‘No,’ said Kate, ‘I mean I understand why the jellyfish and the kriks are here. If things have changed for them where they used to live because of humans, then they have the right to be angry, and they have the right to come and try to attack us. They also have the right to try and survive. And I suppose surviving, for them, means eating us.’

‘Do you think that’s what the Jellyfish wants?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know if it even knows what it wants. It’s just been disturbed by us – by humans, I mean – in Before. It can’t live where it used to live, because we destroyed wherever that place was, down deep somewhere, so now it’s come up here to try and live instead.’

‘Do you think the human race will die out?’ I said. I didn’t much fancy the idea, to be honest.

‘It might . . . be a good thing for the world if we did,’ said Kate. ‘I don’t think we’ve always taken good care of things.’

‘WHAT? If I flippin’ die out, I’m taking something else with me. Something big.’ Lana raised her voice and narrowed her eyes. ‘And something that’s wobbly and something that’s see-through and crap. Naming no names!’ She stabbed her pen into the Jellyfish’s surface at that point, and gave it a little slice for effect, her hand gripping so forcefully that her knuckles were white.

‘I mean . . .’ I began, but I didn’t know what I meant, actually, so I carried on with something else. ‘Do you think the Jellyfish actually is a jellyfish? Or do you think it’s some sort of sea monster? Do you think Albert’s right?’

James made a spluttering noise, which I think was a laugh.

‘Well, Albert can’t be right, for a start!’ said Lana. ‘Whatever he thinks, I’d go for the opposite.’

‘Well, isn’t it weird that this one never goes beneath the water surface, because that’s where jellyfish normally go, isn’t it?’ I said.

‘Are you asking us because you think we’re jellyfish experts?’ said James. ‘Because I don’t know anything about jellyfish. I’ve got a life, you know?’ He looked off into the distance, and shook his hair back like it wasn’t manky or salt-encrusted. We all smiled at the idea that any of us might have an individual, interesting life. ‘But yeah, I think this probably isn’t a jellyfish,’ he said. ‘It’s probably one of those creatures that were on the news, Before. It might not be a normal one, though, because I think I remember them being even larger than this when you saw them on television. I remember one in America, I think, and they had a drone flying above it taking the pictures, and it was the size of an island. This one is only the size of . . . a rugby pitch.’