Synopsis - Death Day

Main characters

Tom Lambert
Ray Mackenzie
Debbie Lambert
Doctor John Kirby

Minor characters

Steve Pike
Sergeant Vic Hayes
Susan Howard
June Mackenzie
Michelle Mackenzie
Maureen Bayliss
Ronnie Bayliss
Carol Bayliss
Jack Bayliss
PC Gary Briggs
Emma Reece
Gordon Reece
PC Chris Davies
PC Tony Walford
PC Ron Bell
PC Stuart Ferman

 

PC Dave Jenkins
Dr Stephen Morgan
Peter Brooks
Howard Trefoile
Father Clive Ridley
Bob Shaw
Kelly Vincent
Charles Burton
Stephanie 'Stevie' Lawson
DCI James Baron
Chief Inspector Mark Dayton
PC Paul Greene
PC Grogan
Nigel Moore
Mrs Cole

Setting

Medworth, Derbyshire

PROLOGUE

PART ONE

Two men in a cell beat a woman and tear her clothes off. They ask her where her master is but she says nothing. They drag her to another room, shackle her to a wall and throw water at her. They burn her with a white hot branding iron and still she says nothing. They aim the iron between her legs and she gives in, telling them about her master and an amulet. They drag her outside and tell a crowd of hundreds that in the year of 1596, she has confessed to knowing the secret of the amulet and he who holds it, then they hang her. They have dealt with the disciple now they will destroy the master.

1

It's 8am in the small quiet town of Medworth.

2

Tom Lambert, 22, is visiting his brother Michael's grave in Two Meadows cemetery. Two weeks ago Mike died in a car accident, while Tom was in the car. It had been Mike's stag do that night. Tom, the head of Medworth's small police force, has visited his grave every day at 9am since his brother's burial.

3

Council workers Ray Mackenzie and Steve Pike are clearing the ground of a large overgrown area of the cemetery. Both of their watches have stopped at 9.30am.

Lambert has driven home and is opening his mail. There is a bill and a letter from his mother, which reads and tears up. He phones the police station to see if anything has happened that he should know about but Sergeant Vic Hayes tells him nothing has. He will let Lambert know if something does.

Debbie Lambert, Tom's wife is the head librarian at the local library. At lunchtime she meets Tom outside and they go to a cafe. They talk about what Tom has done that morning and at 2pm Debbie returns to the library.

4

Pike and Mackenzie are still busy chopping down the tall grass and weeds in the cemetery. There is a tree stump in the centre which they struggle to dig up, but when they do the stench is like excrement. In the hole is a slug the size of a small dog. Mackenzie chops the slug up with an axe covering himself with pus and blood in the process. Pike has fainted but has come to and been sick again. An hour or so later they notice a coffin like box underneath the slug's remains. Its nameplate has had its name scratched off, but the date reads 1596. Opening the coffin with a crow bar, they find a skeleton with a gold medallion on a long gold chain around its neck. Pike wonders if they should tell the vicar. The medallion begins to get hot and starts to glow causing Mackenzie to drop it. Pike wearily picks it up and says it isn't hot. Mackenzie snatches it from him saying it must be worth a fortune and he wants a souvenir after what they've gone through that day. He asks Steve to drive the van back as he has a headache.

5

Tom and Debbie are at home, and after dinner Tom says that despite being signed off work for a month he needs to go back to occupy his mind.

Ray Mackenzie returns home where his wife June, 34, has been waiting for him for the last hour. She expects he has been in the pub, as usual. Ray goes straight upstairs to put the medallion into his wife jewellery box which he then places under his pillow. Returning downstairs he tells her that he does not want any dinner and throws it at the wall. He screams that he cannot stand the light and switches the kitchen one off. He argues with June then hits her. Their daughter Michelle, 5, becomes scared and runs to her mother.

Later that night June gets into bed and Ray turns over to face her, but his eyes have been replaced with blood red orbs. He throws June across the room and stabs her with shards from a broken mirror, killing her. Michelle walks into the room and stares at the thing that was once her father.

