Heesham stood a few feet away, on a white sand beach I’d neverseen. Both wore grins brighter than the sun. Seeing us, the girl threw both hands in the air in triumph. Dangling from her fingers was a twine circle, holding the biggest shark’s tooth I’d ever seen.
“Samuel!” she cried. “He’s gone!”
“Awesome,” I said, watching Bart slap Heesham’s giant palm in a sloppy high-five. “Where was the gate?”
“Near the trees.” Heesham grinned. But even before he pointed to the spot, I knew.
It was precisely where Bart had been hiding.
CHAPTER
23
THAD
DAY 280, LATE MORNING
I tracked the blood, rewinding the morning. Everything I’d said, everything I’d done.
Echoes of Charley rang in my head.You did all you could.
Echoes of Rives.You’ve done enough.
Echoes of Li.Nil crazy.
Li was right. Nil was freaking nuts.
The blood trail darkened, and then the blood was thick, because I was there. The scene was fresh in my head, like a low-budget horror flick. Only all that was left were scattered entrails—the beast was gone. By the looks of it, something had dragged it away. Something bigger than the hog.
Nil crazy.
“It’s gone.” My voice was flat. “Something took it.”
“Whoa,” Rives said, walking over to the trail’s edge, where heavy drag marks scraped the rocks and lines of blood told the story. “Something hungry.”
“Not anymore,” I said.
“Amen to that,” Johan said.
Knife out, I jogged to the black rocks, where I’d first heard the squeals. Behind the largest rock was a dark hole, almost a cave.
“Rives,” I called. “Check it out. I think this is where it lived.”
To the left of the burrow, something snorted. Rives and I spun at once, knives out. A small beastie cowered, bloody and whimpering.
“Warthog for sure,” Rives said. Then with one swift slice, he killed it.
I wasn’t really sure why I went back. Maybe to purge the nightmare from my system, maybe to reassure myself the nightmare was real. But now having gone, I felt better—and worse. Strangely numb, to the badness that was Nil.
I needed a breather.
I needed to get off Nil—right now—and I knew just how to get the relief I craved.
“Let’s go,” I said. It was all I could do not to run.
Near the Shack, Macy and Maria flanked Heesham. Full of life, Heesham was talking fast.
“—flashed right there. A short sprint, twenty meters, tops. Samuel stepped in and that was it.”
