Autumn The City Page 0,43
to drink or...' Donna was up and on her feet before he'd finished his question. She was starving. Heath led her along the corridor and down the stairs.
'Bloody hell,' she muttered under her breath as she walked into the assembly hall. She began to cry. She couldn't help herself. She'd given up hope of ever seeing so many people together again. She counted between ten and twenty of them. In one corner a handful of subdued children played quietly. Elsewhere people sat around the edges of the room, generally keeping themselves to themselves. Heath fetched her some food from an adjourning kitchen. Standing in the middle of the hall with a tray in her hands, Donna suddenly felt exposed and vulnerable. She looked around for somewhere to sit and caught sight of Paul Castle sitting next to another man. Despite the fact that she still wanted to punch him in the face for the stupid stunt he'd pulled this morning, he was the only other person that she knew.
Wearily she dragged herself across the room and sat down next to him. 'You okay?' he asked. She nodded and grunted but didn't properly answer. She began to eat the crackers and cheese spread that she'd been given. Her hands shook as she tried to spread with a plastic knife. It was bitterly cold inside the building. 'This is Steve,' Paul continued, introducing the man sitting next to him. 'Steve, this is Donna.' 'Hi, Donna,' Steve said wearily, managing half a smile. Donna managed another grunt. 'Steve says there's almost fifty people here you know,' Paul whispered. 'Thank God we found this place.
He says that most of them don't...' 'Finding it wasn't difficult,' Donna said, swallowing a mouthful of food and finally finding enough energy and interest to bring herself to speak, 'it was getting here that was the hard part. It wouldn't have been so much of a problem if it hadn't been for you, you stupid bloody idiot!' Paul looked down at his feet and turned back to face Steve. 'So what's the plan?' he asked, trying desperately to ignore Donna's anger.
'What's going to happen next? Are we staying here or...?' 'As far as I can tell there is no plan, mate,' Steve replied. 'And if there was you'd only go and screw it up,' Donna snapped. Paul ignored her. 'Don't think anyone knows what to do next,' Steve continued. 'Seems like it's going to be as bad wherever you go so you might as well stay put. A couple of us have got a few ideas brewing though, haven't we, Nathan?' Nathan Holmes was walking across the hall on his way back to his room. At the mention of his name he stopped and turned round. Bored and glad of any distraction he pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Steve and Paul. 'What you talking about?' he asked. 'I said we're starting to get a few ideas about what to do next, aren't we?' Holmes' face cracked into a broad, knowing grin. 'Too right,' he said, his voice lowered to a whisper. 'What you going to do?' Paul asked. 'When those things outside start to drift away,' he explained, 'we're going out on the town.' 'What do you mean?' 'I mean we're going to shut ourselves in one of the clubs round here and we're going to have the biggest fucking party you've ever seen. We're going to blow all the drinks and drugs we can find in the place. And when they start to wear off and we start to come back down, we're going on to the next club and we're going to do it all over again. The biggest bloody pub crawl in history!' 'Sounds good,' Paul said, far from convinced. 'We're going to hit this town and...'
'You been outside recently?' Donna interrupted. Holmes leant back on his chair to get a look at the woman who had interrupted him. 'Yeah, why?' he replied. 'Because there's nothing left out there, that's why,' she sighed. 'Exactly. That's why we're going to do it. Nothing matters when you've had a few drinks.' She shook her head sadly and returned her attention to her food. Holmes leant across and helped himself to a cracker. 'Do you mind?' she scowled. 'Not at all,' he replied in a smug, self-assured voice. 'Haven't seen you before,' he said, chewing on her food, 'when did you get here?' 'This morning.' 'You been out there all