There were murmurs of agreement from the rest of the room. The murmurs were also loud. Most people had moved so that they had their backs to the door, but even still, you could see them quickly stealing a glance now and again.

James gave a snigger next to me. Kate had covered her mouth with her hand and was looking determinedly ahead.

‘I think we should spend at least a couple of hours practising the attack moves that we saw being used on the shore.’ Loud murmurs of approval again. ‘We’ll repair the rope and make a raft out of the remaining pieces of the boat.’

‘Yes, yes . . .’ People were also talking deliberately quickly to avoid hearing the grunts.

‘And then at least we’ll be doing something useful, rather than some people I could mention,’ said Dr Jones. She made her voice go really loud on the ‘some people’ bit.

There were a lot of tuts and the vigorous nodding of heads.

‘It’s the breakdown of society, that’s what it is,’ she said. ‘Everything’s going bad.’

‘Yes. If everybody can just focus, though,’ said Soldier John. He still looked tired, and in the firelight he looked thinner, and less powerful than I remembered. Probably because he was now missing his plastic-bag coat.

‘I don’t get it,’ whispered Lana. ‘How did they decide to do it? How do you talk about that?’

‘You just ask the person you fancy, I guess,’ I whispered back.

‘No, I mean, how do you go from not being couply and kissing and stuff, to just suddenly having sex in the open? I feel like they’ve missed out some stages. Did any of you notice anybody kissing or being couply today?’

We shook our heads. It was a proper mystery. There were a few sort-of couples on board, but they didn’t go round humping each other and grunting instead of coming to the evening meetings. I’d never noticed them doing anything except being extra nice to each other.

‘Listen to what fun they’re having, Martha,’ whispered James. He gave me a grin.

‘Uggh,’ I said.

He laughed. ‘They sound like two cows mooing. And what about all that hair? Do you think they’re accidently getting each other’s hair clumps caught in their mouths?’

‘James!’

‘Mwh, mwh, mwh.’ He pretended to kiss his hand and then lolled his tongue around.

‘James!’ I said again. Kate and Lana were laughing hysterically, so much so that Kate was struggling to breathe.

‘And maybe bits of beard are getting stuck in their teeth. Dirty beard hairs, with old fish scales attached. Yum. Salty. Just imagine, Martha, their hands creeping up underneath their rags . . .’

‘Uggggh, stop!’ I said.

James was laughing now as well. ‘And his tentacle . . . in the muscle ring . . .’ He wiped a tear of laughter away.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Please, no! I feel sick.’