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

Families stood in their pyjamas, some covered with dressing gowns. People cried, children screamed, others held torches.

Along the road a crowd built. Figures walked towards us, ambling in a daze. The noise had woken the street, had woken the village and the army base by the look of those coming down towards us.

I pushed my fingers in my ears, the chaos enough to wake the dead.

I tried to concentrate. Tried to fix on the crowd, watching their movements with intrigue.

My eyes went wide as the realisation came. I’d seen this before, but from a different vantage.

My hands raised up as the first of the crowd passed into the group of houses. As the crowd spread, turning this way and that, they moved to those standing by the side of the road. Those watching on weren’t scared, weren’t worried until it was too late. Their screams added to the background.

Only I saw those weren’t people. Only I saw those weren’t rescuers. Only I saw those were the infected.

I grabbed for the Glock, but it wasn’t at my waistband. I scoured the ground, turning to stare across my path, running back towards the house, knowing I must have dropped it inside. I jogged, but fell to my knees, my arms covering my face as the cars on the side of the road exploded one after the other.

63

The heat beat me back. I stood, unsure on my feet with screams and pain radiating, echoing between the houses. I heard the moment the realisation came from the crowd. Panic sparked to life, screams echoing out.

People ran into the dead. When confronted with jaws locking to their fleshy parts some ran to the fires, adding to the orchestra of screams while others ran back to their houses and shut out those who tried to follow, even though hearts still beat in their chests. Some jumped over fences and out of sight. Others stayed put, their feet fixed to the ground in disbelief.

I couldn’t watch. I had to turn away.

Taking a step forward to Alex’s house, the fire beat me back again.

My thoughts flashed to Alex. I twisted around, searching, but she'd gone. I tried again to get through the heat but still the searing temperature forced me away and I bounded back a few steps until I could just bear the energy pouring out.

I heard a familiar call, an angry shout and turned to see someone in the shadows tussling with one of the creatures.

I watched the pair fighting until with a flash of light from a nearby fire I saw the dark shirt. I saw the long fencepost wielded in the defender’s hands, the club swinging left and right. She’d taken down the first and then figure after figure fell, each knocked to the ground.

With pride rising in my chest I saw Alex beating back the onslaught of the dead.

I twisted as many hands gripped at the fence. The fire at my back had died down enough for me to run past the flames, cursing the heat as I scooped up the gun in the hallway and turned back, racing towards the battle.

She’d disappeared again, leaving just a crowd surging forward where she’d been, hands grabbing at those whose brains were miswired, gripped to the spot with fear.

I ran.

A gust of wind almost pushed me over with the stench of the sewers. I looked beyond the front line of the group, high on my toes, but she was nowhere to be seen.

They'd overcome her and I felt disbelief at another life lost before I’d got to know them.

“Jess,” a call came to my left.

“Jess,” it came again as I searched. Only on the second call did I see Alex beckoning me between two houses as she stood beside a stream of people waving them past her. I took one quick glance toward the crowd and watched, wide-eyed, at a middle-aged man, his face grey, hand clutching his chest. He disappeared, overcome by the crowd of hungry faces bearing down as he collapsed to the ground.

I ran.

Alex followed behind me, the last of those who could still walk. By now the screams had died and the lights had gone dim. Torch beams flickered around the night, dispersing across our view. Sirens and car horns still blared away, calling more of the dead ever closer. We had to get away.

We’d made the right choice to run, not to lock ourselves away hoping the cavalry would come around the corner and save the day.

These are the people that had to be told. It was my job to tell those people who could still hear me to prepare for the worst or die. I had to break the news and save as many lives as I could.

Once between the alley, we filtered through the garden of the house on the right and followed the thin crowd down along the grass and over the tall wooden fence laying on the floor. We were out into the fields. Back where we’d started.

Stumbling in the dark, I felt Alex’s strong grip in my hand. She caught my fall as I listened to the sounds diminish behind us with each pace and the smoke thin in the air.

Moonlit figures dotted around the field. Most had stopped and turned back to their village, shining torches across the horizon with sharp pulls of breath following each moment someone caught a fright or saw movement from an unseen part of the field.

Alex stayed at my side, scouring like the others as we slowed. Words in the scattered group built to a hurried conversation and people drew together. Tears fell and rose and fell again as they sought and received comfort, their mouths full of questions.

“What now?” a deep voice said, the loudest of many.

A