We drink tea and eat biscuits in groggy silence, with only The Other being chipper. He walks to the nearest window and taps on it, causing Chloe to grimace, but nothing taps back. He seems satisfied, and repeats the process along the hall.

"So, we need a plan right? What are we going to do?" Chloe asks finally, after her seventh digestive biscuit.

"We need more knowledge. The Other seems to think that we need to find someone big and important and like... spiritual?" I wave a hand dismissively. "But how are two kids from Birmingham meant to find someone like that?"

"We could try going to the Cathedral?" Chloe suggests.

"And tell them what? We saw a big giant black thing that sent zombies after us and that we need them to call the Pope to get rid of it? They'll think we're on drugs," I laugh hollowly. "Besides, you don't need to be involved."

Chloe's lips thin. "Well excuse me, but you got me involved the minute you stepped into this building and brought a whole bunch of... what were they called? Maligned? Those things down on my head. So like it or not, I'm involved now."

I can only describe the way she's holding her biscuit as mulish.

"There's no point in quibbling about it, love. Just accept her help and move on," The Other says, rejoining us and slumping onto the floor. "But regardless, her plan to go to the Anglicans isn't a bad one."

"It's over eight miles away..." I point out. "And we don't have a car."

"Public transport," Chloe says, shrugging. "We can be bus wankers."

"I don't want to be stuck on a bus with one of those things. The Other said that they're still active in the day time," I point out, reaching for another biscuit.

"While that is a concern," The Other pulls the plate of biscuits away from my grasp. "I am more concerned with getting us there as fast as possible and away from here."

"We can lose them in a Megacab," Chloe suggests. "If we get it to pick us up right here, it can drop us off at a bus stop a bit further away and we can get a bus the rest of the way."

"Why not get one of these Megacabs all the way there?" The Other suggests, shrugging. "Surely that would be the safest plan."

I think of my bank balance, which has a grand total of £31.53 until payday next week.

"I have a bus pass," I say, with more confidence than I feel.

"Me too," Chloe says quickly, and I think perhaps her own finances mirror my own.

"Do you believe that other people being on the bus will save you? The Maligned can spread quickly and-"

"Fine, we'll take a Megacab," I say, interrupting him and getting to my feet irritably. I draw out my phone, bringing up the app. "Chloe, what's your number? We can ride share to save costs."

Chloe refuses to look at me. "U-um... I don't have a phone."

"What?"

The Other tilts his head to the side.

"Right," I reply flatly. Fine, if she doesn't want to share the cost then I can't force her to. It's not like I know her.

The app starts to try to find a driver, but I don't have enough bars of signal inside the church for it to pick up my geo-location. I sigh.

"Let me go outside. Signal's weak here so they might not be able to pick us up."

I walk over to the door, and it's half way open when it bursts inward from the outside. I'm thrown backwards onto the floor, my phone skittering out of my hand.

Standing in the doorway is an old man, wearing grey slacks and a jumper with a coffee stain on the front. He his yellowed eyes, and thin white hair, and the tips of his fingers are dyed amber from tobacco.

I don't get a chance to react before The Other is in front of me, pushing the old man out of the building with a sound halfway between the yowl of a cat and a tortured soul.

The door bangs shut behind them.

From the other side of the door, there are thuds and crashes. The sound of a shoe hitting the wood. Then a wet, slick, splatter sound like rain pattering down.

Then silence.

Chloe is next to me now, kneeling down to help me up, her eyes fixed on the door.

"Should we open it?" she asks me as she heaves me to my feet.

My hands are shaking as I reach out. The handle is cool against my palm as I turn it, then give it a sharp pull.

For some reason, I expected blood to look darker when pooled, but it is a bright crimson splattered all over the door and on the ground in front of the meeting hall. Blood drips down from the doorframe, a steady drip, drip. drip.

There's a pile of clothes around the blood and mush that I don't look at too closely, soaked completely.

The Other is coated, pretty much from head-to-toe in gore.

A strip of grey hair dangles from its lower jaw.

"Sorry, dear, I know you Quakers don't like violence," he says cheerfully, picking the hair out of his mouth with a gagging sound and dropping it onto the floor.

My phone vibrates on the floor behind me.

"Oh good. The Megacab's arrived."