‘I’m going to give it a go anyway,’ said Lana, grabbing the knife from her. ‘But I’m going to try it on you first. OK?’ She reached out for Kate’s hair without waiting for a reply. ‘Sit down.’

‘Oh . . . OK,’ said Kate, kneeling down on the mesoglea.

Lana grabbed one of Kate’s matted clumps of hair and started sawing and sawing on those strands near Kate’s scalp that were still loose. First one strand and then the others were released, until Kate was left wincing, and with one short fuzzy patch near her forehead. Lana held up a stiff lock in triumph. ‘Look! Now you do me. All of my hair.’

‘But you said . . . ?’

‘Just do it, Kate. Stand up and stop whinging.’

They swapped places, with Kate taking the knife.

‘This is going to be amazing,’ I said to James. ‘I mean, it’s going to take a while, but it’ll be great to sleep without the lumpy bits in my hair. It’ll maybe be cold in the winter, though.’

‘We need to be gone before the winter,’ said James. ‘You know that.’

I shrugged again in reply, but I didn’t look at him. It was still best not to talk about it. It gave me a sore, tight feeling in my throat every time I thought about what was going to . . . you know . . . happen . . .

‘Do you think you could try my beard?’ he said. ‘I imagine I’ll be really good looking with sexy stubble, right?’ He stroked the wispy strands on his face. They did make him look older, like one of the men. But they also hid what he really looked like, and it would be nice to see his face again.

‘Aren’t you worried I might miss, and accidently slice part of your cheek off?’ I said.

‘If you do, it’ll make me look wizened and dangerous, like a pirate. People will call me Scarface, and I’ll start rumours about the battles that I’ve been in. It’s a win-win situation.’

‘Come on, Fuzzyface,’ I said. ‘Those two are definitely going to start bickering, so let’s go help with the raft.’ Already Lana was muttering something to herself, and Kate had a hard-done-by expression on her face that was ominous. ‘Their fighting might be more interesting now they’ve got a knife,’ said James, but he was already edging away from them, so I knew he couldn’t be bothered either.

‘Shall we strap the corpses on to the sides, or underneath?’

This was a design feature of a raft which hadn’t been considered before.