Read Online Five More Days With The Dead (Lanherne Chronicles Book 2) by Stephen Charlick - Free Book Online Page B

cart . ‘Oh,’ he continued as Toby jumped in after them.
    Duncan knew the old man had loved the foundling puppy, so the worst must have happened for him to be coming with them now.
    ‘Someone finally took matters into their own hands and offed Mrs Jackson,’ Phil replied.
    ‘ What about Jackson?’ Duncan asked, already knowing the answer.
    ‘Either they did Jackson as well or his wife finally being taken from him wa s more than he could cope with, so he hung himself,’ Imran added, pulling out a small amount of cooked chicken meat for Toby from one of the supply sacks.
    ‘So what now?’ asked Duncan.
    ‘Now , we continue with the plan,’ said Imran. ‘We go to the Penhaligan place and hope there’s someone left at the Substation alive when we get there tomorrow afternoon.’
    Duncan didn’t need to be told twice. He didn’t relish being on the road at night, so the sooner they got to their next stop, the better as far as he was concerned. So, with a gentle flick of the reins, he urged Delilah into motion; leaving behind them just another home in this world of the Dead where death had paid an unwelcome visit.
    ***
    ‘She’s coming round,’ Sarah said looking over at a worried looking Patrick holding Jasmine in his arms.
    As the darkness sl owly released its hold on Helen, she forced her consciousness upwards towards the pounding in her head and the muffled voices around her. With relief, she grasped onto the pain that threatened to send her tumbling back into oblivion. The pain told her she was alive and if she was alive, then she had somehow managed to survive the fall from the pylon. With a painful intake of breath, Helen finally opened her eyes. Looking around the dimly lit stable, past J-Man, Sarah and Leon, her eyes fell on a concerned Patrick with Jasmine.
    ‘We made it?’ the whisper barely escaping her lips.
    Still fighting his own dizziness, Patrick crawled over to Helen, tears brimming in his eyes.
    ‘We made it ,’ he said, as he leant forward.
    Kissing Helen gently on the forehead, his tears of relief fell freely. Trying to push herself up to take Jasmine, Helen winced with pain as her cracked ribs made themselves known.
    ‘Shit!’ she winced through gritted teeth, ‘I think I’ve busted some ribs.’
    ‘Rest back down,’ Sarah said, gently easing her shoulders back down. ‘We’re safe for now, so rest while you can.’
    ‘Are we the only ones that made it?’ Helen asked, her eyes drifting to the steel door rattling, the Dead on the other side pounding against it.
    ‘I’m afraid so,’ replied Leon, the faces of so many missing friends running through his head, ‘and if we don’t come up with some sort of plan to get out of here, we’re in big trouble.’
    ‘What’s happening outside, J-Man?’ Patrick asked.
    Pushing past one of the Substation’s pigs, J-Man jumped up onto a feed box so he could look through the high horizontal window that ran three quarters of the width of the wall. Outside, most of the Dead had congregated in front of the stable doors, their burnt and broken hands clawing relentlessly at the impervious steel; desperate to get to the living flesh denied them.
    ‘There’s more than a dozen of the Dead at the doors, so we’re out numbered,’ J-Man said. ‘By the time they wind down, it’ll be pitch black out there, man.’
    ‘We won’t stand a chance fighting even the slow ones in the dark ,’ Patrick said, knowing that because the doors had to open inward, they would be swamped by the animated corpses as soon as they tried to escape.
    It didn’t help th at only J-Man, Leon and him would be able to fight with any effectiveness.
    ‘I think we should wait until morning,’ he continued. ‘At least that’ll give us a fighting chance.’
    ‘The door will hold that long, wont it?’ Sarah asked, as the Dead continued their attack.
    ‘It has to,’ Leon muttered, knowing their lives depended on it.
    Unknown to Patrick and the others, above them on