The Zombie Evolution by Rowan Burke Read Free Book Online

helpless with both arms up above his head. Jon broke free from Derek, grabbing the hammer from Lance’s hand in the process and raised his arm with intent of swinging the blunt weapon down onto Carl’s awaiting skull. He had gone too far, but the beast was now free and hungry for blood. Jon quickly motioned the sharp end of the hammer downward with a crazed look commandeering his entire face. Realising he had bridged the transition to submerging himself into vengeful and ultimately regretful madness; I grabbed the hammer a mere inch or two from the target to stop it caving his cranium.
     
    Derek stood with his fists up and ready over Jon’s left shoulder, Jon broken in motion as my hand held this looming hammer of Damocles. Lance merely looked disappointed his weapon had been swiped away from him. Phil continued to hold Carl, who had now stopped kicking and resisting as Stacey shuffled across the floor to his feet. Everyone panted to regain oxygen after the commotion; all standing waiting for the next move but not knowing where or who it was to come from. It was naïve of us to think the next move would be from one of us seven, but as we all waited for one another to break the standstill, and I pondered Jon’s reaction with sincere concern, our hopeful visitor decided to make sure we hadn’t forgotten about his looming presence.
     
    A huge sound of shattering glass cut the tension in an instant, followed by the low, ambient, bellowing moan I had first heard in the pub a few nights before. It was a terrifying noise, added in severity by the lack of visibility from its fabricator. Our brain-lusting intruder had made light of the bay windows, enticed by a noisy potential feed on the other side. We knew the wooden shutters we nailed to the back of the outside frame weren’t particularly strong; it was more of a last minute extra security measure we added at the end of the day, hammered up somewhat half-arsed, not really expecting it to ever be rendered as a factor or its usefulness be tested. We could now see a shadow shifting around the bottom of the wooden panels, shuffling glass and tearing remnants of door and window out of the way.
     
    BANG!
     
    The bangs now had a louder, more prominent, much clearer sound. No longer where they muffled from the exterior glass to make it seem like the zombie was outside whilst we were safely in. Now it sounded like it was already inside, already close to us, already on its way to getting us . This fear just got more intense, more real, it could easily get to us now, and all seven of us knew that far too well.
     
    “What do we do?”
                  I asked, a panicked tremolo engulfing my voice.
     
    I was now breathing heavily through my nose, my heart beating a million times a second. I could feel it beating through my chest, the adrenaline from the fight we just had converting into fearful anxiety. I let go of the hammer as felt that would safely be considered as part of a moment now passed, a feeling evidently reciprocated by Jon as his hand lowered down by his side whilst he turned toward the front of the house, moving up to stand next to me.
     
    “It’s going to get in”
    I spoke again.
    “The wood isn’t strong, it’s not nailed in very well, and most of its held up with duct tape for fuck sake. It’s getting in, so what do we do?”
     
    BANG!
     
    This time several nails shot out of their fixtures, firing across the floor like small missiles. The tape began to tear, the two large sheets of wood used now revealing a centralised gap through which a silhouette of our uninvited guest began to present itself. We could all see that there were only a few nails left in place, and they weren’t going to last very long at all. We had to figure out what we were going to do; we had to figure it out right fucking now.
     
    “We could climb out through the lookout?”
    Lance suggested.
    “One of us could run out and distract it. They could lead it into one of the