The Swiss Family RobinZOM (Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

and shards of yellow bamboo flew into the air. The shockwave knocked them all to the ground.

 
     
    Seven
     
    Bill started awake. His vision was blurry. A cream coloured blob stood over him. A high-pitched tone rung in his ears. Someone said something, but the voice came in curt muffles, sounding like it came through a tuba. Bill turned his head to the side, and a square block of yellow began to take shape.
    Only the ends of Family Bridge on either side of the embankment still remained, jutting bamboo aflame. Curls of smoke hid the beach, and then rose up into the air and disappeared on a strong breeze like a magic trick. The Lurchers on the bridge were gone, and those on the other side, some with newly missing limbs, groaned with disappointment at having missed their meal. They crowded around one another, pushing forward, forcing a couple of the Lurchers into the raging river. They were swept downriver and out to sea. Then the Lurchers began wandering in different directions. Some headed back down the beach, others toward the seafront, others headed back to the cruise liner, but most walked along the riverside, following it up into the jungle.
    Bill looked back at the cruise liner, still jutting up in the air like a monument to the old world. Lurchers fell out of the wreckage like a running tap, stumbled through the shallow water onto the beach, and into the jungle in one continuous line. Bill’s hearing was the last thing to clear.
    “ad… Can you hear me?” Fritz said. “Dad?”
    Fritz clicked his fingers in front of his father’s face.
    “Yes,” Bill said. “I can hear you. Where’s Jack? Where is he?”
    Then Bill was aware Ernest had something cradled in his arms. When he looked closer he realised it was Jack. His face was covered with blood.

 
     
    Eight
     
    A thin wisp of grey smoke wound upward into the sky. It was thin and faint compared to the thick black clouds to the west on the opposite side of the island. And something jutted up at the sky there, something big and massive, but largely obscured by the jambu trees. Liz reached for the winch to take her down to the ground, but held back. She looked down at Francis who stood beside her, holding her hand.
    “What was that noise, Momma?” Francis said.
    “It was an explosion,” Liz said.
    “Did Daddy cause it?”
    “Yes,” she said. “He did.”
    “Why?”
    “Because there are some bad men out there.”
    “Like the bad men on the Adventurer ?”
    Liz turned to look at Francis. He was small for his age and looked even smaller in Jack’s old clothes that swamped him in arm and leg.
    “I didn’t know you remembered that,” Liz said.
    “I remember,” he said. “Bad men on the boat coming for us. When we got shipwrecked.”
    “Yes,” Liz said, pushing the memory from her mind. “Bad men like that. We have to stop them from getting on the island or we will have to leave.”
    “Leave? But I like it here.”
    “I do too.”
    The foliage on the edge of the clearing shook and admitted Bill, Ernest and Fritz. Bill carried something in his arms. Liz put a hand to her chest and felt a lump form in her throat.
    “Bill?” she said, calling down. “Is that Jack? What’s happened?”
    “Get the winch down, quick!” Bill said.
    Liz’s hands were a blur as she threaded the coarse rope through her hands and lowered the winch. Bill strapped himself into the harness and gripped Jack around the armpits.
    “Pull me up!” he said.
    Liz pushed a container full of water over the edge. As it fell, Bill rose fast, gripping Jack tight in his arms. He came to a stop.
    “Take Jack,” he said.
    Liz took hold of Jack and laid him on the floor. Jack had a stream of dried blood that ran from his right ear and down to the bottom of his neck. Bill knelt beside Jack on the floor.
    “Get my things,” Bill said, unbuttoning his shirt.
    “What things?” Liz said.
    “God damn it, Liz! Now’s not the time to be dense. My medical things. Hurry.”
    Bill