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She scanned the frothing waters, looking for... for what, exactly, she wasn’t sure, or didn’t want to fully register. For the clothes Naya was wearing – for the shape of her jacket? For the black tendrils of her hair?

There – what’s that?

She had caught sight of something – a shape, something dark and heavy, trapped somehow behind a rock that sat only a little way out, towards the centre of the stream.

What was it?

Could it be... was it Naya – was she stuck there, somehow?

‘Naya!’ she screamed.

I have to get to her.

She would have to make her way into the water.

She’d been a strong swimmer once: taking part in competitions in her school days, swimming twice a week all the way into her early adulthood, teaching her nieces and nephews how to doggy paddle at only a year old.

Perhaps the recollection of all her time in the pool lived in her body still, a kind of muscle memory.

Clambering across the rocks, she leaned as far forward as she could, tried to see what was floating, lodged, in the middle of the stream.

With a jolt of relief she realized it wasn’t Naya stuck there at all: it was her bag.

The straps of her rucksack must have got caught on something underneath the surface of the water.

I should try to reach it. She knew there was a proper first-aid kit in there, and God knows Naya might need that if – when – they found her.

Was there a way she could get to it, safely?

Turning back towards the jungle, Mira looked around for a stick or a vine; something sturdy, strong enough to drag the bag with, but light enough that she could pick it up, manoeuvre it.

Picking up a long, slim branch with a fork shape at the end, she sat on a rock at the edge of the stream, one hand gripping the surface beneath her, the other stretching the branch out as far as she could.

It took her three, four tries, before she was able to hook the bag onto the tip of her branch. After a moment, she managed to pull it free from the rock it was attached to, and yank it towards her. Hauling it out of the water, she sat back down roughly on the ground to catch her breath.

When she’d gathered some strength, she picked up the bag – sodden, it felt like the thing was full of rocks – and moved to a fallen tree trunk, a little way back from the water’s edge.

She collapsed down onto it, her energy drained now.

Despite her panic over Naya, she was simply too weak to do even the most basic things out here – and little wonder.

She should be getting checked over in a hospital: she might have some kind of lasting damage from the mudslide.

But she was starting to worry she wouldn’t ever make it to a hospital now, or out of this rainforest at all.

I should never have come here. Her mistake felt even more apparent, now that she’d found her will to live again.

She realized she felt vaguely ridiculous for having taken in, even if it was on an unconscious level, Hannah’s advice about shunning Western medicine.

Hannah had even made a whole video about how chemotherapy was evil – that it did more harm than good.

Mira had been so sick of her treatment at the time, she’d enjoyed listening to it.

She hadn’t thought, then, that she actually believed it.

But perhaps a part of her did; perhaps she was holding a small sliver of hope about the possibility of an alternative route to healing.

Now, though, she’d give anything in the world for the chance to have one more round of something – anything, no matter how gruelling and brutal – that at least had an honest, evidence-based shot at extending the time she had left.

Mira took a breath and started calling out for Scott and Carly. A few minutes later, they both appeared, running from different directions at almost the exact same second. She felt a wild surge of hope that Naya might be with one of them – but her heart sank when she saw they were both alone.

Scott looked frantic. ‘Mira – what is it? Did you find her? Have you seen something?’

‘No – I couldn’t see her – but I found her bag,’ said Mira, holding the rucksack out to show the others then placing it back on the floor next to her feet, her voice so quiet now that it was almost drowned out by the rushing water.

‘There’s no sign of her. She’s nowhere near here, anyway – maybe she got carried further down and. .. did you see anything?’

Scott was shaking so wildly, he could barely answer.

‘No – I couldn’t – but I followed the stream as far as I could – until it reached a fork.

.. where one side dropped a long way down into a rock pool.

’ He turned away from them both, and sobbed into his hands.

‘I couldn’t see her in there, but I think, if she went that way—’

Mira gasped. Oh, Naya, no.

Carly shook her head. ‘I’m so sorry, both of you, and I hate myself for saying this, but if she went down there, I just don’t see how she’d survive it.

The shock of the water, the current moving so fast, not to mention a fall onto rocks.

.. I know it’s too awful to imagine, but I think she.

.. she might be gone.’ Carly’s eyes had welled up; she looked distraught as she spoke.

Mira turned to Scott, his face a picture of pain.

‘No,’ he said. ‘We can’t give up on her yet.

’ He stood up, rushed back towards the stream, took a moment to examine the water, then turned back to Mira and Carly.

‘What if we try to find a safe place to cross the stream? Somewhere shallow – we could use those big flat rocks as stepping stones, right? Then we can trace the other fork of the stream – she could have been taken that way, couldn’t she? ’

Carly looked doubtful, but nodded. ‘OK, let’s see if there’s somewhere we might be able to get across – but Mira, just stay here, won’t you? You’re not in a good way.’

Mira didn’t want to be left behind this time. ‘I can come too – I’ve had a rest now, I’ll be OK...’

‘No, Mira, I’m sorry – you might slow us down.’ Scott’s words were hard to hear, but his tone was gentle. ‘Don’t worry,’ he added. ‘We’ll stay close to the edge of the stream, and I’ll mark the trees nearby so we can be sure to find you.’

‘Good plan,’ agreed Carly. ‘We’ll be back soon.

’ She stepped towards Mira, and whispered, out of Scott’s earshot: ‘I’m really sorry, but we can’t risk spending hours looking for her, not when we all need to get out of here so desperately – you need medical help, we’re getting dehydrated – we can’t end up here for another night. ’

Mira closed her eyes briefly, nodded. It was an awful thing to admit – to even think – but she knew Carly was right: they had to focus on who they could actually help, who they could save.

The three of them still had time; they could be rescued, they could still walk out of here pretty much unscathed.

For Naya, it was probably already too late. Mira felt a rush of anger, an energizing jolt that, when it passed, left her feeling even weaker. This was all wrong; how could something so horrific have happened to Naya – and to Hannah?

The thought overwhelmed her again: she should never have come here. She was already depleted, and had only lost more of herself by being here. And for what? The belief that she should just give up on proven, scientific treatment and simply allow herself to die?

‘I understand,’ she said, tears pooling in her eyes. Carly touched her shoulder gently, then Mira watched as she jogged over to join Scott and the two of them walked away through

the trees, heading downstream, swallowed by the foliage in the time it took for her to blink.

It couldn’t have been more than ten seconds later that she heard the crack of branches falling and the low, rumbling roar of Scott’s scream.