Free Fault Line by Chris Ryan

pale ragged disc of freshly exposed wood facing towards them. It had landed exactly where it was supposed to.
    Alex punched his fist in the air. ‘Yes!’ Amber put her fingers between her teeth and let out a piercing whistle that scared away any lingering birds. Paulo and Li gave each other high-fives. Hex sat and grinned. The robber let out a string of angry-sounding words.
    ‘Go on,’ said Paulo. ‘Do the next one.’
    ‘Go for it,’ grinned Amber.
    Alex and Li set up the next one and joined the others crouching in the middle. This time, when Hex mimed to the robber to cover his ears, he scowled and put his hands up immediately.
    There was a furious bang, and another tree capsized away into the jungle. The group’s cheers and wolf whistles were almost as loud.
    ‘Could you do a couple at a time?’ said Hex.
    Alex nodded. ‘Don’t see why not.’
    When he and Li came back to take cover again, there were two trees connected by a garland of det cord.
    Bang. They fell into the undergrowth. Five grinning faces looked around at each other. Even the robber was catching the spirit of triumph and smiling.
    Hex looked up. For the first time in a few days, he was seeing sky. ‘Hey, it’s getting lighter.’
    Paulo pushed his sleeves up and felt the sun on his bare arms. ‘The sun at last. Hurry up and take down some more trees, Alex.’
    Amber sighed. ‘Ah, sunlight. Any longer in that tree canopy and I’d have seasonal affective disorder.’
    ‘What’s that?’ said Paulo.
    ‘It’s that thing called SAD – you know, it’s when people get depressed in the winter because they don’t get enough sunlight,’ said Hex.
    Li and Alex came back. Everyone covered their ears. Another bang. Now they didn’t seem so loud. Hex and Amber carried on where they had left off.
    Amber grinned like a snake. ‘I know how they treat that. You have to sit in front of a glowing box for hours every day. Just like Hex does.’
    Paulo chuckled.
    ‘Who would have guessed you were going to say that?’ rejoined Hex.
    ‘For our next trick,’ called Li, as though she was talking to a circus audience, ‘we will do three at once.’ She gave a quick bow and was met with cheers and whistles.
    Alex and Li retreated to their safe positions to detonate.
    Three trees were swiftly dispatched.
    The next trees were the big mahogany that Amber had spotted, plus several oaks. Li and Alex ran back to take cover. ‘These are big ones,’ panted Alex. ‘Might be a bit louder than before.’ He sounded very pleased about it.
    ‘The boy is definitely having too much fun,’ said Amber.
    They put their hands over their ears.
    The bang was certainly bigger. It left their ears ringing. The oaks fell immediately but the mahogany remained upright. There was a great sound of groaning wood. Alex patiently waited for it to fall. The tree had been standing for hundreds of years. Of course it was likely to resist. A hunter had to expect that sometimes its prey would put up a struggle.
    Then he went cold all over. It was finally starting to tilt – towards them.
    He jumped to his feet. ‘Run!’

9 C HAINSAW H ELL
    The tree’s huge shadow loomed over them as its canopy blocked out the sun. Paulo and Hex grabbed the stretcher. The others were already running for their lives.
    The tree’s topmost branches rasped against another tree on its way down. A moment later they were lashing against Hex’s back as he ran with the foot of the stretcher. He put on a spurt as it touched him, nearly pushing Paulo over at the front. There was an almighty crash behind him as the tree hit the ground.
    Cautiously, Amber, Hex, Paulo, Alex and Li looked up. The tree was right across the landing zone, a big hulk of wood like a beached whale.
    Five faces looked at Alex. For once, even the robber was silent.
    ‘Just to let you know,’ said Paulo patiently, ‘the touchdown surface should be free of loose materials such as leaves and twigs. It should have no holes, tree stumps