She pushed the door shut, and leaned on it for a moment’s rest. Then she realised that the men would try and leave through the emergency door to street level, and she hurried to stop them.

‘Wait, wait.’

Her sight was returning slowly. One of the men, the shorter, wider one, had already turned his torch off, and was indicating to his taller companion that he ought to do the same.

With the bright lights extinguished, and only the steady green glow from the sticks, it became easier to see.

Easier also to tell that the way out, the door that led to the pavement outside, was outlined in an inconstant red.

Stepping over the legs of the other women, the three of them stopped at the heavy fire door with its push-bar mechanism. Bolts secured the door top and bottom, but there was a slight gap at the edge of the frame.

‘We can’t go this way, and there’s no other way out,’ she said. ‘The whole street’s on fire. I mean, where’s the fucking fire brigade when you need it?’

The taller man – he had something on his head, a bandage of sorts, that made him look taller – risked putting his eye to the crack and peering out.

‘It’s burning. Everything’s burning.’ His shoulders slumped. ‘I thought we were—’

The other man checked for himself, taking his time. ‘We cannot stay here. All we can do is choose when we leave.’

Mary reached forward and poked the man. ‘Oi. We can’t go out in that.’

Even in the gloom, she could feel his ire, and she drew her hand back.

‘Listen,’ he said, and she prepared herself for a lecture.

But he said nothing, and she decided that she would listen.

Over the close-by panting and soft moans, behind the more distant, tortured noises rising up from beneath, she could hear a dull roar, like a static hiss. That was new. And it was getting louder.

When she’d had her fill, she asked him, ‘What is that?’

‘I do not know,’ he said. ‘but I do not want to be here, in this tiny corridor, when it finds us. Also, the building above us will be on fire. At some point it will collapse. We have to leave before it falls on us.’

She looked around. Everyone was watching them.

‘Do you want to die here?’ he growled.

‘I don’t want to die out there.’ She realised that she might not have a choice. ‘There must be someone coming for us?’

‘London is on fire! If we are going to live, we have to save ourselves, as we already have done, as we will do again.’ He spoke past her, to the others. ‘On your feet! Up! We must be ready.’