We arrived in the dark. There was a hum of noise but no sign of humanity, just the occasional barking of a stray dog. Then silence, then another dog would start. And the rustling noise of rodents as they chewed their way through the debris all around.

As light crept grey-tinged over the ruined town colossal murals came into view. Swirls of colour leached into the broken stone walls.

Some sophisticated swirls and symbols, others just names a list of names of people long gone.

‘Shay 4 Jez’ scrawled in white paint across a solid steel door.

Could it be a gateway leading out of the ruins to some under ground bunker where the inhabitants had retreated to safety? Or just two lovers immortalising their romance on a convenient spare space.

Behind the doors we could hear the humming noise and hoped against hope it was a generator of some sort, a sign of life.