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Midday Donna had ed to sleep for a few hours It was the first tih it was in a cold and unfaly comfortable and safe A man she hadn&039;t seen before walked past the door to the roo that she ake, stopped to talk to her &039;How you feeling?&039; he asked &039;Crap,&039; she replied with brutal honesty &039;I&039; a couple of steps into the roo suddenly aard and not knohat to say, looked around the roo on the bed &039;Look,&039; he said after a few long seconds had passed, &039;would you like to co to drink or&039; Donna was up and on her feet before he&039;d finished his question She was starving Heath led her along the corridor and down the stairs

&039;Bloody hell,&039; she muttered under her breath as she walked into the assean to cry She couldn&039;t help herself She&039;d given up hope of ever seeing so ain She counted between ten and twenty of them In one corner a handful of subdued children played quietly Elsewhere people sat around the edges of the roo themselves to the kitchen Standing in the middle of the hall with a tray in her hands, Donna suddenly felt exposed and vulnerable She looked around for so next to another man Despite the fact that she still wanted to punch him in the face for the stupid stunt he&039;d pulled this , he was the only other person that she knew

Wearily she dragged herself across the room and sat down next to hirunted but didn&039;t properly answer She began to eat the crackers and cheese spread that she&039;d been given Her hands shook as she tried to spread with a plastic knife It was bitterly cold inside the building &039;This is Steve,&039; Paul continued, introducing thenext to him &039;Steve, this is Donna&039; &039;Hi, Donna,&039; Steve said wearily, runt &039;Steve says there&039;s almost fifty people here you know,&039; Paul whispered &039;Thank God we found this place

He says thatit wasn&039;t difficult,&039; Donna said, sing a y and interest to bring herself to speak, &039;it was getting here that was the hard part It wouldn&039;t have been so much of a problem if it hadn&039;t been for you, you stupid bloody idiot!&039; Paul looked down at his feet and turned back to face Steve &039;So what&039;s the plan?&039; he asked, trying desperately to ignore Donna&039;s anger

&039;What&039;s going to happen next? Are we staying here or?&039; &039;As far as I can tell there is no plan, mate,&039; Steve replied &039;And if there was you&039;d only go and screw it up,&039; Donna snapped Paul ignored her &039;Don&039;t think anyone knohat to do next,&039; Steve continued &039;Seeo so you ot a few ideas brewing though, haven&039;t we, Nathan?&039; Nathan Hol across the hall on his way back to his room At the lad of any distraction he pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Steve and Paul &039;What you talking about?&039; he asked &039;I said we&039;re starting to get a few ideas about what to do next, aren&039;t we?&039; Holrin &039;Too right,&039; he said, his voice lowered to a whisper &039;What you going to do?&039; Paul asked &039;When those things outside start to drift away,&039; he explained, &039;we&039;re going out on the town&039; &039;What do youto shut ourselves in one of the clubs round here and we&039;re going to have the biggest fucking party you&039;ve ever seen We&039;re going to blow all the drinks and drugs we can find in the place And when they start to wear off and we start to co on to the next club and we&039;re going to do it all over again The biggest bloody pub crawl in history!&039; &039;Sounds good,&039; Paul said, far fro to hit this town and&039;

&039;You been outside recently?&039; Donna interrupted Holet a look at the woman who had interrupted him &039;Yeah, why?&039; he replied &039;Because there&039;s nothing left out there, that&039;s why,&039; she sighed &039;Exactly That&039;s e&039;re going to do it Nothing matters when you&039;ve had a few drinks&039; She shook her head sadly and returned her attention to her food Holmes leant across and helped himself to a cracker &039;Do you mind?&039; she scowled &039;Not at all,&039; he replied in a s, self-assured voice &039;Haven&039;t seen you before,&039; he said, chewing on her food, &039;when did you get here?&039; &039;This &039; &039;You been out there all this time?&039; &039;Yes&039;

&039;Grim, ain&039;t it?&039; Donna nodded She didn&039;t want to talk to Holmes She didn&039;t really want to talk to anyone, least of all this brash and irritating man Much as she&039;d craved company and conversation at ti away froht a brief respite from the cold emptiness of the remains of the world It was only now that she&039;d found a relatively safe and quiet shelter that the full horror of what had happened had returned to haunt her With other survivors in close proximity for the first time she felt able to try and deal with her pain, fear and uncertainty Although she needed other people close, she also needed to be by herself She didn&039;t really have anything against Holmes (she&039;d put up with countless men like him in numerous bars and clubs before now), but at thatto do with him either &039;I tell you,&039; he continued, completely oblivious to Donna&039;s lack of interest in hi in here with this lot forout We&039;ve got the whole bloody country out there just waiting for us, isn&039;t that right, Steve?&039; Steve nodded &039;Daht&039; Donna looked at the twodrunk really all that was left for the in tatters at their feet, did they not have any higher priorities? On one hand it seeet all that had happened and enjoy what tiestion really be the only alternative? Given that she was surrounded by soabout the future before now - until that moment she hadn&039;t dared consider whether she even had a future to look forward to Looking into Hol face, however, she knew that there had to be a better option than the seedy, selfish and dangerous escape that he and Steve Richards were planning for themselves &039;You can finish this,&039; she said as she stood up and dropped the tray of food on Holmes&039; lap

He turned and watched her as she walked away &039;Where you going?&039; he asked, getting up and following her &039;Sorunted &039;Where&039;s somewhere else?&039; &039;Soot soside her, &039;blokes likeand turned to face him &039;Listen,&039; she said quietly, &039;I&039;m twenty-four years old, I&039;m fe idiots like you for as long as I can remember I&039;ve seen hundreds of your type, full of ot no balls

If you&039;re all that&039;s left, I&039;ll be spending the rest of my time on my own Noill you leave me alone?&039; Not about to let her know if her words were having any effect on him, Holmes sirinned &039;Fucking idiot,&039; Donna cursed as she stormed out of the hall and down the corridor back towards her room She didn&039;t even know if she&039;d be able to find the rooet away froot lost in the accommodation block The corridors looked the same, the rooms looked the same and the staircases looked the sa from the stairs, but she couldn&039;t remember whether it was on the second or third floor She opened a third-floor door which looked vaguely familiar It was instantly obvious that it wasn&039;t her roo into space &039;Sorry,&039; sheroom I didn&039;t mean to disturb&039; He looked up at her and smiled for a moment He looked so lost and helpless Her heart immediately went out to the poor man &039;Are you okay?&039; she asked He nodded &039;Have you had any food? Do you need me to show you where the hall is?&039; The man responded only with another slish,&039; he said simply

&039;I&039; down the corridor and hoping that she was right &039;Let , okay?&039; Another nod and another smile and Donna left the man alone and returned to her roohtly shut

For a while she couldn&039;t get his face out of her head As if everything that had happened wasn&039;t hard enough already, this poor sod was having to cope with it all without being able to understand a word that the other survivors said If she felt detached and alone, she thought, how the hell hts filled Donna&039;s er the silence in her roohts became