‘Which way?’ said Abi. ‘I can’t even see where you’re pointing!’
‘Take hold of Cora’s hand,’ I told her. ‘Cora, you latch on to Mason.’
‘No fucking way,’ said Cora. ‘Not while he’s holding that bottle.’
‘I’m not exactly going to put it down now, am I?’ said Mason, and even though he was trying to hide it, he sounded almost as scared as Abi did.
‘Here,’ said Luke. ‘Take my hand, Cora. Mase, you grab on to me.’
‘I’ll be fine,’ Mason snarled. ‘Just get moving, will you?’
We set off, blindly at first, practically having to feel our way with our feet. But gradually our eyes adjusted to the lack of light, and soon I could see the outline of the trees. Enough that I didn’t lead the others right into them, anyway. Instead, what I did was, I led them all over the bank into the stream.
I didn’t do it on purpose. One moment the ground was solid beneath my feet, the next there was nothing under them but air. Before I could pull myself back, I was falling, pulling Cora down with me. We were so wet by this point, it hardly mattered that we landed in the water, but the stream was low enough that it was mainly rocks, and I felt one of them jar against my spine. Cora must have hit her knee again, because she cried out, and I heard the others tumble after us, too. Luke was first on his feet, and he reached to give me a hand up. Abi, beside us, was doing her best to help Cora, in between sobbing and wiping at her eyes. Mason had stopped short of the stream just in time. His shadow was looming over us from the top of the bank.
He slid down the mud, and stood watching as the rest of us struggled to our feet.
‘Everyone OK?’ said Luke, looking mainly at Cora.
‘Just fucking dandy,’ she replied.
I stood up and rubbed at my back. ‘Well,’ I said, through the pain. ‘At least we know we’re heading in the right direction.’
Even so, it took us long enough after that to find the cave. It was so dark out there without the torchlight, it’s a miracle we found it in the end at all. By the time we did, Cora was limping worse than ever, and Abi’s breathing sounded so panicked, I was worried she was going to pass out.
‘I’m not going in,’ she said, when we finally spotted the shadow in the bank. ‘I’m not. I don’t even care about my stuff.’
‘I’ll get everyone’s stuff,’ said Luke. ‘You lot wait out here. And …’ He looked behind him, at the wall of trees, and raised a hand to the cut on his head. ‘And keep an eye out, will you?’
I swallowed, and turned to do as he’d said. Mason was the only one to go inside with him. They vanished the moment they took a step through the opening, and they were gone for so long I started to worry that something might have happened to them. I don’t know what. To be honest, I found myself imagining all sorts of things. That maybe whoever was out there had got ahead of us, and was lying in wait inside the cave. Or that Mason had decided to use that bottle after all. He’d dealt with Luke, and next he would be coming for the rest of us. I even found myself wondering if he might have used something similar on Sadie.
But just when I was about to call out, a light flicked on in the darkness. There were footsteps, and Mason appeared through the shadows.
‘Where’s Luke?’ said Cora, immediately, and I could tell she’d been having the same thoughts I’d had.
Mason seemed to realise what it was she was really asking. He sneered – and just at that moment, I felt certain that all of it was true. Everything everyone had been saying about him.
But then a second torch beam shone out through the darkness, and all at once Luke was standing at Mason’s shoulder.
‘Here,’ he said. He tossed me my rucksack, and Abi hers. His own bag was already on his back, Dylan’s compass open in his hand. ‘You said west. Right, Fash?’
‘Right,’ I said, with one eye on Mason. He was holding Cora’s bag, I noticed. She snatched it from him without saying a word.
And then we were moving again. Luke had the compass, so he took the lead. Abi was next, and it was obvious she felt safest sticking close to Luke. Me and Cora were just behind her, Cora’s arm still looped around my neck. Mason was on his own further back. I’d caught him glancing once or twice over his shoulder, but mainly he seemed to be watching us.
The second torch lasted another hour. If we’d been smart, we would have used them one at a time, rather than having them both on simultaneously. Luke held one of them, obviously, seeing as he was the one acting as our guide. Mason had given the other one to me when we’d been outside the cave. Thrust it at me, actually. He wanted to keep one hand free, he’d said, and I guess he preferred to give up the torch than the broken bottle.
It was the torch I was holding that went out first. Not like the first one had, in stages. One moment it was working, the next it wasn’t. I tried giving it a shake, but it didn’t help. I kept hold of it even so, because it was old, which meant it was also big and heavy. It wasn’t quite a broken bottle, but it was better than nothing.
We walked for ages.
