Capital Falling | Book 4 | Sever Winkless, Lance (most popular ebook readers TXT) 📖

the fire melting everything except their metal components. The smell of burnt rubber, plastic and human flesh is strong as I near the remnants. I keep my distance from the clump, but that doesn’t prevent my eyes from falling on charred heads and torsos through the broken windows. As I circle around, a car at the back of the collision has escaped the worst of the fire and some of its blue paint still clings onto its metal shell. The driver’s body isn’t as totally charred as the others and I can’t help but stare at the poor sods burnt face, that stares back at me, its body held back in its seat by the seatbelt. Suddenly, the driver’s body jerks and convulses, shocking me backwards and away from it, my rifle pointing at it aimlessly. Its singed mouth begins to prize open and then its crisp eyelids pull apart, their skin tearing. I pull my trigger before the bloodshot eyeballs have a chance to swivel in their sockets in my direction, my fear forcing me to stop the beast from looking at me.

I stumble away, my heart racing, unable to catch my breath. My head spins, and for a second and I think I am going to pass out. Gulping down smoke-laden air does little to stabilise my wobbling body and I must take a knee before I keel over and risk injuring myself. My vision blurs and I have no choice but to lower my head to get blood and the oxygen it contains back into my brain. The position leaves me defenceless, but there is no other choice than to hold it until I can feel my senses begin to return and my oxygen levels even off.

I’ve seen worse than this, I tell myself, and I have, not only in the Tower of London, but in the killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Get your shit together and stop being such a wuss!

Deriding myself, but determined, I push, not willing for a few burned bodies to defeat me. As soon as my legs straighten, however, I know I have made a huge mistake, I’ve risen too soon and too quickly. The thick taste of smoke in the back of my throat sticks in my mind as my eyes glaze over and I feel myself falling.

Chapter 14

Something prods me sharply in my ribs, my mind searching for where the hell I am. Another prod stirs me further, this time it is aimed at my leg. What the fuck is that? I ask myself, am I dreaming?

The caustic taste of smoke in my mouth suddenly brings reality flooding back, and with it comes fear. I passed out, all at once. I remember my eyes glazing over and the awful feeling of falling onto the road, near to the pile of incinerated cars and the torrid black charred bodies. How long I have been unconscious for I couldn’t say. I hear a scraping noise close by, near my head, and I know I must open my eyes and overcome the dread in the pit of my stomach. My fear of what horrors opening my eyes will reveal, is stifling.

Forcing my eyes open, light floods back into them and it takes a second for them to focus. I am lying on my side, almost in the foetal position. The first thing I see is my M4 lying next to me, discarded in the road. A shadow moves next to it, and then another, and my terror of what is casting the shadows is paralysing. A leg clad in indigo blue jean moves into my field of vision and then I know for sure that the shadows are not random. Someone, or something is next to me, blocking the feeble sun.

A low grunting noise comes from behind me, and it is closely followed by another prod, in the middle of my back. The grunting is Rabid, that’s for sure, and it and the prod didn’t come from the owner of the leg in front of me. There is more than one creature standing over me, I suddenly realise.

I can’t play dead in the middle of the road forever; I’ve got to continue on to find Karen and Jim. Turn over, I tell myself, if the Rabids were going to make a meal out of you, they already would have. My muscles tighten as I build myself up to take the plunge and turn over, I even find myself doing a childish countdown in my head, promising myself that I will go on zero.

I roll over, my muscles miraculously relaxing as I turn from my side and onto my back as if they have surrendered to my fate. My eyes blink and I find myself looking up to the sky through the smoke haze, with a circle of creatures standing over me.

Time stands still for a moment as I lay there in a standoff with the ghouls hanging over me, except I am the only one not standing. I risk circling my eyes around and count five pairs of legs but no faces, the Rabids are obviously not that interested in me. Next to my right shoulder, one of the legs move, pushing a foot to stab my shoulder and it is accompanied by another impatient grunt. My eyes move to focus on the owner of the leg, but all I can see is that it belongs to a tall, wide-bodied creature.

My confusion lifts and the realisation of what is going on hits me. The Rabid is attempting to wake me and to get me back onto my feet, but why? Does it want to befriend me in some twisted way? The possibility stuns me. Could the Rabids, or at least the ones surrounding me be not just mindless beasts—is there at least some semblance of consciousness contained behind their dead eyes? Even the most solitary and ferocious of wild animals needs companionship at some