‘Achilleus!’ A girl in a leather jacket had stood up and was yelling at him. This was Maxie, one of the leaders of the Holloway crew.

‘Ella’s one of us,’ she said. Achilleus just smirked. ‘Sam is one of us. You keep your thoughts to yourself from now on. Have some respect.’

‘Whatever.’

‘What about you?’ Ed said to Maxie.

‘What about me?’

‘As you say, Ella was one of yours. You gonna come with me?’

‘No way,’ said the hard-looking black kid next to her. He was the other leader of the Holloway kids, Blue. ‘I done my bit out that way and me and Max is sticking together from now on. We need to be here with our people.’

‘I don’t get it.’ Ed put out his hands in a hopeless gesture. ‘Is anybody going to help me, or what?’

‘Why should we listen to you?’ called out a girl Ed didn’t recognize. ‘You’re the one who brought a sicko here. Brought a grown-up into our home. Made him a nice comfy room. When we’d just spent ages clearing them all out. Why should we trust you?’

There were shouts of agreement from around the room. And then someone stood up. Ed was pleased to see a familiar face. A friend’s face. It was Finn, a big lad from the Tower, the only survivor from DogNut’s expedition.

‘Ed’s all right,’ he said. ‘I’d trust him more than any other kid I know.’

‘You going with him then?’ said Achilleus, and he sniggered.

‘You know I’m not,’ said Finn, and he raised his right arm, which had a bandage around it. ‘I can’t do anything until my arm’s properly healed.’

‘Yeah, good excuse.’

‘It’s not an excuse.’

‘It’s all right,’ Ed shouted. ‘Leave it.’

Finn had already come to see him and explained that the wound in his arm was still causing him problems. A shame. Finn had been one of the best fighters at the Tower.

‘As I say,’ Ed went on limply, ‘anyone wants to help, come and find me. It’s gonna take me a few days to get everything ready.’

He stepped down off the speaking platform, glad it was over. As he tried to get away, Sam came running over and tugged at his sleeve.

‘I am coming, Ed,’ he said, almost shouting. ‘She’s my sister.’

‘You are not,’ Ed snapped. ‘And if you say one more thing about it to me I’m not going either. OK?’ He had lost it and come across much heavier than he’d intended, but it did the trick. Sam let go of him. Shut his mouth and looked at the floor. His weird little friend, The Kid, came over to him.