Survival Read Online Free PDF Page B

transponder? Maybe even a satellite EPIRB? Then the wish-fairy helicopter will pinpoint our signal and—'
    'Shut up, will you?' said Hex.
    'This is not a lifeboat, OK? It's a small, open boat which is only ever used for ship-to-shore hops within full sight of land. We are not going to find any communications equipment aboard this boat.'
    'Speaking of communications equipment,' growled Hex. 'If you hadn't thrown my palmtop overboard, I could be sending an e-mail SOS right now!'
    'Yeah, right,' sneered Amber. 'From the middle of the Java Sea.'
    'It was state of the art. It had infra-red connections—'
    'You have to be near the coast for that to work—'
    'It was working on the Phoenix, until you—'
    'That's enough!' snapped Alex. 'You two have to stop this. Understand? We are in a survival situation now. Everything depends on our sticking together. Hex, don't mention your palmtop again. No point. It's gone. Amber, you need to stop being so negative.'
    'I'm only saying, they won't find anything,' muttered Amber.
    'Found something,' called Li. She pulled a plastic sack from the locker. It was full of lumpy shapes and thudded heavily onto the boards in the bottom of the boat. Alex leaned forward as Li struggled with the knot which tied the neck of the sack. Maybe, just maybe, they were in luck.
    'This must be one of your knots, Paulo,' said Li, still struggling to untie the sack.
    'Ah, yes,' said Paulo, rubbing his nose in embarrassment. 'That is one of my knots.'
    'You untie it then,' said Li, shoving the sack towards him.
    'No need,' said Paulo. 'I know what is in there.'
    'What?' asked Alex, feeling his heart sink.
    'Boots,' said Paulo.
    'Boots?' repeated Li. 'No air-horn? No flares?'
    'Our boots and socks,' explained Paulo. 'The ones we wore in the swamp, on the last island.'
    'The dirty ones Heather told you to clean,' said Alex.
    Paulo looked stricken. 'I did not want to clean them. So I hid them.'
    Everyone groaned and slumped back in the boat.
    'Sorry,' whispered Paulo. 'Sorry it was not a radio.'
    No-one answered. The creaking of the boat seemed loud in the growing silence. Alex looked around at the other four. He could see that this small set-back had cancelled out the boost in morale he had managed to achieve. They were back to being very frightened but they were all showing it in different ways. Li was about to cry, Amber looked ready to kill someone, Hex had withdrawn into himself and Paulo was a picture of guilt and misery. Alex had to admit he was feeling pretty scared, too. His heart was beating fast and he could feel the adrenalin surging through his bloodstream. He knew that it would be fatal to let this sort of bad atmosphere develop, but he was at a loss for words.
    It was Paulo who recovered first. He took a deep breath and sat up straight. 'It is good we have our boots,' he said. 'We will need them when we make land.'
    'There is no land,' said Li, her voice wobbly with tears. 'Anywhere.'
    'Yes there is,' said Paulo, reassuringly. 'This whole area is dotted with thousands of islands. We just cannot see any at the moment, that is all.'
    Amber leaned over, hooked the little compass out of Alex's shirt pocket and waited for the needle to settle. After a few seconds, she nodded to Alex. 'We were right, this is a northerly current.'
    'We're moving at a good pace,' said Alex. 'I reckon if we just let it carry us for a while, we're sure to come across an island group. And when we do, we can row ashore.'
    Alex pointed to the oars, which were tucked under the thwarts on one side of the boat and smiled at Li. She tried a wobbly smile in return.
    'In the meantime,' said Paulo, calmly, 'we have Amber as our navigator, but we need a leader. Alex, you have a good survival knowledge, yes?'
    'My dad taught me a lot,' said Alex. 'He's in the SAS.'
    'Then I nominate you as our leader for now,' said Paulo. He looked questioningly at the other three and, one by one, they nodded their agreement.
    Alex looked around the little