6

Tom gives Debbie a cup of coffee and asks her to stop the work she's brought home from the library. They have sex.

Lambert wakes at 4am after another nightmare involving his brother.

7

Maureen is about to take her two children Ronnie, 7 and Carol, 6, to school which she normally does with June and Michelle Mackenzie. Leaving her husband Jack in bed who is working a night shift, she notices that the Mackenzie's curtains are still drawn and the front door is open. Worried and scared, she returns home to wake Jack who goes to check on the Mackenzie's. Seeing what has happened inside their house, he is sick and asks Maureen to call the police, then faints.

8

Sergeant Vic Hayes, 52, hasn't seen anything like the scene upstairs at the Mackenzie's in his thirty years plus in the job. Doctor John Kirby, Medworth's G.P. and also police doctor is examining the bodies of June and Michelle. Kirby talks to Hayes about his findings, saying the cuts are nine or ten inches deep, and the eyes have been torn out. Hayes wonders if the husband Ray, who is missing has done this. Hayes goes downstairs who talks to PC Briggs who says that he found a jewellery box underneath a pillow in the bedroom with a medallion inside. Hayes tells him to take lock it in the safe when he goes back to the station. He asks if anyone has spoken to the woman who reported it and Briggs tells him that PC Walford has. Hayes says to Briggs not to speak about what has happened to anyone, radios in to the PC Chris Davies at the police station then heads there in his Panda car.

Hayes telephones Lambert and lets him know about the double murder. Hayes says that Lambert isn't needed at the station but he will let him know the results of Kirby's autopsy report and if anyone finds Ray Mackenzie. At 4.23pm Hayes calls Lambert and tells him they have the results of the autopsy, then passes the phone over to Kirby. He tells him that both were killed with a piece of mirror that he pulled out of June and both eyes had been pulled out by bare hand, and the fingerprints match those of Ray Mackenzie. Kirby passes the phone back to Hayes and Lambert tells him to get every available man they have out looking for Lambert. He then pours himself a scotch.

Debbie gets home from the library and Tom tells her what's happened. He says that he's going back to work.

9

Emma and Gordon Reece are talking about the party they are having for their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary this coming Saturday. Emma, 52, takes their labrador Sherry out for a walk as Gordon wants to stay in and watch the football. Emma takes the dog to an area locals call 'The Wasteland', an old farm owned by a Henry Myers. There, Ray Mackenzie jumps out of the bushes and kills her with his bare hands.

As Gordon makes his wife a cup of tea as he expects her to be home soon, he hears a scratching at his back door. He opens it to find Sherry and a blood splattered leash.

10

At 4.30am Lambert is woken up by a phone call telling him about Emma Reece. Her husband has found her in Myers' farm. Lambert quickly gets dressed, writes his wife a note and leaves.

Once at the police station Lambert greets Sergeant Hayes and PC Chris Davies, 43. He then goes to see Kirby in the police pathology lab. They look over Emma Reece's body and Mackenzie sees that her eyes have been torn out. Kirby says Mackenzie's marks were all over the body, the same as June and Michelle's and she was strangled with barbed wire. He tells him not to bother doing an autopsy and then leaves Kirby to write his report.

Back in Lambert's office he sits and thinks about what motive Mackenzie had to kill these three people. He then goes to his brother's grave.

11

At home, Tom and Debbie talk about the latest murder and Debbie says she knows both Emma and Gordon from their library visits. They sit and eat dinner and Debbie ask him if he fancies going out to Nottingham that night, but he doesn't. They then start to kiss and undress each other on the sofa, but they fall off laughing.

Gordon Reece sits at home drinking scotch and thinking about his wife. Emma's funeral is the next day.

12

After the funeral, Gordon takes a handful of tranquillizers and drinks a full bottle of whiskey. He squeezes the glass so hard it smashes in his hand then just sits and waits.

At 3am he awakes and hears a sound at the back door, which his labrador is looking at and growling. Someone is trying to get it. He unlocks the door and it opens. The thing that was Emma stands there, her eyes like red orbs. She attacks Gordon.

