A lone crossbow bolt bounced off the roof and Ed’s team cheered. Ed twisted round in his seat to see kids at the gates waving their arms and shouting at them, throwing stones and javelins.

‘Idiots,’ said Ebenezer.

‘Luckily,’ said Ed. ‘Or we’d still be there.’

They drove down to the M4 where Kyle pulled over and reluctantly gave the controls back to Lewis.

Kyle kept saying, ‘I did all right. I reckon I did all right.’ And no matter how many times Ed agreed with him, he carried on saying it, probably in the hope that he would be allowed to keep on driving the car.

Ed was trying to study the map, using the reading light. He had no idea how late it was. It had been particularly sadistic of Josa to keep them waiting until it got dark.

‘Where we heading then, boss?’ Kyle asked.

‘I think we’re gonna have to go back to the old folks’ home.’

‘Whaaaat?’

The car was filled with noisy complaints.

‘What else can we do?’ Ed protested. ‘It’s late, it’s dark. At least we’ve found out a bit about the other settlements.’

‘Yeah,’ said Brooke sourly. ‘From what I can make out, there’s six groups of kids round here, in Windsor, Slough, Sandhurst, Maidenhead, Bracknell and Ascot, and they all hate each other’s guts.’

‘So it’s not a great idea to be rocking up in the middle of the night,’ Ed pointed out. ‘We’ll go back to Amelia’s and start out again tomorrow – avoiding Slough – pretend today never happened.’

‘No way,’ Kyle shouted. ‘We’ve gotta have something to show for all that crap.’

‘What difference does it make?’

‘I’m with Ed,’ said Lewis. ‘We ain’t gonna achieve nothing driving around in the dark like this. We start again tomorrow. In the light.’

Kyle swore. In the end he always did what Ed told him, though, so despite constant grumbling they drove west along the M4 towards the next junction. Above them the red moon hung in the sky.

‘We’ll be back in less than ten minutes,’ Ed tried to soothe Kyle.

They left the M4 and headed north on the country roads. Until Ed saw something ahead, caught in the car’s headlights.

The night was going to be longer than any of them had expected.

‘Oh great,’ Lewis muttered. ‘Just what we need.’

‘What is it?’ asked Brooke, leaning forward between the front seats.

The road ahead was completely blocked by sickos.

Chapter 49

49

‘What do we do?’ asked Lewis. ‘I ain’t gonna risk driving through them. Didn’t turn out too good last time.’

‘We’ll try to get round them.’ Ed was twisting in his seat to check that the road behind them was clear.

‘Is this it?’ said Lewis. ‘The fresh wave that Mister Three warned us about?’

‘Don’t think about that,’ Ed snapped. ‘Just get us out of here.’