Horizons (14 page)

“I hope our overgrown Boy Scouts are doing better than you,” Alita said.

“They do resemble a misfit troop, don’t they?” Kelly
agreed with a grin. “Especially Gavin and Frazer, with their uniform pants cut short.”

“They have only themselves to blame for envying our new shorts and wanting some of their ow
n. Even Zach looks like…
”

Alita’s comment was cut short as a shrill scream coming from the interior overrode it. Alita and Kelly stared at each other, eyes wide. “Was that a bird, maybe?” Alita ventured. “It sounded more like Gavin.”

“As a boy, perhaps, before his voice deepened,” Alita allowed.

“Or in a terrible panic,” Kelly added. As another wavering screech reached them, followed closely by a third, Kelly dropped the hat, scooped Sydney into her arms, and started to run toward the sound. “C’mon, Alita! Hurry! Maybe he stepped into another one of those snares.”

“Then watch where you are going!” Alita called from right behind her. “This is
m
uy estupido,
you know, the two of us dashing to his rescue when we have no idea what kind of trouble he has encountered. Surely the men are better equipped to help him.”

“But Earl was wit
h
him,” Kelly reminded her, huffing now with the effort of running with Sydney clasped to her hip. “Maybe something happened to Earl, too. Gavin may need all the help he can get.”

“Something might happen to us, too,” Alita panted. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Since there was no actual path, Kelly was simply taking the course of least resistance, dodging through and around the tangled underbrush. Several minutes later, she spied Zach ahead of her, running on a tack diagonal to hers. Just as she neared the juncture of their two routes, through a veil of trees she spotted Frazer hobbling along in Zach’s wake, and Blair coming from yet another direction—all of them about to converge within yards of each other.

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, Frazer let out a yell and dived headlong at Blair, shoving her hard enough to send her flying backward. Then Frazer just seemed to disappear before Kelly’s eyes. It was only when she got nearer that she saw the huge, gaping hole in the earth, precisely where Blair had trod mere moments before.

Zach, hearing Frazer’s yell, quickly backtracked, reaching the scene while Blair was yet on the ground, trying to get her legs back under her. Kelly and company were still several feet away, closing fast. Zach took one look into the hole, motioned to Blair to scoot farther from it, and spun around in time to catch Kelly before she could get close enough to see.

“No,” he rasped in a strangled-sounding voice. “Don’t look. Any of you. You don’t want to see this, believe me.”

“What?” Kelly demanded. “What is it? Is Frazer hurt? Is the hole deep?”

“It’s a bunji pit. Frazer’s dead, Kelly.”

As she gazed up at him, not yet fully comprehending, Kelly noted that Zach’s face was literally gray, as somber as his words. He looked deathly ill.

“A bunji pit?” Alita echoed. “Earl warned of those earlier, did he not? But I still don’t understand how
…
”

“I want to see,” Kelly demanded. “Frazer might still be alive, and if there’s any way to get him out of there and treat—”

“Damn it, woman!” Zach exploded. “Do you have to argue about everything? Can’t you take my word for it? He’s dead, Kelly. D-E-A-D. He’s impaled on what amounts to dozens of long, sharp spikes. There’s one straight through his heart. Now, do you get the picture? Have I been graphic enough, or do you need to hear specifics?”

“Oh, my God!” Kelly stared at Zach in horror, her own color fading. “No! No!”

Alita sank to her knees and crossed herself. “Santa Maria! This is too awful! Too ghastly!”

“He
…
he shoved me out of the way,” Blair whispered from across the pit, her eyes huge and glazed with shock. “He pushed me to safety, risking his life for mine.”

Gavin burst through the bushes, skidding to a halt a scant yard from the pit. Apparently, he didn’t even notice. His dark, panic-filled eyes sought Zach’s as he immediately began to babble between breathless gasps. “Back there!” He pointed toward the north. “Cave. Man. Dead!”

“Earl?” They all asked the same question simultaneously.

Gavin shook his head.

“Then he can wait,” Zach tersely informed the young soldier. “If he’s dead, he’s not going anywhere, and we have a more immediate problem. Where’s Earl? You were supposed to be keeping an eye on him.”

“Right here, boss.” Earl crowded into the small clearing. “What’s goin’ on?”

Alita waved a trembling hand toward the pit. “Frazer. Pitiful,
galante
Frazer.”

Earl walked up to the pit, gazed down for a moment, and swiftly stepped back. “Aw, shit!” He hunkered down, his head on a level with his knees, and Zach wondered if Earl was fighting not to pass out. It would have been perfectly understandable.

Either not fully comprehending the situation, or curious beyond his own reasoning, Gavin peered into the hole. He gagged, his hand coming up to cover his mouth. For a moment he swayed dangerously before stumbling hastily backward into the bushes, where he promptly lost his lunch.

