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way?’
    ‘You’re the only one I’d stab,’ I smirk. ‘I’d leave the others for the clown and his posse.’
    ‘Then you have been thinking about it,’ he challenges me, bristling.
    ‘I think about all sorts of things,’ I purr, baiting him, unable to resist the opportunity to get under his skin.
    ‘If you ever –’ he starts to say, raising afinger to point at me warningly.
    ‘Rage,’ Ashtat interrupts.
    ‘Don’t stick up for her,’ Rage barks. ‘We won’t have girl power here. If this little –’
    ‘Shut up,’ Ashtat says calmly, ‘and look to your right.’
    Rage glares at her but does as she commands. I see his eyes widen, so I look too.
    There are a couple of people on the street, no more than ten metres ahead of us. They’vecome out of the remains of a shop. It’s a woman and a young child. The woman is holding the child in her arms. I’m not sure if it’s a boy or a girl.
    But I’m sure of one thing, by the way their chests rise and fall, by the smell of the perfume they’ve coated themselves with, by the terror in the woman’s eyes when she spots us.
    They’re alive.

For several seconds nothing happens. We stare at the woman and her child and she stares back. The child’s face is turned into the woman’s chest. I don’t know if it’s aware of us or not.
    Ashtat lifts her hands over her head and calls out softly, ‘We’re notgoing to hurt you.’
    The woman bolts the instant Ashtat moves. Not back into the shop, where we could trap her. Instead she turns and dashes along the street.
    We start after her as a pack, acting instinctively. Carl stops us with a curt and commanding, ‘Wait!’
    As the rest of us pause, Carl jogs forward a couple of steps, then leaps. He lands not far behind the fleeing woman and immediatelybounces into the air again, like a frog. He lands a few metres in front of her and she comes to a halt. Turns frantically, looking for an escape route. She spots an open door in a building and starts towards it.
    ‘That’s not a wise move,’ Carl says calmly. ‘There could be a dozen zombies on the other side of that door.’
    The woman stops and stares at Carl. Then looks back at the rest ofus. We’re all standing still.
    ‘What are you?’ the woman gasps, taking another step away from Carl, edging closer to the door, caught in two minds.
    ‘That’s a long story,’ Carl chuckles. ‘All you need to know right now is that we mean you no harm. We’re not going to attack you. We won’t even detain you. If you’re suspicious of us and don’t want to talk, you can carry on down this streetand we won’t lift a finger to stop you. I’ll just say two words to you before you go. County Hall .’
    Carl shuffles out into the middle of the road. The woman licks her lips nervously, then starts to run. She thinks this is a trick. I don’t blame her.
    Nobody moves, even though we’ll all hate it if we lose her. I say a silent prayer that she’ll stop and look back. But then she turns a cornerand disappears from sight. I feel my spirits sinking. I look around and everyone is staring glumly at the spot where she vanished, even Rage.
    ‘Hard luck, Carl,’ Ashtat says. ‘At least you tried. I thought –’
    ‘Wait a minute,’ Carl hushes her. He’s smiling hopefully. The fingers of his left hand are flexing slowly, as if trying to beckon the woman back. I don’t think there’s any chanceof that, but I hold my peace along with the other Angels. I count inside my head, determined to give Carl the full minute he asked for. After that, I’ll tell him to forget it, we can’t win them all, maybe next time luck will be on our . . .
    The woman edges back into view. First it’s just her head, as she stares at us. Then she steps on to our street. She’s still holding the child. It’s lookingat us now and I see that’s it’s a boy. Just four or five years old, but well drilled, silent as a butterfly.
    The woman slips closer, studying the houses on either side,