Straight to You Page 0,98

tightly. I gave silent thanks that it was someone else's girlfriend who had been slashed and not mine. The girl who I held in my arms was more precious to me than anything else and, although I had little left to offer, I would gladly have given up what remained of my life to prevent her from coming to any harm.

'We can't stay here,' Sam said quietly, her voice almost drowned in the chorus of confusion that rang out around us. As I held her, I watched the man we had seen moments earlier as he lit the damp rag-fuse of a crude petrol bomb and hurled it into the window of the shop that he had already destroyed. As a thick cloud of fire and smoke belched out from the remains of the building's shattered window, I pulled Sam close again in a conscious effort to protect her from the violence.

'Where should we go?' I asked. She thought for a moment.

'To the beach,' she decided. 'It can't be any worse than this place, can it?'

My feelings remained unchanged and I was just so glad that she still wanted to spend her last moments with me that I didn't care what we did or where we went. I was filled with a real pride and, at the same time, with a numbing, bitter sadness.

'It's this way,' she said, pulling me through the darkness towards where a narrow road disappeared into the shadows.

Holding her hand tightly, I ran with Samantha away from the village and out towards the coast.

Chapter Thirty-Four

As we ran along the open road in the direction of the beach, the sounds of the village in turmoil behind us soon faded away and were replaced by the noises of the sea crashing against the shore. The road was empty but for the two of us running along and, as we made a speedy descent of a steep hill, I could see that hundreds of desperate people were gathered on the crowded beach below, each one searching for relief from the tortuous conditions.

The road began as a straight and hard tarmac track which then twisted and turned down the hillside, becoming more and more dusty and sandy with each passing metre. It was eventually reduced to little more than a narrow path which wound its way between high sand dunes and onto the golden beach. As the ocean came into full view, I noticed that a thin, ghostly mist hung over the whole scene. Lighter than a fog or a seasonal sea-mist, it took a few moments before I realised that the haze was, incredibly, a film of steam which rose steadily from the surface of the salt water as it evaporated in the relentless heat. The muffled sounds of the waves crashing onto the dry shore that we had heard as we had approached the beach began to change and as we neared the tide line, the noises became clearer and more distinct. It was not long before they became recognisable as the sounds of the hissing, spitting water beginning to churn and of hundreds of terrified people murmuring with fear.

For as far as I could see in either direction along the beach, people's tired heads bobbed up and down in the frothing surf. Other figures sat motionless in the damp sand and let the seething water wash over them in a vain attempt to keep the relentless heat from burning and scorching their already tender flesh. I did not know what relief the water would offer but I looked towards Samantha to see if that was how she wanted us to spend the time which remained.

'This way,' she said as we ran onto the golden sand. She pulled my hand and led me along the beach towards what looked, in the darkness, to be a virtual cliff-face in the distance. The evening gloom and the sea's haze may have made it look steeper and more imposing than it actually was and I had little choice but to trust Sam's instincts and follow her.

'There's somewhere that we can shelter up there,' she said breathlessly as we stumbled and tripped through the light sand. 'It might be better than this.'

Without questioning her judgment I followed her but I did not know why we ran. I could not think of anywhere that would be strong or safe enough to protect us from the violent energy pulse which I was sure would strike soon. Although I would have liked to have

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