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me!  Somebody, please!”
    Nick glanced across the road to see a woman racing
across one of the lawns.  He recognised her as the middle-aged blonde that
lived opposite.  He’d rarely spoken to her, but he was pretty certain her
name was Lara. 
    Now she was running towards him with the looming spectre
of a man – possibly her husband – close behind her. 
    Nick stood still and watched in confusion.  “What’s
wrong, Lara?” he asked her once she got close enough.  “Are you okay?”
    But it was clear the woman was not okay. 
Her eyes were wide and bloated with fear.  A ragged gash ruined the left
side of her face.  It looked like a bite mark.
    “My…my husband.  He’s trying to kill me. 
Please, you have to help m-”
    Lara’s husband barrelled into the back of her, crushing
her up against Nick’s car.  From across the roof of the vehicle, Nick
watched in stunned silence as a domestic disturbance commenced right in front
of him. 
    He’s going to bloody well kill her if he’s not
careful.
    Nick had seen enough and raced around the car, ready to
intervene.  Lara’s husband had pinned her to the floor and was clawing at
her neck and face.  She screamed and writhed, batting away the attacks as
best she could.  But it was a battle she was losing.  He husband was
twice the size.
    Nick thrust out both his arms and managed to shove
Lara’s husband off of her.  “What the hell are you playing at?” he
demanded of the man.  “You ought to be bleedin’ locked up.”
    The man came at Nick without a word, squashing him
against his car.  The bodywork crumpled under the impact.  Nick shook
his head and tried to get to grips with the situation.  The man was bigger
than him by about half a foot and the extra leverage was all it took for his
arms to give way.  With each passing second, the crazed man managed to
bring his snarling face a little bit closer.
    The nutter’s trying to bite me.
    Just like Deana.
    Nick thought about the bite mark on Lara’s face and
realised that her husband had obviously been the one to bite her.  He
looked down at her now and saw that she was scurrying away on her rump. 
He shouted for her to help, but she shook her head and continued backing away.
    Thanks for nothing.
    With no other obvious option, Nick performed, for the
first time in his life, a head butt.  His forehead connected firmly with
his attacker’s nose and something stiff cracked and became soft, but the bigger
man did not release his grip.  Nick’s arms continued to grow weak as his
attacker’s jaws got closer and closer.
    After the head butt, the bigger man’s features had
become a mashed-up canvas of blood and pus.  It was then that Nick
realised that whatever had taken a hold of the man’s senses was the same thing
that had seized Deana and James.  The man was beyond reason or
retreat.  The man was suffering with the same sickness as Nick’s family.
    “Let go of me,” Nick pleaded, knowing it would do no
good as his arms began to bend at the elbows.  Jagged teeth snapped shut
mere inches from his face.  The smell of rancid breath became
nauseating.  But, just when he expected to feel the agonising crunch of
being bitten, the weight in his arms fell away.  He was once again free.
    “You can’t mess around with these people,” someone said.
 It was the cankerous old man that lived in the detached bungalow at the
end of the road.  The one who was always complaining about people parking
on the curb in front of his house.  “You got to beat ‘em down, right away,
before they get their teeth into you.”
    Nick was doubled over and gasping for breath.  He
noticed the blood-soaked golf club clutched in the old man’s gnarled
fists.  The wood was clumped with hair and what might have been brain
matter.
    “You…you can’t just cave people’s skulls in like
that.  That man was sick.  He needed our help.”
    “You’re a naïve fool.  These people aren’t
sick.  Don’t you