The City

windscreen. Already weakened, the window gave way after just a few blows. Baxter leant forward and looked down at Paul Castle’s bloody body.
    ‘Poor sod,’ he sighed, ‘he’s gone.’
    Cooper nodded as he worked to unfasten Croft’s seatbelt.
    Once freed, the unconscious bulk of the doctor dropped into his arms. He pulled the injured medic free from the wreckage and laid him down carefully. Baxter frowned and tried to ignore the bodies battering on the sides of the van. The bloody irony of it, he thought. The only survivor who had the medical knowledge to make good injuries like these was the one who lay there wounded.
    ‘Get ready to help them in,’ Cooper said as he climbed out of the van. He hauled himself up onto the upward facing driver’s door and ran the length of the side of the truck. There was a door halfway between the front and back. He yanked at the handle but it wouldn’t move. He could hear the people trapped inside thumping on the wall, trying desperately to get out.
    ‘Get me the keys,’ he yelled back to Baxter who was watching helplessly. The older man did as he was instructed, reaching in through what was left of the shattered windscreen and twisting his arm around the steering column until his outstretched fingers made contact with the keys. From his awkward angle he tried to tease the keys free and succeeded, only for them to drop to the ground and land in the puddle of coagulating blood around Paul Castle’s icy-white face. With equal amounts of revulsion, nausea and sadness he closed his eyes and leant down and grabbed at the keys, wiping them clean on his jacket as he lifted them up.
    ‘Here,’ he shouted, throwing them up onto the side of the truck. Cooper picked them up and immediately dropped to his knees by the door. There were many keys on the bunch and it took several attempts before he found the right one. Eventually the lock clicked, the door opened outwards and the arms, head and body of the first bruised and bloodied survivor quickly emerged.
    ‘Get ready Jack,’ the soldier yelled, ‘they’re on their way to you.’ He leant down and began to help a middle-aged woman out of the truck. Helped by more survivors pushing her out from inside, she was soon free. ‘Get yourself down into the van,’
    Cooper said gently as he reached down for the next person.
    ‘Jack’s waiting there for you.’
    On her hands and knees, the woman shuffled towards the front of the truck. As she moved she looked down at the increasing crowds of bodies gathering on either side. Sensing her unease, Baxter coaxed her forward.
    ‘Come on,’ he said, ‘nearly there.’
    Back on top of the vehicle Cooper had pulled two children and another woman free. He peered back inside and counted another seven people still waiting. He could also see a corpse. He  didn’t recognise the man who lay face down on the ground, crushed by the others in the sudden impact and crash.
    Baxter climbed out onto the truck to help the children down.
    As he guided more survivors into the van, Cooper screamed more instructions to him.
    ‘Get behind the wheel.’
    ‘I can’t,’ Baxter replied frantically. ‘I can’t drive.’
    ‘Then find someone who can,’ the soldier frantically barked.
    ‘Do it now, for fucking hell’s sake!’
    ‘I’ll do it,’ the first woman to have been rescued mumbled.
    ‘You’ll have to tell me where to…’
    ‘What’s your name?’
    ‘Jean,’ she replied. ‘I don’t know if…’
    Baxter wasn’t listening.
    ‘I’ll give you a shout when we’re ready to move,’ he said, pushing her forward. She clambered into the driver’s seat and froze as she looked up and around. A dense crowd of grotesque faces stared back at her, their clouded eyes filled with pain and a savage intent bordering on hate. She looked down at the ground and tried to keep control of her fragile emotions. The bloody things were banging on the glass around her now. She held her head in her hands and prayed that they would soon be able to move.
    ‘Last one,’ Cooper yelled from on top of the truck. Moments later the final survivor appeared and climbed down into the van.
    Cooper was close behind. ‘Pull forward and close the doors,’he ordered.
    ‘Pull forward,’ Baxter repeated. The woman in the front of the van pushed down on the accelerator and eased the van slowly forward, pushing steadily into the rotting crowd which surrounded them. As soon as they were far enough from the remains of the