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HarperCollins Children’s Books First published in paperback in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2010 HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF Visit us on the web at www.harpercollins.co.uk Visit Barry at www.barryhutchison.com Text copyright © Barry Hutchison 2009 Barry Hutchison reserves the right to be identified as the author of the work. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. Ebook Edition © 2009 ISBN: 9780007358274 Version 2018-06-27 To Fiona. My best friend (real, not imagined). Will you marry me? Table of Contents
Chapter Two — A Forgotten Friend
Chapter Three — Ghosts of The Past
Chapter Six — Trapped Like Rats
Chapter Seven — The Best Form of Defence
Chapter Eight — Moving The Donkey
Chapter Nine — The Darkest Corners
Chapter Ten — The First Meeting
Chapter Eleven — The Boy in Blue
Chapter Thirteen — A Note from The Past
Chapter Fourteen — Revelations
Chapter Sixteen — Where It All Began
Chapter Seventeen — Water Water Everywhere
Chapter Nineteen — A Fight to The Death
What had I expected to see? I wasn’t sure. An empty street. One or two late-night wanderers, maybe. But not this. Never this. There were hundreds of them. Thousands. They scuttled and scurried through the darkness, swarming over the village like an infection; relentless and unstoppable. I leaned closer to the window and looked down at the front of the hospital. One of the larger creatures was tearing through the fence, its claws slicing through the wrought-iron bars as if they were cardboard. My breath fogged the glass and the monster vanished behind a cloud of condensation. By the time the pane cleared the thing would be inside the hospital. It would be up the stairs in moments. Everyone in here was as good as dead. The distant thunder of gunfire ricocheted from somewhere near the village centre. A scream followed – short and sharp, then suddenly silenced. There were no more gunshots after that, just the triumphant roar of something sickening and grotesque. I heard Ameena take a step closer behind me. I didn’t need to look at her reflection in the window to know how terrified she was. The crack in her voice said it all. ‘It’s the same everywhere,’ she whispered. I nodded, slowly. ‘The town as well?’ She hesitated long enough for me to realise what she meant. I turned away from the devastation outside. ‘Wait…You really mean everywhere, don’t you?’ Her only reply was a single nod of her head. ‘Liar!’ I snapped. It couldn’t be true. This couldn’t be happening. She stooped and picked up the TV remote from the day-room coffee table. It shook in her hand as she held it out to me. ‘See for yourself.’ Hesitantly, I took the remote. ‘What channel?’ She glanced at the ceiling, steadying her voice. ‘Any of them.’ The 