13

It's Sunday and Lambert asks Hayes for the Reeces' address and PC Walford drives him there. On the way they talk about why they joined the police force. Once they get there Walford waits in the car. He knocks on the front door but there is no answer so he goes round the back. The back door is open so he goes in, calling for Gordon but there is no answer and nobody at home. He leaves the house and gets back in the car. Over the radio he is told that they have got Mackenzie. They drive to the station.

At the station Lambert is told Mackenzie was ruin down by a car at Two Meadows. He is in a cell lying on the bed but there isn't a mark on him. Doctor Kirby and Constables Davies and Bell are either side of the door. Kirby lifts open one of Mackenzie's eyelid's and is shocked to see how they look. Suddenly Mackenzie grabs hold of Kirby, screams and throw him across the room. They strap him down to the bed and Kirby looks at his eyes again, saying that some kind of haemorrhage may have happened but he isn't convinced. They decide they need a drink.

In 'The Blacksmith', they talk about the three murders, and that Gordon Reece is missing. Lambert shows Kirby a bloodstained piece of glass he found in Reece's front room.

14

At 4.50pm Lambert is in his office, examining the amulet he found in the safe. He wonders what the Latin means. He scrapes some mud and fibres off of the medallion and puts them into a bag to give to Kirby tomorrow. He puts the medallion into another bag which he then puts in his pocket, deciding to take it home to see if Debbie can read any of the text. Just then his office door bursts open and Davies says that Mackenzie is going crazy. Going to his cell, Lambert sees that Mackenzie has broken free of his straps and is throwing himself against the walls and trying to pull the bars of the window. He's been like this since it got dark, says Davies. Davies turns the light on and Mackenzie backs into the corner of the cell, slumped down and growling. He then gets ups, shielding himself from the light and smashes the bulb. He pulls the sink off the wall and smashes it on the floor.

Lambert calls Debbie to tell her he's going to be late home, but she doesn't answer. He then waits for Kirby to arrive. Hayes hands Lambert a coffee, and Constables Ferman and Jenkins arrive for their night duty. Kirby arrives and says Thorazine may not be strong enough to sedate Mackenzie and he doesn't want to administer it with him like that anyway. He suggests they both go home and see what he is like in the morning, hoping that the cell will hold him.

15

Lambert lays in bed at home thinking of the day's events. He showed the medallion to Debbie and she is going to try and find out what the inscriptions mean. She wakes up and says maybe he could take the medallion to their local antique dealer for him to look at. They have sex.

The next morning Lambert visits Mackenzie's cell. Kirby and Ferman are there too. Mackenzie is lying on the bed, in a coma-like state which he has been in since dawn. Kirby suggests taking him to a hospital in the nearby town of Wellham where they can give Mackenzie an EEG and look at him brainwaves. Lambert agrees.

16

Later that day, Lambert and Kirby take Mackenzie to the hospital where Dr Stephen Morgan does the EEG, assisted by an intern Peter Brooks. From an observation booth, they see Mackenzie lying on a trolley in an examination room, as two interns and a nurse prepare him for the test. They leave the room and the test begins. The machine shows no brain impulses at all. Brooks switches the light off, and the machine bursts into life. He switches the light on again and the needle on the machine dies. He switches the light off again and Lambert notices that Mackenzie is flexing his fingers. He breaks free of the straps holding him down. Lambert tries to switch the lights on, but each of the fluorescent tubes blows. Lambert goes into the examination room yells that they should open the shutters that are keeping light out. Mackenzie is on him, just as Brooks opens the first shutter. Mackenzie's grip weakens and he grabs Brooks as he opens the second shutter. They both go crashing through the window and fall twelve storeys to the ground below. Nobody knows what to say as they look down at the bodies below. Lambert says he's going back to work.

Lambert heads to the antique shop.

17

Howard Trefoile is just finishing his lunch in his antique shop when Lambert walks in. Lambert hands Trefoile the medallion who tells him it's worth thousands of pounds and is probably sixteenth century. One of the words 'mortis' he knows translates as 'death'. He thinks he recognises the medallion from somewhere and asks Lambert if he can leave it with him so he can do some research.

