rare smile as she stepped through the doorway.
James thought fast and gave his sister a shove. ‘Wait for me outside.’
Lauren didn’t know what her brother was up to, but didn’t argue. After everyone was out of the nursery and as Georgie reached to shut the metal door, James spun around in the doorway and dashed back towards the bathroom.
‘Just a sec.’
‘For crying out loud,’ Georgie said irritably. ‘Can’t you hold it in for five minutes? I want to lock up and get moving.’
‘I’m really busting,’ James said as he ran into the bathroom.
James looked around for a weapon. The porcelain lid over the toilet cistern looked ideal. It was up near the ceiling, so that little hands couldn’t fiddle with it. James balanced on the toilet seat as he slid it off, making a grating sound that sent a chill down his back.
‘Come on,’ Georgie shouted after a minute. ‘What are you playing at in there?’
‘Can’t you stop being such a moody cow for once?’ James shouted back. ‘You’re so damned ugly; I bet you’ve never had a man near you.’
A brighter person might have seen through James’ ruse, but Georgie was a hothead who had very little going on in the brains department.
‘You’d better watch that tongue, young man,’ Georgie yelled as she bowled into the bathroom.
James stepped out from behind the open door. The cistern lid weighed a ton and it strained James’ biceps as it smashed into the back of Georgie’s head. It didn’t knock her out, but she lost her footing and toppled like a great tree, so stunned that she didn’t even put out her arms to save herself. As Georgie moaned, James grabbed the gun off her shoulder. He couldn’t help grinning as he stepped over her legs and slammed the bathroom door: Georgie took such delight in being mean to kids that he reckoned she totally deserved a taste of her own medicine.
He ran into the corridor, pulled shut the reinforced metal door and turned the key in the lock. Lauren, Rat and the little kids were waiting.
‘What happened to Georgie?’ Joseph asked, as they turned the buggies around and set off briskly towards the sewer. ‘Why have you got her gun?’
The two little lads were old enough to understand some of the Survivors’ beliefs. James knew they’d start going nuts if they realised they weren’t really heading for the church, but he couldn’t think up a good excuse.
Fortunately Rat butted in. ‘We discovered that Georgie’s a devil,’ he explained. ‘James had to deal with her.’
Joseph and Ed broke into big smiles. ‘She’s always so mean to us,’ Joseph said.
Rat nodded. ‘Exactly. Someone that horrible couldn’t really be an angel.’
This explanation proved very satisfactory to the two small boys, who’d been terrorised by Georgie their whole lives. The three toddlers, one pushed by Rat and two by Lauren, were asleep. As the buggies clattered rapidly over the tunnel floor, James dropped behind, so that Joseph and Ed didn’t overhear his attempts to radio Chloe.
‘No signal,’ James said, looking at Lauren when he caught up.
While James had fallen behind, Ed had started asking questions about why they were going the wrong way. He was only seven, but he’d lived in the Ark his whole life and he knew the way to the Holy Church.
As ever, Rat proved the master of excuses as he turned his buggy off the main underground walkway and into a gloomy tunnel that had a mass of explosive sticks wired up in its entrance.
‘The soldiers are really close, Ed,’ Rat said. ‘They’ve taken over some of the Ark, so we’ve got to take a really long way around. Don’t worry though, I know these tunnels. Once we get under the church you’ll be safe.’
The corridor ended at the base of a spiral staircase. James gave Lauren a filthy look as he picked Annabel and Martin out of the double buggy. It was a huge palaver, taking the toddlers out of the buggies, folding them up, carrying them up the stairs, unfolding the buggies again and then putting the three toddlers back in their seats and doing the whole thing gently so as not to wake them up.
Unfortunately, Rat misjudged a step and stumbled as he carried Joel. The blond-haired kid woke with a start and realised that he was in a strange place in the arms of a strange person. It was all the excuse he needed for a good scream up.
As they set off again, Joseph pushed the empty