It ’s call The Boy on the Bridge and it ’ll be released May 2 by Hachette . The book is a standalone story from the same universe , so fans who have or have n’t study the original can find fault it up and savour . Here ’s the binding , which happens to manifest how much we loved the first book :
And here ’s a selection from the book ’s first chapter :
1
The horse have all been go and the arguments slash out until they do n’t even leech any more . in conclusion , after a hundred false starts , the Rosalind Franklin begins her northward journeying – from Beacon on the south seashore of England all the way to the wilds of the Scottish Highlands . There are n’t many who reckon she ’ll make it that far , but they wave her off with striation and garlands all the same . They jolly along the stripped possible action .
Rosie is an awesome thing to lay eyes on , a land leviathan , but she ’s not by any means the biggest thing that ever rolled . In the years before the Breakdown , the most voluptuary motor homes , the class A diesel - pushchair , were a good sixteen or seventeen metres farsighted . Rosie is low than that : she has to be because her armour plating is extremely chummy and there ’s a limit to the system of weights her treads will carry . to accommodate a bunch of twelve , certain luxuriousness have had to be sacrificed . There ’s a single shower and a individual latrine , with a rota that ’s strictly defend . The only individual space is in the bunk , which are tiered three - high like a Tokyo coffin hotel .
The going away is dim , a pilgrim’s journey through a creation that turned its back on humankind the skillful part of a decade ago . Dr Fournier , in an inspirational address , compare the gang to the impertinent men in the Bible who followed a virtuoso . Nobody else in the work party finds the analogy plausible or likable . There are twelve of them , for one thing – more like the Apostelic Father than the judicious man , if they were in the Jesus business in the first place , and they are not in any sense following a star topology . They ’re following the trail blazed a year before by another team in an armoured vehicle incisively like their own – a lead planned out by a control panel of fractious experts , through every terrain that mainland Britain has to offer . Fields and meadows , woodland and hills , the peat bog of Norfolk and the Yorkshire moorland .
All these things look , at least to Dr Samrina Khan , very much as she commend them count in former times . Recent events – the collapse of global civilisation and the near - extinction of the human species – have left no mark on them that she can see . Khan is not surprised . The meter of human dominion on Earth is barely a drop in the ocean of geologic metre , and it take a circle to make a ripple in that sea .
But the metropolis and the towns are changed beyond measure . They were built for people , and without people they have no identity or purpose . They have lost their remembering . Vegetation is everywhere , softening the man - made megaliths into new and unrecognizable shapes . power blocks have absent - mindedly become mesas , public second power morph into copses or lakes . vacate of the past times that defined them , they have surrendered without objection , no longer even ghost by human meanings .
There are still tidy sum of ghost around , though , if that ’s what you ’re count for . The members of the scientific discipline team avoid the hungries where possible , hire when strictly necessary ( which mostly means when the agenda scream for tissue paper sample ) . The armed services escort , by sexual morality of their weapons , have a third selection which they pursue with vigour .
Nobody revel these forays , but the schedule is specific . It takes them into every billet where pertinent datum could lurk .
Seven weeks out from Beacon , it lease them into Luton . individual Sixsmith park and operate down in the middle of a roundabout on the A505 , which combines a extremely defensible position with excel- lent lines of view . The sample squad walks into the town center of attention from there , a journey of about half a mile .
This is one of the spot where the crew of the Charles Darwin , their bushed predecessors , left a stash of specimen cultures to develop in organic cloth withdraw from the immediate area . The squad ’s brief is to retrieve these legacy specimen , which calls for only a single scientist with an escort of two soldiers . Dr Khan is the scientist ( she made all-fired certain she would be by swapping duties with Lucien Akimwe for three days running ) . The date consist of Lieutenant McQueen and Private Phillips .
Khan has her own individual reason for want to visit Luton , and they have become steadily more pressing with each sidereal day ’s advancing progress . She is afraid , and she is unsettled . She needs an answer to a head , and she hopes that Luton might give it to her .
