Contagion (Toxic City) Read Online Free PDF

the monsters showed no signs of pursuing anything. They were animals with human attributes—or humans with animal aspects—and they were heading south into London with motives she could not perceive.
    She thought of Jack and the others a lot as she made her own way south. She had no idea how she'd find them, or whether they were even still in the city. Rook had told her that Emily and Jack's mother were safely away at least, but she had no idea what Jack might be doing now. Still, she had to do her best to find them all, and tell them about the bomb.
    She passed a small square with a park at the centre. It was overgrown, and the trees’ heavy canopies moved with something other than the breeze. Things whispered in there, secret mutterings that might have been about her. She ducked into an open front door and ran through the property, out across the backyard to the alley beyond, over a high wall into another garden, and smashed a window to gain access to another house. Three people were sitting around a table, dried bodies slumped down in their chairs and a meal gone black before them. Lucy-Anne left them to their peace and opened the front door.
    The street beyond was silent, and she ran.
    Moments later, something emerged from that house and came after her.
    She froze in the middle of the street and turned around, but there was nothing to see. Not one of those monsters , she thought. She didn't know how she could be so sure, but she clung on to that certainty. It followed, but without malevolence. Perhaps it was an echo of herself, the memory of what she had been or what she might have become had Rook not died. Her dream-shadow.
    How she wished she could dream him back again. But she had already seen how that had ended.
    “Who are you?” Lucy-Anne shouted. Her loud voice shocked her, echoing between buildings that had been silent for so long. She wondered whether a city could haunt itself. Somewhere so accustomed to the sounds of traffic and human interaction must find silence so strange.
    Nothing and no one answered.
    “Come out!” she said. “I don't bite.” She laughed, perhaps a little manically. She was the only thing she'd met in London that didn't bite.
    So she moved on instead, glancing back every now and then, seeing nothing, but knowing nonetheless that something saw her.
    Along streets, across squares, crossing road junctions clotted with crashed vehicles, Lucy-Anne headed south. She navigated by the sun—it had just risen, so she kept it on her left—and she thought how her father would have chuckled at that. He'd been a Scout leader when he was younger, and though Andrew had always been keen to listen to his dad, Lucy-Anne had been the rebellious one. She could see no sense in camping in the woods with a bunch of kids when she could be causing trouble in town with her friends. There was no point in learning knots and how to build a fire, when finding a pub that would serve them cheap, strong cider was so much more fun. Ifhe could see her now, he'd tell her that she was doing well at gaining her Survival Badge.
    She found herself at a T-junction, and across the road was the entrance to an industrial estate. In either direction along the road, the opposite side was lined with the bland grey metal of industrial and business units, and the map on the board at the entrance showed how vast it was. Straight through would be far easier than skirting around it. And at least from what she could see there was less traffic clogging the roads.
    As soon as she entered, the noises began. Clanging, dragging. Something following her across rooftops. Something with claws.
    She ducked into a large unit and hurried through to the other side. It was stacked with countless boxes of computer screens, millions of pounds in value now worth nothing. They weren't edible, couldn't burn, and would be useless as weapons. She hurried through, still listening for those sounds of pursuit.
    She found a fire escape that hung open, the