Purification Read Online Free PDF

vent to repeat the manoeuvre. The second driver, now suddenly vulnerable without the protection of his jeep, sprinted after the others.
    From behind the row of soldiers standing in the entrance to the bunker Cooper still struggled to see what was happening. The clouds of repulsive, stagnant-smelling smoke which the gusting wind blew back inside the base stung his eyes and filled his nose and throat with a charred, nauseating taste.
    ‘What’s happening now?’ Baxter asked. As the length of time the soldiers had spent outside had increased, so the older man had slowly gained in confidence. He had now crept forward to stand just behind the shoulder of his colleague.
    ‘Looks like they’ve managed to get one vent cleared,’
    Cooper answered. ‘Can’t see what they’re doing now though. I’ve lost sight of them.’
    ‘Do you think they’re going to be able to do this…?’
    Baxter asked before being silenced by a sudden huge flash of flame. One of the nearest soldiers had fired a flame-thrower and had destroyed a small pocket of bodies which had somehow broken through the rest of the burning masses and which were moving dangerously close to the base.
    ‘I don’t know what to think anymore,’ Cooper mumbled, struggling to keep the smoke out of his eyes and still continue to look outside. ‘This is just bloody relentless, isn’t it?’
    ‘What
    is?’
    The heat from another arc of flame sent the two men scuttling further back into the base.
    ‘The effort,’ he continued, wiping sweat and ash from his face. ‘For bloody hell’s sake, look at the effort that this lot are having to put in. Look at the risks they’re having to take. Christ, there are about a hundred men and women out there risking their lives, and it’s for the simplest of reasons.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ Baxter was confused. Cooper sensed that he was struggling to make himself understood.
    ‘What I mean,’ he said, his voice tired and flat, ‘is that this is what they now have to do just so they can breathe!
    To keep breathing, for Christ’s sake! Never mind anything else, these people have to put their lives on the line just so they can continue to breathe. It’s a pretty desperate state of affairs, isn’t it?’
    Baxter didn’t have chance to answer. The soldiers protecting the entrance suddenly lowered their weapons and dropped back. For a second the two survivors feared the arrival of an unstoppable deluge of bodies but it didn’t happen. Instead the personnel carrier, followed by the five minute long return of a full complement of tired, shell-shocked and battle-dirtied troops, burst back into the bunker.
    The doors began to close.
    Baxter stared out into the distance for as long as he was able. The return of the powerful personnel carrier and troops had disturbed the air and, momentarily, had caused much of the dirty smoke to be dispersed. For a few seconds the survivor’s view was clear and uninterrupted. He could clearly see the charred and mangled remains of hundreds of bodies lying twisted and blackened on the muddy ground.
    Beyond them he could see thousands more cadavers approaching the base. Like a dense, grey fog those bodies which had so far escaped destruction scrambled over the remains of those which had been obliterated, desperately trying to reach the soldiers and survivors.
    The entrance was sealed. Baxter and the others relaxed.
    They had been ready to move if they’d had to but, for a while longer, they were safe.
    4
    ‘And that’s all they’re going to tell you?’ Croft asked.
    Cooper shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
    ‘That’s about it,’ he replied. ‘To be fair I don’t think there’s much more to tell. They’ve cleared two of the vents and cremated a ton of corpses. Suppose that was all they wanted to do.’
    ‘But will they need to clear more vents? Are they going to have to go out there again?’
    ‘Don’t
    know.’
    ‘So how long do they think those vents are going to stay clear?