Caleb follows Aisha, clad in her black vestments, through the silent street. They carry torches because the streetlights are off. The soft pad of Bonny's paws echo across the walls of the empty houses.
'How do they know?' whispers Caleb. 'The dogs I mean. Do they smell them?'
'You don't have to whisper,' says Aisha, scanning the lightless windows of the houses, 'they already know we're here.'
Caleb checks instinctively checks over his shoulder, though for what, he doesn't know.
'And as for the dogs,' continues Aisha, 'I don't know. They just know.'
Caleb leaps out of his skin as Bonny starts barking. She's facing a house, much the same as any other, baring her teeth and snarling.
Aisha nods. 'This is the place.'
Paddy Dobson
3rd June 2021