‘Fuck off.’ She whirled around, looking for something, anything she recognised. Then she ripped off her grimy bandanna, threw it on the ground and stormed away, down the bank and away from the sea. Scrubby, heavy-headed grasses whipped at her legs, and she disturbed a nesting bird which flew up with a flutter and squeak. It made her jump, and she flailed at it to fend it off before realising it was just a bird and it wasn’t going to hurt her. ‘Fuck,’ she bellowed, and kept on walking.

Dalip bent down to retrieve the strip of red cloth.

‘How can you just accept this?’ he asked of Stanislav.

‘I am alive. I do not know how or what or where or why. But I am alive.’ He turned to look at the sun. ‘We have a few hours before it gets dark. We should find somewhere to spend the night now, and worry about what to do later.’

He set off, roughly in the same direction as the girl, leaving Dalip behind.

Dalip helped haul the big black woman called Mama up to the top then, out of courtesy, the three other women. They all stood together for a moment, watching the two orange-clad figures slowly recede into the distance.

‘We can all see this, right? We’re all seeing the same thing.’

Mama nodded, her hands on her hips. ‘I reckon we are. What’s your name, young man?’

‘Dalip,’ said Dalip. It was about the only thing he was certain of at that moment.

‘My parents called me Noreen,’ said Mama, ‘but everyone calls me Mama.’

‘Do you know what happened?’

‘Well now,’ she said. ‘I can’t explain any of it. Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.’

He looked at his hands, opened and closed his fists, watched his fingers curl and straighten. Every scald and blister told him it did happen, and that he wasn’t dreaming.

‘Oh, come on.’ Mama nudged his arm. ‘Your friend’s right. We should find somewhere to stay, and worry about where we are later.’

‘He’s not my friend. I’d never met him before tonight. Last night. Before the shift started. He’s just someone who was told to look after me.’

‘Then he’s done a good job, yes? He looked after you just fine.’

‘I suppose.’

‘Well, then.’ She looked around her, and co-opted the other women into the conversation. ‘We should stay together, at least till we get to go home. We’d all better follow along now.’

To pre-empt any more of his angst, she set off after Stanislav, and there was nothing for it but to go with her. They walked as a knot of orange, none of them feeling brave enough to spread out across the plain.