Emma shrank back from the window at the sight of him. This guy wore a grey tracksuit, blood leaking from a wound on his neck and staining his collar. But that wasn’t the most unsettling part.
The thing that made Emma recoil was his walk, the way he stumbled and swayed as he trailed the other man; it instantly brought to mind the incident outside the therapist’s office and the man who had bit that poor woman.
Something was wrong. Something strange was happening to people, and Emma needed to find out what was going on right now.
She returned to her laptop and opened the newsfeed again.
2.
Sammy was gone. They struggled to accept it.
Neither Kingsley nor Eric wanted to leave for Colchester without her – especially Kingsley, who felt guilty for not realising sooner that something was up, that Sammy had gone off on her own and didn’t intend on returning. It’d been Kingsley who was keeping watch when she left, the only person awake to see her go.
When Sammy had stepped off the bus in the night for some “fresh air” and had not come back after ten minutes or so, Kingsley hadn’t thought much of it. She was grieving. He could understand her needing a bit of time to herself. Maybe she’d gone outside to cry so she wouldn’t wake the others who were sleeping in the bus.
But the minutes had stretched on and Kingsley had started to grow concerned. Then he found the note on Sammy’s seat – the one that said don’t follow me – and after realising what it meant, he immediately woke the others.
Kingsley, Eric, Kara and Rebecca all searched for Sammy along the quiet back lane in the dark. They couldn’t scour the entire length of the road. It was too long, passing several wheat fields to the southwest and leading back into the village to the north.
There was a dead snapper in the road some distance from the bus, head cracked open. It might have been killed by Sammy. Other than that, no sign of her.
She could have gone anywhere.
They drove back through the village at first light, scanning the streets for anything that might tell them Sammy had been there – more dead snappers, open doors. Anything.
When they didn’t spot anything that hinted at her presence, they decided to go back to her parents’ home and see if Sammy was there.
She wasn’t. The bungalow was empty except for the bodies of her parents and their dog. The smell of rot was thick, making Kingsley cough, and the rising sun slanted through the windows to spotlight the gore in the kitchen; if Sammy had come back, she wouldn’t have lingered.
They tore the floral curtains from the lounge window and covered the bodies before leaving.
“We can’t search forever,” Rebecca said as the four of them trudged back to the bus.
Kingsley faced her. “We also can’t just abandon Sammy.”
“She left a note telling us to not go after her,” Rebecca said. “It doesn’t seem like she’s worried about being abandoned.”
“She made a stupid decision. Her mind is in a dark place and we can’t just leave her like that.”
“Sometimes your mind needs to be in a dark place. Sometimes, dark thoughts are the only thing that will get you through a tough time.”
Kingsley stepped onto the bus, turned in the doorway and glowered at the mousy woman.
“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”
Kara stood next to her friend, said, “Rebecca’s only trying to help… We told you what happened to Rebecca’s family… how she saw it. She watched all of them die, saw them being eaten. If anyone understands what Sammy is going through right now, it’s her.”
“Is that so?” Kingsley said. He looked at Rebecca again. “You told me you hated your family yesterday. Well, Sammy sure as shit didn’t. She loved her parents.” He turned and walked down the row of seats.
Kara followed him. “Regardless, Rebecca still has a point – we can’t search forever. We have no idea where Sammy went and she clearly doesn’t want us to find her. I know it feels like you’re abandoning her, but you’re not. She abandoned you.”
He wasn’t going to argue any longer. He picked up a bottle of water from the floor beside his seat and took a long swig.
Feeling a hand on his shoulder, he put the bottle down and turned to see Eric. The look in his friend’s eye was enough.
“You… agree with them,” Kingsley said, unable to keep the exasperation from his voice.
“They’re right,” Eric replied. “I hate to say it, but we really don’t have much choice. You want to find Emma, don’t you? We don’t know what it’s like in Colchester. It could be safer than Braintree or it could be a lot worse, but we can’t hang around and hope for the best. We have to go now.”
He did want to find Emma. Of course he did, he still loved her. But he also wasn’t sure if he was ready to see her again. They hadn’t spoken in a few months and the last time they had – the day after the accident – Emma had looked at him like he was a murderer, like she didn’t know him.
Kingsley didn’t blame her for feeling that way. It had, after all, been his fault they’d lost their child. But he couldn’t stand Emma looking at him like he was dirt.
On some level, he knew he had been putting off going back to Colchester to find her because of it.
He couldn’t put it off forever, though. And it seemed that Eric, Kara and Rebecca had made their minds up. It was three against one.
Kingsley lowered his gaze to the floor. “Fine,” he muttered
