Free Zom-B Mission by Darren Shan Page A

the activity, the bird abandons the crust of bread and flies away, but the damage has already been done, and I curse the innocent creature as it takes to the sky and swiftly disappears from sight.
    Reaching the two children, I wrap my arms round Liz and hold her as still as I can. Declan is looking at me with wide eyes. His cheeks are pale and he’s trembling.
    ‘Go,’ I tell him.
    Declan shakes his head and whispers, ‘Liz?’
    ‘Go!’ I shout and bare my fangs to shock him into action. The tactic works and Declan hurls himself from the tree with a frightened shriek. Vinyl and Emma catch him between them, then Emma buries his face in her chest and rushes away with him as the other humans and Angels press closer to the tree. Many of the people are crying.
    ‘Liz,’ a woman moans, but nobody else says her name or pleads with me to stop. They know what has happened and they know what has to be done.
    As Liz shudders and undergoes the change from a living girl to an undead monstrosity, I quickly check her legs and arms for any evidence of a c-shaped scar. If she has been vaccinated by Dr Oystein’s team, one of us can escort her back to CountyHall, in case she revitalises later.
    But there’s no scar. The girl is without hope. If I let this run its natural course, she will become a brain-dead revived, with no chance of ever regaining her senses.
    ‘Get everyone away from here,’ I tell Vinyl. ‘They don’t need to see this. And I don’t want any of them to get splattered by her blood.’
    ‘Come on,’ Vinyl says, and quickly shepherdsthe survivors away. The Angels remain, grim-faced but supportive.
    ‘Do you want me to do it?’ Rage asks. ‘I know you’re sensitive when children are involved.’
    ‘There’s no room for sensitivity in this world,’ I say sadly.
    And then, before Liz has completed her awful evolution, before bones force their way out through her fingertips and her teeth lengthen into fangs, I press her skullagainst the tree trunk, make a fist, and release the unfortunate orphan from the horror.

FOURTEEN
    We bury Liz in a deep grave and the humans say some prayers over it. I don’t hang around to listen. I spend the time wiping my hands through the grass, over and over, cleaning them of every last horrible stain. The others leave me be. Each one of them knows what this is like. We’ve all executed a zombie like Liz before, some of them even younger than she was. There’s nothingyou can say at a time like this. Liz was a doomed killer, but she was also a little girl, and while I know I had to do what I did, I still feel absolutely wretched, and will for a long time to come.
    We press on once the living are done praying. We march in solemn silence, the survivors glancing at us bitterly every so often. I know what they’re thinking— If we’d stayed in Hammersmith, Liz would be alive now . And they’re right. That’s what makes it so hard to bear. We’re trying to do good here, but a little girl is dead because of our interference. There’s no getting away from that.
    We reach the safe house and settle down for the night, the humans in a few of the rooms, the Angels in another. I sit in a corner by myself, lost in thought. Vinyl enters at one point, to tryand comfort me, but I just shake my head at him and he leaves without saying anything.
    In the morning, while the living are having a quick breakfast, Ashtat approaches me. ‘Will you be OK?’ she asks.
    ‘As much as I can be,’ I sigh.
    ‘We can send you back to County Hall if you prefer.’
    ‘No, I’d rather stick with the mission. It’ll be easier not to think about it if I can keep busy.’
    She nods. ‘As you wish.’ She hesitates, then decides to press on. ‘You were the only one who saw the blood strike her. If you had not reacted as fast as you did, she might have infected Declan before we could get to them.’
    ‘I know. But still . . .’
    ‘Yes,’ Ashtat says. ‘Still . . .’
    She offers me a brief, weary