Free The Dead by Charlie Higson

hell.
    They were coming up to the Futures Enterprise Zone – The Fez. A modern development of low brick buildings each with its own parking area in front.
    Bam caught up with Johnno.
    ‘I’ve been thinking,’ he said.
    ‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’ Johnno asked with a grin.
    ‘Ha, ha, laughed the man,’ said Bam. ‘No, listen, there’s that tool-hire place in The Fez. We should check it out. We could really get tooled up, if you’ll pardon the pun. Most of us have still only got bits of broken bed and sticks. There’ll be axes in there, crowbars … chainsaws. ’
    He said ‘chainsaws’ with such relish that Johnno smiled.
    ‘Might be worth a look,’ he said.
    ‘Come on then.’
    Bam spread the news and they veered off the road into The Fez, which looked as deserted as everywhere else in Rowhurst.
    They passed the carpet warehouse and there ahead of them was the tool-hire shop. It looked untouched, though there was evidence of fire damage to the laminating factory to the right. The steel shutter over the loading bay was rolled up and inside it was blackened and sooty.
    Ed and Malik were in the middle of the party, still discussing girls. Not really paying much attention to where they were.
    ‘We’ve got to think practically,’ Malik was saying. ‘We need to make sure the human race doesn’t die out. It’s hard to imagine – but us lot, we’re the future.’
    Ed looked around at the others. ‘It’s not much of a future, is it? A bunch of public school boys and a girl with a cat in a box.’
    ‘We’ll find other kids,’ said Malik. ‘We can’t be the only ones who’ve survived.’
    ‘Well, it’s certainly looking that way so far,’ said Ed.
    ‘No,’ said Malik. ‘You’ll see. For the first time in weeks I’m starting to feel positive. Not too positive, mind, let’s not get carried away here, but I really think that –’
    Malik was gone.
    One second Ed was talking to him, and the next …
    It took Ed a moment to process the information, to make sense of what he’d seen – the brief flash of a face in the darkness of the factory doorway, a white face with black eyes and yellow teeth, two hands reaching towards Malik’s neck.
    He’d been pulled inside.
    Before Ed had time to shout, to warn the others, bodies erupted from all around, from out of the doorway, from the gaps between buildings, from behind them, moving fast, hitting the boys hard.
    There were screams coming from all around Ed now. And everywhere he turned there was a confused melee of writhing shapes.
    What shall I do? What shall I do?
    Malik was in the building. His friend, Malik. Ed made a half-hearted move towards the doorway, and saw in the dim interior about ten of them, three or four crouched over Malik’s body, the others coming straight for him, charging out of the gloom. Ed backed away and the figures exploded into the daylight, arms flailing, teeth bared.
    Teenagers. Boys and girls. They looked to be about seventeen or eighteen.
    Ed turned and ran. Shouting to the other boys.
    ‘Stay with me. Get away from here.’ But he had no idea if anyone could hear him, if anyone could do anything.
    He saw Johnno go down, with three or four teenagers on his back, another two pulling his arms and legs. The Field House boys were in a huddle, panicked. The three nerds were backed up against a wall, sobbing.
    The teenagers were faster and stronger and more brutal than the older teachers from the school. They were filthy, their clothes stained with blood and worse. Some wore hoodies, some were wearing only T-shirts, others were so ragged it was hard to tell what they were wearing – their clothes hung off them in tatters. A few were nearly naked, their bodies a mess of wounds and pus-filled boils. One or two of them were older boys from the school, wearing suits. Ed recognized a prefect. He’d lost most of his hair and one eye and looked more like an animal than a human now. He had a smaller kid, Stanley, one of