There was no smoke from Barrowman Farm’s chimney, but even had there been it would be a colder day than this in Hell before she went in there again, even if, according to Jess, Dom Harper wasn’t so bad. The worst of them, like the creatures, were gone now. Liz, Keira, Paul, Frank – all gone. But for Jess to stand a chance, they needed Milly, assuming she or anyone else in Barsall was still alive.

They trudged over Thursdale and up on to the footpath to the Height. Just as they reached the top, the bells of St Alkmund’s began to ring.

When they saw the state of Groveley Meadow they all froze, thinking it had been a cruel trick and no one remained after all. But the bells kept ringing, so on they went: up the High Street and down Church Street – Charlotte kept her eyes determinedly ahead as they passed the Chapple house – to the church and the small crowd outside.

“Milly?” called Ellie, pushing through the lychgate.

“Ell!” Milly ran up and hugged her, then cleared her throat and stepped back. “Nice to see you, cock.”

“You too. Up to seeing a patient?”

Ernie Stasiolek had organised a few small fires in the churchyard – Charlotte doubted Madeleine would have minded – and the survivors huddled round them in small groups. No one was really talking yet; no one wanted to hear what had happened under the hill. Maybe they were afraid to, in case it wasn’t over and there was another night of hell to come.

Maybe there was, for all Charlotte knew. There were still more of the things down there; with their Dance stopped, they might want revenge. But she didn’t think so, somehow. Milly had told them about the creatures at the church. How they’d just given up, let the sun kill them. That sounded like an ending to her.

She and Ellie joined Ernie Stasiolek around a tiny fire of his own, shared out the few remaining cigarettes and smoked them, one by one. Charlotte glanced around the churchyard, at the other survivors. The faces she knew, the ones she didn’t. The ones who weren’t there, like Julie Robinson. Or Kate Beck. Charlotte had liked the girl, without ever really getting to know her. Madeleine was gone, too. Too much loss to even begin processing just now, even setting aside the very personal ones Charlotte herself had so lately sustained.

Tara Caddick came over, cradling baby Joel in one arm and supporting her mother with the other. “Hey,” Laura said.

Ernie managed a smile. “Hey yourself.”

Laura nodded towards the church. “How’s the little one doing?”

Charlotte realised she meant Jess. “Milly’s doing what she can, but…” She didn’t finish the sentence. Remembering the damage done, it seemed impossible Jess hadn’t been killed outright, let alone that she stood any chance of survival. Milly was a GP, after all, not a surgeon, and one with pitifully few resources at her command.