The Last Resort(63)

Amelia picks up a jacket and torch. ‘Or maybe this is just so we can go outside in the rain . . . and dark.’

‘Why go to all the effort of making concealed rooms and boxes disguised as rocks, though?’ James pulls on a jacket and zips it up. ‘Bit of a waste of effort.’

‘All part of the amazing super-fun game though, Jamesy – eh?’ Lucy rolls her eyes.

‘Maybe. Just seems a bit elaborate.’

‘Oh, come on,’ Scott says. ‘It’s like Giles said right off the plane. It’s. A. Game. They’re tossing in as many ridiculous surprises as they can—’

‘But what if we hadn’t found the cave?’ Lucy says, interested now. ‘Then what?’

‘Then it wouldn’t matter,’ Scott says. ‘There’d be something else along the way.’

‘Hmm. Maybe. Or maybe they have no fucking idea what they’re doing yet, and we’re the mugs who’re testing out all the possibilities . . .’

‘It could be one of those “choose your own adventure” type things,’ Amelia suggests.

Lucy laughs. ‘Well, whatever it is, I hope they’re not expecting me to give them a favourable write-up.’

‘We’re not allowed to talk about it though, are we?’ Amelia says.

Lucy clenches her hands into fists. Amelia is becoming more irritating as the day goes on. ‘Seriously . . . what are they going to do to enforce us not talking about it? I’ll be making sure I tell everyone I know not to sign up for this if they get asked – and I know a lot of people, remember?’

‘Are you sure you want to do that?’ James says. ‘I imagine their enforcement will involve revealing your big secret more publicly.’

He’s right, of course. But she’s not going to tell him that. She’s cold and tired. She’s been subjected to a memory that she thought she’d done a good job of keeping locked up in a little box – and she’s had to share it with these strangers, just to rub salt in the wound. They might be tolerating her now, but there’s no doubt they think she’s a monster. James’s memory feed was pretty nasty, as was Tiggy’s. From what little they saw of Brenda’s, there was some serious heartache linked to that. But Lucy’s wins in the evil-bitch stakes, hands down. Is it any wonder her moods flit back and forth like they do? Every single day, she has to find some way to live with herself.

‘Whatever.’ She turns back to the fake rock and starts to pull out the metal box. She tries, but it’s too heavy and it slips out of her hands.

‘Here, let me.’ James leans in and grips the box with both hands, then slowly pulls it out. He lays it on the floor and looks over at Lucy, who’s moved out of the way. His eyes are saying, ‘Shall I open it?’

‘Go ahead.’

He unclips the two metal clasps at each end, twisting them downwards. The lid pops up and he lifts it off. Lucy peers over his shoulder as he starts to unpack it, laying the contents on the floor. Four bottles of a pale yellow drink. Four shiny red apples. Four packets of crisps. Then something wrapped in waxed paper, which he unfolds to reveal a chocolate cake, pre-cut into four equal segments.

‘Christ. This is like reality TV show bingo. We’ve gone from Big Brother to that celebrity jungle one, with our little “reward”. Scott . . .’ Lucy calls over her shoulder. ‘Your dinner’s here.’ She lifts one of the bottles and inspects it. ‘He’s been moaning about being starving for hours. It’s weird, though, because I’m not hungry at all.’

‘Me neither,’ Amelia says. ‘James?’

He shakes his head. ‘Well . . . it’s not so much that I’m not hungry, it’s just that I’m a bit wary of eating anything here. They put those cereal bars and things in our bags, and there were the nibbles at the tiki hut, but I just didn’t want to risk it.’

‘You’re probably right.’ Lucy places the bottle back in the box. ‘They’ve drugged everything else they’ve given us. Maybe this will be all-out poison.’ She takes an apple instead. ‘This is so shiny it doesn’t look real. This whole picnic thing reminds me of The Famous Five – I can’t tell what’s in the bottles yet, but it doesn’t look like “lashings of ginger beer”.’

‘Who are the Famous Five?’ Scott chips in. ‘Were they the guys who blew up your Parliament with gunpowder?’

Lucy laughs. ‘No, idiot. Think Nancy Drew, but with five annoying kids instead of one . . . or was one of them a dog?’ She shakes her head. ‘I can’t remember.’

‘If we’re going for kids’ stories, I’d say this apple is more like the one that poisoned Snow White,’ Scott says, lifting out an apple, inspecting it, then putting it back. ‘Do they really think we’re going to eat fruit that we found in a box disguised as a rock? Who knows how long it’s been here.’

James smiles. ‘It’s interesting you mention The Famous Five. I’ve been thinking the same all day. This whole island thing. What did they say the name of this place was?’

‘Nirrik,’ Scott says. ‘Now, do not ask me how I remembered that. It just stuck in my head for some reason.’

‘Did you say Nirrik?’ Amelia says. She has gone very pale. She spells out the letters one by one. ‘That’s Kirrin, backwards—’