“Get up, our Nicky,” Kenny yelled at me, and ruined a perfectly good dream I was having. Tina, who always slept with her bum in Kenny’s face, picked up on the excitement and started barking and yapping.

Tina had a body the colour of a dirty hanky, and a brown face. She wasn’t a genius, but she was loyal, and she’d have died for Kenny. We got her after she’d been left for dead by some bad lads. They’d been using her to hunt badgers. I suppose we’d saved Tina’s life, and she thought she owed us.

“You feed Tina, then make the sandwiches,” I told Kenny, “while I get the kit sorted.”

“What sandwiches shall I do?” Kenny asked.

“Jam of course,” I said, thinking of my dad and granddad back in the olden days. “And cheese. Do cheese as well.”

I crammed some gloves and a scarf and an extra jumper and a bobble hat in my Adidas school bag, because I knew Kenny would have gone out without them. The scarf and the hat were in the Leeds United colours – white with yellow and blue stripes. I had the printed‑out map and my phone was charged up. And I packed my good penknife in case we had to do some emergency stick‑whittling or fight off zombies.

And I took a lighter as well, cramming it in my inside pocket. Just a cheap plastic one. I couldn’t remember where it had come from. My dad didn’t smoke. Sometimes I wondered if it had belonged to my mum. That’s why I kept it, even though it had probably just been left behind by one of my dad’s mates back when Dad was drinking all the time.

Two

Two

The first bus left our town just before 8 a.m. That’s the one we were meant to be on. We missed it. The next bus was at 9. We missed that one, too. We got to the stop in plenty of time, but then at the last minute Kenny remembered that he had to bring some treats for Tina. He ran back to the house and didn’t get back before the bus went. So we got the 10 a.m. bus. While we were waiting, I had time to go to the Spar and get a giant bottle of no‑name cola and some biscuits – chocolate digestives, Kenny’s favourites.

“We’ll have to march double quick when we’re on the moors,” I said to Kenny. “Or we’ll be stuck out there when it gets dark.”