For Those In Peril (Book 2): The Outbreak Read Online Free PDF Page B

around, stopping when I saw it lying several feet away. Despite
the carnage, there was no movement.
    As
quietly as possible, I unlocked the door and inched it open. I adjusted my grip
on the machete I was holding and nervously stuck my head outside. Everything was
still. I crept forward to the edge of the stone steps where I could finally see
not just down Buchanan Street, but also up the street to the right; it, too, was
littered with bodies. Off in the distance, I could make out some movement, but
nothing closer. I beckoned the others to follow and together we picked our way
along Buchanan Street, alert to any signs of life.
    As we
passed the dead lying in the street, I couldn’t help but stare. Some bore deep
wounds and had clearly been killed by those with the virus; others had bruises
and broken limbs, and looked more like they’d been trampled to death in the
stampede. We reached the steps at the entrance to a shopping mall and I glanced
through the glass doors: bodies were piled at the base of the escalators, some
having fallen from a great height. Above them, I could see others hanging over
handrails, held there by the mass of people that had pushed up from behind in a
desperate bid to escape. In amongst the bodies, there were movements from those
trapped in the crush, or who’d been so badly injured they couldn’t get up again.
Then I saw him: a man dressed in loose-fitting chinos and an open-necked Oxford
shirt, both of which were soaked in blood, chewing on the face of a teenage
girl. From the way she was lying, I could tell both her legs were broken, but
the fall hadn’t killed her; she was trying to fend him off, but she was no match
for him and he buried his teeth into her flesh again and again. Knowing there
was nothing I could do to help and unable to watch any longer, I turned away,
feeling the bile rise in my throat as I did so.
    Then I
felt the ground tremble beneath my feet. It was something I’d felt hundreds of
times before and I knew exactly what it was.  I looked at Tom. ‘You feel that?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘You
think the underground’s still going?’
    ‘Must
be.’
    The
tremors stopped as the subway train pulled into the station which lay directly
below us. Then I heard a sound, so faint at first I wasn’t sure it was real, but
as it grew louder and louder, I became certain it was. It seemed to be coming
from the glass-covered entrance to the station thirty yards further down the
street, and sounded like distant thunder.
    Iliana
gripped Tom’s arm. ‘What’s that?’
    Not
having an answer, Tom and I shrugged. Suddenly, I realised I could hear
screaming and shouting mixed with the noise itself. Then the first person burst
onto the street, running as fast as he could. He glanced back and stumbled over
a body lying in front of him. He scrambled to his feet, without even bothering
to look at what he’d tripped over, and started running again. Another person
appeared, but this one looked different: he was dishevelled, with blood dripping
from a wound on his left cheek. He chased after the first man and was quickly
followed by another and then another. Soon, people were streaming from the
entrance, and it was clear they were infected. As one, we turned and raced up
the street and back to the stone steps. At the top, I stopped and looked back:
the man was still running, but the infected were closing in behind him.
    ‘Oi,
up here,’ I waved as I shouted. He saw me and changed direction. Iliana was
already inside and Tom was holding the door open as he yelled at me. ‘Ben,
you’ve got to get back in here now.’
    ‘We
can’t leave him out here; they’ll kill him!’ Turning back to the man, I saw he
was at the bottom of the steps, with the first of the infected only a few yards
behind. I sprinted over to Tom, and got there in time to see the man reach the
top just as the heads of the pursuing infected came into view. He made it to the