No. It was only their dreams and their fears that had disturbed them, and they would slump back down, ragged and aching in their bones.

And now …

What was he looking at …?

Maybe one of them had got in. It was only grown-ups who looked bloated like this, wasn’t it? The disease could change the shape of their bodies. Make them swell and warp. But something about this face looked younger, the face of a girl, not a mother.

Brandon kicked Kamahl, who grunted and woke up. When he saw the face looming over the top of the counter he swore and scrambled clumsily to his feet, reaching for his spear. Brandon was immediately up and next to him …

And he saw, behind the girl, a boy with a face made out of folded sheets. He wanted to yell. And then all the air went out of him in a great sigh and his heart stopped racing as he spotted Blue, Jackson and the rest.

‘Jesus Christ, Blue,’ said Brandon, his voice wobbly. ‘Where the hell have you been?’

‘And who the hell are these two?’ Kamahl added.

‘That’s Betty Bubble and Skinner,’ said Blue matter-of-factly, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. ‘They’re with us.’

Brandon glanced quickly over at the doors. The rain had stopped. It was damp outside, but the sky was clear. Morning sunlight streamed in through the glass. There was no sign of any of the grown-ups. The only evidence that they’d even been there were the filthy streaks and smears on the windows.

Brandon felt sick and hungry and shaky. Angry with Blue that they’d been abandoned here and confused by the appearance of the two weird kids. One like an inflated balloon, the other like a burst one.

It was Blue who spoke first, though.

‘Where’s Mick and Jake?’

‘They went out,’ said Kamahl. ‘And they never came back.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Yesterday,’ said Kamahl, pointing to the glass wall with a trembling hand. ‘That was full of grown-ups. A whole mess of them.’

‘And Mick went out there?’

‘He was acting bare weird. He didn’t look well. He went out to scare off some cats.’

‘Cats?’

‘Yeah. And he was ambushed by grown-ups. Then Jake went out to try and help him, and they got Jake too. There was so many of them.’

‘Yeah. I saw them from the roof.’ Blue walked over to the windows and looked out, as if he might see Mick and Jake out there somewhere.

‘This was yesterday?’ he said.

‘Yeah. We didn’t know what to do.’

Blue swore. A quick, vicious burst. Then he turned to look at Brandon and Kamahl, his face set hard.

‘Mick should have known better than to go out there,’ he said.

‘We’d have helped him, but …’

‘You did the right thing. Staying inside. I know how many there was out there. It was Mick’s fault.’