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Exhausted by the effort of ed hih the bleak re and preparation for dealing with nightly difficult to keep le step he took required more concentrated effort than it ever should have Every ti else which shocked, repulsed, disgusted or terrified hirey streets were littered with the abhorrent re bodies - the residue of thousands of innocent and unsuspecting plague victinore the sickly, shuffling bodies thatthrough a bizarre still photograph It was almost as if the world had been frozen in an instant of ti the slowest and oodness around hi positive Death, decay and destruction do road which ran around the perie of the local area was fair but far from comprehensive

He looked hopefully at every road sign he passed, trying to find the nanised or at least re about It ht on the outskirts of the city, sos were spread out over a decent area rather than being packed tightly together as they were in many of the closer inner-city districts He&039;d had plenty of ti to do, but the constant distractions around hi a sensible or coherent plan of action All that he really wanted was to find somewhere relatively safe and comfortable where he could stop and rest for a few days and take stock of everything More than anything he needed to spend so to work out what it was that had actually happened He didn&039;t expect to be able to find many answers (if he found any at all) but for the sake of his sanity he needed the opportunity to stop, take a deep breath and at least atteed slowly down theroad was the city centre proper and, just ahead and to his right, the first few buildings of the hospital and university complex The road slowly dropped down and arched lazily to the left, and as he followed it around he beca bizarre and initially inexplicable that made his blood run cold Up ahead, little more than a quarter of a ed him to turn around and head in the opposite direction but at the same time he knew that he didn&039;t dare make such an obvious e in direction ht attract the attention of the nu close around hi he knew that soht cause hi disturbance would inevitably attractcorpses to hi in an otherwise pitch-black room Like it or not, he see forward, to keep walking towards the huge crowd He neared the bodies with the initial intent of shuffling around the furthest edge of theon out of the city As he approached, however, he began to ask hi had built up there in the first place? The answer, it occurred to him, was simple

The creatures see capabilities and they only appeared to react to thethem to this place The wide road was streith the re it difficult for Cooper to be able to accurately estimate the nu the on the other side of the road, each one of theht and nuetting any closer

Cooper ht alteration to his course so that he drifted towards the far side of the road where there were slightly fewer figures He noticed that ing themselves out froely silent, save for the constant slow shuffling of rotting feet being dragged along the ground Over this low background noise, however, he thought he could hear so attention to hiround in front of hiuish and identify this new sound It took only a few seconds for it to beco wood, accompanied by occasional snatches of huh the noise lasted for only a couple of seconds and was unintelligible - he knew beyond doubt that there were other survivors nearby Unable to contain his curiosity and desire to see other living, breathing people like himself, he cautiously lifted his head and looked into the distance A pall of dirty grey se building opposite

He squinted and saw that there were people on the roof Although he only dared look for a few seconds, he thought he could see between five and eight of the seen each of them for only a moment, he knew that they were survivors He&039;d seen the remains of many offices and shops that had been scarred by fire, but the fact that this blaze was on the roof of the building left hiainst his better judgement, Cooper allowed himself to drift deeper into the crowd He didn&039;t dare shout to the survivors toinstead that his only option was to slowly and cautiouslyJust a few short footsteps further forward and he found hi crowd

Randoures collided with him constantly and it was all that he could do to keep his nerve and not lose control The s He&039;d been around deathhis years of service, but never anything like this The cloying, relentless s like a thick, disease-ridden blanket sinning to take al control of his speed and his movements The density of the crowd added to the confusion All that Cooper could now see were shuffling bodies on every side

Although the creatures ithered and relatively slight, there were so ether that it was impossible to see clearly in any direction Generally the heads of the figures hung heavily on their weary shoulders but Cooper knew that it was too dangerous for hiain look up and over the top of the crowd He had to keepwith the flow of the obnoxious ht direction Although he tried for a while to convince hi the fact that, after a few ress towards the building

There was very little that he could i pushed and buffeted away fro the ring road in the general direction fro he could do except keepand hope that chance would eventually allow him to drift back the other way He sturound In a fraction of a second he was able to regain control, keep his balance and not panic Even as his boot smashed down onto decayed flesh and exposed bone he forced himself to remain steady and emotionless A subway

Out of the corner of his eye he saw it Just over to his right he becauessed, provided a pedestrian connection between the buildings on the side of the road he was heading towards and the rest of the city Before the events of a feeeks ago the ring road would have been far too busy for people to try and cross by foot - it was proving aard enough to negotiate noith the wreckage of hundreds of cars and other vehicles and countless bodies strewn rando nowhere, Cooper decided to take a chance and head underground

Although there would surely be more bodies trapped down there, it would be darker and, he presuan to veer off towards the sloping concrete entrance His nervousness increased as he stared down the raht steadily faded and the smell intensified Unnerved, a sickly sweat broke out across the soldier&039;s brow - it reminded hi three weeks ago Inside the subas almost pitch black, ree of movement around hied theround, their liht and sound and the movement of the rest of the crowds out there No more than twenty meters down and he came upon a T-junction where a second tunnel crossed the path of the one he&039;d been following The lack of light was disorientating

His eyes were slowly becoloo, he hoped, towards the building with the fire on the roof) the light continued to fade The sh but down here it was appalling - the sharp,flesh which had been trapped underground, unable to easily escape out into the relatively fresh air on the surface He could see slight shadows and movements all around him and, at times, it seemed as if the dark walls of the subway tunnel the He shuffled forward a step at a ti a path through the endless decaying human debris with his heavy boots He was fairly sure that the tunnel he now folloas leading hith of the road and closer towards the front of the building he was aiain to reach the survivors A sudden unexpected collision sent Cooper turound He had walked into one of the stuh there had been virtually no force in the i He fell aardly, landing on the chest of an indistinguishable corpse which collapsed under his weight