Was it one of those corpses waking up as a vampire?

But what if it were a survivor – some child who had managed to survive the Vampyrus and Lycanthrope attack? Shouldn’t we help them? It could be someone from the town, come in search of their family and they might know where other survivors are – there could be more – several more – even hundreds more who might be able to help us.

With these thoughts spinning through my mind, I got up slowly and crept between the cars. The noise came again, a shuffling sound like feet on concrete. I headed towards it. Then the noise came again, but from the opposite direction. I wheeled around.

“Hello?” I called out. “Is there anyone there?”

Silence.

I glanced back at Isidor, and he shrugged.

Crouching again, I shuffled deeper between the line of cars.

Then the sound came again and it was close. I gingerly poked my head over the edge of one of the car bonnets and found myself looking into the eyes of a tiger.

Its upper lip crumpled as it snarled at me. The tiger’s teeth were like ivory daggers and they were covered in blood and flesh. Long, silver whiskers twitched around its snout, and it’s orange and black coat glimmered in the sunlight. Seeing the blood smeared around its powerful jaws, I knew it had been feeding on the bodies strewn across the road and had probably escaped from the zoo when the Vampyrus had moved in.

I threw myself backwards in terror and clattered into one of the many cars. Regaining my balance, I darted between them and away from the tiger. It growled behind me, which was followed by the sound of its paws pounding against the roofs of the cars as it raced over to catch me. I saw Isidor peek out from over the hood of a car.

“Get down!” he screamed at me, as he raised his crossbow. But, in his weakened and frail state, Isidor looked as if he were having trouble taking aim. The crossbow wavered up and down and from side to side in his hands.

I weaved between the cars housing dead people and I had no intention of becoming one of them. My feet snapped off the tarmac, and as I rounded the front of a large four-by-four, I slipped and lost my balance completely. I hit the ground hard, knocking the wind from me. The tiger appeared on the roof of the four-by-four and snarled. Without taking my eyes off it, I inched backwards. The tiger looked down at me, and with a flash of those bloody teeth, it leapt from the four-by-four and flew through the air towards me. Closing my eyes, I waited for the tiger to sink its teeth into me.

There was a thud and a high-pitched wailing sound and as I opened my eyes, I saw something large and grey fleet across my line of vision, knocking the tiger out of the air. I turned my head to follow it and could see that the tiger had been bought down by another creature. They rolled about amongst the abandoned vehicles in a flash of colour and claws. The sounds of the creatures’ woofing and howling were terrifying and I slid underneath the four-by-four for safety. From my hiding place, I could see the two animals clawing and biting at each other, but it was such a violent blur of rage, that it was hard to see exactly what was taking place.

Manoeuvring myself, I watched as a huge set of jaws came clamping down on the tiger’s throat as it howled in agony. The other creature shook it violently to and fro and the tiger kicked out with its back legs. But its efforts were useless. The other creature was bigger and stronger and within moments had completely ripped open the tiger’s throat in a spray of crimson. The tiger twitched and jerked for a few more seconds then became still as the other animal nuzzled its face into the open wound and began to eat.

I lay under the four-by-four and covered my ears against the sounds of ripping and tearing as the creature devoured the tiger. Not daring to move, I stayed there until I thought it was safe to open my eyes. Looking sideways, I gagged at the sight of the dead tiger now lying on its side, its stomach torn open and a mass of entrails spilled onto the tarmac. Then I heard the sound of woofing and breathing beside me. I slowly turned my head to see the bloody face of Nik staring at me.

“Are you going to lie under there all day or are you going to start looking for a way out of here?” he barked, licking away the blood and sinew that dangled from his whiskers.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him as I pulled myself out from beneath the four-by-four.

“To help you,” he woofed.

“But I thought…” I started.

“You thought what?” he said, fixing me with his bright yellow eyes.

“But I thought you were dead back there,” I said.

“And I probably will be if I ever go back, but it’s too late for me to worry about that now. I don’t think it took too much for them to work out it was me who gave you the chair and that book.” Nik looked at me then turned away.

“Where you going?” I called out.

“I have something I need to do,” he said with a swish of his pointed tail.

“What about my friend, Luke Bishop?” I asked.

“What about him?”

