Page 45

Chapter Forty-Five

M ackenzie woke with a start and a sting on his foot convinced him something was wrong. The fire had long ago died, and he scanned the blackness, listening for a clue to his fear. His arm was numb from the weight of Abi’s head, and he flexed his fingers as he gradually slid it out from under her neck. She rolled onto her back but remained asleep.

Complete darkness heightened his senses, and he sat up shaking his hand to fend off the tingling sensation down his arm. He wiped his legs but snapped back when he brushed something hairy on his thigh.

Cringing as he strained to see what it was, he gingerly felt along his leg until he touched it again. He flicked at it, but it remained stuck. It’s a large hairy caterpillar. Like the ones they’d seen the other day. Pinching it between his fingers, he peeled it off and tossed it into the blackness.

Then he found another one. “Abi, wake up!”

She snapped awake. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve got caterpillars on me.”

“What?”

“I’ve just found a couple of those hairy caterpillars on me so check your legs too.”

She jumped up and seconds later began cursing as she stomped her feet .

The creatures clung to him everywhere, his arms, his legs, his chest.

He ripped them off but each one left dozens of tiny spines in his flesh like he’d been wrestling a cactus.

“Let’s get out of here.” He grabbed Abi’s arm and led her out of their tree shelter. His outstretched hand searched the blackness for invisible obstacles. They crouched down to avoid the low hanging branches and he sensed rather than saw when they were in the open.

“Keep checking.” He brushed his backside.

“Jesus, they’re everywhere.”

When he was certain he’d removed them all, he reached for Abi and as he checked her back, the sounds of her sobbing broke his heart.

“It’s okay, honey.”

“No, it’s not. This is shit.”

“They’re just caterpillars. It could be much worse!”

“Yeah. How?”

“Um … they could be scorpions.”

“Jesus, Mack! You didn’t have to tell me that.”

Mackenzie ran his hands through her long hair, cupped her neck and then kissed her forehead. “Sorry.” He hugged her as she wept into his chest.

Their pitch-black surroundings meant it was still some time before sunrise, but it would be impossible to go back to sleep. Certain they’d ridded themselves of all the caterpillars, they reluctantly sat down in the dirt, backs together, and anxiously waited for the darkness to fade. Mackenzie began to pull the tiny spines from his skin with his fingernails and teeth. With the sheer numbers he found, it was likely to keep him entertained until morning.

He started scratching just before the sun cut a golden sash across the horizon and he didn’t stop even when he began to bleed.

“I chose the wrong night to sleep with my shirt off.” His skin was crawling with fire, and he curled into a ball on the dirt, closed his eyes and willed the nightmare to be over.

Abi sighed with relief when the birds sang to the arrival of the morning sun. She twisted from side to side to loosen her back and ran her dirty hand over her aching neck. The water bottle was at her feet. She reached for it and sipped a small ration.

“Do you want some?” She held the bottle over to Mackenzie who was still behind her, but he didn’t move. She crawled to him, and her heart jumped to her throat.

“Mack? What’s wrong?”

His eyes were tilted to the back of his head, saliva ran from the corner of his mouth, and he twitched with spasms. “Jesus, Mack. Talk to me.” She collected his head into her lap and flinched at how hot he was. His body was beaded with sweat.

“Stay with me.” She stretched for the water bottle and was just able to reach it. With Mackenzie’s head tilted, she poured a small amount onto his lips, but it dribbled off to the side.

“Come on, baby, drink.” She removed her shirt and splashed water onto it. She turned his face skywards and dabbed the shirt to his lips, squeezing small drops onto his tongue.

His eyes continued to flicker as if he was living his own world of terror. Abi’s mouth was dry with panic as she pulled him to her bare chest and rocked backward and forward. “You’re okay, babe.”

He reached up with his hand and she thought he’d heard her, but he scratched at a red welt swelling on his cheek.

She clutched his hand to stop him and frowned at a sharp spike on his finger. His thumb and forefinger were swollen and red and covered in dozens of small, pus-filled pimples. Caterpillar spines were still in his flesh. “Jesus.” She pulled the spines out with her fingernails.

Her mind flashed to a comment Spencer made about a man dying from an insect bite on one of his trips. She dimly remembered thinking at the time that he was exaggerating, but now she wasn’t so sure. With trembling hands, she searched the rest of his body and plucked out dozens of the spikes. Then she bathed him with a generous amount of water, redressed him in shorts and a shirt and put socks on his hands to stop him from scratching.

The heat from the morning sun intensified with every passing minute, and combined with the heat of Mackenzie’s raging fever, Abi felt like she was sitting in a sauna with the temperature at maximum. As the day dragged on and Mackenzie’s condition failed to improve, she became consumed with the agonising realisation he could die. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she tried to imagine herself walking out of the jungle without him. She couldn’t.

“I won’t do this without you,” she whispered. A terrible feeling of loneliness welled up inside her. “If you go, I’ll have to …” She let her voice trail off as she considered ways to end her own life. Hanging, poisonous berries, jumping off the cliff they were searching for, were all possibilities.

But the thought of being severely injured after attempted suicide was more terrifying than the act of doing it. It wasn’t going to happen. She dabbed the sweat from Mackenzie’s forehead.

We are walking out of here together .

Abi swallowed a mouthful of water, cleansing away the bitter taste of defeat.

“Okay.” She massaged a plan of action into her mind. “Hey babe, we need to get you into the shade, before the sun burns you to a crisp.” She carefully slid Mackenzie’s head off her lap and onto the ground and pushed to her feet. With her arms under his armpits and her hands clasped across his chest, she leaned back, using her weight to lift his upper body off the ground, and pulled. Her shoulders took the brunt of his weight and despite fierce determination, she could only move him in short bursts.

Breathless, she lowered him to the ground and checked her progress. Her biceps burned and her arms were weak. The overhang of the tree was still about three metres away. Gritting her teeth, she slipped her hands around him again and with the last of her strength she heaved.

Her grip kept slipping. She closed her eyes and willed herself to go just a little further. The line of shade gradually slid down Mackenzie’s body with each movement and when he was completely in the shade, she lowered him down.

Shaking her arms, she flopped to the ground, and pulled his head onto her lap. Sweat trickled from beneath her exposed breasts and down her belly.

“Have some water, babe.” She parted his lips, dribbled water onto his tongue and squeezed his mouth shut. His eyes shot open, and a breath froze in her lungs as she waited for him to swallow .

He did. Then he closed his eyes again and she let out a shaky breath.

They’d come too far to go like this. He was going to make it. No other outcome was acceptable. Mackenzie’s forehead was like a furnace and any comfort she provided with the damp cloth instantly evaporated.

But there was nothing else she could do.