‘Do you think they’re all dead?’ Kay asks. ‘Or do you think the Leadership came and got them?’

I don’t point out that those two possibilities probably amount to the same thing. I need to think.

‘There must be something,’ I say. ‘Let’s look upstairs.’

We run up to the first floor and start throwing open doors. There’s no one to be found.

‘Wait a minute,’ I say and I retrace my steps and look into the room behind the last door I opened. It’s the computer room. ‘This door is normally locked. And . . .’

‘There’s no computers!’ Kay says.

‘Kay, I don’t think they were captured. I think they left.’

‘What?’

‘I think they’ve moved to another place. They took the computers with them.’

I expect Kay to smile, but instead she bites her lip. ‘Maybe the Leadership took the computers to see all the things the Resistance do on the computers.’

My shoulders sag.

‘What more things are gone?’ Kay asks.

‘There was food in the kitchen.’

‘Wouldn’t they be taking all that food, if they were leaving?’

‘Not if they were in a hurry,’ I say. ‘In fact, we shouldn’t be here. If they left, it was because they were worried that Robin had led the Leadership to this place, or even because of some other threat that we don’t know about.’

We stare at each other hopelessly.

Kay’s head jerks up. ‘I know. I know what thing they would take and the Leadership would not take.’ She strides up the next flight of stairs.

I follow more slowly. My hand is killing me again. Kay shoots into our ward. By the time I’ve reached the door she’s triumphantly waving a pillow about. ‘It’s gone,’ she says.

‘What’s gone?’

‘Robin’s bear. Only Robin would take the teddy. The Leadership would not take that.’

‘What if she took him with her this morning?’

‘No, I saw her saying goodbye to it. Robin has been back to here.’

Which I guess is enough to give us hope that the Resistance still exists.

‘We have to find them,’ Kay says.

I nod. ‘You get whatever food and water you can find from the kitchen and I’ll look in Ven’s office to see if I can work out where they’ve gone.’

On the ground floor we split again.

I only hope that they’ve left some clue, because it could take us forever to find them in the Wilderness again.

I open the door to Ven’s office and flinch.

We’re not alone.