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WELCOME TO THE

Imagine a Britain without the howl of the wolf, or the growl of a bear.

Way back in the 2020s, this was the sorry state of our overcrowded island. Intensive farming, climate change, pollution, urban expansion . . . animals simply had no place left to go.

While large predators had already been lost centuries before, now even common garden species were on the brink of extinction – the hedgehog, the badger, the humble bumble bee! A generation of children faced a future with silent skies, empty forests and dead rivers.

But just when we looked to be on the brink of disaster, a visionary plan was unveiled. What if we could bring back the lost animals and create a place where nature could not only survive, but thrive?

An idea this bold couldn’t be kept to a quiet corner of the countryside, it had to be bigger than we’d ever dared dream before. And so, an enormous area of farmland, forestry and national parks – covering much of northern England and southern Scotland – was chosen.

First, the bison, beaver, boar, elk and eagles were released. Then, after all humans had safely left, followed the ﬁercest predators – wolves, bear and lynx. Free once again to choose its own destiny, the landscape slowly transformed into a vast wilderness of forests, meadows, scrubland, rivers, lakes, beaches and wild seas.

To allow people to enjoy this unique environment, a tenmile-wide ‘buffer zone’ was established around the edge of the project. So why not come hike with pine martens through pristine forest, canoe with otters down crystal-clear rivers, and fall asleep under a thousand stars to the whoop of a long-eared owl?

But be warned – you must not cross the boundary-line into the heart of the Wildlands. Our intelligent alarm-system has ensured that no one has set foot in the core of the project for twenty years. Untamed, unmonitored and undisturbed, this is a place for nature to keep its secrets.

What happens there, we can only guess. However, you may catch a glimpse if you ride the train from London to Glasgow – for this high-speed rail line crosses right through the middle of the project.

Extract from YOUR GUIDE TO THE WILDLANDS 2050 edition

1An alert popped up on Astrid’s screen:

Low battery, 10% remaining

She tried resting the phone on the in-seat charging block, but – as with the five previous times she’d tried this – nothing happened.

She tossed the phone with a clatter on to the traytable in front of her. With her eyes off the screen, she became aware again of the train carriage around her. The other passengers were silently absorbed in their devices or talking quietly, their low voices mixing with the gentle hum of the electric engine.

Astrid glanced out of the window. The train was raised above the ground now, level with the tips of the

trees. They must be in the Wildlands. She had a vague memory of Mum explaining about the train being raised up to avoid catching animals on the track. Her mum would know, being one of the original founders of The Wildland Project – a fact Astrid wasn’t allowed to forget with everyone going on about it, all the time.

‘Can you see anything?’

Here was another fact Astrid wasn’t allowed to forget – she was supposed to be looking after her little sister, Indie.

When their carriage had emptied out at Manchester, Astrid had made Indie move over to the double seat opposite. Now they were straight through to Glasgow without stopping, so Astrid had been hoping for some peace and quiet.

Indie scooted across the aisle to try and look out of Astrid’s window.

‘I think I saw a bear!’ she yelped, her elbow digging into Astrid’s thigh as she leant across her lap.

‘No, you didn’t,’ said Astrid, shoving Indie back towards her own seat. ‘We’re going about two hundred miles an hour. You won’t see anything out there.’

‘I might see a bird of prey!’ replied Indie, pressing her face against her own window. ‘If it’s hovering over the forest.’

Astrid watched Indie kneeling up on her seat to try and get a better look. Her dark, curly hair – which Ma had patiently pulled into bunches that morning – had already escaped, matting itself into a bird’s nest at the back of her head. She was wearing her Wildlands shirt.

Mum had given Astrid her old ranger shirt for her tenth birthday, with her surname – their surname – embroidered across the back. Indie had been so jealous that Astrid asked Mum if she had another so Indie could have one too. Indie was only five at the time, and the shirt Mum produced was so big on her that it trailed along the floor. Still, for the next year, the two of them wore their matching shirts everywhere together.

Till the day Astrid quietly stuffed hers right to the back of her wardrobe and vowed never to put it on again.

‘Isn’t it so cool,’ squeaked Indie, ‘that the train goes right through the middle of the Wildlands?’

‘No,’ muttered Astrid.

Though a couple of years ago, she’d have been just as excited as Indie. In fact, when she was younger, she’d begged Mum so often to take her into the Wildlands that the two of them had once ridden this same train

line up and back again, just so Astrid could look out of the window the whole time.

