Chapter 8: Trails of Smoke
The bridge was strangely unmanned. The three approached there ticket out of the city with caution. There was little need. The distant gunfire told them everything they needed to know. All military were caught up in the chaos on the main streets. As they crossed the bridge Tim couldn't help but look back. He heard the burst of machine gun fire, the terror stricken screaming he could recall from the beginning of all of this.
"Come on Tim, we cant stop till we are clear of London" Ellsy said. Tim turned slowly away from the fighting. His eyes marked with his tears and cheeks swollen from the constantly rubbing away of the wetness of his sorrow. They kept moving. Wolvo commandeered a black Corsa, a popular car before the infection. He pulled the skeletal body from the drivers seat, its hands still wrapped around the key in the ignition. God knows what had killed the driver, its seat belt still on. The car burst into life. Wolvo flicked the lights on, but instantly turned them back off. "No need to draw any attention".
The three drove on into the night. They passed through the most direct route out of the city, an underground tunnel. What seemed ominous at first was rather a simple detour. The army had bulldozed through the piled up cars that had originally blocked the way through. The three agreed it was a pretty good idea to pass through this way.
As they left the city limits Ellsy stared back at the city, and all of a sudden as if someone had lit a match and through it at a puddle of petrol, the city lit up.
"Jesus, they are firebombing the isle of dogs" Ellsy gasped as her pupils were filled with the fire that burned through the streets of London.
"They lost all control" Tim sighed
"Where the fuck are we going then? We don't have a massive amount of petrol left, and some infected must have escaped the firebombing. Which means we have to worry about those fuckers again" Wolvos hand was shaking as he gripped the steering wheel.
"Just keep driving, we keep driving until we stop, and then we keep going from there. We don't stop until we are completely safe. That doesn't mean when the army tells us we are safe or we tell each other. We stop when we ARE safe".
Wolvo and Elssy looked at each other; they seemed to agree as they had no qualms with what Tim said. They drove on until morning, and then they drove some more. Growing constantly away from the smoke trails billowing from London.