Fear the Dead (Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

shriek pierced through the trees. My chest
flooded with panic. I knew what had made that shriek.
     
    I looked to
Lou. Her eyes were wide.
     
    “Is that – “
     
    My voice was
a whisper, the words cold on my throat. “Stalkers.”
     
    I let my
eyes adjust to the darkness and tried to tune into the silence. Twigs snapped.
Somewhere in front of me, I couldn’t tell how many feet away, a slick black
outline slunk along the ground. My stomach lurched.
     
    I gripped
the handle of my knife.  “We’ve got to move,” I said.
     
    Another
black outline joined the first. And then another. The faint shape of a head sniffed
the floor. A body slid over the bracken. Another shriek pierced my ears, jolted
my brain and wrapped around my spine like a cold hand.
     
    To my right,
Melissa sat up. She shook Justin awake. She looked at me, her eyes as wide as
discs.
     
    “What was
that?” she said.
     
    I held my
finger to my lips. Justin lifted himself from the ground and rubbed his eyes.
His skin was grey and his hair stuck out in curly clumps. There was another
shriek. Justin turned in its direction, and recognition shot his eyes.
     
    It had been
stupid to camp here, but there had been no choice. The Scottish wilderness was
so remote that houses were few and far between, and the woods had at least
offered a little cover. Stalkers stuck to populated areas where there would be
people to hunt, and I didn’t think there would be any out here. Yet here they
were. My skin felt frozen.
     
    “We need a
plan,” said Lou.
     
    I put my
fingers to my temples and rubbed them.
     
    “We can’t
run,” I said. “Ben can’t even walk, so we’d have to carry him. And none of us
can outrun stalkers with a kid on our back.”
     
    The black
shapes slunk closer. Their heads sniffed the floor and tried to pick up our
scent. Right now they were probing the ground, not sure what it was they
smelled, but it wouldn’t take long for them to confirm it.
     
    “You’re not
saying we leave him?” said Melissa.
     
    Alice’s eyes
snapped on mine. Her face turned into steel.
     
    “Hell no,” I
said.
     
    “Then what?”
asked Lou.
     
    There was
another crunch as a stalker trampled the twigs on the forest floor. The
darkness above pressed in on us, so thick I felt like I was drowning.
     
    We needed a
plan. We couldn’t all run, not with Ben. But we needed to escape. It was my
fault we were in this mess, and I owed it to them to do something. I had to
make it up to them, especially to Alice and Ben.
     
    I looked at
Alice. “A diversion is our only chance. Some of us will split off and draw the
stalkers away. I’ll volunteer for that. Alice, Ben, Melissa and Sana will go
the other way, away from the stalkers.”
     
    Alice shook
her head. “I can’t carry him as fast as you Kyle.” She looked down at her son.
His eyes were open. His breaths were raspy. “You take him. I’ll create the
diversion. Just get my son away from here.”
     
    I couldn’t
believe how fast Alice made the decision to leave her son. I was in awe of the
guts it took to do something like that. Maybe when the choice was leave your
son or watch him get torn apart by stalkers, the decision was easier to make.
     
    “Okay,” I
said.
     
    Lou stood
up. “I’ll go with you, Alice. “
     
    The stalkers
moved closer. I could almost hear their noses sniffing as they caught our
scent. I thought I could see the flashes of their teeth and their mouths set in
sickening grins. My heart pounded.
     
    “Me, Ben,
Justin and Melissa will go west. Alice, Lou, and Sana, you guys go east. Don’t
fight them, just run. If you’re quick, you should be able to get away.”
     
    Lou nodded.
Alice stood up, wrung her hands. She pulled Ben to his feet. She gave him a
long, pressing hug.
     
    “What’s
going on mum?” said his weak voice.
     
    She kissed
his forehead. When she pulled away, a wet film covered her eyes.
     
    “Go with
Kyle,” she said.
     
    “Remember,”
I