ZOM-B Baby by Darren Shan Read Free Book Online Page A

every muscle in my arms is stretched to snapping point.
    I keep my feet hooked over the rim for as much of the climb as I can, dragging them along, feeling the steel and cable slice deeply into my flesh. Pain doesn’t hit you as much as it used to when you’re a zombie, but we’re not immune to it and I’m starting to really sting. I haven’t felt this rough since I staggered away from Trafalgar Square after my last encounter with Mr Dowling.
    My feet keep slipping. Eventually, when I move into the last quarter of the climb, I unhook them and hang at full stretch, supported solely by myhands. I was good on the monkey bars in playgrounds when I was a kid. I could swing across as often as I pleased, laughing at the others who couldn’t match me. Time to find out if I still have the old magic.
    I inch forward, moving my hands one at a time, concentrating as I never have before. I don’t want to slip, and it’s got nothing to do with the threat of smashing my skull open or the possibility that Rage will beat me to the top. I need to prove to myself that I can do this. As ludicrous as it is, this has become important to me. I figure if I can do this, I can attempt just about anything. Maybe this is what I need to clear my head and haul me out of the miserable, indecisive pit that I’ve been rotting in this past week.
    It feels like the climb is never going to end. I want to shut my eyes but I can’t. I want to take the strain from my arms but I can’t. I want to rest for a while but … You get the picture.
    I spy Rage across from me. He hasn’t made it as far as I have. He’s struggling. He’s stronger than me buta hell of a lot heavier too. In a situation like this, where weight comes into play, it’s good to be a slim snip of a girl.
    I get a second wind (relatively speaking) when I see that I’m doing better than Rage. With something between a triumphant shout and a despondent groan, I force myself on, finding fresh strength somewhere deep inside me, ignoring the pain, physics, gravity, the whole damn lot.
    Finally, when I’m sure I can’t go any further, I reach the highest point. I hang there for several long seconds, staring down at my feet and the drop beneath. I feel strangely peaceful. The pain in my arms seems to fade. If I fell right now and split my head open on a spoke, I could go happy into the great beyond.
    But this isn’t a day for bidding my final farewell to the world. With a determined moan, I pull myself up, hook a leg over the rim, pause to let my arms recover, then search for the handles on the uppermost pod. Finding them, I haul myself up, almost scurrying compared to the slow pace of my previousprogress, and moments later, I’m lying on top of the pod, staring at the clouds in the sky, a BIG smile on my face, waiting for the slow, shamed Rage to join me.
    Bloody
yes
, mate!

NINE
    Rage crawls on to the roof of the pod about a minute later. He’s not huffing or puffing – with our redundant lungs we don’t do that any more – but his limbs are shaking, especially his arms, the same way mine are.
    ‘Sod me!’ he gasps, collapsing on to his back and covering his eyes with a weary, trembling arm.
    ‘No thanks,’ I smirk, then dig him in the ribs with my knuckles. ‘Who’s the queen of the castle and who’s a dirty rascal?’
    ‘Get stuffed,’ he barks.
    ‘Come on, you set the challenge. Don’t be a sore loser, just tell me who’s the queen and –’
    ‘Enough already,’ he growls. ‘You beat me fair and square. Happy?’
    ‘Ecstatic,’ I beam.
    ‘I don’t know how I made it,’ Rage mutters. ‘Those last few metres were hell. I just wanted to drop and end the agony.’
    ‘You’re too big for climbing,’ I chuckle. ‘Size matters but sometimes it’s better to be small.’
    ‘Yeah,’ he says. ‘I guess.’
    We lie there a while longer, relaxing, ignoring the glare of the daylight and the itching it causes. Then the Eye starts slowly revolving again. Ivor