Page 37 (1/1)
Croft, Donna, Baxter and the others had slept little Their lives had become so bleak and helpless that all the sudden talk about actuallypositive see action During the long, slow hours of the early gestions which had been discussed in the darkness last night had gradually been shaped and for to resemble a coherent plan Those who had volunteered to be directly involved knew that they were about to risk everything but, if they didn&039;t take those risks, they knew that what re
At least this way they were giving the they&039;d be spending their last long days and weeks just sitting in worsening squalor and waiting for the end to arrive Cooper had summed it up when he&039;d told them earlier that their options were either to sit and wait for the bodies to get inside the building, to slowly starve to death or to risk everything by trying to get away from the city And with the nu, the probability that their shelter would be breached beca hour Donna was ready to do it Taking care to keep out of sight she stood in a dark doorway and looked out across the lass entrance doors at the front of the building
No-one ever came out here anymore, and it was obvious why A thousand dead faces stared back in her direction She knew that she was too far away and was sufficiently hidden by enough shadow not to be seen and so stayed where she was and looked deep into the mass of poor, pathetic creatures outside It was a hellish scene The coht of thousands upon thousands of bodies continued to push forward and crush those nearest the front If s arrive, she decided, it was inevitable that a door orsoht happen was al would be filled with an unstoppable torrent of desperate, stu cadavers in seconds Donna already knew that they were doing the right thing by trying to get out
Looking deep into the rotting crowd just served to make her even ht which would nor been blocked out by the sheer weight of bodies It was difficult to make out individual faces and features fro - the crowd seereen, decaying flesh If she stared at a particular area for long enough she could occasionally nisable such as an opensimilar But it was the movement that really disturbed her
The entire discolouredpressed hard against the glass, the crushed bodies still twitched and flinched continually, trying pointlessly to et into the university co her she looked deeper and deeper into the crowd until the sound of other survivors nearby distracted her She forced herself to turn away and try to think about soet thehtforward and flexible; six survivors would leave the university by a back exit where there were fewer bodies Using the subhich Cooper had used to get in (hoping, of course, that purposely slow movements and hidden emotions would still fool the cadavers) they would
They were then going to force their way inside, find the loading bay, get whatever transport they could and then get back to the university in as short a timescale as possible And what if it didn&039;t work? They all knew that there were a thousand and one things that h the subway? What if they got into the court building and found that there were no prison vans there? What if the vans wouldn&039;t start? Truth was that none of the they could do about any of them until they had actually happened and they were faced with dealing with the fallout Going outside was the biggest risk The rest of the city was theoretically theirs for the taking once they were actually out there And if they didn&039;t find what they wanted in the courthouse, they&039;d just move on and find it so city Donna was confident they&039;d be able to find what they needed eventually
She sloalked back to the asse out into the city herself she felt sick with nerves She tried to remain positive and focus on her part of the plan Once the others had returned with, hopefully, sufficient transport, they had arranged to park the vehicles deep inside the university complex away from the bulk of the bodies In the e of the other survivors who intended leaving the city with theet their supplies packed and prepared for the journey The transportation would be left parked on an artificial turf football pitch which was surrounded by a high wire-et the survivors and their belongings organised so that they could get out of the building and over the to vehicles as quickly and safely as possible Although nowhere near as difficult as going out into the open, Donna didn&039;t relish the task ahead It was going to be difficult trying to get any of these people toat the ees of the room A short time earlier Cooper and Croft had announced their plans to the rest of the disparate group There had been little reaction She didn&039;t knothe university and how , paralysed by their fear and uncertainty
They couldn&039;t force anyone to go They were taking the children - it didn&039;t seeht to leave them there - but the others were free to make their own choices It see nervously in this building were increasingly beginning to resemble the weak and directionless bodies outside Eaten up with bitter pain and directionless anger, devoid of all energy and trapped in a see appeared little better than the dead