The Beginning Read Online Free PDF Page B

anything, then Martin stopped abruptly, gazing into the distance.
    Kelly leaned in close to Martin and dropped her voice to a whisper. “What is it? What do you see?”
    Martin put a finger to his lips and then pointed to a rock on the floor about 20 metres in front of them. Then it moved, and Kelly realised it wasn’t a rock at all, but a very slow moving woman. 
    Duke let out a low growl and lowered himself to the ground, his snout level with his haunches .
    The women was crawling away from them, dragging her body along and oblivious to them behind her. Martin drew up his hunting rifle and rested the butt in his shoulder, aiming at the gradually moving woman’s head. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
    Out of the corner of his vision a hand rose up sharply and pushed down on the barrel of the gun. Kelly mouthed no and handed Martin Duke’s lead, then, cleaver in hand, started to quietly creep towards the woman.
    **
    Collin paced the room restlessly.
    The only sound in the room was Mollie’s deep breathing. His Mollie. The love of his life.
    He’d checked under the bandage over an hour ago and it hadn’t looked good. The blood around and in the cut had turned black, the veins around the bite-mark were raised a nd shockingly violet.
    He looked out of the window, plunged his hands into his pockets and watched his son and Kelly cross the field. Behind him, Mollie’s eyes opened.

Chapter 10
    Crunch.
    The nurse whirled around at the sound of Kelly’s foot breaking a branch and let out a high pitched shriek. She began dragging herself along the ground with new found vigour.
    The nurse’s awkward movement reminded Martin of a documentary on the Discovery Channel about the Komodo dragon. The commentator had said that despit e its awkward gait the Komodo dragon was deceptively quick and was able to reach speeds of 12 mph.
    It seemed the woman had some Komodo dragon blood in her as she was soon racing towards Kelly.
    Kelly didn’t hesitate and plunged the cleaver into the forehead of the woman in one motion. The woman went limp immediately and had the image of clinging onto Kelly’s cleaver, almost like a puppet.
    Kelly pulled the cleaver out. “Right, you grab her under the arms.”
    “Wow, wow, wow. What the hell just happened? Kelly Aldrich. The girl who was pissed when she broke a nail, now stabs people in the head like it’s an ordinary cheerleading move or something?”
    Kelly let out a low chuckle. “You guys out here really have no id ea do you? These fuckers will kill you. It’s you or them. Now, let’s go. It’s getting dark.”
    Martin looked down at Duke and gave his lead a tug as he started walking towards the woman’s body.
    “She’s scary isn’t she, boy? Hold Duke while I pick her up.” Martin flung the lead towards Kelly before she could react.
    “NO!”
    But it was too late. Duke was already running.
    Followed closely by Kelly, sprinting off towards the forest.
    **
    “He’s got to be the worst behaved dog ever.” Martin mumbled.
    “Wait. Listen.”
They both stood still and listened. To the left of them came a faint scratching sound and then the unmistakable whimper of Duke. Kelly pressed her finger to her lips and then began slowly walking towards the sound.
    They came to the edge of an opening and ca ught sight of Duke. He was scratching at the bottom of a tree looking up towards something in one of the branches. As Martin and Kelly entered the opening it became apparent what had fixed Duke’s attention.
    “Oh Jesus Duke. A squirrel? Really? Don’t you kn ow what’s out here?” Kelly crouched and wrapped both her arms around the dog. “Don’t you ever do that again. I thought I’d lost you buddy.”
    Martin glanced up at the orangey sky through the upper canopy. “The sun is setting.”
    Kelly grimaced and stood up. “We’ve got to hurry.”
    Kelly bent over and reattached Duke’s lead to his collar. She wrapped her end of the lead around her hand once, then after