They climbed the first escalator and found themselves on the men’s fashion floor. There was a moment’s panic as their flashlights settled on what looked like a pack of grown-ups, pale and naked and gray. But the kids laughed when they realized it was only a group of mannequins. It still made them jump, though, every time they came across other ones.

A quick scan of the area showed them that there were still some clothes here.

“Looking good,” said Lewis as they walked around to the bottom of the next escalator.

As they went up, Ollie walked with Sophie.

“Listen, Sophie,” he said, “I know you didn’t mean to kill Arran. It could have happened anytime. To tell you the truth, he was badly wounded anyway. He got bitten. He was losing it a bit, sick. He’d gone crazy. Even without your arrow he might never have made it to the palace. Maybe you just saved him a lot of pain.”

“Thank you,” said Sophie. “But I feel awful about it.”

“Don’t.”

The next floor was the same. In fact there were probably more clothes here than on the floor below. After a quick look around they continued on up to the top floor. Once again Ollie walked with Sophie.

“So where’ve you been living all this time?” he said. “Where’ve you been hiding out?”

“All over,” said Sophie. “We’d find a house with food in it and stay there until it wasn’t safe anymore. Always on the move, never in one place long. We started out in Highgate, came down through Dartmouth Park, tried Hampstead Heath, but it was way too dangerous and there was nothing to eat. Then we came up through Kentish Town and Camden. It was the same everywhere. Fighting just to survive. There were quite a lot of us to start with. We thought we’d be okay— safety in numbers, you know. But one by one they got us. I try to black it all out and just concentrate on getting through each day. That’s why I feel so rotten about Arran. It’s bad enough the adults killing us kids, but . . .”

Sophie fell silent and Ollie put his hand on her arm.

From the top they could look all the way down a central well to the basement. Their flashlight beams made tiny pinpricks of light far below on the tables and chairs of the restaurant.

They poked around. It didn’t look like anyone had been up here in ages. Dust covered everything. There was a bathroom department at the top, and a lot of the stuff was intact. In a time of crisis nobody was going to come all the way up here and loot fancy soap.

“What do you reckon, then?” said Lewis. His voice quiet and slow as ever.