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‘Naya! No! NAYA!’

He yelled her name frantically over and over, as he watched her head emerge briefly, too briefly, from the frothing white foam that gathered on the stream’s rushing surface; he saw her take a huge gulp of air – come on, Naya, breathe!

– and then go under again. With every passing second, the current was taking her further and further down the stream, which would soon begin to bend away from them.

He would soon lose sight of her.

For one wild moment, a second of pure insanity, he considered flinging himself into the water after her, his shaking legs almost barrelling into the raging stream.

He stopped himself in time; he knew if he did that, they’d most likely both end up drowning – and that would do nothing to help save Naya.

What should I do then? What can I do?

Drained of energy, suddenly hit by the full force of seeing her thrashing in the clutches of the rushing water, Scott bent his head over, placed his hands on his knees, eyes still facing forward, searching the stream.

‘Scott, are you OK? Did you see Naya? I lost sight of her!’ He jumped at the sound of Carly’s panicked voice; she was behind him – trailing a few steps further back, he caught sight of Mira slowly making her way along the water’s edge.

Thank God – he’d been running for at least a minute and could have lost them too.

Mira spoke next, her face blanched, even more horror etched into the grooves of her forehead. ‘Where’s Naya? Scott, did you see where she went – were you able to keep your eyes on her? Please tell me you did!’

‘I don’t know!’ He gestured further downstream in the direction of the current, where he thought Naya had been swept to.

‘It was somewhere up there... I can’t see her any more – can you?

Can anyone see her?’ Carly and Mira’s eyes scoured the water too, then they turned back to look at him; both their gazes empty.

Stop looking at me like that.

Don’t look at me like you’re giving up.

‘We need to keep searching for her,’ he said. ‘Do you think she can climb out by herself – maybe if the current eases off a little further round the bend?’ said Scott. ‘It’s moving fast, but it’s shallow in places – and she can swim, right?’

The other two said nothing; just stared at the stream in mute shock.

‘Think, Carly, Mira – did she swim at the waterfall, or was she just paddling?’

‘I – I can’t remember,’ whispered Mira. ‘I’m sorry.’ She looked defeated; hopeless. Carly did too.

They can’t give up. And neither can I.

Come on, come on.

‘What’s wrong with you both? We have to help her – and her baby!’ He didn’t mean to say it – the words seemed to splurge out of his mouth – and Scott felt a hot stab of guilt that he’d revealed something Naya had told him in confidence. It wasn’t his secret to tell.

Scott saw a flicker of shock pass across Carly’s face, then a twist at the edge of her mouth. ‘Oh, fuck. I didn’t know she was pregnant.’

Mira turned and met Scott’s gaze; he saw straight away that she too had known about Naya’s pregnancy.

The look on her face was haunting: horror, grief, fear, mixed with a kind of vacant numbness.

He knew that look; he understood it. He’d seen it before – and felt it himself.

Total overwhelm – a person reaching their limit.

And who could blame her? After everything they’d already suffered, everything they’d witnessed – to lose Naya as well.

It was unbearable, he knew it was. But they couldn’t fall apart now. Naya needed them.

Then Mira’s expression shifted; there was a new firmness to her mouth, a steely resolve in her eyes.

‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘She’s pregnant, and it’s Naya, and we can’t give up on her.

Carly, Scott, we have to follow the stream – we can try and track her down.

We’re going to split up, so we can cover more ground – all right?

’ Scott was taken aback, but encouraged by the strength in Mira’s voice.

‘Scott, you’re the fastest,’ she continued. ‘I think you should keep going, tracing the edge of the stream – you need to go as quick as you can, as far along as you can, and scour the water as you go.’

‘She’s right,’ said Carly, nodding, her energy more frantic now too. ‘Scott, you run ahead and search further downstream – I’ll keep looking a bit behind you, closer to where she fell in.’

‘And I’ll stay here and search the edge of the water,’ said Mira. ‘I’m sorry, I just can’t move as quickly as you two – but I can keep a lookout and shout to you both if I see anything. Go!’

Carly nodded. ‘Just stay where you’ve said you’ll stay, all right? So we can find you again. Don’t wander off – it’s way too easy to get lost out here.’

With that, Carly turned and began to move along the water’s edge; within seconds, she was out of sight.

Scott gave Mira’s hand a quick squeeze, then raced further down the stream, tracking the direction Naya had been travelling, eyes searching the water with increasing desperation.

The humid air kept catching at the back of his throat; within seconds, his lungs were starting to burn, rivulets of sweat running down his forehead, his neck.

Don’t stop. Keep moving. You have to find her.

Breathless now, he kept running, eyes darting between the rocky shore at his feet and the frothing water, then back, over and over. Next to a large, flat rock, he paused to take some air into his lungs, wiped the sweat from his cheeks, and bellowed her name.

‘Naya! NAYA!’ His voice was hoarse, his throat arid; he was losing most of the remaining water in his body through his sweaty efforts. He saw nothing but the rushing stream – there was no sign of her thrashing arms and legs, her drenched hair.

He tried to swallow; winced, as a thought occurred to him: that perhaps she might no longer be thrashing in the water. A new image, one that filled him with despair, rushed into his brain: that instead he might see her floating face down, a lifeless body bashed over and over against the stones.

No . He couldn’t even entertain the thought. Naya was strong; she would survive this. He forced himself to move again, stumbled on a few more metres, and then he saw it.

The water, just ahead, dividing into two separate courses.

The one furthest away – the one he’d need to be on the other bank to follow – continued its rushing path uninterrupted.

And the side closest to him, the one he could reach, plummeted downwards, a plunging, racing waterfall that would slam a human body roughly six metres down onto the circle of sharp rocks at its foot.