‘If you could think as well as you fight I’d put you in charge of the expedition,’ said Blue. ‘And I could stay here and jam.’

Mick put his arm round Blue.

‘You and me, darling,’ he said. ‘We’re a team. Nobody splits us up.’

‘Worse luck,’ said Blue. ‘You stink badder than a dead grown-up.’

Maxie tried to ignore the stab of jealousy that had slipped under her defences. She still felt slightly awkward around Blue, wished she could put her arm round him as easily as Mick had. The two boys were old friends, with a history. She’d only really got to know Blue in the last week or so. Sometimes she felt like an intruder.

‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s get this done.’ She picked up a bin bag; it was warm and squishy, and orange liquid dripped out of the bottom where it had split.

‘Sir, yes, sir!’ Blue put his shoulder to the cabinet and it shifted a couple of centimetres.

Maxie took the bag out to add to the pile in the corridor where the other two members of their party were keeping watch.

‘Mick’s made his choice,’ said Blue as Maxie came back in.

Mick looked at Maxie. He had a big, bony head and sticking out ears.

‘He goes and you stay,’ he said. ‘Sorry, Max.’

‘It’s a boy thing, innit?’ said Maxie with a smile. ‘Deep down you don’t think I’m as good a fighter as Blue.’

‘No, it’s not that …’ Mick looked embarrassed.

‘Doesn’t matter. It’s fine with me,’ said Maxie, actually quite relieved. ‘The less fighting I have to do, the better. Now let’s move that thing. I want to get out of here and get washed.’

All three of them put their backs into it. The cabinet creaked and groaned as it inched across the floor, revealing the hole behind.

‘Right,’ said Maxie bending down. ‘Let’s see what’s back here.’

She shone her torch into the hole.

‘Oh bloody hell …’

Chapter 17

17

There were four grown-ups. Four that Maxie could see, at any rate. They’d made themselves a nest out of old newspaper, and were huddled in it, staring with wide eyes at the kids.

As Mick and Blue joined her, squatting at the entrance to the hole, Maxie flicked her torch round the rest of the room. It was very much like the one they were in, filled with shelves of fossils. She couldn’t spot anyone else.

‘We should just wall them in,’ said Mick.

‘The whole point of this is to make everywhere safe, and clean, you nunce,’ said Blue. ‘We don’t want to be living above rotting corpses.’

‘Fair point.’