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Stay cal Donna silently repeated to herself over and over again as she walked with Paul towards the huge mass of dark bodies in the very near distance The short journey fro road had taken soion of three-quarters of an hour, er than it should have And with each step forward they had taken, so the nervousness and apprehension felt by both survivors had steadily increased They alking into the lion&039;s den In just a fewcorpses on all sides, and a single unexpected h to start a chain reaction within the crowd that ulf them and leave them with no means of escape On their own the bodies eak and were more an inconvenience than a threat

In a crowd of this size, however, the danger was undeniable and there was no obvious way out other than to turn and run back into the city Donna knew that there would be asfor the Since they&039;d left the office and gone out into the open they&039;d been aware of a suffocating, noxious taste in the air which steadily increased as they approached thebodies It was the smell of death and disease, and it see to keep her nerve, Donna watched the corpse nearest to her left out of the corner of her eye It had once been a girl - about her height and age perhaps - but noas barely recognisable

She ht even have known the pathetic creature before it had been struck down by whatever it was that had laid waste to the world less than a week ago The early h illumination for Donna to be able to irl&039;s features Her once pale and s it with an unnatural blue-green tinge Blistering, weeping sores had erupted around herof bloody, germ-filled saliva trickled down the side of her face Her once well-fitting clothes now rustled and flapped against her y fra breeze Donna couldn&039;t look away froe way it was easier to concentrate on just one of the bodies rather than look around at the rest of the crowd Each one of thehtened that the next one she looked at rotesque and even ht happen to see one of the creatures that was so badly decoe affliction that she wouldn&039;t be able to contain her disgust

She had to keep rele unexpected sound,down around theradually moved further ahead He was a couple of meters in front of Donna now and there were several bodies between them The sheer size of the crowd that they had beco Paul knew that there had to be a reason for the unexpected gathering and, with no other indication of where theywith theto rise to their right and, as the brilliant orange light spilled silently over the city for the first ti, Paul looked ahead and, for a moment, was sure that he could seeon the other side of the ring road He wanted to turn around and tell Donna but he knew that he couldn&039;t risk atte any form of communication with her

Behind, Donna let her head hang heavily on her shoulders in the same way that the listless creatures around her did To look up and around would show them that she was different For as much of the tiround around Paul&039;s feet, desperately trying to keep track of his move denser and th and natural speed ly difficult tocadavers all around her Although all eneral direction, the creatures had poor control over their ered to one side or collided randoain Bright orange sunlight reflected back fro his eyes Perhaps that was all he&039;d seen, he thought dejectedly Perhaps he hadn&039;t seenoff the bronze-tinted s But no, there it was again Knowing that he was taking a risk just by holding his head high and looking up, he continued to stare at the building ahead of hiain

Christ, there were people in the s He was still a couple of hundred meters away but he could definitely see them now Unlike the countless thousands of sickly bodies that surrounded him and Donna, he knew instantly that the people in the ere different They were grouped together in several rooely still They had control They were co down at the bodies and the re and pointing and planning and and it seeer Paul wasn&039;t fully able to accept what he was seeing until he was close enough for it to be undeniable These people were alive These people were survivors Without thinking he reacted He stopped and span around to look for Donna &039;Up there,&039; he yelled when he saw her, pointing towards the building in front of them

&039;Look!&039; She stared back at him with a look of terrified disbelief on her face, not listening to what he was saying, just stunned that he had been stupid enough to shatter the protective silence that they hadAlready aware that the bodies around her were beginning to react, she dropped her head again and hoped that Paul would shut up and do the saan to push past her, their speed suddenly increased &039;Run you fucking idiot!&039; she shouted Without waiting for his response, she dropped her shoulder and began to run towards the building ahead She collided with body after body after body with each iround and causing more and more of them to react Already nurab hold of Paul He wrestled them away and followed after Donna in her wake The sheer volu made the main entrance appear i for breath, Donna looked around anxiously for an alternative route She was surrounded on all sides by the noxious corpses, every last one of which now seemed to turn and lurch aardly towards her There wasn&039;t ti that her coh She sensed that Paul was close behind but didn&039;t bother to check He would have to look after hi road itself now She tripped down the high kerb and began to run across the wide stretch of tar to somehow continue to push the bodies away and also to avoid the wreckage of cars and rotting corpses strewn across her path The crowd surged after her relentlessly, ether slowly but ominously like some unstoppable thick and viscous liquid

Up and over the low central reservation barrier and she knew she was al closer behind her now grunting and groaning with effort as he forced his way forward through the seeht!&039; she heard hi in front of the and narrow but they were considerably closer to the right side than the left It seeet around the back, but as to say that there wasn&039;t a croice as big behind the building? The alternatives were bleak She kept ainst the front entrance Donna rounded the corner and saw, to her relief, that there were considerably fewer of the, no doubt, she decided, because virtually all of the corpses would have approached fro around the side of a red and white striped entry barrier she took a deep breath, pushed another two corpses out of the way and continued to move forward &039;Climb up!&039; she heard Paul yell froround&039; Donna looked around helplessly, not sure what he was expecting her to do He answered her questions as he suddenly appeared next to her and pushed his way through the hordes towards a large delivery truck that was parked alongside the building

Grabbing hold of the passenger side winghands below He lay flat across the roof of the truck and reached back down for Donna &039;Coh to the lorry and clambered up By the time she had reached the top of the truck Paul was already th of the vehicle towards the rear end Donna followed before stopping and falling to her knees once she was safe &039;Help!&039; she yelled desperately, praying that so would hear her The back end of the truck where Paul was standing was less than three feet away fro Just above his head and to his right slightly was a s to consider the risks he leapt up and grabbed at thethe balcony area In a flurry of movement he reached out and wrapped his arriht of his body threatened to wrench his shoulder from its joint

Slowly, and with ed to pull himself up Donna watched from the roof of the truck as he hauled hian to slazedDonna lay down and rolled over onto her back and looked up into the greyquickly faded into silence as she relaxed, as did the constant shuffling of the relentless crowd of bodies swar and around the truck She stared into the cloudsover her head and watched as they blew across froht, then everything seems normal If I don&039;t look down then I can pretend that none of this is happening Just for a few seconds I can pretend it&039;s not happening

After locating the here Paul was standing the survivors forced it open and quickly pulled hiap between the building and the top of the truck, twoand brought Donna into the shelter