Ebenezer was praying. Silently. Some kids took the piss out of you if you prayed out loud. It was the only thing that gave him any courage. Sending up a little message to God. Asking the old man to watch over him, to let Christ’s love shine down on him. Surely he deserved it. Not those freaks out there. Those abominations, they were against everything God believed in. They were possessed, taken by demons. He was God’s instrument now.

He fingered the little silver crucifix he wore around his neck under his top.

I am a soldier of Christ, he thought. He will be my shield.

‘Do it.’

Kyle was gripping his battleaxe, pumped up and ready to go. He didn’t care how many of them were out there. He didn’t think like that. Didn’t really have much of an imagination. He could see the ones at the windows – he would deal with them first. They would be the first to die.

And then …

Let it come down. See what happened next. Deal with it.

It would be him and Ed, side by side, like it had always been, ever since they’d teamed up at the battle of Lambeth Bridge. All Kyle had had as a weapon back then was his trusty garden fork. It had been enough. The two of them had slaughtered the sickos. No problem. It had been a blast. And there had been an army of them then as well. It would be no different tonight. They’d cut their way through and show those sickos who was boss.

He was ready.

Ready for anything.

He made a face at the window-lickers. Gave them the finger and swore at the stupid bastards.

‘Kiss my axe,’ he whispered and laughed.

‘Do it.’

Lewis was studying his shotgun, making sure the safety catch was off, checking the two triggers, one behind the other, so there were no snags. One pull for the first barrel, another pull for the second. He’d never fired a shotgun before, but had seen enough films and played enough computer games to understand the concept. It was pretty straightforward. Not a lot to go wrong. As long as he remembered to keep the butt tight to his shoulder. He’d seen a million hilarious YouTube clips of people firing guns who didn’t know how to hold them right. Got smashed in the teeth, knocked over, knocked out.

He knew the kick these things had.

Two pulls.

Bam-Bam …

And then what? There were four other kids in the car and he’d only ever been in a proper fight with one of them before. Ebenezer. A good missile merchant. A key member of Ollie’s team from Waitrose. This was going to be a dirty fight, though, close up, a melee, no room for fancy long-range missile tactics.