The Beach

∨ The Beach ∧

99

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 Étienne and Françoise, 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.