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WE WORK OUR WAY along the outered exclusion zone, either just inside or just outside the boundary depending on whoseat It&039;s been uncomfortably quiet out here, and we&039;ve seen only a handful of other fighters since splitting fros suddenly feel different Paul and I e cas, then cliely oversized steps Fro field we&039;re able to look out over a huge swathe of the exclusion zone In the distance I can just about make out the area of tohere Lizzie&039;s sister lived, and I can see all the way across the wide stretch of no-ee camp, too But it&039;s what&039;s directly below us that is ofwhat&039;s left of St Ja with activity Our fighters are all over it like ants over forgotten food

"What do you reckon?"

Paul shrugs his shoulders "Got to be a reason for theain, he crawls through a hole in a section of chain-link fence and starts running down a steep, grassy slope toward the hospital

I try to resist for a second and forceEllis, but then I think about the fact that there ed close by, and the teins to water as I sprint down the hill after Paul, desperate to get down to the hospital and start killing I hear gunfire as I start to run, a sure sign that the ene ed lives

The main hospital entrance has been partially de, their metal fra for a way around what&039;s left of this part of the site It sounds likelots and the other buildings at the far end of the coest as I squeeze through the gap in the doors He followscorridor that has soly white and clean and that even now still has the faintest tang of antiseptic in the air The building feels vast and e the hardcrack in one of the walls makes me question my decision to come this way momentarily, but it&039;s too late now and it&039;s worth the risk We&039;re nearing the fighting We&039;re closing in on the ene double doors, then stop at a staircase Instinct tells h is blocked by fallen rubble fro quickly to head up and work his way around whatever dahanother, ht-hand turn We instinctively slohen we enter a ward filled with corpses I start to wonder whether these well-decayed people were just abandoned and forgotten when the war began, but a closer look at their injuries quickly tells me that wasn&039;t the case A skeletal woman has been skewered with the metal support that once held her intravenous drip, the stained and tattered threads of her flapping nightgown still wrapped around her shoulders Sitting on the floor to my left, the withered husk of an old s apart There&039;s a vertical scar in thein alging nipples At the bottoht where his navel would have been, the wound has been forced open and his innards pulled out This guy&039;s been diseenuity and brutality of whoever did this is breathtaking These bodies are old, though Why are people still fighting here today?

A huge hole in the ceiling and a corresponding hole in the floor farther down the ward force es cautiously around the narrow ledge that relance down and see a mass of rubble, beds, and bodies directly below, then look up There are more holes in each floor above us all the way up to what&039;s left of the roof

At the end of the e reach another staircase I look down through a large safety-glassover a vast crowd of people battling outside Our fighters are swarht out on the farthest edge of the site Standing separate froht have been storerooms or boiler rooms There are enemy soldiers in every visibleand doorway andrelentlessly and indiscri crowd On the other side of the wrought-iron railings that surround the hospital grounds are their vehicles, ready for theet too close

Paul&039;s halfway down the stairs, but I stay standing at theSoht here

"Come on!" he shouts

"Wait"

I watch as another surge cohters People are jostling for position, trying to get closer to the ene each other as huet close enough to strike before they&039;re driven back and brought down by another hail of bullets Other fighters i their fallen bodies Apart fro to keep the bulk of the crowd at bay

"You fucking idiot!" Paul yells at et down there"

He disappears, but I don&039;t move On the face of it this looks like any one of a hundred battles I&039;ve witnessed or been a part of before, but there&039;s a subtle difference, and alar I sprint after Paul to try to stop hiht of the back of his head before he disappears out through an open door "Wait!"

"We&039;ll tear the back atducks"

"No they&039;re not"

"What?"

"They could get out of here at any tiainst the peri to take the us"

"What?" he shouts again

"It&039;s a fucking setup! Think about it Their secure area&039;s just a mile or so from here, there&039;s no way they&039;ve been cut off from the others, and they don&039;t look like they&039;re out here for supplies"

"I don&039;t care," he says, thinking -starved junkie who&039;s desperate for a hit

"They&039;re not waiting here to be evacuated," I tell him "They&039;re here to draw us out into the open"

Paul shakes his head, then turns and runs, charging deep into the sprawling, ever-growing crowd of fighters, which now almost completely fills the entire space between the s Bullets shatter s in the wall high above, and jagged daggers of glass rain down around ht at the very back of the crowd, using theto squir and head back in the direction from which we just came Paul&039;s already disappeared-just another face in the swollen crowd of bloodthirsty fighters, all of them desperate to kill I don&039;t knohat&039;sset up or how singularly focused this hugeelse matters; the scent of blood is in the air, and they&039;re all behaving like Brutes, prepared to sacrifice anything for the thrill and satisfaction of the kill The closeness of the eneunfire just seeressive Maybe that&039;s what they want?

