He smiled and began walking in the direction of the trees. He thought he’d head over there, do a quick lap of the little copse to stretch his legs and then head back. Although Tom’s thigh muscles were aching from yesterday’s walking and he could feel a small blister on the little toe of his right foot, he didn’t think he was in such bad shape. In fact, he thought he might—

The thought snapped off as Tom heard a rustling sound behind him. For some reason he felt a momentary lurch of fear in his stomach and he spun round towards the source of the sound, then let out a breath when he saw Matt’s head emerging from the flap of the other tent.

Matt was rubbing his eyes and blinking, and when he saw Tom he raised one hand in a wave. Tom grinned and waved back.

‘Hey!’ yelled Matt with a grin, but he paused when Tom put a finger to his lips and nodded his head in the direction of his own tent. Tom mimed a sleeping gesture and then jogged over to join Matt, who had pulled back the flap of his tent and was kneeling in the morning light.

‘What time is it?’ mumbled Matt. He wiped the sleep from his eyes again and ran a hand through his messy brown hair.

‘Not sure exactly, maybe 7ish?’

Matt groaned. ‘Jesus, I thought it was much later than that. I saw Gary had already packed up his stuff and I thought you lot might be getting ready to leave without me.’

‘Eh?’

‘I said I thought you guys might have already eaten and be getting ready to go.’

‘No, what did you say about Gary’s stuff?’ Somewhere deep down in his stomach, Tom felt something like unease beginning to stir.

‘His stuff’s not in the tent,’ said Matt. He looked past Tom at the empty camp ground. ‘Where is everyone, anyway.’

Despite the morning chill, the skin on Tom’s back had started to prickle. He resisted the urge to push past Matt and look inside the tent, and instead took a deep breath.

‘Matt, what the hell do you mean his stuff’s gone? I haven’t seen him this morning, I thought he was still in the tent with you.’

Matt stared back at Tom for a few seconds, frowning. He started to say something and then stopped, staring out across the campsite. Tom recognised his expression – the furrowed brow, the slight squint – as Matt’s thinking face; he’d seen it plenty of times during the maths classes they shared at school.

‘Last night…’ Matt glanced at Tom and then looked away again, biting his lower lip.

‘Last night what?’

‘I don’t know, I just thought…’

‘What, for fuck’s sake?’ Tom’s tone, which had come out a little sharper than he’d meant it to, caused Matt to jump.