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Shortly before noon the unexpected roar of an engine ripped through the silence Clare and Jack jue display s at the front of the depart street They watched as a single car forced its way down thebodies and s theether,&039; Jack whispered in a surprisingly cal and sprinting frantically across the roo before the car disappeared

Inside the car Bernard Heath and Nathan Hol desperately to see soed on thee point there seemed to be no end to the hundreds of bodies around the?&039; Hol wheel &039;I don&039;t know,&039; the educated and comparatively well-spoken Heath replied Until the world had been turned on its head last week he had been a university lecturer More than twenty years spent in the coerously under-prepared for the sudden physical danger and conflict he now found hi &039;There are a couple of restaurants just up here,&039; Holmes said breathlessly &039;They&039;ll have food&039; Heath didn&039;t respond He was transfixed by the absolute horror he itnessing all around the car

On every side there was nothing but relentless blood, death and disease Spending the last few days sitting in the relative safety of the university accommodation block with the rest of the survivors hadn&039;t prepared him for any of this He knew that he had to keep calm and not let his concentration wander or lose his nerve All they had to do was fill the back of the car with food and whatever other useful supplies they could find and get back to the others And even if these countless creatures looked abhorrent and grotesque, he had to remember that individually they eak and could easily be brushed aside But there were thousands upon thousands of the second &039;How the hell did this happen?&039; Hol forward through the apparently endless devastation Heath lifted himself up in his seat to try and see over the heads of the mass of bodies and look further into the distance

&039;This isn&039;t going to work,&039; heout here What the hell e thinking of? Christ, there are so et out of the bloody car&039; Holmes didn&039;t answer Instead, as they approached the useless traffic lights at what had once been one of the busiest junctions in the city, he wrenched the steering wheel to the left and turned the car He pushed his foot down hard on the accelerator and winced in disgust as they collided with body after rotting body, snition They eak and they were beginning to decay and it took little effort to destroy theainstnow?&039; Heath asked anxiously &039;I thought you said ere heading for a restaurant?&039; &039;I&039;ve had a better idea,&039; Holrunted as he forced the car up the steep ra mall &039;I used to coht cliet e need here&039; Heath relaxed back in his seat momentarily Now that they had left the main road the number of bodies had reduced dramatically Still nuh, by the tiures remained to be seen The sudden relief the university lecturer felt was immense Holmes stopped the car directly in front of the door which opened onto the staircase leading down to theout into the open Heath allowed himself to briefly look down over the side of the car park into the chaos in the streets below

A large un to clih he had spent long hours looking at the reh the s of the university, seeing how the city had been inexplicably raped and destroyed from a different perspective shocked Heath It see and nowhere had escaped the destruction He turned back to face the car and saw that a handful of bodies had e aardly towards theine of the car itched off and silence returned, however, they began to drift away again &039;Come on,&039; Hol area Heath followed close behind &039;We should try and get food first,&039; the older asped breathlessly as he ran down a dark and dank staircase, trying not to lose sight of his younger and fitter colleague &039;We&039;ll take as much as we can carry We can come back down for more if it&039;s safe&039;

Holh a pair of heavy swinging doors at the bottoth of a short, marble-floored corridor towards the shops He paused at a second set of doors to let Heath catch up before pushing theh The mall was silent In the near distance he could see a few shuffling bodies, but other than that there was nothing - noin the centre of a once busy and vibrant city, prior to the disaster the htly illuminated at all times This was the first ti surrounded by crowds of shoppers and without the benefit of artificial light and air conditioning

It felt cold and unnatural It was alien and unnerving &039;There&039;s a superhting to catch his breath through a combination of fear and sudden physical exertion From the shadows of an open-fronted jewellers shop behind them a body lurched towards him and knocked hiled to push the obnoxious figure away Without speaking Holround He kicked its head and then staree of baseless vindication and satisfaction when it lay bloodied and battered at his feet The ed itself up off the ground and followed

&039;They&039;ve got to be in there,&039; Jack whispered as he crept along the front of the high street shops with Clare at his side Froht of the car Fortunately the trail of devastation and the hugein the vehicle&039;s wake revealed the route it had taken Even fro the road they could see that a vast collection of ragged figures had stuathered close to the entrance to the ot to have gone into the shopping centre,&039; Clare said quietly &039;They must have&039; In silence the two survivors continued to cautiously make their way towards the i had allowed them to quickly deduce that it was pri braced thele once they were back out on the street, they discovered that as long as they were silent and moved at a painfully slow pace which matched that of the dead, they didn&039;t see slowly between the rotting corpses and stepping through a sea of decaying human remains took more self control and deterined The tortuous pace left the exposed and vulnerable A journey which should have taken thirty seconds tookto communicate only with subtle nods of the head and moether With alust and trepidation they worked their way through the bulk of the ean to climb the entrance road which led to the car park &039;What colour was it?&039; Jack asked, allowing himself to speak with a little more volume now that they were away from the majority of the bodies &039;What?&039; &039;The car? What colour was the car?&039; &039;Dark red I think,&039; Clare replied quietly

