Read Online Ward Z: Revelation by Amy Cross - Free Book Online Page B

be just a few meters away and no-one would even see them.” Looking toward the lake, she saw the water glistening under the afternoon sun.
    “This could actually be serious,” Laura said after a moment, “couldn't it?”
    Lizzie took a step forward and cupped her hands around her mouth.
    “Beth!” she shouted at the top of her voice. “Can you hear me?”
    She waited.
    No reply.
    “Beth!” she yelled, trying again. “Try to make some kind of sound!”
    Again she waited, but all she heard was the gentle rustling of the tree-tops as a breeze passed across the forest.
    “Beth!” Laura shouted. “Hey, are you -”
    Before she could finish, she broke down into a coughing fit.
    “She'd have replied by now,” Lizzie pointed out, patting her on the back. “Either she's too far away, or she's close and she's unconscious. Still...” She glanced back through the trees, toward the clearing that led to the cabins. “This is the route they took last night to get back to camp, so she wouldn't have deviated too far, not unless she got totally lost.”
    “She might have become disorientated,” Laura replied as they made their way through the undergrowth. “She's from the city, right? She probably doesn't have much experience out in the wilderness. I sure as hell don't.”
    “All she had to do was go in a straight line,” Lizzie muttered. “I know that's not always easy, but -”
    She stopped suddenly as she saw something up ahead: a thick swarm of flies had gathered around a patch of tall grass, and something bulky seemed to be on the ground.
    “What's that?” Laura whispered, with fear in her voice.
    Lizzie watched for a moment as the flies buzzed around the object. Whatever it was, it was large, maybe even human-sized.
    “I don't want to look,” Laura said finally.
    “It's not Beth,” Lizzie replied. “It can't be. There wouldn't be that many flies after just...” Her voice tailed off as she stared wide-eyed at the dark shape behind the grass.
    “Do you think we should call someone?” Laura asked.
    “I think we should take a look. It's probably nothing.”
    They both stood in silence for a moment, before Lizzie finally took a couple of steps forward and made her way around the side of the patch of grass. Scrunching up her nose, she waved away a few flies as she continued to edge closer to the object, and finally she stopped and stared down for a few seconds, watching as flies and maggots crawled all over the carcass.
    “Oh thank God,” she said finally.
    “What?” Laura asked.
    “It's a deer. Or... at least, it was a deer.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Pretty much,” she continued, breathing a sigh of relief. “Come and take a look.”
    Limping over to join her, Laura looked down at the carcass.
    “It stinks,” Lizzie pointed out.
    “It's kind of beautiful, though,” Laura replied, tilting her head a little as she stared at the animal's partially-rotten head, with its dead eyes staring up at the sky. “I mean, we all end up like this in the end, don't we? Sometimes I think it's better to just be left out for other creatures to feed on you, instead of being burned or nailed into a wooden box.”
    “So this is how you want to go when it's your time?” Lizzie asked. “Dumped in the forest so flies can work on you?”
    “Maybe. My mother would never allow it, though.”
    “Let's not talk about funerals,” Lizzie replied. “There's no need.”
    “Do you seriously think any of us have got much time left?” Laura asked. “This cancer camp is just one final chance for our parents to act like we're normal. Soon we'll be back in hospital, hooked up to packs of chemicals again, waiting to die slowly and painfully. All the positive thinking in the world can't change the fact that when we get to the end of our monochrome rainbows, all we're gonna find is a sad, early death.”
    “That doesn't mean we have to talk about it,” Lizzie replied firmly.
    “Yeah, but you -” Suddenly, Laura took a step