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to offer some sort of
comfort but my fingers go right through what’s left of his hot flesh and hit bone. I want to jump away, to recoil, but there’s no way he’s going to die without me touching him and
being there for him.
    ‘What can I do?’ I ask, knowing it’s futile.
    ‘What the hell?’ Billie has edged out of hiding to see what’s happening.
    I ignore her, too mesmerised by the burned man. There is a connection between us, I can sense it and I think he can sense it too.
    ‘
Rev
,’ Billie hisses.
    ‘It’s OK,’ I tell her. ‘Just give me a moment. What happened to everyone?’ I whisper to the man.
    He raises what’s left of his face towards me, but before he can open his mouth again the last of his life goes out and he gently lowers his head to the floor and falls still.
    Which is when the Ape leaps out wielding two more Molotovs – one in each hand – and yells, ‘Come on then!’
    He only just manages to stop himself hurling them straight at me. Then, possibly because I’m just sitting here in my wet school blouse that’s now clinging to my chest, he douses the
Molotovs and comes over and asks me if he should fetch a towel and maybe rub me dry. I don’t respond because I’m sitting with a carcass, a human carcass, and I can’t think for the
life of me how any of this can really be happening when everything was so normal just a few hours ago.
    Billie can’t help herself and starts to cry at the sight of the dead man, and it’s left to the Ape to lift me under my armpits and pull me away from the poor burned soul. His BO is
overpowering, but kudos to him for showing some sign of humanity and caring.
    ‘C’mon,’ he says, ‘you can’t do nothing.’
    ‘It’s a man,’ I say.
    ‘
Was
a man,’ he replies.
    ‘But . . .’
    ‘Dead, Rev. He’s dead.’
    I sit back and can’t tell if I’m crying or if it’s just the sprinkler water running down my face. I look at Billie who is equally as confused and lost.
    ‘I wish it was still yesterday,’ she says quietly.
    ‘We’re out of here,’ says the Ape.
    ‘No,’ I say.
    ‘No?’
    ‘No,’ I repeat. I don’t know where it’s coming from, but I have a new strength in me now. Maybe it’s come from the burned man – maybe by touching him he
somehow added his life force to mine. ‘He heard us and he came looking for us for a reason,’ I add.
    ‘Yeah, he was on fire. Wanted someone to help.’ The Ape reduces everything to the bluntest logic.
    I look at Billie. ‘You understand, don’t you?’
    She nods, but then adds, ‘Not really.’
    ‘He came from somewhere,’ I say.
    ‘So? What does that matter?’ Billie asks.
    ‘So,’ I tell her, my voice as calm as I can manage, ‘somewhere is
somewhere.
Right?’
    ‘I s’pose,’ she says, straightening and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘But I’m thinking . . . I’m thinking that . . .’ She trails off.
    ‘What?’ I ask her.
    ‘The light. It was the light.’
    The Ape looks totally lost. ‘What light?’
    ‘Have you actually got a memory?’ I snap at him.
    ‘You’re the ones who didn’t remember my name,’ he snaps back.
    ‘There was a light when the classroom door got opened. Bright and blinding,’ Billie continues, ignoring our bickering. ‘Ever since then we’ve not seen another
person.’
    The Ape gets an idea and incredibly enough looks excited by it. ‘Maybe the light fried everyone!’
    Billie shudders. ‘Don’t, please.’
    ‘Something fried that guy.’
    ‘I’m going to follow the man’s trail,’ I say suddenly.
    ‘Seriously?’ Billie looks worried.
    ‘He came from somewhere. He may have been left behind or he may have got out from wherever everyone else is.’
    ‘I don’t want you to go anywhere, Rev,’ she says to me.
    ‘I have to. We need to do something,’ I tell her.
    ‘If he came from somewhere that burned him that badly then that’s not a place anyone should go,’ she replies.
    ‘I need a beer.’ The