What happened was when it got light we realized that the sickos weren’t banging on the door any more. We thought, or we hoped, that they had got bored and left us alone, gone back to their holes to sleep. Daryl and I went back up on to the top of the steeple. We peered out as light came over the land. The sickos had gone. All was quiet. Had they really left us all alone? Might we be able to escape? These were the questions we were asking.

We went down to the door and listened, too scared to open it. And we heard someone moving about, shuffling and stealthy. There was still someone there. It might be a child like us, but as I just said we were too scared to open the door and find out. I remembered what had happened when Aiyshah had opened the church door and let the sickos in. How the animal man had got hold of her and how she had screamed and screamed.

We talked about what to do and then Daryl said, ‘We can’t stay here. We’ll starve to death or the sickos will wake up and start breaking the door down again.’ We could see that the door was all cracked and broken and nearly broken in. ‘I am going to climb down from the tower,’ he said. ‘And make a run for it.’

‘It’s too dangerous out there,’ I explained, but Daryl wouldn’t listen, he was wild-eyed. And I knew I couldn’t stop him and part of me secretly wanted him to go anyway so that he might get help. I was being selfish again so maybe I didn’t try very hard to really stop him. He had a map which showed the way to the place where the others had gone. It looked like it wasn’t very far on the map. He would be all alone, though, out there, with no knowledge of if there were other sickos around. He was brave, but also a little crazy. He was desperate.

I watched him climb down the tower. Going carefully. There were sticking out stones and things to put his hands and feet on and it didn’t take him long. He was a good climber. When he was at the bottom he looked around and then ran over to the gate. He looked back up at me and gave me a thumbs up and waved and I waved back and he took three more steps and a father came quickly out of the trees.