For a long moment, neither of them moved. Essie, Pod and Annalie skittered down to them as quickly as they dared, terrified.
‘Blossom? Will? Are you all right?’ Pod said.
As they reached them they both stirred, groaning. Blossom levered herself off Will. Will peeled himself off the rock.
‘Ow,’ he said, feeling his ribs, then his head. A big egg-shaped lump was already coming up through his hair.
‘Have you broken anything? Is it serious?’ Annalie asked.
They’d all heard something crunch in the impact.
Will moved his limbs, testing them out carefully. He’d fallen on one arm, and it was very tender but not agonising. ‘Nope. Nothing broken.’
‘Blossom,’ Pod said, ‘what about you? Can you walk?’
Blossom examined herself, and found a long scrape down her leg and the side of her body where she’d scoured the skin away in her slide. ‘That really hurts,’ she said.
‘But is anything broken or sprained?’ Pod insisted.
Blossom shook her head, still dazed.
‘Will,’ Annalie said. ‘The sail.’
The mast had been smashed by the impact, and the sail itself, which had been neatly furled, now had a long jagged tear in it.
‘We might be able to fix it,’ Pod said, not very convincingly.
Will looked back over his shoulder at the sail, grim-faced. ‘Maybe,’ he said.
‘Sorry,’ Blossom said, in a small voice.
‘Let’s keep going,’ Will said, his voice tight. ‘And this time, everybody be more careful.’
They climbed down to the bottom of the canyon without further mishap. When they reached the bottom, Essie said, ‘I think we could all do with another drink and something to eat.’
Blossom took off her backpack and handed it over.
Essie opened it, and said, ‘Hey, why is this—?’
Then a look of horror came over her face.
A water bottle had broken open inside the bag. A whole litre of precious water had been wasted, spilt into the bag, and worse, it had soaked into their remaining food. She pulled the sopping wet food out in dismay.
‘Our food ruined, too?’ Will said furiously.
‘No, not ruined,’ Essie said gamely. ‘It’s just a bit wet, but that’s okay, we can eat and drink at the same time. Here, I’ll divide it up.’
They made the best of their soggy food and ate it sitting in the rocky bottom of the canyon. Will finished first, and sat for a while with the broken pieces of the sail, trying to think of a way to fix it. But they had no tools and no spares, and the rocky canyon bottom contained nothing he could use to splint his mast or sew up the ripped sail.
‘Maybe we could…’ Pod began, wanting to help, but couldn’t think of anything else to say.
Will looked at it for a few minutes longer, then said, ‘Forget it. There’s nothing to be done.’
Annalie looked at him, then at Essie. ‘I guess we’re walking then.’
They rested for a little longer, then began their ascent, leaving the abandoned pieces of the land surfer lying at the bottom of the canyon; there seemed no point carrying them any further, and as a result, the climb up was a lot easier than the climb down had been.
Traversing the canyon had swallowed up most of the afternoon. They walked now with the sun behind them, casting shadows in front of them that grew longer and longer. As the sun sank, the blazing heat faded; the temperature plummeted. None of them had planned for this; no one had brought warm clothes. They began to shiver.
‘We won’t be so cold if we keep moving,’ Annalie said.
It was cold and weary walking, the sand sifting into their shoes, stones turning under their feet. When, later, the moon rose it was easier to see where they were going, but all it revealed was a vast expanse of nothingness.
‘Maybe we should stop and make camp for the night,’ Essie suggested. ‘Blossom’s got matches. We could light a fire.’
‘No firewood,’ Will growled.
‘Oh. Good point,’ Essie said.
They kept walking. Annalie was in front, leading them with the compass. The compass points glowed in the dark but even so it was hard to read and she began to feel that her world had narrowed to the stony ground under her feet and the wobbling green arrow that floated in front of her eyes.
Hours passed. The stars blazed cold and beautiful in the desert sky. They stumbled on, exhausted, thirsty, hungry.
Suddenly, a welcome sound: Essie’s shell pinged.
‘Signal!’ she gasped, whipping it out.
Annalie took out her own shell. She’d written a message to Spinner as they were entering Kinle Bay; now it flew off into the night: Spinner, we’re here in Sundia. We’re coming to see you. Please wait for us. Reply as soon as you get this message. Prompted by Will, she’d added a second message: Beckett is following us. Be careful!!
‘If there’s signal, that must mean we’re close to a settlement,’ Will said.
‘Maybe it’s the Ark!’ Essie said.
‘I hope so,’ Annalie said.
They waited for several minutes, but no answer to their messages came. ‘Do we keep going?’ Annalie asked finally.
‘I guess so,’ Will said.
They kept walking. They walked for what seemed like a long time.
‘Where’s the Ark?’ Essie asked. ‘Shouldn’t we be able to see it by now?’
Annalie said nothing. A nasty worried feeling was creeping over her. ‘Do you still have signal?’ she asked.
They took their shells out.
Nothing.
‘Does that mean we’ve overshot?’ Will asked.
‘Are we lost?’ Pod asked, his voice wobbling.
‘It’ll be okay,’ Annalie said gamely. ‘When the sun comes up, I can work out where we are.’
‘We should go back where there’s signal,’ Essie said. ‘Tell them to come and get us.’
‘We don’t even know where that is. We could be walking in circles,’ Pod
