The Dead by Charlie Higson Page A

of them thought over all that had happened recently. Finally Aleisha spoke.
    ‘So we’ve all lost people,’ she said with a sad smile.
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘But we gonna be a’right. Here come the girls!’
    Brooke, Courtney and Aleisha laughed and bumped fists.
    Ed felt weird. It was as if they were discussing losing a dog or a football match, not friends. It had been a terrifying few minutes of bloody carnage back at The Fez, and it sounded like the girls had been through hell themselves, but now here they were in this little bubble looking inwards, trying to laugh it all off.
    He’d noticed it before, the way people tried to pretend that things weren’t as bad as they were. It was a way of keeping the horror away, he supposed. When it came down to it, they were none of them any better, any cleverer, any more sorted than poor little Froggie with his dream of going on the London Eye.
    He was starting to feel a bit numb, pushing the memories to the side where he couldn’t feel them any more. You couldn’t go on being sad and scared all the time, could you, or you’d go mad.
    Talking to these mouthy girls was helping take his mind off things. It was helping take him to a normal place. Boys and girls. Flirting. Text messaging. My mate fancies you …
    They all knew it was a game.
    Let’s all pretend we’re just a bunch of ordinary girls and boys meeting on a bus. There’s nothing outside the bus. There’s only the bus.
    ‘You’re quite buff, you know,’ said Brooke, giving Ed the eye. ‘Your mate’d be all right if he didn’t have that thing on his face. If I go with a boy, he has to be, like, perfect .’
    Now it was Jack’s turn to laugh. ‘Ed’s nowhere near perfect.’
    ‘He’s better than you, darling.’
    ‘Well, maybe I don’t want to be your boyfriend.’
    ‘That’s good because you’re not going to be,’ said Brooke. ‘You can have Courtney. She’ll take anyone, because she’s fat. Although she’s quickly becoming skinny now. Any more of this starvation diet she can become a supermodel!’
    ‘You’re so full of it, Brooke,’ said Courtney.
    ‘Not as full of it as you. You look like you’ve eaten like a mattress , or something.’
    The coach swerved and Jack had to steady himself against a seat back.
    ‘Sit down!’ Greg barked from the front. ‘There’s trouble up ahead!’
    Ed swore. The bubble was burst.

19

    Jack hurried to the front of the coach and leant on the back of Greg’s seat.
    ‘Didn’t you hear me?’ said Greg. ‘Sit down. This could get bumpy.’
    ‘I wanted to see what’s going on.’
    ‘I can cope all right by myself, thank you very much.’
    ‘Yeah, and so can I,’ said Jack. ‘I’ve got this far without you, and I’ve done that by not trusting anyone. Looking after number one.’
    ‘Yeah? Well, I’m number one now, pal,’ said Greg. ‘And don’t you forget it. Now d’you want to sit down or do you want me to knock you down?’
    ‘I’m sitting.’ Jack collapsed into a seat and did up the belt, leaning forward to try to see what was happening ahead.
    There were a lorry and several cars in the middle of the road about four hundred metres away. One of the cars appeared to be on fire. Nasty-looking black smoke billowed and boiled across the road. In among the smoke Jack could just make out some kind of fight taking place. It was hard to tell from this distance who was involved, whether it was kids or grown-ups or, most likely, both.
    Greg swore. ‘We’ll have to find another way round.’ He stamped on the brake and the coach snorted and shuddered to a halt.
    ‘There might be kids up there,’ said Jack.
    ‘Don’t make no difference,’ said Greg, checking the rear-view mirrors. ‘It’s too risky. We don’t have any idea what’s going on, or how dangerous it might be. Could be a full-scale war for all we know. We can’t risk the coach getting damaged. At the moment it’s all that’s keeping us safe. It’s a fortress on wheels and I