Hanging above the model were a few actual whale skeletons, looking like aliens out of some mad science-fiction film. Squashed at the end, by the blue monster’s nose, was a group of African mammals – an elephant, a giraffe, a rhinoceros. They looked like midgets next to the whales.

A voice came out of the darkness.

‘There you are. I been looking all over for you.’

Courtney kept her eyes on the dangling skeletons. She didn’t really want to talk to DogNut right now. But he came and sat next to her anyway.

‘Cool,’ he said, taking in the exhibits.

‘Did it not occur to you,’ said Courtney, ‘that maybe I didn’t want to be found?’

‘Too deep for me, girl,’ said DogNut. ‘My brain don’t work that way. I always think if there’s something to talk about you should just talk about it.’

‘There’s nothing to talk about.’

‘Ain’t there?’

‘No.’

‘Listen, I didn’t know how you felt about me, Courtney.’

‘And how do I feel about you then?’

‘You tell me.’

‘Go away, DogNut. It’s a waste of time.’

‘No. I really like you, Courtney, and I don’t want you to be upset. I just never thought about you like, a, you know, a girlfriend or nothing. I need to make some adjustments.’

‘Don’t bother. I changed my mind.’

‘So you did used to go for me, then?’

‘You just made me feel stupid and small and ugly.’

‘You ain’t none of them things.’

‘I ain’t small?’

‘No.’

‘You saying I’m fat?’

‘No!’ DogNut looked at Courtney. Was she joking now? He never understood girls. It was all too tricky. She’d been crying, but now she smiled.

‘I shouldn’t be angry at you, Doggo. There’s no reason why you should go for me. I know you came here to find Brooke.’

DogNut put his arm round Courtney.

‘It’s complicated, innit?’ he said. ‘On top of everything else – trying to find food and water and keep warm, trying not to get eaten by sickos – on top of all that we got to go through all the same old same old, girlfriends-and-boyfriends and who-likes-who and how-do-I-look and does-anyone-like-me?’

‘Yeah. It’s complicated.’

‘But we still friends, yeah?’

‘Yeah,’ said Courtney, and DogNut squeezed her.

‘Cool.’

Typical boy. He probably thought that was all it took. Thought it was over. That he could carry on like nothing had happened.

‘Why you alone with the whales, anyway?’ he asked her. ‘You like whales or something?’

‘Makes you think,’ said Courtney. ‘Where we stand in the world. We ain’t top dog no more. We’re just krill.’

‘What the hell’s krill?’

‘Is what blue whales eat. I was reading the signs. They huge and that, but they just eat these, like, tiny sea insects, millions of them in one swallow, like a sort of soup.’

‘You only been here one day, girl, and already you talking like a nerd.’

Courtney shrugged.

‘So that’s all we are now?’ said DogNut. ‘Krill?’

‘Yeah,’ said Courtney. ‘We’re just insects and the sickos is like blue whales, cruising around sucking us up, swallowing us down.’

‘Nice.’ DogNut released Courtney and stood up. ‘So you gonna come back and join us humans again now?’

‘DogNut?’

‘What?’

‘I want to go home.’

‘Yeah.’ DogNut sat back down again. ‘Me too. This ain’t our world, babes. We should leave it to Brooke.’

‘You mean you’d leave her behind? After everything?’

‘Yeah. Why not? She ain’t interested in me. Let’s go back, the two of us, where we belong.’

‘Yeah. Let’s do that.’

Maybe there was still hope.

48

The strangers had got into the building. Something had alerted them, and, made braver by the darkness, they’d given up on the cat and wandered across the road. They’d climbed in through the downstairs windows, and Jester and Alfie could hear them on the stairs, approaching the door to the flat.

Alfie was panicking, turning to Jester for reassurance. Jester didn’t have much more of an idea than Alfie about what to do, though. The two of them had waited at the window all afternoon, hoping the strangers would give up and go away. Now it was too late.

The door to the flat was at the bottom of a short flight of stairs. The boys heard the first crash as the strangers reached it. It felt like the whole flat shook, and after the hours of silence it sounded horribly loud. Jester lit a candle and cautiously crept down to inspect the door, Alfie following, tucked in behind him for protection. They’d locked and bolted the door when they came in. Like most London flats there was heavy security. The door itself, however, didn’t look very strong. The big house had been divided up into several poky flats, and not a great deal of money had been spent on the building work.

As the strangers pounded on the door, it bulged and cracked in its frame.

‘Jesus, Jester, what do we do?’ Alfie said, still whispering, even though it made no difference now.

‘We can hold them off for a while,’ said Jester, putting the candle down on the stairs.

‘Yeah? And then what?’

‘Then we …’ Jester shrugged. ‘We fight them off?’

‘All of them?’

‘Have you got a better plan?’

‘You’re the one supposed to be in charge,’ Alfie whined, staring fixedly at the woodwork. ‘Do something. Think of something. You’re supposed to be clever.’

There was an almighty thump followed by an animal growl and a split appeared down the edge of the frame where it was starting to come away from the wall.

‘We should have looked for another way out,’ said Alfie, staring at the frame. ‘While there was still time.’

‘I’m not used to this,’ Jester protested.

‘Shadowman would have known what to do,’ Alfie said bitterly. ‘We should never of left him.’

‘Stay here,’ said Jester, snapping into action at last and bounding up the stairs. ‘Push as hard as you can against the door – don’t let them force it in.’

‘All right,’ said Alfie, thankful to be told what to do at last. He leant his weight against the door, felt the vibrations through the wood as the strangers on the other side hammered it. He swallowed hard, feeling like he was going to be sick. It made it all too horribly real, feeling the strangers throw their bodies against the door – it was like he was actually touching them. Only a few millimetres of pine separated them.

He prayed that Jester would hurry up.

How many of them were out there? They’d counted nine to begin with, but as night had fallen they’d been joined by more and more of their kind as they emerged from their dens to go hunting under the cover of darkness.

He slowly leant forward and put his ear to the door. Now he could hear their grunts and sniffs and hissing breath. Their frenzied scrabbling movements as they fought each other to get to the door.

‘Hurry up, Jester!’

He jerked back as there came an even heavier thump. His arms were shaking, his hands slippery with sweat.

‘Jester …’

‘I’m here!’

There was a clatter as Jester came down the stairs carrying two kitchen chairs. Together they quickly wedged them between the door and the stairs, jamming the legs against the steps.

‘That’ll help,’ said Jester.

‘We need more,’ said Alfie. ‘We need to block the stairs completely.’

‘OK. OK …’

‘But, Jester, even that won’t hold forever. You saw what they were like with that cat. They won’t give up. They’ll get in eventually, or we’ll starve to death, or, I don’t know what, but we have to have a better plan …’

Jester thought for a moment, running his fingers through his shock of stiff, wiry hair. ‘I’ll look for some more stuff to block the stairs,’ he said, trying to sound calm.

Alfie nodded. ‘OK.’

‘And I’ll look for another way out. A window, or something. We’re not that high up.’

‘Yeah. Good. But you should have looked before. You let us get trapped here.’