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Paul got up when the sun began to rise through the tenth floor s of the office block His h choice, his temporary bed had proved less than comfortable and the pressure on his bladder had beco a security pass which Donna had taken froed hiht of stairs to the nearest toilet Stuht he crashed noisily through the door into the little rooined it would be Another body was slunant sed with sleep and hurrying to get away froain on his way out of the toilet, falling clu a cleaner&039;s bucket against a radiator The sound of th of the staircase, see with noise When he returned to the tenth floor Donna ake More than just awake she was up and alert, quickly changing her clothes and tying up her long hair &039;What&039;s the matter?&039; he asked, iet up so quickly She had no real reason to get up at all

&039;I heard so,&039; she replied breathlessly as she tucked her shirt into her jeans &039;What?&039; &039;Don&039;t know It was upstairs&039; &039;But you told me you&039;ve already been upstairs, haven&039;t you? You said there was nothing there&039; &039;Apart froht&039; &039;So what did you hear?&039; She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head &039;I don&039;t knohat it was It sounded like&039; &039;It was me,&039; he interrupted nervously &039;It&039;s still dark out there I tripped over a body on ht over on the way back down I bet it&039; He didn&039;t bother to finish his sentence Donna was still shaking her head &039;I heard the bloody noise you hed &039;The sound I heard was before that&039; An icy chill ran the length of Paul&039;s spine He watched withanxiety as Donna put on a jacket and did up the zipper She walked towards the door out of the office and stopped just a few feet short of the exit &039;Look,&039; she said, &039;it was probably nothing

I&039;o and have a look around I&039;ll only be a couple of minutes&039; &039;It must have been me you heard,&039; Paul continued to babble &039;Like I said, I kicked a bucket into a radiator Itto hi, Donna turned round, reached out for the door handle and then froze Through the s back at her Even though the light was poor she could tell that it was a cold, e was just stood there, staring at her &039;Christ,&039; she cursed as she stumbled back in surprise &039;What is it?&039; Paul hissed

&039;There&039;s a body here,&039; she whispered, rooted to the spot &039;So?&039; &039;So the daabout?&039; He began to walk towards her, stopping short when he saw the corpse Coly still, the only visible movement ca froain It hadn&039;t been there when he&039;d returned from the toilet minutes earlier Could it have followed hio?&039; Donna asked &039;It should just wander away like the rest of thehtly to get a better view of the cadaver on the landing &039;I don&039;t know,&039; heile diseased hand and sainst the door

As the two survivors stood and watched in terrified disbelief, it thuain And then with both hands, raining down a sudden torrent of weak, comparatively clumsy and co to let it in,&039; whispered Donna, her&039;What?&039; screa &039;What the hell do you think you&039;re doing? You don&039;t knohat that thing will do if you let it in here&039; &039;You don&039;t knohat it&039;s going to do either,&039; she snapped back &039;For God&039;s sake, this thing is trying to get to us It wants help, it must do This one&039;s different to all the others I&039;ve seen&039; &039;But you can&039;t just assume that&039; Paul&039;s words asted Donna wasn&039;t listening and, besides, she&039;d already made her decision The body in front of her looked pathetic and emaciated Its movements were slow and laboured But more to the point, it appeared to have some level of control, and that separated it from the hundreds of other corpses she&039;d seen The creature continued to thuainst the door Donna flicked her pass at the sensor to her right and pulled the door open The body dropped its arain &039;See,&039; she said, relieved

&039;I told you it&039; The creature lunged towards her, knocking her off balance and sending her thudding into the wall With sudden energy - uncoordinated but un fifty-two year oldin the air around her face Instinctively she lifted her hands to protect herself Paul ran towards the obnoxious cadaver and grabbed it frorip and felt cold, hard, leathery flesh give way under the increasing pressure of his grip With surprisingly little effort he yanked the body away and threw it down to the ground Regardless of its unexpected speed and intent, it was still little ,&039; Donna spat She pushed Paul to one side and stood over the corpse which was already struggling to pick itself up again It leant over to one side and with claw-like, ale towards her &039;We&039;ve got to kill it,&039; Paul wailed &039;Hoe do that?&039; E&039;s been dead since Tuesday&039; It was only after she&039;d spoken that she realised how ridiculous her words sounded &039;I don&039;t know!&039; he screamed back at her He looked around

