The City

looked around for somewhere to sit and caught sight of Paul Castle sitting next to another man. Despite the fact that she still wanted to punch him in the face for the stupid stunt he’d pulled this morning, he was the only other person that she knew. Wearily she dragged herself across the room and sat down next to him.
    ‘You okay?’ he asked.
    She nodded and grunted but didn’t properly answer. She began to eat the crackers and cheese spread that she’d been given. Her hands shook as she tried to spread with a plastic knife. It was bitterly cold inside the building.
    ‘This is Steve,’ Paul continued, introducing the man sitting next to him. ‘Steve, this is Donna.’
    ‘Hi, Donna,’ Steve said wearily, managing half a smile.
    Donna managed another grunt.
    ‘Steve says there’s almost fifty people here you know,’ Paul whispered. ‘Thank God we found this place. He says that most of them don’t……
    ‘Finding it wasn’t difficult,’ Donna said, swallowing a mouthful of food and finally finding enough energy and interest to bring herself to speak, ‘it was getting here that was the hard part. It wouldn’t have been so much of a problem if it hadn’t been for you, you stupid bloody idiot!’
    Paul looked down at his feet and turned back to face Steve.
    ‘So what’s the plan?’ he asked, trying desperately to ignore Donna’s anger. ‘What’s going to happen next? Are we staying here or…?’
    ‘As far as I can tell there is no plan, mate,’ Steve replied.
    ‘And if there was you’d only go and screw it up,’ Donna snapped.
    Paul
    ignored
    her.
    ‘Don’t think anyone knows what to do next,’ Steve continued. ‘Seems like it’s going to be as bad wherever you go so you might as well stay put. A couple of us have got a few ideas brewing though, haven’t we, Nathan?’
    Nathan Holmes was walking across the hall on his way back to his room. At the mention of his name he stopped and turned  round. Bored and glad of any distraction he pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Steve and Paul.
    ‘What you talking about?’ he asked.
    ‘I said we’re starting to get a few ideas about what to do next, aren’t we?’
    Holmes’ face cracked into a broad, knowing grin.
    ‘Too right,’ he said, his voice lowered to a whisper.
    ‘What you going to do?’ Paul asked.
    ‘When those things outside start to drift away,’ he explained,
    ‘we’re going out on the town.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘I mean we’re going to shut ourselves in one of the clubs round here and we’re going to have the biggest fucking party you’ve ever seen. We’re going to blow all the drinks and drugs we can find in the place. And when they start to wear off and we start to come back down, we’re going on to the next club and we’re going to do it all over again. The biggest bloody pub crawl in history!’
    ‘Sounds good,’ Paul said, far from convinced.
    ‘We’re going to hit this town and…
    ‘You been outside recently?’ Donna interrupted.
    Holmes leant back on his chair to get a look at the woman who had interrupted him.
    ‘Yeah, why?’ he replied.
    ‘Because there’s nothing left out there, that’s why,’ she sighed.
    ‘Exactly. That’s why we’re going to do it. Nothing matters when you’ve had a few drinks.’
    She shook her head sadly and returned her attention to her food. Holmes leant across and helped himself to a cracker.
    ‘Do you mind?’ she scowled.
    ‘Not at all,’ he replied in a smug, self-assured voice. ‘Haven’t seen you before,’ he said, chewing on her food, ‘when did you get here?’
    ‘This
    morning.’
    ‘You been out there all this time?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Grim, ain’t it?’
    Donna nodded. She didn’t want to talk to Holmes. She didn’t really want to talk to anyone, least of all this brash and irritating man. Much as she’d craved company and conversation at times recently, she now needed space and time alone. Getting away from the office and finding the survivors had brought a brief respite from the cold emptiness of the remains of the world. It was only now that she’d found a relatively safe and quiet shelter that the full horror of what had happened had returned to haunt her. With other survivors in close proximity for the first time she felt able to try and deal with her pain, fear and uncertainty.
    Although she needed other people close, she also needed to be by herself. She didn’t really have anything against Holmes (she’d put