MYSTERY MAN

'OPEN UP. IT'S us.'

Purna and Xian Mei scanned the area like border guards, while Jin waited in the van, and Sam thumped the door of the lifeguard station with his clenched fist. It was almost noon now, and the sun was at its peak.

From here Banoi looked beautiful. To their left, the stretch of powder-white beach edged a sparkling blue crystal sea, while to their right, the lush vegetation rose towards mountains whose summits glowed a soft purple where they met the bright and cloudless sky.

A warm breeze blew in from the west, kissing their skin and tempering the heat of the sun, and despite the chaos in town, the only sounds that disrupted the midday tranquility were the languid calls of exotic birds.

If not for the individual parts of a dismembered body scattered in bloody profusion further along the beach, it might almost have been possible to believe that the events of the past twelve hours were nothing but a terrible nightmare. Sam was about to thump on the door again when Logan's voice replied, 'Who's "us"?'

Sam rolled his eyes. 'Stop messing about, man. It's dangerous out here.'

There was the heavy chunk of disengaging locks, and the door opened. Grinning, Logan said, 'Sorry, no hawkers, no traders, and definitely no blood-drenched zombie killers.'

Sam matched his grin with a tired one of his own and said enticingly, 'We got Twinkies.'

'Oh well, that's different,' Logan said and pulled the door wide.

The four of them trooped in, Purna immediately discarding her weapon – no longer the shotgun, but an HK G36 assault rifle appropriated from the police armory – and slumping into one of the seats around the table. Jin shuffled in like an old woman with her head down, Xian Mei's free hand (in her other she was also carrying an HK G36 assault rifle) round the younger girl's shoulders. Sam, who had stood aside to let the women in before him, walked over to the table and dropped a big bag of pastries and cakes onto it.

'We brought breakfast,' he said. 'They were all out of skinny muffins, so if anyone's on a diet, tough shit.'

'You, my man, have got class,' Logan replied, closing and locking the door. 'Hey, Sinamoi,' he called. 'How 'bout some coffee for our guests?'

Sinamoi was hunched over the radio, headphones on, twiddling dials, but at Logan's words, he looked up and grinned. 'Sure. I make coffee.' As Sinamoi bustled about, Purna squinted tiredly up at Logan. 'You look better.'

'You don't,' he replied cheerily. 'Added to which – if I could just raise a little personal hygiene issue here – you guys stink.'

Sam sniffed his sleeve and recoiled. 'That's not us, that's zombies.'

Logan shook his head. 'It'll never catch on.' Pointedly he looked at his watch. 'So what took you so long? I was beginning to think you'd abandoned me, and I was going to have to live out the rest of my days in this two-bit shack with no one but Sinamoi for company – hey, no offence, man,' he called across to the lifeguard, who grinned yet again and raised his hand in acknowledgment.

Over cake and coffee, Sam, with Purna and Xian Mei butting in at regular intervals, told Logan their story. When he got to the part where they had encountered Jin, Logan gave a crooked smile and said softly, 'I wondered when they were going to get round to you.'

Jin didn't reply. She didn't even raise her head.

'Don't say a whole lot, do you?' Logan muttered.

Xian Mei said quickly, 'She's been through a bad time.'

To everyone's surprise, Jin suddenly looked up, her eyes black and glittering. In a voice shaking not only with trauma but also with barely suppressed rage, she said, 'I was raped by three men. They killed the man who was trying to protect me, and then they beat me and raped me. And they kept beating me and raping me until I passed out.'

Silence followed her words. Logan looked away, shaking his head.

'Shit, man … that's … shit. I mean … that's fucking awful, man … sorry …' he mumbled.

Jin took a shuddering breath and said, 'I used to have faith in people, you know? And faith in God too. Even after Mama died, I thought … I thought that the good in the world was stronger than the bad, and that eventually evil would be vanquished. But now –' she shook her head – 'that sounds so … so pathetic …' Her voice tailed off, and she lowered her head again. Xian Mei reached out and gently stroked her back.

Sam grimaced and carried on with the story, his voice a low rumble. He told Logan about killing the men in the police station and rescuing Jin, about stocking up on weapons from the armory, then going back to the church and delivering provisions and medicine and weapons to Sister Helen's rag-tag group of survivors.

'It seemed weird taking guns to a church,' Sam said, 'but in a way, those guys are fighting God's war, I guess … fighting against the demons.'

'The infected aren't demons,' said Xian Mei. 'They're victims, like everyone else.'

Sam shook his head. 'That's not what I meant. That thing that's got inside those people – that's the demon.