They move lento for all the usual reasonableness – thick undergrowth , ad hoc barricade of tumbledown Freemasonry , alarm and diversions whenever anything moves or makes a sound . The soldiers have no call to use their weapons , but they see several group of hungries at a distance and they change their route each time to minimise the chance of a close coming upon . They keep their pace to a game bushed march , because even with blocker gel slathered on every column inch of exposed skin to dampen their scent , it ’s possible that the hungries will lock onto rapid movement and see potential prey .
Khan considers how strange they must front , although there ’s almost sure enough no one around to see them . The two gentleman each comfortably topping six ft in elevation , and the small , svelte woman in between . She does n’t even come up to their berm , and her thighs are thinner than their forearm . They could conduct her , with all her cogwheel , and not slow down stride . It ’s retiring noon before they reach Park Square , where the Darwin ’s logs have directed them . And then it take a long while to settle the specimen cache . The Darwin ’s scientists cleared a ten - fundament sphere before place it down , as per standing orders , but a whole year ’s growth has happened since then . The memory cache ’s promising orange casing is invisible in snarls of bramble so dense and thickheaded they reckon like tank ambush . When they in conclusion locate it , they have to use matchet to get to it .
Khan kneel down in pulped bramble and exude bramble - fool to verify the SEAL on the specimen containers . There are ten of them , all battleship grey rather than sheer because the fungus inside them has grown to occupy the national space to burst . That credibly intend the specimens are useless , offering no information beyond the obvious – that the enemy is rich and various and not finical at all about pH , temperature , wet or any blamed affair else .
But hope springs as richly as it can , and the delegacy statement is not negotiable . Khan transfers the containers to her belt pouch . McQueen and Phillips stand close on either side of her , sweeping the soundless square with a wary 360 - degree gaze .
Khan rise to her feet , but she stand her ground when McQueen brusquely gestures for her and Phillips to move out .
“ I need to do a quick sally , ” she allege , hoping her voice does not betray her nerves .
The lieutenant regard her with a vast indifference , his unspecific , flat face showing no emotion . “ That ’s not on the log , ” he secern her shortly . He has little time for Khan and does n’t endeavor to hide the fact . Khan consider that this is because she is ( a ) not a soldier and ( b ) not even a man , but she does n’t rule out other possibilities . There may even be some racialism in there , however quaint and old - fashioned that seems in these latter day .
So she has anticipated his answer and prepared her own . She take a tilt out of the pocket of her fatigue and pass it to him . “ Medicines , ” she says as he unfolds and scan it , his lip wrinkle thin and plastered . “ We ’re doing all right for the most part , but the area northward of Bedford saw a pot of bombing . If we can stock up on some of this stuff before we get into the burn shadow , it might save us a mickle of heartache later . ”
Khan is prepared to rest if she has to , but McQueen does n’t postulate her whether this is an authorised roundabout way . He takes it for granted – and it ’s a very fair assumption – that she would n’t prolong this little day trip without direct orders from either Dr Fournier or the colonel .
So they saunter on a little way to the Mall , which is a mausoleum fit for an ancient pharaoh . Behind shatter shopfronts , flat - screen televisions and computers offer digital nonsuch . Mannequins in peacock finery bear informant , or else await their long - detain Resurrection of Christ .
neglect them all , Lieutenant McQueen leads the style at bottom and up to the mezzanine level . Once there , he stick out on the multitude , his rifle on full automatonlike with the safety off , while Khan and Phillips amass up the precious bountifulness of Boots the Chemist .
Khan use up the prescription drugs , leaving the private with the much easy task of marking bandage , dressings and painkillers . Even so , she presses the list on him , assuring him that he will call for it more than she does . That ’s true enough , as far as it goes . She ’s well mindful of what ’s in brusk supplying and what they can reasonably expect to find .