“Do you know anything about this dead man Gavin claims to have seen?” Zach directed his query at Earl. “And
a cave?”

Earl nodded. “It’s lit
tl
e more than a hollow space in a rock, compared to most cav
es, but evidently it was home
to this Jap soldier. There he si
ts, an honest-to-God skeleton,
all decked out in his uniform, like some freakin’ Halloween decoration.” He pulled in
a deep breath and let it out. “Scared poor Daniels shitless, but I
have to admit it spooked me some, too.” He glanced toward the pit, and shook his head. “Then, this. Jesus! After findin’ that snare,
I warned y’all not to run around with your heads up your asses! Even a friggin’ fairy like Frazer don’t deserve
…”

“T
hat ‘fairy’ saved Blair’s life!
” Kelly declared, rounding on Earl in righteous fury. “He may have been gay, but he was brave and gracious, which is more than a lot of ‘he-men’ can claim.”

“Well, one thing’s certain,” Zach said grimly. “He won’t have to worry about dying of gangrene or AIDS, slowly and miserably. At least this way was quick. Maybe even more merciful. And he went out as a hero.”

“He
…
” Kelly gulped back tears and stammered, “He couldn’t understand why he was spared in the crash. Perhaps this was the reason, so he could save Blair and her baby.”

“May God bless him for that,” Blair murmured, hugging her stomach.

Earl grunted what amounted to an assent. Then, “At the ris
k of soundin’ even more crude, I
suggest we bury Frazer right where he is. That way, none of us have to mess with the body, and you gals can mark the grave any way you see fit.” He rose to his feet. “I’ll go see if I can find us some more coconut shells or somethin’ to use as shovels.”

It was when he turned to leave that Zach saw the pistol stuck into the back of Earl’s waistband. It looked old and rusty, but menacing nonetheless. A shiver ran through him. “Earl!” he barked. “Hand over the gun.”

Earl whirled around, his hand hovering over the butt
of the weapon. “Not a chance, chief. Finder’s keepers, as the sayin’ goes. That old Jap won’t be needin’ it no more, but I just might.” His smirk was unged with malice. “And you can forget tyin’ me to any more trees at night.”

Chapter 14

“
I
can’t take much more of this! It’s like waiting for the other shoe to drop! Just wondering who is going to be next to die, and in what horrible, macabre manner! And now, to make things even more frightening, Earl has that gun!”

Zach rubbed his hand along Kelly’s spine, trying to impart some comfort and calm through his touch. They were lying in the semi-dark, in a spot apart from the others and away from the fire, yet still beneath the shelter of the banyan tree. “I suppose you expect me to do somethi
ng about that,” he replied quietl
y. “I would, if I was certain I wouldn’t get myself killed in the process, because if that happened, you ladies wo
uld really be at Earl’s mercy. I
doubt Gavin, by himself, would be much help.”

Kelly sighed. “I don’t want you to risk your life, Zach. It’s just
that
…
I don’t know. I just wish Earl had never found that gun. I suppose I’m just used to the idea of big strong men protecting smaller, weaker women.” She
made a disgusted noise. “Ugh! I can’t believe I just said that!”

“White knights and damsels in distress?”

“I guess. Stupid, fairy-tale no
ti
on, isn’t it?”

“Not really. Archaic, maybe, but still very romantic. I wish I could meet those expectations, Kelly, to be your shining knight. But I seem to have misplaced my armor and my trusty steed. I do however, have the Japanese sword that Earl conveniently overlooked, so we’re not totally defenseless.”

She turned toward him, stroking his cheek with her palm, her eyes seeking his. “You are the best knight I’ve encountered in a long, long time. It’s not yo
ur fault Earl found that gun… or that the plane crashed…
or that no one has found us
yet
…
or that Wynne drowned herself, and Frazer fell into that pit. I’m just feeling overwhelmed right now, and trying to make some sense of it all, and fr
ustrated that I’m having so littl
e success! The best I can figure is that God has decided to play with our lives, and there’s nothing we can do to prevent it. And that makes me angry, damn it! And scared.”

Zach cuddled her close. “I know. On one hand, you want to reach out to God for help, and with the other you’d like to punch Him in his omnipotent nose. Everybody’s felt like that at some time or other. And we’ve all felt guilty just thinking such sacrilege, too.”

Kelly gave a weak laugh. “Golly, maybe it’s not the other shoe I’m waiting for, after all. Could be it’s a bolt of l
ightning striking my nasty littl
e self.”

“Got news for you, babe. The lightning has already struck, but it missed us and hit the plane instead. If we’re fortunate, God has used up his quota for awhile.”

