Snippet #1942654

In glimpses between dodging snarling men, women and children I pieced together the incredible defence the boy put up, but with half my focus on him and the rest concentrating on swerving wildly into safe spots, I had no chance to watch my step and fell heavily onto the floor. One of the monsters noticed me fall, and I grabbed desperately for the hunk of wood I tripped on – a broken leg from a shattered table.

I swung the table leg violently upwards as the monster dived towards me and, as if it was being led by a stronger force than me, the tip of it connected with his jaw and he flew straight over me, crumpling on the floor, apparently dazed. By the time he was moving, I was up, smashing around his head with the table chunk. It may not seem like much, but any sort of weapon was a huge advantage.

The boy caught up with me and as we continued our all or nothing dash for the doorway, I scanned the hall, using this brief moment of almost calmness to survey my enemy.

None of the things were using weapons. They might have superhuman strength, but they weren’t using tools. So these things can't be intelligent; they must be easy to outwit.

Suddenly we were through the doorway! There were more of the monster things, far away enough that they didn’t seem concerned with us; they were hunting people down in the stores. I touched a finger to my lips in the universal gesture for ‘shh!’ and pointed at the elevator.