The Fear

‘Couldn’t have done it without you, Fi

‘Things would have been different if I’d had two arms.’

‘You go

‘I need to talk to some of them hunters, see what they think. Where I should look. If there’s any point.’

The two of them were sitting in the sun on the steps outside the museum. DogNut had his armour ready, his pack by his side and he was cleaning his sword.

‘I’m sorry you never found them,’ he said, holding the blade up to the light.

‘Yeah, well, I’m glad you found what you were looking for, Doggo.’

‘I ain’t so sure about that,’ said DogNut, and he scratched his bony head. ‘I found something, but it wasn’t what I expected. I think maybe I was supposed to have stayed at the Tower. I don’t know. Is all too deep for me. It just don’t feel right here.’

‘Are Felix and Marco going back with you?’

‘Yeah. We’ll stick together. We’re a team. Go back where we belong.’

‘And Courtney?’

‘Yeah. And Courtney.’

‘You go

‘We’ll be OK. We made a deal with Justin. Robbie’s go

‘So which way are you going back?’

‘We go

‘You sure about that?’

‘No probs. It’s a straight run to the Tower from there, and we’ll have the river protecting our right-hand side. It sucks that we ain’t got our lovely rowboat no more, but we setting off nice and early and, well – we made it here, didn’t we? We’ll make it back.’

‘Good luck,’ said Fi

‘Will do, soldier. And, remember, we all heroes now, whatever happens!’

Courtney was waiting for DogNut with Marco and Felix down near the main gates. She looked up at him, the daft boy, all ski

She smiled. She was much bigger than Brooke. She was really going to have to squeeze herself to fit in a Brooke-sized hole.

She watched as DogNut said his goodbyes to Fi

‘What was that for?’

‘You had the kind of face that was asking for it,’ he said.

‘What’s that mean?’

‘It means I’m in a good mood today, gyal. You wa

No. Courtney didn’t want to argue. Instead she kissed him back, then giggled like a five-year-old. Marco and Felix made some crude remarks and DogNut swore at them good-naturedly.

Then it was all hustle and bustle as they checked their weapons, strapped on their odd pieces of armour, slung their packs across their backs and marched over to where Robbie was chatting to his mates by the gatehouse.

‘All set?’ he asked when they walked up.

‘All set,’ said DogNut, and he gri

Robbie laughed. ‘It ain’t like that.’

‘Ain’t it? I reckon you only agreed to excort us to the river just to make sure we was really going.’

‘Well … Now you put it like that.’

‘Yeah. You know it, soldier. Just remember we might come back one day, though, screw up your life one more time.’

Robbie laughed again. ‘I like you, DogNut,’ he said. ‘You’re a mad bastard but I like you.’

‘Cool. So shall we go?’

‘We’re just waiting for one more,’ said Robbie, looking over towards the museum.

DogNut counted heads. There were three other boys and Jackson.

‘One, two, three, four, five. That’s what you said, wasn’t it? Five guys named Mo.’

‘There’s one more added on.’

‘Who is he?’

‘She.’

‘You got more like Jackson? Yeah! Now you talking. She is one mean girl.’

‘Not exactly.’

‘Who then?’

Robbie didn’t need to answer. Instead he nodded towards the museum steps where Brooke was hurrying down, a narrow, decorative sword in one hand. She had changed out of her weird, old-fashioned dress into heavy boots, jeans and sweatshirt and her hair was tied back. She had a pack ready over her shoulder.

Courtney couldn’t believe it. What was she playing at? But DogNut smiled widely.

‘You look the business,’ he said when she arrived. ‘But what you doing, girl?’

‘What’s it look like I’m doing? I’m coming with you.’

‘You joining the excort?’

‘No. Like I said, Donut, I’m coming with you.’

‘With me? How d’you mean exactly? With me?’

‘You are really special-needs sometimes, Donut. Try and keep up. I am coming to the Tower.’

Courtney felt like screaming at Brooke, telling her to stay where she belonged, but instead she just smiled. ‘That’s great,’ she said.

‘Thought you’d like to have me along,’ Brooke beamed. ‘And watch your arses for you.’

‘I’ll watch your arse.’ DogNut leered and Brooke gave him a dirty look.

‘I still don’t get it, though,’ DogNut went on. ‘I thought you liked it here. I thought this was it for you.’

‘Unfinished business,’ was all Brooke said, and she marched to the front of the group where Robbie was opening the gates. DogNut raised his eyebrows at Courtney and she gave him what she hoped was a look that said, How amusing, typical Brooke!

Yeah. Right. Typical Brooke.

She could have killed her.

58

The hunger was terrible, an intense, churning pain, as if some sharp-clawed beast had crawled down her throat in the night and was scraping at her belly from the inside. Maybe it was the squirrel she had eaten, come alive?

Could that happen?

She didn’t know. It was so hard, trying to think. There was another animal inside her head, a rat, gnawing at her brain. She moaned and rubbed her stomach. The squirrel had hardly made a difference at all. There had been so little to go round. One of the others had found a nest of mice, down in the tu

And then more had turned up.

Friends.

That was the word, wasn’t it? They were her friends. They’d been scattered by the hunters and had been wandering the streets. Now they were starting to arrive in the tu

To their queen.

But there were more mouths to feed now. If they didn’t eat again soon, and eat properly, they’d start turning on each other. She remembered eating one of her older friends. He wasn’t strong enough to fight and hunt, and he wasn’t strong enough to defend himself. He had kept them going for days.

She was all right. She had the knife. She was in charge. None of them would dare attack her.

She was their queen.

All she could do now was wait. It was like fishing: you picked your spot and you sat there and you hoped that sooner or later something would swim past.