The second soldier, immediately aware of what was happening, began to scramble away. Cooper jumped onto his back and pulled and tugged at his suit, his mask and his breathing apparatus until it came free and he could see the soldier’s exposed body underneath. Aware of the other two soldiers running away and fleeing deeper into the vast store, he stood back and readied himself should the troopers on the ground attack.
Stonehouse was the first to drag himself back up onto his feet. He ran angrily towards Cooper, grabbing his rifle off the floor as he moved. By the time he’d managed to stand completely upright the infection had caught him.
Choking, and with a look of pained surprise on his frozen face, he fell back on top of the other soldier who was already suffocating. Fighting for breath, he shook and convulsed, still grasping his rifle tightly. Eyes bulging, he stared at the faces of Cooper and the others who stared back at him as he asphyxiated and died.
‘You killed them,’ gasped Donna in revulsion. The survivors stood and stared in disbelief. ‘You killed them you bastard.’
‘They were dead already,’ Cooper responded with disdain.
14
Michael, Baxter and Cooper ran together through the silent car parks scattered around the industrial estate, desperately searching for another suitable vehicle to get them to the airfield. The number of bodies around was still lower than they’d expected and it stood to reason that the bulk of the population who had died in this area had, over the days and weeks, been dragged away in the direction of the military base. All three men were acutely aware of the fact that the danger was reduced but far from gone, and that more random bodies might appear at any moment.
‘Van,’ Michael said as he pushed his way past another lurching corpse. ‘Over there.’
He pointed to the far right corner of the large rectangular car park they had just entered. On its own next to a red-brick office building was a red mail van. On the tarmac in front of it lay the gnarled body of a postal delivery worker.
The woman’s motionless corpse was twisted and withered like a piece of washed-up driftwood. The strap of an empty mail bag was wrapped around her neck, its contents having long since been scattered and blown away by the wind.
Cooper ran round and yanked open the driver’s door.
Michael frantically grabbed the keys from the corpse’s wizened hand and threw them over to him before turning back and kicking out at two bodies which had stumbled uncomfortably close. He had Stonehouse’s rifle slung across his back. With nervous uncertainty he swung it round and primed it as Cooper had earlier shown him how.
He’d taught him how to shoot while they’d been underground but, until now, he’d never actually needed to fire a weapon. Bullets were okay when they were faced with just a handful of corpses, but Michael and the others usually had to deal with many, many more than this.
Holding his breath he brutally shoved the barrel of the rifle into the dark hole in the middle of one body’s face where its nose had once been and pulled the trigger. A deafening crack rang around the car park, echoing off the walls of every building in the immediate vicinity. Michael was knocked back by the unexpected force of the weapon. He tripped and fell as a shower of crimson gore and splintered bone erupted from the back of the creature’s head.
‘Push it!’ Cooper shouted from the front of the van. He couldn’t get it started. The engine wouldn’t turn over.
Michael picked himself up and shot the second body in the side of the head before swinging the rifle around onto his back again and running round to the rear of the vehicle where Baxter was already pushing. He shoulder charged the van, the impact helping it to roll forward slightly.
Cooper jumped out of his seat and began to push and shove against the driver’s door and steering wheel.
‘Christ, Cooper, have you still got the bloody handbrake on?’ Baxter half-joked, red-faced and wheezing as he strained against the back of the van. ‘Come on!’ He threw his full weight forward again and, with his head to one side, stared anxiously at more gangling, decomposing bodies which were creeping dangerously close.
With all three of the men pushing the van finally began to achieve some momentum. It started to roll across the width of the car park with relative ease and Cooper hurled himself back inside. He slammed his foot down on the clutch and tried again to start the engine. After a few painfully long seconds of ugly mechanical groaning and straining, the machine finally spluttered into life. He accelerated away, clearing the engine and leaving Michael and Baxter to run after him through belching clouds of dirty fumes which spilled from the van’s exhaust after weeks without use. He quickly turned the vehicle around and returned to collect the others, taking only the briefest of diversions to plough down two meandering cadavers which pointlessly stumbled after them.
Breathlessly, and without saying another word, the men motored back to the warehouse.
Inside the building Emma had managed to find the two remaining soldiers who had disappeared in fear of their lives. They were hiding together in a large storeroom.
‘Just leave us alone,’ one of the soldiers spat as they heard Emma approaching. His voice was high-pitched and strained, full of desperation and fear. ‘That bloke’s a fucking psychopath. He’s always been the same. He’ll fucking kill us.’
The frightened trooper cowered away in the shadows.
Metres away from him Kelly Harcourt pressed herself back against a storage rack hoping she would melt into the shadows, her heart thumping in her chest.
‘He’s no psychopath,’ Emma said as she took a few cautious steps further into the room, trying to pinpoint the exact location of the two frightened figures. ‘He’s a survivor, that’s all.’ She peered into the room, sure that she had just seen a flicker of movement. ‘You’d probably have done the same if you were in his position.’
She didn’t find it easy defending Cooper’s virtually indefensible actions, no matter how relieved she was that he had acted so quickly. She’d also forgotten that, many weeks ago now, these two troopers had served alongside him. Perhaps there was much about his character they knew that she didn’t.
‘He’ll do it again,’ the male soldier whimpered. ‘All he’s got to do is open our suits and we’ve fucking had it.
That’s all that any of you have to do.’
‘But no-one’s going to do that to you, are they?’ Emma sighed. ‘Why the hell would we?’
‘You’ll do it if you have to,’ Harcourt shouted, the sudden volume and direction of her voice giving her location away. ‘You’d kill us just as quickly as you get rid of those bloody things outside.’
‘Personally I couldn’t, but maybe you’re right, maybe some people could. The point is we shouldn’t have to. The only reason that Cooper did what he did was to safeguard the group. He’s just looking out for himself and for the rest of us, that’s all. As long as you don’t do anything to put us at risk, you’ll be okay and…’
She stopped talking. Just ahead and to her right Kelly Harcourt slumped against the racking and slid down to the ground. Emma could see one of her feet sticking out into an aisle. She slowly walked towards her and crouched down at the side of the terrified soldier. Her facemask was clouded and blurred with condensation. She lifted her head and looked up at Emma.
‘I don’t know what to do,’ Harcourt admitted, struggling to keep her composure. The anger and fear in her voice had suddenly given way to desperation and pain. ‘I can’t handle this.’
‘It’s all right,’ Emma soothed, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. ‘We’re all struggling to handle this, we just drag ourselves along from day to day.’ She paused, not sure if Harcourt was listening or whether it was even worth continuing. ‘Listen, I don’t believe in bullshit so I’ll be straight with you, you two have got the worst deal of all here. You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. You’re trapped in those bloody suits and it must be hell, but you don’t have much of a choice, do you? You can try and get back to your base, you can stay here or you can come with us. Like I said, as long as you don’t put anyone at risk then…’