ZOM-B Baby Read Online Free Page B

can’t.’
    ‘Then you’re in an even worse state than us,’ Awnya says and there’s genuine sympathy in her tone.
    ‘Yeah,’ I say hollowly. ‘I guess I am.’
    I start for the door but Awnya stops me. ‘B?’ I look back at her questioningly. ‘If it’s any comfort, we’re jealous of you.’
    ‘Why?’ I frown.
    ‘Dr Oystein and Master Zhang chose you to fight,’ she says.
    ‘They didn’t pick us,’ Cian says glumly.
    ‘Dr Oystein loves us all,’ Awnya says, ‘but even though I’m sure he’d deny it, he’s got to love his warriors more than the likes of Cian and me. You’re the ones who are going to defeat Mr Dowling and save the world.’
    ‘We’re just the guys who find things for the rest of you,’ Cian says.
    ‘If we could swap places with you, we would,’ Awnya says.
    I scratch my head while I think that over. ‘You two are a couple of freaks,’ I finally mumble. We all laugh — they know I meant it in a nice way. Cian and Awnya wave politely at me. I flip them a friendly finger then let myself out.

FIVE
    All of my room-mates are present when I get to my bedroom, including Rage, who’s studying Ashtat’s model of the Houses of Parliament.
    ‘It’s all matchsticks?’ he’s asking.
    ‘Yes,’ Ashtat says.
    ‘There isn’t a ready-made frame underneath that you’ve stuck them on to?’
    ‘No, it is all my own work.’
    ‘Cool.’
    Ashtat smiles sappily and tugs shyly at her white headscarf.
    ‘You want to be careful,’ I call to her, ‘or he’ll burn the bugger down.’
    Rage grins. ‘Don’t say such nasty things about me, Becky. I want to make a good impression on my new friends.’
    ‘You don’t have any friends here,’ I snort.
    ‘Isn’t that for us to decide?’ Ashtat snaps.
    ‘She’s got a point,’ Carl says. ‘We know you don’t like this guy, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to hate him.’
    ‘Yeah,’ Shane grunts. ‘He seems all right to me.’
    ‘He’s a killer,’ I growl. ‘I saw him murder a man.’
    ‘She’s got me bang to rights,’ Rage says chirpily as the others stare at him. ‘I can’t deny it. Guilty as charged, officer.’
    Rage swaggers over to his bed and sits on it, testing the springs.
    ‘What Miss Smith
might
have failed to mention,’ he adds, ‘was that I’d been kept captive and denied brains for several days, which meant I was close to reverting and becoming a mindless revived. The manI killed had imprisoned and starved me. In my eyes that made him fair game.’
    ‘The rest of us had been starved too,’ I snarl. ‘We didn’t turn into killers.’
    ‘As I recall, you were quite keen to tuck into Dr Cerveris’s brain once I’d cut open his skull,’ Rage notes. ‘If I hadn’t stopped you, you’d have torn in like a pig at feeding time.’
    ‘Maybe,’ I concede. ‘But I didn’t kill him. You were the only one of us who killed.’
    ‘Really?’ Rage starts looking around as if searching for something. He even bends and peers under the bed. ‘Where’s Mark?’ he finally asks.
    ‘Bastard,’ I sneer.
    ‘Reilly told me what happened,’ Rage chuckles. ‘Your lot found out Mark was alive and you tore the poor sod apart. True or false?’
    ‘The others did. Not me.’
    ‘You abstained?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Then you have my respect,’ Rage says quietly, his smile fading. ‘You were able to control yourself.You’re a better person than I am. Better than any of the zom heads were. But will you look down your nose at those of us who are made of weaker material?’
    I stare at Rage uncomfortably. I didn’t expect the argument to go like this. He was supposed to fight his corner, not praise me and make me feel bad for insulting him.
    ‘I’m not proud of what I did in that hellhole,’ Rage says. ‘But I was in bad shape. I needed brains. If it hadn’t been Dr Cerveris, if it had been someone good and decent, would I have killed them anyway? I like to think not, but I can’t say for sure.’
    I