'So, it's true,' drawled Hex, into the stunned silence. 'Paulo really doesn't care what he sleeps with.'
Ten minutes later, Alex, Li and Hex were threading their way single file along the game trail that led through the forest to the pool. They carried stout sticks and Hex and Alex had a rucksack each, full of empty containers. They were out of water and had no option but to return to the pool to stock up, leaving Amber and Paulo behind on watch and breakfast duty.
Moving quickly and quietly, the three of them checked from left to right as they hurried along the trail, but the early morning forest was quiet and they reached the pool without meeting anything.
Outside the cave, the insect cleaning squads had been at work. Every remaining scrap of the slaughtered deer had gone and the rock was smooth and clean. Warily, the three of them waded into the pool and began to fill up their water containers, scanning the cave mouth and the forest all the while. Nothing stirred and they began to relax.
Alex and Li were washing themselves under the waterfall when a deep growl issued from the cave in the cliff. Their heads came up and they began to back slowly out of the pool. Alex turned, looking for Hex, but Hex had disappeared. He turned back to stare into the cave mouth, feeling his neck prickle with fear. Had something come out of the cave, grabbed Hex and dragged him inside without either of them noticing? If so, they were facing a deadly hunter.
The growl came again, echoing from inside the cave. Alex moved in front of Li, gripping his stick tightly. Then Hex popped his head out of the cave mouth and grinned at them. 'Admit it,' he said. 'I had you going then.'
'Hex! Get out of there!' yelled Alex.
'But there's nothing in here. It only goes back a little way, then it's blocked by a rock fall.' He turned and looked back into the cave. 'Hang on a minute, there's something sticking out of the bottom of the rock fall. I wonder what it is? I'll just go back in and have a look.'
Hex started to head back into the cave but Alex bounded out of the water and shoved him hard in the chest.
'You will not go back in there!'
'What?' said Hex, looking into Alex's furious face with genuine surprise.
'Grow up, Hex! This is real life, not some computer game! You can't just say "game over" and start again if you get eaten by something or buried under a rock fall! You'll just be dead!'
Hex raised his hands, palm up. 'OK,' he said, backing off. 'I'll leave it.'
Alex slammed an empty bottle into Hex's chest. 'Fill that,' he grated. 'And stay where I can see you.'
Alex led the way on the return journey. He was still angry with Hex and stalked on ahead without looking back.
Hex marched along after Alex, the heavy rucksack dragging on his shoulders and the bottles of water bumping against his back. It sucked, being a castaway. The physical work was no problem – his body was toned and fit from regular work-outs at his local gym – but Hex felt completely out of place in this environment. He could surf the wilder regions of the Net with the ease of a total expert but he knew nothing about how to survive in this sort of wilderness. Over the past thirty-six hours, he had spent most of his time blundering about like a complete idiot and having to be told what to do by some Northerner who probably thought a megabyte was someone who could eat three Weetabix in one go. Hex glared at Alex's retreating back and quickened his pace to catch up.
Li brought up the rear, also wrapped in her own thoughts. She was going through a mental list of the larger carnivores to be found in this part of the world, but still she could not put a name to the creatures they had heard in the rainforest. She was thinking so hard that she did not notice that Alex and Hex were leaving her further and further behind. A twig snapped over to her right, bringing her out of her thoughts. Li lifted her head, saw the distance between her and the boys and was about to break into a jog to catch up when she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye.
She came to a halt and stared closely at the large bush to the right of the trail just in front of her. She frowned. She was almost certain she had caught a movement from the far side of the bush, but now everything was still. In fact, everything was very still and absolutely silent. Li felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck as she realized that there was no bird noise in this part of the forest. Even the crickets had stopped their two-note song.
Li swallowed and took a deep breath. As she did so, she caught a hint of a smell. A bad smell, like rotting meat. She hesitated, then cautiously took one step forward and bent to peer through the leafy branches.
The smell was stronger nearer the bush and Li wrinkled her nose. There was definitely something there, behind the branches, but the rustling leaves were good camouflage and, at first, Li could not make sense of what she was seeing. Then a single, reptilian eye jumped into focus.
It was looking right at her.
FIFTEEN
Li leapt straight into the air from a standing start as a huge, dragon-like creature burst out of the undergrowth. It pounced onto the exact spot on the trail where Li had been standing a split second earlier, but she had already grabbed a tree branch and was swinging her legs up out of harm's way. She nearly didn't make it. The reptile reared up with amazing speed and she heard its razor-sharp claws scrabbling up the tree trunk towards her.
Li screamed as she scrambled to reach the safety of the higher branches. For one awful moment, she thought the creature could climb trees. She looked down, and relief flooded through her as she saw that its hind legs were still on the ground. It was using its tail to balance as it reached up the tree trunk towards her and it stood taller than a man. Suddenly it lashed out with a powerful foreleg and Li screamed again as a three-inch-long, razor-sharp claw hooked through the hem of her shorts.
There was a yell from further up the trail and Li nearly lost her grip on the branch as the creature dropped back to the ground, ripping its claw through her shorts as though the material was tissue paper.
Alex and Hex were running back to Li and, for a second, the huge reptile stood still, looking up at her then back along the trail, as though it was choosing from a dinner menu. Its eyes were sunk into each side of its long, spade-shaped head. Thick, white ropes of saliva dripped from its jaws and a long, pink forked tongue slid in and out of its mouth. It had a mottled, brown scaly hide, which thickened into ridges at its neck and around the tops of its powerfully squat legs.
'Komodo,' breathed Li and the dragon lifted its head to look at her, as though it recognized its own name. It opened its jaws wide, showing jagged teeth with shreds of meat hanging from them, and gave a hissing roar. A foul stench of rotting flesh rose through the humid air.
Then the creature made its decision. It lowered its head and charged towards Alex and Hex, slinging its legs forward with a rolling gait and raking up the earth of the trail as its claws dug in. The boys came to a halt, then turned back, looking behind them as they ran.
'Don't run! Climb!' shrieked Li. She knew that a large komodo dragon could outrun a human over short distances, and this giant was gaining on them fast. 'Climb a tree!' she shrieked again.
Alex and Hex raced along the trail, trying to spot the branch or vine that would save their lives, but the trees and bushes were whizzing past too quickly. By the time their eyes had registered a likely branch, it was already gone. The komodo roared again as it thundered towards them, its powerful tail threshing from side to side.