Mounted on the wall just to the side of the entrance door was a fire extinguisher He picked it up and raised it above his head Donna, shaking with fear but fully aware of what Paul was doing, put one of her feet down hard on the creature&039;s bony chest Half of her body weight was h to keep it pinned down It didn&039;t have the strength to reply &039;Do it,&039; she urged frantically &039;For God&039;s sake, do it!&039;

Paul held the extinguisher high above the corpse He watched its head thrashing helplessly from side to side with terrified fascination Ashen, alht across the ea sound &039;Do it!&039; Donna screaain the body tried to lunge and the sudden htly shut Paul slammed the base of the round It hit the side of the face with a dull thud and a faint cracking sound as the cheekbone fractured Slightlytaste of bile rising in his throat, he lifted the fire extinguisher once again and ha in the back of the skull Finally the body lay still &039;Let&039;s get it out of here,&039; he said as he dropped the extinguisher Donna held the door open as he dragged the creature out by its feet, leaving behind it a thick trail of dark, almost black blood on the pale purple carpet

Driven by a nauseous coed it out through the landing door and left it on the staircase There were more bodies on the stairs Jesus Christ, he could see another three of the da doards hi themselves up painfully slowly from the floor below

Filled with panic and cold fear he turned and sprinted back to the office

For more than an hour they were too afraid tobehind desks in the training rooether Occasionally one of thee to peer out into thethrough the precious doors which separated theh indistinct and unclear, they could see ht and looked up and out of theat the grey sky, trying toPaul lay on the carpet next to her, curled up in a ball &039;Why did it attack you?&039; hehimself to speak about what he&039;d seen &039;Don&039;t know for sure if it did&039; &039;What do you mean? Of course it attacked you!&039; &039;Are you really sure? How do you knoasn&039;t trying to get us to help? How do you know&039; &039;I don&039;t know,&039; he whined, covering his head with his hands &039;All I do know is that you should never have opened the bloody door in the first place&039; There was a sudden crash outside It sounded like so down the stairs - the cleaner&039;s bucket Paul had kicked earlier perhaps? He decided that one of the bodies must have tripped over it &039;It&039;s like they&039;re co back to life,&039; Donna mumbled &039;What?&039; &039;They died last Tuesday I know that&039;s true because I watched it happen and I checked enough of my friends to know that they were all dead And then they started to ain They walked on Thursday, now&039; &039;Nohat?&039; &039;How did they knoere here?&039; &039;Don&039;t know&039; &039;I think you disturbed them when you went to the toilet&039; &039;But we&039;ve both been off the floor before now, haven&039;t we? How come they didn&039;t react to us then? I walked past a hundred of those das outside on the streets and not one of therowing increasingly annoyed by hishysteria &039;That&039;s exactly what I&039; They couldn&039;t move, now they can walk At first they had very little control and coordination, now that seems to have improved They couldn&039;t hear us and I don&039;t know if they could see us before, but now it seems that they can&039; &039;But why did it attack you?&039; he asked again, repeating his earlier question &039;Did it attack me? If their control is limited, what else could it have done? It couldn&039;t ask for help, could it? Christ, Paul, look what&039;s happening to the to rot and decay I&039; &039;But can they feel it?&039; &039;I don&039;t know If they can &039; Paul sat up and drew his knees up tight to his chest &039;So what&039;s going to happen next?&039; Donna shrugged her shoulders Her head was spinning She didn&039;t want to think about it until she had to &039;Don&039;t know,&039; she muttered &039;So what do we do?&039; &039;For noe keep our heads down and we keep out of sight Don&039;t let them knoe&039;re in here&039;