Shen glanced behind before pointing at the hills rising up high on the other side of the wide valley where the wreckage lay. “Not that way. The hills are higher there, so it’s possible we could get a better view, but it could be a day’s hike just to get a better view of even higher hills.” He turned slowly, getting a full panorama, then pointed off to the right. “See that line over there?”

Tom stared. It took him a while to see it because it was barely a line, little more than an irregularity snaking through the tree canopy. Once he’d spotted it though, it was unmistakable.

“You think it’s a river?”

Shen nodded. “I guess it’d be too much to hope it’s a road. But if it’s a river we can see which way it’s flowing and then we can follow its course. It’s no guarantee, but it’s our best chance of finding a way out.” His eyes fixed on a slight cleft between the distant hills. “It’s probably heading that way, running down from the bigger hills behind us, through the gap in those hills over there.”

“So that’s our escape route. Follow the river and hope the pilot didn’t drop us a thousand miles from anywhere.”

“Follow the course of the river.” Shen smiled. “There are lots of things in and around the water that might want to eat us. So we follow the course, but keep our distance.”

Tom smiled too, but before he could say anything they heard Chris’s unmistakable voice shouting, “Hey, you two, come and give us a hand.”

It took a few seconds to see them down among the trees. Tom wasn’t even sure how Chris had spotted them, but he started down the slope.

They’d gone pretty far before finally seeing them ahead. Chris was struggling up the slope carrying someone on his back. Tom’s first thought was that he’d been wrong and they had found a survivor, but he quickly discounted that idea. His next thought was that Barney had been hurt, and he felt an odd sense of relief when he noticed Barney walking behind Chris.

It was only then that he realized it was Toby on Chris’s back—Toby, whom he’d imagined the healthiest and most able of the three of them. Even before they got close, Tom could see Toby’s stricken face resting floppily on Chris’s shoulder, and it didn’t look good.

They were close now and Chris said, “Barney, help me get him down.” They lowered him from Chris’s back onto the ground. “He slipped and something bit him on the arm.”

Shen said, “What was it?”

Barney said, “He thinks it was a snake. The bite looks like a snake.”

Chris added, “But we need to get him back. He’s in a bad way.”