We troop back to the high street, looking around, checking for any sign of life, but the shops remain empty and even though the sun is starting to heat up the morning, I can’t shake the chill that’s trapped inside me. Billie sniffles, wipes her nose and eyes with a hanky, then sniffles some more. Johnson has his arm around her shoulders for comfort. ‘Sorry, I’m usually tougher than this,’ she says. GG is still in his own little world of shock and has taken to changing the ringtones on his pink smartphone. ‘So much choice, so little time,’ he says quietly to no one in particular. His campness is fading away by the minute. ‘I spoke to him once. Lucas. We ended up on a bus together. Nowhere else to sit so he slid in beside me,’ Carrie says. ‘I can’t remember what we talked about but I remember one thing, he was interested in buildings. He said he could fall back on a career in architecture if football didn’t work out.’ The Ape sticks close to me, his eyes scanning for danger.
