The only constant noise came from a couple of very young children playing together in the furthest corner, blissfully ignorant to the pain and fear so obviously consuming everyone else.
In keeping with Keith Peterson’s lack of interest in the new arrivals, every other survivor they passed also showed complete disinterest towards them. Most of them stared into space. One man was lying on his side on the floor, covered by a grey blanket and rocking steadily. His dark eyes were wide open like saucers.
Clare thought to herself that he looked too afraid to shut them.
After diagonally crossing the room Peterson took them outside through a fire escape and then walked through a small concrete courtyard towards another door. There were a few more people outside. An older woman sitting on a wooden bench wrapped in a thick overcoat nodded and managed half a smile at Clare as she followed the others through.
‘These are the rooms we’re using,’ Heath explained as they reached another connected part of the building. It looked and smelled much newer than the rest of the site. More flights of stairs and then they followed a long and narrow corridor with numerous small bedrooms running off on either side. ‘Those of us who were here on the first day cleared the whole place,’ he continued, slightly breathless. ‘You won’t find any bodies in here. Fortunately term hadn’t started so there weren’t many people around, just a few of the overseas students who had come back early.’
Peterson stopped walking. He turned round to face Clare and Jack and, for the first time, spoke.
‘Most of us are on this floor,’ he mumbled, his voice flat and monotone. ‘Find yourselves an empty room. I suggest you stay on this side,’ he said, nodding his head to the left. ‘The other side overlooks the city. There are thousands of those bodies out there.
We’re trying to keep out of sight as much as we can.’
Jack nodded in appreciation as the thin, lifeless man walked back in the direction from which they had just come and then disappeared. Heath watched him go before speaking again.
‘Get yourself settled,’ he said softly. ‘I’m going back to the hall. Come down when you’re ready and we’ll get you something to eat.’
‘We really appreciate this,’ Jack said suddenly, his voice filling with very obvious and yet wholly unexpected emotion. ‘I didn’t think we were going to find anyone else who……’
Heath smiled and rested a reassuring hand on the other man’s shoulder.
‘It’s not a problem. I know exactly how you’re feeling,’ he sighed. ‘As does just about every other poor bastard unfortunate enough to be stuck here.’
The lecturer paused for a moment and thought carefully, as if he was poised to say something of great significance. But the words wouldn’t come. Instead he turned and began to walk back down the corridor, tired and in need of rest.
‘Thanks,’ Clare said. ‘I don’t know…’
Her words were abruptly truncated by a sudden scream of pain from somewhere else in the building. It seemed to be coming from somewhere on the floor above them.
‘Bloody hell,’ cursed Jack. ‘What the was that?’
‘Nothing to worry about,’ Heath explained, turning back around to face the other two. ‘We’ve got a lady upstairs who’s going to have a baby within the next couple of days. The doctor reckons it might even be born before the day’s out.’
Another scream. Jack looked down at Clare, concerned that the woman’s noise would upset the teenager.
‘Jesus,’ he said quietly. ‘What a time to have to go through that. I mean, it’s enough of an ordeal at the best of times, but now…?’
Jack let his words trail quietly away.
‘I know,’ said Heath. ‘Look, I’m going to leave you to it. I’ll see you both later, okay?’
With that he was gone. Jack and Clare were alone.
‘You okay?’ Jack asked.
‘I’m all right,’ she replied. ‘You?’
He nodded.
‘I’m fine. Let’s get these rooms sorted out.’
The rooms were small and compact but practical and more than sufficient compared to the department store where they’d spent the previous night. A narrow bed, a wardrobe, a couple of small cabinets, a desk, two chairs and a sink were all they contained but that was more than enough. They managed to find adjacent rooms two-thirds of the way down the corridor. Jack left his rucksack on the end of the bed, not bothering to empty its contents. There didn’t seem to be much point. Although the accommodation block seemed to be a remarkably safe and sensible place for them to shelter and hide in, he didn’t dare think that they might actually be able to stay there for any length of time. The world was full of so much uncertainty and fear that nothing could be taken for granted.
As more screams echoed through the building Clare sat down on a hard plastic chair by the window in her room and held her head in her hands. She felt ready to burst into tears but her emotions were not forthcoming. The relentless pressure of their bizarre situation seemed to be acting as a kind of stopper, preventing her from outwardly showing how she was really feeling. The room was cold and clinical and her sense of bewilderment and unfamiliarity was overpowering. It was only when she thought about her parents and everything else she had lost that she finally began to cry freely.
After just over ten minutes had passed Jack left his room and walked across the corridor to the room directly opposite. The panoramic view over the city from the window was, for a few seconds at least, impressive. But then, as his curiosity took hold, he allowed his eyes to wander down to street level. An massive crowd of diseased, staggering bodies surrounded the front of the building. And with the rest of the city appearing to be completely lifeless, he could see more and more of them dragging themselves out of the shadows continually.
13
By the time the city was bathed in darkness again Donna and Paul had decided what they were going to do. They planned to distract the bodies on the landing as they’d discussed earlier and then make a break for it. They hoped that their comparative strength and control would be enough to get them through the crowd outside the office doors. As the afternoon and early evening had worn on their simple plan had slowly gained more purpose and direction. There was no question that they were doing the right thing. For the first time in days both of them could see a reason to try and do something positive, and they were both acutely aware of the fact that they had to do it quickly.
In the gloom of the dying day Donna had gathered her few belongings together and put on as much of the clothing she’d collected as was comfortable. The evening was bitterly cold.
Even indoors her breath condensed in cool, billowing clouds around her mouth and nose. Across the room, still keeping low and out of sight, Paul had done the same with his things. The lamps around the office floor remained dull and unlit, the survivors electing to remain in darkness until they were completely ready to make their move.
‘We need to stir them up at the other end of the room,’ she whispered. ‘We’ll use the lamps and we’ll make enough of a disturbance so that they try and get in through those doors.’
‘And then we come back to this end?’ Paul asked anxiously.
He knew full well what they were going to do. They’d been planning it for hours. Going over the plan again and again seemed to help both of them.
Donna nodded.
‘We’ll prop the doors open up there and let them get inside.