Autumn The City Page 0,58

As far as he could see there was no immediate way out of the situation they found themselves in. They had to remain mobile and go without some base necessities in order to survive. He truly believed that things would change eventually, they had to. The bodies would decay away to nothing in time. 'Hungry?' he asked, looking for a way to distract Emma from her dark and difficult thoughts. She nodded and sank back into her seat.

'A little.' 'I'll get you something.' She watched him as he stood up and walked the short length of the motorhome to the cramped kitchen area. Their vehicle shelter was safe but stifling. She might have been able to cope with the confined space had she been able to venture outside occasionally. As it was she was trapped, and she was finding the motorhome increasingly claustrophobic. Even though they had intentionally driven out into the middle of nowhere, for safety's sake they had draped thick blankets over every window and door to prevent any light from seeping out into the darkness and giving away their presence.

Almost three weeks had passed since the day the disease had struck but Emma still couldn't adjust to the way she was having to live. She'd known from the start that she'd probably never fully come to terms with the devastation and loss she'd experienced, but there were other much more subtle ways in which she was struggling. Having to remain deathly silent was harder than she would ever have imagined.

She was growing tired of having to think about everything in terms of how much noise she was going to make. Michael came back to the table and sat down. He carried with him more coffee and two pots of dehydrated snack food. Steam snaked up into the air from the top of each pot. 'Beef and tomato or sweet and sour?' he asked. They had found a job-lot of these snacks in the storeroom of a small corner shop they'd looted earlier in the week. The food tasted awful but it was hot, easy to prepare and relatively nutritious. 'Can't stand sweet and sour,' she answered, 'but I prefer it to beef and tomato.' He passed her the sweet and sour flavoured food and a fork.

Still sniffing back tears she began to eat hungrily and without further complaint. 'I think they'll be back,' Michael said between mouthfuls of tasteless food. 'Who will?' asked Emma. He looked at her in disbelief. How could she have forgotten already? 'Whoever it was I saw today,' he sighed. 'Remember? Bloody hell, Emma, anyone would think you didn't mind living in a shit-hole like this eating plastic food out of a plastic pot!' 'I'm sorry,' she said quietly. 'I'm tired. Look, I know how important this is to you...' 'Do you?' Michael snapped. 'Yes,' she insisted, 'of course I do.'

'Have you stopped to think where these people might be from? This might not be as widespread as we'd thought. Maybe it's only this country that's been affected...' He stopped talking, aware that Emma had put down her fork and that she was staring at him. 'Don't do this,' she said softly, reaching her hand out across the table and gently squeezing his. 'Please don't let your imagination run away with you. Until we know more let's just keep our feet on the ground and take every day as it comes. I don't want to start thinking things are going to change only to find that we're back in the same damn mess again and nothing's happened. Do you know what I'm trying to say?' 'No, not really.'

She sighed and squeezed his hand again. 'As far as I'm concerned you're all I've got left. You're the only thing left that I can count on. My family and friends are gone. I don't have a home any longer and I don't own anything other than what's in this van. The only thing I seem to be able to hold onto is you, and I'm not about to let you go.' 'You don't have to. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not suggesting that we do anything that's going to...' 'I don't want to take any chances, Mike. You know how much I hate all of this, but if this is as good as it's going to get then it's going to have to do. Let's just keep our heads, take our time and not take any chances, okay?'

He looked