There was something about the woman. Maybe it was just how tall she was, towering over the other grown-ups. Ella wasn’t sure. There was a power around her. The grown-ups around her looked like they were copying her, mimicking her movements. As if she was some sort of general, and this was her army. As if she could somehow silently command them.

Her eyes fixed on Ella and seemed to look right inside her. Ella felt almost hypnotized. She couldn’t look away. The mother raised an arm and beckoned to her with a bony hand, as if calling her over. Everything seemed to fall away and go quiet and still. Before she knew what she was doing Ella took a step forward and another, and then Scarface grabbed her and the spell was broken.

She was back in the noise and chaos.

The first one of the army was through, stepping over the bodies of those who had fallen at the gate. It was a wiry father with a twisted mouth, his lower jaw broken. He held a club in his hand and he raised it, hissing at Scarface.

Scarface raised his shotgun to his shoulder and fired a blast directly at him, flattening him and several others around him. Scarface fired a second shot, taking out a few more of them, and now, at last, he decided it was time to retreat.

He took hold of Ella’s hand and they were running.

Chapter 13

13

They all bundled inside the main barn – it was the first time the other kids had been in here. There was some light from the fire and Ella watched them looking around with feverish, wild eyes. Outside, they could hear the grown-ups moving through the farm.

‘They won’t stop,’ said Louisa. ‘Why would they stop? They’ll carry on going to wherever it is they’re going. They’re not interested in us. Why would they stop?’

‘Why would they stop?’ Harry sneered.

‘They’ll stop,’ said Daniel. ‘They always stop.’

‘Why would they, though?’ said Louisa, sounding desperate.

‘Because we’re here,’ said Daniel hopelessly. ‘Because there’s food. I mean, did you see them all, how many there were? It would take a lot of food to feed an army like that. What have they been eating? They’ll stop.’

‘No,’ said Louisa. ‘They won’t.’

‘Just because you say it won’t make it happen,’ said Harry. ‘You are such a moron, Louisa.’

‘They won’t stop!’ Louisa shouted and, as if in answer to her, to show her up for being wrong, there was a bang on the metal side of the barn. Then another. And then a third bang as something hit it hard enough to leave a dent.

‘They’ve stopped,’ said Daniel. ‘We are dead.’