‘There was no power so I knew we couldn’t actually use the pumps, but I wondered if there was maybe some way we could get some petrol out. Gave up after a few minutes. It was hopeless. So the next thing was to look for another car. There was a sort of hotel place there, an inn it was called, with brightly painted walls. There were some cars parked outside it. We searched the cars for keys, but didn’t find any. So we went in, me and Henry, the fearless key hunters.

‘It was a mess inside and upstairs we found signs of a fight. Some dead adults clustered round a door. The door had been barricaded up, but the attackers had managed to force it a little way open. Me and Henry forced it further. Inside the room we found a father and his son, at least that’s what it looked like. Both dead. Henry did his thing – he was getting good at this – found the father’s car key in his jacket pocket. A Citroën this time. We spotted it outside and there was still petrol in it. We drove it back to where Andy and Susannah were waiting in the Volvo and started to swap our supplies over from the boot.

‘It was while we were doing this that the kids arrived. A gang of them appeared from nowhere, armed with sticks and tools and clubs. We quickly jumped into the Citroën and locked all the doors. Had no idea if they would be friendly or not. But we had a bunch of food and couldn’t offer much of a fight.

‘Susannah was in a state, though. The first time I’d seen her get worked up about anything. Like a different person. She started up about how we hadn’t moved all the food, that we’d left some in the other car. Maybe I’d gone on too much about how important the food was. She was getting all anxious and hysterical. I think she was probably a bit unhinged to start with. Odd, you know. We were all odd. A real odd bunch. But this was freaky. She was going nuts.

‘The kids got nearer, ignored us and started getting the stuff out of the boot of the Volvo, and Susannah just flipped. She jumped out of the car before we could stop her and ran over to them and started to fight one of them over a box of biscuits – biscuits! The guy dropped them and they spilt all over the floor and she tried to pick them up and one of the other boys hit her with his stick, knocked her down.

‘I got out of the car, but about five of them lined up and gave me a look that said, “Back off”.’

Malik paused. Sighed. Ella could hear him breathing heavily. She waited for him to carry on.