Sarah stormed out of the director of nursing’s office, fists clenched, and jaw set as she resisted the urge to swear and shout. Her meeting had taken some time to arrange and had been over in minutes after answering none of her questions.

Eventually, it had boiled down to, stop asking questions and do as your told or go home and be locked in like everyone else in the city. Since Sarah couldn’t just sit by while people were suffering, she opted to stay.

Besides, she reasoned, if she hung around then she would have a chance to find out what the hell was going on.

“Hey,” Lisa said as Sarah stomped into their changing room. “You headed out?”

“Yeah. I’m supposed to go out with some soldiers and visit houses. You?”

“No. I need to get home to my mum. She’s not well and will need someone to help out.”

“I heard they’re closing off entire streets,” Jenny, another nurse said. “Barricades and armed guards, the works.”

Sarah looked across at the other nurse. Barely into her twenties and idealistic enough to believe that the people in charge meant well. She was new enough that she still wore more makeup than was necessary and had the boundless enthusiasm that too long shifts with no breaks had yet to break her of.

“If they are doing that, then the country is truly screwed,” she said, shaking her head. “What the hell is happening?”

“How long has it been since you left the hospital?” Lisa asked, pausing, her bag in one hand and soiled clothing in the other.

“I dunno, days.”

“You’ve seen people coming into the A&E, but you haven’t been out there. You can’t walk down the street without some freak jumping out of the shadows and attacking you. It’s not safe.”

“It can’t be that bad, surely?”

“Worse at night,” Lisa said, voice soft. “They seem to get way worse at night, but enough are about during the day that you can’t go anywhere alone. Can’t get through on the emergency number there’s so many calls and all you can hear is sirens, everywhere you go.”

Sarah pulled open her locker and glanced at the other nurse, eyebrow raised sceptically. She couldn’t believe things had become that bad, so quickly.

“I’ve been up to the quarantine floors,” Lisa continued, voice dropping low. “Those… things, up there, aren’t people anymore. It’s worse outside because every day there’s more of them and they’ve started running around in groups.”

“That’s crazy,” Jenny said, painted lips hanging open as she stared at the other two nurses. “I need to go see my boyfriend. He hasn’t been answering. Do you think he’s okay?”

“He’s probably fine,” Sarah assured her swiftly, before turning back to Lisa. “That’s why they want people to stay inside then? To stop more people turning.”

“Yeah.”

It made sense, but since they didn’t know how to stop whatever was affecting the Infected, she could only imagine what they were doing to them. The soldier’s words from earlier lingered in her thoughts and she felt a slight shiver run through her.

If her suspicions were right, then telling people to stay inside would simply make it easier to identify targets and they would be solving the problem like some third world dictator would. By killing them all.

“I need to go,” she said, hearing the tremble in her voice and hating her fear.

“You’re seriously headed out there with the soldiers?” Lisa said. “You should go home, be with your family.”

What family? Sarah thought. She worked too much to have a boyfriend, or at least that was what Mark had told her as he stormed out of her flat, slamming the door behind him. Her parents had both passed some years before when she was still in college and she had no siblings.

She was, in effect, entirely alone in the world and so for her, going home and locking herself away was pointless. She would simply be isolated and useless. No, better to be out there doing something, anything, since there was nothing she could do to stop what would happen to the infected.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, pulling her bag from the locker and swinging it over her shoulder. “Seriously, I will. Call me when you get home safe though, yeah?”

“Sure,” Lisa said, rising to her feet and crossing the space between them. She wrapped her arms around Sarah, pulling her close and holding on for dear life. “Be safe.”

“I’ll be with a squad of soldiers,” Sarah replied, forcing a smile and hugging her friend back. “I’ll be as safe as can be.”

“Lucky too,” Jenny added with a lascivious grin. “Some of them soldiers are well fit.”

Sarah and Lisa exchanged a look as Sarah rolled her eyes and they both laughed.

“You be safe too,” Sarah said to the younger nurse. “Here, pass me your phone.”

Jenny handed it over and Sarah quickly entered her number, saving it to the contacts list before handing it back. “Text or call when you’re home safe.”

“I will.”

Sarah left the locker room, bag slung over one shoulder and a weariness to her steps that wasn’t just due to her long days and little sleep. She kept telling herself that she was doing the right thing, but she was doubting herself.

The hospital around her was quiet. Any new admissions were being loaded straight onto trucks and driven out to god knows where. Not that there were many new admissions since the official word had been given to stay indoors.

Still, there were many patients in the hospital that weren’t infected with the mystery illness and those needed some staff to care for them. The rest were either headed home or, like Sarah, gathering in the A&E waiting room.

Sarah joined the group of nurses and doctors waiting there. She took a seat away from the rest of them and leant back, resting her aching feet for as long as she could. Beside the door were a pile of the green medical holdalls and next to them, boxes and boxes of the basic supplies and medications.

Men and women in the green fatigues of the armed forces were milling around, some leaving the A&E loaded down with boxes and returning shortly after for more. An older soldier, his hair greying at the temples and sporting several days growth of hair on his face, had his head down as he ran his finger down a piece of paper on a clipboard.

