A few of the people who’d just arrived looked at each other then, and I thought maybe they did think we could leave them there. I don’t think anybody fancied going to get them.

Soldier John threw the rope to Dr Jones.

‘Tie it up,’ he said, climbing down into the water. ‘I’ll never make it through those tentacles right now. We need to plan this.’

‘Has anybody got any suggestions?’ said Stinky.

‘We could push a yacht out to them,’ said James. ‘Like those other people did to us. A yacht with the containers and bottles already on it though. And we could be in another boat too, further out, not on shore, so that they might actually get the yacht today.’

‘Fine,’ said Soldier John. ‘But nothing is getting past those tentacles without being smashed at the moment.’

The sea around the Jellyfish was a ring of white foaming spray from the seething and swirling limbs. From here we couldn’t feel that exuding menace it seemed to pulse with when it was angry, but we could still see the power of the creature. It was still easy to imagine the terror of the people on board.

‘Are we safe here?’ I asked. For a minute there was no reply, which showed me that the answer was no. ‘I mean, not from the kriks. I know we’re not safe from them on land. I mean from the Jellyfish. If it could get us when we were on a boat, could it not come on land and get us too? Maybe tonight?’

There was no answer again.

‘I want to go into that white house tonight,’ said Kate quietly. ‘Because it’s still got its windows, and its doors. I think it must be a lucky house.’

Kate’s white house was right underneath the cliff. It did still look nearly perfect. The paint seemed fresher than on the other houses, and the glass in the windows made it seem less obviously abandoned. Its garden gate was still neatly shut, like its owners might return at any time.

Dr Jones cleared her throat. ‘I don’t know if the Jellyfish can come out of the sea or not, but I know we haven’t seen it leave the sea while we’ve been on board. I think that means it won’t come and get us tonight.’

I could see that my question had unsettled everybody. The thing was, the Jellyfish did look like it was going to do something very soon. It definitely looked angry and powerful.

‘Maybe we could go far away from the sea?’ said Kate. ‘Then I think the Jellyfish definitely couldn’t get us.’

‘We don’t have time,’ said James. ‘The sun will have set by the time we could get much further inland, and we don’t know what it’s like out there.’

‘We could go to the top of the cliffs and sleep there?’ I said.