Zom-B Gladiator by Darren Shan Read Free Book Online Page B

which are still packed with displays of toys that haven’t been disturbed, until I come to a stretch of wall that I can lean against. I glance around idly, then study my fingerbones, picking at them, cleaning them. I keep them in good shape, but withall the training and fighting, they get scraped and chipped. The scuffs don’t really bother me, but I like to keep them neat and tidy. I guess filing down the bones is the closest I get to polishing my nails these days.
    As I’m digging at a thin crack in one of the bones, trying to scrape out the dirt, I hear something rustling to my left. I look up but can’t see anything. Probably just arat. I return my attention to my bones, but then there’s a shuffling sound off to my right. I frown and step away from the wall, squinting. The sun’s in my eyes. I raise a hand to shade them.
    Something strikes the back of my neck and a surge of electricity crackles through me. Every muscle in my body goes haywire. I collapse instantly. I try to cry out with pain, but my mouth won’t work.It’s like I’m filling with sparks. Lights dance across my eyes and I go temporarily blind.
    As my vision starts to clear, a man rushes towards me. A gag is shoved into my mouth. My hands are jerked behind my back and tied together. Someone else binds my legs. I want to scream for help, but I’m still spasming and the gag would stop me making any noises anyway.
    The guy who bound my handsstarts to jam a thick sack down over my head. He pauses before he covers my eyes and waits for me to focus on him. As I do, the world swimming slowly back into place around me, I spot his dark, grey-streaked hair and brown eyes, and I think it’s Dr Oystein, that this is a test.

    Then the man’s features solidify and I realise it’s not the doc. I don’t know why I ever thought it was. The pair look nothing alike. This guy is much broader, with a menacing expression, and Dr Oystein never went around with a bullet stuck behind his right ear.
    When I spot the bullet, everything clicks and I realise what’s going on. I try to scream again, to at least alert Carl, evenif it’s too late for me. But the hunter knows his job. He’s not in the habit of making mistakes.
    ‘Hello again, my bizarre little beauty,’ he whispers.
    And, as he tugs the sack down over my face, thrusting me into darkness, I try screaming one last time, unsuccessfully willing myself to bellow his name out loud for all the world to hear.
    ‘ Barnes! ’

My captors pick me up and hurry along the street with me. I try kicking out at them, but I’m expertly bound and my muscles are still throbbing from the shock. I’ve never been tasered before. I didn’t think it would hurt so much. My head is ringing and it feels likeI’ve been sucking batteries for a week.
    I’m bundled into the back of a van and the doors slam shut. The engine starts and we lurch forward. It’s been so long since I was in a moving vehicle, the sensation is strange. I get a bit nauseous. I never suffered from travel sickness when I was alive. Maybe it has something to do with my altered hearing.
    I’ve no idea what’s going on. Barnesis a hunter. When I met him before, he was leading a small team, killing zombies for sport. I could understand that. But why kidnap me now instead of shoot me dead when he had the chance? Does he plan to torture me?
    I wouldn’t have thought he was the type. That day in the East End, when he realised I could think and speak, he let me go. He even threatened to eliminate one of his crew, Coley,a nasty piece of work who wanted to kill me despite the fact I wasn’t like the other zombies.
    But maybe I caught Barnes on a soft day. He might have thought about it since then and decided I was fair game. Perhaps he got tired of executing mindless zombies and wanted to experiment on one who could react to his taunts.
    As I’m considering the nature of the man who now controls my fate,the sack is pulled free of my head. Barnes is squatting