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

the hopes I can see a potential opportunity to escape. The strange, inside-out designed, Lloyds of London building is opposite to the front of the skyscraper that I am aiming for, and the thought crosses my mind that could be where Alpha is leading us? Jim had also described a car smashing through the side of the Lloyds building, although that might have nothing to do with Alpha’s plans.

As if he is reading my mind, the fearsome creature’s head turns to look behind, its eyes falling on me, then turns away. Not daring to think it until the beast’s head has turned back to the front again and away from me, but is the beast checking on his new recruit, I wonder?

The front entry to the Cheesegrater comes into view from behind the adjacent older and nondescript buildings, it is set back from on the side of the road. Tall steel cross members reach up at the front of the building, holding up the front sloping face of the tower. Escalators reach up behind the cross members and into the building. I see that my entry into the building will not be an issue, the shards of shattered glass sprinkled across its entrance confirms that.

Alpha leads us level with the building, but the creature doesn’t stop to take in the view, it keeps on going and begins to head right. The beast is leading us towards the Lloyds building, where smashed through the railings that surround the building, is a car. The car must be the same one that Jim had described to me in the chaos he saw. Only the rear of the car is visible, the rest of its body is inside the building. Somehow, it miraculously managed to miss the predominant concrete that makes up the street level of the building and found a softer spot to hit.

I debate whether to make a break for it as we begin to move past the Cheesegrater. I see the perfect route to get inside, through the shattered glass and bodies, and on to the stalled escalators that lead up and inside the building, but I bottle it. Alpha’s head keeps swiping back in my direction and the rest of the pack is too close for comfort, no matter how much I try to ‘unintentionally’ hang back.

Instead, I keep on following, I will just have to continue searching for an opportunity to disappear from the pack. I casually glance at my watch, I am now more than half an hour late, I can only imagine Karen and Jim’s state of mind right now. They will be going through turmoil and I am surprised that my phone hasn’t been ringing off the hook, or has it? Have I missed the device vibrating in my pocket, more than likely I have? I am prone to miss calls under normal circumstances, never mind when I am running with a zombie horde.

Watching Alpha casually, my hand enters my pocket and slides out my phone. I keep the phone down by my side, so as not to draw attention and turn it slightly up to try and get a look at the screen. My thumb presses the power button on the phone’s side when it is in position and the screen illuminates as I glance down. I do have missed calls, I can’t see how many or who they are from, but it doesn’t take much guessing who has been trying to reach me.

A grunt startles me while my head is down peering at my phone, and I almost whip my head straight up to see what Alpha is grunting for. I must stop myself though and instead, I keep my head down and flop it from side to side while my thumb calmly presses the power button again to cut the screen off. I am not sure how good my impression of a mindless undead beast is, but it can’t be that bad because I am not attacked and torn to pieces. Instead, I am grunted at again and this time I bring my head up slowly as if I’ve only registered the second grunt in my undead head.

By the time my head has come up level, Alpha’s concentration has shifted. The creature is looking forwards and looking at a flight of stairs that leads up and into the Lloyds building. My suspicions were right, that is where Alpha is leading his pack, into Lloyds, a building that I saw for myself from the air was ablaze on the day Dan and I found Josh. Why is Alpha leading us there, is the building the pack’s lair, where they exist when not out on the streets hunting? If it is, why choose the burnt Lloyds building, why not pick one of the countless other buildings there are to choose from, ones that haven’t been on fire?

Perhaps, before Alpha was turned into its current undead state, he was one of the toffs that worked inside the building and so it brings with it familiarity? Was Alpha inside when Rabids swarmed in and was that where his metamorphosis took place? Are the rest of his pack former work colleagues, was he their boss and now they find themselves under his command even as undead zombies?

As usual, I must remind myself that I am overthinking. I will never know if any of the pack actually worked inside the Lloyds building, none of them are going to offer me an explanation any time soon, so it’s academic. The only thing I need to worry about is leaving these Rabids behind and getting on with finding Karen and Jim. Get them, get back on the boat and get the fuck out of here, nothing else matters.

My phone is slipped back into my pocket, my other hand gripping my rifle tightly. I have reached my destination so why not pull the M4 up and spray the beasts with bullets. I’m confident that I could deal with the five Rabids effectively,