Could he keep his promise? Ed wondered. Did they have any hope in hell of getting across the fields to the buildings they’d seen? Or were they all going to get killed as soon as that door opened?

Only one way to find out.

‘Do it.’

Chapter 50

50

Brooke was trying not to look at the faces at the windows. Trying to pretend there was no one out there. A stroll in the park. All she had to do was follow Ed and he’d look after her and everything would be all right.

Yeah, right.

Lewis had shown her some tips on how to fight back at the museum after she’d taken him to get his Japanese armour and weapons. She’d practised with her short sword, but she wasn’t exactly an expert. And there was a whole world of difference between attacking some stuffed rubbish bags and a real human being – who moved and fought back. A few times the two of them had had mock battles using sticks and she’d always ended up dead within about twenty seconds.

OK, so Lewis was young and fit and clever and hadn’t had his brain rotted by disease. One on one with a sicko she just might stand a chance of doing some damage. But two on one, ten on one, a hundred on one?

No chance.

And it was thick with sickos out there. This was worse than Green Park. They were five kids against a sodding army. She had a lot of respect for Ed, but what she remembered of him from last year was that he’d always been slightly wary, not the first to get into a fight.

Oh Christ, girl, stop thinking. It didn’t help. She had to get out there and do it. Fear was good. Fear was OK.

She remembered Macca. Glad she’d been able to keep her promise to him at the end. Had buried him in the woods with a little stone marker that just said ‘Billy’ on it. In the last few hours he hadn’t known where he was or what was going on. He’d lost all touch with reality. Seemed almost happy. The painkillers Dr Norman had been pumping into him had obviously helped. He’d been kind of floating. Blissed out. In a dream world. What was better? To die like that, no knowing what was going on, not feeling any pain or fear? Or to be alive, right up to the last second? In the moment. Even if you were scared and in pain and desperate …

Brooke guessed the trick was not to die at all.

‘Do it.’