‘It was the Golden Girl who killed him. She was excellent on her horse, a real expert. Riding rings round him. He kept on going, swearing and calling her all sorts of filthy names, like a Duracell bunny – unstoppable. In the end I guess the girl just wanted it over with, and she sort of poked him in the neck with the point of her sword. It went down through his shoulder, must’ve hit his heart or something, because he dropped quick, like a butchered cow in an abattoir. Bap … and he was dead. Just like that. Josa screamed and ran to him, and it was over. There were about four or five other bodies – whether they were dead or just unconscious I don’t know. Josa was sitting in the road with Tyler’s body in her lap, wailing like a madwoman. And all I thought was, You got what you deserved.

‘That was it for me. I’d had enough of Slough. Should never have gone back there. And I wasn’t going to Windsor. You see, the thing is, I don’t want you to think that I reckon the Golden Twins were any better than Tyler just because they were more organized and knew what they were doing. I didn’t like them any more than him. They were looters, stealing other kids’ food, and they were prepared to kill to get it. They cleaned that cold store out. Didn’t leave a scrap for the local kids. Took everything and loaded it on to the pick-up trucks along with a couple of the bodies and marched out of there.

‘It was time for me to get out as well.’

Chapter 25

25

‘I didn’t want anything more to do with kids if this was how they were going to behave. I cut and ran south, out of Slough, over the motorway and into the countryside, such as it was. I mean, you know what it’s like round here – it’s not the deep countryside, but there are fields and woods and lakes.’

‘Where I found you?’ said Ella. ‘You came here?’

‘Yeah. Where I found you.’

‘Where we found each other.’

‘Yeah …’

Malik stopped talking again. Ella listened to his breathing.

‘What happened to the children you left behind in Slough?’ she asked after a while. ‘Without a leader?’

‘I heard later they’d joined up with the Arbour Vale kids,’ said Malik. ‘Like they should’ve done in the first place. They’re doing all right there now, I think. They’ve cleaned most of the grown-ups out of town. Made it safe. Apparently Josa’s in charge now, with Kenton, the tattooed boy from Arbour Vale, as her second-in-command. She was pregnant too. Had Tyler’s baby. So … not somewhere you’d want to go. Maybe you should go to Bracknell, or Maidenhead –’