Blue had got caught up in the collision as well, and was thrown off balance, his timing out. He was squaring up to whack the father, raising his club. Too slow. He hadn’t spotted another father coming up fast behind the first one from out of the darkness. Ollie wanted to shout a warning, but was still gasping for air, his head spinning.

Blue was going to be taken down, and it was all his fault.

Blue swung at the first father, who was ready for him and batted the club away with his arm. And then Achilleus was with them. He barged Blue aside and let the charging father run on to the point of his spear. He turned with him as he came, and twisted sideways, letting the father slide off the spear and smack head first into the ground. Achilleus hadn’t finished yet. He kept moving and punched his spear into the first father. In and out in one swift movement that killed him outright and sent him tumbling down on top of the other grown-up.

Achilleus paused long enough to pull Ollie to his feet and then carried on into the church. Ollie caught his breath. Waiting. The collision had knocked some sense into him and he’d calmed down. Achilleus was way better than him at this sort of thing. Ollie fitted a shot to his sling and went in much more cautiously after him and Blue.

The first thing he noticed when he got inside was that there were other people in here. It took him a couple of seconds to make sense of it in the gloom. A bright flame of hope burned briefly. Was it the rest of the children? The flame died as quickly as it had flared. The people were too big. They were adults. There was a large group to the right, down by the altar, and another smaller group to the left.

There were no signs of any children.

No. That was wrong. There were children in here. But they weren’t moving. Ollie saw that there were bodies all over the floor. Mangled and trampled.

He had paused just inside the doorway and was now pushed aside by more of his gang coming in from behind. He grabbed Ebenezer as he went past.

‘We’ve got to slow down,’ he said. ‘It’s not good in here.’

Ebenezer muttered a prayer and kissed the crucifix that hung on a chain around his neck.