Zom-B Gladiator Read Online Free Page B

like when you were a kid. The world was our oyster. We could find out about anything.’
    ‘I suppose,’ he sighs, then smiles again. ‘ The world was our oyster. You never used a phrase like that in the old days. All that reading mustbe rubbing off on you.’
    ‘Of course it is. I’m not thick.’
    ‘No,’ Burke agrees. ‘And never were. Even when you acted it.’
    Burke picks up the book and looks at it closely again. He’s obviously come to discuss something with me. I’ve an idea what it is but I don’t say anything. I’m not going to make things easy for him. That’s not my style.
    ‘I don’t want this to come out the wrongway,’ Burke says hesitantly. ‘And I’d hate to be classed as a teacher who ever discouraged reading. But are you maybe spending a bit too much time here on your own with your head stuck in a book?’
    ‘No,’ I answer shortly.
    Burke chuckles, then sets the book aside and gets serious. ‘What’s wrong, B?’
    ‘Nothing. I’m peachy.’
    ‘No. You’re not. Dr Oystein noticed and brought it to myattention.’
    ‘Noticed what?’
    ‘You returned to the fold after that incident with the baby,’ Burke says, ‘but you haven’t made any effort to fit in with the other Angels. You don’t socialise or hang out with your room-mates.’
    ‘Maybe I don’t like them,’ I sniff.
    ‘I doubt that’s the case,’ he says. ‘If it was, you could simply ask to move in with a different group.’
    ‘I thoughtthat wasn’t allowed. Dr Oystein tells us where to bed down.’
    ‘When you first come here, yes. But if Ashtat and the others are still getting on your nerves after this much time, he’ll be happy to let you switch. But they’re not the problem, are they?’
    ‘Rage is a pain,’ I mutter.
    ‘You don’t get on with him?’
    ‘I don’t trust him. Never have, never will.’
    ‘But the others?’ Burkepresses.
    I shrug stiffly.
    ‘If you tell me what’s troubling you, I might be able to help,’ he says kindly. ‘A problem is never as bad as it seems if you share it with a friend.’
    ‘But I don’t need a friend,’ I mumble. ‘I don’t want one. I don’t mind working with the Angels, but I don’t want to make friends with them.’
    ‘Why not?’ Burke asks, surprised.
    ‘I’d rather be alone,’I say quietly.
    Burke frowns, trying to make sense of me.
    ‘It’s not that complicated,’ I snicker.
    ‘It is to me,’ Burke says. ‘I’d have thought that someone in your position would give anything to find a friend.’
    ‘What’s so bad about my position?’ I bark.
    ‘Well, you’re undead,’ he says. ‘Living people want nothing to do with you. Regular zombies have no interest in you either.There aren’t many people left who could ever be tempted to give a damn about you. If you spurn the advances of the Angels, you’re unlikely to find a friend anywhere else.’
    ‘But I just told you I don’t want any friends,’ I remind him.
    ‘You must,’ Burke insists. ‘You can’t want to be all alone in the world.’
    ‘I bloody well do,’ I snort.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Because it’s simpler that way.’I reconsider my words and try again. ‘Because it’s safer.’ I look down at my hands, at the bones sticking out of my fingers, remembering the blood that has stained them. ‘You weren’t there in the school when the zombies attacked. You were off sick that day. You didn’t see us as we raced for freedom. You didn’t see so many of my friends die, Suze and Copper and Linzer and . . .
    ‘You weren’tthere when Mr Dowling invaded the underground complex either. You didn’t see the zom heads tear into Mark or hear their death screams when Josh caught up with them. You didn’t smell their burning flesh in the air.
    ‘You weren’t with me when all those people were killed in Trafalgar Square. Or when Sister Clare and her supporters marched into the belly of Liverpool Street Station. Or whenTimothy was butchered.’
    ‘I’ve seen terrible things