Astrid shook the memory away. Across the aisle, The Wildland Project logo on the back of Indie’s shirt seemed to jeer at her. She had a horrible fear Indie would wear the shirt to Mum’s conference, meaning Astrid would have to endure an endless parade of boring rewilding people exclaiming in delight that you’re Cara’s daughters!

Or maybe they wouldn’t?

Maybe everyone else would see what she had never noticed – that, while Indie looked like both their mothers, Astrid clearly must not. Had everyone else always been able to see it?

Everyone but her . . .

Astrid returned to her own window. She leant her forehead on the glass, feeling the rumble of the train’s movement vibrate through her skull. The high summer sun made her squint, even though the train windows had tinted automatically to compensate. She unfocused her eyes till the endless expanse of trees blurred into a blanket of green.

‘Can I look it up on your phone?’

‘No,’ replied Astrid, reflexively grabbing her phone

off the table and clutching it to her chest. ‘Wait, look up what?’

‘What birds of prey there are!’ exclaimed Indie, as if this was obvious. ‘So I’m ready to recognize them.’

‘Definitely not.’

‘Why not?’ whined Indie.

‘Because . . .’ faltered Astrid, ‘I’m using it.’ And then, because Indie was still watching her, she swiped open her phone.

She’d promised Ma that she’d message Mum once they left Manchester, to let her know the train was running on time. Of course, Astrid had absolutely no intention of sending Mum a message. Mum could look it up herself. If she cared so much, she would have stayed at home instead of rushing off at the first opportunity to show off about how important she was.

Mum was always getting asked to speak at events and conferences about rewilding. This time, it was a lastminute call to replace a sick speaker at a conference in Glasgow – something boring about human–bear conflict in the Highland Wilds.

It was the last week of the summer holidays, and Ma – who was a big-deal environmental lawyer – couldn’t

take more time off work because she had an important case coming up. After a lot of intense adult discussions, an elaborate plan was made in which Ma would work from home for a few days, then put the girls on a train to Glasgow, where Mum would meet them.

So that’s how Astrid had ended up stuck on a train, looking after an overexcited eight-year-old, hurtling through the absolute last place on earth she wanted to be right now.

She opened the message thread with her best friend, Neel. His parents had taken him and his sisters to India to visit their grandparents in Kerala, so he’d been gone practically all summer. He wasn’t online much, but over the weeks he’d sent through a steady stream of photos, mostly of himself on the beach, his skin getting gradually darker and darker while he looked increasingly pleased with himself.

Lucky Neel. The most exotic place Astrid would go this summer was this trip to Glasgow. Mum’s parents were from Scotland, but they’d moved to London after Astrid was born. Ma was from Sri Lanka, but her parents had moved to Australia when she was little. Ma kept talking about doing a big trip out there, but it hadn’t happened yet.

Staring down at Neel’s goofy face, smudged with salt and sand, Astrid had the sudden urge to tell him how much she was dreading spending three days in a hotel with Mum . . . How she couldn’t bear the idea of all Mum’s colleagues telling Astrid that she must be so proud to be her daughter . . . But she couldn’t be honest with Neel, because then she’d have to explain what she’d found out.

A few times over the past couple of years, he’d asked Astrid what had changed. Why she’d gone from telling anyone who would stand still for long enough about how her mum had founded the Wildlands, to not wanting to be in the same room as Mum and pretending the Wildlands didn’t exist. Astrid had managed to shrug off his questions, pretending it was just a normal part of becoming a teenager. She’d hit puberty first, so he tended to defer to her on all things hormone-related.

‘Did you know, the Wildlands has the largest –?’

‘I’m busy here,’ muttered Astrid, holding up her phone to cut Indie off.

Why did no one understand how much she didn’t want to talk about Mum’s precious Wildlands? It was bad enough having to be in it for the next hour.

A hurt look passed across Indie’s face, and Astrid felt

a pang of guilt. She was supposed to be looking out for her, after all.

She closed her eyes and took a breath. ‘Hey, Indie,’ she said in a falsely cheerful voice. ‘I think I saw a beaver.’

Indie looked confused for a moment, then she broke into a grin. ‘That’s otter-ly ridiculous!’

Astrid shrugged. ‘Whale, you’ve missed it now.’

‘Oh . . .’ giggled Indie, ‘rats!’

