Isolation Read online

couple of traps. I didn’t even know if they were available in this country. Then again, anything could be bought over the internet.

  “What are they doing out here?” My whispered words went unheard as another cry filled the air.

  Chris had Vanessa up in his arms, cradling her close as though the contact could somehow reverse what had happened or stop the pain she was in. The only thing that would do that was an airlift out of this place and some heavy duty pain killers. Even then it wasn’t going to bring Julie back.

  “Amber? We should head back. Chris is going to see if he can get one of the phones to work.”

  Had they discussed it? If they had, I hadn’t heard.

  Slowly, I rose to my feet. Tom steadied me before I realised that I was listing to one side. So much blood! And for what? Why had someone left those things there? Which in turn raised another question. Had Julie slipped and fell?

  But more importantly, was there someone else here?

  I gripped Tom, needing to hold on to something solid, something real. The thought that there could be someone else here, on this very same beach, scared me so deeply that it was all I could do to stay on my feet.

  “You okay, Amber?” Tom whispered.

  I nodded.

  “I’ve got you.”

  When I looked up into his eyes, they were impossibly kind and understanding. There was something else there, too. Something I’d thought I’d seen in the past but had always dismissed it.

  Instead of pursuing it, I asked, “What are we going to do?”

  He shrugged, the movement rocking me slightly. “We’re going to go back to the fire, and we’re going to take Vanessa with us. Outside that, all we can do is pray.”

  “Or climb.”

  Chris’s suggestion was almost certain suicide.

  “Let’s get her back to the fire first, keep her warm.” At least Tom had his head screwed on. “You okay to walk?”

  Was I? No question I’d have to be.

  Moving to stand on my own, I shuddered. Against the cold. Against the sound that ripped its way free of my friend as she was lifted. Against the images plaguing me. Against the night that was left and a dawn too far away.

  Mercifully, Vanessa passed out after a few steps. Her cries ceased, her body going limp.

  We passed the tents on the way, and I grabbed a couple of sleeping bags for her. Better she use them than us. We had the fire, and I doubted we’d be sleeping any time soon.

  “How bad does it look?” I asked when Vanessa was laid out and wrapped up.

  “Bad enough that I still think climbing’s a good idea.”

  “And I still say it’s suicide.”

  But Chris was right. There were no guarantees that Vanessa would make it until morning. Nothing to say we were on our own here or at the mercy of someone we’d yet to see.

  But still… if Chris slipped, just once. It was nothing but rocks to break his fall, and then another of my friends would be dead, waiting on the shore for a morning they’d never see.

  I interrupted their continued discussion with a quiet voice. “Is there anywhere with a soft landing? Just in case?”

  Both turned harsh stares my way, as though I’d came right out and told them to get off their asses and get climbing. I didn’t want either of them to have to do it, but with Vanessa passed out, her arm and leg a tangled mess, and Julie still on the rocks with vacant eyes, what choice did we have?

  Chris slapped his knees and got to his feet. “Right. I’m the best climber out of us, so let’s see what we can do.” All the bravado in his words couldn’t hide the shake in them.

  “I’ll stay with her,” I offered. It was better to have someone here in case she woke up.

  Tom’s hand landed on my shoulder. The weight was warm and welcome. “We’ll not be far.”

  A short, hysterical squeak of a laugh escaped me. “Not like there’s far to go.”

  They walked off into the dark, far enough that all I could see was the bobbing of their light. Placing my head in my hands, I leaned forward, hoping the dark would be a welcome relief from the gore. It was. For a moment.

  Then Vanessa moaned and it all came rushing back to me.

  Fear filled me just as sure as if I’d eaten so much I couldn’t eat any more. I was sick to the stomach with it. If someone was out to get us, then here I was, all on my own, with a roaring fire as bright as any beacon.

  Frantically, I looked around, searching for something I could use as a weapon.

  Wood. Plenty of sturdy pieces of wood piled up next to one of the chairs, ready to go on the fire.

  It’d be just like swinging a bat.