I feel like I&039;ainst everyone else here now, and a moment of indecision and distraction costs , I don&039;t realize another group of fighters is approaching fro ainst a wall Before I knohat&039;s happening I&039; to cover my head and scramble out of the way as people stampede all around me The noise of the chaotic battle ismy disorientation I try to follow the wall I just sainst the tide of people and hoping I&039;ht direction I&039; a drainpipe for support I haul lass smokers&039; shelter outside a blocked entrance door and look back over the heads of the crowd Al has suddenly stopped, and I see that our fighters have finally reached the s anyone who gets in their way I stand on the shelter and curse ht Did these stupid Unchanged bastards really just screw up and get themselves stranded out here?

I&039; The noise ain Then I see it-a line of ar away froe to make it over to the other side of the peri across this part of the exclusion zone at speed, it looks like ot away More people scraed, but they give up quickly and slon and watch the eneh clouds of dust

Wait

The sound of engines is getting louder

The vehicles are al to increase in voluue and directionless and seeer, louder, and ines are above us I knohat&039;s co all too easy to read

I ju over on hters in the process There&039;s an uncomfortable malaise about this place noith only a few people on the frayed edges of the crowd et away Most of theainst the railings, still watching the Unchanged flee I&039;d do so about it if I could be bothered, but all I&039; myself out of here before it&039;s too late

I start running, pushing nore the sharp, jabbing pain in li plane with an enor faster and faster as I hear the high-pitched whistle of the first bo to fall I&039;m away froh to be safe I keep trying to forcewith effort, and I think ive way at any second Can&039;t keepon to is about to be obliterated I can alrassy hill Paul and I ran do, but it&039;s still too far I&039;ll never get there The piercing whine of the fast-fallingin volume until it&039;s all I can hear Then it stops

Nothing

A split second later and the air is filled withthe air fros I drop down and cover round shakes violently, and I curlfor the re to start to cruuts churn with fear, and I bracethat the worst is yet to come

The noise starts to fade

Everything soundsIn the distance people are yelling for help and screa with pain

Was that it?

I tell &039;s happened I&039;ll try to et up around ed pilot fuck up?

I cautiously stand up and turn around, not knohat I&039; clouds of dust, like a thick, dirty, grainy fog that quickly settles and coats everything with gray As it fades I realize I can still see the far end of the hospital building intact The outbuildings that were the focus of the fighting have gone, but the main campus is in much the sa that&039;s hters, and I realize that they were the target today, nothing else Those Unchanged bastards have ed to wipe hundreds of us out and still leave their infrastructure relatively undaht of the unscathed hospital building or the e that makes me hate the takes on a bizarrely calm, almost dreamlike state Those who&039;ve escaped the full force of the blast begin to stagger past hosts, covered in powder-fine debris Behind those who can walk I see others who&039;ve suffered much worse injures A wo herself along the ground Both of her legs have been blown off below the knee, and she leaves an uneven snail trail of glistening blood behind her She es to travel a couple of yards farther before she dies I shake my head clear and try to forcelike a drunk, carrying the lower part of his left ar me for help, I think, but I can&039;t hear hi with his voice? I try to answer, but I can&039;t hearsounds muffled and low, and I realize the problem&039;s with my ears I nervously look from side to side, suddenly aware that if I can&039;t hear properly, I&039;et away froether, then get on hat I came back out here for For half a second I wonder whether I should stop and look for Paul It&039;s a stupid, pointless idea He&039;s probably nothing more than a pile of blackened bone and ash at the bottom of the bomb crater now He was no help anyway Stupid fucker didn&039;t listen to a word I said

Pull yourself together, I tell ain as the shock and disorientation slowly start to fade and soet back on track and keeptoward Lizzie&039;s sister&039;s house-and, I decide as I start to hobble away, my ankle still weak, I need to do it on my own I have to keep away froether we becoed to pick out from the sky Cowardly bastards Face-to-face they know they don&039;t stand a chance Long-distance battles are the only ones they can win

I start to run, slowly at first until the pain in htly more bearable I head back toward the entrance to the hospital I first cah, desperate to put some distance between rassy slope below the college playing fields, and this ti project, hoping that the closely packed row houses on either side of the road will provide ainst the buildings onin their shadows As Ifacades, I start to think I should maybe stay here for a while The eneain froain? And now that I&039;ve made the decision to only travel alone, would it be better to wait until dark? But then I think about Ellis and the kids at the school, and I know I have to keep