There was a broken pipe to one side, and she looped the rope around it, pulling as her mother created slack. She heard Bibi’s frantic breathing and then the top of her head emerged. A blade of sunlight sliced down, a metre away from the tank. The rope went slack suddenly and for a moment, Sorrel thought her mother had fallen back, but then they were facing each other, the wall of the tank between them. Sorrel reached under her mother’s arms and pulled. Bibi hung on the edge for a moment and Sorrel felt the makeshift ramp shift under her feet. She pulled again, staring into her mother’s eyes. They fell together into the old water tank just as the sun found them.

CHAPTER 10 – ON THE RUN FROM THE DAY

The strangest thing about being inside the water tank was how light it was. It was day and there was no cover. Sorrel could not remember ever being able to look up in the morning. She knew the sun rose in the east but had never seen a sunrise. She risked an upward glance at the sky and was surprised to see it was pale orange. “Put on your dark glasses,” Bibi said. She had not moved from where she had fallen after their struggle to get in.

“It depends where the sun is when it gets overhead,” Bibi said, reading her thoughts. “We might be lucky. The hill above us might give enough shade.”

The tank had a silty floor. The scummy water in one corner was about 15 centimetres deep and smelled of rot. Sorrel stripped down to underwear. She dipped her rag into the water and wiped her bare limbs. “Must have rained here not long ago. D’you think we can drink it?”

“Maybe. We do have the filter. But we don’t have an empty container.”

“We should’ve thought of that.”

Her mother shrugged. “We didn’t have much time. Let’s eat and drink. One of us will have to watch the shadows to make sure we move with them. The other must sleep.”

They ate. “Tell me about things you used to eat before,” Sorrel said. It was a game they had played when she was much younger.

“When we’re settled, I’ll tell stories all you want. But now we just have to get through this. You sleep first.”

Sorrel laid out her ground sheet on the rough silt. It was more comfortable than the bed she’d left in Bana. She let her feet touch the side of the tank, hoping that if it started to heat up, she would feel it. Bibi sat cross-legged with her back against the tank. She looked exhausted.

“I should’ve peed before we got in here,” Sorrel said.

Her mother nodded at the water. “Might as well, if we can’t drink it.”