“Doesn’t make any difference,” said Patchwork. “Basically the adults are all either dead or diseased, and us kids have got to look after ourselves.”

“We don’t know that,” said Small Sam’s little sister, Ella. “We don’t know if the whole world’s like this, do we?”

“There must be some grown-ups around who aren’t sick,” said Monkey Boy. “They’ll rescue us.”

“Like Whitney said, it’s been over a year,” said Freak, his voice sounding like it was coming from a million miles away. “If anyone was coming to save us, I think they’d have showed up by now, don’t you? Instead, all we’ve got is this guy. Joseph and his coat of mangy colors.”

“No one’s going to help us,” said Patchwork. “I can promise you that. Everyone over the age of sixteen got sick and died.”

“Not everyone,” said Whitney.

Patchwork shrugged. “Some of the adults are just taking longer to die than others, that’s all. They’ve become Strangers.”

“What are you talking about now?” said Blue.

“I guess you call them something different. The adults who are diseased but not dead yet. Like that lot outside earlier.”

“We call them grown-ups,” said Blue. “Cuz that’s what they are.”

“To us they’re Strangers. We were always told about ‘stranger danger.’ And this lot truly is dangerous. God must really have it in for us.”

“I don’t think God would do something like this,” said Ella.

“Maybe it was God,” said Patchwork. “Maybe it was something else.”

“Like a meteor from space or something,” Ella suggested.

“I think it was to do with global warming,” said Bernie. “I think it was an ecological disaster.”

“I think it was a disease, like AIDS,” said Maeve.

“Could be,” said Patchwork. “But we have a theory that it was terrorists or something.”

“Yeah,” said Achilleus. “Like a bomb, man. A chemical bomb, or some new biological weapon that went wrong.”

“Nah. It was the scientists,” said Blue. “Mucking about with stuff, genetically modified crops and all that. Nanotechnology.”

“That’s just stupid,” said Bernie. “Scientists did a lot of good for mankind.”

“Who you calling stupid, you emo loser?”

A rumble of voices broke out, and Maxie had to shout over it.

“Let’s not fight.” She sounded like a tired and fed-up parent.

Arran smiled. Maxie was right. With so much bad stuff going down, it was ridiculous to be squabbling among themselves. He liked Maxie. He had from the start. She was the type of girl he used to hang out with, before all this kicked off. Now he was so stressed all the time he had no energy left to think about that sort of thing. He could tell she wasn’t interested in him anyway. To her he was just the guy in charge. She probably resented him for being number one. If he hadn’t been around maybe she would have been top dog.

He closed his eyes.

He shouldn’t think like that. He really had no idea what Maxie might feel about anything. The poison in his system was messing with his mind.