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The noises around ines roaring and other sounds The radio is still quiet It sounds like there&039;s been another Hang on, the traffic is stopping There , and all in less than a mile What are the chances of that? Shit, what the hell is happening? Jesus, this is a bloody pileup It looks like a load of cars have sot to stop before I hit the too fast to stop in tiht too I&039; to hitwheel and take s and I&039; to

Seven minutes later Peter Guest woke up Dazed and disorientated, he gently pushed hiulated blood trickled sickeningly into his open mouth and down the back of this throat froht ht that crossed his concussed led to unbuckle his seat belt and disentangle hi which had prevented his face fro wheel with any et to the office He had to let them knohat had happened They&039;d understand if they knew he&039;d been in an accident

Guest slowly and painfully attes The end of the tunnel around the bend allowed a degree of grey ht to trickle and seep across the scene a hundred hts suspended along the arched ceiling of the tunnel provided a little ht between the tunnel wall on his left and a crashed black taxi cab to his right He tried to open his door but could et out of his car and out of the tunnel he lifted his aching body up out of his seat, clah the shattered re over onto his back on the car&039;s crumpled bonnet The effort required to move just that short distance was ih ti wave of nausea subside) and then stood upright on his car, leaning breathlessly against the grubby tunnel wall for support

For as far as Guest could see both ahead and behind hiled, crashed traffic Most vehicles seemed simply to have collided with those in front and around them and had come to a sudden, shunted stop whilst others had been forced up into the air by violent i a once pristine bright red, two-seater sports car lay on its roof, straddled ays across the remains of two other vehicles

Apart froan to edge forwards The road was obscured by wreckage and he had no option but to clamber over the etting out of the tunnel He had to do it He was in pain He needed daylight and fresh air He needed help

After dragging himself over the boot, the roof and then the bonnet of another car, Guest was faced with a short ju to co himself for i, slipping down onto a sular patch of road that had soe He fell cluainst another car door Inside the car the sudden lurching moveer sluainst the ith a heavy, sickening thuht about the other drivers Struggling with his own disorientation, pain and confusion he had only been concerned with his own safety and well-being and with trying to get himself out of the tunnel as quickly as possible Now that he stopped to think about the others, however, they were suddenly all that he could see He scraet to the nearest body but it was no use, the poor bastard was already dead As was the next one he found, and the next, and the next He was the only one left alive

Everywhere Guest looked he saw bodies Vast, countless nuainst s and li aardly out of half-open doors And the longer he stared into the shadows, the loo pools of cried eyes, twisted liy to be able to rise above his own pain, he began to run, jued athlete until he had cleared the tunnel and was finally out in the open air again

But the carnage and devastation had not been limited to the inside of the tunnel All around him now it continued, unabated and unstoppable Endless, inexplicable and seeed hist the lifeless bodies of the colleagues and business associates ho, he sat and tried to htmare which had reduced his world to ruin

It was almost two o&039;clock before I made it back home The house was empty I knew in my heart it would be

I ran the half-mile or so between home and Joe&039;s school Once or twice I nearly stopped and turned back By that time I&039;d already seen hundreds of bodies, possibly even thousands, but they were faceless and naan to see corpses that I recognised I walked a the bodies of people I had known - Joe&039;s teachers and the parents of his classmates, Jen&039;s friends I knew that so I would find the bodies of my family

Joe was in his classroohtly in a ball Jen was in the asse next to an upturned chair, half-covered by the body of another dead child&039;s dead parent

I carried theether for a while longer

If I&039;d listened to Jen I would have been there when it happened Ito help either of them, but if I had listened I would have been there Because of htened and alone

I don&039;t knohat to do now I don&039;t even know if there&039;s any point trying to do anything

I lost everything today

JACKIE SOAMES

Jackie Soaain It was late She should have been up hours ago George should have woken her up hours ago Bloody man, sometimes he was absolutely useless She didn&039;t ask much of him but she relied on him to help She ran the business and looked after the punters, he kept the hoement but it worked, and it had worked well for more than twenty years now

