The Swiss Family RobinZOM (Book 4) (10 page)

Nips began hesitantly, taking tiny steps, turning to look back at Jack every ten seconds. Earlier in the day Jack remembered passing through this same jungle with a feeling of euphoria, but now there was just fear, a sinister distrust in every sound and unexpected movement of the canopy.

“Go on,” Jack said to Nips. “Faster.”

Nips climbed a thick branch and hopped across to another. Jack could hardly make out the trees they were traversing, so he followed the patch of white fur on the back of Nips’s head like a beacon in the night.

Jack scrabbled at a branch now and then, his speed lessened with the oppressive blackness of night. Nips slowed down each time Jack stumbled.

Jack slowed further when his vision blurred. Nips seemed to be a dozen yards ahead, when Jack knew he was just a few paces away. The illness was tightening its grip on him, but he did not panic. At least, not yet.

Jack’s foot slipped on a thick carpet of damp moss. He hit his head on the branch and fell, spiralling, to the ground. Something bent beneath him, cradling and breaking his fall. He rolled to the side, off the hedge. Some small creatures made a break for it, their home crushed. Jack dusted himself off. Then he heard the least welcoming sound he could imagine.

It began as a low groan, deathly and hollow, a rattle in the back of a torn throat. It came from somewhere over his shoulder. Jack daren’t look back for fear of freezing on the spot.

He ran, his feet finding every dry crunchy leaf and snapping twig. The zombie’s groan grew louder in volume as he turned in Jack’s direction. Jack scrambled up the nearest tree. He perched in the crook of a branch and took a moment to catch his breath. Something fell on his lap. Jack jumped. It was Nips.

Nips turned and climbed along the bough of a tree, beckoning for Jack to follow him. The zombie’s groans remained steady and consistent below, and traced Jack’s movements. Jack proceeded slowly, ensuring the reliability sure of every movement, knowing each could be his last.

Then came the overpowering scent of azaleas, and Jack recognised his location. He climbed along the bough. It was thinner than he would have liked and creaked with ominous threats long before he got to the end of it.

He looked up the sheer cliff, at the top of which was the object of his desire: a yellow petalled dainty flower with green stripes. Jack lowered his eyes to a hole in the side of the cliff he could use as a handhold. It mawed before him, two metres away. Below him, a thirty foot drop to an outcrop of rock. A wheezing groan rose up below him, fingers straining for him like wriggling worms.

Jack unconsciously leaned to the side, his sense of balance deserting him, and he knew it wouldn’t be long now before he became unconscious.

He crouched down and waited for his sense of balance to return. It sawed in one direction and then another, and finally settled into an orbit Jack felt was right. He took a few steps back, the branch wobbling under his weight. He ran and threw his weight forward, the branch snapping beneath him. Jack rose in the air, and he knew with certainly he’d overdone it the second his foot left the branch. He’d been so afraid of under-jumping that he’d inadvertently overcompensated.

The hole he was aiming for fell away, the sheer rock face rising up to meet him. Another hole, like a pockmark on the moon, flew at him. He grasped for it. Gravity made its hungry gambit for him the moment he hit the wall, but his hands hooked into the handhold.

Jack pulled himself up, feet kicking at the wall for purchase, for a toehold, anything. And then he found it – a short protuberance of dirt, but it was enough. He pressed his big toe onto it and reached up with his left hand, scrabbling across the surface, his fingers and the palm of his hand searching for something – anything – he could get a hold of.

His fingers found something course and thin in composition. He wound his fingers around it and pulled, testing to see if it would take his weight, but it tore loose, falling to the ground and showering him with dirt.

Jack reached up and tried again. This time his hand came to what felt like a thick piece of gnarled twine. He pulled on it. It did not come loose. He shook his head, wishing he knew what it was that he was staking the whole Robinson family’s lives on. He seized it, gripped it tight, and pushed himself off the wall, holding onto the thread. Miraculously, it held his weight.

