“We can’t ever let them leave here,” Sammi said, staring past Angela. The Kin were advancing, but slowly. The dog-creature sniffed at the ground, drifting left and right and picking up their trail. The winged Kin looked at its feet as it walked, glancing up occasionally to look for them, shielding its eyes against the midday sun. Now that they were closer, they frightened Angela even more. Even the cruellest Kin she had seen displayed a level of intelligence in its features, signs of consciousness and self-awareness that often belied its appearance. These two Kin were skeletal and denuded, slavering and grunting, like rabid animals resurrected to seek a fresh kill.

“What do you mean?” Angela asked.

“Look at them. If they get out into the valley or beyond, what do you think will happen?”

“She’s right,” Bone said. “They might still be infectious.”

“After all this time submerged in water and muck?” Angela asked.

“In their bodies,” he said. “Blood, saliva, piss, other fluids.”

“Oh, great,” Angela said. “Thanks for this, Lilou.”

“So we have to trap them,” Sammi said. She nudged Lilou. “You’re bait.”

“Me?” Lilou said, but she smiled at Sammi, as if proud.

“Trust me.” It was obvious from Sammi’s voice that she did not trust herself.

“They’re closer,” Bone said. “They know we’re here.”

Angela felt a rush of emotions. Sorrow for what Sammi had been through, losing her parents so young and plunged into a strange, dangerous world. Sadness at her own predicament, her comfortable life torn apart forever, the love of her life a universe away. Most of all fear for this young girl who was changing in ways none of them yet understood.

And fear of her.

“I trust you to try,” Angela said.

“What about Mohserran?” Lilou asked.

“Still down there,” Bone said. “He... I think he let me pass.”

“Let you? Why?”

“Later,” Bone said, nodding past her. “Look.”

The dog-Kin had reached the first ruined building and was sniffing at it, digging its nose hard into the dried, cracked surface and emerging with damp mud on its tip. It looked something like a dog, but no dog Angela had ever seen.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Werewolf,” Bone said, sounding sad. “Stuck in its change. Francine only ever used to hunt rabbits.”

“Back this way,” Sammi said. “We need to lure them into Longford and find somewhere to trap them.”

“You’re sure you can do that?” Lilou asked, but Sammi did not reply.

They followed Bone back between the grey mounds of fallen buildings. The landscape of the old town offered more places to hide, and they moved quickly and quietly.

Behind them, one of the Kin howled. It was a broken, gargled scream, the first noise from the throat and mouth of something that had been put down almost four decades before. But it was not a feeble sound. It sang of fury.