By the time I’d got used to the strangeness of walking on cement and brick instead of mesoglea, I was on the pavement and the others were all standing there in front of me staring at the ground.

‘Have . . . we . . . ?’ I said.

‘Yes!’ said Kate. ‘We’ve done it. We’ve really done it!’

Chapter 27

27

For a second the four of us stood, looking at each other, and the ground, and the big world, and where the sea finished – finished! And then we ended up in a giant hug, jumping on the strange, hard floor.

‘We’re here! We’re here!’

I think we’d have carried on jumping and hugging for longer, but James is tall and Lana is short, so we were all jumping at different heights and speeds, and Lana almost jumped into my chin and bashed me. Then we just spent a couple of minutes hugging and laughing breathlessly. One of us would manage to stop laughing, but then that was funny, so we’d be laughing at each other not laughing.

‘What shall we do first?’ said Lana, pulling away, but still with a giant smile on her face.

‘That white house by the cliff,’ said Kate. ‘I want to go and see what’s in there.’

‘I want to get some gorgeous clothes,’ said Lana. ‘And have a bath. Oh, no! Guys! We have to find hair dye like those women.’ She looked around at the empty street in front of us, a panicked expression on her face. ‘I can’t remember what hair dye even looks like. Where would I find some?’

‘I’d like a mirror. And some scissors,’ said James, raising his eyebrows at me. ‘To finish cutting my hair. Since somebody else didn’t finish it.’

‘A mirror!’ said Lana, with a sigh. I wasn’t sure I wanted one that badly. Like I said, I’m not always a fan of reality and I wanted to keep on picturing myself with that long, flowing blonde princess hair for a bit longer – and not the scraggy, uneven spikes I probably had instead.

‘Food,’ said Kate.

‘Food!’ we all shouted at the same time. This was going to be amazing.

‘Children!’ called Soldier John. ‘You need to start by waving at your friends . . .’

We turned, guiltily, and looked back towards the Jellyfish. As we raised our hands to wave, there was a distant cheer from the people on board, who were further away and smaller now than I had realized.

‘. . . and then you need to find as many containers that could carry water as possible. You need to bring ’em ’ere, in a bag, and be ready to give ’em to me when I get back with the next load of people.’

‘We’ve done all of the closest houses,’ said Stinky. ‘You’ll need to try the streets behind this one.’

‘If you see any movements from the ’ouses, then run back here quickly,’ added John.