The drive swept up to a large two-storey house. Even in the dark, its ivy clad façade was impressive. A curved flight of stairs rose up to a set of double doors. One of the doors opened and a blonde, heavily made-up woman in her late forties tottered out in a pair of dangerously high heels, glancing anxiously from side to side.
She hurried them all inside and closed and locked the door, resetting an alarm via a panel on the wall. It beeped four times, followed by a long tone lasting a few seconds. Richard indicated to Lisa to leave the shot gun by the door as the woman ushered them down a corridor and into a vast sitting room with a spotless, cream-coloured carpet, huge, dark brown, soft leather sofas and heavy, dark curtains.
Lisa looked down at her muddy shoes and slipped them off before she entered the room, although her stockinged feet were not much cleaner. Anita strode in without a second thought and sank into one of the sofas, looking around the room with unconcealed admiration.
The room and its occupants, Richard and Charlie, oozed wealth. Now they could see Richard properly, he was tanned and well-groomed, with close-cropped silver hair. The furnishings were opulent, yet tasteful. The artwork looked valuable. Another door led into an equally large room with a bar, a pool table, and a huge, flat-screen TV.
Charlie insisted on making them coffee and sandwiches, which arrived on a large platter, beautifully garnished with salad and different coloured vegetable crisps. The coffee smelt delicious. They were starving and devoured the sandwiches as Charlie and Richard looked on patiently, waiting to hear their story.
The foursome spent the next hour recounting their experiences of the past 24 hours and sharing what they had learned.
Lisa and Anita went first, leaving out some of the more gruesome details as, although Richard listened with interest and admiration, Charlie went pale and became very distressed when they described what they had seen on the train.
The couple had been at home most of the previous day. Richard had been working from home and was tucked away in his office. He owned a medical equipment company. Charlie had been out in the morning to have her hair and nails done and had been pottering around the house in the afternoon, taking delivery of the shopping and preparing dinner. It was around six when Richard had joined her in the kitchen for a glass of wine and had put on the TV to catch the early evening news. That was the first they knew about what was happening.
Since then, they had followed government advice and stayed put. They had activated their alarm system and constantly monitored the TV, radio and social media for information and further advice. Charlie had kept watch on their immediate outside world via their CCTV system but had seen nothing untoward at all until she saw the two women earlier that afternoon.
Richard was able to give them a bit more information. The UK, along with the majority of other countries in Western Europe, had been attacked simultaneously using some kind of lethal biological weapon. It was believed that deliberately infected individuals - essentially biological suicide bombers - had been positioned on trains, planes and buses making their way between major towns and cities throughout the affected countries during Thursday afternoon.
After they had succumbed to the infection, they had reanimated as crazed, cannibalistic, killing machines. The infection had then spread quickly. People who died in the first attack also reanimated and killed or infected others within the confined spaces.
By the time the vehicles arrived at their destinations, most, if not all, of their occupants were infected. Once the infected passengers spilled out into busy stations, city centres and airports, the infection began to rage through the affected towns, and beyond, at an exponential rate.
Anyone who was bitten or scratched became infected and, if their injuries were minor, they appeared to survive for only 12 to 24 hours. Many infected people with minor injuries had made their way home and unwittingly spread the contagion even further.
As Lisa and Anita already knew, from the outset, the official government advice was to stay indoors, at home, or in a secure location. The same message had been posted on the Emergency Broadcast Screen for the last 18 hours.
However, many cities had had to be evacuated due to the rapid spread of the infection in densely populated areas. In some places looting and rioting had added to the chaos. Increasingly on social media, people were being advised to get away from populated areas and await further advice. The chatter was that the situation was out of control. There were suggestions that the army was in the process of identifying and securing safe zones, but this had not been officially confirmed or denied, and no details had yet been released. So far, the power and internet were still working, but most telephone networks were down.
Lisa and Anita were able to add to the picture from their own personal experience. What had happened to Brian confirmed what Richard had said about the infection being spread by bites or scratches and eventually killing everyone it touched.
Their encounter with the army had made it abundantly clear that it was every man, or woman, for themselves for the moment. Their current focus was evacuation and containment. They had said to watch out for news about the creation of safe zones, but rescue for survivors was evidently further down their list of priorities.
The women also had first-hand experience of the reanimated and were
