So Mak shows us around the annex and it is even cooler than I thought it would be. The Lookout is eighty per cent glass-walled, so it’s almost like sitting in the actual woods. There’s a ladder-like staircase at the back that leads up to a platform where you can walk all the way around the circle and see out across the forest and fields. The floor of the circle is wooden, but 186 with a circular rug in the middle where the sofa, table, TV and chairs are. Opposite the ladder to the platform, there is a doorway that leads into the Tail, which is a long, narrow rectangle. As we walk through the opening, I see we’re in a kitchen area, with all the normal kitchen stuff running along the wall on our left. About a third of the way down the Tail, the corridor narrows and there are doors going off either side. On the left there’s a toilet and shower room, and on the right there’s a bedroom, which has an unmade bed, and dirty clothes all over the floor. Mak goes red and stuffs something under the duvet.

‘Sorry, wasn’t expecting anyone to visit.’

At the end of the corridor is another door, leading to an impressive storage room. I’ve never really thought of storage rooms in this way before, but here we are, and things change. It has deep freezers, shelves and shelves of canned foods, matches, toothpaste, sleeping bags and a bunch of stuff I don’t recognise. There are metres of ropes looped on the walls like cowboys’ lassos, with tools and what look like grappling hooks all hanging neatly from racks. 187

‘Woah,’ Karim says. ‘I know where I’m coming when the zombies arrive.’

‘This isn’t even the best part,’ Mak smiles. ‘You should see downstairs.’

‘There’s a downstairs?’ Kat says.

‘The bunker,’ Mak says. ‘Built to withstand multiple end-of-the-world scenarios.’

And I am dying to see it, but we need to get Mak up to speed, so we head back to the Lookout while Karim prepares the snacks.

Mak becomes more like his old self as we fill him in on everything that’s happened. We used to do this all the time – chat together for hours. If Ade wasn’t sitting on her own, throwing everyone evils, it would almost be like old times. I wish I knew the way to make things right between her and Kat, cos I feel like if they made up, she’d be OK with the rest of us, too. Mak glances over at Ade every now and then, and then immediately looks away. Kat helps me tell the story, adding bits when I forget them, and Chets sits in silence, listening.

When we’ve finished, and Karim has brought in a proper, top picnic, Mak says, ‘So what’s the plan?’

16

Unravelling