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and his right arm raised towards Kate in that palm-of-steel kind of way, which in reality – if Kate were about to kill him – would result in his palm being skewered just before his head.
    ‘It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m not going to kill you,’ said Amazonian warrior-esque Kate, the umbrella halted in mid air.
    ‘Everyone’s killing each other!’ he said, sobbing and drawing his knees up to his chest.
    ‘It’s okay, we’re not them. We’re not going to hurt you. We escaped from them.’
    The boy glanced up at Kate for the first time. ‘You’re not going to kill me?’
    ‘No. Those things out there – they’re not alive. They’re dead, crazy things. They’re not us anymore.’
    ‘What’s going on?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Kate, shaking her head.
    ‘One attacked my manager – started eating her!’
    ‘The woman on the floor,’ began BG, who rounded the counter to stand next to Kate, ‘that’s your manager?’
    ‘Yeah. It tore into her. There wasn’t anything I could do! Just leave me here,’ sobbed the boy, hugging his knees. ‘Don’t let them find me. I don’t want to die!’
    ‘Oh for fuck’s sake, dear,’ said the old lady as she squeezed past BG to get behind the counter. ‘None of us want to die but hiding under there and crying is not going to help anyone now, is it? Man up, dear.’
    ‘I don’t want to die!’
    ‘You won’t die. We won’t let you,’ said Kate.
    ‘But they’ll get in and they’ll get me.’
    ‘Listen,’ said BG, easing past the old lady and Kate to crouch down beside the boy. ‘You work here, right? Do you have the keys to the doors – we have them barricaded right now but I don’t know how long that will last.’
    Everyone could hear the banging that had started up at the front and back of the store and which increased in volume as more of the Dead lent their weight to the efforts of getting inside.
    ‘It’s really important we get this place locked up,’ added BG.
    ‘My manager – Jane – she…’
    ‘She has the keys?’ asked Kate.
    ‘Yeah. She’d just opened up. They’re probably in her pocket.’
    ‘I’ll get them,’ said BG. ‘And… um… I’ll put her… if she’s… you know… I’ll…’
    ‘Got it,’ said Kate. ‘Just go and do it.’
    BG stood and Kate followed him around the counter to the shop floor, leaving the boy where he cowered. BG crouched down on his haunches beside the woman and felt her neck.
    ‘She’s gone,’ he said, looking up at Kate and the others.
    He rubbed at the bridge of his nose with his left hand. Kate noticed the wedding ring. Has he wondered if his wife is okay ? thought Kate. Has it occurred to him yet that this could be happening everywhere ?
    ‘Better get those keys,’ said Kate.
    ‘On it,’ said BG. He slid a hand inside one of the pockets in the woman’s jacket, grimacing as he had no choice but to touch blood and guts.
    ‘If we get the place locked up and stay out of sight for a while–’ Kate stopped as the woman’s eyes sprang open. BG yelped with surprise and he shuffled back a little way across the floor. At the same time, Kate raised the umbrella, ready to strike. But the freshly risen Dead moved quickly and it sprang forwards and sunk its teeth into BG’s upper arm, biting through the fabric of his shirt. He yelled out with the pain.
    Screamer screamed and the old lady cried, ‘Oh oh oh!’ while Kate rammed the tip of the umbrella through the top of the Dead’s head. It slumped to the ground, properly dead.
    ‘Shit! Are you okay?’ Kate asked, kneeling down beside the injured man.
    ‘Yeah. Yeah,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘It’s just a scratch.’
    ‘It’s not just a scratch, dear,’ said the old lady. ‘That’ll leave a nasty scar. She took quite a chunk!’
    ‘I’m okay. Let’s find the bloody keys and get this place secure,’ said BG, clutching the bite with his good hand, while blood oozed through his fingers.

Chapter Four
    BG raised