‘It’s taking us off the safe routes,’ said Oskar, his voice full of alarm.

‘The safe routes, as you may have just noticed,’ said Nadia, her voice terse, ‘appear to be wildly inaccurate. So I don’t think that’s going to matter a great deal, do you?’

Nadia swung across the road, sending more bodies flying. I saw one of the creatures, her back broken and her mouth wide with pain, flailing as she struggled to pull herself upright on useless legs. Others crawled or moved weakly. Then they were gone behind us, Nadia slaloming the vehicle from side to side to catch more bee-brains as they lurched into our path. Every time we turned into a street too densely packed with bodies, both myself and Oskar picked off any that got too close until our ears sang from the thunder of bullets.

We swerved around yet another corner that was partly blocked by fallen masonry, but was miraculously devoid of bee-brains. I stared at the map, unable to figure out where the hell we were any more. Nadia slowed again to negotiate her way past the debris.

Lucky howled softly in my ear, so close that my neck was damp from her breath. I turned to try and reassure her just as something enormous fell out of the sky, slamming into the bonnet of the SUV and starring the windscreen’s armoured glass.

Nadia sent us accelerating backwards at speed, to try to get out of range of whatever had collided with us, but she miscalculated; the SUV hit something that sent its rear bouncing high into the air fast and hard enough that the car came back down on its side. As the car rolled, I caught a momentary glimpse of an enormous chunk of masonry, not much smaller than the car itself, slowly rolling to a halt.

I wondered distantly where it had come from. My seatbelt was the only thing keeping me from collapsing on top of Nadia, who was now beneath me. I coughed and swallowed, tasting blood. I had bitten my tongue.

Lucky whimpered mournfully from behind me. When I turned to look, I saw she was half-standing on her owner, who was struggling to be free of his own seatbelt.

For a moment, I feared the worst; I had seen Nadia’s head slam into the dashboard, and she wasn’t moving. Then, without warning, she groaned and tried to sit up, her hand reaching for the wheel.

‘Forget that,’ I said, swallowing blood. ‘We’ve got to get out of here.’

‘Can’t walk home,’ she said thickly. She pressed the ignition, but nothing happened.