They’d had a whole repertoire of animal-based puns when they were younger. Whenever they were bored, the two of them would go for as long as they could till one of them couldn’t think of a reply. Their parents would laugh along, then tell them to stop, then add in stern tones ‘that eel-y is enough now’, making them all crack up again.

Astrid pictured the four of them, laughing along together in their shared world, and a sharp ache spread through her chest. She gripped her phone and began scrolling aimlessly, glaring down at the blurry screen.

She really wished this journey could be over already. But then, she also never wanted to arrive in Glasgow.

Maybe the whole train could just drive itself off the tracks?

2Twenty minutes later, a critically low battery warning popped up on Astrid’s phone.

She could feel herself begin to panic. Her phone wasn’t going to make it all the way. She needed her phone! What was she supposed to do without it – sit here listening to Indie’s Guided Tour of the Wildlands ?

She shuffled over to Indie’s seat and, once again, tried her in-seat charger. It didn’t work. Maybe the whole train was broken?

‘Try my window,’ suggested Indie. ‘It’s really sunny on this side.’

‘Solar charging doesn’t work through the windows,’ explained Astrid. ‘They have built-in solar panels, so they filter out all the energy, or something.’

She held her phone up anyway, hoping for once to be proved wrong.

After a bit, she lowered her arm.

‘Did it work?’

‘Yes, Indie, it’s magically charged all the way up in those three seconds.’

Indie narrowed her eyes. ‘I was only trying to help.’

Astrid felt another stab of guilt. Indie was only trying to help. And yet everything Indie did these days seemed to grate on Astrid’s nerves.

Astrid looked down at the red battery symbol on her phone. If she had to do the rest of this journey without a distraction, she’d probably end up saying something she’d regret. The last thing she needed was to arrive in Glasgow with a crying Indie, and Mum sitting them both down for a sharing and forgiving circle.

‘Hey, why don’t I go get us some snacks?’ She held up her phone. ‘Ma topped up my spending card.’

Indie’s eyes flashed with excitement. Then she bit her lip. ‘But she made us sandwiches . . .’

Astrid picked up her rucksack. ‘Well, I fancy something else.’

Indie began to shuffle along her seat towards Astrid.

‘No,’ blurted Astrid. ‘You stay here.’

Indie’s face fell.

‘To save our seats,’ Astrid added quickly. ‘Don’t want anyone to take them, right?’

Indie looked pleased at being given such an important job. She spread her arms and legs wide. She could just about reach the tip of her shoe across the aisle on to Astrid’s seat. ‘Consider it taken hare of,’ she said with a thumbs up.

Astrid gave a weak smile and turned away. She was going to regret reintroducing animal puns.

As she walked through the next carriage, she glanced down at other people’s seats to see if their chargers were working. Then an old lady glared up at her, so she decided to wait for a free seat instead.

The carriage after that was full, so Astrid didn’t have a chance to try any of the other chargers. She lurched through, wondering what sort of sandwiches they would have in the train cafe.

Neel had sent her a message last week boasting that he’d eaten a traditional pork curry, made with actual, real-life pigs. Astrid wasn’t sure she believed him.

When he was still alive, Grandad had told Astrid that everyone in the old days used to eat meat. How, when he

was younger, you could buy it everywhere. Astrid had tried to imagine a supermarket fridge filled with different animal body parts. The idea was pretty gross.

She reached the end of the carriage. The driver was making an announcement over the tannoy, but through the clatter of the doors Astrid only heard the words ‘unplanned ’ and ‘keep you updated ’.

People did still eat meat. At least, some people did. Nana had once admitted to Astrid that she sometimes ordered wild boar meat for special occasions – though never when Mum was going to be there. Nana explained it was ethical meat, because it was from culling the boar numbers in Richmond Park as there weren’t any wild predators there.

Since then, Astrid had always wondered what meat would taste like. Whether she could have made herself bite into it. Knowing how much Mum would probably hate it, Astrid had recently started looking for a chance to try. Maybe the train would have something like that? Or those special cheeses you could get, made with milk from a goat instead of nuts?

Astrid was enjoying the fantasy of spending her last Mum-free hour munching on an old-fashioned meat

sandwich, when she suddenly stumbled forward. The train was slowing down.

What was happening? They weren’t due to stop until they reached Glasgow. There weren’t any stations to stop at, not any more. Apparently – before they created the Wildlands – there had been villages and towns and even small cities in this part of the country, but all the people moved out when the fences went up.

