A violent slap brings me back to consciousness; I force my eyes to focus on the mangled features in front of me. What was once a face is now an acid burned malformation with pits for eyes and crude slits for nostrils. There are no lips and the mouth contains no teeth or tongue, it is just a jagged hole which emits a heavy rasp with each breath.

He gesticulates with a stump of an arm, he motions for me to move then drags me up with his other, well muscled but mutated arm then pushes me forward. I stumble over bracken and protruding roots, reliant on him to guide me.

He pushes me again and points to a gap in the trees through which a corner of navy tarpaulin is just visible. At that he turns and flees back into the freezing fog and I make my way to the tent to find my family sleeping peacefully, unaware that I had been absent.