The Dust: Book Two - Pursuit Read Online Free PDF

glass towards the plastic guttering, she was nearly there, she started to feel a bit better.
    Joyce was just about to turn around to move over the edge when the wooden garden gate which led onto the outside pavement running around the cul-de-sac burst off its hinges and crashed to the ground. She panicked, she instinctively knew this was bad and immediately tried to clamber up the glass. The dew was still on the pane as the sun had yet to burn it off and Joyce slipped and could feel herself fall backwards. She tried to stand to get some more leverage but this had disastrous consequences and Joyce lost all grip tumbling back and flipping over the guttering and onto the slate patio below.
    She opened her eyes and for a split second Joyce thought everything was okay. The pain then hit her sensory nerve fibres and she cried out, the sweat furred her brow and nausea churned in her stomach. Joyce looked down at her feet and then instantly wished she had kept her eyes away. Her left foot was pointing downwards and in a direction that it had never pointed before, it was badly broken. Her right foot was in a worse state though, her ankle had snapped and a piece of bone had pierced through her skin and was sticking out. Joyce was then sick and began to pass out. It wasn’t until she heard the murmuring noise that she recalled the gate being smashed off its hinges, then her ankles became the least of her problems.
    Through the sunlight she could make out a figure stumbling towards her, it was naked, worse still it was her neighbour Derek Crayford.
    ‘Derek!’ She cried. ‘Is that you?’ Joyce winced with the pain.
    The naked figure didn’t answer but sniffed the air and kept walking towards his prey.
    ‘Derek, what’s happened?’ Joyce now tried to lift herself up but the pain was too much and the cold sweats overcame her and she could feel herself losing consciousness.
    Suddenly another figure appeared behind the naked Derek Crayford. Joyce shielded her eyes from the sun and could make out it was another neighbour, Elaine Smith.
    ‘Elaine help me please, I need a doctor.’
    Out of the sunlight the portly woman in her early fifties moved into the shade and Joyce could see she too was naked. She could also see a madness in her eyes and that blood was smeared all over her breasts and stomach.
    ‘What’s happening?’ Joyce yelled. ‘Please help me!’ Summoning up her inner strength she managed to drag herself across the patio trying to get herself to the backdoor, she was only a few feet away when she felt a cold hand on her leg.
    ‘No!’ She screamed. ‘Get off.’ Joyce kicked out suddenly forgetting the pain in her ankle.
    Then another hand, a smaller one touched her shoulder.
    This time Joyce was whimpering. ‘Please leave me alone.’
    She could then feel a set of teeth bite into the back of neck and then another set sink into her thigh. Joyce closed her eyes and thought of Amber, ‘Please be safe.’ She whispered, then she could feel a hand being forced through the back of her neck and into her throat, thankfully that was the last thing Joyce Meadows felt.

Chapter Four
    ‘Where is that child?’ Roger grumbled as he sat in driver’s seat of the truck ready to depart from Wisteria Hall.
    ‘Lou, we are ready to leave!’ Jake shouted from the patio outside the orangery.
    ‘Honey, we need to get a wriggle on.’ Angel called out as she walked past the big barn where the diesel had been stored.
    ‘They are looking for you.’ Giggled Alice.
    ‘Shhh.’ Lou Pepper placed a finger on her pursed lips. ‘They will find us if you aren’t quiet.’ She then sniggered.
    ‘Don’t you want to go with them?’ Alice asked.
    ‘Yes, Angel is like my new mummy now even though I miss my old one. Everything is different now, no school, no Bonzo the dog but worst of all no sweets.’ She frowned.
    ‘I know.’ Alice agreed. ‘My Daddy went to live with the angels a few years ago, I can’t really remember much about it