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Sevencountry lanes which surrounded the fares and s Michael found it hard to keep concentrating because he was preoccupied with other thoughts Had he done the right thing in leaving Philip behind or should he havehim away from his home? He knew that the poor confused soul wouldn&039;t have abandoned his dead mother without a lot more persuasion, and he also knew that they hadn&039;t had the luxury of having tiue When it came to it the decision had been a pretty clear cut choice between E Emma&039;s safety for even a second, but at the sauilt when he rehtened little s of his dead mother&039;s house

A short while earlier in the car park, in those few precious seconds when he had stood out in the open next to Emma, he had allowed himself to feel a faint flicker of optimism Momentarily they seemed to have been miles away fro bodies He had felt strong and safe as he had breathed in deep gulps of cold, sea air But reality had returned with a vengeance Now an all too co of claustrophobic despair had returned

A T-junction in the road appeared It looked fa in the right direction Then a signpost he had seen before, soon followed by the rusting wreck of a blue estate car which he re seen crashed into the base of an old oak tree Without a doubt they were at last on the road that would lead the the sa it fro numb and ith nerves and with everywith heavy tiredness and a deadly fatigue, he glanced down at theat a reckless speed, but he didn&039;t dare slon as the needle on the fuel gauge had dropped to the lowest possible level He hadn&039;t planned ontrips on the same tank of petrol Now littlehi, he swerved around another one of the wandering bodies and increased his speed still further The body span around and grabbed at the carbon monoxide-filled air where the bike had just been

With less than three o Michael&039;s nervousness increased He felt a constant and very real fear in the back of his ht have happened to the farate or any other part of the barrier had collapsed then their home could well be surrounded by scores of relentless, decoan instinctively to search for the turning which led to the track running from the road to the house It was on their left sole they would be approaching at

They rushed past the trees, bushes and buildings lining the sides of the roads at a dangerous speed but neither Michael or Eree of safety to get back home in the shortest possible time

Carl was almost there

Just a couple of hundred yards re onto the track to the farm He too searched constantly for the elusive junction There were bodies all around hi onto the road in whichever direction he looked Yet again the silence of the rest of the world seemed to have amplified out of all proportion every sound thecrowd of restless corpses followed hiine

Carl&039;s heart sank as that same roar suddenly spluttered and died

He was out of fuel Dah

As the bike freewheeled to a standstill he frantically tried to decide what to do He quickly took off his hel the bike and beginning to run Exhausted, hot and tired he sprinted down the road and towards the track hat seemed like hundreds of corpses in close (but slow) pursuit and witharound hi He was faintly aware of a low mechanical sound in the distance but he was too scared to stop He had to keep an to sprint up the hill in the direction of the farmhouse

At that moment the Landrover and car appeared, both still in close convoy and both out of sight of Carl Disorientated and surprised by the unexpected appearance of soThe sound of their vehicles had attracted plenty of cadavers along the way, but ere so many of them here now? Had their collective interest been aroused by the noise from the Landrover when they&039;d first left Penn Far?

Eave a blast on the horn, not sure if he knew he&039;d passed the turning onto the track Furious for allowing himself to be distracted by the crowds, he braked hard and tried to turn around The road was infuriatingly narrow and his frantic three point turn took many more turns than it should have done Each ti creatures were dragged under the wheels of the Landrover

E crowd and accelerated up the hill back towards the house The rough track seemed worse than ever - the wheels of the car were ser wheels of the van and Landrover Each dip and trough of the uneven ground caused her to lurch forward in her seat and rattled her to the core Weak and defenceless bodies were thrown to the side but there seemed to be still ain and lance into the rear view mirror Michael was on his way up the track close behind her

Carl wasto outrun the bodies Now that he had ditched the reatly reduced, and in turn that reduced his attraction to the ragged corpses all around hi fast The air was dry and he had a painful stitch which he tried unsuccessfully to breathe through He knew that he could not afford to stop but at the saoing For a second he could hear the noise he&039;d heard at the bottoain, and this ti The corpses dragging theradually broke off their pursuit and began to stuain, distracted by this new sound Carl looked over his shoulder and then turned back to look ahead again In the near distance he could see the gate and the barrier and, just beyond that, Penn Far Emma&039;s car appeared with Michael in the Landrover close behind Carl span around and could hardly believe what he was seeing He stood in theout loud, desperately hoping to attract the attention of one of the survivors Eures also heard his anxious cries and threw theround where he kicked and punched and struggled to pick hier, the creatures ripped at his flesh with vicious, twisted fingers

Emma slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car Michael pulled up close behind (the track was too narrow to pull up alongside E hell, it&039;s Carl,&039; he shouted as he grabbed hold of the first of the three bodies and threw it to one side &039;Where did he appear from?&039;

Emma took hold of another cadaver&039;s shoulders and wrenched it away froround Michael kicked the last one away and then helped E surrounded by hundreds of diseased figures