Read For Those In Peril (Book 2): The Outbreak for Free Online Page B

possibility. I pressed my ear to the
door, but heard nothing. I eased it open as quietly as I could and peered
through the gap. The street looked deserted and there were no bodies in sight.
It looked like the horde of infected hadn’t passed this way. I glanced back at
the others. ‘I think we’re in luck.’
    ‘What’re we going to do once we get out there?’ Iliana sounded scared.
    ‘We
need to get out of the city as soon as we can. We need to find a car or
something … anything,’ I hesitated for a moment, ‘Ehm, any of you happen to know
...?’
    ‘Know
what?’ Daz looked at me enquiringly.
    ‘How
to steal a car?’ I glanced round nervously as the others shook their heads.
    ‘What
are the chances?’ Tom snorted. ‘Four Glaswegians and none of us knows how to
nick a car!’
    I
stifled a snigger, knowing Tom was just trying to lighten the mood. ‘Not really
the right time, Tom.’
    I
opened the door a second time, and risked poking my head out. I could see a
portly middle-aged man in a business suit prowling round a car, slamming at the
windows as he tried to get in. As quietly as possible, I pulled my head back in
and turned to the others. ‘D’you want the good news or the bad news?’
    Tom
put his ear to the door, trying to work out what was going on outside. ‘What’s
the good news?’
    ‘I
think I’ve found us some transport.’
    Tom
pulled away from the door. ‘And the bad news?’
    ‘There’s an infected man between us and it.’
    Daz
glanced at me. ‘What d’you mean?’
    ‘There’s a woman out there sitting in a Range Rover, so she must have the keys.
The trouble is there’s one of them trying to get to her. We’ll have to
deal with him before we can get to the car.’
    ‘How’re we going to do that?’ Tom asked worriedly.
    I
looked down at the machete I was still clutching in my right hand; it was
already covered in blood from where I’d severed the fingers of the infected as
they’d tried to get inside. The very thought of what I was about to suggest made
me feel like I was going to throw up. I swallowed hard. ‘I guess we could use
these.’
    ‘And
do what exactly?’ Tom was staring at me.
    ‘Take
it out, you mean?’ Daz was staring at me, too.
    Iliana
gulped, disbelievingly. ‘You’re going to kill someone?’
    ‘Yes.’
I closed my eyes, wondering if I could bring myself to do it. ‘I don’t think we
have any other choice.’
    Tom
shuffled his feet nervously. ‘Have you ever done anything like that before?’
    ‘No.’
I stared at the ground. ‘Have you?’
    Tom
shook his head.
    As we
looked at each other shiftily, I heard the sound of breaking glass outside
followed by a roar. I opened the door and stuck my head outside; the fat man had
broken through the front passenger window of the Range Rover and was trying
desperately to reach the woman in the driver’s seat. He was, however,
sufficiently rotund that he couldn’t fit through the window and she remained
beyond his grasping hands. As I watched, she swivelled round in her seat and
started kicking him as hard as she could. Soon there was nothing left of his
face but a mass of blood and broken bones. Finally, he stopped moving and lay
still, half in and half out of the car.
    I
turned back to the others. ‘Looks like we won’t have to deal with him after
all.’
    They
looked at me questioningly, but before they could ask, I turned and ran out of
the door; seconds later, I heard them follow. I was halfway to the Range Rover
when I noticed a distant sound; I glanced round to see a crowd running towards
us. By the way they were moving, I had no doubt they were infected. When we
reached the Range Rover, Tom and I tried to pull the lifeless body from the
window, but the man’s bulk meant he was tightly wedged. Up the road, the
infected were rapidly closing on us. I called out to the others, ‘Daz, Iliana
give us a hand!’
    While
Iliana grabbed one of