Swarm (Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

already knowing what he would comment on.
    “What’s that,” he said, pointing at the wound on her front.
    “It happened before the zombies, before, you know, the first day,” said Laura. Somehow she didn’t feel like he would believe that it had come from a grenade blast.
    “What is it?”
    “I was in hospital… I was stabbed,” the story sounded stupid in her head.
    “Really?”
    “Yeah… I know… It was… crazy. And now this… er, look there’s zombies back there,” she gestured to the trees, “and all around, we need to keep moving.”
    Zack’s eyes widened. “What, you just saw them?”
    “Yeah just over there. They didn’t see me but…”
    Zack held her eyes for a while, and then began to nod his head slightly, as if convincing himself of something.
    “You promise you’re safe?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Okay… I’m going this way,” he gestured behind him.
    “Can I come?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Okay…”
    “…walk ahead of me, please.”
    “Where are we going?”
    “A house… My grandparents’.”
    …
    Zack wanted to help, and he wanted her to help him. But he had to be careful. She looked pale, and seemed sort of out of it.
    It was possible, despite what his gut told him, it was possible that she could be infected. But it seemed unlikely because, as far as he knew, if a person was bitten, then they turned into a zombie straight away. He had no proof for this, but he believed it. Still, just to be safe, he decided to keep her talking. That way, if she started going through some sort of transformation at least it would be easier to notice.
    “Do you know anything about what’s happening?” said Zack.
    “No… do you?”
    “No… but you didn’t see nothing? Or nothing on the news?”
    “No.”
    Zack tried to think of something else.
    “There might be nothing at my Grandma’s house. It might be empty… or no food…”
    “Okay, that’s fine,” she said.
    “I’ve not been since the zombies.”
    “It’s okay. I just need somewhere to go.”
    “Yeah… but… you want to know my story? How I got here?”
    “… Yeah.”
    The truth ran through the back of Zack’s mind, how Borys and Alicja had kicked him out, unable to trust him after he had failed to share his medicine with their son, who was also epileptic. Zack had seen their son have a few fits during his time with them. But he knew enough about epilepsy to know that the kid wasn’t at much risk. Borys and Alicja clearly hadn’t felt the same way, finding out he was epileptic was enough for them to search him. Upon finding his medicine, their minds were made up. It was a personal betrayal. He had to go.
    “I was with some people, I had an epileptic fit and they said that I was slowing them down.” Zack regretted the lie slightly. It was too close to the truth. He didn’t want her to know about his epilepsy. Why had he put that in there?
    “Oh…that’s hor— nasty” said Laura, impassively. The lack of empathy in her voice made Zack feel uneasy.
    “Yeah… so that’s how I ended up here.”
    “Well…" said Laura, but she trailed off and went silent.
    …
    Eventually they came to a downwards slope, at the bottom of which they could see a farmhouse with two expensive looking cars parked outside. A loose gravel road ran away from the house, up a hill and out of view. There were no other buildings in sight.
    “This is it,” said Zack quietly.
    Laura was exhausted. Zack’s constant conversation, the walk and the chaos in her head had all bled into one, overwhelming ordeal — she just wanted it to be over. She just wanted to lie down. She suddenly realised that she had forgotten all about food. Her hunger had gone… totally gone. It had been so long. She knew her body was surely close to starvation. And yet, it didn’t feel like it.

Chapter 8
    As they approached the front door they saw a briefcase. On it was a laminate pouch, with paper inside, and on the paper was writing:
    Code: 2244. We are dead. Take the