Excerpts

"Jane!" As Raku Nau got closer to the finish, the stakes seemed to be going up, and the competition was rising. Nobody was safe now. Vanessa boosted Buzz into the tree and then pulled herself up. Maybe the tree would hold them, maybe it wouldn't. There was only one way to find out. And taking risks was turning into second nature here on Shadow Island. No winning without boldness , Vanessa thought. She couldn't remember who had told her that. But she remembered something else--something that her social studies teacher had said one day. The adventure you get is the one that you're ready for. So maybe they were ready for this, right now. And ready or not, here they came. Buzz stumbled along in a daze--sleepless, hungry, thirsty, and scared. But angry, too. As angry as he'd ever been. The vine around his wrists burned a groove into the skin, a little deeper every time he tried to wriggle free of its knots. And the pain made him only madder. "Why are we going this way?" he asked, but it was a waste of breath, and he knew it. His captor, Chizo, didn't speak English any more than Buzz spoke the Nukula language of this island. The only response that came back was a yank on the vine, as Chizo pulled him along like some kind of animal on a leash. Buzz wracked his brain, replaying the last hour over and over. It was hard to imagine how this could have been avoided. The capture itself had happened in the dark, without warning. One moment, he'd been staring at the campfire, taking the last watch of the night. The next moment, two strong hands had closed around him. One palm had covered his mouth while the other snaked around his chest, squeezing the air out of his lungs as he'd been dragged right off the log where he'd been sitting. There had been no chance to get away, or even call out for help. Chizo had pulled him out of camp as smoothly and silently as a move in a game of Jenga. Except, of course, this was no game. It was Raku Nau . They were headed in exactly the wrong direction. The whole point of Raku Nau was to be among the first sixteen competitors to cross Cloud Ridge, to the east. But as Buzz stumbled along through a long stretch of unfamiliar woods, the sun was just rising at his back. That meant they were headed west. The longer it went on, the clearer it had become that this competition had no rules. Capture and sabotage came with the territory. Buzz could see that now, but now was too late to do anything about it. As for what Chizo had in mind--how he was going to pull off this sabotage and still keep himself in the competition--it was impossible to say. Meanwhile, every step they took was one step farther away from Cloud Ridge, farther from finishing Raku Nau , and, most important for Buzz, farther away from any chance of ever making it home again. This wasn't over, he reminded himself. There was still the chance he could be rescued by the others. Or maybe he could figure out some way of escaping on his own. That meant it wasn't hopeless. Not yet. But it sure was getting close. Vanessa tried to breathe. Tried to focus. Tried not to freak out entirely. It was hard enough, just working to survive in a place like this, and a competition like Raku Nau . But waking up to find her little brother kidnapped was making it nearly impossible to keep from falling into a full-scale panic. "Which way do you think they went?" she yelled. Nobody seemed to hear. It was chaos in the camp. Carter was in the woods, still shouting Buzz's name. Jane was running up and down the shore looking for any kind of telltale footprints. And Mima was already up to her knees in the water, motioning for everyone to get on the raft so they could go. "We have to make sure he's not still here!" Jane called out, illustrating her words with hand motions so that Mima, their one Nukula ally, could understand. "Mima's right! He's gone! Let's move!" Vanessa called back, as evenly as she could. Jane was the youngest, at nine years old, and far stronger than she looked. But she was still just a kid. So was Buzz, for that matter. He and Carter were both eleven. No matter how long this nightmare went on, Vanessa was always going to feel responsible for the other three, even if she was just thirteen herself. They never should have been here in the first place. It was like the opposite of winning Powerball--a zillion-to-one odds of bad luck that just went on and on. It felt like far more than two weeks ago that the four siblings had been shipwrecked on Nowhere Island. They'd struggled, but they'd managed to survive there, thirteen days alone in the middle of the South Pacific. The cruelest twist of all was being swept from that island to this one, literally within hours of being found. But nobody could have predicted the swift-moving tide that had carried them away from their parents, even while the newly reunited family had waited for a rescue chopper to take them back to the