Chapter 9
Dobby pried his fingers from the moped brakes. They had stopped on the edge of the almost three-metre vertical drop where the land had split.
His heart raced as he scanned what remained of the track. Nothing but a pile of rocks and dirt as far as he could see.
The northern villagers had probably evacuated somewhere below them but above the wave’s reach, or taken boats out to sea.
It was far too lumpy for the moped to navigate over carrying the two of them with its small tyres.
They had thirty minutes until evac. He debated going back for the four-wheel drive, but it might not make it down the sharp drop either and he didn’t want to risk rolling the vehicle.
They would have to go on foot.
At the roar above him, he whirled to face the main road, as a car raced past without stopping. He waited for the squeal of brakes to indicate they’d been seen but the noise faded into the distance.
He exhaled.
“Can we lift it down?” Mila asked, getting off the back.
“No point. The tyres won’t make it over the dirt.” He pushed the bike into the jungle, covering it. “We need to move before the guy from the village realises you’re not in front of him. Follow me.”
He slid down the slope and then turned ready to catch Mila, but she was right behind him.
“Have you heard from the team? Did Agus leave?”
He smiled. Wasn’t that just like her? They’d barely stopped after racing down the mountain and her first thought was of other people’s safety.
“Yeah. We’ve got about five minutes before he arrives.
” He took her hand and set a fast pace down the road.
“Good news is, he won’t be able to get his car down here either.
” He scanned her. “Are you all right? I couldn’t hear what you were saying, but it didn’t look good. ”
It had been the longest fifteen minutes of his life watching her move through the square, talking to people.
“Agus wanted his man in Desa Agung to bring me to him,” Mila explained. “I panicked trying to figure out how to change his mind.”
By his estimate they had a couple of kilometres before they reached the northern coastal village. If they didn’t make it, there wasn’t enough space between the trees to get a ladder down from the helicopter. They needed to hustle.
Dobby glanced up at the road. They were in clear view, so they’d have to hide when they heard another car.
Hopefully Agus would divide his men. He may think they’d hid and doubled back to Desa Agung.
“What did you say?”
“I wanted to marry Vance there.”
Though he knew it was a lie, his chest squeezed uncomfortably in an emotion that felt like jealousy.
“Then I asked to call my mother. The old woman who stole my moped offered to lend me her son’s phone, and that’s when Agus said he would come.”
“Quick thinking.”
She winced and he noticed the exposed part of her right foot was covered in scratches.
“I should have given you Hawk’s boots.”
She laughed. “They wouldn’t have fit me.”
“We could have padded them with two pairs of socks.” Stupid of him not to think of it.
“I’m fine.” She smiled at him. “Downhill is much easier than uphill. What time is it?”
“Oh seven thirty. We’ve got half an hour.”
She picked up her pace as an engine noise approached.
Damn it. He pulled them into the forest and crouched behind a tree. The road wasn’t visible from here which meant Agus shouldn’t see them.
“What do we do?”
He pulled Mila down with him. The engine switched off. Voices rose. “Can you understand them?” he whispered.
She nodded. “Agus is swearing. He’s telling Ali and another guy to bring the motorbikes.”
Dobby closed his eyes. “If the bikes are as new as the cars and they’re half decent riders they’ll make it down that drop.” And that meant there were still people left at the cliff house.
“And he’s telling someone else to follow the road.”
Damn it.
He keyed his radio. “Radar, there might be two men still at the house. They should leave soon on motorbikes.”
“Copy. We’ll keep a lookout.”
Up ahead the road curved, which would block them from sight but the guy following the road would eventually spot them.
He checked the road.
Correction, two men on foot.
“We need to move as quietly as possible.” They had to keep going, otherwise they would miss the extraction.
Mila glanced at the ground.
Dobby followed her gaze to the leaf litter. Luckily everything on the floor was damp and soft and the thick foliage meant they would be swallowed and not visible from the road by the time they were ten metres in. “Follow me.”
He kept his steps small so she could step where he stepped and angled away from the road, but still heading towards the village.
“Men leaving the house now,” Radar said in his ear.
“What bikes?”
“Brand new dirt bikes.”
“Copy.” This day kept getting better and better. “We need to pick up the pace.”
The ground was uneven, covered in thick tree roots and rocks, but they wouldn’t make it to the coast in time for extraction if they didn’t hurry.
