But then, as one, the three men stood and pointed their spears directly at the shell on the monster’s stomach. He couldn’t stop, the force of his legs propelling him directly on to their spiked ends. The men were pushed backwards in that moment, by those terrible, muscular claws. But then they pushed forward together, righting the krik, so that he lowered his claws in readiness for attack again.

But it was enough. In that split second of confusion, in that one moment of attack, the woman with the red hair stood up, directly in front of the krik, taking careful aim with her crossbow. And she shot him straight in the shell slit.

He wobbled, teetering. And then he fell backwards, with a thud we could hear even from the Jellyfish.

Chapter 12

12

For a moment we stood, staring in amazement, but then the Jellyfish gave another one of its little judders, as though to remind us where we were, and a giant cheer broke out from everybody on board.

It was honestly the best, most exciting, most utterly glorious, incredible thing I had ever seen. Kate couldn’t even speak. She was just hugging everybody and sobbing. Even Lana was smiling, and James was off doing high fives with Soldier John and the rugby crew.

The whole thing must have taken less than two minutes. In that time, we had witnessed five humans kill five well-formed kriks with what looked like very little effort on their part. Even now, as we screamed and shouted in amazement, they didn’t even look as though they were celebrating. Two of the men acknowledged us casually with a wave, but the others didn’t even pause as they went to pick up and readjust their weapons. The women still had their gorgeous hair, and they all, even from here, just looked so clean . . . and so fabulous.

‘Get us off!’

‘Get us off!’

‘Help us!’

‘Help!’

As the team of humans started to look as though they were getting ready to move on, the mood turned to desperation. That couldn’t be it, could it? Surely? Surely these people weren’t just going to leave us here, were they?

‘Where are they going?’ said Kate with a sob. ‘Please help us!’ she shouted.

‘Help us!’ shouted Lana. ‘Help!’

‘Help us!’ A chant started up. ‘Help us! Help us!’

There were a few splashes as several people jumped off the Jellyfish and started making for the shore. They only lasted seconds before they got pulled back, of course, but I understood it. ‘What would happen if we all jumped in at the same time?’ I asked. ‘Some of us would probably make it, right?’

‘Wrong,’ said Lana. ‘the Jellyfish would just grab us again. The stupid, bloody, bollocking thing.’ She gave it a kick.