He nodded, making a physical effort to calm down again, acknowledging that he’d gotten through it. He’d faced it, and he’d gotten through it. He pulled his T-shirt back on and looked ahead, where the trail looked a little more open. He could do this—he’d come through the worst, so he just had to keep going.

He picked up his backpack, took another sip of water, then searched the pack one more time before putting it back on. He set off immediately, but he was still skittish, still slapping at every small itch, reacting to every insect that landed on his skin as if he weren’t fully convinced he’d managed to shake off all those spiders.

The trails became slightly more passable, and more numerous, and a couple of times he was able to veer back to the right, the direction he wanted to go. Then, half an hour after leaving the spider colonies behind, he found a small sloping clearing within the trees, not big, but perhaps big enough to set up camp.

He checked the time, thinking back to what Kate had said about building a fire, making sure not to walk after dark. He figured night would come with its usual speed in the next half hour or so.

It was already more than two hours since he’d been separated from the rest of the group and he wondered where they were now, how far away, how close to the gap in the hills and the promise of the river. It was a strange sensation to Tom, because he’d never cared much for any of them before coming here, and still didn’t care for some of them now, but he hoped they made it, no matter what happened to him.

He looked around the clearing. He’d need to find some dry wood to burn, but this small area looked particularly lush and green. He moved around the edge, searching for anything that might burn easily, and he was too slow when he caught a sudden movement from the undergrowth below.

He felt the impact before he’d even seen it, his vision registering only after the fact, a snake, darting out of the green, striking his leg just below the knee with disturbing force, its head thumping against his calf. He jumped back, one step, then another, and saw the snake clearly now, at least five feet long, a flash of brown and black and yellow.

Tom jumped back a third step, but the snake coiled and struck a second time. It fell short but immediately reared up and lunged at him again, and as Tom tried to take another jump backward he stumbled, falling against his own pack. He rolled and scrambled to his feet even as he saw the snake tensing to strike a fourth time.