Jackie opened one eye again

It was quarter-to-eleven Christ, how could she have slept in for so long? She should be opening the pub soon She&039;d nevertime before - not even on the day her father had died - and she knew she&039;d take so the doors today She couldn&039;t afford to waste time like this In the pub trade you live and breathe the job You&039;re never off duty - there&039;s always so to do and it all has to be done She worked from the crack of dawn until the very end of each day (that was the curse and the joy of living with the job) and she couldn&039;t believe that George had let her sleep in for so long Where was he? She re up when the alarm went off just after seven o&039;clock, but she couldn&039;t reht, he usually brought her up a coffee before half-past eight and left it on the beside table for her There was no cup there today

Last night had been hard going Monday nights were usually difficult Jackie always had to do soet a decent sized crowd in on a Monday She&039;d tried quiz nights and thehts and cheap drinks proht they&039;d had a band on, and a bloody awful band it had been too Nice enough lads, but they were all noise and no talent She&039;d co to make a nah volume,&039; they seemed to think, &039;and the croon&039;t knoe can&039;t play&039;

They should have been here to pick up their stuff a couple of hours ago but she hadn&039;t heard the down there would surely have woken her up Christ, shedoith soet ill She couldn&039;t risk leaving George in charge

The ulars at the Lion and Laood old traditional British spit and sawdust pub with good old traditional spit and sawdust locals, halfway through their act the noise from the less than impressed crowd of drinkers had threatened to drown out the ht away The others lasted for another song and a half before ad toto recoup the cost of the night without leaving the boys in the band out of pocket, Jackie had locked the doors after closing tih the early hours of Tuesdayfor it now

Finallyto prise open both eyes, she picked herself up out of bed, stumbled to the bathroom and threw up That was better Once the acidic taste and the voan to feel herself again As a regular (daily) drinker of ad, Jackie had become hardened to the effects of alcohol It was a well rehearsed routine that she followed now She got drunk, she fell asleep, she woke up, she threw up, she felt better And the next night she did it again It was all part of the job The first cigarette of the day helped settle her stoe?

&039;George?&039; she called out &039;George, are you downstairs? Do you knohat time it is?&039;

When he didn&039;t respond she quickly got dressed (no-one ever saw her in her nightwear except her husband) and went out onto the landing Nothing She couldn&039;t hear or see anything Cursing her husband under her breath she storone out, she decided That bloody one out and left her fast asleep And I bet those boys froet their stuff, she thought With just over half an hour to go before opening ti her tes were down as it was The last thing she needed was George ht He was probably down the betting office, she grumbled to herself That here he seemed to spend most of his spare time She earned the s She&039;d have sacked him by now if she hadn&039;t been married to him

The bedrooot herself ready Regardless of what had happened to George, she still had a business to run When it came to the crunch it was down to her and her alone to keep the pub running It was her nae&039;s It was her name on the lease and on the contract with the brewery and the buck stopped with her She wasn&039;t co That was how she liked it

In the see No-one saw her withoutanything less than perfect Once dressed she sat in front of the mirror where she brushed her hair and painted on her srance to hide the sarettes and she was ready to face the rest of the world The landing was as dark as the bedroo and the first floor function room was as dark as everywhere else Jackie popped her head around each of the doors before going down Strange, she thought, it was Tuesday Paula Hipkiss hired the function roos to run her weekly keep-fit class What had happened to theh that If the thuof anything between ten and twenty-five sweaty, overweight, ed housewives surely would have

&039;George,&039; she yelled again, her shed as she stumbled down the stairs Bloody hell, it was as dark down there as the rest of the building The cleaners, aerobics instructors, crowds of chubby women, talentless musicians, her useless husband - soet the place ready for the punters And she was right, the band hadn&039;t been able to get in to get their gear She could see it piled up at the far end of the rooe!&039; she screamed at a volunore &039;Where are you for Christ&039;s sake?&039;

Jackie opened the curtains and stumbled around the bar She found her husband of twenty-three years dead on the stairs which led down to the cellar Poor bugger, he looked like he&039;d lost his footing and fallen headfirst down the steps, s with sudden shock and emotion she slowly made her way down to hi over his sprawled out liot to the bottoan to cry

Oh, George, Jackie thought, and there I was thinking you&039;d let enuine deep, raw sadness, she tenderly stroked her husband&039;s ently shook his shoulder

&039;Come on, love,&039; she whispered hopefully, &039;wake up&039;

She kneas too late She knew that George was dead