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The long day dragged unbearably After uments and frustration, the at rapidly By early evening teerously thin &039;Have you looked out of the bloodyrecently?&039; Baxter spat angrily &039;Do you knohat&039;s out there?&039; &039;More to the point,&039; Donna interrupted angrily, &039;have you seen what&039;s still in here? Have you seen the level of our supplies? I tell you, on&039;t last long if we don&039;t do soht,&039; Cooper added fro to be an option for er&039; &039;And what the fuck do you know?&039; Nathan Holmes yelled, his voice hoarse and strained with e for the best part of an hour with, it seemed, much of the venom directed towards him personally

&039;I&039; on,&039; he snapped &039;I bet you know exactly what caused all of this fucking mess to happen&039; &039;I wish I did,&039; the soldier sighed &039;Then at least I htened faces peered out from every corner of the hall, illuht in the roo even more people hidden in darkness For once alathered together - even theby the events surrounding the soldier&039;s recent arrival

Foralone in the individual roo for most Better to snatch a few moments of sleep in the company of others than to spend endless hours alone, wide awake and on edge &039;Look,&039; Donna continued, &039;Phil reckons that in six months ti Isn&039;t that right, Phil?&039; She peered round in the darkness, trying to find the doctor He was sitting on the floor just a fewto avoid getting dragged into the conversation Instead he&039;d been busying hi to keep a seven year old boy interested in a jigsaw puzzle and hoping that he&039;d be able to stop hiive or take a feeeks either way&039;

&039;So we&039;ll wait here for six months,&039; Holmes announced Donna shook her head Once full ofhis true colours show His plans to get out of the building and take what he wanted frootten He was as scared as the rest of the survivors, but he didn&039;t have the intelligence to deal with his feelings His fear displayed itself as antagoniser &039;Which part of this don&039;t you understand, Nathan,&039; she sighed &039;We haven&039;t got enough supplies here to last for six o out into the city nohether you like it or not&039; Holmes didn&039;t respond He&039;d never admit as much, but he was intimidated by Donna He didn&039;t have the ability to able to reply to her words with anything that reseument as to why they should lock themselves down and stay put until the countless bodies outside had finally fallen again &039;She&039;s right,&039; Baxter said, stepping forward out of the shadows into which he&039;d subconsciously retreated as the argument had become more heated &039;We don&039;t have an option really If you stop and&039; &039;What the fuck do you know?&039; Hol more confident He knew that he could handle Jack Baxter

Refusing to rise to the other h his hair and stared at hih the darkness &039;I know as er accusingly and shaking his head &039;But if you forget about how you&039;re feeling and take a look at the whole picture, it seems we don&039;t have any choice&039;

Several hours later and the anger and raised voices that had filled the hall had been long forgotten by many of the survivors Nathan Hol and with hione too Apart from a few mumbled conversations and the low and dull but ever-present noise of the bodies outside the asseainst the wall doing his best to fade into the already drab and inconspicuous background The benefit of darkness, he thought to hi tonearby whilst stillto feel like he was a safe distance away Baxter was sitting in a corner of the room near to Cooper, Croft and Donna Clare lay next to him on arelatively soundly He frequently watched her when she was asleep, feeling as if he had a responsibility to protect her because he was the one who had been with her the longest

She was a pretty girl with soft, delicate features which, for once, looked untroubled and relaxed It wasn&039;t often that &039;What do you think, Jack?&039; he heard Phil Croft ask At the mention of his name he looked up

&039;What?&039; he mumbled &039;You&039;re not with us, are you?&039; sainst any of you,&039; he s to focus on the others, &039;but I wish I was anywhere but here&039; Cooper kept the conversation on track &039;We were talking about getting out of here,&039; he began &039;What, still?&039; hebetter to talk about?&039; &039;No,&039; Donna replied abruptly

&039;Bloody hell, what else is there to talk about?&039; He shrugged his shoulders &039;Decided where we&039;re going yet then?&039; Silence It was one thing talking about what they should do, but when it caet any of the survivors to speak out with any conviction &039;We&039;re not completely sure whether&039; muttered Croft before Cooper interrupted &039;Isn&039;t it obvious?&039; he sighed &039;There&039;s only one place we can go, isn&039;t there?&039; Donna added &039;Your base?&039; ventured Baxter &039;Much as I don&039;t like the thought of going back there, we don&039;t seem to have much choice at the moment&039;

