the boys hiding inside have either fallen unconscious or died from carbon monoxide poisoning. The group of boys manage to revive the survivors, and Matt appears to have suffered brain damage from the poisoning. He believes himself to be the messenger of a being called the Lamb, who he explains will come down to earth and cleanse it of "Non believers" (the zombies). He is convinced he must go to St Paul's Cathedral in London to fulfil the needs of his "god". The group splits, with Matt and some people he has brought into his religion (now calling themselves his "acolytes", attempting to go to London with Jack (who wants to find his family home), and the rest (including Ed, Bam and one of Ed's best friends, Malik) deciding to go deeper into the countryside (thinking it will be safer). Ed's group is ambushed by older, infected teenagers shortly after parting from the rest, who kill half the group, seemingly including Malik (it is revealed in a later novel that he survived the attack). They are saved by the timely arrival of a motor coach driven by an adult named Greg Thorne, a butcher who claims he is immune to the disease. With his young son Liam, Greg has acquired a bus and is collecting children to transport them all to London. He and Liam want to visit Arsenal Stadium, unaware that it is an adult nest (as revealed in The Enemy). On the bus, Ed's group meet three girls, Aleisha, Courtney and Brooke. Brooke immediately develops a crush on Ed, whilst Greg eventually catches up with Jack, Matt, and the Lamb of God believers, who are all still journeying towards London. After finding the others and picking them up, Greg explains that, before the epidemic, he was staying with a farmer and his family, but he had had to kill the father and the older children. He says a younger child, who'd gone crazy after losing his family, "didn't make it", indirectly revealing that he had killed the boy and made him into the dried meat he was seen eating, but which Liam refused. After a close call where Greg nearly leaves Jack and Frederique behind to a group of zombies, the bus stops for the night on the outskirts of London. Liam finds out that Greg is infected, and knowing that he cannot protect him any more, Greg