Free Missing by Gabrielle Lord

and we can’t provide it for everyone. It would be hurtful for other kids to find out and feel excluded, wouldn’t it?’
    â€˜Sure, I understand,’ I said.
    â€˜So, not a word. When we’re ready for you, one of the trainers will fly a small flag underneath the Paradise People Resort standard.’
    That must have been the darker pennant I’d noticed flying beneath the resort flag on my earlier reconnaissance.
    Damien’s mobile rang and he hastily grabbed it, turning away from me. There was a few moments’ silence as he listened to the caller, then in an urgent voice he said, ‘He can’t have gone far. Deal with it!’ He turned to me, flashing his smile again. ‘A lost dog,’ he explained.
    I knew it was a lie. Damien was talking about someone who had gotten away. Someone who couldn’t have gone far. Far from where? I still couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong with this place. I didn’t let any of my misgivings show as I put out my hand to shake his. ‘When do we start?’ I said.
    â€˜Now is as good a time as any,’ he said. He pressed a button on a keyboard and within moments, a powerfully-built man in army fatigues, his head shaven and with a jet earring flashing from his left ear, appeared at the doorway. ‘This is Hamish, Ryan. He’ll take you to the others and put you through your paces. See what your strengths are so we can put you into the best program for your skill level.’
    He nodded to both of us to show that we were dismissed and I followed Hamish down the steel stairs, but this time we exited the building on the other side and into a large covered area that was easily as big as six basketball courts. Groups of kids were working through a gymnastics routine, others were wrestling, and a small group in white outfits were practising martial arts with an instructor. This could be fun, I thought. Hamish turned to me and said, ‘Let’s see what you can do. Start with push-ups.’
    I managed thirty-six.
    â€˜Not bad for a newbie,’ said Hamish, ‘I’ll have you doing a hundred before long.’

DAY 23
68 days to go …
Shadow Island Beach
8:52 pm
    Over the next few days, I started training with eight other guys about my age. We also had a lot of fun kicking balls around and I was stoked to start learning abseiling with them.
    At night, everyone would gather around a campfire on the beach, watching the moon rise out of the sea and singing at the tops of our voices while Damien joined in.
    One night Sophie plopped down in the sand next to me, blowing on a sausage to cool it down, reaching out for the barbecue sauce that was being passed around the circle.
    â€˜I heard something interesting today. There’s a rumour going round,’ she whispered to me as everybody laughed at one of Damien’s jokes, ‘that there’s someone on a rocky outcrop just south of the beach.’
    â€˜What? Who?’ I asked. But Sophie shook her head. ‘Nobody knows. It’s just a rumour. It’s probably not even true.’
    I looked across at Damien who was conducting some crazy song, using a piece of driftwood as a baton. ‘But it just might be,’ I whispered back.
11:13 pm
    Later that night, I sneaked away to take food saved from our campfire feast to Ryan. As Ryan demolished a few cold sausages, we discussed the odd phone conversation I’d heard in Damien’s office. ‘At least it wasn’t me he was talking about,’ said Ryan.
    â€˜Maybe it was one of the runaways?’ I suggested. ‘And Sophie told me a rumour she’d heard about somebody being kept prisoner on a rocky outcrop just past the island.’
    Ryan nodded. ‘I’d heard that too, but I just thought it was kids mucking about—a camp fire ghost story. But now I’m not so sure.’

DAY 26
65 days to go …
Paradise People Resort
10:30 am
    In the following days, our