JOLT by Bernard Beckett
1. APRIL 15. Marko is in a psychiatric ward seething with hatred for the “Doctor” but we don’t know why. All we know
is that it is 12 days since “the earthquake” and that he has been drugged until he was senseless but that somehow
he secretly stopped taking drugs.
2. He starts to tell the story of the trip that obviously ended in disaster. He chose to take Bursary PE, a course
that involved a group Coast to Coast trip over the Tararua Ranges. He chose the subject because of Mr
Camden’s enthusiasm and because he was bored.
3. APRIL 16. Marko explains how he found a hiding place in a disused boiler room and is writing his story down,
keeping the two stories separate of his life on the ward and his fateful trip.
4. He describes the start of the PE trip. He describes his group: Rebecca, Jonathan and Lisa as they travel in
the bus to Riversdale.
5. APRIL 18. Andrew, the orderly, discovers Marko’s hiding place but promises to keep it secret.
6. The group is in Riverdale at the motor camp with the rest to the class. They argue and burn the pizzas.
Jonathan winds Rebecca up and Lisa and Marko are lazy and lack initiative. Young Ms Jenkins is their
teacher in charge but she is not supposed to interfere.
7. APRIL 19. A genuinely disturbed patient, Billy, attacks Marko. Marko has to pretend to act crazy too. He wonders if
Margaret the supervisor suspects that he has stopped taking his medication.
8. The group starts cycling with disastrous results. Jonathan deliberately sets an erratic pace. They curse and
argue. But they go to McDonalds in Masterton and start to thaw out. Jonathan then thinks of a way of
annoying Mr Camden more: they stay in a barn overnight instead of going to the stop-off point.
9. APRIL 20. Marko finds a radio and listens to news of the earthquake. He hears about the looting in Wellington.
“Now they say things are slowly returning to normal … The sort of normal that sees a lot of low-life crawling back
beneath their rocks, trying to pretend the things they did never happened at all, in that time when craziness got out
into the open.”
10. They reach Cone Hut and have the chilling experience of hearing and seeing rats run around and get into
their packs. The next day they climb up Bull Mound and find that they can actually be lifted off the ground
by the wind. They start to enjoy the tramp, walk through the Goblin Forest and reach a high and pleasant
hut, Alpha. That night they walk out to see the stars and the lights of Wellington far below. The beauty of
the night brings them together until disaster strikes. There is an almighty earthquake that lasts for a long
period and puts the lights out in Wellington. It has obviously changed everything. Their homes are possibly
destroyed and they are safe but trapped in the mountains. Ms Jenkins takes charge and nobody complains:
“we were frightened and we needed her.”
11. APRIL 21. Marko sets a target. In three days the doctor will be dead. He can’t decide how to do it. “I wish he was a
cat so he could die nine times over.” Then he writes: “ Now I must find words for something else which can no
longer be put off. It is the thing that can make sense of all this, the hardest thing to write.” This makes the reader
wonder what is going to happen next.
12. They plan to leave the hut and try to walk back to civilization. They don’t have enough food to stay and wait
for help because Jonathan and Marko ate all the pasta back at Riversdale. Ms Jenkins runs down the track
to check it out, saying she will be back in ten minutes. When she doesn’t return, Marko goes to look for her
– mainly as a reaction to Rebecca’s self-righteousness and that fact that Ms Jenkins forgot his name. He is
sick of being “invisible”. What he discovers is horrible. Three hunters are assaulting Ms Jenkins. They
have pushed her against a tree and when she knees the leader in the groin, he punches her in the face,
snapping her head against the tree and killing her. It is accidental but the men show no genuine regret and
chase after Marko when they see him. Marko runs for his life, warns the others and they all hide in the
bush. Marko blames himself because he couldn’t protect Ms Jenkins.
13. APRIL 22. The Doctor discovers that Marko is not in bed. He and Margaret have an argument with Marko
overhearing some of it. He is scared that Margaret might tell the doctor he is not taking his drugs.
14. Marko tells the others and they go back to the hut but most of their gear is taken. They bury Ms Jenkins
body in a shallow grave at the bottom of a slip. Marko cannot handle it – he vomits and feels useless once
again. The 3 men start shooting at them from the top of the slip.
15. APRIL 23. Marko has made a rope out of a pillowcase to strangle the Doctor. He could escape from the ward and
tell the police but he is determined that the doctor will REALLY pay so determines to stick to his plan. “ For just this
once I have to get something right … For Ms Jenkins, for the others, for me.” A nurse puts an IV line into his arm
but after she leaves he rips it out. He runs away to his hiding place but Andrew finds him and says that everyone is
searching for him. He forces Andrew to find him another hiding place – a room in a half completed new wing.
Andrew promises to come back later with food and drink.
16. Rebecca takes the lead as they tramp down the mountains trying to escape the hunters at the same time.
They travel by night and sleep by day. Marko offers to take the first watch and, looking at the sleeping
group, feels that he “loves them” now. To keep away he hatches plots of revenge against the Doctor: “dark
imaginings”.
17. APRIL 23. He realizes that Andrew is not coming back. The door is locked and he has been left to die. Perhaps
Andrew was one of the hunters? Marko feels useless once again but he says: “I don’t want to die.”
18. As their dangerous journey proceeds, Jonathan and Rebecca get closer and become a couple. They all
walk down river valleys – tricky at night with waterfalls and other obstacles to negotiate. Jonathan gets his
tail down: his thoughts become more and more negative and he falls behind. It takes sharp words from
Jonathan to keep him going. Then they catch an eel and decide to risk a fire to cook it – on the other side.
They have to cross the river that has been damned by a slip and this is where Marko is able to help. He can
swim well and gets Lisa across. They light a fire and cook the eel – their first food in days. The next night
they walk on in good spirits talking and joking when the men surprise them. Marko fights off the men who
try to catch them: he knows judo and is aggressive when angry. He fights them off. The others escape but
his foot is caught and he has a tussle with their leader, the man he later refers to as “the Doctor”. He
overcomes him and escapes – exhausted and hallucinating but so full of hate that he is determined to
survive and get his revenge. He wakes in the hospital and at this point the two storylines are joined. He is
trapped in the room: “I am dying.”
19. APRIL 24. The Doctor enters the room and gets out a syringe. Marko fears the worst and lies in wait, seizing the
opportunity to surprise the Doctor and tie him up with the pillowcase rope. He takes his clothes, locks the door and
sets off for Wellington. He has won. “Good things lie ahead, waiting for me.”
20. APRIL 26. Marko is home with his mother and brother but the city is partially ruined by the earthquake and he can’t
feel any joy in his return. He keeps the Doctor and the ward a secret. He learns that Lisa’s little brother was killed in
the earthquake. He hides the truth from the police and goes to see Ms Jenkin’s parents. He mentions revenge and
punishment but they say that would not help. He has a reunion with the others but is uncomfortable with them
because he cannot tell the truth. He has a horrible nightmare about the trapped and dying doctor and decides to
confide in Lisa.
21. APRIL 27. He goes to Lisa’s family’s big house, finds from her sad mother that Lisa is at the cemetery and goes to
find her there. He tells her the truth and she is very strongly of the opinion that Jonathan should let his hate and
anger go and free the Doctor.
The last page of the story is a newspaper story about the Doctor being discovered and saved. “He is expected to make a
full recovery.”