Sheer terror compelled Chloe to keep on moving. She was walking now because she physically couldn’t run any more; she’d already fallen over twice, her breath was coming in ragged gasps and there was a sharp burning sensation in her chest. At the same time her head was filled with strident voices that were screaming at her to do different things.
Find a police officer and tell him or her what has happened to Tom.
Knock on someone’s door and get whoever answers to phone your mum.
Don’t forget what you’ve been told so many times – which is never to stop and speak to a stranger in the street because they can’t be trusted and they might hurt you.
And the streets were swarming with strangers, mostly angry young men who were making a lot of noise and causing a lot of damage.
She’d searched desperately for Tom as she’d walked past the estate where the crowd of faceless rioters were brawling with each other. But there had been no sign of him or his car.
It didn’t mean that he wasn’t still alive, she kept telling herself. They could have driven him down one of the side streets, or onto the estate itself. Or perhaps he’d regained consciousness and had managed to run away from the men who had taken him. Oh God, she hoped so.
The estate was behind her now and she was on a street lined on both sides with small shops. Some of them were being targeted by the rioters who were smashing windows and kicking at doors. A clothing store was on fire and a shop selling electrical goods was being looted. Burglar alarms were going off and there was smoke everywhere. The noise was deafening, and there were no police around to restore order.
Chloe wished she’d remembered her phone because she was lost without it. It meant she couldn’t call her mum to ask her what she should do. As it was, she had no idea how to respond to what was happening. It was far worse than the nightmares she’d been having in which that horrible man, Bruno Perez, had risen from the dead so that he could kidnap her again. At least those weren’t real and she always woke to find that she was safely tucked up in her bed.
But this wasn’t a nightmare. It was real and she was scared and helpless and lost.
She didn’t know her way around this part of London. Nothing was familiar to her and everything was strange and threatening. There were so many people, but no friendly faces amongst them, no one around who looked as if they might be able to help her. She was alone, confused, gripped by a raging panic that had seized control of her legs and was propelling her forward. But to where?
She had no idea where she was going. She needed someone to tell her, someone to grasp her by the hand and assure her that everything was going to be all right before leading her to a place of safety.
She needed her mum.
The flashing blue lights of a police car appeared as if out of nowhere, stopping Chloe dead in her tracks.
The vehicle screeched to a halt in the middle of the road junction that was just up ahead. The sight of it lifted her spirits, but only for a fraction of a second because that was how long it took for the rioters to turn their attention to it.
The police car was bombarded with missiles, including bottles that smashed against the shiny bodywork. It started to back up but collided with a van that had stopped behind it.
As the rioters rushed forward, two police officers leapt out of the car and sprinted towards what looked like a small park beyond the shops.
Chloe decided that her best option was to follow them, but as she stepped off the kerb into the road she failed to check if it was safe to do so.
It wasn’t.
A motorcyclist tore past at that very moment and she heard him scream at her to get out of the way. At the same time there was a loud squeal of tyres on the tarmac as the rider swerved dramatically in a bid to avoid hitting her. But Chloe didn’t react quickly enough.
The nearside saddlebag struck the side of her body and the impact sent her flying back onto the pavement.
Her head struck the concrete first and an explosion of pain pulsed through her entire body.
It was the last thing she was aware of before a huge black hole opened up and she was sucked into it.