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Having forced their way through the juror&039;s lounge, several connecting corridors and staircases and a vast and grandiose court room, the six survivors nervously worked their way back from the dock and eventually found themselves at the entrance to the prisoner cells buried deep within the bowels of the court complex The other five led to reuard lying stiff and twisted on the floor Croft yanked the keys free, stood up and began to try and unlock the strengthenedany further forward &039;Come on,&039; Paul Castle moaned He could heararound the as fast as I can,&039; hissed Croft as he systeh the keys His hands were shaking through a combination of nerves, exhaustion and pure adrenaline With a welcome click and a heavy thud the seventh key opened the door &039;Well done,&039; said Cooper as he pushed past He marched quickly down a narrow corridor which opened out into a grey office area with a chest height reception desk straight ahead This, he decided, had to be where the prisoners were booked in and out of the court

Secondary corridors ran off to the left and the right To his right were the cells To his left the exit Through a toughened glassin the exit door he could see a wide, open area reround base he&039;d co bay &039;This way,&039; he grunted With an unexpected flash of sudden, uncoordinated ed itself out of the shadows and lurched towards hile sharp and instinctive reaction he clenched his right hand into a fist and threw a powerful punch at the obnoxious figure, catching it square in the face For a moment it stood and swayed in front of hi features having been nisable by the brute force of the soldier&039;s punch As dark, sticky blood began to seep down from the black hole where its nose had been, the creature dropped to the ground Cooper beckoned the men towards the exit The door which led down fro bay was ajar, propped open by the trapped torso of another motionless corpse that had fallen unceremoniously weeks earlier He stepped over the body and ran down a short flight of concrete steps The others followed close behind

&039;Close the door,&039; Jack Baxter shouted to Bernard Heath as he brought up the rear Heath i the obstructive body back into the corridor and out of the way before sla nervously, he leant against the nearest wall to catch his breath again Several long seconds had passed before he could bear to lift his head and look around the loading bay Had the risks they&039;d taken been worth it? &039;You okay, Bernard?&039; asked Croft The doctor&039;s question ht and took a few tired steps into the e area He had hoped to see it full of prison vans and other similar vehicles but he was disappointed There were two lorries that he could see - one long enough to have three doors and several small square n the side, the other around two thirds the length of the first - and a single police van Steve Arest lorry, settling into the seat and checking over the controls

&039;Can you drive it?&039; Cooper asked Aret it started then I can bloody well drive it,&039; he replied, soan to check over the smaller truck while Croft concentrated his attention on the van He found its last driver dead at the wheel, haunched forith his frozen face fixed in a grotesque expression of devastating pain and absolute fear The chin of the corpse and ulated blood For a ht What utter terror and agony must each of these people have experienced, he wondered? As he began to yank the stiff and aard cadaver out of the vehicle he was disturbed by the sudden sound of corpses outside beginning to s bay doors, the survivor&039;s voices having alerted the ht, at least this man&039;s tor (and, for that matter, for himself and his fellow survivors too) the fear, confusion, disorientation and pain seemed set to continue indefinitely

Cooper left the loading bay and ran back to the reception area through which they&039;d passed just a fewfor the keys to the vehicles they had found Grasped in the skeletal fingers of another dust covered body slumped on the floor in a small office behind the tall reception counter he found the key to a slim metal cabinet mounted on the wall Inside the cabinet were door keys, drawer keys, desk keys and rabbed everything which looked as though itto a car, truck or van and ran back to the loading bay Having dragged the body away froine started Fortunately he had found the keys he needed on the ground in the footwell between the body&039;s feet He sat in the driver&039;s seat and funition After a month of inactivity he didn&039;t hold out&039;Can you hear thelanced up and looked through the windscreen towards the loading bay doors It sounded as if they were being battered by a continual stream of bodies outside He looked doards the botto and shaking in its frarunted as he returned his concentration to getting the van&039;More to the point, they can hear us&039; He turned the key in the ignition

The engine began to turn over but then died pathetically His last words rang round his head as he tried the key again The noise they were going tothese vehicles back to the university would be deafening The gri on hiines the noise they had already h to attractbay doors, and he knew that those bodies would, in turn, drawsurrounded The options left now seemed simple and bleak Get out in the van and the lorries or don&039;t get out at all Heath had ed to find the right key froht back with hiine a couple of times before, on the third atte the loading bay with rough,clouds of fumes

Never before had the taste of carbon monoxide and lead been so welcoht to hiine Momentarily elated the other men quickly realised that now that one vehicle had started, it would et the others started too Heath watched cautiously as the needle on the fuel gauge slowly cli just short of the three-quarters full ine they could clearly hear ainst the door outside &039;Bernard,&039; Aret this one started&039;

The lorry driver had also ed to locate the keys to his vehicle from the pile Cooper had found He watched from his cab as Heath slowly pulled forward in the ser vehicle Arht corner of the loading bay which seee and repair shop of sorts Managing to locate a set of heavy duty jump leads he quickly moved back to the trucks, opened the bonnets and started work Paul Castle nudged Croft as still trying unsuccessfully to get the van&039;s engine to fire

&039;Join the queue,&039; he said &039;Wait till they&039;ve got the other truck going and then get theestured for Castle tothe van to slowly roll a few feet forward He turned the steering wheel and guided the vehicle closer to the trucks

Ten minutes later and all three vehicles were started and were running The sixbay and hurriedly arranged their exit plans Much as the university had seemed the most cold, uncomfortable and impersonal of prisons recently, every one of the men desperately wanted to be back there now &039;Do ait?&039; Heath asked &039;Should we shut the engines off and hope some of the bodies disappear?&039;

&039;No point,&039; Croft answered &039;We o for it The aht hundreds of them here It&039;ll take days for thereed &039;We&039;re not going to gain anything fro to fit everyone in here?&039; Baxter wondered, thinking out loud He stared at the three vehicles and tried to visualise how they were going to craoing to have to,&039;to coain Anyway, if&039; His words were interrupted by yeton the other side of the ri out of the city, they&039;d first need to get out of the court building and find their way back to the university The doctor walked across the loading bay and stopped just short of the doors Doing his best to ignore the constant, violent battering co mechanism The doors, it seemed, were manufactured in a kind of concertina style Once they&039;d ed to unlock theet out and getuseless and redundant because he couldn&039;t drive, Jack Baxter also began to study the locks &039;Christ knoe&039;re going to get these open,&039; he muttered &039;These would have been powered doors We&039;ll be hard pushed to get them open without any electricity&039;

&039;We can do it,&039; said Cooper from close behind &039;We&039;ll take the locks out, free any restraints and then force them open&039; &039;Force them open hat?&039; Baxter asked &039;The bloody trucks, what else?&039; the soldier snapped He lay down on the ground and stared at the botto in fro blocked intermittently by the constantaround the other side of the barrier With an outstretched hand Cooper tried to feel the door mechanism and understand hoorked