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&039;So where the fucking hell did you come froroup of six survivors entered the assembly hall There were several other people in the roo and stared at the unexpected arrival &039;We were based just outside the city Look, is there any chance that I could get&039; &039;Was it you as shooting yesterday?&039; Holmes interrupted &039;Not ine we heard, that was you too?&039; Cooper nodded, exhausted Much as he understood why it was happening, this sudden interrogation was the last thing he needed &039;That was us,&039; he answered &039;Us?&039;

&039;That&039;s right&039; &039;So where are the others?&039; &039;Back at the base I hope&039; &039;And why are you still here?&039; &039;We got separated&039; &039;How come you can breathe? Are the others immune?&039; Cooper shook his head &039;Don&039;t think so

I don&039;t know for sure I only found out I was by chance Look, could somebody please tell me exactly what happened here? I&039;ve been&039; &039;Aren&039;t you the one who should be telling us what&039;s happened?&039; asked Donna She walked across the room to stand directly between Holed his shoulders &039;I don&039;t know,&039; he replied &039;None of us knew We had a little infor&039;

&039;What infor closer &039;Like I say, no-one knew very much,&039; he explained &039;We were told there was a disease We knew that it idespread and that it had probably killed thousands but nothing like&039; &039;So where were you when it happened?&039; &039;What?&039; &039;If you didn&039;t know that you were i for the last feeeks? How coet infected?&039;

&039;We were in a bunker&039; &039;You want to be thankful you didn&039;t see any of it,&039; Bernard Heath sighed, sitting down a short distance away &039;What?&039; &039;I said you ought to be grateful you were underground when it happen,&039; he continued &039;It was more than thousands of people that died, it wasdead where they&039;d been standing Christ, I don&039;t expect there&039;s a thousand people left alive&039;

&039;So what about the ones outside? Are they?&039; Cooper let his words fade into silence No matter what he&039;d witnessed out on the streets, he couldn&039;t bring himself to ask the impossible question which had played on his mind since he&039;d first arrived in the city &039;They&039;re dead,&039; Baxter answered &039;If I hadn&039;t seen it myself I probably wouldn&039;t believe it They all died on the first

A couple of days later they started to ain&039; &039;But how could they?&039; Cooper muot a doctor here and he doesn&039;t know either No-one knows&039; Phil Croft took Baxter&039;s comment as his cue to becoood as mine,&039; he said quietly &039;No-one&039;s ever seen anything like this before so there&039;s no point asking me what&039;s happened Tell you the truth, there&039;s no point even trying to work it out&039; &039;Do you knohat did it?&039; asked Paulette, the large and relentlessly effervescent lady who had been hanging on every word of the difficult exchange, hoping for answers

Her noretic voice was suddenly quiet and uncharacteristically serious and flat Cooper shrugged his shoulders &039;No,&039; he admitted &039;Bloody hell,&039; Heath protested, &039;you must have some idea

Were we attacked? Was it an accident?&039; The soldier shook his weary head &039;I really don&039;t know It can&039;t have been aI&039;d have heard so attacked We were trained to deal with that kind of situation&039; &039;So what are you saying?&039; &039;I&039; that this was different&039; &039;What about the speed of it?&039; Donna asked

&039;I was nine floors up I watched it move across the city How could that have happened?&039; &039;I&039; to wonder whether it was already here,&039; Croft added &039;There&039;s no way a disease or a virus could be carried on the wind that quickly, is there?&039;

&039;I&039;ve got no idea,&039; Cooper sighed &039;Look, I&039;ve got no reason to hide anything fro then I&039;d tell you Like I said, no-one that I ith seeht be people somewhere who understand it all, but the officers in our base knew about as much as you do&039; Weary, Cooper collapsed into the nearest chair Donna handed him a bottle of water and pulled another chair across the floor to sit next to him

There was a look of intense concentration on her face Much as she was interested in the superficial and relatively unimportant details that Paulette and probably many others wanted to hear from the soldier, she wanted answers to other questions fro what he had so far said and wondering whether this strangersoerous world He had, it seemed, arrived in the city from a protected oasis of relative normality &039;So how many of you were there?&039; she asked Cooper drained the bottle of water dry and wiped his&039;Where? How many of us were here yesterday or?&039; She shook her head &039;In the base How many of you were in the base?&039; &039;Couple of hundred I think I&039;m not completely sure

Three hundred at the most&039; &039;Room for any more?&039; &039;Don&039;t know Could be&039; &039;And are there more bases?&039; He nodded &039;There were supposed to be et to them I&039;m not even sure where they are There&039;s bound to be one close to the capital&039; &039;You must have some idea&039; &039;Why? I didn&039;t knohere our base was until I was in it Look, these are the kind of places you don&039;t know you&039;re reached until you&039;re standing on top of them I&039;ve heard that some of these bunkers are in the ht have lived next door to one for the last ten years and not known anything about it

&039; Phil Croft sat down next to Donna &039;If we could get to your base,&039; he began, the tone of his voice tentative and uncertain, &039;would you be able to get us inside?&039; &039;You&039;re out of your fucking round with the fucking army,&039; Nathan Holmes hissed fro lance in his direction and then turned back to face the solider again

&039;Would they let us in?&039; he asked again Cooper couldn&039;t ansith any certainty &039;They ht,&039; he said quietly, &039;but on the other hand they ht not let me back in It depends if the decontamination process works, I suppose I left the base but I never ht not have been able to get back inside If they couldn&039;t remove all traces of the disease then they&039;d have left theht have let it in e left The whole bloody base ht be dead by now&039; &039;What kind of protection did you have?&039; Donna asked &039;Inside or outside?&039; &039;Outside&039;

&039;Full body suits and the best breathing kits the government could buy,&039; he answered &039;So,&039; she continued, &039;while you were away from the base you couldn&039;t eat or drink or?&039; &039;Theoretically we could,&039; he interrupted, finishing her sentence for her &039;The suits were designed to let you eat and drink and get rid of waste but we didn&039;t carryto be above ground for too long&039; &039;What if those others can&039;t get back into the base because their suit or their equipment&039;s contaminated?&039; &039;They&039;ll have left them on the surface&039; &039;To die?&039; &039;Suppose so&039; &039;And did you know that when they ordered you to go outside?&039;

&039;No-one said as enius to work it out, does it?&039; &039;No wonder you&039;re not rushing to get back&039; &039;Part of the job,&039; Cooper mumbled nonchalantly &039;And are you still on duty?&039; Croft quipped The soldier shook his head &039;I quit,&039; he said, deadpan &039;I quit the moment I found out I could breathe You don&039;t have to spend long out here to realise the whole planet&039;s dead I figured I ht as well try and ot left They probably think I&039;ht as well be,&039; muttered Holmes