Last Days With the Dead Read Online Free PDF Page B

wait for her to speak again, they could almost visibly see her sifting through the information stored in her head, looking for just the right reference she needed.
    ‘The Eden project ,’ she said triumphantly, ‘St Austall is where they built the Eden project.’
    ‘Oh yeah .’ said Patrick, remembering why the town had sounded familiar.
    ‘Eden project? What’s that?’ asked Leon.
    ‘The Eden project was the world largest set of greenhouses open to the public,’ Patrick began, surprising Nadine by his knowledge. ‘It had been built over a reclaimed mining pit just a few miles outside of St Austall, and was a collection of vast bio-domes type things that were made into various environments, you know, a tropical dome, a desert dome, that sort of thing.  It was basically an ecology and conservation place. Quite impressive.’
    ‘Oh ,’ replied Leon.
    ‘I was roped in on a school trip, back when I was a P.E. teacher ,’ Patrick said to Nadine, noticing her look.
    ‘So , looks like that’s where our nice middle class tourists came from then,’ said Leon, giving Phil a grin.
    Like Phil, Leon’s upbringing had been far from middle class , and he knew his mother had at times even struggled to pay the rent on their small council flat on the estate.
    ‘Leon,’ said Jen, slightly shocked by his attitude , ‘middle class or working class, they were still people, and they died horribly.’
    ‘Sorry ,’ he replied, realising Jen probably came from one of the types of families he had just casually written off.
    ‘Can we drop the social commentary,’ said Patrick, leaning against one of the long tables, ‘none of that matters now. What matters , is why the Dead are on the move after all this time, and if they’re coming this way.’
    Silence descended on the Refectory, broken only by the sounds of the younger children whispering to each other as they played.
    ‘So assuming there’s an exodus from St Austall, and as the Dead only move when they see something worth following,’ Liz finally said, taking Saleana, who was starting to wake up, from Phil’s arms, ‘who or what are they following?’
    ‘Could there have still been survivors living in the domes after are all these years ,’ Imran asked. ‘And for some reason, they had to leave and now the Dead are following them.’
    ‘It’s a possibility ,’ replied Patrick, absentmindedly chewing on the inside of his mouth, as he contemplated the likelihood that people could have been living in the domes all this time.
    ‘Look, there’s nothing we can do about the Dead,’ said Phil, pushing himself up from the bench , now that he was free of his tiny burden and walking over to look at the large map. ‘We can increase patrols and clear them as often as we can, but if they’re coming this way, they’re coming. All we can do is to make sure we’re ready for them.’
    ‘Phil’s right,’ Patrick agreed , ‘we just have to be vigilant for now and hope the bulk of them passes us by. We should have a proper meeting this evening to fill everyone else in on what’s happening.’
    ‘Right, now that’s settled , I’m going to clear the corpses from outside. I’ll spread the word about the meeting as I go,’ said Phil, turning to leave. ‘Oh, if it’s okay with you, Patrick, I think Gabe’s punishment should wait until we’ve got a better handle on things. There’s no point in us both being out there, not now.’
    Patrick thought about it for a second and then nodded. As enthusiastic and as proficient at dispatching the Dead as Gabe was, there was no point in putting him in danger unnecessarily. Not now, they knew they could be swamped by the Dead at any moment.
    Phil’s hand was hovering just over the door handle when the door was suddenly pushed open from the other side with some urgency, banging into his hand.
    ‘Ouch,’ said Phil, automatically lifting his fingers to his mouth.
    ‘Oh , my God, sorry, Phil,’ said Chloe, her face flushed as