He pulled himself up and reached for the edge of the sheer rock face, the grass welcoming to his fingertips. He lay flat on his back, legs bent at the knee, hanging over the edge.

He caught his breath and turned to look at the bunches of flowers peeking out from the tufts of grass, no longer green but silver in the moonlight. Such a small thing to rest all your hopes on.

Jack plucked one. It resulted in all the other flowers sucking themselves into the soil for a moment, before opening again to catch the moonlight. Jack put the petals in his mouth and began to chew them. He swallowed the pulp and waited for the petals to take effect…

And waited…

And waited…

His eyes drifted closed. His last thought was of his family, and how he had failed them.

Daniel wore a flat cap and fingerless gloves. An understated strength emanated from his lean frame. His hair had been dyed blond by the sun. His final year student friends stood behind him muttering words of encouragement. Nips, a short tree trunk of a boy with bushy eyebrows, did the same behind Jack.

“You’ve got this, Jack,” he said. “You’re going to trounce him!”

Daniel stepped away from his friends and leaned in close to whisper to Jack, almost having to bend in half to do it.

“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” he said, keeping his voice low. “It’s not too late to pull out. I won’t say why we decided not to do it.”

“Why?” Jack said. “Getting scared?”

Daniel smiled.

“I admire your courage,” he said. “I hope it’s not misplaced. The shingles are a long way up. If you should fall…”

“I won’t fall,” Jack said. “You just worry about yourself.”

“I am,” Daniel said. “I don’t want your older brother coming after me.”

“He won’t find out,” Jack said.

“All right, then,” Daniel said. “Then let’s get this show on the road.”

Jack and Daniel took positions at the foot of the wall. They each grabbed a handful of creepers that covered the surface of the building. Jack looked up, the church’s spire stretching into the sky, the tallest building in Chucerne.

Nips stepped forward between the two competitors. He raised his arms up in the air.

“On your marks,” he said. “Get set. Go!”

And they were off. Daniel, due to his height advantage, already had a head start and took the lead. Daniel’s friends cheered him on as he powered up the wall, drowning out Nips’s solo effort.

Each new handhold Daniel took brought him higher than Jack, but only a little. Then Daniel’s hand pulled away from the wall, a handful of creepers tearing free from the wall, drawing a brick out with it.

“Look out below!” Daniel shouted, but it was unnecessary as the spectators had already darted aside to avoid it.

Daniel turned and reached up to begin climbing again, and started as his eyes caught on Jack, who was now somehow three yards higher. He gritted his teeth, shifted his weight, and reached up.

Jack got to the top of the wall first. He reached up a hand and touched the shingles. He was short of oxygen, lungs burning, but his muscles felt good. A stiff breeze blew and made his clothes rustle and crack. Then he made a fatal mistake.

He let his eyes drift down, and as they did, the side of the church wall stretched down, down, down, the roofs of the houses around him pitched and low, the spectators tiny ants, the creepers he clung to with his small fists woefully fragile. The blood drained from his face and his fingers clasped the creepers tight. He hugged the wall, pressing his body close to it, eyes clenched shut.

Daniel pulled himself up to the roof and tapped it. He looked over at Jack.

“It’s not over till we get back down, you know,” he said.

Then he noticed Jack’s expression, pale white, a caricature mask of fear.

“Are you all right?” Daniel said. “Do you think you can make the climb down?”

Jack made a minute shake of his head.

“Do you want me to help you down?” he said.

Jack swallowed, his throat dry, and nodded. Daniel looked down at his friends, who stared up, hands over their eyes to block the glaring sun. Daniel edged sideways across the roof toward Jack.

“This had better not be some cheap ploy,” he said. “Can you move?”

Jack shook his head. Daniel wrapped his arm around Jack, bracing his body with his own.

“When I say, I want you to let go of the creeper and wrap your arms around my neck, okay?” Daniel said.

Jack shook his head.

“Jack, look at me,” Daniel said. “Jack?”

Jack forced his eyes open.

“On the count of three let go, okay?” Daniel said. “One, two, three.”

