The Last Resort(56)

Amelia pulls away and sits down hard on the cave floor. She looks scared, and Lucy is intrigued. Something Brenda said has triggered something. She wonders what Amelia’s secret is, but without the embedded tracker there’s a good chance they’re not going to find out.

‘Wait a minute,’ Lucy says, ‘aren’t the Scilly Isles near Cornwall?’

‘Yes,’ James says. ‘Of course. Some of them are uninhabited too, I think. I mean, I don’t know, but I’m guessing this could be one of them. But I haven’t seen any boats nearby, and that island you can see from the lighthouse doesn’t look that far away . . . but’ – his face pulls into a frown – ‘wasn’t there something weird about one of the islands? One where they did some sort of chemical testing, or where they put people who had an infectious disease—’

‘You mean like a leper colony? Or one of those anthrax island places?’ Lucy remembers something about these from school, but she can’t remember where they were. But anyway, it was so long ago there wouldn’t be any risk of infection now. Would there? ‘Scott – be useful for once and help us out here? You know about medical stuff . . .’

‘Listen, lady – I don’t do historical disease outbreaks. As I already told you, I help stressed moms and hipster types with a bunch of vitamins they don’t really need. You know that no one with a balanced diet actually needs vitamin supplementation? For the majority of the world’s population, it’s an expensive racket. Those companies that send out brochures advertising all these wonder cures? Most of it is bullshit. Most of those supplements do nothing at all.’ He pauses, shakes his head. ‘You know, most of the people who think they benefit from my concoctions are really just benefitting from having some fluid pumped into them. Most people are chronically dehydrated . . . that’s the real problem we have. Fast food, unhealthy lifestyles—’

‘Yeah, OK, thanks, Scott,’ Lucy says. ‘We’re a bit more concerned about right here, right now, and what might be in the soil on this island. Or the air—’

‘Or this cave,’ James says, running a finger down the damp wall. ‘I think we should get out of here.’

‘But look at the rain.’ Amelia gestures to the opening, where the rain is still battering the earth, bouncing up off the hard-packed soil, spraying droplets towards them. It’s pitch-dark out there now.

Lucy is about to say something else when there’s a beep and the green holographic text that they haven’t seen for a while starts to scroll.

IT’S NOT SAFE OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW. PLEASE STAY WHERE YOU ARE.

ASSISTANCE WILL BE WITH YOU SHORTLY.

APOLOGIES FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.

‘What? Are they crazy?’ Lucy says. ‘We can’t stay here.’

‘I think we’re going to have to.’ James sits down beside Brenda and Amelia. ‘How is she?’ he says, picking up one of Brenda’s hands. Lucy can see Brenda’s chest rising and falling, and occasionally she lets out a random stream of words.

‘What’s she saying?’ Amelia looks distracted. ‘Can you make it out?’

James shakes his head. ‘Just nonsense, I think. Nothing to worry about.’

Lucy sees Amelia’s mouth draw into a tight line. She’s bothering at the skin around her thumbnail, ripping it off, then balling her hands into fists.

Well, well, well, Lucy thinks. I wonder what’s got Little Miss Perfect so worried?





Amelia

Amelia knows that Lucy is watching her, and she tries not to catch her eye. She looks down at her hands and realises she has ripped the skin off around both thumbnails and they’re now ragged and bleeding. Idiot! Especially after what Lucy and James have just been saying about infectious diseases and quarantined islands. Is that really what’s going on here? Of course not.

She knows exactly where they are now. And although it might seem like rambling nonsense, Brenda knows something too. Not about her – there’s no way she could know that – but about what happened on the island. It was all over the news. Amelia recalled it herself earlier. But there’s one piece of the puzzle she can’t get hold of. Or that she’s blocking, not willing to deal with it just yet.

Is this why Brenda was brought here? Another person with a link – a memory – to force Amelia to remember?

She looks down at the older woman, at her pale, clammy skin, and she can tell that without intervention she’s not going to survive. There’s nothing Amelia can do about it. She’s tried her best to make her comfortable and reduce the fever. She’s not a medic. Brenda’s condition isn’t something that can be fixed with makeshift splints and boiling water.

What she can’t understand is why she didn’t tell them she’d been bitten. If they’d known, she could have taken her down to the boat when they came for Giles, and now she’d be off somewhere warm and safe, getting the help she needs. There must be medical help available at the big house. This is what she chooses to believe . . . because the alternative is far worse.

She hopes she’s wrong about where they are. Despite recognising the lighthouse, and the island in the distance – and the memories that tried to push themselves to the surface – she’s still hoping she’s got it all wrong.

That maybe none of this has anything to do with her at all.