The five of them were running now, Ebenezer no longer bothering to watch their backs. They had to get to the buildings. They needed to get under cover, somewhere they could defend. Lewis knocked down a grown-up who got in his way. Ebenezer stabbed him with the point of his javelin as he leapt over the body. Brooke swiped her sword into the face of a mother who wailed as she spun away, hands over her eyes.

Up ahead Kyle’s axe was swinging like a pendulum in front of him, grunting with each swing, daring any grown-ups to come close. And right at the front was Ed, sword held high over his head, yelling a wordless chant of death. Lewis saw him swerve towards a mother, bringing his sword arcing down, and cutting her head clean off her shoulders. It flew through the air and bounced as it hit the ground.

Ed didn’t stop running.

They were going to make it. The trees were getting closer and closer.

Ed had dragged them clear and achieved the impossible.

They crashed into the treeline, scrambling through low branches, high-stepping over bushes and brambles.

And then stopped dead.

There was a three-metre chain-link fence on the other side, topped with vicious overhanging lines of razor wire.

Chapter 51

51

Lewis stared at the fence. Ed swore. No way through here.

Kyle took a swing at the fence with his axe, which sparked and bounced off harmlessly.

‘Huh!’ he said, turning to grin at the others. ‘Did you see that? Cool.’

Nobody else laughed.

No way through at all.

‘We’ll have to work our way round to the gate.’ Ed’s voice was harsh and croaky. ‘There must be a way in. Stay together, we’re doing well. Keep it up. We’ll get in there.’

‘Did you see my axe spark like that?’ said Kyle.

‘Shut up, Kyle.’ Ed strode back out into the open. Lewis followed. There was a line of grown-ups advancing towards them, strung out all the way across the field. Stumbling, moronic, relentless, only one thing on their minds. No way of reasoning with them. No way of stopping them. Ed was good, but he couldn’t kill them all.

And there was nowhere to run. Wherever they turned there would be more of them. It was like every grown-up in the world had come out tonight, under the blood-red moon.

Lewis saw a mother who seemed to be leading them. She was very tall, with long, straight, black hair that hung down to her waist. She tottered on, slightly ahead of the rest, arms straight and stiff at her sides. Her face narrow, nose like a great fin, eyes bulging and dark. They locked on Lewis and he felt a weird shiver of nausea pass through him. For a moment his fingers went all tingly and his brain buzzed. He thought he was going to faint, or throw up, or freeze …

He wasn’t there any more.