The Other Side of Nowhere by Stephen Johnston Page A

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    We reached the rocks without seeing any sign of Nick, not even a footprint in the sand. And apart from a few pieces of white timber hull washed up on the shore, the only evidence of The Dolphin ever being there was one of Matt’s sneakers tangled in a clump of seaweed on a rock.
    The rocks where The Dolphin had sunk jutted out into the sea like a long jetty. On the land-side, the rocks sloped gently to the base of a cliff, which rose up quite steeply. The cliff top was maybe the height of a three-storey building. On the other side of the rocks were steep cliffs that plunged straight into the sea. There was no sign of another beach beyond the rocks, and we had no way of knowing how far the cliffs went before there was one.
    In light of this, none of us thought it made sense to swim around in search of another way to get ashore, and we didn’t think even Nick would have tried that. I wondered whether he had doubled back to try to find another way to get through the bush. But I had to admit it was more likely he would have chosen the only obvious way forward – climb the cliff.
    ‘I reckon I can get up that,’ chirped Matt, as if he’d been reading my thoughts.
    ‘We don’t need to get up anything,’ I told him. ‘Let’s just chill out here for a bit, then go back to camp.’ Then I added hopefully, ‘Bet you a million bucks Nick’s already back there wondering where the hell we are.’
    ‘Don’t be such a baby,’ said Matt.
    Before I could respond, he was running to the base of the cliff and, without hesitation, started to climb as effortlessly as a spider up a wall.
    ‘That is not human,’ George said, watching him in amazement.
    ‘He’s definitely from another planet,’ I agreed grimly.
    Watching, I winced as one foot slipped from its narrow foothold. Mostly, though, he climbed easily, and made it to the top faster than I would have believed possible.
    At the top of the cliff, Matt paused for a moment. Then, parting the undergrowth in front of him like he was opening a curtain, he pulled himself upwards and disappeared from sight. A few seconds later, the scrub trembled as he pushed back through.
    Cupping his hands around his mouth he called down to us. ‘Hey! There’s a path up here. Come on … it’s easy.’
    ‘It doesn’t look easy to me,’ George said as we approached the rock wall.
    ‘You’ll be right,’ I said encouragingly. ‘I’ll be right behind you. Just try not to hit me if you fall.’
    George made her way up cautiously, slower than Matt, but still pretty fast. Soon she was at the top of the cliff, where Matt was able to give her a hand up. I followed her up. It wasn’t as bad as it looked, but it was still hard work. By the time I made it to the top there was no sign of either of the other two. Finding a sturdy tree root, I managed to hoist myself up and through the mess of prickly undergrowth.
    On the other side was narrow path, where George was sitting waiting for me. To my left, the path snaked up towards the headland and out of sight around the bend. To the right, it dropped away in the direction of the beach we’d just come from.
    ‘I vote we go that way back,’ she said nodding her head towards the beach path.
    ‘Good plan,’ I agreed, plucking about a dozen prickles off my arm. ‘So where’s the alien?’
    ‘Up there,’ she said, nodding towards the bend.
    ‘C’mon then,’ I said, reaching down for George’s hands to help her up. ‘Might as well see what’s around the corner, I guess.’
    The path was narrow and crisscrossed with gnarly tree roots that were slippery with moss. Far below, I could see perfectly formed waves rolling towards shore in a never-ending procession. A lone hawk circled high above us, gliding on the breeze.
    It all looked idyllic enough, but I made sure to hang onto the rock ledge and stay as far from the edge as possible. One wrong step and it was an awfully long way down. As we rounded the bend we saw Matt resting against a