Page 62 of 59 Minutes

FRANKIE

‘I have to go back to Otis,’ Frankie says.

‘Just take a minute.’ Janet sits down in the kitchen chair and rubs her temples, as if in pain. ‘Let’s just have a sit down, take a moment. I can’t … I can’t make sense of all this.’

‘I really have to get to Otis and I need your help. I need your Land Rover and I need you to help me get him into it.’

‘And then what?’

‘Hospital.’

‘You won’t get to the hospital, the roads will be chaos.’

Frankie slides the gun from the table and holds it. ‘I’m not just leaving Otis there.’

‘I’m not saying to leave him, we can bring him back here and I’ll do what I can while we wait for an ambulance.’ Janet looks older in relief than she did in panic.

‘If everyone’s inside sheltering, why would the roads—’

‘Look at where we are, love. Everyone from Exeter and Plymouth will have tried to come here, to get away from city centres, and they’ll have jammed the main roads. The cities will still be locked down. Turn on the TV and see for yourself if you don’t believe me.’

‘No, I believe you, I’m just running out of time.’

‘Can we just take a minute to be relieved, love?’

‘He might not have a minute,’ Frankie says.

But then the bang comes on the front door. A loud, angry bang. A man’s bang. As Janet starts to walk towards the hallway, Frankie grabs her arm.

‘Wait, what are you doing?’

‘It could be your boyfriend,’ Janet says. It could, Frankie thinks, but he did not look on the brink of waking let alone walking.