Purification

back door open. She pulled herself inside and then reached out for Emma who was fighting her way through a dense section of the rabid crowd. She forced herself to keep moving through the tide of rotting flesh which pushed against her and threatened to swallow her up.
    It seemed that those bodies which had remained on the sidelines had suddenly sensed an increase in the level of their own physical danger and had forced themselves to move and attack before the survivors and their machines attacked them. What felt like thousands of cruel, bony hands reached out to grab hold of Emma. Unexpectedly her speed increased. Running into her at force from behind, Cooper shoved her towards the truck, wedged his hands under her arms and threw her up into the air. With her flailing hands stretched out in front of her she managed to grab hold of the back of the vehicle. Juliet was waiting. She caught hold of the scruff of the neck of Emma’s jacket and dragged her inside. The bodies were no match for Cooper’s controlled force. He powered through them and jumped up onto the back of the truck after the others. Hanging half-out of the open door he smashed his hand repeatedly on the vehicle’s metal side. The noise was more definite and controlled than the relentless battering coming from the bodies. Armitage knew it was his signal to move again.
    Forcing himself to rise above the constant, agonising pain which still crippled him, he accelerated and turned and drove out towards the gaping hole in the airfield’s border fence.
    ‘You okay?’ Emma asked from inside the back of the truck.
    ‘Will be when we get to this bloody island,’ Cooper replied, still standing in the doorway and holding on tightly with every lurch and sway of the prison truck as it moved across the uneven ground. From every direction bodies turned and stumbled towards the powerful vehicle, some being smashed to the side, countless others being dragged beneath its wheels and crushed into the ground. Ignoring the bloody confusion unfolding all around them, Cooper looked up through the drifting smoke and watched with relief as the helicopter began to slowly follow them away from the buildings.
    ‘What do we do now?’ Juliet wondered innocently.
    Before Cooper could answer the truck began to slow down.
    ‘Steve,’ he screamed at the top of his voice, ‘keep moving. For Christ’s sake, don’t stop here.’
    The truck lurched forward again and accelerated for a few metres and then slowed down. The engine stalled as Armitage’s foot slipped off the clutch pedal, the sudden movement almost throwing Cooper off the back and into the baying crowds. In the cab the driver’s hands and feet felt like lead now and he could no longer make them do what he wanted them to. He knew that he couldn’t drive any further. The pain in his chest was unbearable.
    ‘What’s he doing?’ Emma asked pointlessly as the prison truck ground to a final halt. She ran deeper inside and began to bang on the inner walls. ‘Steve!’ she yelled.
    ‘Steve! What’s wrong…?’
    They had stopped just a short distance from the downed section of fence. Even though the crowds were slightly less dense here than they were around the buildings, within seconds of the abrupt ending of the truck’s journey masses of rotting corpses were already battering against it’s exposed and undefended sides. Cooper kicked out at those which were unfortunate enough to stumble and trip nearest to him.
    ‘We need to get onto the roof,’ he said as he surveyed the desperate scene. From all directions hundreds of cadavers turned and began to move ominously towards them. The helicopter hovered overhead, it’s noise and light now attracting easily as many bodies as it repelled. Cooper looked down at the sea of swarming creatures in front of him and then glanced up at the helicopter again. ‘There’s no way he’ll be able to pick us up off the ground.’
    Turning round he grabbed hold of Juliet and pulled her closer to the door.
    ‘What…?’ she stammered.
    ‘Roof,’ he snapped. He crouched down and cupped his hands for her to use as a foothold. Groaning with effort and pain he lifted her up. With nothing on the roof for her to hold onto she struggled to get a grip and pull herself up.
    Cooper dug deep and shoved her a little higher and she managed to dig her elbows down and inch slowly forward.
    He leant out of the truck and watched until her feet had disappeared over the top. Moments later her