Purification

and tried again to start the engine. After a few painfully long seconds of ugly mechanical groaning and straining, the machine finally spluttered into life. He accelerated away, clearing the engine and leaving Michael and Baxter to run after him through belching clouds of dirty fumes which spilled from the van’s exhaust after weeks without use. He quickly turned the vehicle around and returned to collect the others, taking only the briefest of diversions to plough down two meandering cadavers which pointlessly stumbled after them.
    Breathlessly, and without saying another word, the men motored back to the warehouse.
    Inside the building Emma had managed to find the two remaining soldiers who had disappeared in fear of their lives. They were hiding together in a large storeroom.
    ‘Just leave us alone,’ one of the soldiers spat as they heard Emma approaching. His voice was high-pitched and strained, full of desperation and fear. ‘That bloke’s a fucking psychopath. He’s always been the same. He’ll fucking kill us.’
    The frightened trooper cowered away in the shadows.
    Metres away from him Kelly Harcourt pressed herself back against a storage rack hoping she would melt into the shadows, her heart thumping in her chest.
    ‘He’s no psychopath,’ Emma said as she took a few cautious steps further into the room, trying to pinpoint the exact location of the two frightened figures. ‘He’s a survivor, that’s all.’ She peered into the room, sure that she had just seen a flicker of movement. ‘You’d probably have done the same if you were in his position.’
    She didn’t find it easy defending Cooper’s virtually indefensible actions, no matter how relieved she was that he had acted so quickly. She’d also forgotten that, many weeks ago now, these two troopers had served alongside him. Perhaps there was much about his character they knew that she didn’t.
    ‘He’ll do it again,’ the male soldier whimpered. ‘All he’s got to do is open our suits and we’ve fucking had it.
    That’s all that any of you have to do.’
    ‘But no-one’s going to do that to you, are they?’ Emma sighed. ‘Why the hell would we?’
    ‘You’ll do it if you have to,’ Harcourt shouted, the sudden volume and direction of her voice giving her location away. ‘You’d kill us just as quickly as you get rid of those bloody things outside.’
    ‘Personally I couldn’t, but maybe you’re right, maybe some people could. The point is we shouldn’t have to. The only reason that Cooper did what he did was to safeguard the group. He’s just looking out for himself and for the rest of us, that’s all. As long as you don’t do anything to put us at risk, you’ll be okay and…’
    She stopped talking. Just ahead and to her right Kelly Harcourt slumped against the racking and slid down to the ground. Emma could see one of her feet sticking out into an aisle. She slowly walked towards her and crouched down at the side of the terrified soldier. Her facemask was clouded and blurred with condensation. She lifted her head and looked up at Emma.
    ‘I don’t know what to do,’ Harcourt admitted, struggling to keep her composure. The anger and fear in her voice had suddenly given way to desperation and pain. ‘I can’t handle this.’
    ‘It’s all right,’ Emma soothed, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. ‘We’re all struggling to handle this, we just drag ourselves along from day to day.’ She paused, not sure if Harcourt was listening or whether it was even worth continuing. ‘Listen, I don’t believe in bullshit so I’ll be straight with you, you two have got the worst deal of all here. You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. You’re trapped in those bloody suits and it must be hell, but you don’t have much of a choice, do you? You can try and get back to your base, you can stay here or you can come with us. Like I said, as long as you don’t put anyone at risk then…’
    ‘Then what?’ she demanded. ‘Then your friend won’t kill us.’
    Emma sighed with frustration. She stood up and began to walk back towards the door, keen to get back to the others.
    ‘Look, we’re too busy trying to keep ourselves alive here. No-one’s interested in killing you.’
    Without waiting for a response she turned and walked away.

15
    Strangely calm and uncharacteristically oblivious to the potential threat of the growing crowd of restless bodies on the other side of the chain-link fence, the