He wasn’t sure he could face hours more trekking through the rainforest either. Especially if they didn’t know where they were going.
‘Listen, everyone,’ he said. ‘We need to get really clear on our strategy for navigating our way back. Let’s—’
‘I’m sorry,’ Carly interrupted him, shaking her head. She looked stricken. ‘I’m so sorry, everyone. I should never have taken charge – I was so stubborn, insisting I knew the way.’ She broke off with a sob. ‘But I’ve just got us all more lost, and led us to something so... so awful.’
‘It’s not your fault,’ said Ben. ‘And besides, it’s better that we’ve found her, isn’t it? Imagine if we hadn’t – she could have been lying here for days – weeks, even.’
‘I know,’ said Carly sadly. ‘It’s just – I’m always like that, thinking I have to be the one in control. We should have listened to you, Scott, when you said you thought we were going the wrong way.’
Yes, you should have. But it wasn’t all on her – he should have tried harder to convince them. Perhaps now was the time for him to take charge. ‘It’s OK – don’t beat yourself up,’ he said. ‘We just have to keep trying to make our way back now, before it gets dark. Like I was about to say, let’s look at the map again – Carly, can you hand it over? Let’s see if we can get any idea of where we are.’
They studied the map for a moment; Scott thought the best course of action was to head back to the path where they’d first heard the buzzing noise. From there, he had an idea of how to use the sun as a guide to point them in the direction of The Hideaway.
He confirmed the first part of his plan with the others, folded the map, put it in his back pocket, felt a few dull stirrings of hope; he could give the route a half-decent shot. He looked back at Hannah, felt a hot squeeze around his heart at the sight of her lifeless body. She was still there; still motionless. The insects and vultures had returned to circling her – even more gathering now that the group had stepped away. His instinct was to pick her up, carry her with him out of the jungle and bring her back home. The idea of leaving her here, to rot, be pecked at – it wounded him; it felt utterly inhumane.
As if looking for strength from something heavenward, Scott glanced up at the sky; then he squinted. Everything above and around them looked hazy – for a second, he wondered if the shock of finding Hannah had affected his vision somehow. But then he saw the haze moving slightly, and realized that now the rain had eased off, the damp and the humidity seemed to have come together to create a fine mist that was gathering around the tops of the trees. It made everything look mystical, otherworldly.
It was also going to make it harder to see their way back through the jungle.
Taking Hannah with us is impossible.
It could be a long hike back, and he had to preserve some of his energy – Mira needed help to walk; it was only right to save his remaining strength for the living.
Not for the dead.
He felt eyes on him then; he turned to see Carly staring at him.
‘I know it’s awful, but we have to leave Hannah here,’ she said, as if reading his thoughts. ‘There’s nothing we can do for her now.’ She swallowed. ‘We’ve got to think about ourselves – especially this late in the day, and without a working phone. We really don’t want to end up stuck out here overnight.’
‘Yes, and Scott, you can mark some trees as we go again – to help the police find Hannah once we’ve called them,’ said Naya.
Scott nodded, amazed by Naya’s confidence, her calmness, in the face of the tragedy they’d just witnessed.How is she keeping it all together like this?Perhaps it came from being a nurse – or a parent of young children; and autistic too. That must take some patience, some tolerance. Perhaps her poise came from all of those things.
Maybe if me and Justine had worked out, if I’d become a dad – maybe I’d be calmer, more confident too.The thought brought with it a fresh wave of grief, a new round of tears.
He gave Naya a small nod of agreement, and they began to move, Scott tailing behind under the pretence of digging the white spray paint out of his bag, but in truth, needing to take one last look at Hannah’s broken body on the ground.
He forced his eyes away from her, focused on the path in front of him. He watched the others thin into a line as they went; Ben had taken the knife back from Scott now, and was at the front, using it to cut through vines and thick leaves. Scott caught up with him to help with the navigation – behind him, Naya was supporting Mira, and Carly walked at the rear.
He followed Ben, his mind in overdrive as he walked. Not only was this a horror beyond his wildest imaginings, but nothing about it made sense. A cold, creeping feeling had started to form; a doubt, a suspicion, and it was slowly making its way from his brain to trickle down his body vertebra by vertebra.
He had the awful sense that something larger could be at play here.
Because if they’d received messages from Hannah that morning, when she’d clearly already been dead for a while – then, had this all been some kind of set-up? By someone pretending to be Hannah, to fool them into believing she was alive and well this morning when they’d left for the waterfall?
But who would do something like that?
Another thought occurred to him then, and with it he felt a hot rush of panic rise up in his chest, making him breathless. What if it was one of the people he was here with – one of the people he was in the middle of a rainforest with at this very minute?
What if one of them is a murderer?
He dismissed the thought as quickly as it came. It was impossible – the timings wouldn’t work. They’d all arrived here yesterday evening, around the same time, hadn’t they? About six o’clock. And Naya seemed to think that Hannah was already dead by then.
He blew out a breath.Steady on, mate. You’re getting way ahead of yourself.There was no reason to think it was one of his companions; that was way too much of a stretch. They were all here, like him, because theylovedHannah.
Weren’t they?
Scott stumbled on a small rock, almost went crashing forward; he caught himself on the trunk of a palm tree. Away from the cleared paths, the vegetation was dense; they couldn’t see more than a metre or two in front of them. The trees on either side had grown so close that their leaves and vines had fused together at hundreds of junctures, creating a thick, sprawling green carpet; a barrier.
