Zom-B Gladiator Read Online Free PDF

same way as a revived. I came to think that God would not have restored my senses only for me to act as if I was still an unfeeling beast.
    ‘Life was wonderful when we were alive,’ the doc continues. ‘We could love, procreate,bond. The downside was that we could be hurt too. But we endured the pain because the joy was so intense.
    ‘I won’t pretend that nothing has changed. We cannot love the way we once did. Everything now is a resemblance. But even a vague, loving forgery is better than experiencing only the emptiness of the damned.’
    ‘I’m not sure I agree with you,’ I say solemnly. ‘It’d be different ifI didn’t expect to lose some of you guys any time soon. But if I was to place a bet, I wouldn’t give any of you more than six months, a year tops.’
    ‘Even though I have survived more than a hundred years already?’ he asks.
    ‘Things were different then. The world made sense. It worked. Now it’s just death, destruction and loss. We’re all for the chop, and I don’t want to care when you,Burke or anyone else gets ripped away from us.’
    ‘What about our response if you are taken?’ the doctor asks quietly. ‘Will you care if nobody mourns your loss, if we wipe you from our thoughts and carry on as if nothing has happened?’
    ‘Not in the least,’ I say chirpily. ‘When I go, I’m gone. Makes no difference to me whether you lot celebrate or wail for a week.’
    Dr Oystein nodsglumly. ‘As you wish. Like I said, I do understand. If you do not seek friendship, we will not force it on you. No Angel needs to care for their colleagues in order to slot in with them.
    ‘But I do care, B, and I will continue to. Billy Burke cares about you too, and quite a few more. If you ever change your mind and crave a friend, we will be here for you. Always.’
    ‘Unless you’re killedbefore me,’ I note.
    ‘Touché,’ he smiles. Then, smile fading, he reaches out and touches my cheek, briefly but lovingly. ‘Be careful out there, B. Come home safely to us.’
    He turns and leaves. I want to call him back and accept his offer of friendship, drop my guard, have at least one person in the world that I can feel close to.
    But I don’t.
    I can’t.
    I won’t.
    I remembermy friends from school. My parents. Mark. Timothy. The pain I felt at their loss. And I make a vow to myself, not for the first time since I returned to County Hall.
    Never again.

We patrol the streets, entering every building we come to, checking it thoroughly. Zombies are in many of them, sheltering from the sun. We gently edge past the resting reviveds and head up flights of stairs, exploring the upper levels, looking for attics orlocked doors.
    We haven’t found any survivors while I’ve been with the Angels, but lots of humans were rescued before I joined, and a few have been unearthed by other search squads since. They’ve had to be cunning to survive so long in a city where death is almost a certainty.
    Reviveds rely heavily on their sense of smell and hearing. To outwit them, the people with the smarts douse themselvesin perfume or aftershave – those smells mean nothing to a zombie, they only react to natural human scents – and wear soft shoes or slippers. The really sly ones also wrap bandages round their stomach and chest to dull the sounds of their heartbeat and digestive system, shave off their hair so they don’t sweat as much and take other inventive, anti-detection measures.
    The gutsier survivalistsrealised that once a zombie has given a building a once-over, it usually doesn’t check again, unless it was accustomed to double-checking spaces when it was alive, for instance if it was a security guard. So some of the humans have made their bases in buildings which zombies frequent, the reasoning being that they’re the safest places in London, since the inhabitants won’t scour their ownlair. Also, other reviveds recognise and respect a fellow zombie’s home, and they almost never trespass. We’re not