They had only ed to see the vehicle for a few seconds, and they had only really seen its roof at that It had been surrounded by a constant shroud of bodies,clearly They didn&039;t knohat size, shape, make, model or style it was There were hundreds of cars in the car park, all abandoned when their owners had perished &039;This is pointless,&039; Clare whined &039;They&039;re probably long gone by now&039; Jack shook his head &039;No, ould have heard the out here What if those things on the street start to&039; &039;Shh&039; Jack interrupted, turning round and lifting a finger to his lips

&039;They&039;ll be here somewhere, they have to be I haven&039;t seen any other crowds like the one downstairs, have you?&039; He didn&039;t wait for her answer and instead kept uided Jack to the top floor of the departravitate towards the top storey of the car park It seeone up as far as they could, knowing that the lethargic bodies beloould struggle to follow &039;That&039;s it,&039; he said suddenly as they rounded a corner and reached the top level of the car park &039;How do you know?&039; asked Clare He walked towards a single car parked next to the staircase &039;Three reasons,&039; he explained quietly &039;First, you wouldn&039;t normally park here, would you? Second,&039; he paused to lean down and touch the bonnet, &039;the engine&039;s still warm&039; &039;And?&039; &039;And look&039; He pointed at the nurille The front of the car was dripping with blood and gore &039;So what do we do?&039; &039;We wait for them to come back&039; The two survivors crouched down in the shadows to the side of a large van

&039;That&039;s enough,&039; Heath protested &039;Coet all that up those stairs, are we?&039; Hol s which he then stacked into shopping trollies Shaking his head with despair Heath continued e a shelf of dehydrated snack meals into a cardboard box He carried the load over to Holain when he realised that the other man had filled most of his boxes with cans of beer &039;Now come on,&039; he protested, &039;we&039;re here to collect food We can take soh room but&039; Holmes leant forward until he was only inches fro and silencing him &039;Shut up,&039; he hissed &039;Look, I&039;m the one who&039;s put their neck on the line to coet this stuff If I want beer, I&039;ll take beer

And if I&039;ve forgotten anything that anyone else wants, well they can just get in the car and coet it for themselves, can&039;t they?&039; He turned his back on Heath and began pushing the first of the trolleys out of the supermarket and back towards the stairs The olderthat he was alone Suddenly anxious and unco one trolley ahead of hi another one close behind Holmes slammed into the first set of double doors which opened out into the short corridor between the mall and the car park stairs He pushed his trollies in and shoved the with effort as he struggled with the cu back for more,&039; Holmes said &039;I&039;ll be a couple of iven Heath chance to answer Tired and struggling, Heath moved his two trollies towards the car park staircase

He stood and stared at the huge pile of supplies they had gathered Breathless, he tried to work out how et into the car and how they were going to get any of it upstairs Holain startled Heath &039;Come on,&039; he hissed as he pushed twostuff up to the car&039; Picking up several badly packed carrier bags and a heavy cardboard box, Heath began to clirey stairs back to the top level of the car park Becoly annoyed by the older man&039;s lack of speed and fitness, Holmes followed close behind &039;Get a bloody s and arms heavy with effort, Heath pushed his way back out into the car park and dropped his bags and boxes on the ground Holan to cra behind the van, Clare started to get up &039;Wait,&039; Jack mouthed He turned back and watched as the two men disappeared back down the stairs &039;Let them load up the car first&039; A couple of oods into the boot of the blood-splattered car and then turned and ran back down again Another couple of ain, closely followed by Holer &039;Hey,&039; he said, standing up and stepping out into the light &039;Are you?&039; Holmes reacted instantly to the presence of an unexpected body The fact that this body was coister

He turned to face Jack and, giving hiard as he would any one of the thousands of corpses dragging theed into hi across the car park &039;You stupid bloody idiot!&039; Clare screaainst the car &039;What the hell did you do that for?&039; Realisation dawned Holround, doubled up with pain Heath pushed past him and helped Jack to his feet &039;Get in the car,&039; he shouted to Clare Stunned and in considerable pain but nevertheless relieved, Jack slowly made his way over to the car and opened the back door and collapsed onto the seat Clare sat down next to hiht,&039; he replied, still clutching his chest and with his face screwed up in agony

His breathing was heavy Heath paced up and down anxiously in front of the car Holed fro, Heath noticed, his precious beer They loaded the boot until it was filled to capacity Hols of food at Clare who grabbed hold of them as he slammed the door shut Heath introduced himself as he sat down in front of them &039;I&039;ine and turned the car in a quick, tight arc He drove at speed back towards the entrance to the car park as the sweat-soaked and overweight university lecturer next to hiled to turn round and face Jack and Clare &039;I&039;, &039;this is Clare Thanks for&039;

&039;You with anyone else or are there just two of you?&039; Holmes interrupted &039;Just the two of us What about you?&039; &039;There are about forty of us,&039; Heath answered &039;Does anyone knohat&039;s happened?&039; Jack asked hopefully Heath shook his head &039;Haven&039;t got a clue,&039; he replied and, with that, the brief conversation abruptly ended Holmes drove back down the entrance ra any of theh to stumble into his path