My contribution to the afternoon’s orienteering task was negligible as I followed my team through the dense woodland, glancing at but never reading my crumpled map and compass. Back at base, my inclusion in a trust game was a waste of everyone’s time; blindfolded, there was no way I was going to allow myself to fall backwards in the belief that someone would catch me. I was eventually allowed to sit it out. As dusk fell, we were issued hand-held crossbows for shooting at a straw target covered with a painting of a fox. I stood well back, flinching each time I heard the click of a little bolt being latched back in its pistol frame. Whenever it was my turn to shoot, I’d load and release in one movement without bothering to aim. I had no interest in spearing an animal, real or drawn.

I had no plans to sleep that night. I’d already accepted that I would lie awake until the dawn, so obviously I dropped off immediately after lights-out.

Like a bleating alarm clock inserting itself into the soundtrack of a dream, the whispering of ‘Morcombe’ seemed at first to be just within my own head. Lei was snoring and Craig breathing heavily through his nose when I awoke. As I wrestled with the momentary disorientation, the noise came again.

‘Morcombe.’

My eyes adjusted to the darkness. Dimi Kyrkos’s face, poking through the flap at the front of the tent, settled into focus.

‘Leave me alone,’ I whispered back, curling myself into my sleeping bag and covering my head. I began to drift off, the smell of Gramps’s washing powder on my bedding offering some sort of solace.

There was a slap of palm against the canvas next to me. I sat upright. ‘Get up, Morcombe,’ he hissed, his head close to mine on the other side of the material.

I slithered from the sleeping bag and crawled to the entrance. ‘What?’ I called into the blackness of the field.

Dimi strolled back into view. ‘Come with me.’

‘What time is it?’

‘Three. Four maybe. Who gives a shit?’

The urgent need to get back to sleep had left me. I was wide awake now and knew I’d have no chance of dozing off again. ‘What do you want?’

Lei grunted and wrapped his pillow round his head.

‘You’re gonna want to see this,’ Dimi said, his smile rising on one side.

I sat on the muddy duckboards and clutched at my knees.

‘Come on,’ he said.

I reluctantly reached for my trainers and stepped out on to the wet grass. He turned and walked off, beckoning for me to follow.

The ground mist thickened as we made our way down the hill, eventually reaching the low fence that separated us from the woods. I stayed put as he climbed over.

‘Will you do what you’re fucking told, Morcombe?’ he said, his face barely visible in the darkness.