Autumn: The City (Page 51)
Safe. Oblivious to the danger of the weapons pointed at them, the survivors stood close together and waited for instructions. One of the soldiers stepped forward. Cooper took a similar step forward to meet him. 'Sir!' he snapped instinctively, saluting and standing to attention.
He couldn't see who was behind the soldier's protective facemask. 'Cooper?' the faceless officer said with surprise clearly evident in his voice, despite it being muffled and distorted by the heavy breathing apparatus. 'Where the hell have you been, soldier? We thought you were long gone. Welcome back.' The weapons were lowered.
No more words. Under continuous guard the survivors were crammed into a decontamination chamber.
Would the questions they'd both been asking since the first morning of the nightmare finally be answered by someone in this cavernous base? Would someone be able to explain what had happened to their world? From the little that Cooper had been able to tell them, the decontamination process would last for more than a day.
As the hours crept slowly by she drifted in and out of consciousness. Although still restless and uneasy in these new and alien surroundings, for the first time she was able to move and speak freely without fear of being hunted out and attacked by vicious bodies. No matter how highly trained they were, the soldiers with their guns and masks seemed to be nowhere near as much a threat as what remained of the rest of the population outside. These people, she hoped, were rational and controlled. The millions of decaying bodies on the surface were not.
In order to conserve power the electric light in the decontamination chamber was switched off.
Emma curled up with Michael and waited silently for the next day to arrive. Although she wasn't completely sure, she thought it would be Friday. Almost four weeks since it had begun. Almost two weeks since they'd lost the farmhouse.
Coming in 2004...