Autumn: The City

Almost five o'clock. The clattering of heavy rain against the roof of the motorhome woke Michael who had fallen asleep a few minutes earlier, still lying next to Emma on the cold, hard floor. The sound of the rain was deafening.

He allowed himself to cautiously roll over and peer out from underneath the blanket which had covered them both since they'd been forced to try and disappear from view many hours earlier. The light was low and he slowly climbed to his feet.

His bones ached painfully as he stood upright. The water running down the windows blurred his view of the outside world. The sudden lack of visibility combined with the unexpected but welcome noise gave him enough cover to be able to risk moving around. He quickly worked his way around the sides of the motorhome, blocking each window with heavy curtains and boards. Also awake, Emma sat up and watched him in silence.

When he'd finished she too crawled out of the shadows and stood next to him. 'This is a real fucking mess,' he said under his breath as he peered out through a narrow crack between the curtains at the nearest window.

'There are thousands of bodies here.' He slowly walked the length of the motorhome and sat down in the driver's seat. Emma remained close behind. She crouched down next to him and grabbed hold of his hand.

'So what do you want to do?' she asked. 'Don't know.' Michael gingerly lifted up another curtain edge and stared outside. All that he could see were corpses. Soaked by the heavy rain and tightly packed together, they were crammed into the field, surrounding the motorhome on every side. 'We have to do something.'

'We've got to be right on top of the base,' he said. 'There must be an entrance round here somewhere. These bodies wouldn't be here if there wasn't something attracting them.

We're out in the middle of nowhere, for Christ's sake.' 'So what do you suggest?' Michael didn't answer immediately. His attention had been caught by a group of bodies about a hundred meters away.

For no apparent reason they seemed to be fighting, almost ripping each other apart. An unstoppable reaction to the sudden outburst of movement and violence quickly spread through much of the rest of the gathering.

'All we can do is wait,' he replied. 'We either wait for the soldiers to appear again and try and get their attention or we wait until this crowd starts to thin out and try and get away from here.' 'When's that likely to happen?' He shrugged his shoulders.

'No idea. Sometime in the next six months I should think.' She didn't appreciate his answer. 'Be serious,' she sighed. 'We can't just sit here indefinitely, can we?' He shrugged his shoulders again.

'If we can't get out of here then we don't seem to have much choice.'