The other passengers were peering out of the windows, pointing and talking together. Astrid leant against a seat, trying to see over their heads – till she remembered that she wasn’t interested in anything out there. She strode purposefully down to the other end of the carriage, not letting her gaze stray outside.

In the cafe bar, people were still pressing their faces against the windows. What was going on? Astrid thought of Indie. Would she be worried, on her own? Probably not, she’d just be glad to have a chance to have a proper look at the scenery outside.

Astrid inspected the sandwich fridge. There weren’t any meat products, or any cheese. They probably only had stuff like that in First Class. The sandwiches all looked bland and soggy, so she picked up two chocolate

bars instead. Fruit and nut, Indie’s favourite. That should keep her quiet for at least three minutes.

Waiting in the queue, Astrid spotted a display of booklets titled Your Guide to the Wildlands – History, Wildlife & Buffer Zone Adventures! Even the train was obsessed with the Wildlands! Why did they have paper guidebooks anyway? Wouldn’t it be easier to just scan a code?

‘Can I help you?’

Astrid startled and handed over the chocolate bars, then held her phone against the card reader. She felt it vibrate as the payment went through. Then the screen went black.

Her phone had finally died.

Great. What was she supposed to do now?

She stuffed the chocolate bars in her rucksack and stomped back through the carriages towards their seats. The train still wasn’t moving. At least it was easier to navigate the narrow aisle now without being thrown side to side.

But why had the train stopped? She tried not to imagine what it would be like to be stuck on a brokendown train for hours with no phone, and only Indie’s constant stream of wildlife questions for company.

Astrid was passing through a vestibule between carriages, when a funny smell made her stop. An old man was leaning against one of the external doors, looking distinctly guilty. He was wearing a wide-brimmed hat.

Who wears a hat indoors?

The man gave a little cough and Astrid caught a sweet, smoky smell. He was vaping! Hadn’t vapes been banned years ago?

‘Don’t tell anyone, eh?’ he said with a wink. Then he leant aside.

With a little thrill, Astrid saw that he’d opened the door a crack to blow the smoke outside.

‘Used to work on the trains,’ he said to her with a grin, leaning down conspiratorially. ‘Still know how they work.’

From this distance, Astrid could see every sun spot and broken capillary marking his ghostly pale skin. His teeth showed yellow against his grey beard.

‘I better be careful though,’ he went on with a chuckle. ‘Wouldn’t want to fall out and get eaten by a wolf, would I?’ He gave a barking laugh at his own joke and then broke out in a coughing fit.

Astrid didn’t answer. Her heart was racing – she had an idea.

She leant to one side, trying to see past the man. Sure enough, there was a line of sunlight streaming in through the gap, and the space beyond was burning bright compared to the dim train interior.

‘Careful there, lassie.’ Astrid could smell the smoke from the man’s mouth. ‘Don’t go getting any ideas. It’s a long way down, and who knows what’s waiting at the bottom. Out there’s not a place for people. Not any more.’

She looked up into his lined face. Should she explain to him about her phone?

Before she could decide, there was a clatter from behind her as the dividing doors opened again.

‘Robert?’ came a shrill voice.

The man’s eyes widened. Astrid turned to see a glamorous Black woman wearing a floaty top with a pattern of giraffes on it.

‘What are you doing?’ scolded the woman. ‘I’ve been up and down the train looking for you. Didn’t you hear the announcement?’

The old man mumbled an excuse as he followed the giraffes back into the carriage, wafting his hand frantically behind him in a fairly futile attempt to disperse the smoke.

Then the connecting doors slid shut and Astrid was alone again – with the train door still open.

The gap was just the right size. She wouldn’t really be breaking any rules. She hadn’t been the one to open it.

Clutching her phone tight in her fingers, she slowly reached her hand out through the opening. She felt the sun’s warmth and thought she heard the faint beep that meant the phone was charging. Her heart was beating hard and her hand was getting clammy, but she kept a steady grip and turned so she could watch the two sets of doors, ready to pull her arm back in if anyone came by.

Her phone could charge back to 50 per cent in five minutes. But how would she know how long it had been? Without her phone she didn’t have a clock. She started counting.

Thirty-one . . . thirty-two . . .

How long would the train be stopped here?

Fifty-nine . . . sixty . . .

How would she remember the minutes? She held up one finger on her other hand.

