Read Chapter 19: — SNOW ON THE RING ROAD

Snow came overnight.

By morning, the ring road was white at the edges and black in two narrow tracks.

The Ravensbridge Line stayed active because hospitals stayed active.

Ethan drove more slowly. Every journey took longer. Staff apologised for needing him. He told them to stop apologising.

Maya worked from the neighbourhood centre, coordinating food deliveries. Her team had begun receiving bulk donations from farms outside the city: potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbages.

"I have never respected a potato this much," she told Ethan on the phone.

At noon, Mark asked Ethan to make a long-distance emergency run. Two ICU nurses had driven towards Ravensbridge from another region, but their car had broken down near the restricted boundary.

Ethan collected them from a police checkpoint.

They slept almost immediately in the back seat.

For forty miles he listened to the heater and the rhythmic sound of their breathing.

He thought of Christmas morning, when he and Maya should have been opening presents with family.

He did not regret staying.

That frightened him almost as much as the outbreak.