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Cooper

Nineteen days we&039;d been underground More than four hundred and fifty hours without seeing daylight or being told as happening or ere there There had been little to do in the bunker from virtually the moment we had arrived Once our equipeneral duties were done save for occasional mundane doet ready or repair We ate, cleaned, exercised and slept but other than that we did little else

Tiht about the moment when the orders would finally come and, occasionally, I had actually looked forward to it happening Inthere and waiting No-one talked round Whether anyone actually knew or not I wasn&039;t sure There was a small part of me that didn&039;t want to know because there seenorance I tried not to think about my fa else to do it was difficult not to re made me question my priorities - I had joined the forces to protect people and yet there ere, tucked up safely underground while the rest of the population - and everyone that had evertoto the world Good or bad (and we all knew in our hearts that as happening was a million times worse than just bad) we all needed soht even have deserted if I&039;d been able to get outside When the orders finally came I didn&039;t want to move It had been rumoured that the first party was about to leave the base but I hadn&039;t expected to be aoing and the moment we left the bunker disappeared with incredible speed The briefing before ent above ground answered a handful of questions, but it also left norance, and I had to ad I had known Richardson - or I had, at least, been aware of him and his reputation - for more than seven years since I was first posted out of Danford and I had no reason to doubt his honesty What would he hope to gain fro now that ere about to leave? The situation up on the surface was obviously so dire and hopeless that hiding the truth from the troops would only haeneral and nonspecific terms about a disease or virus He couldn&039;t tell us where it had come from or how, but it had swept across the country with unprecedented speed and ferocity on the ht ourselves, he told us The soldiers heading to other bases had not been so fortunate Richardson explained that the disease had also been found in other countries and that its virulent nature made it likely that the rest of the world had been infected

Much of what he told us was presumption and so he said could be quantified or substantiated Tests and air samples had shown that the disease was still present outside

Whatever kind of ger anyone had coear whilst outside Any contamination and ould be unable to return to the bunker There were orders to shoot and kill any of us who did not comply A minimum of two days in the decontamination chamber would follow our planned five hours outside One of theon the physical effects of the disease

It was obvious from his manner and the lack of any hard facts or statistics that most of his words were uncertain and, in all probability, untrue - they had to tell us so internal swellings and leisions which would most probably result in death or, at the very least, severe pain and secondary infection He talked about ht He talked about the possibility of others surviving, but in what condition it was not clear

He told us to be prepared to come across many, many casualties

Our mission was to assess the situation in the nearest city and then report back No further operations could take place until our initial assess we spent an hour preparing our kit and the transport and putting on our protective gear I was scared I sat in the transport with the others and shook and sobbed like a child