And even as we stood there remembering, beneath us there were new, darker shapes in the jelly. Deep down, so that you couldn’t be sure, and so that you couldn’t clearly see. But if you walked back, and then forth again, and squinted, and let your eyes refocus, then there were what could have been limbs. And what could have been heads, and empty, lifeless faces.

Chapter 19

19

James stood throwing the rugby ball up and down, and up and down, in the space between the Big House and our cooking fire. Around him, those people who weren’t inside dejectedly trying to sleep, were sitting down, dejectedly trying to get through another day. He’d been throwing the ball for several minutes now, and every time he missed and it dropped on the mesoglea, a few people jumped. The padding of that bouncing plastic was the only noise other than the wind against the water and the gently splashing tentacles.

James’s face was still pale and his lips were squeezed tightly together in a thin line beneath his beard. He had been staring straight ahead towards the opposite side of the Jellyfish, but then he suddenly seemed to come out of his daydream, and turned towards the people clustered around the Big House. I saw him give a weak smile to himself.

‘Whoop whoop!’ he shouted, the sudden noise making a few people jump again. ‘It’s time for Jellyfish Rugby!

‘Come on. It’s time for a game! he shouted again. ‘Jellyfish Rugby!’

‘It’s time for nothing. It’s time to smash in your ugly tentacle face,’ said Lana. A few people hunched over even more.

‘Harsh, Lana,’ he said. ‘But fine, you can be on the other team, if you want.’

‘Bog off. I’m not going to be on any flippin’ Jellyfish Rugby team. I’m not doing anything that involves . . . doing anything.’ She gave a grimace to make it absolutely clear how disgusted she was at the prospect.

‘Well what do you plan to do today, then?’ he said.

‘I want to have a sulk, I want to sit here quietly, and I want to avoid dying for a little bit longer, thanks.’

‘Wise move,’ said James. ‘But I think the best thing to do to avoid dying is to behave in the way we normally do. Until yesterday, nobody had died. Yesterday was when we did something different. So I also don’t want to die. So I’m going to play rugby. Now, who’s in? Anybody who doesn’t want to die can be on my team.’

He stood there grinning, looking deliberately smug and annoying. Nobody else smiled exactly, but a few people looked like they were starting to shift out of their misery.

‘Those who fear death come to my team. Those who don’t, well . . . you can sit around and we’ll throw the ball at your heads.’