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and violent attack which continued on the top floor.

Two police officers who had been patrolling nearby were inside the bus before the last passengers had scrambled out. They climbed the stairs at speed, batons raised and ready. Daryl Evans threw himself at them. A single well-aimed smash of a truncheon across the side of his head knocked him out cold and he collapsed to the ground, falling just inches away from the lifeless feet of the body of the man he'd just beaten to death.

Chapter Fourteen

Lizzie called me a bloody idiot for coming here today. She said I was mad going into town and now I'm here I have to agree. I wanted to stay at home but I had no choice. I've had too much time off recently. I was disciplined because of my absence record a couple of months back and now I don't get paid if I don't go in. They've threatened to kick me out if I don't turn up for work, and no matter how much I hate this job I can't afford to lose it. Maybe I'll be the only one who turns up today. Maybe I should just take a chance and turn round and go back home anyway. I don't know what's worse - the thought of sitting through another disciplinary meeting with Barry Penny and Tina or risking getting caught up in the kind of trouble we saw here last night.

The streets are quieter today. There are still plenty of people around but it feels more like a Sunday morning than a Wednesday. Everyone is silent and subdued and hardly anyone is talking to anyone else. I understand why it's like this. I don't want to talk to anyone either. I don't want to risk making any contact - even just looking at them - if there's a chance trouble's going to flare up. I keep my head down and my mouth shut and I guess that's what everyone else is doing too.

This feels bizarre. Last night when we were coming home from the hospital and later when I was talking to Harry it began to feel like the world was falling apart and coming to an end. The reality this morning feels different. Despite the quiet and the lack of conversation everything appears outwardly normal. It's hard to believe the things we've seen and heard about.

I cross Millennium Square to get to the office. It's a huge expanse of block-paving with a horrible modern fountain stuck right in the middle of it. It's right in the centre of town and people cross it from all directions to get to wherever it is they're supposed to be going. It's always busy. Between eight o'clock and nine in the morning, midday and two in the afternoon and pretty much anytime after four o'clock right through to the early hours this place is choc full of people. If there's a place you'd expect something to happen, this is it. Maybe I should have avoided it today, but that would have added at least another ten minutes to my walk to work and I'm running late as it is. It looks as if the authorities are ready for trouble. There are more police officers patrolling around here than I've ever seen on duty before and most, if not all of them, are armed. That might be normal elsewhere in the world but not here. Jesus, seeing officers walking through the crowd with their semi-automatic weapons primed and ready to fire makes me realise just how dangerous and unpredictable the situation now is. But surely their presence will just add to the problem, not diffuse it?

My last couple of minutes of freedom before I reach the office.

What is causing this to happen? As I walk through the silent, stony-faced crowds I can't help but wonder again what's responsible for all this madness and hysteria. What is it that's turning the world on its head? Has this whole situation been manufactured by the media as Lizzie's dad believes or is there more to it? Has anything really happened at all? Are people running scared from something that doesn't even exist? Or is there something in the water? Has something been sprayed into the air by terrorists? Are we living through some bizarre 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' type scenario?

Or is it something worse than all of that?

Midday.

Less than half of the staff turned up for work today. I've tried to keep my head down as