‘It was like a computer rebooting. First my vision came back into focus. There was smoke and steam and shiny bits of windscreen everywhere. Then my hearing. Hissing, dripping, tinkling, a high-pitched whine inside my head. My nerves started to send pain signals to my brain. I had the beginnings of a monster headache. My face was sore, scratched, throbbing with each heartbeat, as if someone was hammering at it.

‘I was slumped over the air bag, the car crumpled up against the tills inside the shop. There were bits of rotten flesh and wriggling maggots in a funnel shape over the bonnet, as if the car had thrown up something evil through its broken windscreen.

‘Then I heard voices … “Are you all right? That looked amazing.”

‘“The whole window went, like, just boom …”

‘“It was like a film or something.”

‘They helped me out of the car and I, like, limped over to the supermarket shelves. A lot of them were empty, the shops had run out of food real quick when the panic set in, but miraculously there were still a few things left to eat, a few cans and packets – beans and sardines and cake mix. And in a back storeroom we found some water and some bags of rice and pasta. Plus a load of sweets and chocolate. Enough to last us about maybe two or three weeks. And then what? What could the four of us do? We barricaded ourselves in the back room there and talked.

‘Henry had nowhere to go. No family. He went on and on about someone called Mary, in between the swearing and the spitting, which he also sometimes did. I worked out that Mary must’ve been his, like, teacher, or nurse, or carer, or something. He kept asking where she was and when he’d see her again. At first I explained every time what had happened, how she was probably dead, and he’d understand and nod his head, and not long after he’d ask the same questions over again … “Where’s Mary? Where’s Mary? Will she bring my tea?” So after a while I stopped explaining and just said she’d be coming soon, and that seemed to keep him happy.

‘Andy said his family were all dead. He hadn’t had any brothers or sisters. Only parents and they went quick. Susannah said she had one sister, who was back at Brockridge House with Rav and the rest. I couldn’t believe it. That her sister would let her go like that and not say anything. But Susannah just sort of shrugged, said her sister hated her.