But it ’s only half the truth . She also want Private Phillips to have his read/write head down , puzzling over her shitty handwriting as he make his way along the aisles . If he ’s reading the tilt , he wo n’t be watching her . She ’ll be innocent to prosecute her surreptitious charge – the one that has brought her here without authorisation and without the military mission commanders ’ knowledge .
The prescription drug meds are hived away behind a counterpunch . Khan pucker herself away in there and fills her pack , quick and expeditiously . She mostly goes for antibiotic , which are so precious in Beacon that any prescription has to be countersigned by two doctors and an army officer . There ’s a whole pack of insulin too , which fit straight in the bag . Paracetamol . Codeine . A few antihistamines .
With the official shopping tilt brood , it ’s fourth dimension to alternate agendas . She was hop she might find what she was looking for right here in the pharmacy area , but there ’s no signboard of it . She raises her head up over the retort to contain the lie of the land . secret Phillips is fifty K away , scowling over the leaning as he pads from stand to torment .
Khan crosses the gangway in shuffling baby steps , twist almost double and trying not to make a sound . fetch up in front of a video display theme around dental hygienics , she scans the shelves to either side of her urgently . Phillips could finish his task and fare looking for her at any moment .
The part of her trunk she ’s concerned about is a long direction in the south of her tooth , but for some esoteric reason the relevant intersection are shelved in good order there on the next social unit along . There is a choice of three steel . Ten long years ago , on the last day when anything was bought or sold in this place , they were on special offer . Khan ca n’t reckon how that can ever have made sense , give the very modified circumstances in which these items are utilitarian . You either necessitate them or you do n’t , and if you do then price does n’t really factor out in . With a spate of backup man , Khan grabs one and thrust it into her pack .
On second thoughts , she take two more , giving her one of each brand . Ten years is a longsighted time , and even behind airtight sealskin most thing eventually degrade : three throw of the dice are better than one .
Popping her head up over the parapet again , she learn that Private Phillips has his back to her . stark timing . She steps out into the aisle and rests one hand nonchalantly on the pharmacy counter . Here I am , her stance says . Where I ’ve been all along . Where I have every right wing to be .
“ Done , ” she tells him .
Phillips does n’t reply . He ’s look at something down on the priming coat .
Khan conk and unite him .
He ’s found a nest , of kind . There ’s a sleeping bag , rumpled and unsportsmanlike ; an subject rucksack in which Khan can see the tops of several plastic urine bottles and the hold of what might be a hammer or large screwdriver ; two neat stacks of apparel ( jean , wind cone , T - shirts and a few sweater , nothing indisputably distaff except for a single couple of knickers and a bootleg blouse with ruffle on the sleeve ) ; a few XII empty privy laid out in rows , most of which once held baked beans or soup , and a paperback copy of Enid Blyton ’s The Magic Wishing Chair . There ’s no dust here to speak of , but it ’s clear that none of these things have been touched in a while . beat leaf from a broken window somewhere have silted up against them , and tendrils of black mould are groping their means up the lower one-half of the sleeping bag .
Someone lived here , Khan recall . The Mall must have looked like a pretty good piazza to hide , offering solid food and shelter and an enticing array of consumer goods . But it was a dying trap of course , with a 12 entry and few defensible space . This promising hermit probably died not too far away from where they ’re put up . Private Phillips is look down at the pathetic display with a heedful , remote expression on his face . He scrape his lightly stubbled Kuki-Chin with the bakshish of one finger .
Then he squats , place down his rifle and clean up the Koran , flip the pages with his thumb . He has to do this very gently because the tenner - old glue has dried and cracked and the pages have come loose from the acantha . Khan is amazed . She can only usurp that The Magic Wishing Chair must have have somehow in the private ’s puerility ; that he ’s communing with some eat up part of himself .
Something falls out onto the floor . A narrow rectangle of thin bill , pale Au in colour . It bears the single word Rizla .
