“What are you pointing at?” said Abi. “I can’t see anything.”
Mason didn’t even bother to turn his head. It was like, he was so convinced one of us was lying to him—that we all were, maybe—that he didn’t dare take his eyes off us.
“There,” I said. “See?”
“I see it,” said Luke.
“Is that a building?” said Cora.
“Where?” said Abi. “Guys, show me! I can’t—” And then I guess she could.
“Oh, thank Christ,” said Cora.
I looked at Luke and grinned. He gave half a smile back. Mason was frowning into the distance, but I could tell he’d seen it, too.
“What are we waiting for?” I said.
Cora had been holding herself up against a tree, and she wrapped her arm back around my shoulder. Suddenly, somehow, she was half the weight she’d been before.
“Does that mean we made it?” said Abi. “Does that mean we’re out?”
“It means we’re somewhere,” I said, glancing back at her. “Which is better than where we were before.”
“Do you think they’ll have Wi-Fi?” said Abi. “Do you reckon they’ll let us use their password?”
I glanced at Cora, and all we could do was laugh.
It was Abi and Luke who got there first. They’d pulled in front of me and Cora as we’d started walking again, even though we were going as fast as we could. And right away, when I saw them stop abruptly up ahead, I could tell that something was wrong.
“Guys?” I called. “What is it?”
Luke turned to face me as we drew near. I looked over his shoulder.
“I’m pretty sure they don’t have Wi-Fi, Abi,” said Mason, who’d appeared by my side.
The entire place looked as though it had been abandoned decades ago. There were two barns, one of them basically a shell. And as for the cabin . . . Well. You know. You’ve been there. I suppose we shouldn’t have been so surprised. I mean, we were in the middle of the woods, twenty miles from civilization. What were we expecting, a McDonald’s drive-thru?
Even so, it was a blow when we already felt battered enough. It was like in a movie or something, when a group of people get lost in the desert, and the oasis they spot in the distance turns out to be a mirage.
“We should check it out anyway,” said Luke.
So we started forward. But it didn’t take long for us to confirm that there was nothing there. Nothing we needed, anyway. No sign of life. Nobody we could ask for help. After five or ten minutes’ looking, we stood staring at the buildings in the rain.
“If . . . if there are buildings here,” I said, “we can’t be that far from the road. Right?”
“Unless the buildings were built before the road was,” said Cora. Which, looking at the state of them, seemed entirely possible.
“But there must be a path or something somewhere,” I said, searching the tree line. “Look, there. That gap. That looks like it goes in the right direction. What do you say we keep walking? We can’t be that far now from—”
“No.”
We turned, to see Mason standing on his own.
“Mase?” I said, and I could hear the uncertainty in my voice. “Mate, listen. We’re almost out. I can feel it. Maybe . . .” I brightened, remembering. “The phone. Maybe we should try the phone. At least now, if we get through to someone, we can let them know exactly where we are.”
“And where’s that, Fash?” said Mason. “Because it seems to me all we are is further away from where we’re supposed to be.”
I frowned, not understanding what he meant. “They’ll have maps,” I explained. “That’s all I’m saying. If we call, and tell the police we’re near some buildings . . .”
“Call the police. That’s your solution. Because that was working out so well before.”
“What the hell else do you suggest?” snapped Cora. “Try it,” she said, turning to me. “Try the phone. At least see if there’s any signal.”
I patted my pockets. “I don’t have it. I . . .” And then I realized. We all did.
When we looked at him again, Mason was holding the phone in his hand. The one that wasn’t gripping that broken bottle. And then he slipped the phone back into his pocket.
“The drinking water,” he said. “The first night. Which one of you did it? And the phones. Our phones. Which one of you took them? Because one of you did, I know you did—and whoever it was also stole my knife.”
“Your what?” said Cora.
“My knife! The one I brought with me! To protect myself!”
“You brought a knife?” Cora cast around at the rest of us. “What, a broken bottle wasn’t enough for you?” She shook her head. “Luke was right. What he said to us all at the start. You are a psychopath!”
Mason looked at Luke, who swallowed. And Mason’s smile . . . I mean, it wasn’t really a smile. There was just a little curl to his lips, as though what Cora had just told him confirmed everything he’d been thinking all along. That we were all against him. That the world was.
“Wait,” said Abi. “Does that mean whoever’s out there has got a knife?”
“There’s no one out there!” Mason said. “There never was! It was all just lies. All of it. Right from the start. Who here can prove they actually saw anyone? Even you, Luke. You told us. You admitted it. You didn’t see who attacked you. Meaning it could have been any one of the three people standing next to you.”
“No, Mase, I told you, I’m certain it wasn’t. One hundred percent! Just like I know it wasn’t you. And what I said before, it—”
Mason dismissed what Luke was saying with a flick of that bottle. “Oh, wake up, Luke, for fuck’s sake. Cora sees someone in the night. She hears voices that no one else does. Abi comes running because of a noise only she heard in the woods. Fash claims he saw someone, but surprise, surprise, nobody else is around to back him up.” Mason scoffed,
