Harry grunted in pain and his eyelids flickered. Ella tried to focus on the boy, not what had happened to him. She stared into his eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at the rest of him. She had caught a glimpse, though, just enough to see that his legs were missing.

‘Are you all right, Harry?’ she asked and immediately felt stupid. Of course he wasn’t all right.

‘Are you all right, Harry?’ he replied in his slightly sneery way. He couldn’t help himself.

‘You’re bleeding a lot.’

‘You’re bleeding a lot.’ His voice was feeble.

‘I hope you don’t die, but I don’t know what to do.’

‘I don’t know what to do …’ Harry paused, looked like he was going to cry. ‘Just hold my hand,’ he said.

Ella held his hand. It felt cold and was trembling. After a while it stopped trembling and Harry smiled.

‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘I’m glad you weren’t hurt.’

‘That was a good shot, Harry. You fixed that bloody father all right.’

‘Fixed that bloody father … Didn’t I just? BOOM!’ Harry laughed.

‘I think that was the last one,’ said Ella. ‘The grown-ups have all gone.’

‘The grown-ups have all gone,’ said Harry. This time not in a sneery way, but in a happy way, like it was a good thing. Which it was.

‘They’re someone else’s problem now,’ he added, and then he closed his eyes and didn’t say anything else, and his hand went stiff and Ella knew he was dead without having to check.

Harry was all right in the end.

She made her way across the barn. Not looking. Not looking. Too many bodies. Wanting to be sick. Wondering how she was even still moving. She found Scarface sprawled on his back, arms flung wide. His bandage had come off and there was a thin trail of blood where the father had dragged him. She pressed her ear to his chest like she’d done before. And, like before, she heard a faint beating. She put her hands on either side of his damp head and shook him. His face looked worse than ever. Like an old toy the dogs had left behind. Mangled and chewed out of shape. He was a thing. But he was an alive thing.

And he was all Ella had.