Alpha Force 1 - Survival by Ryan Chris

Author:Ryan, Chris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RHCB

Alpha Force 1 - Survival

SIXTEEN

'Sunstroke,' said Amber, flatly. 'He has sunstroke.'

'No, no! It will work!' said Paulo, excitedly jumping up from the bench and pushing Amber and Alex off onto the sand. He flipped the bench over and pointed to the underside of the seat. 'See?'

'Sunstroke,' repeated Amber, climbing to her feet.

Paulo tutted with frustration and began loosening the vine lashing which held the seat together.

'Hey!' protested Alex as Paulo pulled one of the split bamboo poles free, but Paulo ignored him.

'See?' he said, turning the hollow split pole over to show them what he meant. 'It is like guttering. If we cut and split enough of these, we can run them in an unbroken line all the way from the pool to the beach, using the undergrowth beside the trail to support them. The water will run down the guttering—'

'And we'll have water on tap,' finished Hex, looking at Paulo with a new respect.

Paulo beamed. 'Exactly,' he said. 'On tap.'

They worked along the fringe of the rainforest all morning, cutting down stands of bamboo with the flexible saw and splitting the stems vertically. Amber worked as hard as everyone else, insisting that she was completely back to normal and did not need to rest up for another day. Once they had cut enough bamboo, Alex and Paulo constructed four simple ladder-​sledges, using springy boughs of wood as the runners and lashing cross-​pieces to them. The cross-​pieces gradually decreased in size so that the sledges were broad enough at the bottom end to take a good sized load, but the top was narrow enough for the two runners to be lashed together. Finally, they carefully loaded the razor-​sharp split bamboo onto the sledges and tied it down with vines.

'Now, all we have to do is go back in there and rig the thing up,' said Hex, staring into the dark forest.

Over a meal of bananas, figs and coconut milk, everyone agreed that it was not fair to expect Li to brave the game trail again. She was left on Watch Duty next to the signal fire. The other four each grabbed the towing handle of a loaded sledge.

'Ready?' asked Paulo.

'Not really,' admitted Hex, staring into the undergrowth.

'Just one more time,' said Paulo. 'Then we shall have our water brought to us.'

'If it works,' said Amber.

'It will work,' said Paulo, calmly.

'OK,' said Alex, taking a deep breath. 'Let's get it over with.'

They started construction at the beach-​end of the trail. Paulo set up a system where two people scouted to the front and the rear and the other two worked on a section of aqueduct. Paulo was right; it was easy to find supporting vines or branches for the bamboo gutters in the dense vegetation of the rainforest and they moved quickly along, slotting the split stems into place and tying them with vines where necessary. They worked feverishly and silently, jumping every time a twig snapped. Every few minutes they would stop and listen, but the rainforest engine hummed along quietly.

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