Big trucks had big problems stopping quickly, and safely, and although the driver had probably done his best, it was inevitable on such a busy road that other vehicles would be sucked into the mess.

Dani hit the button to call Easton then pulled her phone to her ear as she walked through the destruction, not quite sure what to say or do first. Two of the cars caught up in the disaster were almost unrecognisable; just lumps of mangled, crumpled and jagged metal. What remained of the windows was smeared with blood from the unlucky occupants stuck inside. The other two cars had fared better; their drivers and passengers were already out of the vehicles, surveying the damage, wondering what had just happened to them, and pretty soon likely to be overcome with emotion when they realised how lucky they were to still be walking and breathing.

The call to Easton went unanswered and Dani put the phone away. A second later she heard him call out to her.

‘Dani!’

She turned to see him clambering over the fence. She locked eyes with him for a second.

‘Call for help,’ she shouted out to him before she faced back to the truck driver who was standing by his open cab. ‘We’re going to need a lot of help,’ she said more quietly, almost to herself.

The truck driver seemed the least injured of the many people involved, though by the shaky look of him he was possibly the most mentally damaged.

‘I didn’t see him,’ the driver said over and over again. His face was as white as chalk and he was shaking. ‘I didn’t see him.’

A plump balding man with rounded facial features which reminded Dani of the Fat Controller from Thomas the Tank Engine, he was talking to no one in particular, just staring at the lumps of flesh and bone that used to be a man. As well as the mess on the front of the truck there were streaks of blood and flesh and clothing stretching a good hundred yards across the tarmac behind the vehicle, glistening gruesomely in the warm evening light. The little that remained of the man formed an ugly lump that had been catapulted further down the carriageway even after the truck had finally come to a stop.

Dani reached the driver and, like him, simply stood and studied the carnage in front of her. As she’d walked across she’d expected to feel horror and shock and to be a shaking mess like the man standing next to her. What she actually felt was absolutely nothing. No emotion whatsoever. Dani was numb.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her ID which she held out in front of the truck driver, her eyes still on the remains of the man she’d been chasing moments before.

‘Honestly, I didn’t see him. I couldn’t do anything.’

‘I know. I saw.’