Purification

sightseeing, Jack.’
    ‘I know,’ he sighed. ‘Frustrating, isn’t it. We’re the one’s who can survive out there, and it’s the bloody army who’ll decide whether we can go outside or not.’
    ‘Think they’ll try and keep us down here, Cooper?’
    Croft asked.
    ‘We need to stay here for a while,’ Emma said.
    ‘Unless us being here puts them at risk, I don’t think they’ll be in a hurry to get rid of us,’ Cooper answered.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I still think we might be useful to them. I’m starting to think they might have plans.’

5
    ‘What’s
    the
    matter?’
    Emma had woken up alone in bed. After a moment’s panic she had found Michael at the other end of the motorhome, sitting in the driver’s seat behind the wheel and staring out through the windscreen into the grey, shadowy gloom of the vast hanger. The clock on the dashboard said it was almost four in the morning.
    When he heard her he looked up momentarily and then looked down again.
    ‘Nothing’s the matter,’ he replied. ‘I was just thinking, that’s all.’
    ‘What
    about?’
    ‘You know, the usual.’
    ‘What’s
    the
    usual?’
    He shrugged his shoulders.
    ‘What do you think?’
    Emma sat down on the edge of the passenger seat next to him, still unsure as to what he was alluding to. A series of thoughts flashed through her mind. Was he thinking about the other survivors and the conversation they’d had earlier? Was he thinking about the soldiers or what had happened when they’d ventured outside yesterday? Or was he thinking about something else entirely? Whatever it was, it was clearly something which was weighing heavy on his mind. He scowled with concentration. His voice was abrupt and cold.
    ‘Is it me?’ she found herself wondering. ‘Have I upset you or have I done something that’s…?’
    He shook his head and then sighed and rubbed his tired eyes.
    ‘Why do you always assume it’s got anything to do with you?’ he asked. ‘What could you have done to upset me?
    When we’ve got all this shit happening around us, why should it be anything you’ve done that’s keeping me awake?’
    ‘I don’t know. Maybe if you’d talk to me and tell me what’s wrong I could help. I just want to…’
    Michael turned around to face Emma and reached out for her. She was shivering with cold. He gently pulled her across the front seats of the motorhome and held her close.
    ‘It’s nothing you’ve done,’ he whispered. ‘Believe me, you’re just about the only thing I’m not worrying about at the moment.’
    ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘It’s just that when I woke up and found you weren’t there I started to think that… You know what it’s like, I couldn’t help thinking that…’
    ‘I know,’ he interrupted.
    Emma pushed her face closer towards Michael’s and curled up on his lap.
    ‘So what exactly were you thinking about?’ she asked.
    He nodded in the direction of the heavy entrance doors which separated the fortunate few inside the base from the immense and relentless gathering of rotting flesh outside.
    ‘The bodies,’ he answered quietly.
    ‘What about them?’
    He thought for a second.
    ‘You remember how many were outside when we first arrived here?’
    ‘Thousands,
    why?’
    ‘Jack said he thought there were just as many of them out there today, maybe even more.’
    ‘I know, I heard him. What’s your point?’
    ‘My point is that even though we’ve been buried down here for weeks, they’re still managing to find us out.’
    ‘We knew this was going to happen…’
    ‘I
    know.’
    ‘So?’
    ‘So if they’ve been able to find us when we’ve been keeping quiet and out of sight, what the hell is going to happen now? What’s going to happen now that those bloody idiots have started going out there with their guns and their flame-throwers and God knows what else?’
    Emma squirmed uncomfortably as the implications of what he was saying became clear.
    ‘So what do you think’s going to happen?’ she asked.
    She already thought she knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from Michael.
    ‘I think that every last corpse that’s anywhere near here is going to end up outside those doors, trying to get inside.
    And then more will come, then more. And more of them means that the military’s precious base is going to be put under increasing pressure to keep functioning. Sooner or later they’ll have to go above ground again and then, when they do, it’ll just make matters