Tom was mesmerized that she could recognize Lara from such a faint and garbled cry, and he was briefly full of wonder at this world of friendship he didn’t really understand, a world of sleepovers and knowing each other’s hopes and fears and eating and sleeping patterns and any number of other things. He wasn’t sure he’d want that world for himself, but he was intrigued and astonished by it all the same.

It was during one of their more talkative phases that they noticed the first sluggish blue tinge in the air around them. There was some movement farther up the slope and they looked as a large peccary emerged onto the gouged path of the plane. It seemed to root around amid the debris, then glanced at them, looking unfazed, before disappearing back into the undergrowth.

George said, “Think it tastes like bacon?”

Alice gave him a playful thump on the arm, but then they fell silent again as, within minutes, the sickly light transformed, taking on the hue of the day to come.

“Twenty-four hours,” said Alice, and George nodded.

Only after a moment or two did Tom understand that they were talking about how long they’d been here, that twenty-four hours had elapsed since their plane had broken apart and they’d found themselves in this jungle. Tom’s confusion arose out of the fact that he was thinking of a different twenty-four hours, the time that would pass before he set off to find a way out.

They heard some noise from the side of the plane, and looked to see Shen and Barney emerge carrying two trays full of foil cartons.

Barney said, “You stayed up all night?”

Alice smiled and stretched. “Didn’t mean to. We weren’t tired.”

Shen reached the fire, saying, “Then you should eat before you go to bed. I think we’ll have to frontload on food today—a lot of this won’t keep for another day.”

Tom said, “What about dry food, or the plastic-wrapped stuff?”

Shen looked noncommittal. “If we’re careful we could stretch it over two more days, not much more. When are you thinking of setting out?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

That seemed to satisfy him. “Good. Much longer and we’d have to start finding food here.”

George smiled, probably thinking of the peccary.

Tom said, “What about water?”

“Again, a couple of days if we use all the soft drinks and things. If we’re near the river we can use the water from there.”

Alice looked horrified. “We can do what?”

“Filter it through mosquito netting, boil it if we can, or use the purifying tablets in the emergency kit. Hopefully we won’t need to, but we have to be ready.”

Tom said, “Good.” He looked at Alice. “Shen’s being realistic. Even if we take the river, it could take days to get out of here.”