There was only a small platform up in the tree, with just enough room for one of them at a time. Two ropes tied round the trunk led from there to another tree, then another. By using them as a bridge, they could get to the main viewing platform at the front of the farm. Sonya and Isaac went first, standing on one rope, their hands on the other, wobbling and swaying backwards and forwards, laughing to cover their nervousness.

Ella waited till they’d reached the next platform and went after them.

Once they were all on the main platform they looked out across the fields, but couldn’t see anything of the grown-ups. The army must be hidden behind trees and small rises in the ground.

‘Maybe they won’t come this way,’ said Ella. ‘Maybe we’ll be all right.’

‘They’re out there,’ said Isaac. ‘We all saw them.’

‘One of us needs to stay up here as a look-out,’ said Sonya. ‘I think you should, Isaac. You can fire your arrows down from here.’

‘How many arrows have you got?’ Ella asked.

‘About twenty-five, thirty,’ said Isaac.

‘And how many grown-ups did you see earlier?’

‘Yeah, way more than that,’ said Isaac, and he gave a harsh laugh. ‘Better than nothing, though.’

Isaac agreed to stay up there if they brought him something to eat and Ella took Sonya back down.

When they got back to the yard, the other kids came over and crowded round them, asking loads of questions, trying to reassure themselves they’d made the right decision to stop here.

‘We couldn’t keep on running,’ said Louisa.

‘Specially as you run like a typical girl,’ said Harry, and he went into a silly run, all wobbly knees and flapping arms. ‘Look at me,’ he squealed in a high-pitched voice. ‘I’m a kind of crap dinosaur.’

Sonya stepped up behind him and tripped him, sending him sprawling into the dirt. He swore at her, but she stood over him and held him down with the heel of her boot.

‘If you have a go at my sister one more time I will shove your head up your arse,’ she said. ‘And you can see what you had for lunch.’

‘What’s the matter with you?’ said Harry. ‘Lost your sense of humour? Besides, you’re always having a go at her.’

‘She’s my sister, that’s different.’

Ella left them to it and went to look for Scarface. She found him near the gate, rigging up more defences. Pulling some vicious-looking farm machinery into place. She said hello to him, but he ignored her. He looked in a bad mood, but whether that was because there was an army of grown-ups on its way or because Ella had invited the others in she couldn’t tell. When he was in one of his moods, he behaved like a little kid.

‘Are you cross with me?’ she asked.

He shrugged.