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bobbling up into the air as it hit the curb. It juddered along a little farther, then thudded into the barrier.
    “Could have done with that being a little more dramatic,” Hollis grumbled, disappointed. “It’ll have to do.”
    “Should be okay,” Lorna said. She watched through the binoculars as bodies swarmed around the part of the barrier closest to the burning car. Worryingly, she was sure that one or two of them were actually trying to climb over the blockade to get closer to the flames.
    “We’ll just need to make sure we—” Hollis began to say before the quarter-full fuel tank of the burning car exploded in a swollen, incandescent mushroom of flame, showering the ground with shrapnel. The sudden burst of energy caused huge numbers of diseased creatures to surge toward the epicenter of the blast. “That’s better,” he said to himself, slamming his foot down on the accelerator.
    “Here we go, then,” Driver announced to his two passengers in his monotone, emotionless drawl. “Hold tight.” He instinctively checked his mirrors and even indicated before pulling out. Stokes and Webb held onto the handrail inside the bus as if they were rush-hour commuters on their way to work.
    Jas paused before following on the bike. The visor on his helmet still raised, he watched the bodies swarming around the fire. Many had been drawn to the flames, some had been crushed in the confusion and others had even found themselves close enough to the heat to be set alight. Others, he noticed, had changed direction. He could see six or seven of them actually trying to move away from the burning wreck. Damn things, it was almost as if they’d realized the fire was nothing more than an unsubtle decoy. Harte tapped his shoulder.
    “Come on,” he shouted, his voice muffled by his helmet. Jas flicked his visor down and powered after the bus.

 
     
    6
     
    “Almost there,” Lorna said, glancing up from the notepad and map she gripped tightly in her hand. The windscreen of the van was covered in an almost opaque film of greasy stains and dripping gore and she couldn’t see much up ahead. Hollis repeatedly tried to use the wipers but all they seemed to do was make the problem worse, smearing the foul muck from side to side in a bloody rainbow arc of insipid yellows, browns, and grays. He frantically used the screen-wash, managing to clear just enough of the glass to be able to see through. “Turn left and we’re on the Kingsway Road.”
    Hollis swerved around a tight corner, then put his foot down again as the Kingsway Road stretched out in front of them. Apart from the fact it was crowded with the dead, it didn’t look anything like he remembered.
    “What next?”
    She looked down at her notes again like the co-pilot in a surreal, obstacle-strewn rally. Her assistance was vital. The almost never-ending waves of bodies made it virtually impossible to navigate by sight alone anymore. They were frequently packed so tightly together that it was hard to see where the road ended and the curb began.
    “Keep going for half a mile, go through a set of lights, then Shaylors should be on our right.”
    “Should be on our right?”
    “ Will be on our right,” she corrected herself. A sudden thump made her jump and catch her breath as a dismembered arm (it may even have been half a leg) spiralled up from a ruckus in the crowd and thudded against the windscreen, leaving a bloody stain—a sudden splash of crimson red in the midst of the putrid yellow grays.
    “Nice,” Hollis mumbled. “They’re virtually falling apart now.”
    “Just wish they’d hurry up and get on with it.”
    Hollis glanced into his rearview mirror but couldn’t see anything clearly.
    “Are they still behind us?”
    Lorna turned around in her seat and peered along the length of the empty van to look out through the rear window. She struggled to focus—the ride was increasingly uneven as they powered through and over the dead—before finally seeing the