The Z Word (A Zombie Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page A

It was getting late in the afternoon and I asked Clare if she fancied a game of tennis on the Wii. She looked at me as if I had lost my mind, and shook her head. I think she was still being suffocated by shock, and it was my feeble attempt to take her mind off things and focus on something else.
    I walked over to the patio door to double-make sure it was locked. I peered from behind the roller blind that I had put to the floor and was relieved to see the back garden was still clear. Although I had a three-foot gate at the side of the house near the back garden where the alleyway was, I was aware that it wouldn't take too much effort to force the thing open, as it just relied on a latch to keep it closed.
    I turned to Clare. "Here," I called.
    She stood to her feet, eyes still gazing on the TV at an almost tearful Charlotte Hawkins on SKY News.
    "I'm gonna show you how to open and lock this patio door."
    Still gazing at the TV, Clare never responded to me. I puffed out my cheeks and switched the TV off. I suppose it was like striking up a conversation with your passenger while you drove past the aftermath of a car crash. I needed her full attention. She was in a different world.
    She gaped at me with confusion. "What?"
    I repeated, "I'm gonna show you how to open and lock the patio door."
    "Why," she gasped. "Where're you going?"
    "Nowhere for now. But I'll show you anyway, just in case..."
    I never finished my sentence.

Chapter Eleven
     
    An hour had passed and Clare had decided earlier to go for a nap. Time was dragging and although grateful to be alive, I thought that even if I had all the food and water that I needed and this virus continued, I would still lose my mind with boredom.
    I then heard Clare's voice. "John!" she called down. "Come and see this."
    I ran upstairs from the kitchen and was expecting to see more bloody carnage. I stood next to Clare and we both watched out of the front bedroom window as a slow moving convoy was driving through the street.
    Asked Clare, "Where're they going? Do they know something that we don't?"
    I had no answers to Clare's questions, and she added, "I wonder if we should flag it down, get a ride somewhere."
    I looked at her to see if she was being serious.
    She was.
    "They won't stop." I then pointed out to the road where a few of the dead were walking. "And if they did, I still don't think it's a good idea, do you?"
    "Maybe not," she spoke with a smile on her face, as if she had just realised her ridiculous question.
    "Oh, shit. Look at that." I pointed to one of the ghouls who began walking away from the small crowd and walked onto my drive.
    "Shit." Clare began to panic. "Where's it going? For the front door?"
    I never answered her and remained silent, while watching the lone zombie walk down the alleyway at the side of my house. Now I was panicking! Where was it going? And why was it going there?
    I just hoped it didn't manage to force its way through my flimsy gate. If it did, then it would end up in my back garden. And that could end up with a whole bunch of them in there, just yards from behind my patio door in the living room.
    I craned my neck to see if I could see it coming back out, but nothing was happening. I then saw the neighbour's cat darting out from the alleyway and guessed that the cat was what drew the thing to my house in the first place. Thankfully, the zombie reappeared and walked back onto the road.
    I looked out onto the street and could see that there was more of them, but where were they coming from? "The group is getting bigger." I rubbed my hands across my face and released a defeated sigh.
    "Why don't they just go away?"
    It was a very good question of Clare's. Why didn't they just go away? What were they hanging around for? Did they know there were others still trapped and was just biding their time? There were about twenty of them all shambling about in the street, but not really going anywhere in particular. They certainly weren't leaving the