherwise the building was intact. A big sign had been uprooted and was lying on the road. Ben approached it and read what it said. 'EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK' it announced in big letters. 'WARDENS' STATION AND INFORMATION CENTER'.
'Let's get in out of the wind!' Ben shouted. Together they approached the building.
The main door was open and banging to and fro in the wind. Ben grabbed the edge of it and held it fast while the other two hurried inside. He then pulled it shut. The latch clicked, but he didn't know how long it would hold.
They found themselves in a single big room. It was completely deserted and it showed signs of having been evacuated quickly. A postcard stand had been knocked over and nobody had bothered to pick it up; a couple of rucksacks were abandoned on the floor. Towards the back of the room there was a long counter with information leaflets stacked up upon it. On two sides of the room there were long, low windows looking out onto the marshland; the remainder of the walls themselves were covered with posters of the various parts of the Everglades. Ben saw images of marshland, thick cypress groves, vast pools and rivers. Under any other circumstances they would have been fascinating and he'd have been chomping at the bit to go and explore the region. Not today, though. Today, this vast natural park felt like the last place on earth he wanted to be.
He felt like they were the last people on earth too. There was something unbelievably spooky about being alone in a place that had been deserted, and for a while the three of them remained silent, looking around and taking in their new surroundings. The wind was still howling outside, but now they had a bit of shelter it seemed a lot quieter.
Ben realized he was shivering. His clothes were soaking wet and the wind had blown them cold. 'We should try and find something dry to put on,' he announced as he started rummaging through the rucksacks that had been left on the ground. All he found, however, were some thin waterproof coats. 'I guess we might need these,' he murmured as he handed them round and tried to forget about the way his jeans were clinging clammily to his skin. The other two looked uncomfortable as well. Angelo's long hair was strewn all over his frightened face, and Danny's slicked-back hair was a mess. They, too, shivered with the cold.