‘Ain’t that Harrods?’

‘Yeah.’ Felix whistled. ‘You wanna go shopping?’

‘I went in there once,’ said Courtney. ‘It was mad. The poshest place I ever been, even posher than Buckingham Palace. You could buy anything you wanted in the whole world, even a helicopter, probably, and you should have seen the food they had in there. Mental. All the staff, like, looked at me like I didn’t belong, though.’

‘You could go in there now,’ said Marco. ‘Own it.’

‘I could, couldn’t I?’

‘Except it’s probably full of sickos,’ said Felix.

‘Yeah, thanks for pointing that out, or I might have forgotten,’ said Courtney grumpily. ‘I might have, like, gone in there with my credit card on a shopping frenzy. I was having a nice memory, yeah? A nice dream. And you spoilt it, man.’

‘Yeah, Felix, you’re so dumb sometimes,’ said Marco.

‘Oh, right, and you ain’t?’ Felix gave Marco a pitying look.

‘Yeah,’ said Marco. ‘Compared to you I’m like triple A star.’

‘Compared to me you are just like a piece of snot dangling off some manky mother’s nose,’ said Felix.

‘Yeah?’ Marco made a dismissive gesture. ‘Compared to me you are the pants some father’s been wearing for, like, a year, and he ain’t never wiped his arse in all that time.’

‘Why don’t you two hush your gums,’ said Courtney. ‘You are, like, year four kids sometimes. Year three.’

Four floors above them a mother was sniffing the air, watching from one of the Harrods windows. She was moaning quietly, her tongue slobbering against the grimy glass. She was so hungry. She was imagining the taste of the children. Imagining sinking her teeth into their soft flesh. The blood in her mouth. The feel of the meat as she chewed it …

But they were too far away. She couldn’t get there in time. This was one meal she would never eat. Because others were already there. She could see them, moving towards the children from every direction.

Lots of them.

A tear ran down her cheek, between the blisters and the holes where the disease had eaten into her face.

So hungry.

‘You keep out of this, Courtney.’ Felix was almost shouting. ‘This is between me and Marco.’

‘No, it ain’t!’ Courtney looked like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘This is between me and you.’

‘Shut it you lot,’ said DogNut. ‘We’ve got to keep moving.’

‘Pick your own argument, Courtney,’ said Marco, ignoring him.

‘I thought you was on my side!’

‘I ain’t on nobody’s side.’

‘You are just as bad as Felix.’

‘Jesus, Courtney, get off my case –’

Suddenly there was a yelp from Finn. Something had snatched hold of his sling, and he lashed out instinctively with his right elbow. The pain jarred his whole body and he thought he was going to be sick.

The sound alerted the other kids who spun round to see a good twenty or so sickos spread out across the road. The adults had been shadowing them, attracted by the sounds of the battle and the smell of fresh blood.

Olivia was too frightened to shout ‘Run’ – the word froze in her throat – but DogNut shouted it for her.

‘Run! Get the hell out of here!’

18

One thing the older kids had learnt was that if they pushed themselves they could always outrun a sicko. The problem was Olivia. She was smaller than the rest of them, slower, and had less stamina. As a group, they could only move as fast as the slowest member. At first none of them was thinking about anything other than getting away. They all headed in the same direction, with DogNut in the lead, working on animal instinct, simply trying to survive.

As he ran, though, and recovered from the initial shock, DogNut realized it wasn’t as simple as that. He had brought these kids here. He was responsible for all of them. If he was going to return to the Tower as a hero and kick Leo’s ghost into touch, he was going to have to act like a hero.

But heroes in books weren’t tied down by ten-year-old girls, were they?

He looked back. Olivia was three or four metres behind them, her face ugly with fear. A thought flashed through DogNut’s mind. If they left Olivia behind, they would be much more likely to get away. Should he sacrifice her for the good of the rest of them?

Felix saw him looking.

‘Leave her,’ he grunted.

‘No!’ DogNut yelled it much louder than he had intended. So the decision had been made for him then. He ran back to Olivia and grabbed her hand, jerked her off her feet as he pulled her along. The nearest sickos were almost close enough to touch.

Olivia was screaming.

‘Shut up!’ DogNut shouted at her, and miraculously she fell silent. ‘Save your breath. I ain’t leaving you.’

Her little skinny legs were bouncing and skittering as her feet tried to get a grip on the road. Marco saw what was happening and pushed past Felix to help, taking hold of Olivia’s other hand.

He had heard what Felix had said and he gave him a dirty look as they drew level.

‘Wanker …’

The main road was full of sickos, so they veered off and ran down the side of Harrods where in the fading light they could just make out that the way ahead was mercifully clear. DogNut saw Courtney up at the front, in the lead now, pounding along. She was one powerful girl and moved fast despite her size. Finn was between Felix and Courtney. DogNut, Marco and Olivia were at the back, dropping steadily behind the others.

‘Try and catch up!’ DogNut gasped, and the three of them accelerated.

They were quickly in a more residential area, where they bombed round a corner into a terraced street of grand, white-painted houses.

‘I gotta stop,’ said Finn, and he doubled over, clutching his chest. ‘I can’t run properly with my arm like this. Stitch.’

The rest of them slowed, then also stopped. They stood in a loose group, their eyes constantly searching for any movement in both directions. At this time of the evening, as the last of the light drained from the sky, it was easy to see things in the shadows. They all felt jittery, panicked. DogNut sent Felix back to the corner to keep watch.

‘We need to get off the street,’ Courtney panted. ‘Keep under cover for a bit. Wait for them to go away. If we stay out here, we’ll just attract more of them.’

‘Over here!’ Olivia was shouting and pointing at one of the houses. ‘There’s people in there. Kids. I seen them.’

‘Are you sure?’ Marco looked where she was pointing.

‘I seen them. Sitting at a table. One of them waved at me.’

DogNut trotted over to the pavement. The building was set back from the road behind railings. He peered in through the windows and could just make out in the gloom three kids sitting at a kitchen table that looked like it was covered with plates of food. One of the kids did indeed have his arm raised.

‘They’re coming!’ Felix hissed from the corner, then ran back to join his mates.

‘Inside. Quick,’ said DogNut. ‘Come on. All of you.’ The front door was open a crack, the lock dangling uselessly. Maybe the kids had just broken in. DogNut tutted. He’d need to teach them a thing or two about security.

There was a bad smell in the house, but they were all used to bad smells. Hardly anyone washed regularly or changed their clothes. Toilets and showers didn’t tend to work any more. Without refrigeration food quickly went off.

The hallway was filled with heaps of magazines and newspapers, stacked up on either side so that there was only a narrow corridor running down the middle.

Finn remembered how the newspapers used to pile up at home before someone cracked and left a big stack out for the recycling.

Well, Jesus, someone needed to take this lot out something bad.

Felix was the last one in. He quietly pushed the door shut then noticed that there was a heavy stone bust of Shakespeare standing on the floor, with scrape marks leading across the floorboards. It must have been put there to keep the door closed. It wouldn’t stand up to much force, but it would at least stop the door from blowing open. He slid it over and jammed it up against the door.