‘You two alright?’ she asks. I nod. ‘You’re brother and sister are you?’ ‘Yeah. Our mum and dad were killed a few months back, by raiders.’ Luc feeds her the cover story we worked out earlier. ‘Oh, you poor things.’ She sits down and gives us a sympathetic smile. ‘Where are you staying?’ ‘Well, we’re looking for a place. We’ve been on the road for a while.’ ‘How old are you?’ ‘Sixteen,’ Luc lies. She turns to me. ‘Fourteen,’ I say, colouring. Obviously I’m not as good an actor as Luc. We’re banking on the fact that as we’re roughly the same ages as Freddie and Lissy, we’ll be housed with or near them. We’re also assuming that accommodation will be according to gender and so we’re prepared to be split up. That’s the part I’m dreading - being alone without Luc to back me up. I’m quickly becoming more and more in awe of him. He’s rational and practical, while I’m hot-headed and impulsive. He seems so focused and certain while I’m a mass of nerves.
