Free Zombie Castle (Book 1) by Chris Harris

then!’
    Behind me I heard a car door open and close and I turned to see Becky walking towards us.
    ‘You need to listen to my husband!’ she said, her voice pleading. ‘It’s not terrorists or anything like that. I know it doesn’t sound credible but there are zombies. We’ve already been attacked and we’ve just had to rescue that little boy back there. Back on the main road we all watched another young boy kill his father by biting into his neck. We found the assistant at the petrol station feeding on one of the customers! You’re right to want to protect yourselves, but please, you need to let us through. I need to get my children somewhere safe. If you don’t believe us just go back up to the main road and see for yourself. But be careful. Don’t go near any of them.’
    They all turned and talked among themselves for a minute.
    The farmer turned back to us, ‘All right. We’ll go and have a look. Why are you wearing masks?’
    While I was explaining the trailer was hauled out of the way by a tractor. A man and a woman on a quad bike squeezed through the gap and roared up the road.
    I realised that I’d been clutching my knife tightly throughout, and put it back into its sheath, which I’d clipped on to my belt. As I did so, I noticed everyone relaxing slightly.
    ‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘Forgot I was still holding it. It’s been a hell of a day!’
    In less than a minute, we heard the quad bike returning. As expected, it was travelling much faster than it had done on the way out. It skidded to a halt right beside us.
    ‘Fucking zombies!’ the man yelled. ‘They tried to get us, but we turned around just in time. Jim Barker was one of them. He was covered in blood and half his arm was hanging off but he still tried to grab me!’
    Everyone started shouting at once until the farmer finally had to bawl at them all to be quiet. He turned to us.
    ‘So it’s like ‘The Walking Dead?’
    ‘Yes,’ Shawn, Becky and I said together.
    He released a few mouthfuls of expletives before turning to us again.
    ‘What can we do?’
    Shawn seized his opportunity. ‘Well, believe it or not, this is something I’ve prepared for. First you need to let us through, then you have two choices. Stay or go, it’s as simple as that. If you stay here you’ll need to work together. Build barriers and fences; anything to stop them or at least slow them down. You can only kill them by destroying their brains so prepare yourselves for that and gather what weapons you have. I notice you have shotguns and rifles. Great! But conserve your cartridges and ammunition because once you’ve run out you’ll be in trouble. We’ve found out by tying one up and experimenting that they need to breathe, but as I’ve said, the best way to kill them is to target the brain. I don’t know how many you’ll be facing but we’ve only seen one car leave St Agnes and that looked as if it had to fight its way out. There could be thousands of the things heading your way. You’ve seen the fictional version, now you’re going to be living it. Oh, and we know they can see reasonably well and are attracted to noise, so bear that in mind.’
    He paused to let it all sink in. The farmer turned to the couple on the quadbike, ‘How many were there?’
    ‘Twenty or so,’ replied the woman, ‘I didn’t stop to count them!’
    ‘First of all we need to get everyone together. They all need to know exactly what’s happening.’ He turned to us. ‘Sorry about not letting you through before. You might just have saved all our lives. Is there anything we can do to help you before you go?’
    I shrugged, not really knowing what to say, but Shawn replied without hesitation. ‘Some water would be useful, or at least a container I can carry some in. I only have my water bottle and there are more of us now.’ He paused for a moment, thinking. ‘A tarpaulin would be good too, and maybe some better weapons. And if you could spare any tinned food that would