Free The Dead Series (Book 3): Dead Line by Adam Millard

were staggering forward now, more with momentum than haste, and they were less than a hundred feet away.
    Marla sighed before tucking the Baretta into her waistband. 'I used to be a doctor,' she said.
    Terry patted her on the shoulder as he walked past. 'We used to be prisoners,' referring to himself and Shane.
    They began to climb. River had already reached the safety of the scaffolding on the first storey and was waving down at them.
    Below, the lurkers had reached the scaffolding and were hammering against it with fists, feet, teeth and heads. The poles, the wood – the entire building – shook as the considerable horde gawked up at the escaping flesh. A few of them had managed to climb atop other lurkers - who had stumbled and fallen face-first against the building - and grab a hold of the nearest pole, but it was aimless and they fell, hitting the sodden ground with meaty thuds.
    The scaffolding was slippery, and the last thing they needed was for it to be rocking as the creatures attacked it below.
    Marla looked terrified as Shane climbed up alongside her. 'Are you okay?' he asked, his head pressed against a galvanised pole.
    'Been better,' she huffed, struggling at the next pole up with panicked grasps.
    'Don't look down,' Shane told her, though it was the kind of obvious thing you told somebody just to annoy the hell out of them, like mind the gap , or, don't try this at home .
    'I wasn't going to,' she said, hoisting herself up three feet to the next pole. 'And for the record, if this goes tits up, I think we would've been better shooting through them.'
    'Duly noted.' He pulled himself up to match her level once again. 'Feel free to go back down and try out your way.'
    Marla didn't look at him, but she knew he was smiling just by the way his words came out.
    'I think I'll carry on your way,' she said. 'We're halfway there, now.'
    He threw himself up the scaffolding, pulled his weight into a recess and stared down. It was high; a helluva lot higher than it looked from the ground. The lurkers were snarling and biting at the air. Some of them, though not many, had already decided to move on. They must have been the pessimists of the horde. The ones still snapping at the scaffolding were more your, “Stick around, you never know, one of them might slip and fall,” kind of ghouls.
    'You guys are slow ,' River chided from above. When Shane turned, he saw that Terry was up and swinging his legs onto the safety of storey two. River helped him to his feet, and they both glanced over the edge to where Shane and Marla appeared to be struggling.
    'It's not a race,' Shane called up at her.
    'Not anymore,' she replied with an arrogance that only a child could provide. 'You want me to come down and piggy-back you up?'
    Shane, annoyed with her effrontery, didn't satisfy her with a response. Instead he helped Marla and they continued upwards. Marla only lost her footing once, and Shane had been there to steady her, and she was a little more careful after that.
    When they were safely at the second-storey, Shane looked down at the dissipating horde. A lot more of them had decided it wasn't worth their time and moved on. The way they were spread across the construction-site made it appear as if there were thousands of them instead of a hundred.
    'Still think we could have shot through them?' he asked Marla, who was appraising the dispersing throng next to him with wide-eyed amazement.
    'Do you have to be right all of the time?' she asked, slightly perturbed by his confidence.
    'Do you always have to answer a question with a question?' He grinned.
    'Do you?' She grinned.
    'No. Do you?'
    'I hate you.'
    They both sniggered.
    The cessation of the rattling pipes beneath them was a sign that the last of the horde had deferred and chased after the rest of their dead buddies.
    'Now we need to find a way off,' Terry said.
    'I've changed my mind,' Marla told Shane. To Terry she said, 'I think I hate you