Free Death Plague Omnibus [Four Zombie Novels] by Ian Woodhead Page B

road in five minutes.
    “And back to normality.”
    He threw the bayonet out, looked up and down the street one last time, and climbed onto the windowsill. When he saw those things pushing open the door a couple of inches, sliding the bed away from the wall, he screamed again and nearly jumped there and then.
    They still couldn’t get in, not yet anyway. Kevin turned, his eyes fixed on that door. Two pairs of hands reached around and inched up and down the edge. He was pretty sure one pair belonged to his sister.
    Maybe there was a cure for this already. Maybe it still wasn’t too late to save the ones affected.
    “I’ll come back, Claire,” he whispered. “I promise.” He eased his legs and body out into the warm night air. He doubted that the drop would hurt him if he hung from the window and dropped to the ground; it should only be a few feet.
    As he clung to the outside window ledge, preparing to let go, his boot was grabbed. He jerked his head down and saw Thom’s head leaning out of the open living room window, the boy’s hand guiding his foot towards his snapping jaws. He felt his fingers slipping. Oh fuck. If he let go now, he would break his bastard neck when he hit the ground.
    He swung his other foot into Thom’s face and felt the crunch of broken teeth, but the grip on his boot still remained firm. Kevin booted him again. This time he managed to find the spot he’d already hit with the binoculars. His foot sank into Thom’s head. It felt like he’d just booted a watermelon. The hand released his foot just as both of Kevin’s hands slipped off the wooden sill. He instinctively brought up his knees when his feet crashed into the lawn.
    Kevin rolled away from the window, and then shakily got back on his feet. He had done it! He couldn’t believe that he’d just jumped out of his own pissing window. Kevin reached down, snatched his bayonet out of the lawn, and looked over at the downstairs window.
    He managed a strangled laugh. “Got you that time, didn’t I?”
    Thom half sprawled out of the window, and he wasn’t moving. Kevin tapped Thom’s head with the flat of his blade, then jumped back. He still didn’t move.
    “Yeah, I got you that time,” he repeated. He used the deep grass to wipe off the thick mess coating the front of his boot. Events would have been so much different if Kevin had opted to wear his comfortable fabric trainers when he changed out of his school uniform tonight. His stomach suddenly rebelled.
    “Oh Jesus!” Kevin fell to his knees and threw up his last meal into his dad’s flowerbed.
    The sound of moaning made him look up towards his bedroom window. He wiped his chin on the back of his hand, then let out a small moan of his own. His sister had managed to get into his bedroom. Claire’s hungry eyes viewed him much as a dog looked at a rabbit. She slowly blinked before turning around and disappearing from view.
    He rushed over to the garden gate, unlatched it, and ran out into the still-deserted street. Kevin glanced behind him, and he could see Claire through the kitchen window making her way towards the open front door. Oh fucking hell! The bitch was following him.
    Yeah, well let her. It’s not like she’d be able to catch him. Kevin ran into the middle of the road and sprinted to the end of the street. He then stopped and turned around. Claire had reached the gate. She paused, too, then slipped out of the garden and lurched away in the opposite direction.
    Kevin turned onto Breaks Road and walked over to the white lines. He stopped in the middle and slowly turned in a tight circle. It felt like he was the last person on the estate still alive. Nothing moved. The main road leading out of the estate was at the end of this street. He consoled himself knowing that in a few moments his nightmare would be over.
    He started to jog. There was no point in knackering himself out by going hell for leather. He passed an upturned pram in the middle of the road and turned