None of us moved. I could see Pitiful Pete’s dark shape sliding through the water. First one metre, then five, his arms scooping small trails of bubbles in the water behind him. He’d never got this far before.

There was a kerfuffle over by the fire again, and somebody started to sing.

‘Attention, attention!’ Soldier John was shouting about something, probably trying to organize unwilling slackers into groups to gut the fish. There were the usual groans of complaint and more laughter. But at our end, we hadn’t moved. We’d barely breathed.

Pete was still going. As he broke the surface he turned in confusion.

‘Go,’ I whispered, urging him on.

‘Quick, quick!’ hissed James, gesturing to him.

Kate covered her eyes.

Pete turned back again and started towards the coast. He was doing front crawl, his arms sleek and powerful like two diving seals. He was trying to go as fast as possible, but it’s tricky to do that when you’re also trying to avoid disturbing the water.

‘He’s past the tentacles, isn’t he?’ Lana whispered.

I’d been holding my breath. There’s still the longer ones underneath, I mouthed back.

He was edging onwards, another metre, then another. He was into the open sea now, the waves higher and breaking against him, pushing him forwards. Nobody had ever got this far.

‘You can do it, Pete,’ I whispered. ‘Come on!’ I dug my fingernails into my palms to stop myself from shouting. But then it came, the same as always. A sudden, swift slither through the waves, the dark buzz of the powerful tentacle cutting through the air, and then the thudding splash as it hit the water and scooped Pete out. He landed back on the surface next to us with a dull squelch, dripping and quivering.

‘Did you see?’ said Lana. She was so excited her hands were shaking. ‘He almost did it.’

‘Oh, bad luck, Pete,’ shouted Soldier John. ‘Are you still stuck here?’

‘Yes, of course he is,’ said Lana. ‘But he almost friggin’ escaped.’

And that was the start. That was when we started to believe we could do it. That maybe . . . we could escape.

Chapter 2

2

The biggest problem with being trapped on a killer jellyfish isn’t what you’d expect.

Once you get over your fear of death (basically because you start looking forward to it), and the smell of rotting fish stops making you gag, it isn’t too bad, really. Boredom is an issue, yes. It’s not the main one, though. The main problem is the other people trapped with you.