Undead at Heart Read Online Free PDF

planes flash out over the countryside and then turn and race back
towards them. As they passed back over her head she saw rockets strapped to the
underside of the wings. Even as she noticed them, flames sparked at their rears
and they left the planes behind in the wake of their exhausts. Moments later an
almighty explosion rocked the world, causing her to stumble to her knees and
clutch at Alyssa who, in turn, clutched at her mother.
    A flash of flame
dimmed the sun, bared the trees and threw cindered leaves at her on a hot fist
of wind. She bowed her head and waited to be burned alive, but there was no
further blast. The missiles had impacted far enough away to not kill them, just
for them to be caught in the wash. She lifted her head, squinting open her eyes
at the heat.
    Fall had come early
and all the trees were lit in shades of yellow and orange, the black
silhouettes of their branches playing host to a raging fire. Behind them the
field looked as though it contained a new type of rape which was more than just
yellow, it was alive with light. And beyond that? What was that?
    She was aware, even as
she knelt there and held Alyssa tight into her chest that Tony was no longer
beside her. She looked round, concerned, and saw him once more vault the
central barrier. He continued across the road, down the bank, and disappeared
into the trees on the far side. Some of them were starting to smoulder, but
they had fared a lot better than the ones on her side.
    She turned back and
looked through the burning, aware that the heat was growing. She tried to see
through the flames and shimmer. There was something there, something moving on
the ridge. She could only imagine it was whatever the planes had been shooting
at. Whatever it was, it was huge and didn’t seem to have been in the least bit
bothered by the missile strike.
    But she couldn’t see
it clearly and now the heat was too intense, she could feel her skin tightening
as it started to burn. She picked Alyssa up and, more slowly and with extra
care for her daughter, she followed Tony.
    The crowd on the far
side which, like her, had been gaping at the transformation of the landscape, were also starting to back into the relative
safety of the trees. She hoisted Alyssa over the rail, climbed over, then
picked her daughter up again. As she reached the hard shoulder on the far side
she looked back. The trees were starting to fall, bringing burning branches and
trunks down onto the carriageway. As she watched, a long branch crashed onto
her car. She stood, transfixed, as her people-carrier started to go the same
way as Tony’s Audi, and might not have moved even when it exploded and the fire
started to creep across the road, if someone hadn’t taken her arm and started
pulling her towards the relative sanctuary of the woods.
    She looked round, to
find the owner of the hand on her arm. It was a man not that much older than
herself, early-forties at a guess, his face covered with the same black streaks
that she supposed she was adorned with. He was giving her a confused but
soothing smile. “Come on, love,” he said, his voice only just audible over the
crackling blaze. “Time to get somewhere a little safer.”
    “But… But… Just what the hell is going on?” she asked him.
    He shook his head.
“Fuck knows!” He grinned at the look of shock on her face, then pulled on her arm again. “Come on, we better move before the cars start to go
up, and the trees on this side of the road too, maybe.”
    She nodded, glancing
back one last time to where her car was now lost in a ball of fire. She felt a
moment of guilt, wondering if her wish to be rid of the Queen CD had
precipitated all this, then dismissed such a silly thought. With Alyssa held in
her arms, head tucked into her mother’s neck, Nicola followed her saviour into
the cool of the woods.

Eight
     
     
    Tony ran into the
woods, the smooth soles of work shoes slipping on the grass and detritus. As
soon he was under the