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

know how cold it was going to drop, and he was already wet and shivering.
    Shouldn't have left my coat in the car, he thought, but it hadn't been raining so heavy when he'd stepped out an hour ago.
    Now it was torrential.
    He had partial coverage from the trees, but the wind whipped it across from the road and it was that stuff doing the damage.
    What remained of the snow in the trees would be gone by the end of the day, and Saul suddenly felt nervous at the thought that he would get to watch it slowly disappear.
    He sheltered as best as he could beneath the biggest leafless oak he could find and waited. At first, he wasn't bored. He played a little game in his head where he named as many cartoon characters as he could beginning with the letter A. When he could think of no more, he moved onto B, and so on and so forth.
    He got to F before tedium set in and he decided to abandon the game.
    It was stupid anyway.
    Before he knew what had happened, he'd fallen asleep, the gentle pattering of rain on the road ahead doing nothing to prevent him from succumbing to a much-needed nap.
     
    *
     
    It was a shotgun blast which woke him, and he jumped to his feet so quickly that his head buzzed and he almost went back down.
    When he managed to get his bearings – and the white stars stopped dancing behind his eyelids – he heard Lukas screaming at the top of his voice, 'Saul, get by the fucking car!'
    Saul could see them, now. Running towards him down the adjacent trail. Lukas turned, fired another shot towards whatever was chasing.
    It was then that Saul saw what it was.
    A dog, though it was big enough to be considered a bear, was tearing after them, its feet barely touching the underbrush as it raced after the terrified couple.
    Now that he'd seen it, he could hear it. Snarling, sniffing at the air as if it was trying to snort them in to slow them down. From where he was, Saul couldn't tell if it was infected or nor. Lukas, cocky prick, had told the woman, Abi, that animals were safe from infection and she should keep her fucking stupid opinions to herself.
    That was before they were almost attacked by a particularly infected-looking murder of crows just a couple of days back.
    And now this . . .
    Saul raced across to the car and waited. It was all he could do. Part of him – the same sensible part which told him to stay put instead of running off to a short life of solitude – suggested climbing up onto the roof of the car. The dog was only a few feet away from the fleeing couple. Luckily, the key had a remote locking system, and just as Saul was about to climb, the locks opened; he looked up to find Lukas pointing the little black key towards the Olds.
    Saul pulled open all the doors and clambered into the back seat, shutting his behind him. Again, a voice told him to shut the doors, to let them get eaten by an infected – or uninfected, it didn't matter – dog, but he just couldn't do it. He would be trapped, and the dog would either end up dead, shot by Lukas, or the dog would prevail and hang around, which was just as bad because Lukas had the only key. He'd starve to death in the car, and starving to death was not a pleasant way to go, Saul surmised.. He remembered seeing a film, once, where a rabid dog had trapped a family in their car.
    It wasn't going to happen to him.
    He wound the window down just enough for a quick glance out, a glance that told him everything he needed to know; they were nearing, they were still running, and the dog was still chasing them. He pulled his head in and wound the window up. He couldn't watch, and he cursed himself for not knowing how to hotwire a fucking car.
    Lukas fired one last time, and this one elicited a whimper from the animal. Saul couldn't see anything through the steam and rain-covered back window – and he wasn't winding the window down again – but he saw the blurry silhouettes belonging to Abi and Lukas slow, as if suddenly less threatened.
    'YEAH!' Lukas bellowed,