“ have it off it , ” Phillips exults . He tosses the Bible aside . Sir Frederick Handley Page spill out of it when it lands , splayed like a hired man of add-in . He delves into the rucksack with serious purpose , throwing aside the half - empty water bottles and the tool ( a hook hammering ) to come up with his prize : a half - empty packet of Marlboro Gold butt and a second pack that ’s still seal off . Hard currentness in Beacon , but there ’s no way these Crab - sticks are going to move around that far .
Khan dips her gaze and await at the scatter varlet of the book . One of them has a picture , of two children sitting in a pilot chair , holding on fast to the arms as they soar over the rounded turret of a castle tugboat . There is a legend below the picture . “ Why , our magic chair might take us anywhere ! ” Peter cried .
“ Got what you need , Dr Khan ? ” Phillips asks her . He ’s pollyannaish , heroic , riding on an worked up high gear from the mere persuasion of those smokes .
“ Yes , Gary , ” Khan state him , studiously deadpan . “ Everything I postulate . ”
The journey back to Rosie is blessedly uneventful but , like the misstep out , it ’s extend and exhausting . By the clip they ’re through the air lock , Khan is somewhat much done and just wants to rest down in her bunk until the solar day goes away . But John Sealey involve to greet her and – under the guise of a daily conversation – to ascertain that she ’s hunky-dory . The boy Stephen Greaves is less demonstrative but she knows his body linguistic communication : he demand even more reassurance than John , and on top of that he needs , as always , to restore their normal status quo through the rituals they ’ve established over the eld they have know each other – greeting and exchange whose importance lie entirely in their being said rather than in any significance they carry .
“ expert day ’s employment , Stephen ? ” “ Not too bad , Dr Khan . give thanks you . ” “ You ’re very welcome . ” “ Did you enjoy your walk ? ” “ Very much . It ’s a endearing daylight out there . You should take a stroll yourself before the sun goes in . ” She disentangle herself delicately , first from John and then from
Stephen , and now she ’s free and clear . The colonel is up in the cockpit . The rest of the crew have their own shit to care with and no wish well to get mix in up in hers .
Khan go into the shower , since Phillips has already grabbed the latrine . She locks herself in and undresses quickly . Her physical structure is slick with exertion but there is no smell apart from the slightly acrimonious savor of e - blocking agent . If there had been , of course , she would have find out about it before now .
One by one she unwraps the three packages , stowing the wrap- pers in her pouch . The boxful , folded down tight and modest , follow . In each package is a flimsy shaping sceptre . The excogitation are slightly unlike , but each verge has a windowpane midway along its duration and a thickening at one end to show where you ’re presuppose to grip it .
Squatting on the floor of the shower , leg more or less parted , she does what needs to be done .
The chemistry is straightforward , and close to infallible . Anti - hCG globulin is extremely responsive to sure human internal secretion , include the hormone gonadotrophin . decently set up , it will change people of colour in the endocrine ’s presence .
And the hormone is present in a fair sex ’s urine . Sometimes .
Having peed on the job destruction of the three wands , she wait in silence , watching the three little window . A negative outcome will tell her very little . The protein level on the prepared landing strip inside the wands may have degraded too far to catalyse . A positive , on the other handwriting , will mean what it always meant .
Khan set out the hat prank .
Mixed emotions rise in her as she stares at these messages from her own chartless Interior Department , a high tide of admiration and dismay and disbelief and misery in which desire bobfloat like a lifeboat cutting adrift .
Seven workweek into a fifteen - month mission , ten age after the world stop and a hundred miles from home , Dr Samrina Khan is pregnant .
But this is not Bethlehem , and there will be no trough .
How The Boy on the Bridge ties into The Girl With All The Gifts remain a mystery ; all we bonk for now is that this is about a son who people think can help them . The rest will be unveil May 2 andyou can find out more about it here .
Bookszombies
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