Survival

'Wow!' breathed Amber. 'You were so lucky!'

Hex looked at Amber. He spotted the tears streaking her face and his smile broadened. 'Crying for me?' he asked.

'Eat your heart out, code boy,' she snapped back. 'I'm crying for Godzilla here.'

'What on earth were you doing in the cave, Hex?' demanded Alex.

'Solving a puzzle,' said Hex. 'Come and see.'

They clambered over the rock pile into the dimness of the cave beyond.

'It's a dark hole,' said Amber. 'What's to see?'

Hex pointed to the cave floor behind them. Amber turned, then yelped with shock. A human skeleton was sprawled against the cave wall. The skull was thrown back and the jaw hung open. The pelvis was broken into three pieces and one of the legs was buried under the rock pile.

'It's a Japanese soldier,' said Hex. 'He's been trapped in here since World War Two.'

'How do you know?'

Hex reached into his pocket and pulled out a rusted bayonet. 'This is what I saw earlier today. It was poking out of the bottom of the rock fall. There's a rifle under those rocks somewhere.'

Paulo studied the skeleton. A few scraps of what once could have been a uniform clung to the bones. 'OK, so it is a soldier,' he said. 'But how do you know he is Japanese?'

Hex reached into his pocket again and then held his hand out to them. A collection of tarnished metal buttons, a belt buckle and a cap badge nestled in his palm.

'But the best is over here,' he said, letting the buttons drop and pointing to a metal frame which was propped against the wall beside the dead soldier. Inside the frame sat a metal box, the front covered with knobs and dials. There were sheaves of wires, their rubber covering long rotted away, and a metal crank handle protruded from the side.

'A back-pack radio!' Paulo dropped to his knees beside the box, his fingers exploring the dials and wires. 'We have one very like this on the ranch. It is in one of the most remote bunk houses, where we stay when we are checking the boundaries. It is very old but it still works perfectly.'

Hex kneeled beside Paulo. 'What do you think?' he said, his voice full of a controlled excitement.

'The batteries will be long dead, but we do not need batteries to transmit, only the generator. It is hand-cranked, see?' Paulo pointed to the handle on the side. 'If I can get the generator working just long enough to send a message-'

'There's a morse code key,' said Hex. 'I know morse code. I could send an SOS…'

They all shared a look of excitement. Then Hex sat back and winced at the pain in his leg. The gash was deep and still bleeding freely.

'Come on, then,' said Alex. 'Let's get you and this radio back to the beach and get you both fixed up.'

They hauled the heavy radio over the rock pile and strapped it to one of the sledges. Then Paulo and Alex went back into the cave and cut the tail from the komodo dragon with the flexible saw.

'Our next meal,' Paulo explained to Hex and Amber as they slammed the bleeding tail down onto a second sledge and tied it on. 'Trust me. It'll be delicious.'

EIGHTEEN

The afternoon was drawing to a close by the time they arrived back at the beach. Hex was limping badly and the skin around the gash in his leg was looking stretched and shiny. Alex filled up the storage tin from their bamboo aqueduct and put it to boil on the fire. Then he added potassium permanganate from his survival kit and took the steaming, red brew over to the bed where Hex lay.

Carefully he began to clean the wound. Hex barely noticed except to wince and glare when Alex pressed too hard. He was propped up on his elbows, working on the radio with Paulo. Alex frowned at the wound in Hex's leg. Something was not right. The leg was becoming more swollen by the minute and pus was already forming in the cut. He laid the back of his hand against the leg. It felt very hot.

'How're you feeling, Hex?' he said, casually.

'Fine,' said Hex, glancing at Alex with a slightly irritated look before returning to the radio. The back was off and Hex was making sure all the wires and switches were still connected up. His cheeks were flushed, but Alex could not tell whether that was from fever or excitement.

Paulo was concentrating on the generator. He had finished cleaning the rust from all the connections and now he was using coconut oil on the stiffened crank handle. His clever fingers worked on the handle until he could turn it easily. His face was intent, with no trace of his usual wide smile, as he checked and re-checked the connections. He was concentrating so hard that, when Amber laid a hand on his shoulder, he jumped.

'Sure you know what you're doing?' asked Amber, leaning over his shoulder to stare at the radio.

'Shut up, Amber,' said Hex, automatically, arming the sweat from his face as he squinted at the dials. For some reason, he was finding it hard to focus and he had a thumping headache.

Paulo grinned up at Amber. 'My father calls me his hombre de la maquina - his Machine Man. I can fix most things. If this radio has even a spark of life left in it, I will find it.'

'Make sure it's on channel sixteen,' warned Amber. 'That's the emergency channel.'

Hex checked his dials, then nodded, his fingers hovering above the morse code key. He looked at Paulo. 'Ready?' he asked.

Alex stopped cleaning Hex's wound and Li stepped closer to watch as Paulo began to crank the handle, slowly at first, until he was sure it would keep turning. 'Anything?' he asked.

'Keep going,' said Hex, staring at the dials. 'Step up the speed a bit.'

Paulo cranked until the sweat was dripping from his face. He was about to give up when Amber yelled, 'Something's happening!'

A light began to flicker behind the clouded dial window. There was a crackle of static. Then the generator handle began to squeal. Paulo gave it an anxious glance. 'Now, Hex!' he called. 'Send the message. Quickly! It will not last much longer.'

Hex tapped out the SOS signal on the morse key.

Dot, dot, dot – dash, dash, dash – dot, dot, dot.

'Again!' yelled Paulo as the squeal of the generator handle turned into a shriek and a thin line of smoke rose from the box.

Dot, dot, dot – dash, dash, dash – dot, dot dot.

Dot, dot, dot – dash, dash-

The crank handle snapped off with a sharp crack and Paulo fell forward onto the sand. Startled, Hex stopped signalling but Paulo frantically waved him on.

'Keep going,' he snapped, spitting sand out of his mouth. 'There may be stored power…'

Hex turned back to the morse key and resumed sending the SOS message, but everyone could tell it was hopeless. The radio was completely dead.

'Maybe that was enough,' said Li, into the silence.

'Two and half SOSs? I don't think so,' said Hex, lying back on his bed.

'It might be,' persisted Li.

'Even if it was enough,' sighed Hex, 'I couldn't give them our position.' He laughed without humour. 'How could I? We don't know where we are!' The smile turned into a grimace of pain as he shifted his wounded leg, trying to get comfortable.

'But what if a – a satellite picked up the signal? The satellite could pinpoint our position, couldn't it?' Li sent Alex a pleading look. He smiled, but did not know what to say. Li was clutching at straws and, in reality, she knew it.

Alex stood up and walked over to the fire. Spitted chunks of the komodo's tail were roasting over the flames. Amber followed him reluctantly. She was supposed to be keeping an eye on the meat.

'Oh, that is gross,' she said, softly, peering down at the pieces of tail. 'Paulo! The skin is splitting open!'

Paulo was still tinkering with the radio, but his heart was no longer in it. 'Good,' he called over his shoulder. 'That's exactly why we've been roasting them. You should be able to peel the skin back now. Cut the meat into chunks and put it into the bamboo steamers.'