The afternoon was coming to a close, the pair had no real idea just how far or long it would take to get back to the village, and walking through this vast jungle seemed to be endless.
Upon chasing after Vicky the backpack that Katie discarded was now lost, and even though they had tried to backtrack they couldn't figure out where it had been dropped, everything just seemed to look the same, large portions of the jungle were like halls of mirrors, so much greenery, shrubs, blossoms and giant trees, twisted vines that looked like they were trying to choke the life out of all plant life around it.
Katie let out a frustrated growl as they continued to plod through the tangled growth, "Flipping satellite phone, it's useless. It doesn't work, it just will not connect." Katie was about to throw the damn phone high into the trees when Keeley snatched it from her hand. "Let me try, don't just throw away our last hope of calling for rescue. We can't abandon all hope."
Katie snarled but soon realised losing her rag would do no good, she calmed herself down and tried not to lose her cool as vines continued to slow her stride. Keeley studied the phone and began working her magic on the device, her cousin was renowned for having little patience with technology and Keeley thought she best handle it before Katie smashed the phone to pieces.
"It's not a very good signal that's all, I think these humongous trees must be shadowing the signal," Keeley scoured around and saw an opening, out onto a more sunlit area that would most likely be a clearer view of the sky, "Over there, let's see if it helps."
Katie had no time to respond as Keeley bound over the small bushes and vines towards the open area, she followed but held little hope that the satellite phone would work at all.
Keeley was circling the open area by the time Katie arrived, she continued to twiddle the dials and held the device up in the air, trying anything she could to get a good connection.
Katie sat on a large rock and rubbed her lower back, "We are truly fucked, you realise this don't you Keels?"
But Keeley smiled, her young naive mind was always positive, even during such dire situations, Keeley had a generous and simple outlook on life, not much phased the glow of vitality that shone from within. "We can do this Cuz, we not done yet," again Keeley smiled that heart-melting grin.
After a long few minutes, Keeley gasped, taken back by the shock that she picked up a signal, it was weak but there was someone on the other end.
"Hello? I'm calling from Ilha Azul Lago,"
'Is that how you say it?' (Keeley put her hand over the phone and looked to Katie for confirmation.)
Katie nodded and smiled at her cousin, a look of hope crossed her face, maybe Keeley was right, after all, they were not quite done yet. Help would be on its way soon.
"Hello, yes. My name is Keeley Bronze, I and my cousin Katie Harrison have come to this island and we are in terrible danger." Katie couldn't hear the response but Keeley was deep in concentration, listening intently to the lengthy response.
"No, I don’t know our exact location but we are moving south, and we should reach the village in the next 12 hours or so."
Katie stood up and began pacing back and forth, they needed to be rescued, and it needed to be fast. Soon it would get dark, and another night in the jungle was not on the agenda.
Keeley struggled to communicate with the person on the other line, it seemed to be a language barrier or a weak connection, Keeley was constantly repeating the same sentences or having to re-emphasise certain words relaying them back in a louder and clearer line of speech.
"Any luck?" Katie softly pleaded to her cousin.
Keeley raised her voice and began yelling down the phone, "Hello? Hello? HELLO!" Her arm slumped down and dangled between her knees, still clutching the phone but the line was silent. "The battery has gone," Keeley spoke and for the first time in ages, she sounded deflated.
"How? It was full a few hours ago, you haven’t been on that long have you?"
Keeley looked back down at the device, it was still warm in her hand. "It's a really old piece of equipment, it doesn’t have a long battery life anymore. I can feel it overheating in my hands right now."
"So, what did they say? Is anyone coming for us?
"They didn't understand where I was calling from, he said he had never heard of Ilha Azul Lago. He was trying to pin our location down but it could be anywhere in a 50-mile radius."
Katie was left speechless, this wretched island was now barely even traceable via GPS, what hope did they have of anyone arriving to save them.
"Best we can hope for is that they take our names and trace us to Rio, from there maybe that will narrow down the potential locations we might be."
Katie swallowed hard, "We took a boat to Ilha Azul Lago, remember? And it wasn't a large boat, and it didn't seem very professional. We didn't have to give our names, all we had to do was pay a fare."
Keeley looked puzzled and stared at her cousin, "What does that mean?"
"If no one knows where we went from the hotel, and the ferry didn't take our names or ask to see our passports. How do we even know if the boat did go to Ilha Azul Lago?"
"Because the man told us that's where he was heading," Keeley frowned unsure why this seemed so complex to her cousin.
"And the man on the satellite phone said he didn't know the island?"
