Chets freezes, stuck in the wall, and now in a 263 glitch. Hopefully he can’t communicate with the hive mind. The microwave glitch doesn’t extend to the sporelings outside, who are curling their fingers under the rising shutters, trying to get them up more quickly. Karim and I stand close to the glass, as the shutters move upwards, making us visible to the swarm outside, and revealing the horror surrounding us. In ten seconds, we’re looking out at the horde of wasp people, who all seem desperate to get to us and do god knows what. It’s horrible. At Crater Lake the sporelings all had the weird eyes, which I’d been looking for on Mum but didn’t spot. Now that it’s dark, I see they all have glowing yellow rings around their pupils. It’s a clever adaptation – makes them undetectable during the day but gives them the night vision when they need it. Then I see Mum snarling, her mandibles out, and I look away, focussing on the others. If we get through this, I’ll have to sit across the table from her and I don’t want to be picturing pincers.

‘Look, there’s Shrina from tutor group,’ Karim says, giving her a little wave. She snaps her pincers at him. ‘I’m taking that as a wave back.’

I gaze around at a sea of familiar faces, now all 264 distorted with lips peeled back and mandibles snapping. The guy with the long hair who works in the game shop is in there. I bought a new controller from him last weekend. The Business Studies teacher from Latham, whose name I can’t remember, is trying to pry open the door. A kid I recognise from Montmorency Primary, maybe three years below us, is trying to smash the glass wall. I think his name is Henry. There’s also Mrs McAllister, one of our neighbours, hanging upside down from the roof, hitting the window with a bit of pipe. She’s like the oldest person I’ve ever seen, and it looks a whole world of wrong. Mak and Kat join us at the glass.

‘Woah,’ Kat says. ‘This is like a nightmare.’

‘Yeah.’ I watch the bugs all clamouring to get into the Lookout, clambering over each other and up the walls, and if this is the way the world ends, it’s genuinely horrific. If we survive this, I know I’ll be replaying this scene in my mind for the rest of my life. I feel a wave of tiredness pulling me down, making me want to curl up on the floor and close my eyes. Then I look across at my friends and see that they’re all struggling, too.

‘Did Ade make it out?’ I say.

265 ‘Off like a rocket,’ Mak smiles.