Henna waited for the flashlights to get much closer before firing up the lights of the tac-van, illuminating the area and showing a number of people standing not twenty feet away. They all carried rifles and they all pointed toward Henna. Using the door as cover, she aimed her pistol over the hinge toward the nearest man. He stopped moving forward, but he didn't lower his rifle, either.

The sounds of the outdoors seemed to fade away as Henna and the man stared at each other and only now did she realise how beautiful silence was. Even at the best of times, over the last few months, the sound of Screamers were never far away and, as these people approached, the natural sounds died away, replaced by a set of muffled screams, and Henna could see why. Several of the people led shuffling Screamers on leashes, bags covering their mouths to dampen the sounds of their screams.

"I don't want any trouble. I'm just passing through. In fact, I was just about to head back to the highway." Henna couldn't keep her eyes on all of the people that approached, and she felt certain others hung back, out of sight, so she held the lead man's eyes and spoke to him. "Don't start any trouble and you won't get none."

"No trouble. Just an exchange. We let you live, with enough to survive, we take everything else. Including that truck." The man lowered the rifle and nodded away to both sides. "Now, you can shoot me, and maybe I'd die, and that's okay, but my folks here'll shoot you and still take everything you got and we'd both be dead. I think it's fair. You live, we live."

"You're not getting anything from me. Now, go on now. Walk away before this goes sideways." The more she looked out at the people surrounding the van, the more of the leashed Screamers came into sight. "Listen, I'm on a mission, okay? A mission that could find a cure for all these people. The Screamers? All your families, your loved ones? That's who you all have on those leashes, right? You leave me to go on my way and they could all be cured before long."

A murmur began to pass between the people around the van, but the man Henna spoke to could only give a soft laugh. She couldn't be certain that he was listening to what she said, or whether he cared if he did. People had become desperate, willing to do things to survive that they would never have considered before.

There were few factories running. Without anyone to pick all the fruit and vegetables, food in fields had been left to rot where it fell. Power stations had ground to a halt. Nuclear power stations, especially, had been taken offline in the first few weeks of the disaster, through fear of meltdowns. There simply weren't enough people anymore. Not enough that hadn't faced the skies and screamed.

Tinned food had become commodities, traded at greatly exaggerated prices, and not in dollars, but in exchanges and barters. Yet, even with vast swathes of the population turning their heads skyward and screaming, there were still too many to feed. The human race's ability to procreate had become an albatross around their necks. Henna could understand these people wanting what she had, but she couldn't allow any of it to leave her hands. Not until she had got Cas to where she needed to be.

"That's a nice sentiment, ma'am, and normally I would have allowed you a degree of leeway, but times aren't normal." He pointed his flashlight toward the tac-van. "Now, I figure something like that has likely got guns inside and we need those for protection. Likewise, a clever woman such as yourself would, I do not doubt, have managed to secure yourself a good deal of food and we need that too. My folks are near starving and if I have to choose between them dying or you, well, I'm going to side with my own before you. You understand."

"That I do, sir, but I need to inform you that if I don't get moving before too long, then we'll have ourselves trouble neither of us would like to deal with." As she had talked, she had started to hear screams in the distance. "I need what I have. It's as simple as that. Once I'm done doing what I need to do, if I have anything left over, you're welcome to it, but I need it right now."

This was taking too long. The screams that she heard were not muffled, as those Screamers on leashes were. They were full-blooded, unfettered screams and they were coming closer. It seemed Cas was right. Distance was not a problem, but the time spent in one place. As though the Screamers took that amount of time to zero in. Like a plane that drifted in and out of RADAR range.

And what Henna could hear wasn't one or two Screamers racing their way, but many. How many, she couldn't tell, the screams blending together and echoing around the mountainous area where the tac-van sat. The Screamers must have run from some distance, but that hardly surprised Henna. Not anymore. Not even Cas mentioning that 'they' were listening in to the radio. She hadn't said who 'they' were, but Henna didn't think it was the Screamers.

"Look, ma'am, I appreciate you wanting to hold on to what you've got, but we've got you surrounded." He waved his flashlight in the air and Henna saw a whole bunch of lights switch on, in several directions. "We don't want to kill you, but we will if you don't share what you have. Have no doubt about that."

