‘I’m your ticket outta here, buster-balloon. Hoick your bones up and let’s get shifted.’

‘I’m not leaving,’ said Jason.

‘Are you having a laugh?’

‘I can’t leave here,’ said Jason anxiously. ‘Where will I go? Nick and Rachel are looking after me until I’m well.’

The Kid looked round at Sam and Rhiannon. ‘He really believe that?’

Sam shrugged. ‘We’re all confused,’ he said.

‘I’ve seen the rest of this train, my old china,’ said The Kid. ‘I’ve seen what they’re up to. Had my peepers on them for some long time. I found my way down here looking for food, skulking like a blind mouse, running up their clocks, so to speak. You get me?’

‘No, not really,’ said Sam.

‘Half of what I say is rubbish,’ said The Kid. ‘But listen to this bit. I could smell food. You get me? Mm-hmm – finger-licking good. But I don’t want to eat what those two ghouls are serving up. Wish upon a star, squire, that you are gone from here soonish, before they get their teeth into you. Trust me, young man, you do not want to stay for dinner.’

‘I’m not leaving,’ said Jason. ‘I don’t know you. Nick and Rachel are looking after me. I can’t walk. I’m sick.’

The Kid hefted Jason on to his shoulder and tried to walk; he went about five paces before he stumbled and Sam just caught them as they fell. The commotion woke up Claire, the other twin. She was even more feeble than her brother, and spent most of her time sleeping.

‘What’s going on?’ she said.

‘It’s all right,’ said Rhiannon. ‘We’re getting out of here.’

‘I don’t want to go,’ Claire whimpered. ‘I’m tired.’

‘She can’t stand up,’ said Jason. ‘Leave us alone.’

The Kid looked at Sam. ‘It’s beyond me,’ he said. ‘I’m quick and slick and well nifty, but I ain’t strong enough to lug no dead weights.’

‘We’ll never do it,’ said Sam. ‘We won’t get them through the windows.’

‘We’ll have to leave them,’ said Rhiannon, struggling to her feet. ‘We don’t have a choice.’

The Kid sat down cross-legged on the floor and looked glum.

‘Had me heart set on it,’ he said. ‘Was gonna get you all out of here. Was gonna be a hero for the first time.’

‘You are a hero,’ said Sam. ‘But you’re not Hercules. You can’t do the impossible.’

‘You want to leave them, too?’

‘If they don’t want to come, we can’t force them.’

The Kid jumped up and grabbed Sam. ‘Persuade them, small fry, the gift of the gab, the wagging tongue. Only we can’t waste too long here. The more noise, the more light, the more chance that the butchers will stir from their slumber and come sniffling after us.’

Sam knelt by the twins, who were sitting huddled together with wide, scared faces.

‘We’re used to it here,’ said Jason. ‘It’s safe from strangers. We get food. We don’t have to worry about anything.’

‘But they’re going to kill you,’ said Sam.

‘You don’t know that.’

‘What happened to Mark?’ said Rhiannon. ‘And that other girl?’

‘They got well,’ said Claire. ‘Nick helped them to go up into the light. When we’re well, when we’re strong, they’ll help us, too.’

‘You’re idiots,’ hissed Rhiannon, and Claire began to cry.

‘Just keep it quiet,’ Rhiannon whispered, and then moaned in pain as she tried to walk, biting her lip to stop from crying out.

‘My legs are so stiff,’ she said. ‘Unstiff them,’ said The Kid. ‘We’ve a bare deal of climbing to get done before we’re home free.’

‘OK. I’ll try.’

‘So,’ said The Kid. ‘Do we leave them or take them with?’

‘Let’s go,’ said Sam.

‘We’re gone.’

48

The Kid scampered down the length of the carriage, almost on all fours, keeping low. Sam followed. The Kid had broken the window in the door at the end. The glass in the door of the next carriage was also broken. Sam looked at the gap between the carriages – he thought he might just be able to squeeze down there. He caught The Kid’s eye. The Kid glanced at Rhiannon and shook his head.

There was no way she’d fit.

Instead, The Kid laid his piece of cardboard over the jagged lower edges of both windows and wriggled through.

He turned in the opening and grinned back at the others, beckoning them to follow.

Sam helped Rhiannon along the carriage, leaving Jason and Claire crying behind them. Rhiannon was struggling to catch her breath and wheezing horribly. They made it to the window, though, and Rhiannon climbed up on to the cardboard.

It took forever to get her across. Bravely, she didn’t make a sound, though Sam could see that it was agony for her, what with her infected lungs and her wasted legs. But she struggled on, and, with the Kid pulling and Sam pushing, she at last got through both windows and into the next carriage.

Sam jumped up after her and wriggled through without any trouble. He was so intent on helping Rhiannon that he barely noticed his own aches and pains.

As soon as Sam put his feet down The Kid was off and moving.

This carriage, which Sam had caught glimpses of when Nick had let him go to the toilet, was used as a storeroom. All the pathetic bits and pieces that Nick and Rachel had collected from underground were in here. Chairs and tables with the tube logo on them, some tools, crates filled with bits of scrap metal and wood, coils of wire, piles of old newspapers and magazines.

The children hurried down the central aisle, half dragging Rhiannon, until they got to the doors at the far end where there was more broken glass strewn on the floor. The Kid scraped it aside with his trainers and once again laid the cardboard across the sharp edges of the window frames.

They repeated the same manoeuvre as before, but it was even harder this time. Rhiannon seemed weaker and more breathless. Sam remembered helping his mum to put his duvet back in its cover after it had been washed, how the duvet was big and floppy and wouldn’t go where you wanted it to. It was the same with Rhiannon, trying to somehow shove her up and through the narrow gap.

Sam was sweating and tired out when they finally got her through and she landed with a nasty thump on the other side. He quickly hopped up after her, though, and clambered across.

They settled Rhiannon on a seat and she rested. Sam looked around. This carriage was where Nick and Rachel kept spare food. Cans mostly, but some packets, filled with fruit, vegetables, meat, puddings, fruit juice and soup. There was even a separate stack of dog and cat food.

‘Where’d they get it all?’ asked Sam.

‘Some of the under-the-ground stations they got shops in them, gyms, clubs, all sorts, you poke about down here, baby, you’d be amazed at what you turn up. Mark my words.’

‘So much stuff,’ said Sam. ‘Surely they don’t need any more. Maybe you were both wrong. Maybe they weren’t going to eat us.’

‘They were looking through a telescope,’ said The Kid. ‘Looking ahead. And they has a plan. Fatten you up on the stuff they don’t want to eat, then eat you when you’re ripe and juicy.’

‘I feel sick,’ said Rhiannon.

‘Don’t sit there like a lazy lump feeling all sorry for yourself,’ said The Kid, and he pulled her to her feet. ‘We’ve got work to do.’

He hurried her along the carriage, Rhiannon grumbling every step of the way.

‘This next one’s not so pretty,’ said The Kid as they approached the window.

Sam could smell it before he got there. The sweetness of decay, mixed with a salty, meaty pong.

‘We’re nearly out,’ said The Kid. ‘Next carriage is the last. I’ve opened the doors at the end. We can get off the train, so we can.’

This time Sam honestly didn’t think they were going to make it. He was sure Rhiannon was going to get stuck halfway and they’d all be trapped down here. The poor girl was weeping and every movement made her gasp. But they at last managed it. She was through to the last carriage. Sam struggled after her. Slower this time, feeling the tiredness in his bones and muscles.