“I hope so, but I’m beginning to wonder if this blasted island isn’t possessed—by demons, or the spirit of that dead Japanese guy, or something totally evil.” Kelly shivered and snuggled nearer still to Zach’s comforting bulk. “Twelve of us escaped the crash, and now, within days, our number has been reduced to a mere seven, counting Sydney.”

“Maybe that’s our lucky number,” Zach proposed. “It beats calling ourselves the Devil’s Dozen, which was one of my first impressions of our ragtag group.”

“Which would make this what? Devil’s Isle?” Kelly submitted recklessly. “How uncannily appropriate.”

Out of nowhere, something dark and furry suddenly buzzed by her head—so close that Kelly could hear its wings flapping—and flew into the tree above them. Kelly let out a startled shriek and burrowed into Zach’s chest. “Oh, my Lord! What was
that?”

“A bat, I’d imagine,” Zach answered, apparently not nearly as disturbed by the creature as she was.

“A bat?” she screeched, totally terrorized. “A bat! Oh, crap and corruption! This is all I need!”

Zach patted her quivering back. “Hey, settle down. The poor thing’s probably a lot more scared of you than you are of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if you just frightened the heck out of it.”

“How can you be so…
so calm!” Kelly smacked him in the shoulder with her fist, then quickly replaced her arms over her head as a shield. “Those things bite, you know! And they carry rabies! And lice! Oh, holy Moses! He’s up there squeaking!”

Zach chuckled, which only made her more peeved at him. “If you’d hush up, he most likely would do the same,” he told her. “He and his buddies are not going to hurt you, Kelly. They’re after bugs, and those figs growing up there.”

“They?” she echoed frantically. “There’s not just one? How many are there?”

“Offhand, I’d guess about fifty. But that’s just a rough
estimate. It’s hard to do an accurate head count in the dark, you know.” Humor resounded in his voice, though he did his best to curb his laughter.

“Darn you, Zach Goldstein!
”
Kelly pummeled him again. “This is not funny!”

“Honey, they’ve been up there every night since we set up camp here. Probably before that,” he corrected. “I can’t believe you ha
ven’t noti
ced them before.”

“Well, I didn’t! And I want them to go away!”

“I wouldn’t doubt they wish the same of you.”

“Hey! What’s the problem over there?” Gavin called out.

“Nothing,” Zach called back. “Kelly’s
just having a hissy fit over the bats in the tree.”

“Bats?” Another pair of female voices rose in dual alarm.

“Oh, criminy!” Earl griped loudly. “Now look what you’ve started. I ain’t seen a female yet who didn’t go into the screamin’ meemies over snakes, rats, or bats—or an itsy-bitsy spider.”

“Loo
k, ladies, they’re just like ti
ny winged mice,” Zach assured them, or tried. “Only better, beca
use they keep the insect populati
on down.”

“Yeah. Some folks even build bat houses, to attract ’em,” Earl added.

“Then they are loco!” Alita avowed in a shaky tone.

“You trying to say they have bats in their belfries?” Gavin joked.

“One of you big brave men could get off your duff and throw some more wood on the fire,” Blair suggested, her voice muffled by the blanket she’d thrown over her head and Sydney’s. “Bats don’t like light, do they?”

“Better yet,” Kelly whined, “why don’t you put that dratted cannon you’re toting to some good use, Earl? Pop off a round or two, and scare them away.”

“I ain’t wastin’ ammo on a bunch o’ measly bats, missy,”
he retorted with a snort of disgust. “But if you don’t think ol’ Zach can keep you safe, you can crawl over here with me.”

Kelly nearly choked on that. “Never mind. I’d bed down with the bats first, thank you very much.”

To everyone’s surprise, including Earl’s, Alita scurried over to his spot, dragging her blanket with her. “Scoot over, big boy,” she ordered testily. “I’m taking you up on that offer. But I warn you, unless you are swatting at a bat, you had better keep your hands to yourself. My teeth can do as much damage to you as theirs.”

Thus prompted, Gavin moved closer to the fire, and to Blair. After adding a chunk of wood to the dying flames, he positioned himself an arm’s length from her back, with Blair and the baby between him and the fire. “It’s okay, Blair. I’ll keep watch. You go to sleep.”

Kelly had wriggled beneath Zach, so that he was lying over her. “Getting mighty friendly, aren’t
you?” he teased.

“Not tonight, dear. I have a headache,” she countered tritely, smothering a yawn. “Actually, I just want to make sure that if anybody gets bat-bit on the butt tonight, it’s not me.”

Zach chuckled. “Gee, and they said chivalry was dead!”

K
elly waited until the men had left the campsite before confronting Alita. “Okay, what gives?”

