The Dead

‘In a way,’ said Wiki. ‘They want human flesh, though, not just blood.’

‘Why do you think they do?’ said Froggie, as casually as if he was discussing the eating habits of a pet guinea pig.

‘That’s a very good question,’ said Justin. ‘We should make a proper study of their behaviour. If we can understand them more, we might be able to work out better ways of defending ourselves against them, maybe even defeating them. We’re cleverer than them, so that should give us the edge.’

‘We may be cleverer,’ said Wiki, ‘but they’re stronger.’

‘Clever beats strong every time,’ said Justin, pulling a small notebook and a biro out of his pocket. ‘So let’s make a pact. We’ll use our brains to work out the best way to survive. We’ll be a brains trust.’

‘What’s a brains trust?’ asked Froggie.

‘It’s like a think tank.’

‘What’s a think tank?’

‘If we don’t even know what it means,’ said Arthur, ‘I can’t see us being the finest minds in the world.’

‘Well, we’re cleverer than that lot out there,’ said Justin.

‘You mean the zombies?’

‘They are not zombies!’

‘They’re sickos,’ Greg growled from the driver’s seat. ‘That’s what I call them. Sickos.’

‘Yes,’ said Justin, smiling. He wrote the word down in his book and underlined it. ‘Sickos. That’s a very good term for them. From now on they’re officially not zombies, they’re sickos.’

23

Jack felt hot and sweaty. He’d landed badly when Ed and Bam had pulled him on to the bus. He’d scraped his shins on the steps, but couldn’t sense any pain yet. It would come, though. That much he knew. He sat down with Frédérique in the same row of seats as Bam and his injured friend, Piers. Piers had been slipping in and out of consciousness since they’d got on the bus. The piece of material that Bam had wrapped round his head was stained every shade of red from bright scarlet to almost black. It had stopped the bleeding but Piers looked chalk white and his face was streaked with dried blood.

Frédérique didn’t look much better. She was shaking as if someone had stuck electrodes in her and was passing an electric current through her body. Jack realized he was shaking as well and he had a hollow sick feeling inside. He put his head between his knees and took a few deep breaths. He closed his eyes and waited for the pounding in his head to subside.

Once he was feeling halfway human again he straightened up. For a moment he saw dancing coloured spots and blobs in front of his eyes and his brain felt like it had come loose and turned light and fizzy. He had the sensation that he was floating up out of his body. He gripped his armrest and slowly everything settled down and he was back on the bus.

‘You all right?’ Bam was giving Jack a concerned look.

‘Hard to say.’ Jack rubbed his face. ‘How’s Piers doing?’

Bam made a movement with his hands as if he was weighing something.

‘Could be worse. He’s sleeping now. I got some water inside him and a bit of food. Crisps, mainly, but it’s better than nothing I suppose. The cut’s not too deep, as far as I can tell, but he’s lost quite a lot of blood. It’s going to be hard to get his strength back up.’

‘Have you put anything on the wound? Some antiseptic or anything?’

‘Yeah. Greg has a box of stuff. I squirted some Savlon on, that’s what my mum always used to do if I had a cut. Savlon and soup.’

‘Yuck.’

‘Not together. Savlon on the cut and then a hot bowl of soup. Cream of chicken. That’s if I was badly mashed-up in a match. Which was nearly every week. I’d kill for some chicken soup right now.’

‘Me too.’

‘Piers really needs some proper food, though. He can’t live on crisps. If we could get hold of some of that smoked meat Greg has stashed away in his cool box, that’d sort him out.’

‘You can try,’ said Jack. ‘He doesn’t like me. I doubt it’ll do much good, though. Despite what he says he’s only really looking after himself and Liam.’

‘That his mini-me?’

‘Yeah.’

Jack’s seat jolted forward as someone bashed into the back of it. There was a girlish laugh and he was aware of bodies crowding behind him.

‘Is she your girlfriend?’

It was Brooke and her two mates. Leaning over him, laughing and eyeing Frédérique up and down. Jack wondered why he had ever seen them as a set. They actually looked very different, Courtney big and awkward, Brooke thin and blonde, Aleisha tiny and dark.

‘Is she?’ Brooke repeated.

‘No.’

‘What’s her name?’

‘Frédérique. She’s French.’

‘We had enough of the French when we was in Calais,’ said Courtney. ‘France is a dump.’

Jack felt hot anger erupt from his guts. He twisted up out of his seat and confronted the girls, who dropped back in surprise.

‘Why don’t you lot knock it off? Huh? Why don’t you give it a rest? She’s been through a lot. Her dad died this morning. She’s a human being like you. OK?’

Brooke was the first to get her front back in place. She gave a long drawn-out Oooooh, eyebrows raised, mouth in a perfect little circle.

‘Definitely your girlfriend then.’

Aleisha put a hand on her friend’s arm, making a concerned face.

‘He’s right, Brooke,’ she said. ‘Leave it. You don’t have to be a bitch all the time. We all need to be friends.’

Brooke looked taken aback. She wasn’t sure quite where she stood now.

‘I was only joking.’

‘Yeah, me too,’ said Courtney. ‘She looks all right. Are you OK, darling?’

Frédérique nodded without looking round.

Courtney passed her a half-eaten Mars bar.

‘D’you want this? I was saving it, but you can have it if you want.’

Frédérique shook her head.

‘She’ll be OK,’ said Aleisha kindly, and she smiled at Frédérique.

‘Look,’ said Brooke. ‘Touching moment and all that, but just so’s we know where we all stand – is she your girlfriend, or not?’

‘Broo-ooke!’ said Aleisha, jutting her head forward.

‘What?’ said Brooke. ‘We need to know.’

‘Why would you care?’ said Jack. ‘Apparently I don’t count in your world because of my birthmark. I’m just some kind of freak.’

‘So, she is your girlfriend then.’

‘Oh, forget it.’ Jack slumped back into his seat and the girls returned to their camp at the back of the bus arguing loudly with each other.

Frédérique was shaking worse than ever and Jack was about to put his arm round her to reassure her when he realized she was laughing. He couldn’t help but join in. This whole situation was so ridiculous. The world was falling apart and people couldn’t see outside the little boxes they’d lived in all their lives.

An image of Frédérique’s father trying to stand up with a plank of wood nailed to his head came to him and he laughed even harder.

The world didn’t make much sense any more.

He leant across Frédérique and drew a smiley face on the window.

24

Chris Marker reached up to the luggage rack to get his bag of books down. He’d finished Fever Crumb and needed to start something new. He always felt a bit deflated finishing a book. He’d race to get to the end and then wonder why he hadn’t taken it more slowly to make the enjoyment last longer. Of course he could always just turn back to page one and start all over again at the begi