Lambert drives back to the police station where Hayes tells him the results of Mackenzie autopsy. Everything was normal apart from the eyes, but they don't know what's caused them to look how they do. As he drives home he wonders where Mackenzie got the medallion from.

PART TWO

18

A few weeks have passed and life is back to normal in Medworth. Tom isn't visiting his brother's grave as frequently. He's still waiting to hear back about the medallion. It's Saturday night and after work he and Debbie are driving into Nottingham for a meal and then a film or club.

Father Clive Ridley, 53 looks over his sermon that he's just written. He then goes for a walk out to the cemetery pausing by Ray Mackenzie's grave. Someone has disturbed the flowers there. As he bends to tidy them a hand shoots up from the earth and grabs his wrist. Mackenzie pulls himself out of the ground, as does Peter Brooks. The shock kills Ridley.

19

Tom and Debbie talk about the previous night and then Debbie says she'd like to go to Tom's brother's grave with him that morning. On the walk through the cemetery, Tom notices that Mackenzie and Brooks's grave have been disturbed and they go into the church to tell Father Ridley. There are spots of blood in places, and eventually Lambert finds Ridley's body hanging by the rope in the belfry. His eyes have been torn out. They run from the church and into their car. Lambert tells Debbie he needs to exhume the graves of Mackenzie and Brooks.

Hayes, Davies and Briggs dig up Mackenzie's grave. They open the corpse but find no body inside. They dig up Brooks's grave and find that empty too.

As Lambert drives home he thinks that the coffin lids looked as if they has been opened from the inside. He tells Debbie what he found and that he doesn't want any dinner. Kirby calls Lambert at his house and tells him Ridley died of a heart attack. His heart had burst as if he died from fright. The scratch marks on his face look as if they were done by the same person who killed Emma Reece and the Mackenzies. Lambert asks Kirby to come over at 7pm and bring all the reports and other paperwork.

20

Lambert and Kirby discuss Ridley's death and Lambert tells him about the graves. He says that he thinks it is all linked and that Ray Mackenzie. Kirby tells him he is a lunatic, that's impossible, Ray Mackenzie is dead. Kirby says that it must be some kind of sick imitator. But no details have been printed in the papers. Maybe Mackenzie was in a catatonic state when he was buried and not actually dead. But then how could he have the strength to have punched his coffin open and the dug up six feet through earth? Lambert tells Kirby about the medallion and thinks that is somehow involved. What about Emma Reece's grave, has that been touched? They decide to go and have a look.

21

They dig Emma up and look in her coffin. She is still inside but Kirby examines her and says something isn't right, her skin is still supple and there is no rigor mortis. The thing that was Emma leaps from the gave and attacks them. Eventually they cut her head off with a spade. They drive to Kirby's surgery and wonder how are they going to get anyone to believe this

Alot of Medworth's streets are in darkness that night and the power station is investigating the fault.

22

Bob Shaw and Kelly Vincent, both 19, are on her sofa having sex when they think they hear her parents coming home. Thinking it's his mates playing a trick on him, Shaw opens the front door and Mackenzie is on him, hands around his throat. Brooks enters the house and chases Kelly. she tries to fight him off but suddenly sees Bob Shaw is standing there, his eyes red like the other two men. Then they attack her.

Eight more people are killed that night.

23

It's a week later, and the police station Lambert is presenting what he knows and thinks so far to his team. Twelve people in the last three days have gone missing including Bob Shaw, Kelly Vincent, Ralph Stennet, Janice Fielding. All were attacked but are now missing. Lambert and Kirby tell the rest that they think the attacks were all carried out by people that have died. Lambert doesn't want to report this to HQ as he will sound mad. He wants to keep this between his team.

Lambert arrives home and Debbie shows him the local newspaper with the headline 'Police Baffled Over Disappearance'. Lambert is angry as he asked the Charles Burton, the editor not to print anything. He discusses things with her and says that only the victims that have been killed by the dead are coming back to like. 'Like vampires' replies Debbie. Lambert wonders what could be guiding them, what is the key. The phone phone and it's the antique dealer Trefoile but the line cuts off. Is the medallion the key? Lambert and Debbie drive to Trefoile's shop.

