Hands are round her throat and she can't breathe, but, after the initial wide eyed panic, she doesn't struggle. She deserves this; Katie seems to think so too. She lets her choke her until she goes limp and her eyes roll back, then Katie lets go and bolts back to the others to feed Freddie a lie about an encounter with the poachers to excuse her pale face and shaking hands. He wraps his arms around her, murmurs "I'll look after you" like he knows he's supposed to, says it over and over until she finally falls asleep.
He is the type of boy who does things because he thinks he is supposed to. He fell in love with the beautiful Effy Stonem because he thought he was supposed to [who hasn't?], then attempted to trick himself into liking Katie Fitch because that was easier [she seemed to like him, while Effy seemed impossible] and he thought he was supposed to. A kiss from him, even accompanied with a laconic confession, means very little; he's seen it done before, thinks it's the way to win the girl's heart. A cake from Cook, however, holds far more significance; he does not love like this, or at least he hasn't before [JJ and Freddie aside]. Loving Katie, even if he doesn't really, is a lot simpler than loving Effy, even if he's no less miserable; at least he's getting regular sex.
Effy, meanwhile, left behind somewhere in the forest, has regained consciousness, curled on her side coughing and gasping. Her eyes are worryingly empty, her fingers clenching and twitching helplessly. She sits up slowly, using a tree trunk to pull herself up, then presses her back against it, hunching forward and trying to breathe deeply. With no idea of how much time has passed or which direction camp is in [and in no fit state to make it back there right now anyway] she picks forest debris out of her hair and waits for the sun to come up. She isn't scared or lonely; Effy is always alone and she isn't scared of anything, except love. She knows they can't leave without her. It's her car, though that probably wouldn't stop them, but she has the keys in her pocket and Cook's not there so they can't hotwire it [maybe that's the sort of knowledge JJ keeps stored away in case he needs it; the amount of general trivia he knows is surprising, but more remarkable is how often it seems to come in handy].
Later, her phone rings and rings and she doesn't answer it. She sees asking for help as a last resort. She wanders the forest until her feet bleed, staring increasingly helplessly at her surroundings. She manages to regain her bearings. They have everything packed away and they're waiting for her.
Freddie scowls at her, stalks over, Katie trailing him and unable to look at her. "Where the hell have you been? We've been calling you for hours!" He's mad to hide the fact that he was scared, or maybe he's resentful that he's got Katie tying him down and keeping him from rescuing her, projecting his anger at her because that's easier than dealing with the actual problem. Typical Freddie. Typical male.
She shrugs one shoulder, shakes the keys at him.
"Everyone ready?" Naomi asks, picking up a cool box with the hand that isn't holding Emily's.
"No thanks to her." Katie grumbles, managing to insult her without turning in her direction. She seems ashamed of what she's done, slightly afraid of Effy; it reminds her of Macbeth, she thinks, where the hero feels so guilty about what he's done to his friend that he starts seeing his ghost and losing his mind. It'd be nice to have that sort of impact on Katie, that sort of power.
"Thomas left." Pandora says sadly, curled in on herself in the passenger seat. "I messed everything up. I don't think I'll do surf and turf again. It just ruins things, doesn't it Eff?"
Effy turns the volume up on the radio, doesn't say a word the whole journey back. Her throat is sore; her voice will come out hoarse and huskier than usual; she doesn't think that anyone would notice, apart from maybe Katie and her guilty conscience [she doesn't doubt the girl's done cruel things before, but attempting to strangle someone is a whole new level; there's no way she can ignore that]. She likes not speaking. She did it for years before these people came into her life, before her brother almost died. She is mysterious and will never be understood, whether she uses words or not.