Read Online Demise of the Living by Iain McKinnon - Free Book Online Page B

there, that’s all
the more reason I have to get home.” Stephen gave Sharon a smile
and started making for the exit. Addressing Gary and Liz, he said,
“If you guys want, it won’t take much for me to detour past the
hospital.”
    “Do you want me to come with
you, Gary?” Mo asked.
    Before Gary could answer
Stephen butted in, “I don't think there’ll be room in the car for
you as well.”
    Mo looked at the two children
and nodded in agreement.
    “ Right,” Stephen said,
jingling his car keys. “Hopefully this is all nothing and I’ll be
back at my desk nine sharp tomorrow morning.”
    He made his trademark salute
and blew on the ends of his fingers as if they were the barrels of
a gun.
     
    ***
     
    “Shan what do we do?” Karen
asked, more calmly than she thought she could.
    Shan pursed her lips.
“Hmm?”
    She looked around the dimly-lit
garage before placing the hammer back down on the workbench. The
only light was coming from the chink between the top and bottom of
the garage door.
    “There’s fuck-all here,” Shan
said.
    “ I want to go home,”
Karen said.
    Shan sucked in a wisp of the
hash-laden air through her pursed lips.
    “As good a place as any, I
suppose.”
    Karen smiled. She’d
expected to have to argue with her friend.
    She walked over to the
adjoining door.
    “Where you going?” Shan
asked.
    “You said…”
    “ We’re going out this way.”
Shan pointed at the garage shutter. “I’m not walking—not with those
maniacs out there.”
    Shan gestured with a
sharp nod at the motorbike at the back of the garage.
    “That old thing?” Karen
said.
    “Why not?”
    “ Why
not? It’s filthy.”
    “ It’s a dirt bike.
Clue’s in the name,” Shan said, shrugging.
    “I wouldn’t eat the pizza that
was delivered on that thing.”
    “So, what—you too much of a
princess to get your ass dirty?”
    “We don’t even know if it
works.”
    “ Of course it works. Me
and Nate were up the back of the Wreks with it last
month.”
    “Can you even drive it?”
    “ Shut up! 'Course I can,”
Shan said. She explained, “I’ll start it up, you open the door.
Then you jump on the back and we’re off to your house.”
    “Suppose,” Karen said weakly,
unable to muster any more arguments against it. She had never felt
safe on the back of Nate’s bike and she didn’t have much confidence
in her friend’s abilities.
    “You ready?” Shan asked.
    This was the fastest way back
home and Karen knew it.
    “ Where’s the helmets?”
she asked.
    “ For fuck’s sake, here .”
Shan tossed a peaked Motocross helmet at her friend.
    Karen fumbled the catch and the
helmet clattered to the hard concrete floor.
    “Diff,” Shan chastised.
    There was a moan from somewhere
nearby.
    The two girls froze.
    The light from under the garage
door flickered as a pair of feet blocked the light.
    Shan pushed her index finger to
her lips.
    The pair held themselves in
silence, both staring down at the shadow, both praying the person
on the other side of the shutter would go away.
    Another moan issued from behind
the door and the banging started.
    “ Shit,” Shan said. She
stretched over and picked the hammer back up. She told Karen, “Open
it.”
    Karen simply stood there
looking at the vibrating shutters, oblivious to Shan’s command.
    “Open it!” Shan shouted.
    The moaning became louder, more
excited, but still Karen didn’t move.
    Shan stood up and kicked down
on the start peg. The ignition caught and the garage was filled
with the burbling engine noise.
    “ Come on, open it!” she
shouted again.
    Reticently, Karen stepped
up to the centre of the door and flipped the lock. She was about to
let one of those maniacs in on purpose and it took all her courage
to act. She and Shan were safe behind the shutter for now, but
Karen knew she had to get back home.
    She pulled at the top of the
door while at the same time pushing her foot to the bottom. The
door squeaked open a few degrees before catching on