Salby (Book 2): Salby Evolution by Ian D. Moore Read Free Book Online Page A

the other. The pilot was convinced he saw bodies. What else could it be?”
    “Oh come on now, use that pretty head and think of the multitude of possibilities besides the virus. Could be food poisoning for all we know, or a rogue shipmate who finally flipped out at sea. There’s a myriad of reasons. What say you wait until you know more before you start tearing strips off yourself—that’s my job, in the bedroom,” he toyed, attempting to lighten Evie’s mood.
    Evie pressed against him and accepted that his argument had substance. Her logical mind didn’t always contemplate things outside of her field. He gave her strength, a different view on the world, not to mention the best lovemaking she had ever experienced.
    Nathan pulled her into him as they walked along the shore, the sound of the sea acting as a lullaby to the fears and doubts in her mind. Only time would reveal more, but by then, it could already be too late, she thought.
    “Wait up, you two lovebirds. It’s getting late. Shall we head back for the night?” Stewey asked.
    “Yes, sure. A nightcap and then we’ll head up,” Nathan agreed.
    Both couples began to walk back towards the hotel, ready to settle down for the night.

6 – Road Trip
     
    Three months earlier, Salby Retail Park, North Yorkshire, 19 th March 2014, 1300 hours.
    The rows of cars provided cover as we searched among them, a hope beyond hope to find one substantial enough for our needs. I knew we would likely need to plough our way out of here, and my car simply wouldn’t have the guts to make it. I spotted a cross-over two rows ahead, door open.
    “Barbie, there! That one,” I called.
    She stood rooted to the spot, unable to move. The cause of her temporary paralysis became evident soon enough. A lone woman, clearly one of ‘them’, stood slightly off to her left. Barbie raised the trident fork in a half-hearted gesture of competent defence. It had little effect at distraction and the woman continued to close the gap, goading Barbie to make her move.
    “Barbie! Barbara! Move, dammit!” I yelled, in a vain attempt to snap her out of her daze.
    The crazed, wild haired woman, covered in grime, and slightly larger than Barbie, took another step, her face contorted in pure hate-filled, murderous rage. Her intentions were clear; someone was going to die today.
    In the remaining seconds before the woman made contact with Barbie, I had to think fast. I turned, ran and hurdled up and over the cars, building as much momentum as I could. As I reached the car closest to the woman, I jumped.
    In what could have been an Olympic-class dive, I ploughed into the woman and sent both of us sprawling to the ground. I came down hard on my right wrist. The white-hot pain shot through my arm and momentarily threw me off the task at hand. That moment was all it took for the woman to lunge at my flayed out legs. She sank her teeth deep into my thigh and bit down hard. I screamed out my pain, which cancelled out that of the fire in my wrist—her clamp on my leg akin to that of a medium-sized dog.
    Barbie snapped out of her world and returned to this one, straddled the woman with the trident raised high at her chest, and forced it down hard into the back of the woman’s skull. For a few seconds, almost nothing happened, just a mild twitch and only the barest reduction in the pressure of the woman’s hold upon my leg. Her eyes found mine as the light within them began to fade, glassed over as life became extinct. For one fleeting moment, I thought her grip upon me would remain, but it waned enough for me to pull away. Her face hit the concrete as the trident stood vertical, planted prong-deep in the back of her head.
    Barbie appeared to be cold, but nowhere near as cold as I felt. Her body shook uncontrollably and her breathing became sporadic, jerky, as she hyperventilated. In what I can only describe as a systematic assault, my body began to freeze.
    Fingers of icy intrusion coursed through my veins,