We’ve found the city.

And unlike everywhere else we’ve seen, it appears untouched by the bombs. In fact, at first glance it looks as if an entire district from the other side of the fence has been picked up and dumped in the middle of the Wilderness. Then I see what is missing. Colour, lights, movement. There are no fresh green parks, no lit-up signs and no cars or buses winding along the many roads beneath us.

This is a city of absence.

As we make our way down the hill I can see that many of the buildings have fallen into disrepair; even so, this is the first place that we have seen that is still recognisable as what it once was. I don’t see any of the super-sized craters here. This place seems to have got off lightly. The inhabitants were lucky. Although, that’s not how I would describe anyone still living in this lost city.

Walking the empty streets makes my skin prickle. The whole place is awash with whispering ghosts. I can almost see them coming out of their houses, walking down the street, stepping into a shop.

But it’s the living inhabitants who scare me most. I’m more frightened here than I have been the whole time we’ve been in the Wilderness. There are hundreds of hiding places. I imagine eyes at every window and predators around every corner.

‘Do you think there are a lot of Wilderness people here?’ I ask, looking over my shoulder.

Kay nods. ‘If I was in the Wilderness I would live here. This is the place you would look for things.’

I can only hope that no one is looking for us.

At the end of the second street there’s a corner shop. A blue-and-white striped canopy over its window has blistered and torn. The wind whips the tatters back and forth.

‘Let’s look in here for food,’ I say to Kay.

She nods.

Inside the shop, the racks of newspapers and magazines from two decades ago are untouched. Unfortunately, the rest of the shop is not. Every item of food has been removed. Looking at the stock labels on the empty shelves, it’s clear that even items like tissues and bleach have been taken.

‘Someone has been here,’ Kay says.

It’s the same in every shop we find.

‘It’s good,’ Kay insists. ‘It means the Resistance people are here. And they will have food for us.’

We walk right across the district. In the countryside the silence and emptiness wasn’t so bad, but here where I expect to see people walking and chatting and eating outside restaurants and waiting for the bus, the stillness sends a chill through me.

And yet, despite the quiet, I know there must be Wilderness people here somewhere. Occasionally, I think I see someone moving out of the corner of my eye, but every time I spin round there’s nobody there. Once, I think I hear the engine of a car in the distance, but the noise fades away before I can be certain.

There’s been no rain all day and I start to seriously worry about where we can find water. Also, it’s clear that someone – probably a lot of someones – has been using up all the resources this place has to offer. It can only be a matter of time before we bump into them. Who will we meet first – the Resistance or a pack of violent Wilderness people?

The sun is descending. I try to decide whether it’s safe to shelter in one of the buildings for the night. It would be so easy for someone to creep up and ambush us.

‘Let’s get up high and look,’ Kay says.

We climb the stairs in a block of flats.

Every door we pass has been forced open.

‘Someone has been here too,’ Kay says.

It gives me the shivers. I feel as if we’re just seconds behind someone. I press my face to a window on the third floor; laid out beneath me the city is divided up by crisscrossing roads. The rows of grey houses blend into the dusk. Nothing moves.

‘Do you think we should stay in one of these places?’ I ask.

Kay casts a fighter’s eye over the layout of the flat we’re stood in. ‘If we do we can hear if someone comes and get ready to fight.’

‘Or hide,’ I suggest.

Kay rolls her eyes at my entirely reasonable desire to avoid getting hurt and walks into the kitchen. She growls. ‘All the food is gone in this one too! People have taken all the good things in every one.’

I bite my lip. Maybe we’d be safer trying to get back to the other side of the fence.

Then, I finally see something that gives me hope. I jolt with surprise.

‘What is it?’ Kay asks.

I point out the window at a tall building in the distance.

Someone has just switched on a light.