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Croft broke the news to the handful of survivors gathered in the asse back upstairs to look after the heavily sedated Sonya The range of drugs available to him had been desperately liirl full of whatever he could find until she&039;d finally stopped screa and slipped into unconsciousness Jack Baxter sat with Bernard Heath in a corner of the hall Clare lay on a foam mattress next to them They had talked intermittently for a few hours with neither man able to even conteiven the opportunity to ask sohed heavy on hisHeath, of course, had been unable to answer any of them, but the conversation see the news that the baby had died, Heath began to cry He seemed ashamed by his show of emotion and tried unsuccessfully to hide his tears from Baxter &039;You knohat this means, don&039;t you?&039; he said after a few minutes of silence, his voice unsteady &039;What?&039; Baxter replied &039;It means that this is definitely the end&039; &039;Why do you say that?&039; &039;It&039;s got to be over now, hasn&039;t it? There are only a handful of us left now and it looks like we can&039;t reproduce So as far as I can see that&039;s the end of the human race, Jack&039;

Baxter stared into the darkness &039;You can&039;t be sure,&039; he said quietly &039;We can&039;t be sure about anything, but you&039;ve got to adood, does it? I&039;d started to think that therethat whatever ht an rolling freely down his tired face &039;You ht,&039; Baxter whispered Heath shook his head &039;I&039;ve got a son,&039; he continued, wiping his eyes again &039;He lives in Australia My wife&039;s been over there with therandchildren I know she&039;s&039; &039;She&039;s probably with the what he was about to say and instinctively saying the opposite &039;For all you know they could be safe

It ht&039; &039;I know they&039;re dead,&039; Heath interrupted sadly &039;Doesn&039;t matter what you say, I know they&039;re dead&039; Baxter rubbed his eyes and looked up at the ceiling He knehat he was hearing was right &039;Until we know for certain though&039; he began, about to try pointlessly to persuade Heath that there was still some hope &039;Don&039;t waste your ti into the otheron to dreams or halfbaked ideas or&039; &039;But you can&039;t just dis that&039; &039;Listen, can you really say you&039;ve stopped to try and appreciate the scale of what&039;s happened here?&039;

&039;Well I&039; &039;I hadn&039;t But soo that puts all of this into perspective Did you own a car?&039; &039;Never learnt to drive,&039; Baxter answered, surprised by the question he&039;d been asked &039;Why?&039; &039;I reht it was a death trap and ine tuned I&039;ll never forget that day&039; &039;What point are you ?&039; &039;How many crashed cars have you seen? How many abandoned cars have you seen round here?&039; &039;Hundreds, probably thousands, why?&039; &039;Because sole one of those cars was someone&039;s pride and joy&039;

&039;I&039;&039; &039;What about your home? Did you own your house?&039; &039;Yes&039; &039;Re when you picked up the key and walked inside? Reht there when it was your house and you could shut the front door and forget about everyone else?&039; A faint s up home with his dear departed Denise &039;God, yes,&039; he said quietly &039;We had such a laugh We hardly had anything We sat on boxes and ate chips from a&039; &039;Just think about the fact that sole house you&039;ve passed, and chances are they&039;re all dead now Hundreds of them Millions of the about&039; &039;But we should think about it And what about children? Did you have children, Jack?&039; He shook his head sadly &039;No, anted to but&039; &039;Every single corpse lying and rotting on the streets and every one of those bloody things outside this building, they were all sohter or brother or sister or&039; Heath stopped talking again More tears trickled from his tired eyes &039;You okay?&039; Jack asked, hesitantly He shook his head &039;This is the end,&039; he replied &039;I tell you there&039;s no doubt about it, this is the end&039;