‘The rain – it must have dislodged more mud,’ he said. ‘The track is covered – there’s no way we can use that now.’ Naya squinted, then walked a few feet towards the track. Sure enough, a layer of mud, at least a metre high and almost four times aswide, had now gathered at the point where the path met the edge of the clearing.
‘Fuck,’ said Carly. ‘It’s totally blocked the pathway – we can’t walk over it. It’s way too dangerous – we might dislodge a load more earth.’
Naya wanted to protest, but she knew it was no use. Carly was right.
There was no safe route back the way they had come.
CARLY
What the hell are we going to do now?
Carly should have known better than this. She’d spent months in the jungle; OK, it was a few years back now, and yes, she’d got a bit distracted with meeting Robyn and everything that had happened out there. Carly had been ill at ease with so much of the wilderness – the intense swings of the weather, the insects, the general lack of comfort – but Robyn just seemed to throw herself into all of it; fearless, full of joy. It ended up rubbing off on Carly too.
Her time in Peru had at least taught her a few of the basics: sheknewhow risky it could be to trek near a hill or a slope after a decent dose of rain, to risk disturbing a mound of earth that had been pelted with water for hours on end. And despite what Paola had said about the storm beingnot so bad, she’d been up half the night; she’d heard the storm battering her window. Why had she thought they’d all be fine walking out here today?
They needed to get out of here;sheneeded to get out of here.
Come on. I said I’d be able to guide them. I need to stay in control.
‘OK, everyone, let’s try and stay calm,’ she said. ‘We’ll just need to find a different way back – it might take us a bit longer, but we’ll manage it.’
Naya shook her head. ‘There’s no way Mira can walk right now – especially if it’s going to take longer to get back. I really think we just need to use that satellite phone and call for help. Carly, you were looking for it before – did you find it? That’s our best option.’
Carly sifted her hand through her bag, her fingers curled around the hefty phone with its solid antenna. She pulled it out and waved it to the others.
‘Thank goodness,’ said Naya. ‘Does anyone know how to use one of these?’
Scott nodded. ‘I’ve used one before – on a work trip back home, monitoring conditions in a pretty remote area of one of the national parks. We just need to switch it on, and it should pick up a signal. Then we call 911 – that will get us through to the emergency services here.’
Carly nodded, held her finger down on the phone’s red ‘on’ switch. After a moment, the screen lit up, flashed the word ‘MENU’. Scott peered at the screen over her shoulder. He frowned.
‘It’s not showing any signal,’ he said. ‘Let me see...’ He took the device from Carly’s hand, started to walk away from the shelter of the tree where they’d laid Mira down and towards the open expanse of the clearing. He lifted the phone up towards the sky, squinting. ‘I can’t seem to find a bar. I don’t get it – the thing should be picking up a signal outside the line of trees here – it must be the cloud cover.’ Sure enough, despite the end to the rainfall, there were still thick, dark clouds swirling above the tops of the trees.
A loud, urgent beep emitted from the phone.
‘Shit,’ said Scott. ‘It’s saying it needs charging – that can’t be right. Why wasn’t it charged already?’
Fuck – we should really have checked it was fully charged before we left.Carly watched as Scott shook the phone, his fist wrapped around it. There were touches of pink on his cheeks; his brows were furrowed together.
‘What a piece of crap!’ he yelled.
‘OK, deep breaths now,’ she said, walking over to him, taking the phone out of his hands. She noticed the screen was off now;how has it already lost its charge? She groaned. ‘Right, this is hopeless. If the satellite phone isn’t an option, we need to try and find another way back to the house. It’s not far – we’ll be fine. Let’s take a look at the map.’ Carly reached down into her backpack, pulled the map out and unfolded it, started to study it.
‘I’m sorry, Carly, but I don’t think Mira can walk anytime soon,’ Naya said, interrupting Carly’s focus.
‘Well, let’s separate then – two of us can set off, find a way back to the house and get Paola to call for an ambulance? The others stay here with Mira and wait for help,’ said Ben.
‘I really think we should stick together,’ said Scott. ‘We’re much safer as a group. I’d feel better if we were all in the same place, not stumbling around out here in pairs and threes. And we’ve got that knife that Ben brought – it’ll help us, cutting back the branches on a different path.’
‘No, Scott. Ben’s... right,’ breathed Mira. ‘There’s... no way I can walk. Scott, Ben – you two go, and the other two stay with me?’
Carly frowned. Mira was still recovering; it would be toughfor her to walk the whole way back this evening. But it was a basic rule of outdoor survival: safety in numbers.
‘Well, how about this. I could carry you, or at the very least, prop you up,’ said Scott. ‘I’d need to rest now and then, but I’m strong enough...’
‘No, that’ll only slow us down!’ said Ben. ‘Surely the most important thing is to get back as fast as we can, so we can call for help for Mira?’
Carly felt herself edging backwards, map in hand, away from the group, closer to the water’s edge. The last thing she felt like doing was diffusing an argument. There was a reason she’d never wanted to go into couples’ therapy or group treatment – the dynamics between people were somessy. All that projection from past hurt, past trauma, past relationships – usually people’s very earliest ones – muddying the water. It was way too much hard work.
