Page 23 (1/1)

The dead world was like a vacuue distances, carried for usts of wind The movement of the soldiers in their powerful transport created waves of interest along the entire length of their journey - froht through to the cold heart of the city In the university accole survivor had been stirred and encouraged by the sounds outside More than just another random crash or unexplained disturbance as they had heard h the rain today were different They were purposeful, intentional,that filled the air had confired to continue to exist through thein the university had become cocooned in their hideaway Too afraid to leave the relative safety of their building, the bravest of theainst violent weather conditions Froe point they had been unable to see the other people They had, however, watched with un to drift away from the university site and head back deeper into the city Although thousands re outside the accoly The survivors kneever, that it wouldn&039;t takethe back to theroup in two

&039;I&039; those bloody things back here,&039; snapped Bernard Heath The sudden force and nervous energy and volume in his voice belied the fact that fear was the only reason he was opposed to the plan that had been put forward &039;For God&039;s sake, Bernard,&039; Donna sighed, &039;can&039;t you see e&039;re saying here? We know that whatever we do will bring the bodies back, but chances are it&039;ll bring those survivors to us as well Do you really think we can afford to stay out here on our own for very er?&039; &039;But we&039;re not out here on our own, are we?&039; he argued &039;There are more than forty of us here&039; &039;That&039;s as maybe,&039; she replied, &039;but how many of them are in this room with us no many people do you actually see each day?&039; Heath looked around the asseht, less than half of the total nu were in the rooether Most continued to cower in silence in their individual rooms &039;We&039;re stuck here,&039; Phil Croft volunteered from across the hall &039;Okay, that&039;s not proved to be too ive it a few ot here could well turn into a prison&039; &039;Nohere,&039; Donna continued &039;The rest of the city is silent We can&039;t help but draw attention to ourselves, can we?&039; &039;We can try,&039; Heath protested &039;We could&039; &039;We could what? Shut ourselves in a single rooh and hold our breath so they can&039;t hear us breathing?&039; &039;No, I just think&039; &039;You&039;ve seen how those things are beginning to behave, haven&039;t you?&039; she asked, her voice weary &039;They&039;re beco more and more active every day I know they&039;re not particularly strong on their own but given with the nu with here&039;

&039;And we&039;re going to need to go out for supplies again soon,&039; said Croft &039;And as tio further and further afield to get those supplies We&039;re going to be spending longer out in the open&039; &039;We need to start getting ourselves organised,&039; Donna continued &039;Get so We need to find a way of letting those other survivors knoe&039;re here without&039; Sat in the corner of the rooot up and walked towards the nearest exit &039;You&039;re a bunch of fucking idiots,&039; he spat The rest of the people in the hall turned and stared at hi to do here? Think you&039;re going to build so world out of&039; &039;We&039;re not trying to do anything except&039; Donna began before Hol to do is pointless It&039;s all pointless You shouldn&039;t even be wasting your ti out of here and I&039; to&039; &039;We all know exactly what you&039;re going to do,&039; Donna sighed &039;You&039;re going to drink yourself stupid so that you can forget everything We&039;ve heard you say it a thousand tiive a daht I don&039;t,&039; he replied, &039;why should I?&039; &039;Can&039;t you see how our chances will iether?&039; Croft asked Hol in despair &039;But that&039;s ot? Everybody in this da out of here and trying to forget everything is the best option for anyone who&039;s got any degree of sense left&039; &039;You&039;re confusing sense and selfishness,&039; Donna mumbled under her breath

