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face was coated in dirt except where it was covered in grey stubble.
    “What happened to you?” she asked.
    “There was no vaccine,” he said. “It was all a lie. The Muster Points were just… It was a killing field. They murdered the evacuees.”
     
    She made Sebastian strip off in the hall and sent Jay over to his house to collect some clothes. An hour later, they were sitting at the table, a pot of stew - containing no trace of dog food - between them. Jay’s and Nilda’s bowls were untouched. Sebastian was on his third before Nilda finally gave in to impatience.
    “What do you mean murdered?” she asked.
    “There was no vaccine,” he said, and as he spoke, his tempo rose, so the words came out in a barely coherent slur. “Of course there wasn’t. We should have known that from the start. We didn’t, did we? No, we wanted to trust the government. We needed to believe that someone was in control. That they would sort it out. Well they were in control. They did sort it out. They found a way of neutralising the entire population.”
    “Slowly, Seb! Slowly. Tell us what happened. What did you see?” Seeing the usually composed man so disturbed was unsettling.
    “I don’t know. I can tell you what I saw, but I can only guess at what it might mean.”
    “Just start with when you left. It was half-five in the morning. The curfew was still in place.”
    “Oh, they didn’t care about that. I passed a police car down by the station. Not that they were dressed like police. They wore the same Army uniform as everyone else. They just nodded to me and pointed out the way I should go. Not that I needed to worry about directions. They’d printed signs. Signs! Can you believe the cold-blooded ruthlessness of that? Not that the printers would have known, of course. Nor those who erected the fencing. Nor even the miss-uniformed police. They were probably as ignorant, as blind, as I was—”
    “What about other people. Did you see other people?” she cut in.
    “Oh, there were some. Not many to start with. Most waited in their homes, blithely obeying their instructions. Ha! Sleepwalking unto death, they go—”
    “Seb! On the evacuation, what happened?”
    “On the evacuation? Nothing.” He took a breath, and gathered his thoughts. “It was just a long walk. And it has been a long time since I walked those types of distances. And I’ve never walked anywhere without knowing what my destination might be.”
    “I thought the Muster Point was meant to be about ten miles away,” Jay said, speaking gently before his mother gave another abrupt interjection.
    “And that they’d take us by train or bus up to an enclave in the far north of Scotland? Yes, so did I,” Sebastian replied. “Well, that was a lie, too. I walked, and I kept walking and I really put everything I had into it. I thought if I got there first I’d be on one of the first trains and so amongst the first to arrive at the enclave. I hoped I might be there early enough to volunteer for some easier work detail. But after two hours, I’d covered more than ten miles and hadn’t arrived anywhere. By then, I was no longer alone. People were streaming up the side roads onto the Motorway. I kept on; what else could I do? I asked a few people where we were going, but no one knew, and no one really wanted to talk. Having slowed when I thought I was nearing my destination, I found I couldn’t speed up again. My energy was gone. If I were a younger man… but if I was, then I would now be dead.”
    He raised the spoon, dropped it, and pushed the bowl away.
    “I’d been near the front, or at least in front of anyone else from here. As weariness took its inexorable hold, those who’d opted for a more sensible pace, those who’d indulged in a proper last night’s sleep, began to overtake me. Some were on bicycles and some were on foot. I even saw a few who were running. Didn’t they use to say jogging was bad for your health? Ha!” He sniffed. “By