Year of the Zombie (Book 8): Scratch by David Moody Read Free Book Online Page B

you go, then. You
piss off and start earning a living, I’ll look after the kids.’
    ‘You absolute fucker. Do
you really think it’s that straightforward? It’s not all about material
possessions, you know. There’s more to being a parent than that.’
    ‘Oh, spare me.’
    ‘No, you need to hear
this. Those kids need a damn sight more than just a roof and a frigging Sony
Playstation. They need—’
    Sudden desperate noises
from elsewhere silenced their pointless argument. Screams and shouting. Glass
shattering. Jody and Gary looked at each other for a split second then ran
towards the source of the commotion. It was coming from the dining room. One of
the windows in the wide front bay had broken under the weight of the infected
pushing in from outside, agitated by the raised voices. A diseased hand was now
sticking through the shattered pane, clawing through the air, desperate to get
at the untainted people inside. The kids were all in here. Charlie too. She was
trying to block the broken window with a plasterer’s board but was struggling
to force the diseased arm back out.
    ‘What the hell were the
kids doing in here?’ Gary demanded.
    ‘Trying to get away from
your arguing,’ Charlie said, pushing hard against the feverish body again.
‘Someone help me for Christ’s sake!’
    Jody moved fast. She
pushed the kids in Gary’s direction, then added her weight to the wooden board
Charlie was trying to use to block up the window. Between them they managed to
cover the hole and hold it tight.
    ‘I’ll sort it,’ Gary
said, and he disappeared, all three kids in tow.
    Jody looked over at
Charlie, both of them still just about managing to hold the board in place and
keep the infected at bay. ‘You okay?’
    ‘Think so.’
    ‘Your boyfriend’s about
as useless in a crisis as my ex-husband.’
    ‘Funny that,’ Charlie
said.
    The infected shoved
against them, and they shoved back.
    ‘So do we just stand
here like this all day until they get bored and piss off?’
    Before Charlie could
reply, Gary returned with a hammer and nails. He pushed his way between them.
‘Hold it steady,’ he said.
    ‘Where are the kids?’
Jody asked.
    ‘Upstairs safe. They’re
in Ben’s room. I told them to keep quiet and stay away from the windows.’
    ‘Good.’
    He hammered the board
into place, securing it with nails of varying lengths wherever he could –
into the wall, the window sill and the window frame itself – and only
stopped when he was certain it would hold. Charlie and Jody stepped away,
leaving him admiring his own handiwork. ‘That should do it,’ he said, sounding
undeservedly smug and self-assured.
    ‘First time I’ve seen
you do any DIY in a long time,’ Jody said. ‘Christ, when I think of the grief I
used to get whenever I asked you to do anything around the house.’
    ‘Maybe that had more to
do with the grief you were always giving me,’ he quickly snapped back, annoyed.
‘You were always on at me... do this, fix that... fucking nagging all the
time.’
    ‘Yeah, well that was the
problem, wasn’t it? I shouldn’t have had to nag. You should have just done it
when it needed doing.’
    ‘Fuck’s sake, here we go
again. You really can’t help yourself, can you? The world’s falling apart and
you’re still trying to score points.’
    ‘I’m not interested in
points, I just want to keep my kids safe.’
    ‘And I’ve already told
you, they are safe. And they’re staying here with me.’
    ‘Over my dead body.’
    ‘That can be arranged.
No one’s going to notice one more corpse at the moment.’
    ‘You wouldn’t have the
bloody nerve.’
    ‘You reckon. Just you
try me and I’ll—’
    ‘Will you two just shut
up!’ Charlie screamed at them.
    Jody noticed that
Charlie was standing on the other side of the window, illuminated by the early
morning light. She looked like a little kid lost. She was clutching her arm.
    ‘What’s the matter,
love?’ Gary said. ‘You okay?’
    It