The City

Cooper, then Donna and then back to Heath again. She waited for him to say something. In the gloom he looked haggard, old and weary as if he was carrying the weight of everyone’s problems on his shoulders. She sensed that he was struggling to keep himself calm and controlled. She could see fear in his eyes.
    ‘What I mean is…’ he stammered. It was obvious that he didn’t know what he meant.
    ‘What are you planning to wait for?’ Donna asked again.
    ‘What exactly are you expecting to happen?’
    Obviously uncomfortable and wishing he’d stayed quiet, Heath played with his food and picked up a paper towel which he screwed into a tight ball before throwing it into a nearby waste bin. He sank back in his chair and looked up for inspiration but nothing came.
    ‘Don’t know…’ he finally admitted.
    ‘Something’s got to give eventually, hasn’t it?’ Baxter said.
    ‘Like what?’ asked Cooper.
    ‘Well, things can’t stay like this forever, can they? Nothing ever stays the same for too long. I mean, you turned up here today, didn’t you? There will be more like you and…
    ‘There are more like me,’ Cooper explained, ‘but don’t assume they’re going to come back here. As far as they’re concerned this is a dead place.’
    ‘They
    might.’
    ‘Yes, they might, but on balance they probably won’t. As far as I was aware we were sent out on a reconnaissance mission and that was all. If the others made it back to the base and reported what they’d found then…’
    ‘Then
    what?’
    ‘Then they’ll know that there’s no real reason for anyone to come back here, won’t they?’
    ‘So what do you think they’ll do?’ Donna wondered. ‘It doesn’t matter where they go, they’re going to find the same thing.’
    Cooper shrugged his shoulders and continued eating.
    ‘I really don’t know. Like I said earlier, there were supposed to be other bases. I suppose they’ll try and group together. But then again, maybe they’ll just stay underground.’
    ‘Christ, imagine spending the rest of your life in a bunker………’ Phil Croft mumbled, finally making an effort and becoming part of the conversation.
    ‘Better than not having the rest of your life,’ Clare said quietly.
    ‘You think so?’ Cooper asked. ‘You didn’t see what it was like down there. Anyway, we don’t know for sure if those are the only options. Whatever happened here might not have happened everywhere. I think it did, but it’s always possible that there are some safe areas people could get to.’
    ‘I doubt it,’ said Croft.
    ‘But do you see what I’m saying?’ Baxter continued, seizing on a lull in the conversation and picking up from where he’d last spoken. ‘You’re talking about all these different scenarios but the bottom line is that something’s inevitably going to change, isn’t it? It’s damn unlikely that nothing’s going to happen. The law of averages says that things will never stay the same.’
    ‘What the bloody hell are you talking about?’ Steve Richards sighed from his seat in the darkness.
    Baxter stared across the room in the general direction of the younger man. It was too dark for him to see exactly where he was sitting.
    ‘Have you looked outside recently?’ he asked, his voice suddenly cold and deadly serious.
    ‘I try to avoid looking out of the window,’ Richards smirked.
    ‘Too fucking grim for my liking.’
    ‘Do yourself a favour and go and take a look out front will you? There are bloody thousands of those things out there now and none of them are going anywhere. For whatever reason they’re attracted to us and there are more and more of them arriving every hour.’
    ‘What’s your point?’ Richards asked.
    ‘Seems to me there’s going to come a time when the sheer volume of them outside is going to start causing us real problems.’
    ‘Why? Do you think they’ll get in?’ wondered Heath, his voice low and nervous.
    ‘They might,’ Baxter replied, ‘but I don’t think it’s very likely. I’m thinking more about us trying to get out. We’re going to have to leave here for supplies eventually, aren’t we? There’s only so much we can store here.’
    ‘He’s got a point,’ Donna agreed.
    ‘The more I think about it, the better the argument is for packing up and getting out of here right now,’ Baxter continued.
    ‘There’s also a lot to be said for sitting still and waiting,’ Phil Croft added. ‘But you are right, Jack, things