Free Outbreak The Zombie Apocalypse (UK Edition) by Craig Jones Page A

forcing back tears.
    ‘Look. We’re going to hold off getting the rest of them. The news says that this is near over, we can’t…’
    ‘You’ve got to get them out of there.’
     It was Claire, the feisty looking, dark-haired girl, who spoke. 
    Despite the raw, red eyes from fear and tears, she held a determination in them. ‘Simon has lost it. He just wants to run for it, but he doesn’t know where to go for safety. If you don’t go back, he’ll get them all killed. He wanted to be the first one out of there when you guys said you were coming. He even threatened his friend with scissors before it all calmed down.’
    ‘If it hadn’t been for you…’ Susan, the quieter blonde girl, began, but faltered into ratcheted sobs. ‘The others, John and Sheila, they need help, too. If that fat, slimy—’ 
    She held off finishing in the manner she wanted to when she realised the children were watching her closely. 
    ‘Well, there are two people that deserve your help. Please?’ 
    She trailed off into more sobs, and both Jenny and Claire wrapped her up in their arms. I’d remained standing throughout and now looked down at Danny and shrugged.
    ‘Don’t think we’ve got a choice, bro,’ he said.
    ‘Doesn’t look like it.’
    ‘Well, everything is ready to go. We’re bringing Sheila and John back this time,’ Danny told the girls, then turned his head back to me. ‘But Matt?’
    ‘Yeah?’
    ‘If Simon gives me any trouble, I’m dropping him.’

15

    The theory that the zombies, or whatever Hell had spewed out, found themselves drawn to groups of people, pockets of food, seemed to be an accurate one. We’d experienced it. The girls had experienced it. The people out at the farm were experiencing it. When we led the girls outside to show them what was at our gate, the creatures were as animated as any of us had witnessed. Still rocking back and forth, but with more of a buzz about them, and when the five of us were clear of the front door there was a definite movement from them towards us. 
    Danny and I had already put our leathers back on in preparation for our next pick up. We each carried our helmets with gloves stuffed down inside, and our weapons for any hand to hand combat were shoved down the front of our jackets. Danny, rucksack with the last of our beef burgers already in place on his back, was full of bravado, clearly flirting with Susan and, to be honest, I got the feeling she was enjoying the attention as much as he loved dishing it out. 
    I guess any semblance of normality at this stage was a welcome interlude for all of us. Jenny was already up in Danny’s bedroom window to give us the all-clear, and Nick had a plastic bag with some raw meat ready to lob over the wall.
    ‘When we get back,’ Danny said to the blonde girl casually, ‘I’ll show you how we take care of these things, if you know what I mean.’
    ‘You mean you’ve actually killed some of them?’
    ‘Oh, yeah. I’ll be finishing this lot off this evening. Send them back to where they came from.’
    ‘Danny, we can’t risk blocking the exit in case we need to use the Range Rover to get out of here,’ I didn’t want to belittle him, but I felt we still needed to hold onto some sensibilities. I saw him roll his eyes at Susan, and she barely suppressed a smile, but I let it ride. Like I said, any normality now was good.
    The zombies suddenly became even more agitated when Nick pulled the chicken legs from out of the bag.
    ‘You both ready?’ he asked, and my brother and I nodded and started to head down the path to the left of the house, towards the ladder that was already in place. As we walked, quickening our pace with every step, we could hear the food hitting the ground after Nick had thrown it over the zombies’ heads, and then the louder moaning as they jostled for lunch.
    ‘Nothing stupid, okay, bro’?’ he told me as we reached the foot of the ladder.
    ‘Me? If you can stop thinking about