4

Briony
And what we found on the top balcony was nobody.

We knocked on Mr Botherit’s door, and no answer. For a moment, we wondered if Try and Bindy had just slipped away, but Emily was hysterical, insisting we get in.

She ran to the administration office, found a key for Mr Botherit’s door, and we got in.

Bindy was on the floor.

The window had been smashed, and cold wind was blasting in.

Her skin was yellow. She wasn’t breathing.

We phoned an ambulance.

Now we are at the hospital.

Bindy has been poisoned with arsine gas.

It looks like she collapsed, then regained consciousness for long enough to smash the window, but then she collapsed again.

Smashing the window may have helped reduce the severity of the poisoning.

But now she’s gone into heart and kidney failure.

In severe cases like this, a doctor just said, survival is not expected.

It is difficult typing this. I can see Bindy’s parents across from us.