Leaving Debbie in the car, Lambert enters the shop and but cannot find Trefoile. Eventually he does and Trefoile wants to talk to Lambert about the medallion, but he gets Debbie from the car first.

Trefoile tells them that the medallion belonged to Mathias, one of histories most powerful Black Magicians. It also mentions 'King of the Night'. Trefoile says that the medallion is evil and he wants nothing to do with it. He gives them two books written in Latin he says that they need to read them.

On their way home they stop at the library so Debbie can pick up a book on translating Latin. At home it takes them 3 hours to translate the first page.

24

Charles Burton, 39, waits for Lambert at the police station at 9am. Lambert arrives late as he change a tyre on his car. At the station they argue as Lambert refuses to give Burton any details of the case. Off the record he tells him that twelve people have gone missing.

25

Burton gets up out of the bed of the woman he's having an affair with, Stevie Lawson. He is going to close her gate that is blowing in the wind as the noise is annoying him.

While closing the gate he hears a noise coming from the end of the garden so he goes to see what it is.

Stevie wonders where Burton's got to. She decides to scare him when he comes back into the bedroom and waits behind the door as it opens.

All Burton finds is a hedgehog so he returns to the house. Once inside he turns the light on and can smell a strange odour. He heads upstairs and into Stevie's bedroom where he switches on the light and sees three living dead creatures and Stevie lying on the bed, her eyes torn out. She sits up and grins at him. Burton manages to fight them off and make his way into the bathroom, where he locks the door and climbs out of the window breaking his back and some ribs.

Twelve others die that night.

26

Lambert arrives at Stevie's house, PC Bell and PC Jenkins are already there. A neighbour has complained about the noise coming from the house and the constables arrived to find Burton still lying on the pavement. Kirby is in the ambulance with Burton and tells Lambert he's dying. Burton asks Lambert what they were, then dies. Bell appears and says that there is blood all over the house but no sign of Stevie. Lambert tells Kirby they need help.

27

The next day Lambert and Kirby drive to Nottingham to report what has happened to Lambert's superiors.

They meet with Detective Chief Inspector James Baron and introduce themselves. Lambert tells Baron he needs his help. When he asks why Lambert shows him photos of Father Ridley and Emma Reece. He tells him that twenty-four people have gone missing inside a month without a trace. Kirby says that he was attacked by a woman that had been dead for a week. Baron tells them that they are both crazy. Lambert says all he wants are six men to back up his team but Baron refuses. Lambert says that he if he won't give him any men then can he give him guns. Baron asks his secretary Carol to ask Chief Inspector Mark Dayton top join them. Baron tells Dayton to give Lambert whatever he wants.

They take the lift to the basement where they meet Peter Baker who gives them ten automatic shotguns and two Brownings.

By 1pm they are back at the police station.

PART THREE

28

The next morning Debbie has been up since 5am and has translated about half the books. She tells Lambert over breakfast she's found nothing about the medallion. Lambert told his men the day before what Baron has told him, that they were on their own. A couple had experience with guns but the rest would have to practise. He tells Debbie to lock the doors when it gets dark. His plan is to cruise the streets and pick them off as they come out. As he drives to the office he wonders how many people have gone missing now. At last count it was ninety-three but he thinks more than three hundred have left the small town. Where do the living dead all go during the day?

Six of Lambert's team were in a field behind the police station practising with the guns, with varying results.

At 3.30pm Debbie is still working her way through the two volumes and feels like she's getting close to finding out something about the medallion.

At 4.50pm Lambert finishes his gun practise and heads back inside.

Debbie finally translates the phrase 'A MORTUIS EXCITARE' to mean 'To awake the dead'. Below that is 'King of the Night', 'Deathday' and then 'Mathias'. She needs to find out more about the name Mathias, so finding a page with that heading, she begins transcribing.

