We slept that night in spite of everything. The tent was still with Matt’s gear, but it was mild enough and we had our sleeping bags. I woke up every time I turned, because my ankle objected to movement. But after a while of staring at the stars through the tree canopy I would drift off again. My dreams were of better times with Matt and Mum and Dad. In one dream Stripes saved Slick from drowning in a river like a bigger version of the river at McDonald’s Bridge. I don’t think Slick moved all night. Every time I woke up I could hear him breathing, and that was a comfort among the other night noises.

In the morning Slick went to get more water and we had a decent breakfast. It was the first proper food we’d had for ages. Over our mugs we tried to discuss the future, but it turned out there wasn’t a lot to say. Slick had got a pile of twigs and branches ready to make a fire, with lots of leafy stuff for making smoke. But it was all a bit previous. No one would even think we were missing yet.

Boredom set in early. We tried some games of I Spy, but soon ran out of new things to name. The cards were in Matt’s pack, of course, and in any case we didn’t feel too much like having fun. I moved very slowly once or twice to ease the pressure of always sitting down. Slick began to roam the outskirts of our camp.

About ten o’clock he said he was going to the top of the hill. I didn’t want him to go, but it really wasn’t fair to expect him to stay cooped up with me. He brought over both packs so that I could get anything I wanted from them, took the second to last apple and glided off up the hill through the trees. He was gone a long time. I found a patch of sun and lay in it, half dozing, half thinking about where we had gone wrong, and Matt, and what would happen now. Slick came back as silently as he had gone, and I realised with a start that I was hungry and it was lunchtime.

We had some sandwiches for lunch. They were really breadcrumbs stuck together with jam. Our packs were a real mess, because mostly we had just been hauling things out and stuffing them back in, any old how. I suggested we should re-pack both of them properly, but the idea didn’t appeal to Slick.