Maybe it was Cora who was out in front. It could have been Cora.
Why? What does it matter?
Although I keep wondering what would have happened if we’d just kept walking. Or what wouldn’t have. You know? If I hadn’t seen it. Or if I’d just kept my big mouth shut. Or even if it hadn’t started raining. Which sounds stupid, probably, but that was important, too. Particularly to what happened after.
Because that’s the thing. We almost made it out. All of us, I mean.
Almost.
But in the end, Mason got his way.
Cora
Mason? He was at the back, obviously. Sulking, fuming, whatever. Basically acting like a dick. Luke was next, still swinging that branch he’d picked up the day before. And then, ahead of Luke, it was –
You know what? I’ve just figured out why you’re asking.
Jesus.
You think Mason put it there, don’t you?
That night, while the rest of us were sleeping. That he had it with him all along and he used it to keep us out there in the woods. But you’re wondering how we would have found it if Mason wasn’t leading the way. Except that’s bullshit because I can tell you exactly who was out in front. I remember because they started off behind me and then pushed past me in a hurry, like they were on a mission or something.
Fash. I’m talking about Fash. And if it was Fash leading the way, then that basically proves your theory.
What do you mean, you don’t understand? Fash hasn’t told you yet? About him and Mason?
Seriously? He’s still covering for him? Even after everything that’s happened?
No fucking way. I’m not getting involved in that shit. If you want to know, then you’re going to have to ask him yourself.
Fash
I am being honest! I have been! There’s nothing I’m not telling you, I swear to God, I –
Mason? What about Mason? Did he say something? I thought … I mean, he told me that it didn’t …
Nothing. Nothing.
Look, I … I need to think. OK? Just give me some time to think.
No, I know, but …
Where’s my mum? I’d like to talk to my mum.
Please. Please.
I just want my mum.
Mason
Well? What did they say?
See? I told you. I was nowhere near when they found it. They all said that, right? Every one of them?
So there you go then. Except … why are you looking at me like that? Don’t tell me you still don’t believe me?
Jesus H. Christ.
You don’t, do you? You still think I’m lying.
Fash? I’m not following you. So what if Fash was out in front when they found it? How does that prove anything, other than exactly what I’ve been trying to –
Oh.
Oh, I get it.
Ha.
I see now.
He blabbed, didn’t he?
No, wait. I bet it was Cora. Cora and her mouth. Which I swear is just fucking typical. She knows it’s completely irrelevant, that it has nothing to do with what happened, but even so she can’t let it go.
So what did she say exactly? Just so I know what I’m being accused of. I mean, I have that right, don’t I?
Wait, what? No, that’s … You don’t know, do you? You’re just … you’re judging me and you don’t know the full story. I mean, do you even know what it is we found?
Abi
My phone.
That’s what we found.
Except … except it wasn’t. What I mean is … or rather, what I thought was …
Right. Right.
From the beginning.
So we left the clearing. And the idea was we go home. Because of the water situation and also because it was a stupid idea in the first place. The search party, I mean. The only thing we’d managed to achieve was to argue, and basically to give ourselves the creeps. In fact, it was worse than that, because it was obvious even then that something wasn’t right. It’s like, I know I heard something out in the woods that time, and that it wasn’t some stupid bear. Or a wolf for that matter. And somebody must have taken our phones, right? And drunk all our water?
But anyway, we were walking along, and nobody was really talking. We were going single file, Fash up in front, then –
Fash. That’s who was leading. I remember now, because I remember the look on his face when he passed me. What I figured was, he must have had an argument with Mason back in the clearing.
After Fash, it was Cora, then me, then … Luke, I think? Mason was definitely at the rear.
We were following the stream, which cut diagonally back towards the river. If I’d had my phone I could have seen how far we’d come the day before, but I guessed that, because we’d been weaving back and forth, we couldn’t have been more than five miles from the footbridge. The stream met the river further north, but Fash reckoned it would only take us half as long to get there, just because the way was clearer, and we wouldn’t need to hack through the trees.
Personally, I didn’t really care which route we took. I just wanted to get home. The sound of the stream was like mental torture, and something weird was going on with the weather. It was still hot, but it had got darker, as though we’d gone the footbridge way after all, right through the middle of the forest. Which was strange, because last time I’d noticed, we’d been walking in sunlight. But when I looked up I saw the sky had turned white. Not white, like, fluffy-cloud white. White like … like frosted glass. And even though I was sweating, for some reason it made me shiver.
I felt bad for Sadie, though.
