She saw Blue talking quietly to Jester by the remains of the fire. She stood up and went over to them, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Hi.”

“Morning,” said Jester. “Did you sleep?”

“Think so,” said Maxie.

“Good. Today should be a lot easier.”

“We need to sort ourselves out,” said Maxie, looking around at the kids sprawled everywhere. In the chaos of the previous evening they had arrived at the enclosure in an unruly rabble. Maxie had no idea how many kids had made it.

“Whitney’s taking our attendance,” said Blue.

“I’ll find Josh,” said Maxie. “I expect he’s already done ours. He’s always first up.”

“Maxie . . .”

Maxie looked at Blue. He was trying to tell her something. But she was too tired and dazed to be able to work it out. Her brain wasn’t really awake yet.

“What?”

“Josh never made it.”

“What do you mean?”

“He was helping some little kids when four of them things, them apes, got him cornered. He went down fighting. He was a brave kid. Nothing scared him.”

“No,” said Maxie, shaking her head. “You’re wrong. He’s here somewhere. I know he is.”

“Sorry. He wasn’t the only one.”

Maxie knew it was true. She slumped to the ground.

“And when exactly were you going to tell me?” she said.

“What you saying? I just did tell you.”

“You didn’t think to tell me last night?”

“Hey, cool it, girl,” said Blue. “I was gonna tell you when the time was right.”

“And when was that going to be?”

Blue looked exasperated. He rolled his eyes, then turned to Maxie with a sadder, more gentle look.

“You was tired last night, Maxie,” he said. “I could see you was cut up over Arran and Joel. You was on your last legs. I thought it might break you if I told you about Josh right then. We lost some people as well. Okay? I liked Joel. He was a sweet kid. And there were two others from my crew. Both little ones.”

“I’m sorry,” said Maxie.

“Ain’t no problem.”

Ollie came over with a scrap of paper. He had dark rings around his eyes, and his red hair was all over the place. He looked like he hadn’t slept at all.

“I’ve counted heads,” he said to Maxie, “and made a list. You heard about Josh?”

“Yes,” said Maxie. “Who else?”

“Katey and Louise and Curly Sam.”

“But I saw him rescued.”

“They came back for him. Josh tried to help, but . . .”

Maxie swore.

“They’re not necessarily dead,” said Ollie. “We left in a hurry. We didn’t have time to check bodies.”

“Then we should go back. We should look for them. We can’t leave them all alone out there.”

“No,” said Jester, standing up. “We’re not going back. We’re lucky to have gotten this far.”