Page 66

My heart thumped in my chest, and I opened my mouth to suck in air; the room became stifling hot around me. Avril had spoken to me about the cages, the prisons that the men were in right at the beginning when I discovered Camp Z. Huge deep holes and cage frames complete with built-in steel bottoms had been lowered into the hole, meaning there was no way for the prisoners to dig their way out. Now I know they had originally been for the pigs who like to root and dredge up the ground. Those men could dig all they liked, they would only eventually hit a steel flooring. This I had known and yet I could only hope for the key to help me. And all the while, Avril had known my intentions. I felt sick. But right now, I could hear her breath had softened and she was asleep.
I took myself from the room and straight to Camp Z.
57
THEN
Kai was waiting for me. I could see from the way he was leaning into the bars, looking towards the clearing. I was out of breath by the time I arrived, knowing that I didn’t have long until Ula would be along to begin executing our plan.
I stopped in front of his cage. I held my hands out in front of him the way a pet owner would show their dog they had no more treats. It was over. I could not help this man or the others.
Kai sucked his breath in defeat. We both knew what this meant. If I tried to escape before him to make it back to the mainland, somehow, having zero knowledge of driving a boat and not knowing what direction I was going in, even if by some miracle that happened and I could alert the authorities to what was happening, Avril would just shoot the men. There would be no chances taken. The only option was the key and now that was gone.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I tried. I was going to let you out. I truly was.’
Kai shook his head. ‘This is not your problem. You did not invite this problem into your world.’
I sank to my knees and rubbed my head. It hadn’t affected me this much before but to know that these men would perish because I hadn’t been faster, slicker to get the key. They might have stood a chance. But it was over. I had no choice. I had to walk away and leave them here. I heard the disgruntled groans from the men, which had grown more prominent the last few days with lack of food and the growing sense of unease. They knew what their fate held for them.
One key fit all; I was sure of that and I would have been able to let them all free. I knew now they were all innocent, and not one of them deserved to die this way.
Kai sat for a while, not saying anything. Just breathing in and out.
‘Clara wouldn’t have let this happen,’ he said with some sort of laugh that made me feel uneasy.
I sighed loudly. I thought of Clara, and what she had endured at the hands of Kali. The fate of that poor woman, who I had started to bond with. But I guessed that was why they wanted her gone in the end because she was more like me than them. Then I sat up, dropped my hands from my face and looked up at Kai.
‘Clara. She used to come here, to visit you.’
Kai nodded.
‘She let herself into your cage?’
Kai shook his head. ‘We didn’t reach that part. But she was planning to. I don’t know what would have happened, whetherI would have tried to bypass her and escape, but we had built up a rapport, a trust.’
I wasn’t listening to Kai anymore; I was thinking about the time I walked into my cabin and found Clara trying to conceal something in her bag. I should have looked but I didn’t think that was the right thing to do. But her rucksack was still shoved in the corner of our hut; no one had come to claim it and I had sought comfort from it being there. I bet that was what she had been concealing. The key to every cell in Camp Z. She had been struck out for getting too close to Kai, but maybe they didn’t know she had a key.
I stood up.
‘I need to get back to camp. Quickly. We’re running out of time.’
I raced through the woods to the camp, each way was twenty minutes at a fast pace and I was exhausted. I slowed when I reached the cabins. A few women were still milling about, and I didn’t want to alert any of them to what I was doing. I smiled and walked slowly to my cabin, almost tripping on the step, but I made it inside without anyone approaching me and questioning where I had been. Everyone was preoccupied with leaving now.
I fell to my knees, conscious of time ticking, not knowing if Ula would show up on time, but knowing that she very well could. That was what I had been hoping for all this time at least. I pushed my hands into the rucksack, and felt around amongst a hoody and a watch, a small notebook that I had seen addresses in, some can headphones and an iPod. So retro, but the only way to listen to music. Next I spilled the contentsout to get a better look, and as I did I heard a loud clang on the wooden floorboard. I looked next to my foot, and there was a large, heavy metal key.
As I stepped out of the cabin again, I took a moment to look around the camp one last time. This was the last time I would see everyone, the last time I would see this fireplace, which had burned non-stop since I arrived, apart from the day of the storm. There was no sadness, no remorse, no anger anymore. I was scared.
My rucksack was hidden in a bush that led down to the beach. I had marked the spot with a stick so everything was packed ready to go. All I had to do was head back to Camp Z and release the men.
58
THEN
Kai was looking anxious this time when I returned. I hadn’t really explained about the key; I had just run. I held it up to show him and he threw his hands up in the air and then over his head and ran them down his scalp.
‘We don’t have long.’ I pushed the key into the lock. It fit. Kai’s eyes were on the lock. I heard the motion of other men, the sounds of them growing louder.
‘Shhhh!’ I called to them. ‘You want to get us all killed? Have patience.’