Tom wasn’t listening to him and guessed the other two weren’t, either. Joel only stopped when George pointed into the trees with his flashlight, saying, “That’s the direction the scream came from.”

They set off as one of the other girls said, “What scream? Who heard a scream?”

Tom was focusing on the beam illuminating a narrow sliver of ground in front of him, but he heard Alice say, “Why don’t you tell them, Joel? Tell them about the scream.”

Their small party moved into single file. Tom was at the front, George at the back, and as they edged carefully onto the straggling path, which seemed to have become even more hemmed in by vegetation now that night had fallen, Kate said, “What was Alice talking about as we left?”

Tom kept his eyes fixed forward as he spoke. “I came face-to-face with a jaguar when I was collecting wood.” He paused, using the branch he was carrying to dismantle a spider’s web that had been thrown across the path. “I threw my phone at it and it ran off, but I told Joel to call everyone in.”

“And he didn’t?”

“Not right away. Then we heard the scream.”

George cursed under his breath with what sounded like a mixture of fury and frustration.

“Oh, my God.” Kate sounded horrified, perhaps thinking of what might have happened to Naomi rather than dwelling on the reasons for it happening. And the reasons, it seemed, didn’t even need spelling out. “Why is everyone listening to him?”

George said, “Because he’s the only one talking. Tom should be the leader.”

Tom couldn’t help but be flattered, particularly when he’d never spoken to George until a few hours ago, but he was angry with himself too, because he could have called out and hadn’t. He’d left it to Joel, and for all Tom knew, something had happened to Naomi because of that failure.

He said, “I don’t think we need a leader. But if the others like him being in charge, I’m fine with that.”

“Yeah, I guess I can live with it for one more day.”

Kate was always pretty sharp in their English class and she was no different out here in the dark of the enveloping jungle, jumping on George’s comment as she said, “Why, what happens after that?”

George didn’t answer, perhaps fearing he’d spoken out of turn, so Tom said, “A group of us are walking out of here.”

He’d hardly finished talking before she cut in. “I’ll come. So will Emma. We’ve already talked about it anyway, but we’d rather come with you.”