The flesh sagged away from a hand-sized trench above my knee. Blood gushed from it, pouring over my thigh, soaking into cloth and ground. Deep inside the wound, something showed white for a second, before another flood of blood covered it.

The pain hit. It exploded through me, a tearing and clawing that jerked my head back against the tree, and sent howls echoing into the bright air. Magpies nearby shrieked in return. I clamped both hands over the ripped flesh, wailing and shuddering.

My teeth ground together so hard I thought they would splinter. My heart hammered. Terror pulsed through me. I was going to die.

With no warning, the terror vanished, and I was angry again. Not just angry: wild with fury. I’d used the axe like a maniac; broken every rule my father had taught me. I’d die here, and I had nobody to blame except myself.

My hands moved. They tore at the buttons of my shirt, dragging it from my back. They stopped as I hunched in another surge of agony, screamed again. Then they were wrapping the shirt around the gaping wound, pulling it tight, then tighter still while I sobbed and whimpered, tugging at the sleeves with every bit of strength I had, knotting them over and over. Instantly, the cloth began turning sodden red.

Above the noises I was making, part of my mind kept working. I had to get home. Mother and Jess were there. And Lily. I had to cross the river before I lost too much blood. I couldn’t. I must.

I clutched the totara’s rough bark and started hauling myself up. My left leg flopped. I forced myself to put weight on it, shrieked and half-fell, holding onto the tree-trunk. I couldn’t walk. My leg was useless. I had no chance.

The axe lay nearby. I groped for it, rammed the head into the ground beside me, and levered myself up again, hunched over it. Sweat streamed from me; my face twisted with the pain. Somebody was moaning ‘Aaah! Help! Help!’ My own voice, yet it seemed to come from miles away.

I held my breath. I’d use the axe like a stick, get across the river and up the bank with it. I took a step forward and screamed again. Pain jolted my whole left side. I heard my body shudder with it. I lifted my head, teeth grinding together. I fixed my eyes on the Waimoana, thirty yards away, and began to move.

The shirt tied around my leg meant I could walk only by swinging the leg forward, then dragging it after me. Every time it touched the ground, I cried aloud with agony. Sweat poured down my naked upper body. I forced myself on, step by step.