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

the VW before those things would land. The screams raced closer, reverberated through my head. To the sound of gunshots, I pulled open the BMW’s door, falling to the seat, just able to grab the door closed before the blackened creature slapped to the metal with a great call, its fists thumping at the window with such a force I couldn’t quite believe the window hadn’t given with the first hit.

Looking behind at the VW under attack, two beasts scratched and scraped at the doors and windows with its bumper pushing harmlessly against the car I sat in. Then I saw the gear stick in first and the handbrake pulled up. Pushing the button on the end of the brake, I grabbed the long handle to let it down and yanked the gearstick into neutral.

The car jumped forward, but the relief vanished under a shower of glass and a cloud of burnt flesh bursting from outside. Gagging at the new stench, I hit out toward the window with my hand balled, punching it square on the cheek. Its flesh felt supple, the black char coming away as it lurched forward, snapping its teeth when I withdrew my knuckles.

Knowing it outmatched me, I scrabbled over the centre console, glimpsing back as it fell through the missing window.

With no other choice but to get out, I cursed our speed building along the straight road.

Pushing the passenger door open, I paused, glaring at the tarmac rolling past, getting faster every moment I looked, but the fear dissolved when I felt a slap at my foot and I jumped out, hoping I wouldn’t land in the path of the VW still rushing us forward.

A shot rang out as I hit the road, glass shattering as I tumbled with no way to control my direction, only with hope I was rolling out of danger.

When nothing hit me, and I came to rest on my back with my legs tucked up to my chest, I unfolded hearing the VW’s engine so loud and pushed myself flat to the road.

The VW passed by, basking me in its heat and spray of exhaust.

Blinking, I sat up, trying to make sense of what had just happened, then saw the back of the camper racing away along the road with the BMW still at its front.

Climbing to my feet and with a sudden realisation, I looked back the way we’d come, but with relief I saw no creatures chased. The reassurance didn’t last when a blast of a horn drew me back to the VW heading off into the distance, swerving from side to side as if Alex were trying to dislodge the creature gripping the roof rails with the other bent over the side, its arms swinging down to hit at the windows.

I ran, watching as the VW grew smaller with the BMW veering to the right and disappearing through the hedge, down into what I could only imagine as a river when a great crash of water spewed into the air.

With the VW surging away, its movement became more erratic as it veered left then right and back again until someone, or something, launched out from the side of the campervan, landing in a heap to lay, unmoving on the road.

I sped, despite the ache pounding down the side of my body.

As the distance grew too great I slowed, gripped by despair at who the body could be as I watched the camper take a sharp turn to the right, flipping to its side, then rolling over and down the incline and out of sight with debris flying into the air.

I pushed myself forward to run again.

33

The world had fallen silent, other than the sound of my breath.

With pain screaming from my legs, I ran on, concentrating on the white vapour rising from where I’d seen the VW roll out of sight and the lifeless figure on the road.

Closing the gap, the column of smoke turned black, billowing to great clouds as I searched for any sign of life in the distance. I forged forward, gritting my teeth against the pain whilst dreading an explosion from beyond the ragged remains of the hedge.

Racing past the gap made by the BMW, I chanced a glance too late to see anything but the steep incline.

Still with no sign of movement from the slumped body or survivors where the van had crashed, I ran faster still.

With every second it soon became clear Beth lay on the road with bloody marks along her arm and her neck at a sharp angle; an angle incompatible with life, in the sense of what the word used to mean.

Pushing down the guilt of not getting close and checking for a pulse, I kept up my pace as I took a route wide of her body.

I didn’t have time to linger on the grief, arriving at the hedge line moments later and the great gash in the foliage where the VW had busted through sideways, rolling to splinter branches, crashing through what had grown unhindered for so many years. Leaves scattered the route gouged in the soft ground, leaving behind plastic and glass shrapnel littering its path.

Before I followed the trail of smoke, I saw the unmistakable chrome bumper, twisted and mangled as it had been shed to the side to settle next to the remains of a pale arm.

I felt immediate relief when I saw an armless creature, a once human being, lying mangled in the churned earth. From his crushed skull I could just about tell he’d been a man, with thick eyebrows below an opening in his head where grey tissue leached to the ground.

Slowing to a jog, I peered down the bank. Picking my way through the metal debris, I saw the rifle with its barrel bent in the middle amongst flesh and foliage. My