Free Chloe Zombie Apocalypse series (Book 3): Chloe (A New World) by Ryan Casey Page A

find on the other side of the room.
    But when he turned, he saw Margery lying across the floor, blood oozing between snapped teeth.
    She looked up at Laura and Kyle not with fear but with pure resignation. And Kyle couldn’t help pitying her. She looked after this place. Looked out for the babies.
    But she also knew.
    She knew about the girl.
    That was dangerous.
    Laura crouched opposite Margery. Smiled, the torchlight illuminating Margery like a spotlight on a stage. “The girl. Where is she?”
    Margery stared at Laura for a few seconds. Held her gaze, not saying a word.
    And then Laura pulled out a knife.
    Pressed it to Margery’s neck.
    “The girl, Margery. I don’t have time to mess around here. I don’t have—”
    “She’s gone,” Margery winced. “She—she’s gone. And you’ll… you’ll never find her. Never.”
    She smiled. Smiled, even though it looked like the most painful smile in the world.
    Started laughing.
    Kyle knew that was a bad idea from the off. He knew what happened when people laughed at his sister. He’d seen it first-hand.
    The smell of burning.
    The sound of his parents screaming.
    And that look on his sister’s face. That smile.
    Like she’d wanted it all along.
    “Laura, just—”
    But Kyle’s words fell on deaf ears.
    Laura pulled back the heavy duty torch and swung it at Margery’s face. Cracked her right across the cheek. The sound of a bone splitting echoed around the nursery.
    “I won’t ask you again,” Laura said, lifting Margery’s head, pressing the knife right into her skin. “Not nicely, anyway. I’ll make it very painful for you. Make it so painful that what those babies went through’ll seem like nothing to you. Nothing at fucking all. So I ask you again. Nicely, just the once more. Where did the girl go?”
    That intense stare remained on Margery’s blood-soaked face for a few seconds.
    Then, the smile returned.
    She spat. Spat out a bloody, phlegmy blob, right into Laura’s face.
    A molar shot out with it, tumbled down to the floor.
    “You’ll never find her,” Margery said. “Never.”
    Kyle saw his sister’s face turn. Saw it turn in that instant. And although he wanted to know where the girl was too—although he knew it was crucial to everything they’d done—he didn’t want to witness whatever was next.
    “Laura, you don’t have to…”
    Laura pulled back the knife.
    Went to swing it at Margery’s right arm.
    “There’s—there’s a tunnel!”
    The voice came from outside the nursery. From somewhere just outside. A man’s voice. A man’s voice that startled everyone.
    Kyle shone his torch at the door.
    A man was standing there. A skinny man he vaguely recognised. Might’ve worked in the grocery store or on the farm. Somewhere like that.
    “A tunnel?” Kyle asked.
    The man looked at Kyle and Laura, who still had that knife raised over a delirious, barely conscious Margery. He nodded. “There’s a tunnel. Over in the old cabin just across the field. And we—we found someone in there. Someone trying to get away.”
    Kyle nodded. He looked back at Laura.
    “We also found a shoe. A little girl’s shoe.”
    Laura looked up at the man, broken from her trance.
    Then she looked back at Kyle. Smiled. “Then that’s where we go,” she said.
    She looked back at Margery.
    Lowered the knife.
    Patted Margery on the shoulder.
    “Sleep well.”
    And then she rammed the blade into Margery’s stomach.
    Again.
    And again.
    And again.
    Blood oozed down Margery’s mouth. Fear filled her eyes. But more than anything, Kyle noticed that look on his sister’s face. That look of enjoyment. That look of release.
    When she finished, she wiped her hands on Margery’s dead body and rubbed them together, like she’d merely finished washing herself or something menial like that.
    Then she smiled at Kyle. “You know what we have to do, don’t you?”
    Kyle wanted to disagree. He wanted to revolt against his sister. To tell her she was stepping