I held Mina’s hand as we ran. She was lighter than me, younger than me and probably fitter than me too, but she had barely recovered from being trampled at the first aid station earlier that morning. I squeezed her hand and urged her on, but I could tell that even with the adrenaline rush arising from the fear of our being chased that she was waning and tiring fast.

We had a turning up ahead and so could go left, right or straight ahead. My concern was turning off this road and finding ourselves trapped in a cul de sac. This road led on still further so we ran past the intersection.

As we ran we passed residential house, after residential house, but I knew that even if everyone was home and watching our predicament that no help would be forthcoming. The British had banned guns from personal ownership and so now a nation faced a zombie outbreak armed with nothing more than items from tool boxes, kitchen shelves and garden sheds. Against a mob of a dozen zombies on our heels our only hope was to run into a group of armed police officers or soldiers.

As we ran a stray dog darted out of nowhere, and ran alongside us up the street. I could not tell whether it knew of the danger behind us, or whether it simply enjoyed running with people.

Ahead I could see that this road ended at another intersection. Now we would have no choice but to turn left or right. We could also hear a vehicle for the first time in a while, and as we approached the intersection a BMW slowed down from speed with screeching brakes to career down the road we were running along. Mina and me managed to squeeze between two parked vehicles as the car shot towards us.

The dog was not so fortunate, and it yelped in pain as it was struck by the vehicle. I could hear the car engine rev up again as the driver would have now seen the marauding zombie horde rushing toward him.

There was a crunch as metal hit flesh, and then amidst tire squeal a louder sound of metal hitting metal. I looked behind and saw that the car had mown down some of the zombies before sliding out of control and slamming into a parked car.

The unhurt zombies had now swarmed the vehicle, and were clawing and banging at the vehicle to get at the occupant inside.

I tentatively stepped back into the road to look for the dog. It was lying on its side with its legs clearly broken. It’s eyes were wide open in shock, and it panted fast and heavy. Behind it I could see a pair of zombies dragging their now broken frames towards the stricken animal.

As me and Mina turned the corner looking for safety we could hear the animal howl out in pain as the zombies reached it.