Blood Crazy Read Online Free PDF Page A

were killing their children.’
    â€˜Mainly.’
    â€˜When I said I wanted to look for my parents … You said not to bother … That they were probably looking for me. What do you mean?’
    â€˜What do I mean, Nick? I mean I saw mothers and fathers, ordinary people I’ve known all my life, killing their children. They were tearing them apart. That’s what I saw. Why are they doing it? Jesus Christ, I don’t know why.’
    Suspicion detonated like Semtex inside my head. ‘You think my parents killed John?’
    â€˜I think … Shit. Will you take a look at that?’
    I looked in the direction he was staring.
    There were people in the High Street. At that moment they were doing nothing.
    Nothing apart from watching us. With nearly a hundred yards separating us I wasn’t scared. Physically they weren’t intimidating. They could have been a group of thirty or so churchgoers, gathering on the pavement for an impromptu meeting. There were no children with them.
    Your elders will tell you spending your time in nightclubs teaches you nothing. Not true. It teaches you this. You learn body language. And when you’re seventeen knowing how to read body language keeps you in one piece. You instinctively recognise when someone walks toward you whether they’re going to ignore you, say hello, or take a belt at you.
    When that group of Doncaster men and women turned to look at us, a ripple of movements ran through them. As easy as you read these words you could read their hostility – and intent.
    I said, ‘They’re going to have a go at us.’
    Steve nodded. ‘At least they’ll never catch us from here. Come on.’
    We turned.
    Where they had come from I don’t know. They must have leaked from the back alleyways. Blocking the pavement ten yards away were a dozen men and women aged anything from their twenties to one old guy of eighty-plus with a deaf aid and walking stick. Normally you wouldn’t have looked twice at this bunch.
    But their eyes belted out a different message.
    They burned with hatred. The muscle beneath their faces was so tight skin creases radiated from their mouths and eyes. Whatever changes had taken place inside their heads changed the shape oftheir faces. These were facial expressions no one on this planet had seen before.
    â€˜Nick. Run … Run!’
    The men and women didn’t move. But you sensed the muscle tension building in their bodies. Their shoulders began to slowly rise.
    I felt a punch in my side.
    â€˜Wake up, Nick. Run!’
    I ran, cutting between two closely parked cars and belted across the road.
    Steve wasn’t behind me. I stopped at the far side and looked back.
    He hadn’t been fast enough. I saw him fighting to twist free. That blond head strained from side to side as fists punched down on him; arms wrapped around his shoulders and chest.
    I ran back until I was only separated from the mob holding Steve by a parked car.
    â€˜Steve!’
    He twisted his head to look at me. Blood poured like tears from his eyes.
    â€˜Run, Nick! Run!’
    Agony cracked from this throat. They were killing him.
    I climbed onto the roof of the car and beat the metal with my fists, like I was trying to scare away a pack of wild dogs.
    What in God’s name could I do?
    How he managed to keep on his feet I don’t know. Women wrapped their arms around his neck as if they wanted to kiss him. But they were biting his face. Holes appeared in his cheeks.
    â€˜Nick … Oh, Jesus … Nick! Niiiarrrr …’
    I was screaming, ‘Leave him, leave him, leave him …’
    They took no notice.
    A heavy shape bounced across the car inches from me. A fat man threw himself onto the clump of bodies. Steve went down.
    They were all over him. A mound of kicking, biting, punching men and women.
    Steve’s destruction was all that mattered. They even ignored me, although their bodies slamming