Her expression hardened. “You set the pace we need. If I can’t keep up, I’ll tell you.”
His admiration for her grew. “Copy.”
He set as fast a pace as he dared, watching her, knowing her exhaustion would make her less coordinated, but she fell in beside him. When she tripped, he caught her and encouraged her further, passing her a water flask so she could drink.
He checked his GPS. Another kilometre and they had about ten minutes until extraction. They would make it.
The high buzz of a motorbike engine reached his ears. Still up on the main road, but it wouldn’t take them long to reach the village.
He needed a new plan. He crouched and took the canteen from Mila, taking a long sip before giving it back to her. “What’s this village like?”
She swallowed, huffing out a breath. “Smaller than the others. It’s one long street along the bay with houses on each side. I doubt anything survived.” She swiped at the back of her shoulder and her fingers came away red.
“You’re bleeding.” He shifted to look. New scratches, probably caused by pushing past bushes.
He dug into his pack and handed her his spare shirt. He should have thought of it earlier. “Put this on.” Normally he didn’t pack extra clothes for a short mission, but it had already been in there when they’d been given the news to go.
The shirt fell to her mid thigh and the darker colour would help her hide better amongst the dark leaves of the jungle and protect her skin from scratches.
His pants would be far too big and more cumbersome than helpful.
He got out his radio. “Radar, do you copy?”
“Copy. Chopper is five minutes out.”
He swore. “We need to go one bay west.”
“Copy. You going to make it?”
Mila was already getting to her feet even though she was still panting.
“We’re going to try really hard to.” No promises. That wasn’t what she needed right now.
Checking his compass, he pointed in the direction they needed to go. As long as they didn’t come across a deep gully, they would be fine.
“You should go on without me,” Mila gasped.
He snorted. “No chance in hell. If we miss evac, we’ll go with plan… C.” He’d lost count of the number of plans he’d been through in the past twenty-four hours.
“Which is?” she asked as she followed him through the undergrowth.
“I’ll let you know when I come up with it.” He was rewarded by a bark of laughter and he grinned. If she saw humour in his words, she still had more to give. She was tough.
Though Mila’s breath was loud and raspy, he picked up the pace, glancing behind him now and then to make sure she was keeping up.
He moved fast but the uneven surface made it difficult to go as quickly as he’d like. Rocks, leaf litter and tree roots meant he had to keep his gaze on the ground half the time rather than watching their surroundings.
Maybe if it hadn’t been so rough he would have noticed the change sooner.
The light brightened from the dappled shade of the dense rainforest and he glanced up. About ten metres further was open sky.
And devastation.
The tsunami had affected the northern side of the island. In front of them was about three hundred metres of flattened rainforest. It was like a giant had taken a scythe and chopped everything down.
His radio blared. “Evac coming now.”
His spirits plummeted.
No way were they getting through it in time.
Massive trees had been felled with branches, vines and roots sticking in the air creating a fence between them and the ocean. It would be a bitch to get through.
And though the sky was clear, there might not be enough space for the helicopter to get a line down without it tangling on the branches.
The ocean was full of debris from the jungle and the town. Likely too dangerous to do an ocean extraction even if they could reach it in time.
But he wasn’t a quitter.
He took the lead, using a machete from his pack to cut his way through the branches. Vines tangled around them and it was slow going. Almost a foot of water covered the ground, turning it into shoe-sucking mud.
Everything smelled like a combination of refuse and rot, and sweat trickled down his back from the already humid day.
Mila cried, “Ah!” He turned as her arms flailed and then she fell to the ground with a plop. She grimaced, half her body submerged.
Shit. Dobby offered her a hand.
“My foot is stuck.”
He dug the mud away until her foot came free and hauled her to her feet. In the distance he heard the familiar whump whump of a helicopter. They still had a hundred metres until they were in the clear.
It was going to be tight.
Mila’s shoes weren’t made for this kind of terrain. He shifted his backpack off. “Get on.” He crouched with his back to her.
“You don’t have—”
“Do it!”
She huffed but jumped on, wrapping her legs around his waist.
His body stirred but he ignored the sensation and grabbed his backpack, charging ahead. The chopper would stop to pick up the others first.
Even as he thought that, the tone of the helicopter changed.