Louisa leans forward to look, but Selina pushes her gently back. “Just take a seat, okay? It’ll be over soon.”
“I want Mommy,” Louisa says and starts crying.
“Your mom will be here in a minute,” Selina promises her.
But Louisa keeps crying, and it sets off a chain reaction. Soon all the girls are sobbing. Selina looks out the window again.
Allan is still sitting on the grass, his head in his palms, looking like he’s brooding over a serious problem. Soren has sat down on one of the lawn chairs. The gun is on the table next to him. He’s tending to the bite wound on his leg. The other wound, the one on his neck, is still trickling blood.
“Soren,” Allan says, suddenly lifting his head. “You need to listen to me. I’m not crazy.”
Soren sends him a brief look, but doesn’t say anything.
“You saw her yourself,” Allan goes on, gesturing towards the body of Josefine. “She was dead. I know you saw it. How do think she could just get up again?”
“Apparently, she wasn’t dead after all,” Soren growls. “Not until you shot her.”
“Yes, she was! She was dead as a doornail. I checked her pulse.”
No answer from Soren this time.
The girls’ sobbing is starting to get on Selina’s nerves. It’s making it hard to hear what the officers are saying. She turns and shushes the girls, but they hardly notice her.
“Hey,” she says. “Be quiet, all right? You need to stay quiet.”
The girls sniffle, and a few of them actually stop the waterworks.
Selina turns her attention to the open window once more.
“How about her, then?” Allan asks, pointing to Jennie Nygaard. “Did she look alive to you when she charged at you? She has been dead for at least twelve hours, and you know it!”
Soren glances at the corpse of Jennie Nygaard, but still doesn’t reply.
Allan goes on pleadingly: “This is a form of disease. It’s killing people fast and then bringing them back so they can attack other people and spread the infection. I knew it as soon as I saw the three bodies. I should have told you, but I knew you wouldn’t believe me until you saw it.” Allan hesitates for a moment. Selina can tell how he weighs his next words. “You’re already infected, Soren. I’m really sorry, but … there’s nothing we can do. And if you don’t call off that ambulance, you’ll spread the infection to a whole lot of other people.”
Soren scuffs. “This isn’t a movie, Allan.”
“No, it’s real. Do you really want the end of the world on your shoulders?”
Soren gingerly touches the wound on his neck and mutters something Selina almost can’t pick up. It sounds like: “… hurts like hell …”
Even from up here, Selina can tell how the skin around the wound is already starting to take on a greenish color; the same color Josefine’s skin had when she woke up again.
Selina’s stomach is doing somersaults. What Allan is saying is completely ludicrous—but for some reason, it also makes sense. If it works like in the movies, then Allan is right: It’s game over as soon as you get a scratch or get bitten. It’s only a matter of time before you’ll be walking around like a flesh-eating monster yourself.
Selina bites her lip. Tries hard to think. Is there anything she can do? She assumes it’s too late to help Soren. But can she in anyway prevent the ambulance from getting here? Or that Soren gets in it?
Not as long as he has the gun …
She looks down at the gun on the table. Soren is leaning back in the garden chair, moaning and closing his eyes for a moment, his forehead gleaming with sweat.
This is insane, Selina thinks. But I have to try …
FIVE
Selina closes the window and turns to the girls. “Listen up, girls. I need to leave the room for a minute. But you guys just stay here, all right? Nothing will happen.”
“You can’t leave,” Louisa remarks, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “Your dad locked the door.”
“I’ll climb out the window.”
The girls look at each other, then back at her.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Louisa asks.
“Where are you going?” another one asks.
“When will you be back?” a third one asks.
Selina puts a finger to her lips. “You need to be quiet, remember? It’s very important you don’t say anything once I open the window. I’ll be back in less than five minutes. But I don’t want you to look out the window while I’m gone. You need to stay seated, okay? Do you understand?”
A few of the girls nod.
From the other side of the door, Selina can hear Dad’s voice talking on the phone. “Yes, two officers, and one of them has gone insane … no, Louisa is fine, just don’t come home right now, okay? … Listen, I keep telling you: I don’t know!”
Selina opens the window again. It opens all the way like a door. Dad has been wanting to put a child safety-thing on it, but luckily, he hasn’t gotten around to it.
By sitting on the windowsill, she can reach the drain pipe running down the wall. She swings out her legs, and for a moment feels dizzy. It’s probably due to the hangover, because she’s never been afraid of heights—in fact, she used to do quite a lot of tree-climbing when she was little.
“Selina,” Louisa whispers behind her.
Selina turns her head and shushes her.
“I just wanted to say be careful,” Louisa whispers. “I don’t want you to fall down and hurt yourself.”
Selina sends her a quick smile and whispers: “Don’t worry.” Then, she leans out and grabs a hold of the drain pipe. The metal is already hot from the sun. The pipe seems to be securely fastened to the wall and can easily carry her weight.
She looks down at the terrace one more time. Soren is still sitting with his eyes closed. Allan, who’s sitting on the grass, looks up at that exact moment
