Francis nodded, slowly, looking behind him into the lashing rain and darkness. He opened his mouth to say something, but it was drowned out by a crash of thunder, hot on the heels of another blinding flash of lightning that left him blinking to see at all. As the echoes died away, he took a deep breath and turned back to the other traveller.

"I have no gun," he said, a little more loudly, but still with apparent calm. "No weapon at all. I am not a soldier, nor a fighter. If whatever it is comes upon us, shelter is my only defence. And if it does not, we may still freeze out."