"Oh, God! What now?" Lisa muttered as they approached the scene.
The boy with the baseball bat eyeballed them. He stepped into the road and raised his weapon as they passed. The other glanced in their direction but was preoccupied with an infected in a nearby garden. The Discovery sailed past. The whole interaction played out in total silence. Both women sighed in relief as baseball boy turned back towards the shop and the more pressing matter in hand.
They continued for ten or fifteen minutes, mostly driving slowly along deserted semi-residential streets. A few infected roamed around in the fenced-off car parks of commercial buildings, but other than them, they saw no-one. Lisa's knuckles were white as she gripped the steering wheel, focusing on the road ahead. The looting incident had really rattled her. She was suddenly aware that it was not just the infected that they should be afraid of.
Anita seemed tense too. Other than constantly checking the map and barking out one-word directions, she was silent.
"How far, Anita? Till we get out of here?"
"Not far. Nearly there. Another mile or so."
Their anxiety eased as the properties grew larger in size, fewer in number and were set further back from the road. Houses gradually gave way to open fields. They picked a spot with good visibility in all directions and pulled over.
"Jesus! That was horrible!" Anita leaned back in her seat and rubbed the back of her neck.
"Awful!" Lisa took out her inhaler and shook it but didn't take a puff.
"You ok?" Anita asked.
"It's nearly empty. I'm going to have to save it for when I really need it."
"Will that work? Will you be ok?"
"Don't know. Never had to ration it before."
"Jesus! I …"
"I'm ok for now. Don't stress about it. Let's have a look at where we are."
Anita spread out the map. "I know we're heading to Solihull, but where exactly?"
"Here. Attwood Common." Lisa pointed to a spot on the map. "It's on the other side of Solihull. A village really. We'll have to get over the M42 at some stage. We'll have to deal with that when it comes, but for now, we can still stick to back roads. Loop south and round, through Warwickshire, like this." She drew a wide loop on the map with her finger.
She continued. "It'll take longer, but avoid any more built up areas, and keep us as far away from Birmingham as possible. At worst, we'll have to pass through a few little villages."
"So, we head towards this place." Anita pointed to the map. "Knowle? And then take a left?"
"You've got it! Let's go! It's still only 11 and we're halfway there." Lisa replied.
A couple of miles before they reached the junction for Knowle, they noticed a cloud of dark smoke in the distance, rising above the treeline. Swirling grey plumes dirtied the clear azure blue of the sky.
By the time they reached the junction, they could hear the roar of the fire and the cracking and splintering of burning wood. Smoke billowed across the road. Their intended route to the left, was thick with it. Dense, acrid fumes drifted in through the open windscreen making them cough, and their eyes sting and stream with water. The source was a large white house a hundred metres or so away. Flickering orange tongues of flame arose from its roof and upper windows.
"Well, that's our route." Anita said.
"D'you think we can get by?" Lisa thought she knew the answer already but asked the question anyway.
"Not without a windscreen."
"Maybe … Jesus!" Anita gasped.
A smouldering figure staggered out of the smoke towards them. It was a featureless, black likeness of a human form. Neither age nor gender were distinguishable. It reached its withered arms out towards them. A dark cavity appeared from where its mouth would have been. Smoke drifted from the empty space.
Lisa froze. She couldn't seem to drag her eyes away. She couldn't make sense of what she was seeing. Was it an infected? Was it alive or dead? What the hell was she looking at?
Anita was staring at it, too. But, when a couple of other dark figures appeared through the smoke behind it, she turned to Lisa.
"Go right! Just go right! Now!"
Lisa swung the car to the right.
She didn't see what hit them. Her attention was focused on the burning figures in the rear-view mirror. She heard Anita scream, at the same time as the impact hit the passenger side and sent them rolling and tumbling in a violent blur of blue sky, greenery, and white airbags.
When the world stopped spinning, they were head down in a deep ditch on the side of the road. Dense shrubbery surrounded the car. Anita was slumped forward in her seat, not moving. With fumbling fingers, Lisa undid her own seatbelt and shook the girl. Hard!
"Anita! Wake up! We've got to move! We've got to get out!"
Anita lifted her head and stared at her blankly. She looked completely baffled. Lisa undid her seatbelt for her, then, pushing foliage out of her way, climbed out through the open windscreen onto the bonnet of the car.
She grabbed Anita's wrists, trying to pull her out of the car. "Come on! Please!"
Anita was mumbling and shaking her head. "Give me a minute. Just a minute."
Lisa glanced back up to the road. The large truck that had hit them was stationary. The driver was facing them, rubbing his chest, his face twisted with pain. Blood flowed down his forehead from his scalp. He saw her. Their eyes met. He raised his hand and made a move to get out of the cab. She shook her head and furiously gestured at him to stay where he was. He didn't understand. He opened his door
