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‘It’s as if we’re in a real-life version of Hansel and Gretel,’ Sloane remarked, watching Alice-Miranda wriggle inside the oven.

‘Good luck,’ Lucinda said. Her words were echoed by Sep and Alethea, but Madagascar just told her to hurry up.

Alice-Miranda flicked on her torch and clamped it in her mouth, then thrust her head through the opening in the wall, trusting that her shoulders would be narrow enough. As long as they were, she’d make it to the other side. Sep closed the oven door. Using all her might, Alice-Miranda pushed her feet against it, hoping that the latch would take her weight. She shoved and grunted and finally popped through, her legs snaking after her as she slithered out the other side into what appeared to be a cupboard. She stood up and peered through a gap in the door, but it was pitch black except for the torch beam. That had to be a good sign.

‘I made it,’ she whispered as loudly as she dared back to the others. Sep opened the oven door and she shone her torch back towards them.

‘Good job!’ Lucinda called.

Sep shushed her and quickly closed the door again. They couldn’t be too careful – someone could be waiting on the other side.

Cautiously, Alice-Miranda pushed open the cupboard door and stepped into a small room. It was much like a command centre with desks and other office equipment. The walls were covered in pinboards, and they in turn were covered in newspaper clippings and photographs. Threads of cotton wound tightly around pins led from one pinboard to the next, creating a spider web of sorts.

Alice-Miranda shone her torch on one of the pages and gasped when she read the headline: Father and husband killed in shopping centre blaze. Alice-Miranda scanned the article but became distracted by a photograph of her father and another of herself. She  followed the trail around to the next board, the dots slowly joining in her mind. Everything she needed to know was in this room and the more  she  read, the more she was aware of the urgency of the situation. She had to get out of here. Their lives depended on it.

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Neville Nordstrom couldn’t sleep. The children had been sent to bed after playing some inane board games, which no one had been remotely interested  in. He pushed back the covers and, as he slipped to the floor, a hand reached out of the darkness and grabbed hold of his arm.

‘Where are you going?’ Lucas whispered.

‘I can’t stay here and do nothing,’ Neville whispered back.

Vincent sat up. ‘Well, what are we doing just sitting here?’

Neville grinned. ‘I was hoping you’d say that.’

The boys quickly got dressed and put on their warmest, most waterproof clothes. They snuck out into the hallway and were stunned to find Millie, Jacinta and Chessie leaving their room across the hall at the same time. A second later, Britt Fox poked her head out from behind a door two rooms along. It seemed their operation had just tripled in size.

‘What are you doing?’ Neville whispered to Millie.

‘Going to look for them,’ the girl replied. ‘We know they went across the river, and we’ve found a trail map in our room and there’s a suspension bridge further up. We should be able to get across even if the river is flooded.’

‘Then what?’ Lucas said.

Millie shrugged. ‘Who knows, but it sure beats waiting around here.’

The others agreed. Just as they were about to leave, Caprice stepped out of her room fully dressed.

‘Where are you all going?’ she demanded.

‘Go back to bed, Caprice,’ Millie whispered.

The girl shook her head. ‘They’re my friends too.’

Millie’s eyebrows jumped up and, despite herself, she smiled. ‘Okay then, but make sure you keep quiet. I don’t need Mrs Clinch cottoning on before we’ve even left.’

Neville had checked the fire stairs prior to lights out and had planned on leaving the hotel via the service entrance. That way, the adults would be none the wiser.

Someone else seemed to have had the same idea. The figure of a woman darted from a room ahead of them and through the emergency exit. She was wearing a dark raincoat that hid her features. Intuitively, the children hung back for a minute or so.

‘Where do you think she’s going?’ Jacinta asked.

Neville shook his head, his eyes narrowing. ‘I’m not sure, but something tells me we should follow her.’