‘And me,’ said Naya. ‘Mira – will you join us?’
‘Ah – I think I’ll just stay here and watch you all,’ she said, waving them off. Naya and Ben trod a careful path across the slippery rocks to the edge of the pool, took their clothes off and lowered themselves into the water. It was deliciously cool, and crystal clear – Ben laughed in amazement as a shoal of small red and yellow fish began circling his ankle.
‘It’s incredible here,’ said Naya. ‘I know it’s not how we thought the first day would be, and it’s a shame Hannah’s not with us – but still. I’m so glad we’re here, doing this.’
Ben turned to smile at her. ‘Me too.’ And he meant it; he was at ease. He was going to enjoy it here. He just needed to relax.
He felt a drop of water land on his head; at first, he thought it had reached him from the waterfall. But as he looked up, he saw it was raining. Small droplets at first. Then, so fast he barely had time to register the change, the drops turned intosheets, heavy lashings of water that slapped him so hard he could barely breathe.
‘Quick, guys, let’s get out of here and take cover,’ he called to the others, helping Naya out of the pool and towards a dry spot under a nearby tree’s branches, waving to Mira, then to Carly and Scott to join them. The five of them waited under the shelter of the tree for the heaviest of the rain to pass; for ten, fifteen minutes, there was no let-up.
Gradually, the thunderous pelting became a steadier shower. Next to him, Ben noticed Mira wobble and reach out a hand to the trunk of the tree to balance herself. The pelting rain and the walk in this heat and humidity – it seemed like it was a lot for her.
‘I think we should head back to the house,’ he said. ‘The rain’s letting up – we can start walking now, right? And Hannah might be back by now – I don’t want to miss out on any time with her.’
‘Yeah, I wouldn’t mind getting back and having a sit down – or maybe even a nap,’ said Mira. ‘The jet lag’s hitting me a bit now, I think.’
‘Of course – let’s just take the walk nice and slow,’ said Carly, touching Mira gently on the shoulder. ‘And hopefully when we get back, Hannah will be waiting for us.’
‘Shall we eat something before we go?’ suggested Scott. ‘It might give you some strength, Mira.’
Mira nodded, and the group crouched over their damp backpacks, pulling out the selection of snacks and fruit Paola had provided, along with bottles of water, and began tucking in. Once they were done, they packed the leftovers away and stood up.
With Mira now leading the way and Ben at the rear, they stepped out from under the tree and headed towards the track. Seeing that the muddy bank had swollen even further, looked even looser, after this fresh bout of rain, Ben called out to warn the others: ‘Make sure you stay away from the slope here – now there’s been even more rain, it could be—’
But he didn’t get to finish his sentence. Mira was a few steps ahead of the others now, and he watched, frozen to the spot, as she stumbled over a slippery rock on the path and threw a hand out towards the slope at the side of the path to steady herself.
And then there was a deafening roar, as a huge chunk of the earth next to them began to rumble and shake.
‘Mira!’ he yelled, willing her to move, to get out of the way, seeing that she was directly in the path of the rapidly plunging hillside, but for some reason he couldn’t understand she stood stock still, as if her feet were locked in place – she looked as though she couldn’t move a muscle, even if she’d wanted to.
Carly and Naya and Scott lunged towards her, Ben at their heels, as in unison they tried to reach her, attempted to yank her out of the way.
But they had to stop themselves before they got there. They could only look on in mute horror as the bank of mud rushed downwards and covered the chunk of track where, half a second ago, Mira had been standing.
MIRA
Her feet had refused to obey her brain.
The split second when Mira had heard the earth rumble, when she’d felt the bizarre sensation of the ground next to her slipping, sliding away – she’d tried to move. She’d known that was what she needed to do; her survival instincts were still intact. But she’d frozen, stuck to the spot, helpless as the tower of mud rushed towards her.
Then when it hit her, the sensation was something akin to standing next to the sea and being hit by a huge, crashing wave; at least, that was the closest comparison she could come up with. She was hurled backwards, flattened to the ground by the force of the sodden earth. And now she was under here, paralysed – yet, somehow, still able to take shallow breaths.
How am I breathing?
Vaguely, Mira was aware that the bulk of the sodden earth had covered her body, from her collarbone downwards. Perhaps it was the way she’d been standing; the way she’d fallen. Perhaps it was sheer, dumb luck. But her neck, her head, both were covered by only a thin layer of water; she could move her head from side to side a little. The tip of her nose could feel air;she could inhale it. She tried to open her eyes, managed to crack her eyelids apart; then promptly squeezed them shut again as trickles of stinging, filthy water flowed into her eyes.
A throbbing in her leg drew her attention to her body. It didn’t hurt, exactly. It felt more like a deep pressure forcing her downwards. The weight of the mud on her chest, she realized, was what was making her breathing shallow. Her face could reach the air, but she couldn’t take it in properly; her lungs were being crushed by the mass sitting on top of them.
What about talking – screaming?Could I try that?The others must be close by; even if they couldn’t see exactly where she was under here, surely they’d be able to hear her?
She opened her mouth, managed to make a gurgling sound – not even loud enough for herself to hear, let alone the others – then immediately felt a rush of mud slide into it; she spat it out, coughed it up.Was the mud still moving, then?Was it still coming down onto her? If it buried her much more, if it reached further, covered her neck, then her mouth...
Well, then she was well and truly done for.
There is nothing like facing death to make you appreciate being alive.
Over the past two years, she’d heard that sort of thing more times than she could count, and every time she did it took all she could muster not to bloody well scream in the person’s face. Apart from the fact that it was trite and Mira hated cliché, the real issue – for her, anyway – was that it was just plainwrong.
