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

garden he hadn’t noticed before? Had someone hung
some washing on the line?
    They started to come
into focus.
    Ben was too scared to
say anything in case the monsters outside heard him (even though he knew that was
stupid). The words were stuck in his throat and the longer they were there, the
harder they were to dislodge.
    ‘Mum...’ he eventually said.
    He glanced over at her
but she wasn’t listening. She’d zoned-out. She was tracing patterns in the
wallpaper with her eyes, doing everything she could to forget she was trapped
in her ex-husband’s huge new house with his fucking drop-dead gorgeous new
girlfriend.
    ‘Mum...’ Ben said again.
    He could see them much
more clearly now. They didn’t make sense. There was skin where there should
have been clothes and bends in their bodies where there should have been none.
One had a broken neck and its head was all over to one side but it kept walking
like it didn’t matter.
    Another one looked too
tall to be real. Its arms and legs seemed to go on forever.
    The last one – the
smallest one – was the one that scared him most of all. It was its face...
he already knew that when he tried to get to sleep tonight, the grotesque face
he currently couldn’t take his eyes off would be staring back at him from the
darkness. Huge, hollowed eyes, black as night. A naked torso covered in deep,
dark scratches. A twisted mouth which had become a slanted, humourless grin.
    ‘Mum...’ Ben said once
more. Louder this time.
    Jody didn’t hear her
son, but Gary did. He turned around and saw that the nearest of the infected
was almost up against the glass. ‘Fuck!’ he shouted, scrambling to his feet and
kicking bits of board game everywhere. Jenny tried to catch the tokens, dice
and cards but her little hands hadn’t got anywhere near any of them before the
first of the three creatures walked straight into the patio window, making her
jump with fright and scaring her half to death. She screamed, and when she
screamed, Holly screamed too.
    The girls cowered behind
their dad as he retreated deeper into the room.
    On her feet now, filled
with a now-familiar sense of overwhelming dread, Jody too backed away. The six
of them stood up against the wall together, hiding in plain sight and pinned
into position with fear. ‘What the hell do we do?’ Charlie asked, her voice a
panicked whisper.
    ‘Just wait,’ Gary
suggested. ‘They’ll disappear soon enough.’
    ‘You think?’ Jody said.
‘Are these the first ones you’ve seen? Because I’ve got news for you, they’re
not going anywhere.’
    ‘Fucking great.’
    ‘Mind your language,
Gary. The kids don’t need to hear it.’
    ‘Don’t tell me what to
do. We’re not married anymore, remember.’
    ‘Thank Christ.’
    ‘This isn’t really the
best time for a domestic,’ Charlie warned them both.
    ‘You’re right. Sorry,’
Jody mumbled.
    Two of the three things
outside were watching the people inside. It was clear from the way they moved
their heads – inhuman and animal-like, but definitely interested –
that infecting the uninfected was all that mattered. The third of their number
was trapped a short distance away from the house, its clothing snagged on a
low-hanging fruit tree branch. The smallest creature – the hideous,
nightmarish one which Ben still couldn’t take his eyes off – was trying
pointlessly to claw its way through the glass. Its fingers squeaked against the
window ceaselessly. When it realised it couldn’t get through, it began to
hammer with heavy fists. And when it became clear its fists weren’t going to
make any difference, it tried another tactic. The damn thing craned its head
back on its shoulders, impossibly far, then butted the window. The noise was
nauseating. Jody wasn’t sure whether it was the glass or the infected thing’s
skull which would give way first. The door rattled and shook with every vicious
impact, and every time it drew its head back, the creature appeared even