The creature pressed a gadget on its belt and lunged for him. Ryan brought up the bat to defend himself, tripped over the robot’s corpse and fell hard against the wall – as the door to the holding area slid closed. The Ratt used its tail to break the bottle on the wall and swiped at him with the lethal glass edge. Ryan parried the blow with the bat, smashing the remaining glass to smithereens and causing the Ratt to howl with pain.

At the sound of its distress, more Ratts came running, their huge, hairy bodies filling the corridors.

I don’t stand a chance! Ryan thought.

As the first Ratt closed to attack again, Ryan desperately pushed the end of the bat into the gadget on its belt. There was a flash of white sparks and the Ratt was thrown across the corridor, striking the wall with a colossal boom – as the door to the holding area slid back open.

The other Ratts had quickened their scurrying step and were almost on Ryan now. ‘Little help?’ he yelled.

Chantelle came tearing out through the door along with a big guy, who picked up the still-smoking robot and hurled it at the oncoming Ratts. It struck the two in front hard and they went down, sending the two behind them sprawling. Chantelle jumped on one and pulled a kind of glass and metal spike from its belt. She pressed it to the Ratt’s head and its features contorted in pain as blue sparks arced from the tip.

‘That’s for Kim!’ she hissed into its twitching ear.

Another handful of people came out from inside, all wearing the same weird suits that seemed tailored from blackcurrant squash pouches. Ryan winced to see them start going to town on the Ratts, taking their weapons and taking revenge. After all they’d been through, he supposed he couldn’t blame them, even as he turned away.

As Chantelle stood up he took hold of her arm. ‘Can’t believe I’ve found you,’ he said.

‘Can’t believe it took you so long,’ said Chantelle, and she kissed him on the lips before breaking off and sniffing his skin. ‘You smell like a stables.’

‘Don’t even go there.’

‘Where did you get that bat? It’s Ace’s!’

Ryan shrugged. ‘Found it lying in the desert. There were signs of a struggle, I should’ve known …’ He eyed the prone body of the Ratt. ‘You said that was for Kim. What happened to him?’

‘He was … taken.’ Chantelle’s face clouded. ‘You won’t believe the stuff we’ve been put through.’ She looked at her fingertips and shuddered. ‘Come on,’ she said, stepping over the fallen Ratts and squeezing past the purple alien, ‘we’ve got to get out of here.’