&039;So will your people let us inside?&039; he asked &039;They ht I don&039;t know&039; &039;I don&039;t think they will&039; Everyone looked at Jack &039;Why not?&039; Donna asked &039;I knoe seem to be immune to whatever&039;s done all this,&039; he explained, his voice tired and low, &039;but I bet we&039;re still carrying it If it&039;s a disease then we&039;re going to be full of it, aren&039;t we? It&039;ll be in our lungs and in our blood There&039;s no way they&039;re going to let us inside if we&039;re going to bring it in with us&039; &039;We&039;ve just got to hope the decontah to clean us up properly then, haven&039;t we?&039; Cooper said &039;Do you think it will be?&039; &039;Don&039;t know,&039; he admitted after a moment of careful consideration &039;There&039;s another problem of course,&039; yawned Croft The doctor was incredibly tired but he kneasn&039;t worth trying to sleep &039;What&039;s that?&039; Cooper asked &039;How the hell are we going to get there?&039;

&039;How many people are here?&039; &039;Between forty and fifty,&039; he replied &039;And how many will leave with us?&039; &039;No idea Probably not that many Say half&039; &039;Theoretically we can take our pick of just about anything we can find in the city,&039; said Donna &039;If we can get to it,&039; interrupted Baxter &039;So what do you suggest?&039; Cooper asked &039;We need to be sensible about this

We&039;re not going to be able to just drive out of here in a convoy of cars, are we?&039; &039;What did you arrive in? We heard it but we didn&039;t see it&039; &039;Armoured patrol carrier I could probably drive one of those if we had one, but I don&039;t expect we&039;ll find anything like that round here&039; Baxter ht be surprised,&039; Donna said quietly The other faces turned to look at her &039;What have you got in mind?&039; &039;There&039;s a courthouse near here,&039; she replied &039;And?&039; &039;And round the back there&039;s a loading bay&039; &039;A loading bay?&039; Croft ic was leading &039;We could see it fro when there was a big trial on,&039; she explained &039;The prison vans used to pull up around the back and reverse inside to deliver and collect the prisoners&039; &039;So?&039; &039;Think about it Prison vans are designed to carry people More than that, they&039;re strong and they&039;re safe They&039;re as close to a bloody aret&039; &039;Are there any vans there now?&039;

&039;How aood chance there will be though Just about every ic says that if the courts were going to be in session when all of this started, there would have been prisoners there&039; &039;I know the court,&039; Baxter whispered secretively &039;But how are we supposed to get there? It&039;s halfway across town&039; &039;Don&039;t know,&039; Donna adet past the crowds out there And even if we do ain? Christ, iine what the noise of a load of prison vans will do to the from a cup of cold black coffee that he&039;d made almost an hour earlier He winced at its bitter aftertaste &039;See to drive them crazy,&039; he said, &039;but there isn&039;t any alternative We&039;ve already decided that we&039;re going to have to go out at soestions?&039; asked Donna expectantly &039;I ca to help us get out there,&039; she sighed &039;Getting back without thee to get our hands on soht,&039; Croft offered

&039;Not a good idea,&039; Cooper responded &039;I knohat you&039;re saying, but you&039;ve got to add up the risks and balance them all out, haven&039;t you? Whatever we do we&039;re bound to attract attention to ourselves because of the noise we o out in the dark then we&039;re just going to make it harder for ourselves They&039;ll still react to us so we ive ourselves the best possible chance&039;

&039;If we&039;re really going to do this,&039; Donna continued, &039;then we need to think very carefully before we put a single foot outside Fros out there they seeressive each day We have to get everything we need in one trip&039; &039;We can do it,&039; Cooper insisted &039;A few of us need to get out there, get e need and get back Once the exciteet everyone ants to leave together and we can move&039;

Jack Baxter lay down on the cold, hard floor next to Clare and listened as the conversation continued He agreed with everything that was being suggested, but the fact that it was right didn&039;t make it any easier to deal with Within the walls of the university it had to an extent become possible to isolate themselves from events outside The sudden realisation that they were about to leave the safety of the building and head back out into the unknoas terrifying Unavoidable, necessary and terrifying