‘Maybe.’ Maxie didn’t really want to join in this conversation. She’d had it too many times before with Maeve and right now all she could think about was Cameron. Scared that it was her fault Paul had sliced his neck open.

The thing was she had no idea whether it had happened before or after she’d kicked the candle over.

‘We should have gone to the countryside,’ said Maeve. ‘It’s crazy living in the city. In the country we can grow food. We can defend ourselves from the grown-ups. There’s nowhere for them to hide out there. Round here there are thousands and thousands of buildings. We can never search them all. Go to the country and we can build a fort or something. Find somewhere to live. We’ll have to do it one day. The food the grown-ups left behind is going to run out sooner or later. Then what? We can’t eat houses, we can’t eat bricks.’

‘It wasn’t a grown-up who did this, though, was it?’ said Maxie, feeling Cameron’s forehead. He’d lost a lot of blood, though luckily the knife had missed his artery. ‘It was a kid like us,’ she went on. ‘We don’t always know who the enemy is. We all thought that as long as the grown-ups were the enemy we didn’t have to worry about anything else. But think about it, Maeve. A bare lot of us have been killed by grown-ups, but just as many have been wiped out by disease. Arran was shot by an arrow fired by that posh girl Sophie. Freak died in the squatter camp. Josh and Joel were killed by diseased monkeys, for God’s sake. And the last few deaths here. As far as we know, it was Paul. A boy.’

‘Yeah, but he had a lot of help from the grown-ups he let out.’

‘And what would have happened if we hadn’t come here?’ said Maxie. ‘A lot more kids would have died.’

‘Including me probably,’ said Robbie from across the room.

‘Exactly,’ said Maxie. ‘They need you here.’

‘Oh, I can play at being a doctor,’ said Maeve. ‘But to be honest, I don’t hardly know any more than anyone else. Certainly no more than that geeky Einstein kid. Once he’s back I won’t be needed here at all.’

‘If he comes back,’ said Maxie gloomily.

‘Are you worried about them, Maxie?’ Maeve sat down finally, her rant over.

‘What do you think?’

‘They’ll come back. And then what? Are you happy here?’

‘Happy enough. I don’t know when I’ve last really been happy. Maybe talking to Blue in the sick-bay back at the palace. It was quiet there. We could pretend that nothing existed outside those four walls. That we didn’t have to worry about anything. That we didn’t have to be scared.’