by Darren Shan
The alternative is to make use of the various tunnels and link up with the Tube line farther west, pop up out of a random station. In its favor—the mutants can’t patrol every stretch of tunnel, and they won’t know which area of the city to focus their search on once they discover I’m missing. Against—I’ll have to spend a lot of time in darkness, meaning I might not see them coming if they happen to chance upon me, and it will be hard, probably impossible, to outrun them if they stumble across my trail before I make it to the streets.
I spend a couple of minutes weighing the pros and cons, figuring it’s time worth investing. In the end I decide I’d be safer in the dark. I don’t like it down here, but just as it would be hard for me to see any hunters coming, it would be equally difficult for them to spot me going.
Having made up my mind, I first head in the direction of Whitechapel. I’m aware that I’ve left a trail of blood, and I’m hoping to throw off my trackers by continuing east for a spell, to make them think that I’m aiming for the easiest way out. I’m probably being naive–chances are they have mutants who’ve been trained to detect the subtlest of scents–but I’ve nothing to lose by trying.
After several minutes, I stop in the glow of a light and start ripping the remains of the lower lengths of my wedding dress into strips. It was such a lovely dress, and I hate having to wreck it, but it was already in tatters after the attack by the babies. The veil is missing, huge holes have been torn or bitten out of the material, its color is now more crimson than white in most places.
I ball up some of the strips and press them deep into my flesh where I’m bleeding worst, plugging the gashes, stemming the flow as best I can. I wince as the material bonds with my flesh, sticking to it like an extra layer. As the balls absorb my blood and swell within me like flowers in bloom, I loop more of the makeshift bandages round my feet and ankles so that they’ll hopefully soak up the drops trickling down my legs.
I study myself when I’m done. Far from perfect–I’d never have made it as a nurse–but it will have to do. The most important thing is that the vial has remained steady within its nesting place. My movements haven’t shaken it loose by even a fraction. That’s good to know going forward, means I don’t have to stop to check on it too often.
I listen intently for a minute, trying to detect whether the hunters are already on my trail. I hear shuffling sounds close by and stiffen, thinking my number is up. But then I spot a couple of rats gnawing on an old bone and I relax. I suppose I should be grateful that the rodents don’t attack me—I’d make a tasty snack for a big enough group of them. If I was human, they’d probably take me down, wounded and bleeding as I am, but zombie blood must not appeal to them.
When I’m sure that there are no mutants lurking nearby, waiting to spring upon me the second I turn my back, I take a deep breath–pointless since I don’t have any lungs, but it’s a force of habit–swing a left and arc back upon myself, heading west, deeper into the twisting network of tunnels.
THREE
After a while, I move out of the system of secret tunnels into old, disused sewers, the walls crumbling, the floors long dried up, relics of the past, forgotten by all except the mutants who discovered them when scouting around to find the perfect location for their base. Judging by the complete silence, I think even the rats and insects of London don’t know about these ancient arteries.
It’s pitch-black here and I have to feel my way along. There’s no way up to the streets from these abandoned sewers–at least none that Mr. Dowling is aware of–but they link with the Tube lines in several places, offering me a choice of exits when I’ve advanced farther.
I think a normal, living person would be afraid if they found themselves in my position. The isolated sewers have a ghostly feel to them, and it’s easy to imagine the spirits of the past drifting around me as I stumble ahead, or monsters like the Minotaur roaming freely, looking for victims.
But, seeing as how I’m an undead monster myself, I have nothing to fear. In fact, despite my earlier misgivings, I’m starting to feel at home—in the ragged remains of my torn, bloodstained white dress, with all my injuries and disfigurements, I could easily pass for an otherworldly specter. If I didn’t have priceless cargo to deliver, this would be a good place to rest up, wait for my senses to dissolve, then crash around in for the next few thousand years. I couldn’t do any harm down here, lost to the world of the conscious, out of sight and out of mind.
As I’m edging forward blindly, thinking about maybe coming back here if I manage to complete my mission, I hear noises from far off. At least I think they’re far away, but it’s hard to be certain in this subterranean realm, where the tunnels do strange things to sounds. Sometimes an echo carries for hundreds of meters, through a series of corridors, strong and vibrant. Other times a loud bang can be smothered by the hungry walls before it leaves a room.
I can’t tell for sure whether the noises came from a near or distant source, but I know that they’re voices. Angry voices.
I pause and listen cautiously, but the voices fade away a few seconds later, plunging me back into silence. I could wait for the sounds to come again, but that would be suicidal. I know what the voices mean. The alarm has been raised. The mutants are coming after me.
The chase is on.
ALSO BY
DARREN SHAN
THE THIN EXECUTIONER
ZOM-B SERIES
1. ZOM-B
2. ZOM-B UNDERGROUND
3. ZOM-B CITY
4. ZOM-B ANGELS
5. ZOM-B BABY
6. ZOM-B GLADIATOR
6.5. ZOM-B CIRCUS—A ZOM-B ENOVELLA
7. ZOM-B MISSION
8. ZOM-B CLANS
9. ZOM-B FAMILY
THE SAGA OF LARTEN CREPSLEY
1. BIRTH OF A KILLER
2. OCEAN OF BLOOD
3. PALACE OF THE DAMNED
4. BROTHERS TO THE DEATH
THE DEMONATA SERIES
1. LORD LOSS
2. DEMON THIEF
3. SLAWTER
4. BEC
5. BLOOD BEAST
6. DEMON APOCALYPSE
7. DEATH’S SHADOW
8. WOLF ISLAND
9. DARK CALLING
10. HELL’S HEROES
THE CIRQUE DU FREAK SERIES
1. A LIVING NIGHTMARE
2. THE VAMPIRE’S ASSISTANT
3. TUNNELS OF BLOOD
4. VAMPIRE MOUNTAIN
5. TRIALS OF DEATH
6. THE VAMPIRE PRINCE
7. HUNTERS OF THE DUSK
8. ALLIES OF THE NIGHT
9. KILLERS OF THE DAWN
10. THE LAKE OF SOULS
11. LORD OF THE SHADOWS
12. SONS OF DESTINY
CONTENTS
COVER
TITLE PAGE
WELCOME
DEDICATION
THEN…
CHAPTER ONE: NOW…
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
A SNEAK PEEK OF ZOM-B FUGITIVE
ALSO BY DARREN SHAN
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by HOME OF THE DAMNED LIMITED
Illus
trations © 2015 by Warren Pleece
Excerpt of Zom-B Fugitive copyright © 2015 by HOME OF THE DAMNED LIMITED
Illustration from excerpt of Zom-B Fugitive © 2015 by Warren Pleece
Cover art by Cliff Nielsen
Cover © 2015 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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First ebook edition: February 2015
ISBN 978-0-316-21421-6
E3