Free Family Matters: Season 2 Book 3 (Killing the Dead 9) by Richard Murray Season 2 Book 3 Page A

glanced over the railing to the other half of the stairway to see plenty more making their way over the impromptu barricade of corpses we had thrown down there.
    “Then why the hell are we here?” he asked.
    “We were getting medicine for Lily.”
    “Yeah I know that, but if dying doesn’t bother you then why does it matter? Why did you even bother surviving those first days of the Fall?”
    “I said it didn’t bother me, but that doesn’t mean I am going to die easily,” I said in the quiet tone I used when dealing with someone who clearly didn’t grasp a rather simple concept. “As for Lily, I know she wants to live and so I will do what I can to help her do that.”
    “There’s something wrong with you,” Gregg said with a shake of his head. “Seriously mate, something really wrong with you.”
    I flashed him a grin and he swore softly to himself before lifting his bat from where he’d left it beside the wall and swinging it overhead to crash down on the zombie's skull as it reached the top of the stairwell. It fell without a sound, to tumble backwards down the stairs.
    He shook the bat to rid it of the worst of the blood and brain matter and grimaced at Jinx. “Is she going to keep doing that?”
    “How would I know?” I replied as I looked at the dog. She seemed to be making some progress on the spinal column and her claws had raked deep furrows in the rotted flesh of its back.
    “That can’t be good for her,” he insisted. “It’s zombie flesh for god's sake.”
    “She’ll be fine, I don’t think animals turn from the infection.”
    “We don’t know that.”
    “But we would have seen them,” I pointed out before adding, “Though they are generally smaller than a human so there might not have been enough left to reanimate after the zombies had finished with them.”
    I studied the dark furred hound for a moment and scratched idly at my chin as I thought. “Perhaps she’ll turn. Will be interesting to see if she does.”
    “No way mate, that’s too cruel,” he said as he stepped towards her. I held up one hand and waved him back.
    “Oh don’t worry,” I said. “The pigs ate loads of tainted meat and never turned and they would be more likely than a dog would.”
    He stopped and looked back. “Why would pigs be more likely?”
    “Similarities to humans,” I said. “There’s a reason they were researching transplants from pigs to humans back when the world was whole. You know hearts and the like.”
    “Maybe,” he said and grunted. “Not sure I’d want a pig heart though.”
    “There’s another one,” I said with a nod towards the stairs and he swung the bat against its head without blinking. It staggered a moment and then fell forward to land part way on the landing.
    We didn’t even need to discuss it, Gregg grabbed one end of the body and I went to pick up the other and together we dumped it unceremoniously over the side of the railings to land with a thud on the others below.
    “This isn’t accomplishing anything,” he said. “It’s already getting dark outside and we can’t stay here all night.”
    “Of course not, we have to get to the hospital,” I agreed. “The question is how.”
    He turned to me and even in the dim light of the halls of residence, I could see his eyes widen and mouth drop open. “You’re joking?”
    “No, why?”
    “We couldn’t make it past the university, you think it will be any easier at the hospital? We need to head back and find some other way.”
    “No,” I said. There was nothing else to say, no arguments that would sway me. I’d wasted enough time and she lay dying while I failed at the task I had set out to do.
    As Gregg shook his head and muttered something beneath his breath, a final sharp crack sounded and the zombie beneath Jinx stopped it thrashing. She looked up at me with big dark eyes and licked at the blood and gore that covered her maw. “Well done,” I told her.
    The dog seemed pleased with my attention or