"Yup," said Oliver laconically. "Let's light this place up."
I took the phone from Angus and stood in the middle of that carnage, feeling more and more like an awkward teenager as my father waited next to me. Conversation flowed around us as each of us waited for the other to say something.
"I must say, Oliver, that idea of yours was an excellent one. Exposing these guys to fresh human blood provided just the distraction we needed," Fergus said as he prodded one of the bodies lying at his feet with the toe of his boot.
"That wasn't his intention," said Angus dryly.
Oliver may have looked a bit sheepish at this point - it was hard to tell. "It was more of a spontaneous snack than an actual idea," he said.
"Typical," muttered Fergus, shaking his head and chuckling. "You guys had better get started here. Lots of cleaning to do."
"You could help, brother," suggested Angus.
"I wouldn't be of much use with only one hand," Fergus said, trying to look sorry for himself, and not succeeding at all.
"Really," said Angus flatly.
I grinned then, and was relieved to see the blonde stranger next to me smile too.
"Let's call your sister," he said, and we strolled off together, leaving the bickering trio behind us to sort out who exactly would get to detonate the forthcoming explosion.
Rebecca
I was so tired when that call came that I wondered if I was hallucinating at first. Julia and I had been working for hours, and it was a lot closer to five am than four. Julia looked fresh as a daisy, alert and excited, but I could tell by my gritty eyes and tendency to stare dumbly into space that I was probably going to crash very soon. So when the phone rang and I answered, and Mark's voice spoke from so many miles away, I immediately assumed that I was falling asleep and that this was one of those hallucinations you have when you feel like you're falling and you jerk yourself awake trying not to hit the pavement.
So I didn't answer him for quite a while, just listened to his voice going, "Hello, hello!" until Julia asked me who was on the phone. I realised then that it was all real, and I did what any rational person would do. I burst into tears.
"We're all fine, Bex," I heard his voice say, "Angus said I should call you because he and Oliver have to blow up all the dead bodies."
I stopped crying then and started laughing hysterically instead. They were safe. They were all safe. And they were going to blow up corpses.