Fifteen . . . sixteen . . .

Why were they stopped anyway? What had the driver said?

Forty-three . . . forty-four . . .

A wolf couldn’t really bite her arm off, could it?

Fifty-nine . . . sixty . . .

She held up a second finger. That was two minutes gone. Eleven . . . twelve . . .

What if the driver looked out of their window and saw an arm sticking out from the train?

Twenty-one . . . twenty-two . . .

And would she be able to get her hand back in quickly enough, if someone came? She practised pulling it in a little, just to be ready.

Forty-three . . . forty-four . . .

‘What are you doing?’

Astrid startled. And dropped her phone.

Astrid spun round.

‘What are you doing here?’

Indie looked a little afraid. ‘You were gone for ages. I came to see –’

‘Look what you’ve made me do!’ Indie just stood there looking confused, so Astrid added, ‘My phone.

You made me drop it!’

‘Where?’ asked Indie, scanning the patterned carpet of the train floor.

Astrid spun her around and pointed through the open door. ‘Out there.’

Indie leant towards the gap, trying to see outside.

‘Why were you –?’

‘Never mind,’ snapped Astrid, pushing Indie out of the way. ‘I’ve got to get it back.’

Astrid pressed her face into the narrow gap. She couldn’t see her phone. She gripped the edge of the door with two hands and tugged. Surprisingly, it slid easily open.

The two girls peered out. There, simple as that, was Astrid’s phone, lying on the gravel a metre or more below them. It seemed this part of the track wasn’t held high off the ground by struts like most of the route, but built on a stony embankment with a steep slope down to the forest floor.

Astrid knelt on the hard carpet and stretched her arm down. It didn’t reach.

‘Be careful!’ squeaked Indie.

‘I am being careful. Just keep watch, OK ?’

Astrid lowered herself till she was flat on her stomach. Once more, she stretched her arm down towards the phone. Reaching . . . stretching . . .

‘Have you got it?’

‘No, obviously,’ replied Astrid, her voice strained from the pressure of the floor against her ribcage. ‘I need to move further out.’

She shuffled forward on her stomach, but as she reached down she tipped dangerously over the edge.

‘Watch out!’ cried Indie, grabbing her legs to stop her falling.

Astrid rolled over, pushed Indie off, and sat up. ‘I need to get down.’

‘What?’ squeaked Indie. ‘Off the train?’

‘It’s fine,’ said Astrid, sounding more confident than she felt. ‘I’ll just jump down, grab it, and climb back up. I’ll be, like, two seconds.’

A voice rang out loud over the tannoy. ‘Thank you for your patience. We should be on our way shortly.’

Indie stared at her, wide-eyed.

‘Right, better go quick then,’ said Astrid, spinning round on her bum till her legs were dangling over the edge. She felt a moment’s hesitation, took a breath and pushed off, landing with a crunch on the gravel below.

It was like jumping into an oven after the cool, airconditioned carriage. Heat radiated off the train, rose up from the ground and beat down on her from the sun above.

‘Got it?’ came a small voice from above her.

The phone wasn’t hard to find, lying face down on the gravel.

‘Got it,’ Astrid called up.

There was a pause, then Indie called, ‘What’s it like out there? Can you see any animals?’

Astrid looked up, the bright sun making her squint. Little dark dots sped across the wide expanse of blue as birds flew high over a forest made of a thousand shades of green. Astrid could hear their sharp calls mixing with the little clinks and rattlings coming from under the train.

She turned back to the doorway. ‘Nah, nothing.’

As she reached up to haul herself back in, she noticed the heat of the sun on her cheek. She held up her phone, watching the charging symbol light up.

‘Are you coming?’ called Indie.

‘I’m just gonna let it charge up a bit.’

‘Astrid!’ whined Indie. ‘What if someone comes?’

‘Well, you’re meant to be keeping an eye out, aren’t you?’ The battery was already at 30 per cent, nearly enough to last her the rest of the journey.

Then a different voice came from above. Astrid braced herself, thinking it was another passenger come to tell them off, but with relief she recognized the driver speaking over the tannoy again.

‘The herd has cleared the line and we are now ready to move off. We just need to wait for a green signal and we’ll be on our way.’

‘Astrid!’ squealed Indie.

Astrid sighed and stuffed her phone into her pocket. ‘I’m coming.’

