The cheers were subdued as the boat docked; it still felt like it was all a dream, and that we’d wake up huddled on the floor of the Big House, trying desperately to get warm again, our faces sticky with surface jellyfish slime, and facing a breakfast of raw fish. I don’t think anybody wanted to linger here.

‘I’m going to go and get some shoes,’ said Lana. ‘And warm things. Come on, Kate. Meet you back here in a minute.’ She nodded at me and James.

Most of the new arrivals were staring at the floor and stamping up and down as we’d all done, but those who’d slept on the hill with us last night seemed suddenly to be running in and out of the closest houses. From all around us people wearing new clothes and shoes were emerging.

‘We need to get matches,’ I remembered. ‘And a bag to put the petrol in, maybe?’ It was already getting annoying trying to carry three large cans at the same time.

‘Oh, I know where!’ James ran into a house two doors away.

Dr Jones was standing next to me, maybe also reluctant to go into the houses, but also maybe just wanting to leave the shore. Wearing proper clothes now, a blue shirt and a pair of white jeans, she looked just like how I remembered people being from Before. Apart from the orange plastic bag still tying back her hair, she didn’t look like somebody who’d spent ages stranded in the middle of the sea. She looked beautiful, and younger than I’d always thought, but also more normal.

‘Where are we going?’ I asked. ‘Are we going to find those fighter people?’

‘We don’t know where they are. They can’t be far from here – but I think for now we’ll just try and get away from the coast and find somewhere we can fortify.’

‘So we’ll all stay together?’

‘For the time being. I think that would be sensible until we know what we’re doing.’

I hadn’t thought realistically about what it would be like on land, apart from me dancing around and looking like a film star in the sunshine, that is. It would be strange not living in the same room as all of these people, and not being able to see all of them at all times. Privacy was a weird thought – but would all of them want to leave? To separate away from us and maybe live somewhere else? That might not be completely a terrible idea with some people – but it would take some getting used to.