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rolled into the little girl as she rattled the metal screen fully down. Safe.
    “...Daniel? Hey, we were just about to come and look for you!” I heard Ian chuckle to himself, poking his head out of the backroom. “Did you get all your beauty sleep?”
    I resisted the urge to throw my phone at his face and tell him off for not putting it on silent before leaving me to the wolves, but he'd done a good job. At the very least, Leo’s daughter Beth didn't seem too distraught in his company.
    “Funny doesn't suit you, jeez... I liked it better when you were a giant scaredy-cat.” I teased him back. I couldn't see in the light, but I'm pretty sure he tossed me the bird. I chucked my middle finger at him anyway, just to be sure.
    “...Owner's gone. He left all of his stock behind, and we’ll probably be stuck in here until it’s clear outside. Whaddaya think Beth, time for a sleepover?” As the child nodded and bounced on over to Ian, I couldn't help but notice how friendly they’d gotten with each other while I was out. As usual though, something came up that ruined the moment.
    “Okay, but can you help me find my mummy soon? I haven’t seen her since she put me in the train driver's room... She didn't want me near those people, the ones who were acting all funny.”
    Both Ian and I tensed up, and he cleared his throat with palpable guilt. “Umm... I don't know. L-Listen, you know that those funny people are... dangerous, right? You saw what happened to your daddy, and I don’t think your mum is—”
    Ian stopped himself, realising that the orphaned girl was plodding away from him mid-sentence. Her tiny hands swiped an extra-large bag of strawberry sweets from a nearby shelf, raising it far above her own head.
    “Can I have this for dinner?! Do you have any money, mister? I’ll pay you back!” She turned to me with widened puppy-eyes. I didn't know why, but her deflective innocence made me burn inside.
    It wasn't anything that she did. There were so many hard things that she needed to know, and not just about her parents. Money had no value anymore, food was a waste of space except for the basic essentials... and every day of her short life was going to be a battle against the entire population of our country.
    That lesson was for another day, though. In that moment, I’d already had enough to deal with over the past twelve hours. Breaking a motherless child’s spirit could always wait until the morning.
    “...Tell you what... You just take anything you want. We'll have a big fancy meal before we all go to bed, and I'll leave the money for the cashier tomorrow morning. Okay?”
    I faked a smile for her as she beamed brightly and collected a dozen more bags of sugary snacks. Not exactly useful like dehydrated food, tinned cans and bottles of water. It'll do for a brat, though.

9 | First Night
     
    I never expected that first night to be so peaceful. We were just three strange kids, getting to know each other as we huddled around a makeshift iron-basket fireplace. Trying to stay warm, we kept the low embers fuelled with nearby newspapers and gas from the lighters.
    Our sad little group munched on crisps, drank way too many soft drinks and told funny stories about ourselves and the people we once knew. Brave faces ricocheted across from each other, trying not to show the underlying fear between the cracks.
    If only for a few hours, everyone stopped trying to rationalise the impossible things we saw that day. It was best to pretend that we were camping, that the occasional rustle of litter outside was 'just the wind'. For my own sanity, I needed that to be true.
    Beth wouldn’t stop talking about nonsense for most of the night, hopped up on sugar and trying to keep herself occupied. She told us everything about her school life — and I do mean everything — down to the seating positions of her classmates and their entire year’s homework schedule.
    We also learned about the time she painted the best picture in