Page 104 of The Island

“Bend your knees and tuck yourself in and roll and you’ll be OK.” Heather grunted as her arms began to ache.

“How do you know I’ll be OK?”

“My dad has jump wings.”

“I don’t know what that means!” Owen said and wriggled free of Heather’s grip and dropped into the sand. He did not bend his legs or roll. He hit the sand feetfirst and fell back hard.

“Are you OK?” Heather asked.

“Yes!”

Heather tossed down the machete and penknife, turned, and began lowering herself down the cliff. She was about to tuck in her knees and let go when her shoulder gave and her hand slipped and she just fell.

One second of drop.

A long second.

The force of the sand shocked her, and her ankle turned as she rolled.

When she got up, she could see the figure of a man a little ways down the beach beyond the mangrove trees.

“Get down,” Heather whispered to Owen as she gathered the knife and machete.

“What’s he doing?” Owen asked.

Heather shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Where’s Olivia?”

Heather looked at Owen.

“He must have seen her! He must have her!” Owen said.

“We’ll see. We’ll have to get close,” Heather said. “He’ll be wary. Don’t make a sound.”

“What are you going to do?”

She put her finger over her lips.

They slunk into the bush and crawled as close to the man as they dared.

He was on the walkie-talkie, breathing hard, laughing. It was Jacko. The man who had tried to rape her.

“Right into my lap, mate. If I don’t win the bloody prize, no one should win any bloody prizes. The little girl said they separated but I don’t know about that. I reckon they must be close. Send Kate in the four-wheeler and then bring the dogs…Yeah, mate, see ya, over and out.”

He sat down on an old oil drum. He had a rifle strapped across his back, and there, sprawled in front of him—that splash of golden hair—was Olivia.

“He found her,” Heather whispered, wondering if she was alive or dead.

“We have to save her!” Owen said.

Heather nodded. “You stay here,” she said.

The breeze was coming in off the water. She would be upwind of him, and Jacko was looking very relaxed. Very pleased with himself. That would help. But he was big and strong and dangerous.

Beyond the mangroves where they were hiding, there was a strip of grass about fifteen yards wide. At the edge of the grass there was a eucalyptus tree she could get behind.

From the tree to where Jacko was sitting on the drum was only twenty feet of beach.

---