Misplaced 4, part 3

Now Patrick, though an avid reader of sci-fi and fantasy, was not the sort of person to get fiction and real life muddled up. For a few minutes he sat in the entrance to the first cave, trying to work out if what he had seen was real or just a bizzare dream, or another hallucination caused by eating something unfamiliar. People had been known to go mad on desert islands. Maybe that was what had happened to him.

There was one way to find out, he decided. He stood up and headed back into the cave and through the passage. He stood at the entrance to the cave on the other side and looked around once more to get his bearings. Then he set off, warily, down the hill.

Everything seemed very similar to their island; the same kind of plants, the same noises and the same rocks. But there was something different. Patrick couldn’t say what exactly, just a feeling, a tension. But perhaps that wasn’t really so different from their own island.

He wandered in the forest for a while, and down to the beach. He didn’t see or hear anyone, or any signs that the island was inhabited by more than animals and birds. Once he thought he heard something, but when he stopped and listened there was nothing. At last, as darkness was finally falling, he headed back up the hill and through the cave.

When he emerged on the other side it was completely dark. He sat for a while, looking down at the brightly-burning camp fire below him, watching the shadowy figures moving around it. He was tired and hungry but his amazement and surprise at what he had discovered had outweighed that. A parallel universe! And you could just walk through- it was incredible.

Patrick was something of an explorer by nature, and had gone through to the other island to satisfy his curiosity rather than for any specific purpose. But now he realised that it might be a help to them all- more room for foraging, more resources. He knew that he should tell the others. But that meant facing them again. Suddenly everything that had happened earlier that evening and over the previous days came back to him. He had been treated terribly. Although he understood some of their frustrations, no one had the right to try to trick him as Kath had done. And now he had to go back, when he would rather stay well out of their way, and to tell them that he had discovered something unbelievable. How would they react? They would think he’d gone mad.

A bat fluttered past and distracted him. When he looked down again the shadows round the fire seemed to have stopped moving. People were going to sleep. Well, it was too late to tell anyone now. It was a warm night. He lay down in the shelter of the rockface and tried to sleep.

He had missed the rest of the argument following his departure. Ruth had been very angry at the way he had been treated, and other people’s anger had also been seeking an outlet. All the fears and frustrations building up since the crash found an airing.

“Listen, guys, this isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Nick said at last. “We’re all going to annoy each other, we’ve just got to put up with it till we get home.”

“What if we never get home?” Rachel said despairingly. "What if they never find us? Are we going to die here?"

Everyone was silent. The unmentionable, the thing everyone had thought but no one had dared mention was finally out. They looked around, relieved to realise that everyone else had thought it too, that they were not the only one who was scared.

“We will get home,” Ruth said. The blind optimism reminded her of Patrick and she choked, trying not to cry. She stood up and left the fire, and went down to the beach where they had sat before- but he was not there. She wondered what he might do, and shuddered. She stayed there for a while, alone, and when she went back to the camp no one mentioned the quarrel. He did not return, and as she lay down to sleep she was worried. But there was nothing she could do till morning light.

Morning came, a dull, grey, humid morning. Ruth woke early, after not much sleep, to the full remembrance of what had passed the night before. She heard whispering outside the shelter. Tom was there, on fire-tending duty. She looked out and saw, with relief, that he was talking to Patrick. No one else seemed to be up yet. She joined them. As she left the shelter she accidentally tripped over Rachel.

“Morning,” she said to Patrick. “Are you alright?”

“Fine,” he said. “Um- would you come with me? I’ve found something and want to tell people, but I don’t think you’ll believe me unless I show you.”

“Of course,” Ruth said. She glanced at Tom. He looked uncomfortable. Why was he was worried? Did he think Patrick’s odd request suggested something was wrong with his mental state? Ruth wasn’t sure that she didn’t agree, but for now- she would go with him, to see whatever it was he wanted to show her.

“What is it?” Rachel said, emerging from the shelter behind her.

“Shh,” Ruth said. “Let’s just go now, before the others wake up.”

Patrick nodded, and they went back up the hill. Ruth, Tom and Rachel followed. They reached the cave and Patrick led the way inside, through the passage- and out the other side.

“What’s so strange?” Rachel demanded. “It’s just the island.”

“No, wait,” Ruth said, looking more closely. “It is the island, but...”

“But not quite the same,” Patrick finished. “It’s a little bit different.”

“It’s all the other way round,” Tom said in wonder.

“So it’s not just my imagination,” Patrick said.

“No,” Ruth said. “Is there anyone else here?”

“Not that I’ve found,” Patrick said. “Let’s have a look around.”


The story continues...