She peered up at the shadowy doorway. It looked much further away now she was below it. The lip of the step she’d been sitting on was now just above her head. She gripped it with both hands and jumped. Indie’s feet bobbed into view, before Astrid dropped back down on to the gravel with a crunch.

She needed to jump higher.

‘Hurry up!’ urged Indie.

Astrid braced herself and pushed off as hard as she could. This time, she managed to get one arm and her chin up on to the carpeted floor. She clung on, trying to pull herself further up, but her legs found nothing to push against. Her weight tipped back and she slid off, landing heavily on top of her rucksack.

She scanned the underside of the train. ‘There’s a little rusty step thing I can use. When I get up, you need to grab my hand and pull me in, OK ?’

Without waiting for Indie’s answer, Astrid pushed off from the step and launched herself up towards the opening. She grabbed at Indie’s outstretched hand.

Indie was yanked forward, but managed to catch herself on a yellow handle.

‘OK ,’ grunted Astrid, her tiptoes balancing on the step, the lip of the train floor digging into her middle. ‘Now, uh, don’t let go. I just need to –’

Before she could finish the sentence, or make an actual plan, the electric engine began to whir. With a creak of metal, the train jolted forward.

Astrid was thrown sideways. Her foot slipped from the step and, still clinging to Indie’s hand, she fell.

She hit the gravel with a thump, Indie landing hard on top of her. Then they were both rolling, sharp stones biting into soft flesh, ground and sky spinning around them.

Astrid flung out her arms and came crashing to a stop halfway down the steep slope.

‘Indie?’ she gasped. ‘You OK ?’

She heard a groan beside her and Indie’s weak, ‘Yeah, think so.’

Then she heard something else – the steady clatter of wheels.

‘The train!’ Astrid sprang to her feet and yanked Indie up.

Side by side, they scrambled up the slope.

‘Wait!’ Astrid yelled up at the train.

She tried to move faster but her feet only sank deeper into the gravel. Her fingers ripped at stones, trying to pull her body up.

‘Wait!’ they screamed in unison, as carriage after carriage flashed past them.

Astrid gave up on trying to climb the slope and instead waved both arms desperately above her head. They obviously couldn’t hear her, but maybe someone would see them.

‘Stop! STOP !’

But no alarm sounded. The brakes didn’t screech into action.

Astrid flung herself uselessly up, arms reaching out as if she could catch the train.

Her bruised body slid back down the gravel slope, as the last carriage hurtled round a bend and out of sight.

Astrid lay on her front, breathing in the smell of stone dust, watching the empty space where the train had been.

How could it have left them?

After a long pause, a quiet voice asked, ‘What do we do now?’

Astrid jumped to her feet and turned on Indie. ‘This is all your fault!’

‘Me! What did I do?’

‘You made me drop my phone! Why didn’t you stay in your seat like I told you to?’

‘I didn’t know where you were . . .’ mumbled Indie. ‘I got scared on my own.’

Indie was crouching on the gravel, covered from head

to toe in white dust, but Astrid wasn’t ready to feel sorry for her.

‘And it’s your fault the battery ran out in the first place,’ she continued. ‘I only went to buy snacks to stop you going on and on about the Wildlands. Well,’ she said, gesturing to the looming forest, ‘here’s your precious Wildlands, up close and personal.’

Indie’s eyes filled with tears. A graze showed red against her chalk-whitened cheek.

Astrid sighed. It probably wasn’t entirely Indie’s fault. If Astrid hadn’t lingered outside the train, she might have been able to get back on in time.

She plonked herself down next to her sister.

‘It’s OK ,’ she said, her eyes roving over the wall of greenery in front of them. ‘We’ve just got to figure out how to fix this.’

Indie bit her lip. ‘So . . . what are we going to do?’ she asked again.

‘Easy,’ said Astrid, though it didn’t feel easy to say it. ‘We’ll phone Mum. She still has friends who work for the Wildlands, right? She’ll know how to get us rescued.’

‘Oh yeah,’ said Indie, her face brightening. ‘Mum will save us!’

Astrid pulled out her phone, noticing a new hairline crack along the screen. Normally that would have really bothered her, but all that mattered now was getting out of here.

‘Maybe Mum will drive out in one of those ranger vehicles,’ she suggested, as she navigated to her contacts. She’d taken Mum out of her favourites.

‘Or maybe she’ll come in a helicopter!’ squealed Indie.

