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E It was Saturday - not that it seeuessed by the ah the crack between the curtains that it was early , probably around four or five o&039;clock

After a few seconds of disorientation she reazed up at the ceiling above the bed she&039;d been sleeping on and stared at the numerous bumps, cracks and bubbles Her eyes drifted towards the walls where, in the sean to count patterns on the wallpaper The design was rey in the half-light) printed on a crearound The floere printed in a strict and repetitive rotational sequence

Emma had counted twenty-three rotations of flowers on the wallpaper before she stopped to question what it was she was doing She realised that, subconsciously, she had been filling her mind with rubbish She realised that it was much easier to think about patterns on walls and other such crap than it was to have to think about what had happened to the world outside Penn Far noise froid with fear Lying perfectly still she listened intently There was so in the bedroo around on the floor next to the bed and for a htened to move Her heart pounded in her chest with an anxious ferocity and she held her breath, petrified that whatever it was that was in there with herseconds passed before she e to lean across to the side of the bed and look down A wave of cool relief washed over her when she saw that it was Michael, asleep on the floor, curled up tightly in a thin sleeping bag She lay back on the bed and sighed

She was certain that Michael had begun the night sleeping so outside her rooone to find a bed There were four bedrooms in the house - three on the second floor and one in the attic - and she could clearly re into one of the roo on the floor next to her bed now? Was it because he thought that she ht need him there for protection, or was it because he himself had found himself in need of coht just passed Whatever the reason she decided that it didn&039;t lad he was there

By that point she ide awake and there didn&039;t see back to sleep Annoyed and still tired, she shuffled back over to the other side of the bed and swung her feet out over the edge She lowered her feet down until they reached the bare varnished floorboards and then recoiled at the sudden chill which ran through her as her toes touched the ground The temperature in the room was low and she was cold, despite the fact that she had slept virtually fully dressed There were blankets and sheets on the bed, but she hadn&039;t felt able to use theed to one of the bodies they&039;d left in the forest, and that thought had made her feel uneasy to the point that she hadn&039;t felt coh to take off her clothes and sleep inside the bed Still, even though she&039;d slept fully dressed on top of a dead man&039;s bed, she&039;d been more comfortable there than at any other point in the last week

Tiptoeing carefully so as not to wake up Michael, she crept around the cold room to theand opened the curtains Michael stirred andover and starting to snore gently, blissfully ignorant to the fact that Eainst the cool glass she looked down onto a dull world An earlyheavily in every dip and trough Birds sang out and fleeen the tops of trees, silhouetted in black against the dull grey-purple sky For a few short and blissfulwith the rest of the world today She hadn&039;t often been up and about at four twenty-five (that was the precise tiined that this was pretty much how every day ering aihed field just north of the farmhouse She had seen thousands of the pitiful creatures over the last few days but she instantly decided that this one particular stu bastard was the one she hated the most Her heart had sunk like a stone when she&039;d first spotted it tripping cluh the mist If she hadn&039;t seen it then perhaps she&039;d have been able to prolong the illusion of norer But that was all it was - an illusion of a norone and which would never be restored And there she was, trapped in the sahtht before that and the night before that She began to cry and wiped her eyes, upset and annoyed For a blissful few seconds everything had felt normal but now she felt like hell She felt as cold, empty and lifeless as the body in the field

&039;Everything okay?&039; a voice suddenly asked froht her breath and quickly span around Michael stood in front of her, his norht eyes still dulled with sleep and his short hair ht,&039; she

&039;Did I scare you?&039; he wondered apologetically &039;I&039; up as I could but you&039;

E it clear that it didn&039;t hts had been elsewhere He could have screamed in her face and she wouldn&039;t have noticed

Michael took another step closer to her and she noticed that he too had slept in his clothes She turned back to look out of theand continued to scan the ht ofelse this h, she wanted to see so that moved with reason, purpose and direction like she did She wanted to find someone else that was truly alive

&039;What are you looking for?&039; Michael asked

She shrugged her shoulders She didn&039;t want to answer hirunted &039;There&039;s no fucking point, is there? There&039;s nothing left&039;

Michael turned and walked silently out of the roo her alone to look out over the dead world