Free Zom-B Mission by Darren Shan Page B

smile, then goes to check on the humans. I spend a few more minutesthinking about Liz, then put the morbid thoughts behind me and crack on with the job at hand. There’s never much time for reflection these days. You roll with the punches or you fall to the ground and weep until the flesh drops from your bones. There’s no place in between.
    The sleep has done the living good, and although the loss of Liz has scarred them, they do their best to soldier onas if nothing has happened. They’re excited about the prospect of finding safe haven in New Kirkham, and we have to keep reminding them not to talk to one another. They want to discuss their new home and what life will be like once they’ve settled in, if they’ll find any friends or family members among the townsfolk. We’re only concerned with getting them there alive and well. We don’t believein looking too far ahead.
    Finally, shortly before midday, we crest a hill and spot New Kirkham. It’s a converted town. The people who decided to turn it into a base built several tall, steel-plated walls round the perimeter, topped with spikes and barbed wire. There are small platforms situated along the walls at regular intervals, manned by guards with guns, flame-throwers and whateverother weapons they’ve managed to scavenge.
    Thousands of zombies mill around the compound. They scratch at the walls, snarl at the guards, leap at the spikes.
    The humans among us gasp at the sight of the beleaguered town. A couple cross themselves.
    ‘Why the hell have you brought us here?’ one of the men growls angrily.
    ‘It’s not as bad as it looks,’ Vinyl says.
    ‘You’re kiddingme,’ the man retorts. ‘That’s a disaster waiting to happen. You think we’re going to lock ourselves into a death trap like that? We were a million times better off where we were. Take us back to London.’
    ‘We can if you want,’ Vinyl shrugs. ‘We’re not gonna force you to stay. But I suggest you enter with us and have a look round before you decide. This is one of the safest places in thecountry. We’ve studied the zombies. We know their strengths and limits, and built the walls to those specifications. They can’t punch through. They can’t leap over or climb them. They can’t dig under them. We keep watch on the living dead every minute of the day and night, from every angle. I’m not saying our barriers are impenetrable – only a fool makes those sorts of boasts – but in all mymonths here, not a single zombie has breached our defences.’
    ‘But if they did break through?’ Emma asks, clutching Declan close—he’s retreated into his customary silent shell since the incident with Liz yesterday, and I think it will be a long time before he comes out of it again.
    ‘There are escape tunnels,’ Vinyl says. ‘Nine already dug, six more under construction. They run for hundredsof metres deep underground and open up far from the sight of any nearby zombies.
    ‘We grow our own crops,’ Vinyl continues, pointing to tilled plots within the walls. ‘There are two wells. We also grow crops elsewhere and transport them in through the tunnels, along with other supplies which we forage for. But if the worst came to pass, and we got penned in, we could survive on what weharvest inside.’
    ‘What I don’t understand,’ Carl mutters, ‘is why your guards aren’t picking off targets. There are thousands of zombies lined up outside the walls. Why don’t you shoot them all?’
    ‘Other survivors made that mistake,’ Vinyl says grimly. ‘We did too, at the compound we established before New Kirkham. It seemed so easy—the zombies came in their masses, we picked them offwith ease, we thought we could keep going indefinitely. We planned to rid England of tens of thousands of zombies all by ourselves.
    ‘The first problem we encountered made us wary, but wasn’t enough to merit a change of plan. Lots of corpses create mounds. Other zombies can use those as springboards to leap