Fault Line Read Online Free PDF Page A

and hairy.’
    He put his tongue out; the inside of his mouth glowed like a white-hot furnace.
    She pointed the goggles towards the floor and saw what Hex had seen. White bodies scurried everywhere – crabs, millipedes, centipedes, tarantulas.
    Alex, lying in his hammock, tucked up in his sleeping bag, heard Li call his name. ‘Mm?’ he replied.
    ‘You’re covered in those little crabs,’ she said.
    Alex felt so sleepy. The hammock and sleeping bag enveloped him like a cocoon and his bones felt like lead. ‘They’re keeping me warm,’ he said.
    ‘They’re even in your hair. It looks like you’re wearing a veil.’
    ‘Hmm,’ said Alex. It was so blissful to be in the hammock, he didn’t care.
    He heard yawning and the others getting into their sleeping bags; Hex putting the goggles away. Alex imagined him tucking them back in their case lovingly.
    Normally if they were sleeping somewhere strange they would set up a watch rota. But in the jungle only the animals moved at night, and the worrying ones lived close to the ground. Alex looked forward to eight hours’ uninterrupted sleep.
    A scream. Alex was instantly awake, panting in the darkness, listening. Had he really heard that? Had he dreamed it?
    It came again. A dreadful scream. It went through to his marrow like a saw. What was it? Human? Animal? He groped for his torch and flicked it on.
    Another torch beam flicked on at the same moment. Then the other three. The beams played around the camp area like nervous searchlights. Alex flinched as one caught his eyes.
    ‘Is everyone OK?’ He wasn’t sure who shouted it but there were four replies of ‘Yes’.
    Still the noise went on. The scream was full of pain and fear. Again and again, like the crying of an inhuman child.
    Paulo was sitting up. ‘Li, are there jaguars in the jungle?’
    ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘But they eat small things.’ She was panting, trying to control herself after the fright.
    ‘Well, that sounds like a big thing,’ said Hex.
    ‘But it’s quite a long way off,’ said Li.
    ‘Hex,’ suggested Amber, ‘get those goggles.’
    Hex was already rooting in his bergen. ‘Believe me, I’m getting them.’ He pulled the goggles out of their case and put them on.
    As before, it was like a black curtain had dissolved. Small white creatures were scuttling along on the ground; bigger animals were scurrying through the branches or looking around wide-eyed, startled by terrible noise. ‘Nothing here.’ He took the goggles off. The blackness descended again. He stowed the goggles in his bergen and got back into his hammock. ‘Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s close,’ he said.
    ‘Dios!’
    ‘What’s that!’
    ‘What the—?’
    A sound of wood splintering. Crashing. Like something moving.
    ‘It’s being chased,’ said Hex.
    They listened, their hearts in their mouths. Was it coming closer? No, it just seemed random; like something going mad. And still it screamed.
    ‘What if it comes this way?’ Paulo asked.
    ‘The fire will keep it away,’ replied Alex.
    They lay there, torches still on. It was like the terrible screaming thing was trying to break out of something. Break out of what?
    Alex turned his torch off. ‘I think we should try to go back to sleep. I don’t think it will come near us.’
    ‘If it does, I’ll show it what a real scream is like,’ said Amber.
    Everyone laughed. That felt a bit better.
    One by one, the other torches went off. Still the creature screamed and thrashed. Alex was wide awake to every sound and could hear the others moving restlessly, the trees creaking as they turned over in their hammocks. His heart was pounding as though he had been running. He turned over and then back again, trying to settle.
    He must have been awake for ages before the noises began to subside. The crashing stopped. The scream became less constant, as though the creature was running out of breath. Gradually, as the five friends drifted into sleep, its cries died