By sunrise she was ravenous again and now she had no food. Em sat staring for a while at the metallic wrapper that had once contained the bar of chocolate. The rainstorm had blown off during the night. Steam was rising from the ferns beyond the cave. She understood that she was probably going to die out there in the forest. She zipped her gear into her backpack. She tied up her hair. She laced on her boots. She crawled out from under the ledge.
Strapping her backpack to her shoulders, she glanced back at the cave.
Now that there was daylight she could see that the cave was much deeper than she’d first imagined.
She stood staring into the darkness in the depths of the cave for a moment, wondering what lay within, and then she kept walking.