Tunnels 06 - Terminal

despondency in Jürgen’s voice as he continued. ‘It may be too late for the city, but we’re hoping that our people in the remote outposts are still safe from the disease. With time, the high levels of ultraviolet light from the sun should destroy any free-living virus, although Werner is worried that the avian species might have become the vector – the birds might be carrying it to the far reaches of this world. So we might be hoping in vain.’
    Will raised his head to the bright sky, watching a lone vulture flapping languidly across it. ‘Yes, because the birds have been eating the flesh,’ he said, then frowned. ‘I just hope they don’t spread it to the surface.’
    ‘The odds of a bird making it through are pretty slim,’ Jürgen answered, then pointed down a side road as they came level with it. ‘The hospital is this way,’ he said.
    Several streets on, Will saw two large barrows in the middle of the way. One was stacked high with jerrycans containing petrol or something similar – the smell was strong in the air as they passed them. On the second barrow were several layers of bodies – skeletons still wearing their stained, tattered clothes – all heaped untidily on top of each other.
    But Will didn’t dwell on this because, at the major crossroads thirty feet away, he spotted what appeared to be a small hillock rising from the surface of the road. As they camecloser, he could see it consisted entirely of bones. The mound was as black as charcoal, and rose to almost the height of the first storeys of the surrounding buildings. And dotted all over it were glowing red pits where fire still burnt, wisps of grey smoke snaking from them until they became lost in the haze of the sun.
    Will heard Jürgen speak as he led them towards the mound. ‘That this is how it should end,’ he said. And nobody else had anything to add as they walked in a solemn procession around its circumference. The smell of the burnt bodies was so pungent that Will cupped his hand over his nose and mouth, trying not to gag at the smell, while Jürgen and his son in their airtight suits were completely insulated from it.
    Will spotted a shoe lying on its side in the road which had managed to evade the fire. He couldn’t take his eyes off it. It was a woman’s shoe, of highly polished dark blue leather with a shiny chrome buckle. The shoe looked brand new, as if it had been bought from a shop that day and hardly worn.
    They continued on and, after a few minutes more, they’d reached the hospital, a gleaming white building that was very out of place against the drab stone facades that bordered it. As they entered through the main doors and went into the unlit interior, it seemed so dark inside now they were out of the blazing sun. Their footfalls on the lino floor were the only sound in the entrance hall where there were several waiting areas, with ranks of empty benches facing unmanned reception desks.
    Jürgen had been silent since they had seen the pyre outside, but now he spoke again. ‘When we emerged from the quarantine area after a couple of days, we found that people had come here in their droves, desperate for help from thedoctors,’ he told Will and Elliott, a hoarseness to his voice. ‘How do you say it – they were packed in like sardines. And that’s how they died – many still standing up. So many that we had a struggle to get the doors open into this area.’
    Will could see that around the walls there were several more barrows of the same type as the one by the pyre, and knew that these must have been used to remove the bodies, although they were now stacked with boxes of supplies.
    Jürgen beckoned them over to a doorway leading from the main area. As he took out a torch and turned it on, they followed him down several flights of stairs until they passed through a pair of swing doors and into a large room. The walls were hung with polythene sheeting, and lengths of yellow cable ran between the temporary lighting that had been rigged up.
    Jürgen lifted aside some of the sheeting to reveal a solid-looking door, then pressed a button on an intercom. Will heard the distant sound of a bell ringing. ‘Just letting my brother know we’re back,’ Jürgen explained. Seconds later a voice came on the intercom. ‘Werner,’ Jürgen began, then the lights flicked on in the room and he proceeded to have a rapid exchange with his brother in German.
    Elliott came alongside Will. ‘We don’t know what