After a moment, he looked up, scanning the crowded room and doing a quick headcount until satisfied, he cleared his throat.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gents. Thank you for joining us.” He turned his head, seeming to try and catch everyone's attention or perhaps to make sure they were paying attention. “When I read your name, I would like you to come and collect a bag and then you will be escorted to your vehicle.”

Straight to the point, Sarah thought wearily.

“Adam Smith.”

One of the doctors that Sarah didn’t know, rose to his feet and moved quickly over to the piled bags. He lifted one up, grunting at the weight as a young soldier stepped forward, gesturing towards the doors.

They left together and the man in charge, read the next name on his list. On and on it went with a name being read out and one of the medical staff rising to their feet and heading to collect a bag before being escorted out by a soldier.

“Sarah Stone,” the man called out and Sarah pushed herself up, avoiding letting out a groan but just barely.

“Here,” she muttered as she crossed to the bags, picking one up, unable to avoid the slight grunt at the unexpected weight.

“Follow me, miss,” a young soldier said, and she nodded, before setting off after him out through the main doors.

The carpark was full of vehicles. Trucks and Land Rover Jeeps painted in green and black. Sarah was directed towards one of the jeeps where two other soldiers waited, smoking. It was clearly based on the Land Rover Defender but had a slightly different and more robust design.

Reinforced rear axle with a side-mounted spare wheel, it had a covered rear and a PVC soft top. It had an additional rear load bed mounting, designed to take increased weights and a rear body roll cage.

It smelt strongly of the people that had been practically living in it for the past few days and Sarah grimaced as she climbed inside, finding a place to sit amongst the secured supplies. Not that there was much space going.

The soldiers clambered in after her and she settled back unsure what to expect. Her new companions were all younger than she was and two of them deferred to the third, which she guessed had to be a rank thing.

Each of them wore a combat helmet that covered the majority of their head, along with combat shirt and trousers all with a multi-terrain pattern that she guessed would allow them to blend in with the undergrowth.

Not that there was much of that in Leeds city centre.

They each wore body armour with several pouches stuffed full of gear along with kneepads and combat boots. A personal radio was visible, with the mic extending out towards their mouths and they each carried an assault rifle.

While not familiar with the make of the gun, she had seen enough images to know it was the standard weapon for the British armed forces. It had a short barrel and the magazine was inserted into the forward part of the weapon, behind the handle and firing trigger.

A flash eliminator sat on the end of the barrel and could be used as a mounting base for the bayonet the soldiers carried. A sling was fitted that went over their shoulder, though didn’t see them release their hold on it at any point, except for the driver.

“Where are we going?” Sarah asked, breaking the silence.

There was no reply, and her brow furrowed as she stared at the backs of their heads. Not one of them had even bothered to turn around to look at her, instead, staring out of the windows as they travelled through the too quiet city streets.

“Can I even know your names?” she asked.

“Ron’s driving, Smithy is next to him and I’m Claire,” the one that seemed to be in charge said without turning her head. “Now keep quiet and let us do our job.”

Sarah opened her mouth to reply but thought better of it, crossing her arms and, if she were to admit it, sulking just a little. She’d had a crappy few weeks and an even worse last few days and she wasn’t in the mood to spend her time sitting in silence.

As a fairly extroverted person by nature, she preferred to be around people, and she enjoyed conversation and learning about others. Sitting in silence was not something she considered fun. She shifted in her seat, ready to try again when Smithy spoke.

“Coming up on the right.”

“I see him,” Claire said.

Sarah leant forward to peer through the window, wondering at what had caught their attention. There, in the distance scurrying from shop front to shop front, was a man with unbrushed hair and dirt covering his face and hands.

Old blood stained the shoulder of his t-shirt and she felt a wave of sorrow, realising that he had been bitten and become infected like so many others. She turned to the soldiers about to ask if there was anything they could do but gasped as Claire wound down the window and raised her gun.

“What’re you-“

Two shots were fired, the sound overly loud to her in the confines of the jeep, and the infected man was down. Claire pulled back her gun and wound the window back up.

“Why did you do that?” Sarah demanded.

“Orders.”

“What the hell do you mean? What orders?”

“We are instructed to shoot on sight any infected that we encounter,” Claire said, voice level and not showing any emotion.

“Why?”

“There’s no cure,” Claire said, finally turning to look directly at Sarah.

She had freckles on her face and eyes of the deepest brown she had seen. They were eyes that she would have expected to be full of warmth along with a mouth that seemed ready to turn up in a smile at any moment.

But just then, there was nothing in those eyes but an emptiness that made Sarah shudder and that mouth was set in a grim line.

“Don’t you get it? There’s no way to help them and every fucking day there’s more of them and less of us! We’re at war and the only way to survive is to be ruthless.”

“They’re people!”

“You’ve been stuck inside that hospital too long, love. There’s nothing human left in those things. They’ll eat your flesh and fuck your corpse if the mood takes them. They’re not people, they’re animals. Rabid ones at that.”

The young soldier, jaded and cynical beyond her years, sneered at the nurse as she looked her up and down.

“Sit back and let us do our job so that you can help the people who are still worth helping.”

Sarah had no response to that, and seeing the other soldier watching the exchange with a blank expression and hard eyes, she did as instructed and sank back into her seat, turning her face away as she wondered what the hell was happening to the world.