It was a grey day to suit Ella’s grey mood and there was a thin, cutting wind that made her shiver. As they came out of the woods, the countryside looked flat. The wind was somehow hardly stirring the trees and bushes. They trudged on into a field overgrown with tall grass and weeds. She’d got to know the land around here quite well. Not so long ago she’d thought she might live here forever.

Already she’d forgotten what it was like at the museum. Holloway was a stronger memory, though not a good one. That was where Sam had been taken by the greasy mother in the pink tracksuit. Ella wished she could remember happier things about Sam, and not that awful day. She could remember the mother better than him. His face was blurry. Like in a dream where things shifted and disappeared when you tried to touch them.

Don’t think about the past and don’t think about the future, that’s what Malik told her and that’s how she was going to try to live.

She kept close to him, always scared when they were out in the open, even if it was daytime and the grown-ups would mostly be in their own holes. There were always the dogs, though, and other kids. She’d picked up on Malik’s fear of them, even though she knew it was stupid. She was obviously one of them. A child herself. They’d never mistake her for a grown-up. Not like Malik. Something had made his body grow and bulge and get bigger like a man’s. She was proud to be walking with him. He was strong and clever. He had all his tricks and traps and ways of beating the enemy.

‘Malik?’ she asked.

‘What?’

The grass was up to Ella’s chest and she tucked in behind him, walking in the path he’d trampled.

‘That explosion, back at the farm, when the grown-ups came through and you burned up all the ones who were attacking the barn.’

‘What of it?’

‘Was that petrol?’

‘Yeah.’ Malik nodded. ‘It was from the tank that the lads left behind. I rigged up some pipes and valves and stuff so that I could empty it into a trough that ran round the barn. It was for emergencies. A ring of fire. I’d hoped I’d never need to use it. Last resort sort of a thing.’

‘I wish they hadn’t attacked us. I wish we were still living there with the chickens.’

‘We can’t change the past, Ella, so no point going over it.’

‘Yeah, yeah, I know,’ she said. ‘Don’t think about the past and don’t think about the future.’

‘One foot in front of the other. Deal with problems as they come up.’

‘Burn the grown-ups with petrol.’

‘Yeah.’ Malik laughed. ‘Burn the grown-ups with petrol.’