In The End Box Set | Books 1-3 Stevens, GJ (story books to read TXT) 📖

I couldn’t crawl. I had to stand, frustrated at the pace, but dropped back to my knees as we completed the wide circular perimeter. My heart pounded in my chest with a great sense of dread when our miracle escape didn’t materialise whilst knowing it would only be a matter of time before the creatures would get a footing and make the next leap to the roof.

“Get up,” Toni said, and I twitched my head to look at her stern face, her hands out for mine. “Get up. We need to get there,” she said, pointing to one of the twelve outer buildings.

Standing with my mouth agape, I felt like laughing as I saw the cell blocks were only one storey high, but as I lingered I could see the double perimeter fence intact with none of the dead filling the space. On the far side stood the wide space of a car park full of vehicles we could use to the get the hell out of here.

But to get there we would have to bound across a gap of over three car lengths wide. Unless we’d sprouted wings or gained inhuman strength. I felt like asking if she had a potion for that; instead, I pulled back the barbs.

“Have you gone mad?”

My words fell away, a scream piercing through my head giving no chance to hear if she’d mouthed a reply.

I watched as Toni pulled out the pistol with her left hand, pushing me toward the base of the tower with her right.

With my head rolling to the side, I caught a blur of motion, my body shaking with every shot launching from the barrel which did nothing to slow the creature’s race towards us.

22

Puffs of blood, skin and bone burst out from every angle as Toni continued to hit the target. This was it. This was the end of the line and all before we’d got started. Before I could set this outrage straight; before I could tell the world Toni’s story. My story now.

No. It couldn’t be.

I hadn’t got this far in my life to go down as a footnote in a history never told.

I sat up straight, landing on my knees and lunged forward just as the creature blurred across my view. I caught its sodden flesh; tacky thick blood sticking to my fingers as I pushed, only stopping just beyond the edge of the roof with Toni grabbing my ankles.

The creature stared, snarling back as it fell, its jaw snapping at the air before its head smashed against a short wall and its neck set forever at a right angle.

I watched as it rose, my breath getting out of control, but coming back as I saw its slow movement, its eyes already whitening over.

Toni pulled me back and into her arms, squeezing tight until our gaze followed to the cable from the high mast above running down to the centre of the shorter building we hoped to be a haven.

“You first,” she said, pointing halfway up the tower. She’d had the same idea. Her other hand pulled a tissue from her pocket, its white ruined by the dark blood coming back as she dabbed at my face.

A shot rang off in the distance and we fell to a crouch.

“Take off the lab coat,” she said and I did, the cold air biting through the blouse. She pulled a penknife from her pack, slashed at the material halfway down and tore it in two before rolling one half in on itself.

Holding each end of the improvised rope, she wrapped as much as she could around each fist as she held on tight.

I understood, I said, but only with a nod.

“You first,” I said, my hands shaking as I tried to wrap my half of the lab coat into a rope. Toni handed hers over, trying not to let it unravel as she took my half and repeated the twist.

“You,” she replied with force in her voice, taking me by the arm and guiding me towards the tower.

Movement caught in my peripheral vision and I turned to see a hand on the edge of the roof. We were too far away to see the detail, but I knew it would run with dark veins. The scream confirmed it, stopping only as it thudded to the ground.

I stood and a second scream lit the air; a third call joined it and I didn’t need to be asked again. I ran, the thin metal of the mast cutting into my feet as I climbed with Toni close behind on the opposite side. The mast creaked, swayed and moved, tightening the cables as we rose.

The calls grew so loud I wanted to push my fingers deep into my ears. The shout of the distant gunfire grew more frequent, but still we didn't know who the target could be.

We climbed, stopping only when I could reach out to the thick cable.

Breath pulled in fast and I wrapped the rope as tight as I could, loosening back a turn as I felt my fingers numb. I held the rolled-up coat over the cable; it was much harder to wrap the left side without letting go of the right. I would just have to hold on for my life.

And there it was, right on cue, another creature had made it up to the roof, its back arching, already in a full sprint toward us as a second summited.

“Go,” Toni shouted over the ear-piercing din.

I took a deep breath, leant forward and let myself down onto the cable with a leap, trying to ignore the creatures I could see altering their path to intercept me.

As I dropped to the cable I saw my news van on the horizon. The folded satellite dish