Diaries of the Damned Read Online Free PDF Page B

shattered upon impact and they began falling left and right depending on which leg gave first, only to be crushed by the speeding wheels, or they fell forward, into the car, whereupon they disappeared under it.
    The crowd had only been a few lines deep, maybe a hundred zombies in all. When the car burst through and into the open space beyond, Jessica finally took a breath. She hadn’t realized that she had been holding it, until her lungs burst into flame to help get the message across. In the rearview mirror she saw , to her horror, that not only had the zombies turned to give chase to her, but that many of those she had hit were still alive; crawling along the road, with their legs nothing but mangled lumps of useless flesh trailing behind them.
    Jessica wasted no time in getting the car moving again. Every street she passed told a similar story. Bodies littered the roads, hung from windows, or ran screaming from one house to the next, desperate to find shelter. The road was slick with blood and dotted with scraps of flesh and organs. She noticed several livers lying on the ground near bodies that had been dismembered beyond the point of recognition; yet still they lived, flapping on the floor, immobile yet still gripped by the cannibalistic cravings.
    The sound of the car attracted zombies to it like moths to a flame. It was early and the area was quiet at the best of times, so Jessica was the only real target they had. Thanks to the missing rear window, the sound of their undead growls filled the car and chilled her to the bone. There were also more than a few genuine cries for help, but Jessica didn’t stop. She didn’t look, for she knew that she had abandoned those people, condemning them to death. Her subconscious had taken over and kept her focused on the task at hand, protecting her as best it could by shutting out all things that would slow her down or cause her problems once she resumed full control.
    The motorway was not too far from where Jessica lived, the ring road that looped the city, and she could see the road that led to the airport around the midpoint. It was there that she was determined to reach. Her mind operated on the single hope that maybe, just maybe, there would be a plane ready to leave.
    Despite the infancy of the outbreak, the zombies were everywhere, and it seemed to Jessica as if every street she passed grew worse. Her escape was aided by the many families who, listening to the news broadcasts, had barricaded themselves in their homes. Every house seemed to have a group of the undead pounding at the doors and windows. They may not be smart but with the power they could produce, especially in a group, it was only a matter of time before the locks and chains caved and the buffet opened.
    Once Jessica was on the motorway, the activity seemed to lessen, although there were several zombies wandering aimlessly along the lanes, moving through the abandoned cars in search of food. Cars, lorries and more than a few buses littered all four lanes, which caused Jessica to have to slow the car down to not much more than walking speed in some places, in order for her to maneuver through the gaps.
    As she navigated one of the gaps, Jessica came closest to losing her life. After having negotiated her way through a series of abandoned vehicles, Jessica happened to glance in her rearview mirror and saw movement coming from the inside of a severely dented station wagon. The occupants of the front seats were clearly dead, however as she watched, she saw it again. A child struggling to climb over its dead parents and escape. Without thinking, Jessica stopped the car and got out. The child pounded against the window. Her fist an d the glass were smeared with blood from the effort. The child could not have been more than three or four years old judging by her size.
    “Wait.  Wait a second, I’ll get you out,” Jessica called through the glass, aware of the three zombies that bore down upon her. Their bodies