The Dead by Charlie Higson

when people started getting, like, sick,’ said Aleisha. ‘It was really scary, like a disaster movie or something. At first it looked like we was gonna be stuck there, but in the end our teachers said we had to try and get home. We drove all the way across Spain and France to get to the ferry, and all the time it was getting worser and worser. We heard it on the radio. Our mobiles wasn’t working, so we couldn’t speak to none of our families nor no one.’
    ‘By the time we got to the ferry the port was closed,’ said Courtney. ‘The French ferry people was on, like, strike. They said they didn’t want to spread the disease.’
    ‘We was in this, like, grotty hotel for ages in Calais,’ said Aleisha. ‘With no food.’
    ‘Calais is a dump ,’ said Courtney. ‘I am not ever going back to Calais, man.’
    Brooke took up the story. ‘Some of the kids went off with a teacher to, like, try and get back on their own,’ she said. ‘But in the end the British government arranged for this, like, special ferry to bring everyone back who was stuck there. We was the last ferry out of France.’
    ‘It was horrible,’ said Aleisha. ‘People was going mad trying to get on, but because we was, like, children, they let us go, yeah?’
    ‘Back in England it was worse, though,’ said Brooke. ‘The roads was all jammed, people getting sick and going nuts all over the place. We couldn’t believe it. Half our teachers was losing it big time. We had to get off the motorway in the end. Our driver was getting sick. We went to a place called Ashford.’
    ‘Ashford’s a dump,’ said Courtney.
    ‘Some more kids split when we got there,’ said Aleisha. ‘But we didn’t know what to do. It was all happening so fast. That’s what was really freaking us out. It was like the end of the world or something. Nothing was working and there was people everywhere, just sort of wandering about, and more and more of them was getting sick. It was horrible. Some of the kids got in a fight with some grown-ups. Then one of the teachers tried driving the bus. Took us to the, like, what do you call it, the countryside.’
    ‘The countryside’s a dump,’ said Courtney.
    ‘That was the last teacher,’ said Aleisha. ‘Mr Betts. He was a’right. Looked after us, but then even he’s got sick.’
    ‘We was stuck on the bus in the middle of the countryside,’ said Courtney. ‘With all these grown-ups around.’
    ‘It was like a what-d’you-ma-call-it, a siege or something,’ said Aleisha. ‘They was all, like, trying to get on the bus. Luckily Greg come along and sorted them out, but us three’s the only ones who made it out of, like, a hundred.’
    ‘There was never a hundred of us,’ said Brooke.
    ‘Well, there was a lot.’
    ‘Greg’s rescued us last night,’ said Courtney. ‘We been a’right since then. It ain’t so bad on here. We got food and water and a toilet. But it’s bare slow, because most of the roads is blocked. Is a nightmare. We got to keep going round other ways, stopping and starting, avoiding people, going back the way we come. I dunno how long it’d normally take, but Greg’s already been driving for, like, hours.’
    ‘I reckon we’ll be a’right now,’ said Aleisha. ‘There’s more of us. Greg keeps picking people up. It’s better with more people. And you boys look tough enough.’
    ‘You can stay,’ said Courtney with a snigger.
    ‘So long as you do what we tell you,’ said Brooke. ‘Our bus, our rules.’
    ‘Where’s Greg taking you all, though?’ said Jack.
    ‘He’s gonna get us to London so’s we can go home,’ said Courtney.
    ‘Where was your school? Where are you all from?’
    ‘Willesden.’
    ‘Where’s Willesden?’ Ed asked.
    ‘You ain’t never heard of Willesden?’ Aleisha sounded amazed.
    ‘Nope.’
    ‘It’s in north-west London.’
    ‘It’s a dump,’ said Courtney.
    ‘I thought you might say that,’ said Ed.
    For a while there was silence as the five