Seville Road was almost deserted; apart from the few abandoned cars and empty shops either side of the street. The camper van had no trouble driving through what normally was a very busy street.

“Where is everyone?”

Jake paused before looking at his wife; the worried look was clearly etched into Sara’s face. He didn’t want to worry her if he could help it.

“Its okay sweetie everyone is just over-reacting. This disease isn’t as bad as the TV people make it out to be.”

“But Daddy, why are we leaving if there isn’t a thing to worry about?”

Jake and Sara turned round to see little Zoë sticking her head through the curtain leading to the back of the van.  His daughter had pointed out the flaw in his statement. Jake was proud and annoyed at the same time, he had to move quickly to prevent Sara from catching on.

“Prevention my little Zoë, this will allow the government to stop the infection quicker.”

Jake looked as his daughter took in his words. He could see she was thinking, suddenly she broke into a big smile.

“Okay daddy.”

She turned and vanished behind the curtain. Jake looked back at his wife and sighed as the worried look was still there. It’ll be fine, why is she so worried? He thought to himself, sometimes Sara was annoying.

“Sara, do me a favour, go see what our supplies are like?”

“Yes dear.”

Jake waited till Sara vanished into the back of the van. He paused making sure no-one was watching then opened the glove compartment and pulled out a small mahogany case. He quietly opened it; inside was a revolver, a relic from world war two and a memento from his late father. He removed it and loaded it with the loose bullets from the side compartment. Satisfied he slipped the gun inside his jacket and put the rest of the bullets into his pocket.

“We seem to be okay for the time being.”

Sara called before returning to the passenger seat. She was smiling now; she began talking about Zoë and how beautiful she was getting. Jake was listening happily to his wife, but stopped her suddenly. What’s that? He thought looking at the scene ahead of them.

A car was stationary across the middle of the street; the driver door was open and a small group of people had gathered by someone on the floor. Jake stopped the van about twenty yards from the group and turned off the engine.

“Jake? Where are you going?” Sara said scared,

“I’m going to see if they need any help.”

He ignored his wife’s protests and clambered out of the vehicle. He approached the group cautiously; someone had probably just had a heart attack. But still he was worried, his thoughts drifted towards what he had hear d on the radio earlier; the disease that was affecting the country was spreading quicker than anticipated, and the infected seemed to be attacking the un-infected and the death toll was steadily rising.

“Hey, do you need any help?”

Jake called out to the group; they turned to see him slowly revealing the driver of the car. He knew instantly he’d made a stupid mistake, the driver was dead that was certain, but not by a heart attack.

“Oh God!”

Jake stammered and staggered back almost tripping over, he spun around and dashed wildly to his van. He clambered into the cabin and revved the engine before sending the vehicle flying forward.

“Watch Out!”

Sara’s screams were ignored by Jake even as the camper van smashed through the crowd of people. Bodies and blood splattered onto the bonnet. Fear gripped and guided him, Jake couldn’t hear his wife, or the see the terror on her face; his thoughts were of the driver, his torn, mangled corpse and the blood smothered all over the group around him.

The van sped through the quiet streets for what seemed like an eternity, before coming to a halt. Jake was sure he’d put enough distance between them and the infected. He looked at his wife, Sara was sat quietly hands still gripping her arm rests, terror clear on her face. He pulled her into a big hug.

“I’m so sorry my love. I had to get us away, those people were attacking the driver, and they saw me and would have come after us.”

“You ran some of them over though…”

“It was an accident I expected them to dodge me.”

“Daddy, there is a strange man trying to get in!”

Jake bolted out of the chair upon hearing Zoë’s voice. He ran towards the window and drew back the curtain. A young man was trying to clamber onto the van. He was covered in blood, but was screaming to be let inside.

Jake shook his head, trying not to focus on the youth’s pleading eyes. It was then he saw what the kid was fleeing from; a man and woman were staggering towards him.

“Jake, help him!”

Sara’s voice broke as she called his name. He had no choice, he had to try and save the man. He went straight for the door swinging it open. The kid stumbled inside panting wildly; Jake took one more look at the woman and man staggering towards them and slammed the door shut. Bolting the door, he turned his attention to the youth sprawled onto the ground.

After cleaning up, the young man introduced himself as Damien and said there was a petrol station nearby where they could get some supplies, as moving on foot was getting too dangerous. Looking at the dwindling petrol metre, Jake knew that they’d have to refuel soon. The place sounded good; supplies for the van and themselves. The kid had a good idea, things were looking up, and Jake smiled as he drove the van towards the petrol station…