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The quiet of the countryside was suddenly shattered as the bunker doors opened and the arht of a cold and wet Sunday afternoon The heavy and powerful machine roared up the access ramp, climbed a steep incline and then followed the track away from the concealed base It took the troops more than an hour to travel the thirty or somajor roads littered with the wrecks of crashed cars and the decaying reures appeared in the near distance and at the sides of the road but they were lethargic and painfully slow, see with considerable effort The soldiers didn&039;t stop to offer assistance or investigate The driver of the transport had his orders, and those orders were to go directly to the heart of the city It didn&039;t seem to matter anyway What could they do for these first survivors? What could fifteen soldiers possibly do to help ue victi next to hih the tinted visors on their cu masks Cooper could see that the other man was scared He could see it in his eyes - the way that although his head remained perfectly still and fixed forward, his eyes were darting frantically around the inside of the transport, never daring to settle on any one thing for fear of catching sight of whatever it was that was terrifying him And that was still the proble They&039;d been trained to deal with the aftermath of nuclear war, conventional war, terrorism and many other types of conflict or attack, but it was obvious that this was very different The details of cause and effect were sparse, but it was already clear that no-one could have been trained to deal with anything like this It was uncomfortably hot in the protective suit Cooper knew that his life depended on the protection, of course, but the oppressive atmosphere beneath the layers of treatedto calm his nerves The initial burst of adrenaline he had felt on leaving the bunker had died do that they had been away from their protective prison for some time He now felt claustrophobic and wanted to return to the base

His mouth was dry and he needed to drink but he was afraid to risk co to the toilet and many other simple and ordinary tasks would be difficult and risky until they were back To reht be enough to let in the vicious virus that, if the information his officers had was correct, could quickly end his life Judging by the nuround around theh the suburbs and into the city, this was a disease that had killed many, many thousands more than it had spared Heavy rain clattered down constantly on thearound the transport There was next to no conversation Other than the rain and the sound of the ine there was an oppressive and all-consu silence which was only disturbed by sudden brief explosions of static conversation from the radio and equally brief and factual reports to the officers back at the base

The soldiers were sat in ts along either side of the transport, facing into the ot up out of his seat and leant across the inside of the machine to look out of a s directly opposite &039;Bloody hell,&039; he said, loud enough for the others to hear There was sudden hout the vehicle as rest of the soldiers iue had spotted deep in the reyness of the late September afternoon All around them they could see movement Slow and laboured but still very definite movement They had reached what Cooper called the &039;inner-suburbs&039; of the city - a ring of sh streets which had once been villages in their own right but which had since been sed up and consu city centre These areas were the first real pockets of civilisation that the soldiers had driven through since leaving the base There were round here, and there werenearby too &039;Why ain&039;t they moved any of the bodies yet?&039; asked one of the soldiers, thinking out loud, his voice muffled by his face- outside? said another, watching through a backas a quickly growing crowd ofthe road after the transport

&039;If these people are sick then what the hell are they doing out here in the open? It&039;s pissing down for Christ&039;s sake&039; &039;Who says they&039;re sick,&039; asked Thompson &039;These are supposed to be the survivors, aren&039;t they?&039; &039;Have you seen them?&039; the other soldier replied nervously, his mouth suddenly dry &039;Jesus, look at the state of the scraps of clothes on and they don&039;t look like they&039;ve eaten for weeks Bloody hell, this lot look as bad as the dead ones on the ground&039; Cooper shuffled around to look out of thenearest to hilass was smeared with condensation He wiped it clear with the back of one gloved hand and peered out into the afternoon gloom &039;Christ&039; he muttered under his breath The world outside thelooked as if it had been totally drained of all colour Perhaps naively he had expected to find a disorganised and unkempt but otherwise relatively norht, there hadn&039;t been any fighting on the streets, had there? This didn&039;t sound like it had been a war or battle which would cause das and property Where he had expected to see a thousand familiar colours, however, he instead saw little rey and black And the same was true of the people he could see too Devoid of all energy, they were dragging the with painful effort and a lack of any speed and almost all coordination

