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

Cassie looked at the gun and turned forward, her speed building as I fought against my instincts, somehow managing to slow to a stop and circling to point the gun out as far as I could.

My arms wavered as, the length of a football pitch away, I saw what appeared to be an animal running on two legs. Its back was hunched over, its arms out and fingers hooked like claws.

Even from the distance I could see the remains of clothes, tattered, dark-stained rags dragging in the air as it raced toward me; it was once human.

Unlike what I'd seen attack Cassie, this had a face. He was once a young man, now a beast with gaunt, tight skin, grey features curled up. Snarling, running at the pace of a leopard on the plain. Its bared teeth snapping open and shut.

Holding my nerve, going against all my instincts, I kept my finger from pulling, from emptying the lead into whatever was charging.

I was thinking ahead; if there were three of these things, there could be more. I had one gun and two magazines, with no idea how many bullets each held. We would need all the brass we could muster if we were ever to get to the other side of the exclusion zone.

The thing had already covered half the distance and still I held my nerve with my finger twitching against the trigger. My heart pounded so hard I thought at any moment it would get too much and I'd be on the floor in a heap. I knew my best chance would be to wait until it was at least half the distance closer.

Time was going too fast with so much running through my head and now I could hear something in the tree-line. Something else racing me down, but I dared not turn my attention away. Whatever it was it couldn't be bigger or scarier or run faster than this hungry-eyed beast who would try its best to eat me alive.

I shook, unable to take back control, but somehow I was winning against my instinct screaming at me to turn and run. Those things we'd first seen yesterday were slow and easy to outrun. You could smell them a mile off and were simple to out-fox, but still frightening as hell, their existence incompatible with how the world worked.

Then came this beast running towards me; it was almost at the point where I would see if I'd made the right decision. It was like the king of these creatures and threw the new rule book out the window, then leapt after it, ripping pages, eating the words and savouring every mouthful.

I let the first shot fly from the muzzle earlier than I'd planned, proving me right as it flew harmless through the air.

Resetting my arm and relaxing my stance, I closed my left eye and pulled again. As I did, the creature jumped high, leaping like a gorilla on speed, clawing its fingers as it sailed towards me.

Lifting my arm in an attempt to track its movement, I shot again, but with each bullet I knew the angle of my arms hadn't caught up enough as it punched through the air.

Again and again I pulled back the trigger, the gun exploding each time, rearing back in my hand. One shot hit. Its body deflected, sending it spinning to the right as I caught its shoulder, but there was nothing going to stop it falling on me with its full weight.

Still, I fired and fired again. Its body, a projectile itself, crashed against my torso, sending me sprawling to the ground and crushing against my chest.

As my back hit the ground, I caught sight of a dark, hunched shape lunging out from the woods, leaping just like this creature had. My head hit hard against what felt like a rock, stars burst across my darkening vision. The weight on my chest was no longer noticeable as I felt powerless to stop my eyes closing.

34

My eyes had closed, but just for a moment. The chaos of a pitched battle, yelps of pain and beasts locked in combat pulled me back.

I heard two slathering, growling creatures. I heard blows pounding, rending flesh from bone. Twisting, flushed with relief the abomination was not at my throat, I looked down to make sure my entrails were not on view through an open belly.

I was intact.

Leaning to the left, I cursed bruised ribs and saw the tangled battle. A dark, crazed hound was at the throat of the creature I'd stared down; the creature who'd tattered my plans. My aim leaving me when I needed it the most.

I rolled, finding the gun underneath me, swearing as it dug into my crushed chest. I rotated back, pulling it up from my side, its weight more substantial than it should have been.

Still leaning, I pulled the trigger. Repeating twice more. The body of the creature rocked, blow after blow crushing into its head. The shadowy hound flinched with each round, but still it ripped at the throat, locking on for one final rend of flesh before it released, coughing up what it hadn't meant to swallow. A sensible creature.

I could feel myself passing out under my weight. I closed my eyes, but knew I had to stay awake or be at this rabid creature's mercy. I was on my back, looking up at the clear blue sky, the gun still pointed across the ground. I could feel the animal slowly stalking forward, its paws light on the short grass.

Letting the pain calm, I rolled to my side, outstretching the gun. The first I saw was the still body of the beast which had terrified me as it pounced, its head a pulp.

I'd hit with all three; its neck wide open, muscle, tissue and veins out for all