Domain of the Dead by David Moody, Iain McKinnon, Travis Adkins Page B

the security she needed.
    “Jennifer,” the girl said as she extended her hand.
    Patterson swapped his cap and his glasses into his left hand. He smiled and simultaneously shook her hand, saying, “Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Jennifer.” He stood back up. “I had a niece about her age before...”
    He didn’t need to finish the sentence. The people in Patterson’s world had seemed to become closer since the Rising. It wasn’t just the banding together for protection or the shared experience of survival. Everyone had been in the same situation. Everyone had lost people and it meant that everyone could connect empathically, instantly.
    He broke off from his train of thought and back to the task at hand. “If you and your party care to follow me, we’ll have our medical staff check you over.”
    “Thanks,” Sarah said, holding a hand out for Jennifer to follow.
    “I’m sorry, what do we call you?” Nathan asked.
    “Only the sailors and the soldiers need address me as Sir . You guys being civilians can call me whatever you feel appropriate.”
    Nathan didn’t look any the wiser.
    “Mr. Patterson would do fine,” he added.
    He looked at the three. They had the slender look of starvation on them. No curves, only points where the bones threatened to pierce their paper-thin skin. “Lets see about getting you people a hot meal. I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like on the mainland.”
     
    * * *
     
    Sarah stopped at the bottom of the steps from the helipad and arched her back. The confined flight and the strains and contusions from their exodus had combined to numb her muscles. She stretched her neck up high and tried to drop her shoulders before walking away from the landing pad. The sun was bright and although the wind took the warmth out of the day she didn’t mind. The salt air brought with it a sense of cleansing. It was a pure unfetid smell. Occasionally there was the whiff of grease or gasoline, but it wasn’t the terrifying smell of a wildfire consuming and corrupting the air or the stench of rotting flesh. It was clean and uncontaminated. The view around her was less threatening, too. Nothing but open ocean. No derelict buildings with unknown dangers inside. No hoards of the undead hemming them in. Just the calm sea, a smattering of clouds and the odd seagull trailing the ship for scraps.
    The shadow of the bridge blocked out the sunlight on the last few paces into the ship. From the seemingly infinite space of the deck, Sarah found herself being funnelled into the comparatively cramped corridors that ran through the ship’s interior.
    The ship had looked small as the chopper came in to land, but now Sarah realised the Ishtar was a sizeable vessel. She stepped over the bottom lip of the hatch into the thin corridor. Steering from behind, Patterson called directions as they travelled deeper into the hull.
    Sarah felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of new faces. Seemingly unconcerned by the new people, they went about their duties. Occasionally one of the curious would strain their neck to watch the new arrivals as they squeezed through the narrow corridors.
    “How many people are there?” Sarah asked.
    “On the ship or in the world?” Patterson replied.
    Nathan’s voice was quick with excitement, “Both!”
    “On the ship there are thirty-two seamen, fifteen marines and soldiers and an assortment of others, making fifty in total,” Patterson informed them.
    “And the rest of the world?” Sarah asked.
    “About fifteen million,” Patterson answered. “Give or take.”
    “Only fifteen million?”
    “Lowest human population since before the last ice age, we’re told,” Patterson replied. “Kind of knocked the whole overpopulation fear on the head, wouldn’t you say?”
    “Fifteen million,” Sarah said, trying to get her head around the figures.
    Patterson waved his arm, instructing them which turning to take. “Experts say once the W.D. problem is solved we can