‘So what are the kriks going to start doing? Are they going to start eating each other? What do you think they’re living off?’

I hadn’t thought about it. I didn’t really want to start thinking about it now, even.

‘Those animals up on the hills?’ said James. ‘There are loads of those still left.’

‘Yes, there are,’ said Lana, ‘but those animals are really fast and really hairy, and we’ve not seen kriks eating them before, have we? Maybe that’s because they can’t catch them, or maybe it’s because they don’t eat them.

‘And the thing is, crabs don’t live very long, do they?’

‘Don’t know,’ I said.

‘I don’t think they do. So are the kriks about to start dying?’

‘That’d be nice. But I don’t think so,’ said James. ‘There’re still a lot of them and they probably breed or something. Plus they’re not actually crabs, are they?’

‘Yes, well, our options are that either they’re about to start running out of food and dying, or we’re being kept here to feed them when food supplies run low, so we’re about to start dying.

‘I think things are about to change. They’re about to change soon. I don’t know how they’re going to change, but I want to be one of the ones to survive.’

We all stared out at the shore. The lumpy bodies of the dead kriks looked smaller than they had when they were alive – maybe because they were all hunched over now, or because of blood loss or something. They didn’t exactly look less evil or anything – but they did look sad and not at all like the scary monsters they had been. Over each of them there was already a squabbling cover of seagulls picking at the flesh beneath. They’d pull and peck, then turn their necks upwards to chew and call noisily. Every so often, for no obvious reason, all the gulls on one of the kriks would rise upwards and fly round shouting, before swooping back down again to pull at that dead flesh once more.

Up at the top of the cliffs, six black figures emerged from behind the houses. At a steady jog they ran up the road away from us. We watched them until they were out of sight.

Chapter 14

14

‘What shall we do?’ I asked.

We were sitting outside the Big House, and a few people were still inside pretending to sleep so that they didn’t have to face the day. I don’t really know why I asked, because there was nothing anybody could have suggested that I’d have wanted to do. I definitely didn’t ask out of politeness either, because being polite to others had not been a priority that morning. There had been serious amounts of rudeness and grumpiness from pretty much everybody.

‘Bog off,’ said Lana.