Fran does as she’s told, ignoring the part of her brain that’s screaming at her to lie flat on the floor and just hold on. The dinghy picks up speed, the river foaming ahead of them, rocks and low hanging tree branches speeding past.

‘Hold on! Hold on!’ Evan shouts.

Fran holds her oar beside her, the paddle pointing upwards, and weaves her fingers around the safety cord. She’s barely got a grip when the dinghy lifts into the air then slaps back down on the river. A wave of water arcs over the front of the boat, drenching them all. Evan deftly weaves the dinghy around a large flat rock. It twists in the water and they hurtle towards the far bank but he deftly swerves it away before it hits. Back down the river they hurtle, towards the churning water. Thirty seconds ago it looked unthreatening and surmountable. Up close it looks like there’s a monster caught beneath the surface, thrashing and twisting and churning the water into a violent, muddy vortex. Fran swears under her breath. The dinghy turns sideways.

‘Paddle!’ Evan shouts. ‘Paddle! Paddle, paddle, paddle!’

The dinghy leaps and falls, leaps and falls, and Fran fights for breath, inhaling in short sharp bursts as wave after wave bursts over the boat, battering her body and slapping her skin. She tries to paddle but the river pulls at her oar, trying to yank it out of her hands. She’s not aware of Caroline and Damian either side of her or the three people opposite. She can’t hear Evan. She can’t hear anything other than the roar of the water and someone’s scream. It’s as though she’s trapped in a dark, noisy void, hovering on the edge of life. It’s terrifying, nauseating and interminable. She just wants it to—

The thought is obliterated as there is a slap, the thwack of a wave, and the dinghy tips violently to the left. Fran’s right hand flies up into the air as she reaches for something, anything to latch herself onto, to stop herself from falling into the water, but there’s nothing to grab and the last thing she sees as she’s hurled out of the boat and into the dark, churning water is Kate rising above her and her wide, horrified eyes.

Fran plummets, the water enveloping her, wrapping her on all sides, sucking her down. The roar stopped the second she hit the water. Now all she can hear is a thick, muffled drone, a baritone hum, enveloping her, wrapping her on all sides. Her descent slows and she’s suspended in the river, dark shapes swirling around her. Shock holds her there until her lungs begin to ache and instinct kicks in. She has to get to the surface. She has to breathe.