“She said nothing else, just that you are gone once you catch it,” I say.

“Gone… That could mean anything?” Max exclaims.

Colin stays thoughtful, just looking around us.

“What?” I say, noticing Colin’s wariness. “You expecting a horde of zombies to appear.”

I say it with a smile but when he looks at me his face is very serious. “I don’t know.”

“What?” I say, shock filtering through me like ice water.

“Well,” Colin says, still scanning the area with wary eyes. “We don’t know anything.”

“So, we have to find out,” Max says.

“Where?” I say. I can feel the frustration building. We have been around and around this conversation and it is getting us nowhere.

“We need somewhere with power,” Max says.

I look up and down the street. There is no sign of any power or any people anywhere.

“If we had power than we could…

The door is emerald green but it was painted a long time ago. The green is peeling and in some areas has chipped off completely. The centre of the door is of frosted glass, which I’m surprised at. Most people have a solid front door. I can see a curtain and it is tied in the middle, I haven’t seen anything like it since my grandmother passed. I pause and smile. Then, lifting my hand I ring the doorbell.

A tinkling echoes through the house and I think I see someone beyond the curtain, it is just a shadow that moves, but I know that there is someone there.

I ring again and cup a hand to the window. There is definitely a shadow.

“Go away,” a voice calls quietly from inside.

“I only want to ask some questions,” I say.

“Go away,” the voice repeats. It is high and…

“So I guess we walk?” Max says, but he makes no move to open the door.

No one says anything; we just look out of the windows. We are in a suburban street, the houses are terraces but not workers cottages, instead they are large and plush. It’s obvious that there is money here. What is odd is that there are very few cars. Normally we would be hard pushed to find a parking space but there are dozens.

“Where are all the cars?” I ask.

“Don’t know,” Colin says.”But it is very strange.”

I can’t help a bubble of laughter that escapes me. It is slightly hysterical. “Strange?” This whole day has been a nightmare and I don’t think I can wake up. This is my reality.

Colin is watching me. “You okay?”

I nod. I don’t want to say anything. If I do then I may cry. And…

“Slowly?” I repeat.

Colin shrugs and Max looks worried.

“Any better ideas?”

I shake my head. I really don’t, but I do know that we have got to get out of this and walking is not something we can do. We’ll be dead long before we get out of the smoke.

“What about the car?” Max says. I can tell that he is listening to the engine. It sounds fine.

“Well, if there isn’t too much ash in the air then it should be fine.”

“Otherwise?” I ask.

“Colin meets my eyes in the rear view mirror. “The car will stop as the air filter clogs up.”

“Well,” Max says. “I suggest that we get going.”

“Yeah,” Colin mutters. I can see that he is tense. He slowly eases the car out of the space. He goes forward so he must have backed in but I can barely see the…