Astrid hit dial and held the phone up to her ear. ‘Maybe!’ she laughed. ‘Now shh, I can’t hear it ringing.’

After a moment, Astrid lowered her phone.

It wasn’t ringing. It was displaying a call failure. She hit the button to try again. Then she looked at the icon in the top right corner.

‘Isn’t she answering?’ asked Indie. ‘Try Ma instead.’

‘I can’t,’ said Astrid, a tight, icy feeling growing in her stomach.

‘Why not?’

‘Because there’s no signal in the Wildlands.’

‘But we had signal on the train,’ said Indie, shaking Astrid’s sleeve as if she could make it not true. ‘You were on your phone the whole time.’

‘Yeah,’ said Astrid, the cold, tight feeling rising to her chest. ‘But that was using the train’s Wi-Fi. And, if you haven’t noticed, the train isn’t here any more.’

Indie’s lip began to wobble.

‘Don’t cry,’ said Astrid, forcing herself to sound calm. ‘I’ll figure it out. I just need to think.’

She flicked through her open apps. Something in her phone would have the answer, it always did. Maps was no use, just a blue dot pinpointing her exact location in a sea of blank grey squares. She could still see all the messages from Neel, but he couldn’t help her now.

Then she came to the Train app. She’d used it earlier to double-check there were no more stops after Manchester. When she opened it now, the app still showed the various trains leaving London, but only for a second before it attempted to load, failed, and displayed a No signal, please refresh message.

It didn’t matter though. Astrid had the solution.

‘Come on,’ she called. ‘We need to climb back up to the tracks.’

‘Why?’ asked Indie, dropping the stone she’d been inspecting. ‘What’s up there?’

‘Other trains!’

They made their way back up the slope. Astrid found that if she moved more slowly, she didn’t slip back down so much on every step.

‘Our train wasn’t the only one to Glasgow,’ she panted. ‘They go every couple of hours. We just have to wait for the next one.’

‘Will they let us on?’ asked Indie, sounding infuriatingly not out of breath.

‘They’ll have to,’ puffed Astrid, as she heaved herself over the top of the slope. She held up her phone. ‘I’ve got our tickets on here to show we were on the other train.’

She dropped her rucksack between the two sets of rails and peeled her wet T-shirt away from her sweaty back, wafting the material to try and cool herself.

‘So we just have to wait?’

‘Yeah,’ said Astrid, plonking herself down on one of the rails.

‘Are you allowed to sit on that?’

Astrid shrugged. ‘We’re not allowed to be here at all, are we? But it won’t electrocute us, if that’s what you mean. The train makes its own power, the rails are just lumps of metal.’

Indie looked thoughtful for a second, and then hopped

up on to the other rail, holding out her arms like a tightrope walker.

Astrid looked at her phone. It was nearly half past eleven. How long would they have to wait for another train?

Indie wobbled her way back over. ‘I’m thirsty.’

‘Well, drink some water then,’ said Astrid, without looking up from her screen.

‘I don’t have any.’

Astrid looked at her, noticing for the first time.

‘Where’s your bag?’

‘On the train,’ said Indie, pointing round the bend the way their train had disappeared. ‘I left it where we were sitting.’

‘Why didn’t you bring it when you came to look for me?’

Indie scuffed her toe along the metal rail. ‘You said to save our seats.’

‘Fine,’ sighed Astrid, reaching into her own rucksack and pulling out her water bottle. She took a few big gulps and then passed it to Indie. ‘Wash your hands and face a bit too, OK ? You’re covered in dust.’

Astrid fished around in her bag till she found the two chocolate bars. She pulled one out and began peeling off the wrapper.

‘Hey! Where’s mine?’

‘Who says I got you one?’

Indie opened her mouth to kick off, but Astrid threw the other bar at her.

‘Calm down. I’m only kidding.’

Astrid took the bottle back and used the last few drops to clean her own hands.

Indie ate her chocolate bar standing on the track, staring out across the forest. ‘I wish we could see it.’

Astrid followed her gaze. ‘You’re looking right at it.’

‘No, I mean go in and explore.’

‘Well, you can’t. Sit next to me and look from here.’

‘But you said we wouldn’t see any animals from up here,’ whined Indie.

Astrid shuddered at the thought of what might be out there in the Wildlands. She pictured a hungry wolf pack, waiting for hapless passengers to fall from the trains.

She turned her attention back to her phone. ‘You’ll just have to look really, really hard.’