Day 1,179

We'd see them out on the highways, deep into the empty countryside where nobody's lived since the first settlers went out and never returned. Though they're similar in appearance, they can't be will-o-wisps - the ground's too dry for their kind to thrive in and the nearest marshlands are way down south.

They take people all the same but not knowing what they are makes finding their victims just that little bit harder and makes the search just that little bit deadlier. Every time someone finds a car, lights on, doors open and empty they give us a call and pray it hasn't been too long.

For most missing persons we give 24 hours before we can legally call them missing and 7 years before they're legally dead. With the roadside cases we head out as soon as the call is made and declare them dead if they aren't found by sunrise.

As unorthodox as it may seem to make the big decisions so soon, we never find them past sunrise. Past midnight is pushing it in all honesty, by then you generally find them dead or dying or worse and its the kind of scene that burns itself into the backs of your eyes for days.

Now as a precaution to all travellers, human and otherwise, we stop all vehicles coming into the area and make sure they know to never stop and never slow down for strange lights that follow them or tap on their windows. The outsiders are the worst for rule breaking, they never understand that when we say they'll die - it isn't a threat, it's a head's up at best and a promise at worst.

Still doesn't stop the scrapyard from being overrun with their abandoned cars and the memorials overrun with their names.

So, so many names.