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It&039;s late by the tiet home We&039;d expected to be back by five There were more traffic delays on the way out of town It&039;s now alht

&039;Someone&039;s in a hurry,&039; one of the men from the flat upstairs says as we pass him on his way out of the apartment block I think this is Gary He has another man with him who I&039;ve never seen before

&039;Sorry,&039; I h the entrance door with Josh&039;s pushchair

&039;You all right?&039; he asks, appearing genuinely concerned

&039;We&039;re fine, thanks,&039; I answer quickly, not interested in talking I gently push Lizzie towards the flat The twookay?&039; Harry asks as I open our front door He&039;s halfway down the hall as soon as he hears the key in the lock &039;I&039;ve been worried sick about you You could have phoned ain&039;

&039;Sorry, Dad,&039; Lizzie says

&039;There was some trouble,&039; I explain

&039;What kind of trouble?&039;

Liz takes off her coat and shakes her head She wipes her eyes

&039;I don&039;t knohat&039;s going on out there,&039; she sighs, her voice quiet and e mad&039;

&039;So what happened?&039; he asks, looking froain for an answer &039;Are you both all right? Did you?&039;

&039;We&039;re okay,&039; she says wearily as she gently pushes hi room Josh is still asleep I carefully unbuckle his straps, take off his coat and pick him up out of the pushchair

&039;What happened?&039; Harry asks again as I follow hi room I stop and quickly look into the children&039;s bedroo Ellis&039; room is empty

&039;We walked down to Pedmore Row to catch the bus,&039; I tell him &039;Group of blokes cauy He was a Hater Where&039;s Ellis?&039;

Harry nods towards the living room I peer over the back of the sofa and I&039;randad&039;s jumper draped over her shoulders She looks peaceful and relaxed The rooht co TV in the corner

&039;She wouldn&039;t go to bed,&039; he explains, standing and watching her withwhere you tere I let her stay with me for a while I knew she&039;d fall asleep eventually&039;

Liz crouches down in front of Ellis and brushes a strand of hair away from her face

&039;I&039;ll take her back to bed,&039; she whispers as she carefully slides her arms underneath her and lifts her up Ellis mumbles and shuffles but she doesn&039;t wake up Harry and I watch as she carries her away Harry then walks around and sits down in theall evening I lay Josh down on ain,&039; he says quietly, &039;what exactly did happen?&039;

I sit down next to him and kick off my shoes

&039;I don&039;t know any roup of blokes lynched a Hater, that&039;s all Evil bastard probably deserved everything he got Then the bus was late and a road was closed and&039;

Harry nods his head, sighs and rubs his eyes He looks tired

&039;I don&039;t knohat&039;s going on out there,&039; he says quietly &039;Anyway, I&039;ht have soht&039; I&039;rabs the remote control and turns up the volu the news since the children&039;s progra out of control&039;

I turn my attention from Harry to the TV There&039;s been no let up in the level of trouble across the country On the news they&039;re talking about an &039;exponential increase in incidents&039; Matheest subject at school but I knohat they mean One incident becooes on and on until Jesus, where&039;s this going to end?

There&039;s a definite change in the way the reporters on TV are talking about what&039;s happening tonight They&039;re concentrating on the people - the so-called Haters - who seem to be at the root of all the troubles They&039;re stressing that it&039;s only a very s the public to stay away fro erratically Bloody hell, that&039;s half the population of this town on a good day

&039;It&039;s like a disease,&039; Harry says &039;Crazy, isn&039;t it? It&039;s spreading just like a disease&039;

&039;Someone better hurry up and find a cure then,&039; Iat the screen

&039;They keep saying that all of this is down to just a few people, you know,&039; he continues, repeating what I&039;ve already heard &039;When it gets them, whatever it is, it drives the about it earlier It&039;s the first few minutes you have to watch out for&039;

&039;What?&039; I ets theht I expect They just lash out at whoever or whatever&039;s around them Then they say they start to cals, but they&039;re not quite so volatile&039;

What is he talking about?

&039;What do you mean, not quite so volatile?&039; I ask hih to hospitalise you and not kill you?&039;

&039;I&039;hs &039;I won&039;t bother if you&039;re going to be like that&039;

I shake my head and look back at the TV The screen is filled with i into a city centre sonise The reporters are talking about the police and ar used to full capacity and I think back to the TV debate atched last night Have we reached the saturation point they were talking about yet? The voices on the TV are taking great pains to stress that, although stretched, the authorities are still coping Just Christ, ier and they can&039;t cope Bloody hell, it doesn&039;t bare thinking about

The screen shows a streaovernment statistics and I lose interest I don&039;t believe statistics They&039;re all made up They can make statistics say whatever they want

&039;Probleet out of control This is too little, too late&039;