“Yes,” Blair added suspiciously. “All of a sudden you’re cozying up to Earl as if he owned the crown jewels.”

Alita’s smile was canny. “Not quite, but he is hung pretty well for an old guy.”

Kelly shook her head. “I’m not buying it. You’re up to something.”

Alita gave a careless shrug. “Can you think of a better way to know what the man is doing all night, other than
sleeping with one eye open? I tell you, every time he twitched in his sleep, I knew it. I did not have to wonder where he was or what he was doing, and if he was to try to sneak away or creep up on anyone, I would have been aware of it.”

“Alita!” Blair gave an astounded gasp. “Don’t
you realize how dangerous that could be for you? The man could slit your throat, and none of us would be the wiser until it was too late!”

“If he were to try, I could just as easily cut his,” Alita returned, her dark eyes gleaming brazenly. She lifted the hem of her floppy shorts, exposing the knife she had tucked into her panties. “You forget, I am not some silly, frail female. I learned very early how to protect myself, and I am quite skilled with a knife. Believe me, I know where to suck it, whether merely to wound or to kill.”

“So, you’ve set yourself up as our guard dog,” Kelly said.

“
Si.
You can all rest easy, except for Earl.” She gave a wicked laugh.
“Even in his sleep, the man is as stiff a
nd hard as a tire iron from wanti
ng me.”

“He’s also as strong as an ox,” Kelly reminded her. “He could overpower you. Rape you. Good God, the man killed his own wife! Alita, this is an awful chance you are taking. None of us would want you to get hurt, just trying to keep watch on Earl at night. We could all take turns standing watch, if it came down to it.”

“There is no need,” Alita insisted. “I can handle him. And if the opportunity arises, I will steal his
pistola
from him, even if I have to trade my body to get it.”

“Good grief, Alita! We’d never expect you to prostitute yourself on our behalf!” Blair exclaimed.

“Never!” Kelly agreed. “I can’t tell you how guilty I would feel if you felt you had to resort to that.”

Again that nonchalant shrug, though Kelly thought she glimpsed pain in Alita’s eyes. “Do not concern yourselves
about such a small matter. After all, it would not be the first time I’ve had to do so—for food, for favors, for drugs. Eduardo wasn’t working only for money,
comprende?”
Their dismay showed clearly on both Kelly and Blair’s faces. “Now I suppose I have given you yet another reason to despise me,” Alita concluded with a sigh. “You consider me no better than a
puta.
A whore.”

“No! I’m sure your life was not an easy one. Who is to say, that under similar circumstances, we wouldn’t have done the same?” Blair told her.

Kelly nodded. “I, of all people, have no room to condemn you. Technically, I’m still married, though the divorce papers have been duly filed. Which, in the eyes of the law and the church, makes me an adulteress. But frankly, I don’t give a rat’s whiskers. I’d rather have Zach, for as long as I can, than
have Brad served up to me bare-
assed naked on a silver platter.”

“Not even with a nice shiny red apple in his mouth?” Alita quipped, the corners of her mouth twitching.

“Or with a diamond-studded collar and leash around his neck?” Blair added, surprising them with her
risqué
contribution.

Kelly pretended to consider this. “Maybe
…
if it was a choker collar. Around his balls.”

Alita laughed with genuine appreciation.

Blair’s eyes widened. “Whew! You really loathe the man, don’t you?”

“I don’t actually hate him, I don’t think, but I certainly don’t have any love for him anymore. He destroyed that when he wouldn’t accept me for the woman I was. Instead, he tried to make me over into the wife he wanted—someone I simply couldn’t be. And in doing so, he nearly destroyed me as well. His constant harping, his unmitigated
conceit, became more than I could stand and still retain an ounce of self-respect. Believe it or not, I may have bailed out just in the nick of time, though Brad will never see it that way. All that matters to him is that, by divorcing him,
I may be ruining his chances at a political career.”

“He sounds very egotistical,” Blair said. “Much more so than Anton.”

“Even if he did not concede much to you, Kelly, he must at least have to suck up to his superiors. Or to those people who might influence his career.” Alita deduced thoughtfully. “Let that be your consolation.”

Kelly’s laugh was understandably bitter. “You’ve got that right, Alita. I’m willing to bet Brad has kissed more rear ends than a public toilet. He just would never bend far enough to kiss mine. Not once.”

Blair could not hold back her smile. “Considering where his lips have been, you should consider yourself fortunate, indeed!”

“Hear! Hear!” Kelly raised her coconut shell in a toast. Her friends did likewise. “To womanhood, and being true to oneself!”

“To womanly wiles. Long may they prevail!” Alita chanted.

“To everlasting friendship,” Blair added sincerely.