So the three of them set off. Ella wheeling the barrow, Isaac supporting Scarface. It was harder going when they got off the road and had to cross a field to the trees, but they kept on moving. Four times Ella’s barrow tipped up and Isaac had to help her get the rucksack back on-board. They made it to the woods, though, and stopped to rest, Scarface leaning up against a big tree whose bark was as gnarly as his face. He caught Ella’s eye and made a jerky movement with his head as if to say, ‘Get rid of him.’ He obviously didn’t want Isaac to know exactly where the hideout was, just in case.

‘We’ll be all right now,’ Ella said to Isaac. And he looked unsure, checking out the woods.

‘Really?’

‘Yes.’ Ella nodded. ‘There’s a place we can shelter here.’

‘I’ll get you all the way there.’

‘You need to go,’ said Ella.

‘Well …’

‘We’re away from the farm,’ said Ella. ‘We’ve got food in the bag. We’ll be fine.’

‘If you’re really sure? OK.’

Ella could tell that Isaac wanted to be off. She gave him a hug and thanked him.

‘If you ever make it to Bracknell,’ he said into her hair, ‘look for me. Isaac, yeah? Isaac Hills.’

‘OK.’

They separated and Isaac started to hurry away.

‘Isaac!’ Ella called out and he turned round.

‘It didn’t get you,’ she shouted.

‘Who?’

‘That fate thing. You dodged it.’

‘I did this time.’

‘Good luck.’

Soon he was gone and Ella wondered if she’d ever see him again.

Chapter 18

18

Somehow the last part was the hardest, getting over the bumpy ground to the actual den, too tired to even think. Ella had to leave the barrow behind because it got too hard to wheel through the trees. Instead she would pull the rucksack along the ground for a few paces, come back and help Scarface get from one tree to the next, then leave him leaning there and pull the bag a little further on. Then back for Scarface …

Somehow they did it, though. Got to the lightning tree, its big grey trunk split down the middle, but still growing. Scarface dropped down and sat on the ground. Ella looked around. She could see no sign of a hideout. She searched everywhere, in the bushes, in the shadows under the other trees, up in the branches, hoping they weren’t going to have to do any climbing. Nothing. When she looked back at Scarface, however, he was scrabbling about in a pile of dead leaves and fallen sticks.

‘Here,’ he grunted. ‘Help me. I can’t do it.’