Page 154 of The Island

“Where’s the boy? Don’t lie to me.”

“He’s still sleeping, in the cave. We found a cave.”

“He’s in for a rude awakening. Hands higher, please. And farther apart.”

She did as she was told. “You’re not going to take me in, are you?” she asked.

Matt shook his head. “You know what? You’re so much trouble, I think this is the best way for all of us. Ma says you’re the bunyip.”

“I keep hearing that word. What does it mean?”

“A monster from Aboriginal mythology. Hundreds of years ago, the bunyips were represented as a kind of emu, but gradually, as Europeans and their totems entered the Dreaming, the devil, the bunyip, came to be seen as white men on horses.”

“Yes. I understand. The monster is us.”

“The monster, indeed, is us. You’ve learned, Heather. There’s nothing more the island can teach you. Close your eyes.”

Letting Olivia go, he took aim at Heather. He braced the rifle against his shoulder and looked down the sight.

And then he shot her.

48

All she could do was fall.

It was so easy to fall.

People did it every day. The planet didn’t want them up there walking around. It wanted them closer. It wanted them to become part of it.

Under the gum tree, she fell.

And in the falling, she saw the sky and the crow and she heard the rifle crack.

A sledgehammer hit her shoulder. Right where the shotgun-pellet wound had been starting to heal.

The back of her neck hit a tree root.

The pain knocked the breath out of her.

Matt hadn’t killed her with his first shot, but it didn’t matter.

He’d put her down.

She was down and her gun was gone and he was walking toward her with a rifle.

Olivia tried to grab his leg but he kicked her off, hard, and she doubled over in agony.

Heather looked at her shoulder. The rifle shot seemed to have gone straight through. Only a .22-caliber round but, oh Jesus, it hurt. But at least she could still feel something, which meant that she was still alive.

“Well, well, well,” Matt said. “You led us a chase, didn’t you? Shook things up around here.”

“I tried to…what will you do now?” she said.

“I’ll finish you, I think, and I’ll bring in the little ones,” Matt said.

“I know you, Matt. You’re not like this. Do you think this is the right thing to do?”

“To defend my family against interlopers who have wreaked havoc on us? Yeah, mate, it’s the right thing to do.”