&039;Look,&039; Croft said, the patience in his voice wearing thin, &039;all we&039;re talking about doing here is setting up some kind of beacon so that if and when those others come back they&039;ll knohere we are and they&039;ll coreat plans for the future because we don&039;t know if any of us have got a fucking future!&039; &039;But your beacon will attract the bodies,&039; protested Heath &039;For Christ&039;s sake, man,&039; Croft seethed &039;Can&039;t you see that&039;s a risk we&039;re going to have to take?&039; Jack Baxter had been watching the increasingly tense conversation develop &039;What if we put a beacon on the roof?&039; he asked &039;What&039;s that going to achieve?&039; Heath wondered &039;Think about it, if we put so to be immediately obvious to the bodies but a survivor&039; &039;a survivor would know that anything up on the roof would probably have been put there intentionally,&039; added Donna, co about lighting a fire, then a survivor would know that any blaze wouldand work its way up, it wouldn&039;t start on top, would it?&039; &039;I understand that,&039;down on an uncomfortable plastic chair, &039;but if and when those other people get here, they&039;re going to bring the bodies with the to matter how careful you are with your bloody beacon, is it?&039;

Donna looked at the frightened lecturer for a few long seconds before turning her back on hi, she just couldn&039;t understand why it was such a issue for him To her the solution to their problem and the potential side-effects were obvious and unavoidable Increasing the nu seemed to be a small price to pay if it meant they could make contact with other survivors - people with transport and weapons who, it see out in the open Just over thirty miles from the city, and two and a half round bunker, two survivors sat together in nervous silence Hiding in a relatively well-appointed motorhome they had taken froo, the couple had driven out to the most exposed and isolated area of land they had been able to find Since being forced to leave the farmhouse where they had previously sheltered, Michael Collins and E ani where they had hidden in relatively safety for the best part of teeks had been overrun by hundreds of wandering corpses, attracted to their remote and otherwise inconspicuous location by the activity and sounds the survivors hadThey had takenremains of the population, but all their efforts had ultimately been in vain Michael and Emma had learnt to their bitter cost that there was no way of escaping the unwanted attentions of ly vicious corpses The couple had heard the engine in the distance when the soldiers had eed from their hidden base earlier in the day At first it had see the farmhouse neither of them had seen any indication that other people reht have pointed to the existence of other survivors

But the noise of the engine had been definite and unmistakable, and it had filled them both with sudden unexpected hope where before they had felt nothing but pain, emptiness and desolation By the time they were out of the motorhome and were able to look for the source of the sound the soldiers had been long gone They did, however, sturavel track at the bottom of a hill near to where they were parked In the absence of any other roads or pathways forpoint in their search for other survivors Michael had supposed that anyone else atteht have found themselves a base similar to the farmhouse where he and E out for supplies, there was a fairly good chance they would be back again before long

He was right The darkness of early evening had all but sed up the last light of the glooain Distant and faint at first, it had quickly increased in volu outside and exposed, Michael threw open the motorho, rain-soaked grass and crouched down on a set a clear view of a long stretch of the track below And then he saw it - a huge, powerfulthe track Michael couldn&039;t see the driver of the vehicle, or how many people were inside, but it didn&039;tother survivors, he no that these people were strong and well organised And if they really were the military, what did that mean? How many hundreds of them could there be nearby? The transport disappeared into the darkness He stood up and ran cautiously along the exposed brow of the hill, following the machine until it was completely out of view Where did the track lead? He stared into the darkness and contemplated what he had seen for a few silent seconds before re back to the motorhome &039;Well?&039; Emma asked as he let hi army machine Don&039;t know exactly what it was but&039;

&039;The army?&039; &039;Looked like it,&039; Michael said breathlessly as he locked the door behind hiht fro their location to the rest of the world &039;Couldn&039;t be sure, but it was definitely soo?&039; He shrugged his shoulders E questions which she knew he couldn&039;t answer &039;It was following the track we found earlier,&039; he sighed, &039;so I guess it was going wherever the track leads&039; &039;And where&039;s that?&039; &039;How the hell aest we should try and find out tomorrow&039;

&039;Don&039;t you want to look tonight?&039; &039;No,&039; he replied, shaking his head &039;The light&039;s alerous We&039;ll wait until &039;