Ella didn’t think she’d ever run so fast. Down the side of the hill, nearly falling over as her legs ran away with her, and then cutting across the park towards some woods, Scarface holding back so that she could keep up with him, though she knew he would rather be racing ahead. He must be scared for his precious farm, his supplies, his chickens, his fire and his bed and his books. His whole world.

She was glad of all the walking they’d been doing, strengthening her legs, but she soon had a stitch in her side and burning in her lungs. Her head was pounding, like someone was hitting her with a spade.

As they ran, Ella couldn’t stop thinking about that big stain of grown-ups spreading across the ground, all the way from right to left, filling the world up it had seemed. Surely nothing could stop them, not all of Scarface’s traps. Even if he had fifty of them, a hundred. The only thing on their side was that the army had been going slowly, plodding along, only moving as fast as the slowest walker. The binoculars had made them look nearer than they were. It would be a long time before they got as far as the farm. Even so, they’d get there eventually, and then what? Would they go round? Or would they plough straight on through, not caring?

What were they doing, marching along like that? She’d never seen so many of them all together in one place. She hated not being able to talk to Scarface about it. Just having thoughts rattling around in her head, getting bigger and scarier because she had no way of letting them out.

As they got to the trees, Ella took a last glance across the familiar fields in the direction the grown-ups had been coming from. You couldn’t see anything from down here, though. All you could see was green grass, blue sky, wispy clouds, some birds. You couldn’t imagine what was coming your way.

Then they were pounding through the woods, Ella desperate not to trip up. She could hear a weird sound, like screaming and wailing. She thought at first it was people, and then she realized it must be the dogs. They were spooked. She couldn’t see any of them, but she could sense them in the trees all around, so that she couldn’t tell where the noise was coming from exactly. They sounded like wolves in a horror film. She knew how careful Scarface was around them. He was scared of them, and if they were scared of something else then it was bad. Very bad.