Free Blood Crazy by Simon Clark Page B

completely blocked with a wall of smashed trucks and cars. It didn’t look like a deliberate barricade. If anything it looked as if people had driven suicidally into the wreckage. There was no way past and the sun hung low in the sky.
    We were scared. We didn’t know the area. We didn’t know if we’d turn a corner to find a thousand crazies blocking the road.
    I U-turned and took the first motorway exit. Then I headed into the countryside.
    We found the cottage in a forest. Unlocked and deserted, it seemed like paradise. Of course, there was no electricity but water still ran from the taps, and it had one of those old kitchen ranges where you can cook over an open fire.
    For the last three days it had rained. We did nothing much but eat and sleep. Vicki and Anne went through a cycle of arguing, crying for mummy, long silences, then back to arguing again. I drove to the nearby village – deserted apart from dead boys and girls – and returned with a car load of supplies, clothes, toys and games. After that they seemed happier with something to occupy them.
    Now they were upstairs asleep and I was eating spaghetti with their big sister and trying to work out what the hell we should do next.
    â€˜Do you think that ape Slatter was right?’ Sarah sipped her wine. ‘That all the world’s like this now?’
    â€˜No. Even if there had been a nuclear strike there’d be large areasstill unaffected. If we drive far enough we’ll find towns that are completely normal.’
    â€˜God … It’s a mess though, isn’t it? It’s like something out of the Bible. Thousands must have died. Cities destroyed. If the madness is permanent the government are going to have to keep them somewhere. Whole counties are going to have to be turned into mental institutions.’
    â€˜Thank God it’s not our problem … Cold?’
    â€˜A bit … Yes.’
    She was shaking but it probably had damn-all to do with the temperature. I pushed more logs onto the fire. Soon the flames blazed white up the chimney, filling the room with a pulsating light so bright we didn’t need candles.
    After we’d eaten we sat together on the sofa just watching the flames dance like it was the latest TV poll-topper.
    I couldn’t help thinking about my parents. Because I hadn’t seen them crazy like the rest I couldn’t believe that they weren’t normal. I knew that if they walked through that door right now they would be like they had always been. Level-headed adults who put their children’s interests first.
    Sarah hugged the cushion to her chest. ‘Perhaps it was in the water. A drug or toxin.’
    â€˜But who’d do a thing like that?’
    â€˜Terrorists.’
    â€˜But why aren’t we affected? It only seems to have sent people over the age of twenty insane.’
    â€˜Adults have different levels of hormone in their bodies to children and adolescents. Perhaps the hormones reacted with the drug. Or the gas.’
    Outside, rain rattled the windows from out of the darkness. Sarah closed the curtains. She said when it grew dark she didn’t like to see the tree trunks that surrounded the cottage. They looked like ghost sentinels. Waiting for something to happen.
    When she returned she sat next to me on the sofa. Sometimes when she got close like that I felt a buzz of excitement. A dozen times these last three days I had wanted, just out of the blue, to reach over and hold her hand or stroke her blonde hair.
    The beer didn’t help my resistance. I wanted to touch her.Nothing wildly sexual but what I wouldn’t give to just sit there on the sofa with my arm round her, watching the flames alive in the grate.
    Sarah pushed her hair back over her shoulder. On the wall behind her, her shadow image, distorted and gigantic from the log fire, mimicked the motion. She was beautiful – if she’d read from the Yellow Pages I’d have drunk