‘There’s loads of houses down here,’ said Lana. ‘With beds.’

‘Yes, but there’s no way the Jellyfish could get us if we’re up on the cliff. The tentacles couldn’t reach.’

‘But kriks could.’

‘There’re loads of sheep on the top of the cliffs,’ I said. ‘Any kriks will get the sheep first, not us.’

‘But there aren’t any beds up there.’

‘There might be.’

‘There’s definitely beds down here.’

Lana narrowed her eyes at me and put her hands on her hips. Most of the other jellyfish people were standing, looking at the town in awe, or feeling the strangeness of their feet on the hard ground. A few others were staring anxiously at the Jellyfish. Soldier John and Dr Jones clambered noisily over the rocks towards us, their feet crunching on the shells and stones embedded in the seaweed.

‘You just don’t want to stay down here,’ said Lana. ‘You’re scared of going into those houses.’

‘Yeah, well, do you know what?’ I said, ‘We’ve spent the past few years watching kriks crawling in and out of those houses, looking for humans to kill. We’ve just annoyed the flippin’ Jellyfish or kraken or sea monster or whatever it is we’ve been living on, and I’m worried it might come on shore and kill us. So, yeah, I don’t want to sleep in one of those houses.’

‘You are such a friggin’ drama queen.’

‘You basically just want some nice clothes and some hair dye.’

‘Yeah, I do.’ She continued staring at me angrily.

‘I don’t know if you’ve won that argument, Lana,’ said James.

Lana shrugged. ‘If I can have a pillow, some blankets, some nice clothes and a book, then I’ll sleep on top of the stupid cliffs.’ She scowled in James’s direction too.

‘And some food,’ added Kate.

‘And some food,’ agreed Lana.

Already the remaining chunks of glass in the windows nearest us were glinting redly in the setting sun. We wouldn’t have long to get up there on to the cliffs, and we wouldn’t have long to get in and out of the houses before they became dark and full of corners where mysterious, dangerous things could hide.

‘We’re going up on the cliffs tonight to sleep,’ I said loudly to everybody. ‘We can make a plan up there for how we’re going to rescue the others.’

Soldier John looked at me strangely as I spoke, but he didn’t try to stop me from taking charge. So I continued: ‘Everybody get some knives. And other things you could use as weapons. And get some clothes and food, then meet back here in five minutes.’