Night on Terror Island by Philip Caveney Page A

decision.
    She climbed up onto the platform.
    On screen, Captain Holder was still arguing with Tamara Flyte.
    ‘Doctor Flyte, I’d appreciate it if you’d stick to what you know and leave the handling of the ship to me,’ he said.
    ‘I’m not trying to interfere,’ Dr Flyte assured him. ‘I just want to be sure we haven’t missed anything. If you’d just read the articles I’ve collected about this mysterious island, I feel sure that …’
    ‘We’ll give it one more day,’ said Captain Holder. ‘If we don’t find anything by then, we’ll have to—’
    He broke off at a sudden crashing sound and everybody was thrown violently sideways. Captain Holder threw out his hands to a nearby table to steady himself. He stared around, a look of anger on his grizzled face. ‘What in the name of God was that?’ he roared.
    Rose stood for a moment, wondering what to do next.
    After a few moments, she decided that she needed to get the platform to move forward again, so it would slide into the light. She tried rocking backwards and forward on her feet, but that did nothing. Then she realised she would have to do it as though she was on her scooter. She dropped one foot to the floor and kicked herself off. That did the trick. The platform slid smoothly forward a second time and in an instant the powerful light was blazing into her eyes, a light so strong that she had to lift a hand to protect them. And then she began to feel very, very strange indeed …
    On screen, the characters were now scrambling up the steps to the deck, only to find that the yacht had beached itself on a sharp coral reef and was sticking up from the water at a crazy angle. Captain Holder looked over the side and saw that water was pouring into the yacht through a jagged hole in the hull. Sam was staggering around the deck shouting that they’d run aground, which Kip thought was a bit rich, since it wouldn’t have happened in the first place if he’d kept a proper eye on things.
    ‘Look!’ cried Tamara. She was pointing to the horizon where everyone could see the distant outline of a tropical island silhouetted against a brilliant red sunset. ‘What did I tell you?’ she cried, as she spun round to confront the captain. ‘There
is
an island.’
    ‘Lucky for us,’ snarled Captain Holder, ‘because this ship is going down, fast.’ He swung round. ‘Sam, unhitch the lifeboat. We don’t have much time.’
    ‘Aye aye, Captain,’ spluttered Sam, pushing the hip flask back into his pocket out of sight.
    ‘Wait!’ cried Tamara. ‘My charts! My equipment!’
    ‘Forget them,’ roared Captain Holder. ‘We’ve got to—’
    He broke off in amazement as a little girl appeared on the deck right in front of him. He stared down at her in wide-mouthed amazement. ‘Where the hell did you come from?’ he gasped.
    The girl looked up at him, her hands on her hips, her expression very cross indeed.
    ‘What’s going on?’ she screamed. ‘How did I end up here?’
    Down in his seat, Kip had just been taking a sip from Beth’s Coke but now he sprayed it all out with a gasp of horror.
Rose was in the film!
He sat there, his heart going twenty to the dozen, a horrible heat rising in his face. Beside him, he heard Beth say, ‘Kip, that little girl. She looks just like—’
    And then Kip was scrambling up out of his seat in a panic.
    ‘Where are you going?’ asked Beth. ‘You’ll miss the film.’
    Kip ignored her. He began to run up the central aisle, heading for the steps that led up to the projection room. As he ran, he could hear the characters’ voices booming from the cinema’s sound system.
    ‘Who the hell are you?’ gasped Captain Holder.
    ‘My name’s Rose! How did I get here? I’m not supposed to be here. I
hate
scary movies!’
    Uncertain laughter rippled through the audience.
    Kip got to the door of the projection room and went inside. It was only then that he realised that Beth had followed him, but there was no time to