Free The Z Word (A Zombie Novel) by Shaun Whittington Page A

slayer—some sarcasm there for you, it still made me fearful what could be behind the blind, standing in my back garden, inches away from me.
    Just the thought of one of those things made my stomach turn inside out. All I wanted to do was to dwell in my house, watch TV with my new housemates, and sleep as much as possible, until there was a knock on my door by a heavily-armed soldier telling me that I had to leave with him to the nearest quarantined area.
    Maybe I had been watching too many Hollywood films and had read too many Shawn Chesser books, and the reality was that we were all going to die, either from dehydration, starvation, or being attacked by the dead. I counted up to three, then gently pulled back the blind to see nothing, but a darkened garden.
    After a few seconds, with the blinds still pulled to one side, I looked at the girls and made a facial expression suggesting that there was no one there. I turned round and gawped out into the garden to see the neighbours' cats chasing one another, as they usually did on an evening. They weren't house cats, but both young cats that belonged to one of my neighbours and were still in that playful mode and occasionally would accidentally run into my patio door and bounce off the glass.
    The ginger one was called Millie and was a little older than the black and white one, which was called Azrael. They obviously had no clue on what was happening and continued as if it was just a normal day, lucky bastards. "It's just cats."
    I produced a smile and Clare asked me why I was smiling. I didn't tell her, as I thought it was a little lame, so I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "Nothing. Just thinking."
    I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard Kelly scream out, "Frig me; what the bloody hell was tha'?"

Chapter Twenty Six
     
    All three of us were standing up straight in the living room, glaring at one another, wondering what the hell to do next. This time a thudding noise came from my front door, which was outside my living room, down the hallway. Predictably, both women glared at me, after all, it was my house, so I felt that I should check it out.
    I peered my head out of the living room door and looked straight down the hall where the reception area was, and could see one of them through the frosted glass of the front door. I had no idea if it was lost, if it was trying to get in, or what! What put panic into my body was that there was a reality that this solitary ghoul could end up attracting more of the things.
    I made sure that I didn't expose my body when staring at this sight, as I didn't want it to see any kind of movement that could alert what senses it had left. My goal was not to excite the creature and potentially put the three of us in an unnecessary danger.
    "What is it?" Clare sharply whispered. "Are some of those cunts by the door again?"
    I twitched once I heard Clare say this. I couldn't hold my tongue. "Look," I began. "Don't take this the wrong way, but stop saying the C word, will you."
    "Cunt?"
    "Yes, that word."
    "Well, what would you call them?"
    I shrugged my shoulder and cleared my throat, getting ready to be ridiculed. "Well...they're zombies, aren't they?"
    Clare guffawed, "That's ridiculous." And Kelly joined in with the hilarity.
    "Why is it ridiculous?"
    Answered Clare, "Because zombies belong in the movies."
    "Look, I'm sorry to be bringing up the Z word, but that's exactly what they are. They shamble, they're dead, but can walk, and destroying the brain is the only way to put them down. So what else would you call them?"
    There was a silence between both women and I received no answer from either one of them. Clare finally spoke, "Fine. I won't use the C word anymore, but I'm certainly not calling them the Z word, it's ridiculous."
    I sighed, realising that arguing with Clare was pointless and a waste of energy. I took another look at my front door to see that the lone zombie had now disappeared. I then shut the living room door.
    "Has it