Macca screamed and groaned. There was a gush of bright red blood. And then Lewis was moving fast. He was closest. He smashed a fist into the side of the father’s face. His jaws were wide apart and Lewis felt the lower jaw break, teeth come loose. Then Lewis grabbed one of his arms and yanked him down from the roof.

The father flopped to the floor with a wet thwack. And now Kyle was there. He swung his axe at him and got him in the neck, nearly cutting his head off; another swing and the head rolled free.

Macca had dropped to his knees and was clutching his bleeding throat. He was sobbing and raving, his voice sounding strangled, like he was drowning in his own blood.

‘Oh Jesus, oh Jesus, no, not this, oh, help me, Jesus, help me, Mum.’

Brooke went to his side and held on to him, looking round at the others with a helpless expression. Meanwhile, Ed had dropped his bag to the ground and unzipped it, dug out a first-aid kit. He unscrewed the top from a bottle of disinfectant, pulled Macca’s hands away from his wound and splashed liquid over it that caused Macca to hiss and groan. Then Ed ripped open an antiseptic bandage wrapper, pulled a white, square wad out of it and pressed it to Macca’s neck.

‘Hold this,’ he said to Brooke, already scrabbling to open a bottle of painkillers.

Lewis was impressed by how quickly and expertly Ed did all this. He went to the car and checked the roof rack, making sure there were no more of the bastards up there. It was clean. He freed up his spear, a short wooden pole with a sharpened end, and grabbed one of Ebenezer’s javelins and chucked it over to him. Lewis had his katana in the car, but he still preferred the spear. He was scared of the Japanese sword, worried it would cut him worse than his enemies.

Macca had gone very white and was shaking. Lewis had seen enough when Ed had pulled Macca’s hands away to know that the sicko had chomped a fair-sized chunk out of him. Ed forced some pills into Macca’s mouth and Brooke made him swallow some water from a plastic bottle.

‘You’ll be all right,’ she said. ‘You’ll be OK.’

‘Will I?’ said Macca. ‘You’re not lying to me.’

‘You’re all right.’

‘Oh my God, we should have known.’ Trinity had got out of the car. They stood there, not sure what to do, rubbing their hands.

Ed was staring over at the building. ‘We need to get him inside,’ he said.

‘We don’t know what is in there,’ said Ebenezer.