Zombie Business

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The mutant's foot catches on something and he goes down with a yelp. His partner laughs and turns to help him up. and I'm caught. The beam of his torch swings round

The taller mutant gapes at me. His jaw actually drops.

'Don't just stand there,' Glenn huffs. 'Help me...'

Then he notes the other guy's expression and starts to turn.

I hurl myself forward. I jump on the sprawled Glenn's back and use him as a springboard, targeting the torch. I'm a physical wreck. In a fair fight they'd take me without breaking into a sweat. But if I can remove the light from the equation, anything could happen in the dark.

The mutant with the torch is lugging a crowbar in his other hand. He swings it at me as I jump, but he's startled, clumsy, doesn't take the fraction of a second that he needs to judge his blow and bring the bar slamming down on my head. It only grazes my shoulder while I swipe the torch away.

The torch goes flying, bounces a few times across the floor, but doesn't shatter. The beam is pointing away from us, so we're in gloom, but not total darkness.

I jab the fingers of my right hand at the mutant's head, planning to smash through his skull and destroy his brain. But in the heat of the moment I forget that some of my finger bones were mutilated by the babies. I scratch the mutant, but nothing worse than that.

He drives an elbow into my ribs. Or rather into the space where ribs should be. Not connecting my as he expected to, he's caught off balance. I grab him by the neck and force him down, using his awkward momentum against him.

Falling on top of the mutant, I extend a finger that still boasts a bone, and try to poke it through one of his eyes. Before I can, Glenn lurches at me and knocks me off his colleague.

I've got her, Ossie!' he roars, rolling on to his back and holding me pinned on top of him. 'Finish her off!'

Ossie scrambles for his crowbar. I do my best to tear free of Glenn, but he has a firm grip on me and is shielding himself skilfully.

'Hold her still,' Ossie snarls, taking careful aim with the crowbar.

'You b****y try it if you think it's that easy,' Glenn

shouts, ever the moaner.

Ossie bashes my shoulders with the crowbar a few times. I yell with pain and lash out with a kick. He dances backwards, chuckling grimly.

'Stop playing with her!' Glenn screams.

I'm not playing,' Ossie says, cocky now that he's sized me up and seen how feeble I am. 'I just don't want to kill her if I don't have to.'

"They said that we could,' Glenn squeals. He can't see me as well as Ossie can. He doesn't know that the fight was knocked out of me long before this pair of jokers hit the scene.

'Yeah,' Ossic drawls, 'but think how pleased Mr Dowling will be if we bring her back to him in one piece.'

'We're not b****y heroes, Glenn protests, and despite my dire situation I find myself admiring his honesty. 'Kill her while you can, you fool, before she turns the tables on us.'

She won't be turning anything, Ossie says, using the tip of the crowbar to poke my chin my head tilts back. His smile fades and his eyes go up, so that hard. 'But you're right. We're not heroes. Kinslow said that the vial was more important than the girl. Let's make sure she has it. If she has, I'll c***k her skull open. As long as we return with the booty, we'll enjoy a hero's welcome.'

Ossie retrieves the torch while I struggle ineffec tively. He shines the light on me, my hands first, then the area around me. 'Where is it?' he asks.

'Get stuffed,' I growl, lashing at Glenn's shins with my heels. He winces, but I can't do any real damage because of the strips of cloth wrapped round my feet.

'I don't want to t*****e you if I don't have to,' Ossie says. 'We're not like that, me and Glenn.'

Yeah, Glenn says earnestly. 'We'd rather kill you cleanly.'

Ossie nods. "Tell us where the vial is and I'll make it quick. You have my word.'

You can stick your word up your arse, along with my fist and half the arm behind it,' I jeer.

Ossie doesn't take kindly to that. His eyes narrow and he raises the bar menacingly. Then he scowls and pokes the tip into the gap where my stomach wall should be. He starts jerking it around, trying to hurt me and force me to tell them about the vial. But he's an amateur. t*****e's clearly not his thing. He was telling the truth about that.

But what Ossie and Glenn lack in skill and tem perament, they make for with luck. It was the up luck of the devil that they stumbled across me in the first place, and now that lucky streak strikes again as Ossie's crowbar bangs into the vial, tucked away deep inside me, and makes a dull clanging noise.

Ossie pauses. 'No way,' he mutters. Then he spies my appalled expression and hoots. Thanks a lot, Mrs Dowling. You've made my day.'

'What is it?' Glenn pants as Ossie bends to root through the remains of my guts. 'Is it the vial?'

'Yeah,' Ossie says. 'Has to be."

'Well, don't go searching for it now, you dope,' Glenn yells at him. Finish her off first. Otherwise she'll wriggle free while you're digging around, bite through to your brain, and we'll be without a paddle.' up the creek

Ossie thinks about that and sniffs. "You're right,' he says, standing and adjusting his grip on the crow bar. He closes one eye your head away, and lines up his shot. "Turn Glenn. There's gonna be blood, bone and all sorts of muck flying your way in a second.'

'Just don't miss her and hit me by mistake,' Glenn says, shifting about beneath me, trying to hide his face between my shoulder blades.

'If you don't quit griping, it won't be a mistake, Ossie says sourly, then draws back his crowbar and prepares to strike. I kick at him, hoping to catch him between the thighs, but he's alert to the threat and has positioned himself side on.