Ebenezer collected his spears and Ollie looked for his steel shot. Of the three balls he’d fired he only found one, but in his search he found another dead child in the long grass. A boy. The crow they’d seen earlier was pecking at his eyes. Ollie shooed it away.

‘That’s Reece,’ said Jackson. There were tears on her cheeks. ‘Oh Christ, what happened here?’

‘They opened the doors for some reason,’ said Ollie. ‘We have to find out if any of them are still alive.’

‘These grown-ups were too relaxed,’ said Ebenezer. ‘If there was anyone else alive …’

‘We have to look,’ said Ollie.

It was vital to act fast now. Careless of any other grown-ups that might be in the area, they hurried back to where the rest of their group were still hiding among the trees.

They quickly explained the situation to Blue, whose mood turned even blacker. He stood up, his muscular body tense.

‘Hello?’ he yelled, striding towards the church doors. ‘Hello? Anybody in there … ?’

There was no reply.

He turned to the rest of his group.

‘What are you waiting for?’ he barked. ‘We’re going inside.’

Chapter 76

76

Ollie ran to catch up with Blue. He wanted to be first in. Killing the grown-ups in the churchyard hadn’t been enough; he was still all churned up inside. And he couldn’t bear the thought of any more kids getting hurt. He had to get inside and do it fast. If some of the museum bunch were still alive in there he was going to save them. He never fought close up, hand-to-hand. He usually held back, letting his sling do all the work for him. That’s what he was best at and that’s where he was most use. Now, though, he couldn’t wait. He had a knife in a sheath on his belt, but he hadn’t used it for a long time. The way he felt right now he could take a grown-up apart with his bare hands. An alarm was sounding in the back of his head that he tried to ignore …

This is how you make mistakes. How you wind up dead. Don’t let your emotions get hold of you. Don’t take stupid risks …

But he wasn’t listening. He wasn’t listening to anything except the blood singing in his ears and his own tangled thoughts screaming at him. Blue shouted something, but he didn’t register the meaning until it was too late and the next moment, as the words ‘Look out!’ formed in his brain, he collided in the doorway with a father who was coming out of the church. Ollie was sent spinning, the breath knocked out of him, and he went down heavily, crashing on to his arse on the hard, cold stone of the porch. The father was still standing, though he looked slightly stunned, not understanding what was going on.