The Swiss Family RobinZOM (Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

is,” Bill said, nodding. “He must have fallen out of the tree and gotten injured, though I don’t see any broken bones. How else could the zombies have gotten him? I don’t understand why he didn’t run way. Zombies could never hope to keep up with him. They’re slow and stupid. No, something fast got to him and wouldn’t let go until it was done with him. Which makes me wonder why they didn’t kill him when they had the chance.”
    “Then it wasn’t a zombie?” Fritz said.
    “I don’t know,” Bill said. “But it’s mighty strange.”
    The jaguar let out another low groan of pain. Bill kneeled down next to it and placed his hand on its head. It raised its paw in defence, but lacked the strength to do much more than gently pat Bill’s arm.
    “Sh, sh, sh,” Bill said. “It’s all right.”
    Bill slipped his knife deep into the jaguar’s neck. The big cat’s eyes snapped open wide, a snuffled squawk escaping its throat. Its eyes rolled back into its head and its tongue lolled out of its mouth, body going lax. Bill laid the jaguar’s head down.
    “There are dangerous creatures on the island,” Bill said. “We’d best be on our guard. We’ll go hunting for them in the morning. Until then, no one goes into the jungle by themselves. Understood?”
    The family nodded.
    The sea lapped against the unmoving black shadow on the sand. It washed him out to sea as if he had never existed at all.

Chapter Two
    Bill, Fritz, Ernest and Jack walked through the undergrowth, each looking out in a different direction. They wore their armour; coconut helmets, knee and elbow pads, bamboo tubes over their arms and legs, and dried tar boots on their feet. In their hands they gripped cudgels with knobbly bumps on the end, the low surface area ideal for smashing open skulls.
    “I was thinking about what kind of zombies these things might be,” Jack said.
    “Oh yeah?” Bill said.
    “I was thinking, what if they’re intelligent?” Jack said.
    “Intelligent how?” Bill said.
    “At plans and things,” Jack said. “Like us. They could have caught the jaguar and then attacked it.”
    “It’s a nice idea,” Bill said. “But so far we’ve seen hundreds of these things and none of them has an IQ over five.”
    “But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist,” Jack said.
    “No,” Ernest said. “But there’s any number of things that might exist.”
    “Like chocolate teapots,” Fritz said.
    “Or waterproof teabags,” Ernest said.
    “Or inflatable dartboards,” Fritz said.
    “Enough of that, you two,” Bill said. “There’s something out here. We need to be on our sharpest if we’re to find it before it finds us.”
    “I think I found it,” Ernest said. “Or, at least, a sign of it.”
    Ernest put his hand to a broad tree trunk, a trunk that had three long claw marks slashed diagonally across it. The outer bark had been torn away, leaving the inner yellow sapwood visible.
    “Looks like Wolverine stopped by,” Ernest said.
    “What could have done this?” Fritz said.
    Bill put his three middle fingers to the markings, which, when clawed, fit perfectly.
    “The same thing that killed the jaguar,” he said.
    A pheasant whistled and honked as it flew from a bush and floated on the air away from them. Fritz, Ernest and Jack spun around, wary, cudgels raised. Bill bent down, looking at the snapped foliage on the ground. He pressed the foliage over to one side.
    “He went this way,” Bill said, following the tracks.
    “I can’t make out any footprints,” Fritz said.
    “That’s because they’re not footprints,” Bill said. “It’s a handprint. He doesn’t move the way we do. It seems to twist around in circles, scratching anything that gets close to it. Here, look. He damaged another tree.”
    “Maybe he’s doing it to remember where he’s going,” Ernest said. “Some animals do that.”
    “Maybe,” Bill said. He didn’t sound convinced.
    At times the tracks consisted of footprints,