mainland. Vanessa shook her head as if those painful thoughts could be erased with a simple shake. There was no use focusing on everything that had gone wrong, anyway. No more thinking about good and bad luck. The only useful questions now were: Where's Buzz? And, What do we need to do to get him back? "Come on, Jane!" Carter shouted. "Vanessa's right. We need to move--right now!" "We should have been gone five minutes ago," Vanessa said as they all waded into the water. Mima seemed to agree. As they came closer, she hopped up onto the bamboo raft they would use to paddle across the bay and look for Buzz. "Ekka-ka!" she said again, pointing east across the miles of water that lay ahead. It meant "this way" in Nukula, and it was one of the few phrases Carter had managed to pick up in their few days here on the new island. "Thank you," he told her in English. Mima didn't have to wait for them like this, but she did it anyway. Carter only hoped that she was as glad for their help as he was for hers. She'd come into Raku Nau alone and had joined forces with them on the first day. The fact that she had no alliance within the Nukula tribe hinted at some larger story, but without any common language, it was hard to know what it might be. Still, they never would have gotten this far without her, and they never would have won the raft in the previous day's challenge, either. Carter gave the thing a push, jumped on board, and picked up a bamboo paddle. "I hope we're going the right way," Jane said. "It's the only way that makes sense," Vanessa said. "Whoever took Buzz needs to keep heading east, just like everyone else. And we're the only ones with a raft. They'll have to go the long way around the bay, on foot. With any luck, we can get there before they can, and then we can cut them off." "What do you mean, 'whoever took Buzz'?" Carter asked. "Chizo did this, and you know it." "We don't know that. Not for sure," Vanessa said. "Maybe you don't, but I do," Carter said. Just the mention of Chizo's name made him burn a little hotter. He dug in with his paddle now, punching at the water as they set out for the other side. Chizo had probably been planning this all along, hadn't he? Looking back now, it made sense. No wonder he'd made such a big deal with the tribe elders about allowing the outsiders--Carter, Jane, Vanessa, and Buzz--to compete in Raku Nau . Chizo, they'd been told, wanted to be chief of the Nukula one day, like his father. And what better way of proving himself than by decimating the outside competition? He'd pulled them into the race, then he'd made it difficult for them from the very start--kicking gravel down through the slot canyons, pushing Buzz off a high ledge, even stealing bananas from Mima. Now, he was taking it to a new level. By kidnapping Buzz, he was doing everything he could to make sure they never finished, for sure. It wasn't even a question. Carter had known kids like Chizo all his life, in every sport he'd ever played. Heck, I am one of those kids, he thought. Takes one to know one. So if Chizo wanted competition, fine. He was going to get it. And he was going to be sorry he ever asked for it in the first place. "How fast do you think we can get across?" Vanessa asked. She and Jane had already started flutter-kicking off the back of the raft for more propulsion, while Mima and Carter paddled at the front. "Not fast enough," Carter said, bending to it. "Never fast enough." Jane squinted into the sun. It had just begun to rise over the line of green jungle on the opposite side of the bay, straight ahead. Beyond that were the spiked peaks of Cloud Ridge in the distance. The ridge was called Mayamaka in the Nukula language, and it waited for them like a giant finish line against the sky. As always, she took it all in, recording the details in her mind. The camera she'd brought from home was long gone. Even the paper journal she'd kept on Nowhere Island had burned up in a shelter fire. The best she could do now was to tell herself the story and commit it to memory. July 14. Day 3 on Shadow Island. Thirty-two runners set out from the Nukula village at the start of Raku Nau yesterday. Four didn't find their way to camp last night. That means twenty-eight of us are left. Sixteen will get to Cloud Ridge in time to earn the seccu, which is the winner's necklace. Only the runners with the seccu are allowed to cross Cloud Ridge to the east shore of the island. That's where the closing ceremony happens. It's also where we need to get to, more than anything. Ani, the only other person who speaks English here, said so. Sort of. Ani is an outsider, like us, but he's lived here most of his life. His loyalty is to the Nukula, but I can tell he likes us and wants to help. All he really said was that the tides on the east side of the island are the only ones we could ever ride away from this place. After that, maybe we could be spotted by a rescue plane, or