Lambert splits his team up into cars. Bell, Ferman and Davies in Puma One. Hayes, Greene and Walford in Puma Two, Lambert, Briggs and Jenkins in Puma Three. Grogan is to stay and take any calls. They are to cruise the streets and if they see anything suspicious, shoot it. PC Greene how they will know they aren't shooting at innocent people. Lambert tells them anyone walking the streets tonight won't be human. It's 7.15pm. PC Davies asks how do you kill something that is already dead.

29

Puma Three is searching the east side of town.

Puma Two is searching the town's largest housing estate.

Puma One is checking the centre of Medworth, its shops and parks.

Debbie has translated two pages about Mathias when she hears a scratching at her front door.

Lambert checks in with the other cars and notes how this part of town is very dark

Hearing noise from the front and back of her house, Debbie finishes the transcription. The medallion and its owner must not be reunited or his power will be restored. She tries to call the police station but gets cut off. As she turns round she sees Ray Mackenzie looking through the window at her, grinning.

Puma Three searches the industrial areas but find nothing. Realising he has left the ammo for the pistol at home, Lambert asks Briggs to head there to get it.

Debbie grabs the medallion as runs upstairs with the the living dead chasing her. She locks herself in the bathroom.

Lambert arrives at his house where he and Jenkins shoot their way to Debbie. Mackenzie grabs the medallion, jumps through a window and is gone.

Lambert holds Debbie and tells Jenkins to go and check outside. Jenkins does so, smashing a woman's head with his shotgun on the way to the Panda car. Briggs was gone but they see his bloodstained cap. Lambert radios in and hears that the other cars haven't seen anything but there have been a few sightings from the public. Lambert tells Jenkins to drive to Doctor Kirby's.

Lambert remembers that Mackenzie has the medallion. He wonders where Briggs is.

Briggs was killed by a woman. He's now lying and waiting in the boot of the Panda car.

30

They arrive at Kirby's at around 3am. Kirby sees to Debbie and then sedates her. They talk about what's happened and what Lambert's plan is. He needs to find where the living dead are during the day. He asks Kirby to let him know the moment Debbie wakes up, then he wakes Jenkins and they drive off in the Panda car.

Back at the duty room in the station, Lambert tells them what happened during the night, that his house was attacked and his wife was nearly killed. He tells them about the and that Debbie was translating the text inscribed on it, and that Mackenzie has stolen it. He tells them they need to find where they are all holding up before nightfall and destroy them. He hopes they are all in one place. It's 5.20am and they have eleven hours of daylight. They are to work in pairs.

The thing that was Briggs still waits in the boot of Panda Three, out of the sunlight.

31

Jenkins and Hayes drive to the farm of Peter Moore where they ask him if he's seen anything. He tells them he's already checked his barns and sheds himself and that he hasn't.

Davies and Greene are checking every house along one street, a side each, breaking in if they have to. Greene is startled by something in one and shoots a cat. They are both about half way down the street when Davies hears a scratching from above him which he realises is coming from the attic. He investigates and find four of them, which he kills.

Walford and Ferman are checking a block of flats. Ferman lives in one and goes to collect his two Alsatians, King and Baron, hoping to use them to sense anything wrong. They make their way up the floors and onto the fifth where a woman, a Mrs Cole asks them what's going on. Walford just tells her they've had a report of someone suspicious is hanging hanging round. On the twelve and final floor, the dogs begin barking. They kick a door in and let the dogs go. The thing inside kills King before Ferman ends it with his shotgun. Ferman carries the dog out and Walford tells him they'd better report in.

Lambert is in the town centre. He's surprised that people are out and about. His team has reported in that over half the town has been checked now and only about eight or nine things have been found. Where are the rest hiding? It's 1.30pm and they have less than five hours of daylight left. Lambert and Bell start to search a Sainbury's which has recently closed down and he radios in to Grogan to tell him this. Grogan says he still hasn't heard from Doctor Kirby yet. Eventually in a store room, Bell finds a creature in a fridge which almost kills him. In the struggle the thing uses a cleaver and chops Bells hand off. Lambert manages to get back to his Capri and radios in for help, then passes out.

