Read Online Bay of the Dead by Mark Morris - Free Book Online Page B

Trys.'
'I'm aware of that,' he said, more sharply than he intended. 'I'm not an idiot.'
'I never said you were.' Then her voice and face softened. 'Come on, let's just get out of here. Back up and take the next road. It won't make any difference.'
'We can't leave someone lying injured in the street,' he said. 'He might need urgent medical attention.'
' I need urgent medical attention,' Sarah said. 'I'm having our baby, remember.'
'I'll just find out what's going on,' Trys said, reaching for the door handle. 'I won't be a minute.'
'No, Trys, don't.' Sarah grabbed her husband's arm.
He looked at her quizzically. 'Why not?'
'I've just got a bad feeling about this. It could be a trap.'
'I'll stay close to the car,' he assured her. 'Don't worry, I'll be fine.' He laid his hand over hers and stroked it gently. 'The sooner I find out, the sooner we can go.'
Reluctantly she let go of him. 'All right, but be careful. And we're not giving anyone a lift to the hospital.'
He raised a hand in agreement and got out of the car. The soft drizzle was like the touch of ghostly fingertips on his skin.
'Excuse me,' he said, taking a few steps forward. Even now the crouching figures failed to respond to him. He stepped closer, until he was standing parallel with the front of the Passat. Drizzle filled the white beams of the headlights like silver static. Clearing his throat and raising his voice, Trys tried again. 'Excuse me.'
This time one of the figures seemed to register his presence. It stiffened a little, hunching its shoulders. Trys took another couple of steps forward, until he was standing partially in the beam of one of the headlights, fracturing and narrowing it.
'Is everything OK?' he asked. 'Do you need help?'
On unsteady legs, the figure which had hunched its shoulders began to rise from its crouched position. Slowly it turned towards him. The instant the light fell on its face, Trys felt a jolt of shock and fear lance down through his body.
The figure had no eyes. Just black holes where its eyes had once been. Its withered skin, the colour of old leaves, clung tightly to the skull beneath. Worst of all, it had a piece of raw, ragged meat, oozing blood, dangling from its mouth.
Trys staggered backwards. All at once his limbs felt alien, unresponsive, his thoughts soft and soupy, as though he was about to faint. He blinked, trying to focus, and as the other figures began to rise he saw clearly for the first time what they had been crouching over.
It was a human body, so horribly mangled that its sex was impossible to determine. It had been gutted, the stomach ripped open, the entrails pulled out and strewn across the tarmac. Clearly the creatures, the ghouls – Trys felt his mind skidding away from the undeniable fact that the figures now closing slowly in on him were zombies – had been feasting on it. Their hands were gloved in blood, their hideous dead faces masked in offal. One of the zombies was a teenage girl in a gore-spattered Girls Aloud T-shirt, who even now was chewing on one of the victim's feet.
The backs of Trys's thighs bumped against the car. Surprised, his legs folded forward at the knees, causing him to sit on the bonnet. Even in his dreamy disbelief he was aware of how cold and wet the metal was through the seat of his jeans. He heard banging behind him and turned his head. Despite the obstruction of her belly, Sarah was leaning forwards, her face contorted with panic, her fist bashing the inside of the windscreen.
She was mouthing at him, and all at once it was as though his senses had unblocked, and suddenly he could hear her words.
' Get in! ' she was screaming. ' Get in! Get in! '
It was enough to snap Trys out of his trance. He turned and slithered across and around the bonnet, the zombies just behind him. His foot skidded from under him on the slippery pavement, but he managed to regain his balance. He reached for the door handle and grabbed it.
But before he could pull it open, he heard a sighing groan