a ship. But first, we have to find Buzz. Period. Nothing else can happen if we don't do that. I'm hoping, hoping, hoping we find him soon. Otherwise, I don't know what's going to happen. "How are you doing, Jane?" Vanessa asked, kicking alongside her in the water. "You look about a million miles away." "I'm okay," Jane said. There was no reason to admit she was scared. They were all scared. They were all tired--and hungry, and homesick, too. She just needed to keep going, and to keep up. "You're doing great," Carter said, looking back from the front of the raft. "Just don't stop. . . ." But his voice trailed away as he looked past Jane toward the shore they'd left behind. "What is that?" Carter asked. "What's what?" Vanessa said. When Jane checked over her shoulder, she could see the palm frond mats they'd slept on, and the dark spot in the sand where they'd built a campfire. But there was no sign of anything unusual. "Over there!" Carter pointed to the place where the enormous bay gave way to the open water of the Pacific. And where the shoreline curved away and out of sight, Jane's eyes fell on a small figure: Chizo. He was halfway up the trunk of a palm tree, where it curved out over the water. Clearly, he was trying to be seen. "What the . . . ?" Carter said. Already, Mima had begun to back paddle and speak in rapid Nukula. "What's he doing?" Jane asked, as Mima quickly maneuvered the raft one-eighty on the water. Chizo was shouting, that much she could tell, but the distance was too great to hear anything. Then Chizo pulled something from behind his back and started waving it in the air. Jane's heart dropped at the sight of it. If there had been any doubt about who was behind all this, it was gone now. Because the thing Chizo had in his hand was Buzz's tattered blue T-shirt. Buzz screamed out the second he saw them. Carter, Vanessa, and Jane were on the raft, heading straight toward him. Mima, too. It was good to know she'd stuck with the team. His blood seemed to run faster now. "HEY! I'M HERE!" he shouted. Chizo had him tied to the tree, so the others might not see him through the brush, but Buzz waved with his bound hands the best he could. "COME ON! HURRY!" His voice wasn't much more than a dry croak. There had been very little to eat or drink since Raku Nau started, and nothing since the previous afternoon. None of that seemed to slow Chizo, though. As soon as the others had turned the raft around, he dropped from the tree and started west again at a fast clip, dragging Buzz along with the vine leash between them. "At least give me my shirt back," Buzz said. Chizo said nothing. Buzz kept his eyes on the ground, trying not to trip or stumble. He could feel the familiar dizziness that came from dehydration, and the last thing he needed now was a bad fall. For a moment, his exhausted mind drifted into a daydream. He was home in Evanston, sitting on the basement couch playing a video game. Except this one was called Raku Nau . He was starring in his own game, and this was just another level he had to figure out. Another challenge. Another puzzle. These things always had answers. There was always a way out-- Chizo jerked him back to attention with a yank on the vine. "Ekka!" Chizo barked at him. This way. They'd come to a wide brook that flowed out of the forest. Chizo cut inland. His head pivoted back and forth as he led Buzz upstream. He seemed to be looking for something, but what? More important than that, Buzz wondered, what was his own best move right now? That was the question he would have asked himself on the couch at home. So why not here, too? Almost right away, an answer popped into his head. With the others racing to catch them, he needed to do whatever he could to slow Chizo's progress. Buzz dropped. He buckled at the knees, then lay all the way down in the running water. Not only would that make it harder for Chizo to pull him by the wrists, but it meant getting a drink, too. Already, Chizo was yelling. Buzz stayed where he was, letting the stream flow right into his mouth as he took swallow after cold, refreshing swallow. Even that was a risk. They'd found out the hard way how dangerous contaminated water could be, but he couldn't stop himself from taking the chance. He needed the hydration as much as he needed to get in Chizo's way. It didn't last long. Chizo easily had the strength to haul Buzz back onto his feet. He hooked his hand under Buzz's arm and started walking again, more deliberately than ever. Still, it was worth the quick delay. The water coursed through Buzz's insides like a shot of liquid energy. Soon, they came to a shady alcove where the brook cut left. Several small banyan trees grew here, like the ones in the Nukula village. Their exposed roots jutted out from the trunks like table legs. Excerpted from The Sabotage by Jeff Probst, Christopher Tebbetts All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.