32

Hayes is with Lambert as two ambulancemen load Bell into an ambulance. He's lost a lot of blood but he'll live. Grogan has called to say Debbie is conscious so they head to Kirby's house

Lambert hugs Debbie and tells his about his morning. She tells him what she has learnt about the medallion, Mathias and the phrase 'to awake the dead.' If the things give Mathias the medallion they will be able to bring him back to life. Lambert needs to read Debbie's notes for any clues about where Mathias was buried, all they know is it will be somewhere in unconsecrated ground. It's 4.30pm and they have ninety minutes of daylight left. Lambert heads off. He has to drive home, read Debbie's notes, find where Mathias is buried and find the rest of the living dead all before nightfall.

33

Lambert goes home and grabs Debbie's notes which reads in his car. As he drives around Medworth nobody has anything to report. As he passes an old deserted cinema he notices that one of the side doors is slightly ajar. He slams on the brakes and goes inside. In there he can smell rotting flesh and suddenly Mackenzie appears just in front of him. Lambert drops to the ground and fires into the air. The flash from the gun lights up the room and in that split second he sees sixty of the creatures, maybe more. He's found them.

34

Running through the old cinema and shooting as he goes, Lambert eventually gets out and kills Mackenzie. He radios to Grogan and tells him to send everyone to The Empire, and bring petrol. And to hurry.

The three police cars arrive minutes later. Lambert tells them to switch their headlights on and keep them aimed at the entrance of the cinema. He asks about the petrol just as a Shell petrol tanker appears. They pump petrol into the cinema and set it on fire. The building burns for four hours until the roof collapses. By the morning it's just a giant blackened ruin.

Nobody sees the thing that was Gary Briggs escape from the boot of the car and hide. It waits until they have all left, then searches amongst the ruins for the medallion. It then makes its way to the cemetery and hides out in the bell tower, waiting for the night to come.

35

Debbie and Lambert are in Kirby's surgery as Lambert is just having a check-up. He tells Kirby that some men are on leave but he feels he has to stay to finish his work. But the can't live in Medworth any longer, not since what has happened there. They get into Capri and drive to a hilltop where they look down on Medworth and then make love.

They wake up on the hilltop and then Lambert decides to visit his brother Mike's grave. They stand at the grave for a while and then a storm starts. Just as they go to leave, Lambert notices a figure run across the cemetery he recognises as Briggs. He's carrying the medallion and running towards the wasteground - unconsecrated ground. He chases Briggs and shouts to Debbie to get in the car. Briggs is digging at the ground by the time Lambert reaches him, and ripping open a coffin. Lambert shoots Briggs and they fight, but Briggs has put the medallion on Mathias' chest.

Debbie is going to try use the police radio but has another idea.

Mathias stands in front of Lambert and Lambert tries to shoot but his gun is damaged. He throws the gun at Mathias and then turns to run, just as Debbie appears in the Capri. He jumps in and Debbie drives off towards the gates. Mathias raises his arms into the air and the cemetery gates slam shut, causing Debbie to skid and hit a wall. They leave the car and run into the church. Lambert tells Debbie to get out and get help. Mathias throws Lambert around the church as Lambert tries to fight him off. He points at the door and a pew flies up and blocks it. He raises his arms again and the church roof begins to collapse and the stained glass windows smash. Picking up a piece of the glass, Lambert thrusts it into Mathias' heart and they both run out of the church, as it falls down. They make it to the car and drive away.

36

It's two years later and things are back to normal in Medworth. Tom and Debbie have moved away. Tom has been promoted. He still visits Mike's grave once a month. The church was never rebuilt.

EPILOGUE

A sixteen boy is performing an initiation ceremony to get into a gang. He has to go into the ruins of the church and bring back something to prove he's been there. He finds something golden at his feet and picks it up. It gets so hot he drops it, but he touches it again and it's not hot anymore. He takes it home. He looks at it all night, until the light from his bedside table begins to hurt his eyes and gives him a headache.

© Shaun Hutson 1986