We fall silent as we continue to walk. Meg’s day pack bounces on her back as she neatly hops over a fallen tree. I jump over it too, narrowly avoiding a gecko.
‘Meg,’ I say, as she pauses to scratch at her arm, ‘I’m sorry you felt left out. I… it never occurred to me that you were feeling that way. I assumed you didn’t like me.’
She glances back at me. ‘Of course I like you, Jessie.’ She smiles. ‘How were you, how was anyone supposed to know how I felt? You’re not mind readers.’
‘No, but…’ I shrug.
‘I should have said something before, years ago, but I didn’t want you guys to feel sorry for me.’
‘I know that feeling.’
‘Of course you do.’ She touches a hand to my forearm. ‘And I’m sorry I didn’t ask you about Tom. I was scared. I didn’t know how you’d react. How do you… how does anyone talk to someone about something like that?’
‘I don’t know.’
I look at her, at her grubby cheeks, her bright brown eyes and the dark tendrils of hair that surround her face. ‘Are we OK now?’
‘Of course we are.’
‘And Milo?’
She smiles. ‘He’s my brother. He’ll always be a twat.’
‘Hug?’
She opens her arms, being careful not to set light to overhanging branches with the torch, and we share a brief, sticky hug.
‘Everything’s going to be OK,’ she says. ‘Come on, let’s find Danny and Honor.’
She lifts a vine for me to stoop under and I have the strongest sense of déjà vu. Meg continues to walk, then, sensing that I’m not directly behind her, turns sharply.
‘Jess?’ Meg says again, making me jump. ‘You’re not ill, are you?’ She hands me her water bottle. ‘Here, drink this.’
I shake the bottle. ‘There’s not much left.’
‘You have it.’
I take the smallest sip then screw the lid back on. ‘Honor might need it,’ I say, as Meg gives me a questioning look.
We trudge, rather than walk. I don’t know how long we’ve been in the jungle but it feels like hours. We finished the last few drops of water ages ago, my feet are aching and I’m dripping with sweat. Neither of us has said a word for ages, other than to shout Honor and Danny’s names, and our voices are starting to go. Neither of us would admit it but we’re starting to give up hope. How can two people just disappear? The island’s big but surely they can hear us. Unless they don’t want to be heard…
‘Jess.’ Meg stops abruptly. ‘I’m going to have to stop for a bit. I feel a bit faint.’
‘Here, let me take that.’ I reach for the torch, then tap her day pack. ‘I’ll take that too.’
She shrugs it off and sinks down. Her legs give way before I can warn her to check the ground for snakes and spiders. She rests her back against a tree then slumps forward, her head in her hands. Even by the faint light of the torch I can see how pale she’s become in the last few hours. There are dark circles beneath her eyes that weren’t there before.
She looks up at me. ‘I’m not sure how much longer I can keep walking.’
‘It’s fine, have a rest. Once you’re feeling up to it we should head to the waterfall, get some fresh water.’ I pause, listening for the sound of rushing water, but all I can hear are birds, cicadas and my own laboured breath. I don’t want to say this to Meg but I’m not entirely sure where we are. We started at the waterfall, moved on to to the cliff top and the plan was to do a complete circle, but I’ve got a horrible feeling that we’re lost.
I’m not sure Meg could make it back the way we came, not without food or water. I could kick myself. Why didn’t I grab a bottle of water too? Jefferson has been drumming it into us the whole time we’ve been here – don’t go anywhere without water – but Danny’s sudden sprint into the jungle completely freaked me out.
Maybe we should just sit it out. Or try and climb a tree like Danny and Jeffers did when they were hiding. An idea hits me and I look up into the trees, scanning the gloom for any sign of fruit. If we could just find a mango or a coconut the moisture would keep us going, for a few more hours at least.
‘Jessie,’ Meg says. ‘Why don’t you sit down? You look exhausted.’
‘I’m all right,’ I lie. ‘I’m just trying to—’
An ear-splitting scream fills the jungle, then it stops as suddenly as it started. It lasts for a second, maybe two, and then it stops as suddenly as it started.
Meg jumps to her feet and stares at me. She’s thinking the same thing as me.
‘That was Honor,’ I breathe.
It’s not easy to work out where the scream came from but we head in the general direction, adrenaline powering our exhausted legs and fear making us forget our parched mouths. We reach a knot of undergrowth so tightly woven there’s no way through it.
‘Which way now?’ Meg asks.
I shake my head. ‘I don’t know.’
Without any sound to guide us it’s impossible to know where to run next. I turn in a circle, tipping the torch low to see which direction looks the least overgrown, and then I see it, a pink and white flip-flop embedded under a log.
‘This way!’ I beckon Meg. ‘She went this way!’
We run and we leap, scratching our arms as we shove thorny branches out of our way, our lungs burning, our legs aching, and then finally, just when I think I can’t run anymore I see a gap in the trees, a small patch of rough ground beyond, and Danny, lit by a flaming torch, crouched in the mouth of a cave. As he adjusts his position I catch a glimpse of blonde hair and a pale flash of skin.
‘Honor!’ I clutch Meg’s arm. ‘He’s found her. Oh thank God.’
Danny’s got his back to us so I can’t see his face but he looks as though he’s just fought a war. His hair’s in ratty tendrils that cling to his scalp, his green T-shirt has a dark stripe of sweat between his shoulder blades and the soles of his grubby feet are striped with blood.
‘Dan!’ Meg shouts, nudging me as she pushes past. ‘How is she? What happened?’
Danny’s expression as he turns to look at Meg is like nothing I’ve ever seen in my life. But it’s not the terror in his eyes that makes all the hairs goes up on my arms, it’s his howl of anguish. It’s the noise an animal makes when a predator’s stalking its young. Danny’s not helping Honor to escape the cave, he’s sitting astride her, pinning her arms to her side.
‘I won’t let you take her away from me, Meg. You’ll have to kill me first.’
I grip Meg’s shoulder, stopping her from taking another step. She doesn’t resist. Danny’s guttural yell is so powerful it’s as though a gust of wind has blown her back towards me.
As he shouts at her, gesturing wildly, telling her to stay away, Honor tries to squirms out from beneath him. She’s caked in dirt, her fingernails are black and there are red sores around her wrists and mouth.
‘Help!’ she screams as she tries to shuffle out of the cave, her bloodshot eyes wide with terror. ‘Help me!’