“All right, all right!” Fash cut in. “Jesus.” He pressed the heel of his palm to his head as though he had a sudden headache or something. I watched him for a moment, curious.
“Look,” said Luke. “There’s no point blaming one another.”
“So who else are we supposed to blame?” said Abi. “There’s nobody else out here but us!”
I saw Cora open her mouth, her eyes flick toward the trees. But whatever she’d been about to say, she swallowed it.
“Why don’t we all have another look around?” said Luke. “For the phones, I mean. The water’s not the end of the world. We probably could drink the stream water if we boil it.”
“How?” said Cora. “I mean, I don’t suppose anybody brought a kettle, did they? And a five-mile-long extension lead?”
“We could . . . build a fire or something,” Luke answered. “Heat it up over that.”
“What, in our hands?” said Cora. “Unless someone’s carrying around a saucepan that the rest of us don’t know about?”
“Jesus Christ, Cora!” Luke snapped. “I don’t know, do I? I’m just trying to be positive, that’s all! You’re the one who . . .”
“Who what?” said Cora, when Luke abruptly stopped talking. “Who stole the phones? Who tipped out the drinking water? You still think it was me!”
“No one’s saying that,” said Fash. He wasn’t clutching his head anymore, but there was no denying he looked tired. Exhausted even, as though he hadn’t slept a wink all night. “Let’s just do what Luke suggested. OK? Have another look around. See if anything else has been messed with.”
Cora stood fuming for a moment, as did Abi. But when me, Fash and Luke turned to get on with it, they had no choice but to start looking around, too.
We searched for a good ten minutes, but we couldn’t find the phones. Or any secret flasks, come to that.
“What about the bags?” said Fash. “Is anything else missing from them?” He’d made a start on laying out his belongings on the ground. Fash is the kind of person who, when he goes to the supermarket, places his stuff on the conveyor belt like he’s building a jigsaw. Me, I just upend my basket and hope none of the contents fall on the floor.
“Not from my bag,” said Cora. “It’s empty already. See?” She held her rucksack upside down and gave it a shake. She made a point of staring at Abi.
Abi ignored her, thank God. She was picking up the sunflower seeds, blowing on them one by one, and then dropping them back into the packet.
“Mine’s fine, too,” said Luke, peering into his rucksack. “It’s only my phone that’s missing.”
I almost didn’t bother checking my bag. I was watching the others, for one thing. I wanted to see their reactions. And there was nothing I’d brought with me I gave a toss about. That’s what I thought . . . until I remembered.
“Mason?” said Fash. “What about you? Have you got everything you came with?”
I’d turned away and dropped to my knees. I was running my hand around the inside of my rucksack, feeling into every corner. Carefully at first, then faster and faster.
“Mase?” said Fash, when I didn’t answer. I sensed the others looking over, too.
I raised my head. “Sure,” I said. “Couldn’t find my iPod for a sec, that’s all.” I pulled it from a side pocket of my rucksack and held it up in the air.
“So that’s it, then,” said Luke, sitting down. “It’s just the water and the phones.”
Abi didn’t answer. She flopped onto the ground beside her bag. Cora, standing, folded her arms. Fash was still surveying his belongings, double-checking that nothing was missing.
“Looks that way,” I said to Luke, shrugging. He shrugged back, then made a start on doing up his rucksack. I took the opportunity to sneak another look in mine, even though I knew exactly what was in there. Or, rather, what wasn’t.
Because Luke was wrong. It wasn’t just the water and the phones.
That knife I brought? The kitchen knife?
That was missing, too.
FASH
“SO WHAT NOW?”
It was Luke who voiced what we were all thinking. After we’d packed up our stuff, we sat munching sunflower seeds in the clearing. We were passing around the bag, each taking a few at a time. Abi had ended up next to Cora, so obviously she’d passed it the other way first. Because they were niggling at each other even more than usual. I mean, they were mates, but they’d never been as close as Abi was with Sadie, for example, or as Cora and Sadie used to be when we were younger. And probably that was part of the problem. I always had the impression that Abi and Cora were sort of jealous of each other, you know? That, when it came to Sadie, they were vying for position. Except out there, in the woods, it seemed to be more than that—unless it was a reaction to Sadie no longer being there. Either way, I figured it was down to stress. A response to everything that had happened.
“I’m thirsty,” Abi said, as though in answer to Luke’s question. Which I suppose it was, in a way. Because she had a point. We were all thirsty. And we were only going to get thirstier. It was barely eight o’clock, and we were sitting in shadow, but already it felt as hot as it had all summer. And on top of that there was the sound of the stream just a few meters away, which sounded like a little kid’s laugh. You know, sort of mocking, like it had something you wanted and it knew there was nothing you could do to get it.
“We’re all thirsty,” I said. “And breakfast isn’t exactly helping much.” I quite liked sunflower seeds ordinarily, but they were sticking to the insides of my mouth. It was like trying to swallow papier-mâché.
“Feel free to eat your own food,” Abi sniffed. “Oh, sorry, I just remembered. You didn’t bring any.”
I expected Cora to say something, but
