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He stopped running and hid in the shadows of a newsagents until the effect of his sudden appearance and disappearance had faded away and the bodies had lost interest He lay on the floor behind the counter and read the last ever editions of half a dozen newspapers until the sun had disappeared and the light had faded away All of the headlines that had once seenificant

Walking slowly through the shadoithout fear or concern, Jonesthe dark city streets to a construction site With a rucksack full of booze on his back, he climbed to the very top of the tallest crane he could find which stood in thethat would never be co a viehich was even more impressive than the view from the hotel&039;s Presidential Suite, he drank and slept

In the , when the sun finally came up, he looked back across town at the hotel he&039;d left behind and watched the occasional stupid body fall frohed out loud without fear of retribution

Paul Jones had decided to take his own life, but not yet He&039;d do it when there were no other options left Once Proctor had lost sight of Elizabeth he&039;d stopped running He&039;d slowed his pace to match that of the dead and, for a ti theht, I can outwit them I can move around the They were all wrong I don&039;t have to run and I don&039;t have to give up It&039;s not over

For aled to survive, but his foolish confidence proved to be his undoing It took only a single sneeze One sneeze in the middle of a vast crowd of bodies and his position was revealed And Proctor, being a cowardly round and continuing to mimic the actions of the bodies all around him, the stupid man tried to run Deep in thecadavers, however, he didn&039;t stand a chance They ripped him to pieces before he had chance to scream for help

Wouldn&039;t have mattered No-one would have come

Barry Bushell lasted for several more days The hotel suite was overrun with bodies but, as far as he could tell, they didn&039;t know that he was still in the bedroom He remained quiet and still Without food, water and exercise, however, he quickly became weak

Bushell died a relatively happy man He&039;d rather not have died, of course, but he&039;d ed somehow to retain the control he&039;d so desperately wanted - the control that death had stripped fro the streets outside until they were no longer able toin a cohtly soiled) bed, he died peacefully in his sleep at the end of a good book

DAY TWENTY-THREE

AMY STEADMAN Part vi It is now more than three weeks since infection A away from the site of its death constantly for more than teeks It is now little more than a rotten and featureless shadohat it once was The face, once fresh, clear and attractive, is now skeletal and heavily decayed Its skin is discoloured and waxy Its once bright eyes are dull, dark and dry Because of its physical limitations the creature moves slowly and forcefully Movements which had previously been rando purpose and deter cadaver has no need to respire, eat, drink or rest and yet it continues to struggle across the dead an increasingly grioal - the need to continue to exist The condition of its physical shell is deteriorating and it has become painfully aware of the extent of its decay It now understands that it is vulnerable and exposed Every unexpected movement or sound which it detects is automatically assuly

Now and then the body experiences the faintest flicker of recollection and uely aware of what it once was Earlier today it tripped and fell in the rubble of a shop- display Inadvertently it grabbed a handful of rubbish which included a cup Momentarily it held the cup by its handle as if it was about to drink It then dropped it and continued ement, it attempted to reach for a handle and open a door

There are considerably hout this silent, ehtest distraction continues to attract the unwanted attention of thousands upon thousands of these sickly creatures and here, on the outskirts of the ruins of the city of Rowley , there is a distraction which is calling untold numbers of them ever closer

The corpse has left the street it staggered along earlier and has now reached an unexpected blockage whilstits way across a wide and barren field Eleven bodies are pushing forward, trying to force their way through a wooden gate The gate has a sprung hinge which constantly pushes back against the dead Even when ress Occasionally one or two of theh Aware of the ate Steadrab at the nearest bodies With twisted, bony fingers it slashes at the other cadavers Steader and more determined than most others It moves with more force and purpose than they are capable of The other bodies are unable to react with anything other than laboured and lethargic, shuffling th to be able to defend themselves

Steadman&039;s corpse knows that it h it does not understand why It negotiates the gate (its relative speed and strength forcing it open) and continues towards the distraction up ahead Whatever it is, itOn the other hand, it may prove to be a threat which the body must destroy Whatever the reason and whatever it is, this putrefying collection of withered flesh and brittle bone is driven relentlessly towards it

The body stu further away from the cold and skeletal rele aspect of Steadotten and erased, as it has froender, social class, wealth and intellect has been wiped from the dead Steadman&039;s corpse, like the many hundreds of similarly faceless cadavers around it, is now almost completely featureless and indistinct What reed and stained Its face is e factor which separates the bodies from each other now is the level of their individual decay Some - those that are the most severely rotted - continue to stu er to anything unfortunate enough to happen to come across them

Steadman&039;s withered body has become aware of a dark mass on the horizon It is a crowd of many thousands of bodies Oblivious to any possible iathering Before long it reaches the edges of the diseased throng When theany further forward, it again reacts violently, ripping and tearing at the decayed flesh which surrounds it on all sides until its path is clearer

Deeper into the crowd the bodies are even ether Stillslothfully towards the distraction fro the corpses already there fro to move further forward still Unaware that their actions are ultimately pointless, the dead relentlessly atteht the any ress

It takes several days for Steadh corpses to enable it to finally stand at the fence It is pushed hard against the wire by the rotting throng behind, and from there it watches On the other side of the fence is a wide and uninterrupted swathe of clear and uncluttered, green land Most of the ti noises and sudden flashes of huge, controlled movements which whip the diseased hordes into a riotous frenzy

Steadman&039;s corpse is just one of a crohich is now hundreds of thousands strong

Thousands ore sat alone at a metal table in the furthest, darkest corner of the bunker ely empty Only the occasional noise fro electrical buzz and hu above his head broke the silence

Spence ambled casually into the hall and fetched himself a tray of food With only a handful of other people eating there (none of whoore

&039;Mind if I sit here?&039; he asked

Kilgore jumped in his seat, surprised by the unexpected interruption His thoughts had been elsewhere He looked up at Spence with dark, tired eyes and shook his head &039;Go for it,&039; he ain He played with his fork, stirring the lukewar lu tracks in the gravy but not actually eating anything Spence sat down on the bench directly opposite hiore on a couple of occasions before they&039;d been ordered underground He&039;d always had a reputation for being a moaner - the kind of person ould instinctively co and anything he was ordered to do The kind of person who e and practically i An incessant talker and a compulsive liar, he wound the officers up and he wound his fellow soldiers up He wound everyone up

He was crying

Spence shuffled aardly in his seat and began eating, wishing that he&039;d chosen another table The other man&039;s show of emotion made him feel unco down here It reminded him of his own sadness and the constant emptiness he felt The three hundred or so people he&039;d been buried underground ere, generally, hardened, professional and well-trained soldiers Men and women who had been conditioned to suppress their e whatever it was that they&039;d been ordered to do But that was beco day, al emotion at all indicated just how serious, unpredictable and uncertain their situation had becoer they spent below the surface, the more disturbed and confused they beca or why No-one knehat had happened or as going to happen next What were they hoping to achieve? By now they&039;d all heard about the devastated condition of the infected world above them from the few advance parties that had ventured out, and that only served to round even more difficult What did the future hold for the ue? More iht, what did the future hold for hiround?

The tap, tap, tap of ht He looked at Kilgore again His hand was shaking He could hardly hold his fork still

&039;You okay, ore looked up again and shook his head More tears He wiped them away on the back of his sleeve