Zom-B Baby

by Darren Shan

  I don’t beat about the bush. Ignoring the high-pitched noises coming out of the speakers dotted around the place – they deter normal zombies, but not a girl on a mission like me – I hobble down Belvedere Road, let myself into the building and make straight for Dr Oystein’s small lab, where the Groove Tubes are housed. I have a feeling I’ll find him there, and I’m right. He’s working on something when I enter without knocking, running tests, studying the contents of a test tube.

  The doctor doesn’t look up, unaware that his privacy has been disturbed. I don’t announce myself. Instead I strip and dump my clothes on the floor, then limp to the nearest Tube, smiling warmly at the thought of immersing myself and blissing out, of emerging whole and fresh in a few weeks.

  There’s a ladder close to the Groove Tube. I climb up and in. I hold on to the sides of the cylinder, half submerged. I think about saying nothing, grinning as I imagine the perturbed look on Dr Oystein’s face when he turns from his work later and spots me. But I can’t hold my tongue.

  ‘Doc,’ I call.

  The doctor looks up and his eyes widen. ‘B?’ he gasps.

  I smirk at him, let go of the sides and slip beneath the surface of the liquid. As I’m falling, just before I go under, I shout out playfully — ‘I’m in!’

  To be continued …

  About the Author

  DARREN SHAN is the bestselling author of the young adult series Cirque Du Freak, The Demonata and The Saga of Larten Crepsley, as well as the stand-alone book The Thin Executioner. Shan’s books are sold on every continent and in thirty-one languages, and have been bestsellers in the US, Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Hungary, Japan, Taiwan and the UAE. In total, they have sold over 25 million copies worldwide. Shan divides his time between his homes in Ireland and London

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  Also by Darren Shan

  ZOM-B

  ZOM-B UNDERGROUND

  ZOM-B CITY

  ZOM-B ANGELS

  And, coming soon

  ZOM-B GLADIATOR

  Copyright

  Zom-B Baby

  Copyright © 2013 by Home of the Damned Limited

  Illustrations © Warren Pleece

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.

  Epub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2013 ISBN: 9781443415224

  Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

  First published in Great Britain in 2013

  by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

  A CBS Company

  FIRST CANADIAN EDITION

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

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  ISBN 978-1-44341-520-0

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