across the corridor. She marched towards it, assuming he would be there and hadn't heard her call.
Will, are you in there?' She peered round the door and saw that the classroom was empty. He must be at the other end of the building, near the library.
Jan glanced around the room, checking that it was in order and the sliding windows closed. The large windows ran the length of the building without a break on that side, compensating for the lack of glass at the front. Satisfied all was in order, she reached for the light switch, then groaned silently when she noticed the lone coffee cup resting on the work top beneath the windows. Will must have missed it.
She crossed the room and stared disgustedly down into the cup. Someone had dropped a cigarette end into it. Sighing, she looked up at her reflection in the black glass again, brooding on her physical inadequacies. Too thin, neck too long, chin a little too firm. No breasts to speak of. Her hair was too straight and always lank two days after washing. And the glasses. No matter how well she groomed herself for a special occasion, no matter what make-up she used, what perfume, how beautiful the dress, she always had to detract at least twenty percent of the overall effect by donning the glasses. It was unfair. Still, Will seemed to find her attractive; maybe she was being too hard on herself.
Jan suddenly had an uneasy feeling. It must have been the total, obscuring blackness outside, the lightless forest something to which she had never quite adapted. But now it worried her more than ever before. Obviously, the fact that there were monster rats roaming around out there had a lot to do with it; for her, Epping Forest had rapidly lost all its charm. She shivered. Silly, but it was almost as though the creatures were out there watching her. She leaned forward, pushing her face close to the window and shielding the light from behind with her hand. She stared out into the night through the shadow her own form had created. Then the window exploded into her face.
Fender and Jenny were just entering the main building when they heard the crash of glass and the shrill scream that accompanied it. They looked at each other in shocked surprise, then rushed into the reception area, almost colliding with Will Aycott as he emerged from the corridor.
'Where did it come from?' Fender asked, grabbing the young tutor's arm to steady him.
The other end. One of the classrooms.'
'Come on.' Fender ran down the corridor, Jenny and Will hard at his heels. They made for the lighted room at the end, further screams and scrabbling sounds urging them on.
'It's Jan!' Jenny shouted, fearing the worst.
Fender stopped at the doorway, his eyes widening and the skin at his scalp tautening. The two tutors crowded in behind and he held them back, preventing them from entering the room. Jenny screamed at the sight before them.
Jan Wimbush was dragging herself along the floor towards the door, her spectacles gone, her face a bloody mess, glass slivers projecting from her cheeks and forehead glinting like silver shards in the overhead light. Rivulets of blood ran down her arms and her chest was stained red. She raised a quivering hand towards them as though beseeching help, strange gurgling sounds coming from her throat.
Clinging to her back, weighing down her frail body, was a huge, evil-looking black creature. Its head was buried beneath the hair at the back of her neck, its shoulders jerking spasmodically as it drank in her blood.
'Oh, God, help her, Luke!' Jenny implored and she saw the rat catcher face was a mask of sheer hate.
'Get help, Jenny,' he told her, his voice tight. 'Don't go outside the building. Use the phone.'
She stood there, mesmerized by the awful scene, and he had to shove her hard. 'Move!' he shouted.
Fender held on to Will, feeling the younger man's fear, but knowing he was courageous enough to run forward and help the girl.
'For Christ's sake, we've got to save her!' the tutor shouted.
Fender motioned towards the window with his head. 'Look,' he said.
Perched on the work top before the shattered window squatted another huge rat, its body hunched, hindquarters quivering. It stared at them through evil, dark eyes. It was suddenly joined by another.
Jan's screams had died into a low, heart-rending wailing, and she still pulled herself forward, the pain in her neck pushing her on, her eyes imploring the two blurred figures to help her. She tried to reach behind her with one hand in an effort to drag the deadly weight off, but the creature ignored her feeble struggles.
'We've got to get rid of those two first,' Fender said grimly, shutting the girl's cries from his mind.
'But Jan...'
The other two will attack while we're helping her. Come on, we'll have to move fast. We've got to prevent more getting in.'
Fender pulled the young tutor forward towards the arranged desks in the middle of the room. 'Quickly. Grab two legs we'll use the desk as a battering-ram.'
As they snatched up the flat-topped desk, Fender glanced towards the broken window. There were now three rats perched on the sill.
He knew they would attack at any moment, for their hindquarters were bunched and trembling, building up pressure.
'Now!' The two men ran towards the window, the desk held before them, its top a strong, flat shield. They hit the vermin with all the force they had, sending them scurrying back, through the broken window, out into the night. But one managed to slither clear; it scrambled off the work top and disappeared beneath, scuttling into a dark corner.
'Hold the desk against the window-frame, Will. Don't let them get back in. I'm going to help the girl.'
The tutor could only watch as Fender dashed away. He felt a blow against the wooden surface and the desk shifted back a few inches. His muscles stretched taut as he pushed it further against the frame.
Fender already knew the weapon he was going to use against the rat; he had seen it from the doorway when he had forced himself to think clearly and not be panicked by the situation. His loathing of the creatures had helped
