Fear the Dead: A Zombie Survival Novel by Jack Lewis Read Free Book Online Page A

had hit woodland again.
     
    "How thick
is this patch?" I asked him.
     
    His eyes looked
up and to the side, as though he were searching his brain for data. "I
don’t know. The GPRS didn’t have a route through the trees. We should be on the
road somewhere over there,” he said, and pointed east of us.
     
    I looked up.
Through the slots of the tress I could see the sky, and it looked grey. Darkness
was starting to creep in, and soon the whole woodland would be black. I looked
as far through the trees as I could but there didn't seem to be any shelter.
There wasn’t going to be any scout shack like back in Vasey, because there were
no populated areas in this neck of the woods. This made me sweat. I didn't want
to be out in the open again when the stalkers came.
     
    "How far’s
the nearest town?" I asked.
     
    He shrugged his
shoulders. "I dunno."
     
    "I forget
that you're not Google."
     
    "Eh?"
     
    I shook my
head. "Never mind."
     
    "Are we
stopping?" asked Justin.
     
    I dropped my
rucksack to the ground. It was about five times heavier than it had been two
days ago, and though this meant extra weight to carry, I was glad of it. Justin
had brought enough supplies with him to get us a hell of a lot closer to the
farm, and the first thing I'd done when I agreed to let him join me was to
transfer most of them to my own bag. The kid thought it was because I wanted to
help him carry the load, but really it was because if he screwed up and got
himself killed, I didn't want to be left starving.
     
    I took a look
round us and, seeing nothing, lowered myself to the forest floor. The mud was a
little damp from a light shower in the morning, but it had been a long time
since I had cared about something like that. Justin sat down, felt the wetness
of the dirt and instead put his bag underneath him.
     
    "Think
we're going to have to hold up here for the night. Don't know exactly where we
are, but I got an inkling there's a village a few days away."
     
    Justin blinked.
"You don't trust me, but you’ll trust an inkling?"
     
    "An
inkling never got me killed."
     
    Truth was I had
been here once, many years ago, so I had a dim recollection of the area. Back
then though, I had been with Clara, and I had been too focused on how beautiful
my new wife was to take in the scenery.
     
    "Won't
'they' come out? The things?"
     
    "Stalkers."
I said.
     
    "That's
what they're called?"
     
    I nodded.
"That'd be the dictionary term, if someone out there was still printing
them. Truth is I don't know if they’ll come out here. But I think we're good
for miles on either side - there's nothing here but fields. Stalkers stick near
towns and villages where they know there are people.”
     
    Justin tilted
his head to the side. "What are they?"
     
    I swallowed. I
didn’t want to spend time thinking about the stalkers. "Don't ask. Just if
we ever see one, for god’s sake do what I say."
     
    A few hours
later the woods were cloaked in darkness. Somewhere in the tree above me a bird
shuffled in its nest, and aside from that the only sound was the regular chirp
of crickets. A breeze blew cold on my cheeks, and with it came the smell of
spring onions from a patch that must have been growing nearby. The sky was so
black that I couldn't see whether it was cloudy or not, though the absence of
stars wasn't a good sign. The last thing we needed when we didn't have shelter
was for it to start raining. I'd spent some long, wet nights out in the open
over the last few years, and I didn't plan to spend many more if I could help
it.
     
    Justin had his
back against a log that was led horizontally on the forest floor. The middle of
it was hollow and looked like it had been chewed by something, but the hole
wasn't big enough to get inside. I rested my body against a tree, but I kept my
mind alert. It felt good to sit down. I could actually feel the tiredness
seeping out of me; it was like a warm energy that drained from my limbs. It was
a good feeling, but