The dog turned around every twenty seconds, seeking its master’s approval, even though its master was simply following it. They just needed to get to the lowest point to find water, but it was difficult to get through the brambles, thorny bushes and exuberant climbing plants. The dog suddenly started sniffing at the ground, and then went off to the left and over to the dense undergrowth at the foot of the rock face, a high limestone cliff that was the steepest side of the igue. There was some sort of stone shelter that the animal disappeared into, hardly visible because it was covered in vegetation. Franck walked up to it. It was a small building about a metre and a half high, a dry stone structure with a domed roof of jumbled tiles. Although it was dark, he could tell there was a deep pit where the ground should have been. It was a spring. An abandoned spring. Franck pulled the ivy and brambles out of the way. The plants were strong, but he managed to create an opening so he could get inside. The dog had already gone two metres down and was unconvincingly lapping the stagnant water. There was a little spurt of water gushing out far below the surface, dainty bubbles rising from the depths of the earth. The dog turned round and looked at Franck, as if telling him not to do the same, advising him not to drink this water. Looking at the shelter smothered in ivy and brambles, Franck thought about the script he was reading, though he wasn’t really interested in the story. It took place in the near future, when mankind had disappeared and only five astronauts had been able to return to Earth from Mars after years of thinking about it. After ten years without humans, nature had taken over. He had learnt one thing at least from quickly scanning it: it only took a few years for cities to be completely reclaimed by vegetation. Tree roots would soon begin to attack the foundations of buildings, and concrete towers themselves would suffer from not being looked after or cleaned; the salt in the air would start to corrode the cement and loosen the stones of every building. Everything would collapse if it wasn’t looked after, and the Earth would soon look like this place, abandoned and wild …