It’s a slog. I’ve lost track of what time it even is. But I’m taking a turn with the machete again. Then I’ll carry Penny while Sam takes a turn. Then Zane again and round and round. The muscles in my arm ache. My skin’s pruned from the water shaking off the bamboo. We’re all torn up from stumbling over the cut bamboo.
Our chopping is becoming narrower and narrower, just wide enough that we can slip through. I chop through a clump, and there on the other side is the rock outcropping that cuts down the island, racing to the ocean. A former lava line, the soil we’re standing on was once as tall as the rocks I’m staring at. But time and erosion have carried it to the sea.
“Stand back. Let me make it a little bigger.” I chop and chop. When there’s enough room for all four of us, I wave them in.
“Holy fuck.” Zane cranes his neck up.
“Yeah,” Haley says.
Penny barks.
“We’re not getting over that. Not without the right equipment. At least not right here, we’re not. We’ll have to travel next to it until we find something more hospitable,” I say.
Zane reaches up and tries to climb it. He pulls his hand back. “It’s like fucking broken glass. I don’t know how we’re going to get over it here.”
Sam grunts. “Two options. Back along the path we came down, where it sounds like Calvin goes to get the pomelos. We try to get around it by the ocean. It has to have been smoothed by the waves. Or we stay our course and cut down the side.”
“The bamboo isn’t as thick here,” Zane says. “There might be someplace to climb over. The wind always blows from this direction. The waves are going to be crazy. Even if the rock is smoother, it’s possible it will be too rough and we’ll have to come back. Plus, the bamboo isn’t as thick next to the rocks. It will be a little faster-moving.”
“I agree.” I slide between a clump of bamboo and make it thirty feet without having to cut anything.
Penny barks.
“If you let her down, Sam, we’ll all be able to fit through the bamboo. Maybe we can bend it and not chop it.” Haley runs her hand over Penny’s leg.
“We can give it a try.” He lets her down and out. She shakes the metal tags on her collar, and the clinking echoes in the overly quiet jungle. She tilts her head back and takes off past Zane. She turns and barks, then runs again.
Haley jumps. “Do you think she can scent them?”
“It’s that or stinky seaweed,” Zane says.
Sam cups his hands. “Penny. Don’t get too far ahead.”
Penny barks back and takes off. She darts through the bamboo like they’re slalom poles for a skier.
“Penny,” Haley calls. “We need to be able to follow you.”
Penny yips and waits until we’re almost caught up, then she takes off again. It’s a rinse and repeat. Over and over, but now with bamboo not as thick, we’re making much better progress. Even though the outcropping isn’t anything we’ll be able to climb over, I’m starting to think we might not need to. Not with the way that Penny is taking off. Though it might be before we get to the ocean.
The ocean’s getting louder, but Penny tears through the bamboo, away from the westerly trail we were taking.
When we break through the bamboo, it drops us into an ethereal world. Straight lines of fruit trees with waving dried grass underneath them. Rows and rows. Some healthy, some dead, all of them overgrown. I pick a pomelo from the ground and toss it back. There are branches of another fruit tree hanging heavy up ahead.
“But Calvin said there wasn’t any sign of humans on this side, just lots of trees.” Haley’s fingertips touch the tree.
“Last time I checked, Sassy, trees don’t grow naturally in straight lines.”
“Why would he lie to us?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know.” The same thing rolls around in the back of my brain. “I’m sure he had his reasons.”
“They better be damn good,” Sam growls.
Damn. Good.
But my stomach turns. Something’s not right.
Calvin