“Why didn’t you save him, too?”

“I didn’t have time,” he said, licking the last of the tiger from his whiskers. “Besides you made so much goddamn noise escaping, the whole zoo came running.” Fixing me with his yellow stare, he added, “If I were you, Kiera Hudson, I’d forget any ideas you might have about going back for your friend, Luke.” Then he was gone, bounding away between the cars and out of sight.

“I can’t forget about Luke!” I called after him. “I won’t forget about him – he’s my friend!”

Chapter Twenty-One

“What happened?” Isidor asked, as he came shuffling towards me, his arm around Kayla. And just for a glimpsing moment, I could see that they did look like brother and sister.

“There was a tiger,” I told him, pointing to the remains of the giant cat.

“Did you do that?” Isidor asked, eyeing me.

“It was Nik.”

“Nik?” Isidor said.

“The werewolf that helped us escape from the zoo,” I explained.

“Where is he now?”

“Gone,” I told him. I could see he was struggling to support Kayla, so I went to him and tucked my arm around her waist and her head flopped against my shoulder.

“Gone where?” Isidor asked me.

“I don’t know,” I said, then added, “look we should really try to make it into the town. There might be people – somebody that can help us.”

“Why has this happened?” Isidor said, as we made our way up the road.

Remembering my earlier vision, I said, “The town came under attack by the Vampyrus and Lycanthrope. They took the children and killed the adults.”

“But, why?” Isidor asked me from behind his hands which he’d placed over his nose and mouth again.

“Like Murphy warned us, they want to take over and rule the Earth. This looks like the start of it,” I told him.

“But how have they gotten away with it? Why aren’t the humans fighting back?”

With my heart sinking in my chest, I looked at him and said, “Perhaps there aren’t any humans left.”

“I can’t believe we’re the only humans left alive on Earth,” Isidor said.

“We’re not strictly human, remember?”

We walked on in silence, Kayla lent against me, her feet seeming to drag behind.

Just when I thought Isidor was lost to his private thoughts, he said, “Maybe they had their time – humans I mean. Perhaps it’s the end of humanity.”

“I can’t accept that,” I breathed, as I struggled to support Kayla.

“Maybe you’re gonna have to!” Isidor said, and shuffled ahead.

I followed close behind him and we walked the rest of the way in silence.

Although Kayla was small, the weight of supporting her as we stumbled our way into the town made my arm go numb and I knew that once I had finally put her down, I would have the worst case of pins-and-needles ever.

I didn’t have to wait long, as the road finally led us into the town of Wasp Water. The streets were narrow and the buildings that rose up on either side of us looked ancient. The roads were cobbled and we were met with the sight of cars full of the dead. Most of the shops lining the streets had the shutters pulled down, the shopkeepers and staff never making it into work on the morning of the attack. An odd piece of litter fluttered along the kerb, and apart from the sound that it made, the only other noise I could hear were the crows screeching in the distance. The stench of rotting meat wafted on the cold wind that whipped around the eaves of the buildings. Then I heard another sound; it was faint – but it was definitely there. I began to walk slowly to the right, my head tilted to one side as I homed in on the noise.

“What’s wrong?” Isidor asked me.

“Shhh,” I replied.

Isidor hobbled over and stood beside me. I could see that his bare feet, like mine, were raw and cold-looking.

“What is it?” he whispered, as he waved his crossbow before him.

“I can hear something,” I said, as I continued to move towards the sound with Kayla. Then I had it, and I started to move as fast as I could towards it.

“What can you hear?” he called after me.

“The sound of running water!” I whooped.

I made my way towards a tall stone building, and as I drew close I could see that it had once been a church, but the steeple and the crucifix that had once adorned it now lay in a pile of rubble on the ground. The church door was wedged open, and I had to look away at the sight of decaying bodies that were piled high in the doorway. I feared that if I looked at it for too long, then I would see them clambering over one another, desperate for the sanctuary that the church would offer against the vampires. Dragging Kayla past the front of the church, I followed a narrow path leading to the town square. There were tables and benches for people to relax on as they basked in the sun of long warm, summer evenings. But it was what was in the centre of the town square that I was interested in –a fountain. Water tumbled from it in thick, frothy streams.