Above them was a switchback path up the cliff, narrow and wet with rain. It looked like a deathtrap.

‘I need you to play the hero this time, Forest,’ said Mackenzie. ‘Go up the path, take the bikes, and go get help. Can you do that?’

‘No, Mack!’ Forest swept his sodden hair out of his face. ‘No way are you carrying him up there alone. And I’m not leaving either of you behind!’ He climbed up onto the first overhang, bringing the coil of rope with him. ‘Pass him up to me!’

‘I can’t,’ said Mackenzie. ‘My arms are like jelly. I’m done, Forest. I’m cooked.’

‘You saved me!’ shouted Forest. ‘I thought I was dead, but you saved me! We made it out! This next part is easy. C’mon, you big lump, move!’

Suddenly a large roller plunged onto the beach. Before Forest knew what was happening, the two men, and all the gear, were wrenched from the beach, back into the waves.

Just like that, they were gone. He was alone on the beach.

‘No!’ screamed Forest. ‘No!’

There was no sign of them on the surface. The two of them would have no oxygen, no energy, no hope . . .

Forest shouted at the ocean, raising his voice in defiance: ‘I will not let you drown my family! Never again!’

He still had the rope. He tied it to a rusted metal pole, and the other end in a loop around his waist. Then he leapt out into the icy, boiling sea.

There was nothing. Salt and silt, sound and wind and the drone.

Forest kicked out, full of fury, fighting the wave . . . The water pushed the rope down his waist – he hadn’t tightened it! He reached for it and it looped around his leg. Twisting, he clung to the rope, reminded of clinging to the kelp when he’d first let himself wash up on the shore. He looped it three times, four times, until it was tight around his ankle. Not as good as his waist, but . . .

What did it matter? There was no one out here. Nothing. He was going to drown alone in the heavy swell.

Then, a head surfaced at the peak of a wave. Mack, holding Ahab. Forest kicked and kicked towards them, but they went under again. He dived, grasping, feeling something – hair? – and then he was on the surface again.

They were being sucked out to sea. Waves on all sides. He had Mackenzie’s hair in his grip.

The rope yanked on his foot. Hard. He felt a popping and then fiery agony.

The pain made him queasy, but his whimpering brain was awash with the knowledge of death.

‘I’ve got the rope, hold on to me!’ shouted Forest into Mackenzie’s ear. ‘We can do this!’