Blog of the Dead (Book 2): Life by Lisa Richardson Page B

prise open the panel of the steering column, exposing the wires underneath. He cut and stripped the ends of two red wires before twisting them together. He then cut and stripped another wire before touching it to the exposed ends of the red ones. The car made a clicking sound but the engine wouldn’t start. Misfit tried again, touching the exposed ends of the wires together but the engine failed to roar into life.
    ‘Flat battery,’ said Misfit, easing himself out of the car. ‘Not surprising with how long these cars have been sitting here. But we might get lucky.’ Misfit strode around the back of the Vauxhall to a two door red Ford Fiesta. I leaned the front of my body against the side of the Vauxhall, resting my arms across the roof of the vehicle while Misfit tried the door of the Ford. It opened so he jumped into the driver’s side, ducked down under the steering wheel and had the engine running in mere moments. Misfit eased himself out of the car and stood by the open door, grinning proudly. ‘We got lucky,’ he said.
    ‘Top work,’ said Sean. He slid past Misfit and climbed into the driver’s seat. I opened the passenger door, pushed the seat forwards and climbed into the back, while Misfit rounded the front of the car and took the passenger seat, in front of me. Sean drove the car to the gate that led out onto the narrow road and he stopped with the engine running. ‘I’m guessing we head that way back to town,’ he said, nodding to the left.
    ‘Must be,’ I said. ‘I’ve never been up here before.’
    Sean turned the car out to the left and put his foot down. We tore down the road with the cliff on one side and houses on our other. ‘Nice spot if you can afford it,’ Sean said, nodding sideways to the semi’s on our right with a clear view over the English Channel. ‘Beats the view of depressing council high rises from my depressing post-apocalypse council high rise.’
    ‘Well, anyone can afford a sea view these days,’ I said. ‘Just by being alive.’
    After a short while, the road veered away from the cliff and we now had houses on our left and right, until the houses on the left gave way to an open field at the edge of the cliff. Just before the junction onto the main road something darted from behind a garden fence on our right, and onto the road a couple of metres in front of us. It happened so fast all I saw was a blur. Sean swerved to the right, but whatever or whoever it was didn’t stop and disappeared into the bushes on the left.
    Sean tried to right the car by pulling hard to the left but we had been going fast and he lost control of the wheel. He hit the brakes but the car carried on going, out over the main road and smashed into a brick wall outside a house on the other side with a sickening crunch of metal.

Entry Seven
    I hadn’t been wearing a seat belt and the impact forced me to slam into the seat in front. My chest and left shoulder took most of the hit and I rubbed at them while I shifted back a bit and surveyed the damage. Sean had smacked into the steering wheel and lay over it. But it was the sight of Misfit, unmoving, with his body flung over the dashboard, his head through the spider webbed smashed glass of the windscreen that caused me to start hyperventilating. Breathe , Sophie . Breathe , I told myself. You can’t help him if you panic . Fuck it!
    ‘Misfit!’ I flung my upper body between the seats, reached out my left arm and touched his back. ‘Misfit, wake up!’ Sean groaned to my right. He lifted his head from the steering wheel and sat back a little, lifting his left arm to his forehead. ‘Misfit!’ I cried. ‘Sean … help him!’
    Sean glanced at me and I saw he had an inch long gash on his forehead. Blood trickled down into his right eye and he wiped it away with the back of his hand. As he leaned across to Misfit, I moved back a little to give him room. I watched as he placed his fingers on Misfit’s neck.
    ‘Is he OK?’
    ‘He’s alive,’