Jack’s claw-like fingers did not release.

“Okay,” Daniel said. “Let’s try that again. One, two, three.”

This time Jack’s fingers let go and he wrapped his arms tight around Daniel’s neck.

“Hold on,” Daniel said.

He climbed his way down, taking special care to grab handfuls of only the strongest creepers. Bathed in sweat, his feet touched the ground. He set Jack down, but his legs crumpled beneath him.

“Jack?” Nips said, crowding around. “Jack? What happened?”

“Give him some room,” Daniel said.

He took some water from a bystander and held Jack’s head up as he spilled the water down his throat.

“Drink up,” Daniel said.

Jack did, tentatively at first, and soon he was guzzling it down. In the distance the school bell rang. End of lunch.

“What happened to him?” Nips said.

“That’s something you’ll have to discuss with him,” Daniel said. “It’s time to get back to class.”

He led the others away.

Jack sat on a short wall that ran around the school grounds. He let his feet dangle over the edge, tapping the wall in a random rhythm. A minibus pulled up in front of him ‘Bern Comprehensive’ written across the side. The doors opened and five students and a stern-looking teacher got off. She stared at Jack and then led her students to the front entrance.

The school bell rang and students spilled out through the main doors. Jack hopped down off the wall and began to walk toward the main hall. He heard running footsteps.

“Jack!” Nips said. “Jack! Wait!”

Jack didn’t stop.

“You missed double science,” Nips said.

Jack shrugged.

“I wasn’t in the mood,” he said.

“I told the teacher you went home, that you weren’t feeling well,” Nips said.

“Thanks,” Jack said

Nips stepped in front of him and held up his hands to block him. Jack was small, but Nips was even smaller, so Jack pushed past him with ease. Nips held onto the crook of Jack’s elbow.

“Jack, what happened today?” he said.

“Nothing happened,” Jack said, keeping his eyes down.

“Something happened and I’m not going to let you go until you tell me what!” Nips said.

“Just… leave me alone,” Jack said.

He pulled his arm away but Nips held on.

“What happened?” Nips said.

“I choked! All right?” Jack said. “I got to the top, looked down and choked. There! Happy now?”

“Why did you choke?” Nips said.

Jack looked away, uncomfortable with the thought of looking weak in front of his friend.

“I got scared,” he said.

“But you were there!” Nips said. “You could have won!”

“I know,” Jack said. “But I can’t help it. I always look down. Climbing is what I’ve always been good at. If I can’t be the best at this, what am I going to do with my life?”

“You’re eleven years old,” Nips said. “You’ve got plenty of time to find out what you need to do.”

“If you’re no one by the age of eleven you’ll be no one by the age of forty,” Jack said.

“Where did you hear that?” Nips said.

“I read it somewhere,” Jack said.

“Then you need to start reading different things,” Nips said. “And don’t forget, Daniel is much older than you. And much bigger.”

“I don’t care,” Jack said. “I should win. Do you know what it’s like to be the brother who doesn’t excel? To not be the strong one or the smart one or the cute one? To be the one who doesn’t have any skill?”

“You do have skills, Jack,” Nips said.

“What?” Nips said. “What do I do well?”

“You’re a great friend,” Nips said.

“That’s not enough,” Jack said.

“You were ahead of Daniel before you choked, you know,” Nips said. “You beat him to the top and could have climbed down faster than him. Fritz could never have done that. Or Ernest. Or Francis. You’re brave, Jack. The bravest kid I know. That’s what separates you from your brothers. You’re super brave.”

Jack wiped his eyes.

“You really think so?” he said.

“Yes,” Nips said.

“Thanks,” Jack said. “That means a lot.”

“But you need to beat your fear of heights,” Nips said.

“I know,” Jack said.

“How are you going to do it?” Nips said.

“Just keep climbing, I suppose,” Jack said.

Jack turned and headed toward the main hall.

“Where are you going now?” Nips said.

“The main hall. It’s Ernest’s stupid quiz tonight.”