"Yeah but there are hundreds of islands off the coasts of South America, you expect him to know them all?"
"Depends who he is and what his job entails, what I'm trying to say is that maybe, from the point we boarded that boat we cannot guarantee where we were going. And if at all this island is a genuine tourist attraction. I won't lie, when I booked it there wasn't much to advertise this place. It was pot luck I guess that it even appeared on the search engines."
"What do you suggest we do now then?"
"We need to get off this island, preferably without the help of the locals. Something isn't right, our friends and tour guide are missing and most likely have suffered a tragic fate. We both saw that Vicky was dragged away, and when we tried to locate her we found her boots and nothing else. Except for a bulky shape inside a huge plant, that plant was alive and moving around like some sort of animal. I don't want to believe it, I'm not even sure how to believe it. But this jungle is eating people. And I don't want to be next on the menu."
Hours had passed by and Katie and Keeley were exhausted, the rugged terrain and constant tangling of vines made their trek a slow but steady one. They reached yet another clearing and sat down to rest before they would need to move on again.
Keeley seemed fragile, her stare was vacant and her eyes swelled redraw.
Katie scouted the area and looked for anything suspicious, she couldn't settle. The area felt more chilling than any other parts of the jungle, it made Katie feel ill and uncomfortable.
Keeley watched as Katie continued her search, and worrying shout alerted her to rush along to Katie's side, "What is it?"
Katie was down on one knee yanking at some vines, "Someone else has been this way," Katie said in a very pure tone.
"How do you know?"
Katie turned and held up a long black sock, "Someone has clearly been caught and lost a sock in the process." She held the long garment out and gently swung it from side to side. Keeley looked around, "Think they are still around?"
"Unless they made it back to the village, which means we could be close."
"They must have gone this way," Katie continued to look around and began heading in the direction of the trodden down leaves, Keeley followed as the pair continued on their way.
After a few short moments they stumbled upon an area that seemed to halt to a dead end, it was circular and surrounded by overgrown tangled vines and tall trees. Leaves seemed to have scuffled all around the ground and there was only one clear route in.
"It's not this way, there's nowhere to go, and maybe we shouldn't hang around dead ends, come on Keels back up out of here," Katie ushered her cousin out of the area, and as she did Keeley stood on something that made a solid clunk under her boot.
Keeley bent down to retrieve the item, she brushed aside the leaves and grabbed a long knife from the ground, "Geez, look at the size of this."
"How do you drop something like that without realising?" Katie gasped.
The girls looked around and felt quite intimidated, was this someone's last stand?
Keeley gasped as she pointed a long way behind Katie, as they focussed ahead they saw something which made their stomachs knot and begin to ache.
"Boots!" Katie said with a quiver in her voice, the medium length black leather boots were neatly arranged about fifteen yards away, they sat on the ground under some long dark wooden twigs, almost like they had been twisted into the shape of a person, twig-like arms protruding from either side. The leather boots seemed to be a decorative finish to a spine-chilling shrine of sorts.
The pair shuddered as they backed away and out of the circular dead end, the tree's creaked and the low wind rustled the leaves.
"Get out of here, RUN," Katie cried out grabbing Keeley's shoulders and turning her around to run as fast as they both could.
The leaves above seemed to trickle with water and rain was now beating down onto the greenery above, they continued to aimlessly run, any direction possible as the tree's made up a difficult assault course as they fled.
"Where do we go? Keeley breathlessly asked as she continued to move as fast as she could in amongst the jungle growth.
"Just keep moving to the right, there has to be a path close by," Katie ran on ahead accidentally putting distance between herself and Keeley.
The rain began thrashing down and soon made the ground softer, a storm was quickly closing in and its timing was impeccable, to say the least.
Keeley called out for Katie to slow down, but it was too late, as Katie's attention was diverted she slid down a sudden slope in the ground, the waist-high bushes and leaves made it difficult to see what was at ground level. Katie lost her footing and slipped helplessly down the muddy slide, Keeley soon followed as she screamed when Katie fell out of sight, the ground was like a waterfall of mud and the pair slid a long way through bushes and braches before tipping from the edge of terrain and into a muddy pit. Katie managed to snag a protruding tree root as she fell, meanwhile Keeley tumbled and sprawled into the watery trap below. A sickening thud cracked the side of Kelley’s head despite using her arms to protect her fall, she let out an ear-piercing scream as the pain instantly bolted through her head.
Katie dangled precariously by one hand struggling to hold on, a small seven-foot drop into the water awaited her or she could try and pull herself back up using the tree roots. Either way, Keeley needed her help.