Ella saw some movement off to one side and was terrified that the army of mothers and fathers had caught up with them. But it wasn’t grown-ups, it was kids, five of them, charging through the woods like rabbits running from a pack of hounds. They were going much faster than her and Scarface and, as they crashed past, Ella saw their terrified faces. Were they scared because they’d spotted Scarface, or was it the thought of the army, which they were obviously running away from? In a moment they were gone. Ella didn’t even have the chance to call out to them.

Scarface slowed down and stopped. He was thinking about something. He looked pained. Was he wondering whether to change his plan? Abandon the farm and run away? He turned to Ella.

‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry about me. You have to save the farm.’

Scarface suddenly scooped Ella up in his left arm and hurried on, clutching her to his chest, so that she was facing backwards, going faster than she could run by herself. They burst out of the trees back into the sunlight. Ella twisted round to see where they were going, and there ahead of them was the farm, across the other side of the field.

And people.

At first Ella thought they might be grown-ups and then she realized they were the children who had passed them in the woods. Three boys and two girls. They were moving towards the gate. The tripwires. Ella screamed, her voice high and thin and piercing.

‘No! No. Stop! There’s a trap! Stop there!’

The kids turned, froze, not sure what to do. Scared. Ella wondered what she and Scarface must look like, charging across the open ground towards them.

‘Please!’ she yelled again. ‘Just wait. It’s all right.’

But the kids were pointing and shouting something, eyes wide, mouths black holes in their faces, panicked. Ella looked back over Scarface’s shoulder.

‘Oh no …’

The dogs were running.

Chapter 11

11

They were streaming out of the trees from all sides, howling as they came. If she hadn’t been up high on Scarface’s shoulder Ella might not have been able to see them, only the waving of the long grass as they pushed through it. Some were getting close enough for her to be able to make out the yellow of their teeth, their wide, crazy eyes.

‘Faster. Go faster!’ she shouted, but Scarface didn’t need to be told. He’d moved on to the road and was sprinting, jolting Ella’s face into his body. She looked down and saw a dog running with them, a mongrel with its tail between its legs, its fur up all along the ridge of its back, showing its teeth and gums, whimpering and yelping.