“It’ll be the bigger kids,” said Bernie, trying to sound calm, even though she too thought she had seen something moving. “They’re protecting our sides.”

“No. It wasn’t a big kid.”

“Maybe a rabbit, then, or a cat.”

“Like a lion?”

“Look,” said Ben, trying not to lose his patience, “there’s nothing there. Nothing’s going to eat you. We won the battle, didn’t we? We’re strong. Nothing can get to us.”

“We’re safe, aren’t we?” said Joel.

“Yeah,” said Ben. “We’ve got Godzilla to look after us.”

Joel hugged the puppy tighter. “Godzilla can’t fight,” he said. “He’s too young.”

“I was only joking,” said Ben. “I just can’t win with you lot, can I?”

They had come on to The Broad Walk, a much wider path that ran down the center of the park beneath rows of tall trees. There was enough room here for them to spread out a little. Bernie called Lewis over. He shambled up, scratching his untidy Afro.

“Did you see anything?” she asked.

“What you mean?” said Lewis.

“In the grass?”

“Nope.”

“Did you hear anything?”

“There’s nothing in the grass; we’d have seen any grown-ups.”

“It’s too dark to see anything properly.”

“We’ve got flashlights.”

“We heard something,” said Ella. “Maybe a lion.”

Josh came back from the front and looked at the frightened bunch of kids.

“Can’t you keep them quiet?” he said. “They’re getting spooked.”

“They can’t help it,” said Bernie. “They’re small. They’ve got overactive imaginations.”

“I saw something again!” said Ella.

“No you didn’t,” Bernie snapped.

There came a rustle in the leaf canopy above their heads, and everyone stopped walking and fell silent.

A twig snapped.

Something was moving through the trees.

“What is it?”

“Grown-ups, maybe.”

“They can’t climb trees,” said Lewis.

“How do you know?” said Josh. “Our problem is—we’ve been stuck inside those stupid supermarkets too long, and we’ve thought we knew what was going on in the world. I used to sit on that roof with Callum and thought I could see everything there was to see. Well, I couldn’t see nothing. Except that tiny little bit of Holloway. For all we know there are grown-ups that’ve sprouted wings and learned to fly.”

“They can’t fly, can they?” asked a fearful Ella.

“Stop it, Josh,” said Bernie. “You come back here and tell us not to spook the kids, and now you’re terrifying them. It’s bad enough as it is without having to worry about flying grown-ups.”

“They can’t fly, can they?” Ella repeated.

“Of course they can’t fly,” Bernie almost shouted. “Most of them can hardly walk.”

“There’s definitely something in the trees, though,” said Lewis, looking up.

“Probably squirrels.”