I looked at Tim and he stared back at me. I wondered if he had seen a glimpse of someone out here too, but I wasn't sure what to say to him. But in the end, I didn't have to say anything.
"You know... I thought I'd seen someone lurking over there behind the bushes. I wasn't too sure because I was preoccupied; trying to stop the fire," Tim announced quietly.
I wanted to say that I'd seen someone too, but I wasn't sure how to tell him until someone else beat me to it.
"Tim... Tim..." Joe shouted as he came rushing over to us.
"What... what's wrong?" Tim asked Joe.
"I saw Shirley earlier on. She ran into those bushes. She can't have gone far... I think she did this... she said she hated us, so she must have caused the fire. I know she did it! How else could a fire start on it's own." Joe yelled.
I knew he was right. There was no way a fire like that could start on it's own.
"Bloody hell! I let her go!" Tim shouted. "Why did she come back here?" Tim turned to look behind us.
I wondered what he would do, but he just stood there. He seemed beaten up by the fact that Shirley had been around at the time of the fire.
"Tim... I thought I saw her too." I said, owning up to the truth. "I'm not sure if it was her because I didn't get a good look at her face... but... I could see her hair and her outline... it's a possibility that it could have been Shirley though."
"Right..." Tim started as he put his fingers through his hair. "Then we better search the bushes for her."
"Okay... what if one of us grabs her? What do we do with her?" I asked looking at Tim.
"Nothing... just capture her and then I will deal with her once and for all," he said.
"But how and what are you going to do Tim?" I asked worriedly.
"What do you think I will do with her Lydia? She's burned down Jenny and John's home where we all had a safe place to stay for a while. Do you think I'm going to let that go? No. I won't." I heard the anger in his tone.
"Just let's find her and then we can get the truth from her." I said honestly.
"That won't work." Tim shouted. "We have to end her if she's done this, cause she might just do it again to someone else!"
I knew he was right, but the thought of killing her was not something that I wanted on my conscience.
"Please Tim... let's just find her first." I said.
"Fine... let's go and find her now!" Tim said flippantly.
He walked ahead of me. He approached Joe and whispered something in his ear. What it was, I didn't know. I saw Tim and Joe walk away into the bushes followed by Aiden and Nick, and I hoped it would all be fine.
The fire had now ruined most of the house and it was spreading fast. We ran to look for Shirley, but she couldn't be found. She had disappeared for good. I knew that she had ruined our one chance to live a civilised life. All that was in front of us now, had almost gone as we stood there staring at the flames that still roared into the sky.
"We have to leave." Tim announced sadly. "Biters or anyone might be attracted to the blazing light of the fire, so we have to go now. Everyone get into the caravan with Lydia! Do it now!"
"Where will we go... what about Wales... we said we would go there, so maybe we should do that now?" I said trying to feel some hope about the future.
Tim nodded back at me. He seemed devastated and at a loss. He seemed terrified too. I knew he didn't want to be on the road again, but we didn't have a choice. He was right. We had to leave.
I got into the caravan and the others followed me, whilst Tim got into his van with Joe. This time we had John, Jenny, Danny, Trudie and her newborn baby. I felt the nightmare was about to get worse for us all, because we had to make sure that we were more alert than before. Now, that we had a baby on board it would prove to be difficult whenever she cried. I felt more obligated to keep everyone safe and I knew Tim would be feeling the same way.
So, we drove away with bitter feelings of what Shirley might have or not have done to us. Did she really try to kill us all? Yes, it was possible.
The End of Book 1
