Borderline by Allan Stratton Read Free Book Online Page B

and haul our supplies over the wobbly dock to the beach. In a few minutes, our tent’s set up, Andy and Marty have popped a few beers, and we’re getting toasty round a campfire.
    We’re not the first partiers on this so-called desertedisland. The wind has blown some old beer cans and snack wrappers to the scruff behind the strip of beach. There’s even a used condom hanging off some yellowed grasses. But we’re the only campers here tonight.
    Andy catches me staring up at the constellations. “Not bad, hunh?”
    I smile. “Not bad.”
    â€œLittle white lies,” Marty winks. “They make the world go round.”
    Â 
    It’s so late the back of my eyes ache.
    Andy and I are outside the tent, fully dressed, sitting on our sleeping bags. It was escape or die. The second Marty passed out, his gas attacks went into overdrive. Talk about global warming. His cheeks are flapping so hard his ass’ll get windburn.
    The campfire’s low. I place a few logs on it. Andy’s drunk, but he’s sobered up some since throwing up. All the same, he keeps moaning about this girl from Meadowvale Secondary I’ve never met. This is the problem of me not drinking: If I was drunk, Andy wouldn’t sound so stupid and boring.
    â€œI should forget about Sarah,” he says, staring into the embers. “Things never work out, anyway.” I wonder ifhe’s going to start telling me about his problems with his parents. Instead he says, “I should be a hermit.”
    â€œYeah, right. Live happily ever after with your right hand.”
    â€œNo, really,” Andy says solemnly. “I’d find an island like this with a little hermit shack. I’d fish. Eat berries. Hunt squirrels.” His head lolls. “You haven’t seen the shack yet, have you?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWell, it’s perfect. Perr. Fect. You should see it.”
    â€œI will,” I say. “First thing tomorrow.”
    â€œNo,” he says, suddenly wide awake. “Now.”
    â€œIt’s too dark.”
    â€œWe got flashlights.” Andy waves his triumphantly and lurches to his feet.
    â€œGreat, we got flashlights,” I stall. “But let’s wait till morning. Marty’ll want to go too.”
    Andy shakes his head. “Forget Marty. He’s already seen it. I wanna go now.”
    â€œYou’re drunk.”
    â€œAnd you’re a genius.” He lets out a whoop and lopes haphazardly into the pines. “Race you to the shack.”
    â€œAndy, don’t be crazy!”
    His light dances away between the trees. I hear thecracking of dead branches as he stumbles through the brush. The sounds disappear in the night.
    I curl up in my sleeping bag, expecting him to come back any second. But he doesn’t. What if he’s tripped and cracked his head open on a rock? Or run across the island and fallen off a ledge, and now he’s knocked out in the water, drowning? If I stay here and he dies, it’ll be all my fault.
    Damn, Andy.
    I get my flashlight and follow him into the woods. It’s not a big island, right? So it’s not like I could get lost. Or run into a bear or a psycho hermit with a chainsaw. Well it’s not—is it?
    I’ve always been able to spook myself. Right now, I don’t have to try. If I look straight up, I can see the odd star, but the light doesn’t penetrate the woods. Here on the island floor, it’s pitch black, except for the beam of my flashlight. It picks up fallen trees, roots stuck up into the air. Half the downed trunks are rotted, covered in a thick carpet of moss and pine needles.
    I glimpse a creature off to the right. Swing my flashlight. Nothing. Just a weird shadow. Shadows everywhere.
    I move slowly. The mulch hides crevasses in the rock. Surprises waiting to twist an ankle. Andy was insane to barrel in here.
    â€œAndy?”
    Silence.
    I should see the light from his