Autumn The City Page 0,78

heated. 'We don't have an option really. If you stop and...' 'What the fuck do you know?' Holmes spat, suddenly feeling more confident. He knew that he could handle Jack Baxter.

Refusing to rise to the other man's anger, Jack ran his fingers through his hair and stared at him through the darkness. 'I know as much as you do, Nathan,' he said, pointing his finger accusingly and shaking his head. 'But if you forget about how you're feeling and take a look at the whole picture, it seems we don't have any choice.'

Several hours later and the anger and raised voices that had filled the hall had been long forgotten by many of the survivors. Nathan Holmes had disappeared into the depths of the building and with him much of the conflict and hostility seemed to have gone too. Apart from a few mumbled conversations and the low and dull but ever-present noise of the bodies outside the assembly room was largely silent. Jack Baxter sat with his back against the wall doing his best to fade into the already drab and inconspicuous background. The benefit of darkness, he thought to himself, was that he could hide without having to move. He could observe things happening nearby whilst still managing to feel like he was a safe distance away. Baxter was sitting in a corner of the room near to Cooper, Croft and Donna. Clare lay next to him on a makeshift bed made from folded blankets. She was sleeping relatively soundly. He frequently watched her when she was asleep, feeling as if he had a responsibility to protect her because he was the one who had been with her the longest.

She was a pretty girl with soft, delicate features which, for once, looked untroubled and relaxed. It wasn't often that... 'What do you think, Jack?' he heard Phil Croft ask. At the mention of his name he looked up.

'What?' he mumbled. 'You're not with us, are you?' smiled Donna. 'Nothing against any of you,' he smiled, looking deeper into the darkness and trying to focus on the others, 'but I wish I was anywhere but here.' Cooper kept the conversation on track. 'We were talking about getting out of here,' he began. 'What, still?' he moaned. 'Christ, haven't you got anything better to talk about?' 'No,' Donna replied abruptly.

'Bloody hell, what else is there to talk about?' He shrugged his shoulders. 'Decided where we're going yet then?' Silence. It was one thing talking about what they should do, but when it came to actually making decisions it was difficult to get any of the survivors to speak out with any conviction. 'We're not completely sure whether...' muttered Croft before Cooper interrupted. 'Isn't it obvious?' he sighed. 'There's only one place we can go, isn't there?' Donna added. 'Your base?' ventured Baxter. 'Much as I don't like the thought of going back there, we don't seem to have much choice at the moment.'

'So will your people let us inside?' he asked. 'They might. I don't know.' 'I don't think they will.' Everyone looked at Jack. 'Why not?' Donna asked. 'I know we seem to be immune to whatever's done all this,' he explained, his voice tired and low, 'but I bet we're still carrying it. If it's a disease then we're going to be full of it, aren't we? It'll be in our lungs and in our blood. There's no way they're going to let us inside if we're going to bring it in with us.' 'We've just got to hope the decontamination process is good enough to clean us up properly then, haven't we?' Cooper said. 'Do you think it will be?' 'Don't know,' he admitted after a moment of careful consideration. 'There's another problem of course,' yawned Croft. The doctor was incredibly tired but he knew it wasn't worth trying to sleep. 'What's that?' Cooper asked. 'How the hell are we going to get there?'

'How many people are here?' 'Between forty and fifty,' he replied. 'And how many will leave with us?' 'No idea. Probably not that many. Say half.' 'Theoretically we can take our pick of just about anything we can find in the city,' said Donna. 'If we can get to it,' interrupted Baxter. 'So what do you suggest?' Cooper asked. 'We need to be sensible about this.

We're not going to be able to just drive out of here in a convoy of cars, are we?' 'What did you