Up on the cliff, the blue-haired woman was scanning the town with her binoculars. She moved her arms from side to side in a deliberate signal. On the ground, the team quickly conferred, and then one of the men replied with the same motion.

‘What are they doing, do you think?’

‘Not rescuing us, that’s what I think,’ said Lana, turning away. ‘It’s fine. I didn’t want to live in the stupid world anyway. I’d much rather live on top of this crappy blob in the middle of the ocean. That’s much better, thanks.’

Kate gave another sob, but it was proper crying this time, not happy crying. Her shoulders were shaking with the emotion. I’d never heard her sound so sad. I didn’t feel like I had the energy to give her a hug. I know that might sound mean, but I knew if I did, despair would just leak into me and make me feel sad too. And right now, that wasn’t what I was feeling. I’m not sure what I was feeling, but it might have been hope. Hope? That wasn’t something I was very familiar with anyway. The thing is, seeing those fighters had shown us that defeating death – and defeating it easily – was possible. Other people were doing it, so couldn’t we? I know it might seem weird that being abandoned to our cruel fate by some kick-ass fighters might be a moment when I felt like things were going to improve but, well . . . it was.

Lana stormed off, muttering loudly to herself and still kicking at the mesoglea.

‘Where do you think they came from?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know,’ said James. ‘It can’t be that far, because they didn’t come in a vehicle.’

‘But then why have we never seen them before?’ I asked.

‘Because they’re staying away from the sea? I’d want to stay away from the sea too, if I was on land.’

Behind us came the wet, flopping sound of the day’s fish starting to arrive. I could hear Lana cursing it, and shouting at the tentacles delivering it. A few people wandered off to scoop it up and get it ready for eating. But most stayed, still quietly watching the shore.

‘I don’t get it, though,’ I said. ‘Did they know we were here? Because they don’t seem very surprised to see us.’

‘No. To be fair, though, they have been busy, what with the killer kriks and all.’

‘I s’pose so,’ I said. I didn’t want to spread my hope to anybody else in case it was false. But it just looked like the team of fighters would have a plan. They looked like everything they did had a plan.

‘Where do you think they live, then?’ I asked.