"I hate to break it to you, but you're surrounded too." She itched to get back in the van. The Screamers were getting closer and the other people hadn't even noticed, so focussed were they on her. But, then again, that had been the hasty plan. "Now, I'm getting back in this van and driving away. Just let me go and you'll be fine and, whatever you do, don't shoot them. They'll only decide you're an enemy."

"What in God's name are you talking about?" The man nodded to the side of the van nearest Henna. "Cecil, I'm done playing nice. Take her out."

A shot rang out and Henna stiffened, but the shot wasn't aimed at her. To her left, a man fell, clutching his leg, his flashlight and gun falling from his hands. Another shot caught the lead man in the shoulder, sending him spiralling away, his flashlight lending an arc to the surrounding area. At first, the others did nothing, confused, searching everywhere around them, but not toward the immediate danger that now threatened them.

The first Screamer came rushing out of the darkness, arms and legs pumping like a sprinter racing for the line at a track meet. The sudden movement caught the people surrounding the truck by surprise, thinking the Screamer the one that had shot at their companions, and guns were raised, miniature explosions destroying any semblance of peace in the area. Bullets ripped into the Screamer, and still it ran, only now it diverted toward the nearest person who had shot it.

The Screamer crashed into the shooter, taking them both down to the ground, and began beating and tearing at the them with a savage, unrestrained ferocity, a brutality that Henna had never witnessed before. And then more Screamers began to emerge into the light cast by the tac-van's headlights. More guns began to fire and more Screamers turned to face their attackers, ignoring the bullets and buckshot that would have stopped any human, while others continued on toward the van.

"Get in and fucking drive!" Cas, on top of the van, sniper rifle in hand, began hammering upon the van's roof. "I'll hold on, just get us out of here!"

Henna hesitated. A sea of Screamers had begun to pour out of the darkness, their Screams rending the night like knives slashing at a blanket, ripping and tearing a silence that had felt so peaceful only moments before. A peace Henna hadn't known for months. Cas had been proven right once again. Distance meant nothing to the Screamers, only the time it took to for them to sense Cas' presence, wherever she seemed to be or go.

She dragged herself into the tac-van, dropping into the driver's seat and turning the key. She prayed all those horror movies she had seen weren't anything like reality, begging the van to start. It coughed and grumbled, then roared into tortured life as more and more Screamers came toward them in waves. Any that came too close, dropped to the ground as Cas shot them in their heads, their only true vulnerability, but Cas didn't have an unlimited amount of bullets for the rifle, not up there on top of the van.

Setting the van in reverse, she slammed her foot down, turning the wheel as it barked and rumbled. She hit something, several somethings, but she couldn't stop to see whether she had hit a human or a Screamer and she hated herself for even thinking of that distinction. She tortured the gears, ripping the van out of reverse and forcing it into first, letting out the clutch, engaging the gear and starting to pull away, turning the wheel until she headed in what she hoped was the right direction.

Meanwhile, all around them, guns fired, white and yellow flashes in a darkened glade where all the flashlights had dropped to the ground, pointing nowhere, or had smashed. Shadows. That was all Henna could see through the door mirror. Shadows falling upon other shadows, becoming one with the ground. Several bullets pinged and ricocheted from the van, some even penetrated, bouncing around until their momentum became spent, but Henna didn't stop driving.

The van bumped and shook, listing from side to side as she bounced along the track back toward the highway and, only when she thought she had put enough distance between them and the Screamers, did she slow down and then stop. She opened the door, holding onto it to stretch up to see on top.

"Cas? Cas!" She heard a noise behind the van and drew her pistol, only for Cas to come rushing to the door. "Thank god!"

She wrapped her arms around Cas' neck, holding her so tight she feared she could kill her ex by relief alone, and Cas embraced her too, the rifle in her hand digging into Henna's back. They pulled apart and Henna couldn't stop herself, she kissed Cas. A rough, violent kiss that didn't last near as long as she wanted it to. Screamers were coming.

With one last, lingering look, Cas tossed the rifle into the van, climbing inside. Henna wished she had time to think about what she had done, how she had betrayed Carla, but she didn't have that luxury. The deathly red lights at the rear of the van showed a horde coming their way, each screaming so loud it could shake the mountains. She hoisted herself back into the tac-van and drove hard for the highway.