  Except, I’d never killed anyone before. Save for the occasional fly and spider, I’d never killed anything. But I thought I could kill another human being if my life depended on it. So I grabbed a piece of wood, weighed it in my hands as though I knew what I was doing, and sat back down with it resting across my knees.

  I think I drifted off for a moment, though how I managed it I have no idea. One moment I was sat staring at the fire, glancing at Vanessa every few seconds, the next I was coming awake, on my feet, with my weapon in my hands.

  Tom was racing towards me, shouting.

  “Amber! Amber!” He skidded to a stop in front of me. “Oh, thank goodness!”

  “What happened?” Adrenaline was coursing through me, making everything seem sharp and focused, despite having been asleep.

  “It was Chris!”

  I blinked. Once. Twice. Maybe a third time. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “It was him!” He griped my shoulders tightly, shaking me a little. “He did it!”

  Everything around me became like a slow motions movie screen. Tom was still throwing around crazy words about Chris. The fire was crackling slowly, its warmth pleasant against my bare skin. And somewhere in the back of my mind words were easing into place, like a snow storm settling, revealing a landscape in the whiteout.

  Yet the scene before me was of an alien world.

  “Chris did what?”

  “He killed Julie. He tried to kill me!”

  The blinking thing happened again. Once, twice, another couple of times as the sternness in Tom’s voice sank in. Chris. My friend Chris. Who I’d known for years, since the end of college. Who I’d almost slept with on more than a couple of occasions…

  “But why?” Surely he had no reason to want any of us dead. And if he did, then what of all the other times we’d come to the beach? There was that one time when a spring tide had snuck up on us and washed out the only safe path for getting back. We’d been stranded for another six or so hours waiting on the tide to go out. And what about every time we came to this place? Along that narrow path with rocks on one side and no way of climbing out on the other. It was low enough, sure, but one slip at the wrong time and the tide would bash someone against the rocks with little they could do about it.

  “I want to see him.”

  What a way that was to get Tom’s attention and make him stop talking. Not that I’d heard anything he said.

  “I took care of him.”

  “I want to see him.” Because of all the things I believed in, Chris being a killer was not one of them.

  Tom squeezed my shoulders again. “Amber, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we were part way up the cliff when he tried to push me off.”

  “And?”

  “I had no choice.”

  I eyed him carefully, trying to make sense of his words. “What did you do?”

  “Amber, we were part way up the cliff. He tried to push me off. What do you think I did?”

  “I still want to see him.”

  “For god’s sake, why!”

  “Because if he was really after us, then I want to make sure he’s dead. That a good enough reason?”

  He shook his head a little, a small hint of a smile playing at the corner of his lips. “Yo
u can be a cold hearted bitch sometimes.”

  “Did you check? Because if he really is… was behind this, then I don’t want him sneaking up on me because we didn’t check.”

  “Fair point.”

  He turned and strode across the shale and sand, expecting me to follow. And I did.

  Following the bobbing light in silence, I kept glancing at Tom. He seemed shaken, his hands making the light jump more than normal.

  Our feet crunching their way across the beach sounded loud in the dark. The night seemed so dense, as though it was engulfing everything that wasn’t bathed in light. My breathing came short and fast, making me remember why I was here, why I was following Tom to the base of the cliff.

  “Here,” Tom said over his shoulder.

  The light was shining on a crumpled pile of clothing. Tom held it out for me, giving me the chance to back away, to leave the body as it was. But I had to check.

  Take a deep breath, I told myself. Just get it over with.

  I grabbed the torch, gripping it in my hands as though it was a life raft, an anchor into a world where everyone was still alive. One foot in front of the other, determined steps. Kneel down on the rocks, shards biting into my knee through my jeans. A shaking hand reaching out, finding a neck in the pile of clothes, searching it for a pulse, any sign of life.

  Nothing.

  With a deep sigh, I straightened out, turned my back on Chris’s body, and returned to Tom. But it wasn’t until I was next to him, leaning into his side, that I could fully come back to my own body and take stock of what was happening.

  “How long until we can get out?”

  “A couple of hours. I can climb if you want.”

  I shook my head. “No. We should wait until the tide goes out.”

  Vanessa was still out when we got