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Authors: Charlie Higson
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go.’
Achilleus threw him away. ‘Next time you tell a joke make sure it’s a funny one, yeah?’
‘Yeah …’
‘Hello, Einstein,’ said Brooke. ‘You really know how to make friends, don’t you?’
Einstein rubbed his neck and swallowed.
‘I only came in to tell you that Justin’s called a special meeting. He wants everyone there now, in the Hall of Gods.’
‘We’ll come when we’re ready,’ said Achilleus.
12
Maxie was sitting next to Blue in what the local kids had named the Hall of Gods, but which was actually only a side entrance area of the museum. There were star charts and images of the planets painted on the polished black walls that rose some thirty metres to the roof, where dim blue light washed down through tinted windows. At the back was a long escalator that led up through a rusty iron globe into the darkness of an upper floor.
Lined up along either side of the hall were six white statues lit by candles, and in the underwater glow from the high windows they looked weird and slightly sinister. There was a Cyclops, a gorgon with snakes for hair, a scientist, an astronaut, Atlas holding up the world, and the figure of a man that looked like it might be God. Maxie supposed they were meant to represent the advance of human knowledge about the world and how it worked. She wondered whether they ought to add another statue – of a diseased grown-up.
There were kids lined up on chairs as if ready for a show, but Justin was keeping them waiting. Maxie hoped they hadn’t stumbled into the arms of another David. There was certainly a similar atmosphere here to the one at the palace. An attitude that said that the way these kidsdid things was the right way and the way everyone else did things was wrong.
She felt on edge, her eyes were sore and she kept seeing shapes and flickers in her peripheral vision caused by tiredness. After the adrenalin-fuelled events of last night, and a morning spent dragging bodies out into the sunlight, she felt drained and irritable. So she wasn’t really enjoying the pantomime.
Well, they didn’t get everything right, did they? Otherwise Maxie and her friends wouldn’t have spent half the night dealing with grown-ups. They’d arrived here right in the middle of a bloody battle, for God’s sake. And somebody had let those grown-ups in, which meant that at least one person in the museum was seriously twisted.
So she hoped there weren’t going to be any speeches about how great life was here. She might just throw up. The best leader she’d ever known was Arran, and the best set-up was the one they’d had in Waitrose. She supposed they’d had no choice but to leave. Food was running low, the grown-ups’ attacks were getting more frequent, and the two facts were probably related. Even so, Maxie looked back fondly on her time in the supermarket, and she missed Arran desperately. She’d been badly shaken up by his death and had had to take on the role of leading the Waitrose kids. She wasn’t really ready for that, and was glad she’d made friends with Blue, who shared leadership duties with her. She didn’t think she could carry everything by herself.
She wondered what this new bunch of kids had to offer. Would she make any friends here? She looked around at them, trying to read their faces. Brooke was sitting next to her, but otherwise the locals kept to themselves and didn’t mix with the new arrivals.
She realized that quite a few of them were wearing weird costumes, as if they were extras from some old BBC drama series, or a Keira Knightley film. Nothing much surprised Maxie any more. In the last few days she’d seen a lot of weird behaviour. Left to themselves the kids of London were going nuts. For the last year the supermarket had been her whole world. She hadn’t thought much about what existed outside. She’d been too busy getting on with the day-to-day business of staying alive. It was clear that there were far fewer grown-ups in this part
Achilleus threw him away. ‘Next time you tell a joke make sure it’s a funny one, yeah?’
‘Yeah …’
‘Hello, Einstein,’ said Brooke. ‘You really know how to make friends, don’t you?’
Einstein rubbed his neck and swallowed.
‘I only came in to tell you that Justin’s called a special meeting. He wants everyone there now, in the Hall of Gods.’
‘We’ll come when we’re ready,’ said Achilleus.
12
Maxie was sitting next to Blue in what the local kids had named the Hall of Gods, but which was actually only a side entrance area of the museum. There were star charts and images of the planets painted on the polished black walls that rose some thirty metres to the roof, where dim blue light washed down through tinted windows. At the back was a long escalator that led up through a rusty iron globe into the darkness of an upper floor.
Lined up along either side of the hall were six white statues lit by candles, and in the underwater glow from the high windows they looked weird and slightly sinister. There was a Cyclops, a gorgon with snakes for hair, a scientist, an astronaut, Atlas holding up the world, and the figure of a man that looked like it might be God. Maxie supposed they were meant to represent the advance of human knowledge about the world and how it worked. She wondered whether they ought to add another statue – of a diseased grown-up.
There were kids lined up on chairs as if ready for a show, but Justin was keeping them waiting. Maxie hoped they hadn’t stumbled into the arms of another David. There was certainly a similar atmosphere here to the one at the palace. An attitude that said that the way these kidsdid things was the right way and the way everyone else did things was wrong.
She felt on edge, her eyes were sore and she kept seeing shapes and flickers in her peripheral vision caused by tiredness. After the adrenalin-fuelled events of last night, and a morning spent dragging bodies out into the sunlight, she felt drained and irritable. So she wasn’t really enjoying the pantomime.
Well, they didn’t get everything right, did they? Otherwise Maxie and her friends wouldn’t have spent half the night dealing with grown-ups. They’d arrived here right in the middle of a bloody battle, for God’s sake. And somebody had let those grown-ups in, which meant that at least one person in the museum was seriously twisted.
So she hoped there weren’t going to be any speeches about how great life was here. She might just throw up. The best leader she’d ever known was Arran, and the best set-up was the one they’d had in Waitrose. She supposed they’d had no choice but to leave. Food was running low, the grown-ups’ attacks were getting more frequent, and the two facts were probably related. Even so, Maxie looked back fondly on her time in the supermarket, and she missed Arran desperately. She’d been badly shaken up by his death and had had to take on the role of leading the Waitrose kids. She wasn’t really ready for that, and was glad she’d made friends with Blue, who shared leadership duties with her. She didn’t think she could carry everything by herself.
She wondered what this new bunch of kids had to offer. Would she make any friends here? She looked around at them, trying to read their faces. Brooke was sitting next to her, but otherwise the locals kept to themselves and didn’t mix with the new arrivals.
She realized that quite a few of them were wearing weird costumes, as if they were extras from some old BBC drama series, or a Keira Knightley film. Nothing much surprised Maxie any more. In the last few days she’d seen a lot of weird behaviour. Left to themselves the kids of London were going nuts. For the last year the supermarket had been her whole world. She hadn’t thought much about what existed outside. She’d been too busy getting on with the day-to-day business of staying alive. It was clear that there were far fewer grown-ups in this part
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