It was as if they&039;d given up all hope They had reached the city centre The driver slammed on the brakes and for a second the only sound which could be heard inside the transport was the driving rain pounding against the metal roof just above the soldier&039;s heads The troops sat back into their seats and waited apprehensively for the order to e yelled from his position at the front of the powerful machine, &039;I want you outside now Get a perimeter formed around the transport Move!&039; The nearest soldier pushed open the heavy door at the back of the vehicle and led the others outside In a well rehearsed manoeuvre the troops fanned out and formed a loose circle around the et thee stood shoulder to shoulder with the men and women under his command Cooper stood motionless and stared into the city Torrential rain drenched the griutter towards him A short distance fro bodies The world looked completely alien and unfa this road Today it was unrecognisable The people were approaching

Difficult to see at first because of the glooed appearance, they dragged themselves towards the soldiers Silent, aard and desperate, they neared the troops &039;So what are we supposed to do?&039; hissed Lance Jackson, a twenty-two year old soldier who looked no older than seventeen He shuffled aardly froainst his chest The coave his lack of discipline He was scared too, although he didn&039;t allow himself to show it &039;Keep your nerve, son,&039; he said fro hand on Jackson&039;s shoulder &039;Just re to want help and answers from us, and we&039;re in no position to provide either Stay calm and alert and we&039;ll&039; His words faded into silence as he watched the first bodies stagger ever closer They were near enough for the soldiers to be able to see their pained faces, ravaged by disease and decay Each one of the troops seeled creatures was nearest The coht year old office worker lurch towards him What remained of the woman lifted its weary head to look in his direction It seemed to fix him with a cold, e hell,&039; the couard and his nerve slip for the first time in seventeen years of active service with the forces The bodies continued to shuffle forward The soldiers were beco four ht, lifted her rifle and took aim Others did the same

Cooper cleared his throat and readied his oeapon &039;Stop ,&039; the commander shouted towards the helpless people &039;Stay where you are We&039;re here to&039; No response The figures continued to ain, &039;stay where you are and no harm will come to you&039; Still no response The nearest body was now little more than a couple of meters away from Brice Terrified by the cold and unnatural expression on its drawn and pallid face, she aimed her rifle into the air just inches above the diseased er, it staggered forward again &039;Jesus Christ,&039; she cursed under her breath &039;What the hell is the ures continued to advance, closing in on the circle of soldiers Filled with fear and confused and disorientated by her increasing panic, Brice aile bullet thudding into the dead flesh just above the creature&039;s right knee It cruan to drag itself back up again, seely oblivious to its injury Brice stared into the dead face approaching her

There was no expression of pain or any display of eain The bodies were close now, just feet away, and a decision needed to be taken &039;Get back inside,&039; the commander shouted, already on his way into the transport &039;Let&039;s get out of here&039; The troops turned and ran Thoht by the aran to beat at the pitiful figures hanging onto hi them aith his fists and the end of his rifle As quickly as he could break their hold, however, ripped onto his suit The only other soldier left outside, Cooper tried to pull his colleague free Out of the corner of his eye he are that the others had disappeared into the back of the transport, crowds of grey figures following close behind

&039;Come on,&039; he yelled, &039; faces in front of him, Thompson panicked and tried to force his way further forward through the ever-increasing crowd Cooper tried again to drag hi his fists furiously, the first soldier battered his way through the decaying hordes, his co with little resistance He had quickly pushed his way through the main mass of cadavers to an area where they were considerably fewer in nulanced back over his shoulder and saw that the transport had been sed up by ures Obviously aware that his path back to their ar out at another few rando deeper into the dark shadows of the centre of the city

&039;Shit,&039; Cooper snapped The transport was beginning to push through the growing crowds andthe cold afternoon air More andthean to erously unpredictable and Cooper knew that the others wouldn&039;t wait or try to collect Thompson and himself Their only priority noould be to return to the base and report back It didn&039;tas someone returned the mission objectives would have been achieved Cooper looked back and watched as Thompson rounded a corner and disappeared froht as he wrestled hirabbed and clutched at hi away in the opposite direction he knew he had little choice but to follow his colleague into the centre of town

As he ran after the other ures away on either side, he began to silently et himself and Thompson back to the bunker He knew the way back out of the city and the route to the base It would just be a question of finding a car or soain now What the hell was he doing? The soldier was running up thestreet lined with shops and cafes