The road we were now on was business rather than residential. We had gone less than a hundred metres when Mina said she had to stop. I stayed on lookout while she stumbled over to the side of the road and vomited. I looked up at the sky and saw a number of contrails criss crossing overhead. I assumed military, but also thought maybe the civil aviation suspension had been lifted to get people away. But if so, where?

We had seen so few people on the streets, other than in the traffic grid locked area of Edgeware Road that central London seemed desolate. It appeared that either a lot of people left as soon as the information hit the news, or that each building we had passed was filled with frightened individuals waiting for advice, news, help or inspiration. I knew my first response on hearing the news was to instantly get moving, and apart from seeking shelter at night I had resisted every temptation to remain static ever since apart from nursing Mina. I looked at her frame now, still hunched over.

Like myself she had already been through so much, and yet it felt like we were still only at the beginning of whatever journey we now found ourselves on. I reached into my backpack and withdrew a drink bottle which I handed to her. She sheepishly accepted it, wiped her mouth furiously with her sleeve and drank from the bottle.

"Better?", I asked.

"I guess", she said.

I hitched the backpack on and we strode onwards. If my memory of London served correct then this road would lead direct to Regents Park. I recalled zombie movies I had seen before, and helicopters and military drop off points seemed to be commonly found in those open areas - which are few and far between in a city environment. This thought gave me a sense of renewed optimism.

We had fallen into the habit now of always walking in the middle of the road where possible. It gave us the best view, had the smoothest walking and running surface, and afforded the most options if we needed to take evasive action.

Ahead we could hear human voices. A food store on our right was being ransacked. We looked in as we passed, and saw a mix of people young and old, white and black. A few stopped and stared as we passed. We carried on as we had only one backpack between us now and our provisions were plentiful.

Further on we saw signs for Regents Park. Moments later we heard the sounds of helicopters sweeping overhead.

As we got closer to the park we heard a great volume of noise and saw that it was a large crowd of people drawn to this open space possibly for the same reason that it had held such optimism for myself. From our distance we could see helicopters sweeping in for landing, and others rising and flying away.

There were clear indications of a large military presence here - soldiers in uniforms, military ground vehicles, and now as I looked up at the roofs of the buildings that we passed I could see evidence of soldiers posted above too with their guns sighted down on the streets below.

From directly above us we heard a rapid fire of shots. I span to see what had prompted this, and saw a group of around twenty zombies running at speed down the road less than fifty metres away.

Me and Mina started running towards Regents Park and the thriving mass of people. More gunshots rang out now in a sustained and repeated burst from multiple positions, and as we neared the Park we could hear an ominous sound of dread, fear and panic rising from the hemmed in crowd of civilians ahead of us.