‘I want to make it stop,’ said Lana. She was pale again, and was wincing every time there came another call. I felt it too. The noises were like the threat of our deaths. They were like the sound of killing and maiming and pain. Each call pumped another jolt of fear into my veins.

‘But if we stay here, the others’ll probably send help,’ said James. ‘We just need to sit quietly and then the others’ll come and save us.’

‘What if they don’t?’ said Lana.

‘Then we’ll be more rested than the kriks, because they’ve been walking round loads,’ he said. He didn’t look at us as he said it though. He looked at the scratches on the beds. I don’t think any of us felt like we were resting, crouching there tense and ready.

There was a sudden crash round the back of the house. Lana gave a little whimper. Her lips were turned down now, in a parody of crying. ‘What can we do?’ she said. ‘We’ve got the fork. Shall I get the curtain poles?’

‘No!’ said Kate. ‘Then they’ll know we’re here.’

I started to laugh. I couldn’t help myself. It was just so ridiculous. And then James started to laugh too. Even Kate’s mouth twitched, as she looked at us with her shocked, scared face. ‘OK. I know they know we’re here,’ she said. ‘But if we go and stand at the window, it’ll make it really obvious and it’ll make them go mad.’

‘We just have to survive and keep quiet, and sit here for another four hours,’ said James. ‘Then I reckon it’ll be fine.’

‘What?’ Lana looked at him, angrily. ‘Don’t friggin’ make up obvious lies. Why are you even saying that? You literally have no way of knowing that we’ll be fine. Probably nobody’s going to bother rescuing us, are they? Those fighter people ran off and left us before, and now everybody else has left us too. They’re not coming. Four hours? Bollocks.’

‘Not everybody got away though, did they? Others are out here too, aren’t they? They’ll come and rescue us.’

‘No, they won’t. They’ll be running. Or hiding . . . or dead.’

‘Let’s just sit here for a while, though. The kriks don’t know for definite we’re here. They might go away.’

I took a deep breath, holding it in my cheeks and then blowing it out slowly. Something was still dragging round the house, sometimes bumping against things, and sometimes stopping. But mainly, just circling round and round and round. What was it doing when it went quiet?

‘What’s that up there?’ said Kate, pointing upwards. There was a rectangle of ceiling that was wooden and indented. ‘Is it . . . ?’

‘I don’t know,’ said James. ‘Shall I lift you up?’

‘It’s . . . a loft,’ said Lana. ‘An attic.’