With a roll of her eyes, followed by a laugh, Stella pushed through the gate and hurried to join him. He reached down and helped her up the ladder, and by the time she made it, she was cackling with laughter.
Then Mike kissed her.
He did so suddenly and with no warning, leaning in while she was still giggling. It was an awkward thing and his aim was off, but once the shock abated she worked with him. They held one another and smooched like teenage lovers. When she broke away, she was awash with emotions. Mike took it as a bad sign because his expression grew crestfallen. “I-I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”
She put her hand against his chest and smiled, albeit sadly. “No, it was lovely. It just feels like the end of my marriage. I know we’ve been trapped at the school for a year, but I still think about—”
Mike nodded and cut her off. “There’s no need to rush anything. The one thing we have plenty of is time, so I just want you to know that I’m here. I’m here when you’re ready.”
She smiled again, a little less unhappily. “I hope it’s not because of a lack of options, Mr Bradford.”
He seemed annoyed by that, despite her having meant it as a joke. He shook his head. “Do you really believe that, Stel?”
“No, I suppose I don’t. Come here!” She leant in to kiss him again, but the corner of her eye caught movement. The two swings were gyrating back and forth like Latin dancers.
Mike was puckering up, and he frowned when he realised she wasn’t kissing him. He glanced at where she was staring. “What is it?”
“Something disturbed the swings.”
“Just the wind.”
“There isn’t any wind. Only a breeze.”
“An animal then. Stella, don’t worry. It’s just us out here.”
A creaking noise from the far side of the playground alerted her, and she whipped her head around like a bird. What she saw was a small metal roundabout spinning by itself.
“Something isn’t right,” she said. “I want to go back.”
Mike nodded, blessedly taking her seriously. “We can go right now. Come on.” He took her hand and started for the ladder, but then he leapt back and yelped.
“Mike? What the hell are you…?” Stella’s words fell away as her eyes focused on the demons gathered at the railing. They stood in a line, four of them. They seemed hungry, and one of them was drooling. Bigger than all the others, it wore a filthy striped jumper and was naked from the waist down, a distended scrotum between its thighs.
Stella shrieked in terror. The demons chittered like monkeys, excited by the noise – by her fear
Mike grabbed her and held her close. “Quiet! Don’t do anything. Don’t move.”
“Y-You told me it was safe. You told me they were gone. You bastard.”
“I’m sorry.”
As much as she wanted to strangle the life out of Mike, she was paralysed by fear. She prayed for him to get her out of this so that she could forgive him, but she didn’t see how.
Mike squeezed her hand and whispered. “Okay, after three we make a run for it. Head straight for the access road and back to the school, okay?”
“No! No way. We can’t risk leading them back there. The children.”
Mike stared at her for a moment, his eyes bulbous and white. “Damn it, you’re right. Okay, let’s head to the shops across the road. Maybe we can barricade ourselves inside.”
The demons leapt the railings.
Mike shoved Stella in the back. “Go!”
Stella raced across the climbing frame and threw herself down the slide, nearly going head over heels at the bottom. Mike was right behind her and they rushed for the gate.
Demons filled the entire playground, more and more emerging from behind parked cars and alleyways. They hooted and screeched like taunting bullies. Their stink was awful.
Mike looked back and forth desperately. “They’re everywhere. Stella, I’m so sorry.”
Stella felt strangely numb. A demon moved in front of her, one eye missing and the other full of hate. There was no way to avoid this. No way out. “I’m glad I got to come here with you, Mike.”
“Hell of a first date, huh?”
“Don’t think there’ll be a second.” Stella reached out and took his hand, then closed her eyes and waited. “At least the children are safe.”
A crushing weight threw her to the ground. Strips of flesh were torn away from her body. Mike’s hand fell away from hers, leaving her alone in a writhing sea of monsters. The last thing she heard was distant screaming. The screaming of terrified children.
Being an estate agent had its perks. You got to wear a suit; you met lots of different people; and when the apocalypse arrived, you had keys to two dozen properties. Zolten – or Z as his colleagues had used to call him – chose to take cover inside a gated mansion in the heart of Warwickshire. Served by a single country road, the contemporary abode sat on the edge of a steep grassy hill, with a two-metre-high brick wall surrounding the front. A heavy iron gate kept out unwanted visitors. The security alarms and cameras stopped working as soon as the power grid had failed, but a panic room in the master bedroom sat behind a mechanical lock. The mansion was the safest place he had been able to think of when the demons had arrived. It had worked out perfectly.
Z was proud of the fact he had kept his head during those first days of panic, thinking rationally while everyone else was running around screaming. Rather than risk the chaos of the supermarkets, he had hit a handful of corner shops, emptying his account to buy as much pasta, tinned food, bottled water, and toilet rolls as he could shove in the cavernous boot of his beat-up Freelander. Then
