Year of the Zombie (Book 8): Scratch Read Online Free PDF Page A

up to ten hours after an attack.
    If anyone you are with
has any unexplained scratches, cuts or other skin lesions, isolate them.
    If a person you believe
may have been infected is still docile and able to talk, tape up their hands.
    Both Jody and Charlie
laughed out loud at that one. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ Charlie said. ‘You
think that’s going to help? Who writes this shit?’
    ‘You know what it’s
like... half the stuff we hear on the news is bullshit. They’re empty words
designed to stop people panicking, that’s all.’
    ‘Mind you, I think panic
is perfectly justified today.’
    ‘I think you’re
absolutely right.’
    Gary entered the
kitchen, and the conversation abruptly ended. He fetched himself a coffee from
the pot. ‘Not talking about me, I hope.’
    ‘She wouldn’t want to
hear what I’ve got to say about you,’ Jody answered quickly, then regretted it.
    Gary grinned broadly,
then disappeared again.
    ‘Sorry,’ Jody said.
    ‘Not a problem.’
    ‘Yes it is. It’s my problem. I’m the only one here who despises Gary.’
    ‘He can be a real pain
in the arse at times, I’ll admit.’
    Jody bit her tongue and
resisted the temptation to say anything more.
    An instantly familiar,
instantly recognisable high-pitched scream came from somewhere deep in the
depths of the house. Jody was on her feet instantly. ‘It’s Holly,’ she said,
and ran to find her youngest daughter.
    She wasn’t with the
others. Jody found the unfamiliar house maze-like, and her panic increased with
each empty room she checked. Charlie found her in the upstairs study, standing
on a chair and bawling her eyes out. ‘Spider,’ she wailed, pointing down at the
ground. Jody stamped on it then lifted her daughter down, relieved.
    Gary, Ben and Jenny
weren’t far behind. Holly pushed away from Jody and ran over to her dad who scooped
her up and swung her around. ‘Don’t worry, you’re safe here, little one. Daddy
won’t let anything hurt you.’
    ***
    This was turning out to be a peculiarly
well-contained apocalypse. Because of the geography of the outbreak, its
progress had been slowed almost to a (dead) stop. The effort of the authorities
and military had been concentrated on preventing things getting any worse, and
the focus of their attention had therefore been those outlying areas on the
very edge of the infection. This left Jody, Gary, Charlie and millions of other
people effectively stranded. They were in the eye of the hurricane and though
it might have been safer elsewhere, getting anywhere else today was going to be
nigh on impossible.
    The area around the
house was crawling with dead people. The first attack came several hours later.
    Three infected,
attracted by a flickering TV screen burning bright on an otherwise dull and
overcast day, forced their way through a gap in the vegetation at the bottom of
Gary and Charlie’s long garden. They made their way towards the house in silent
unison, alone but together, driven by an unspoken collective intent. They
scuttled, walked and crawled, making no effort to disguise their ominous
approach, yet were completely unnoticed.
    Gary was lying on the
living room floor with the kids, playing a board game. Charlie sat next to him
and watched, occasionally offering advice and keeping Gary in check. He was a
bad loser, even when the stakes were this low.
    Jody was on the other
side of the room, staring into space and trying to work out how and when she
was going to get home. If she’d even have a home to get back to.
    Ben was the first to
notice them. He initially thought it was his eyes playing tricks. He should
have been wearing his glasses, but he never did because of that time Stuart at
school took the piss out of him and threatened to stamp on them and break them
and Mum would have gone crazy if that had happened because they cost her half a
month’s money from Dad and... and wait... was that the wind blowing the trees?
Was there something in the