Carly came to an abrupt halt. ‘Look, Scott, I know you’re trying to help,’ she interrupted. ‘But I’m telling you, this is the way we came. I remember it.’
Scott turned his eyes towards the ground before he said what came out next: ‘So then, why haven’t we seen any of the marked trees?’ He thought he’d been talking normally, but his voice emerged as a whisper.
‘Sorry?’ said Naya. ‘I didn’t hear you.’
Scott cleared his throat, tried again: ‘I said, why haven’t we seen any of the trees I sprayed with white paint? I was marking them every twenty metres or so, to make sure we’d find our way back.’
There was a beat of silence, and then: ‘Oh,mon Dieu,’ said Naya, crouching to the ground. She barked a short laugh. ‘Scott’s right. We’ve gone wrong somewhere. We’ve been walking in the wrong direction for ages, haven’t we? Well, I’m ready for a break anyway. Can we stop here for a bit and have a rest and a snack?’
‘For fuck’s sake,’ Ben said. ‘Gone wrong? This is all we need.’
‘But... we can’t have,’ said Carly, looking crestfallen. ‘I could have sworn...’ She sighed. ‘OK, maybe it’s a good idea to have a break and get our energy back up. I mean, I hope you’re wrong, Scott, but in case I’ve messed up, I’m – I’m really sorry, everyone.’ Scott took in her flushed face; she was clearly embarrassed – he offered her a sympathetic smile.
‘Do you... think... are we... lost?’ breathed Mira.
‘No, no, I’m sure we’re notlost,’ said Naya. ‘Hannah’s property isn’t that big, is it? What, a few hundred acres – you can’t go missing in that, can you?’
Scott blurted it out before he could stop himself: ‘The rainforest isn’t like other land, though. The density of the trees, the foliage... you can get lost in a pretty small area. Much smaller than this...’ He tailed off as he caught the look of alarm crossing Mira’s face.
‘Scott’s exaggerating,’ said Carly, walking towards him and Mira, reaching an arm out to rest on Mira’s shoulder. He frowned; why did she keep dismissing him like this?I’m not an idiot.
‘Mira, look at me,’ Carly was saying. ‘We’re not going to get lost. We just need to—’
‘Hey, shush for a minute – can you hear that?’ said Naya.
The group went quiet; Scott tuned in, listened. He heard the same blend of sounds he’d heard every time he was in the forest: trills, calls, squeaks and birdsong.
‘Hear what?’ asked Carly.
‘No, I don’t hear anything different than usual,’ said Ben. ‘What is it?’
‘I’m not sure. Maybe I was imagining it. But I heard a different kind of... humming.’ The group fell silent again.
‘Oh, yes, actually,’ said Mira. ‘I think I do – like a... swarm of insects... somewhere nearby?’
And then, maybe it was a change in the direction of the breeze, or his ears just tuned in all of a sudden, but Scott caught wind of it too: coming from through the forest a little way off the track to their left. It was the sound of flies, but with an unusual quality to it, as though hundreds – even thousands – of buzzing insects were gathering in the same place.
‘I hear it too now. I wonder what it is,’ he said. ‘Do you think it’s one of those plants that attracts swarms of insects? It might be quite unusual.’
‘And can you see that – above the trees there?’ said Naya. ‘Looks like a group of birds – are they... they look like vultures, don’t you think?’
‘Oh God, do you think they’re all swarming around a dead animal or something?’ said Ben, wrinkling his nose.
Carly grimaced. ‘I have no idea what it is, but I really don’t want to find out. Can we keep moving, please?’
‘I’m going to check it out,’ said Naya. ‘An animal might be injured or dying – we can’t just let it suffer.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Mira. ‘Shouldn’t we just let nature take its course?’
‘Exactly,’ muttered Ben. ‘What can you even do for a dying animal?’
Naya looked at him as though he’d just landed from another planet.
‘We can put it out of its pain and misery,’ she said. Then she turned and began to step away from the track towards the dense foliage.
Scott watched her in surprise.She really is a dark horse, isn’t she?He was shocked she had the stomach for whatever might be over there – Ben was right, of course, that it could be a rotting carcass.
‘Naya, hold on a minute – you don’t even know how far away it is,’ he called. ‘You might wander too far from the track—’
