Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel(60)

Annaliese looked up to see more infected people ready to leap. She looked at Clark and Charlotte. “We need to get out of here, now.”

“No shit,” said Clark.

The three of them took off across the rear gardens of Ripley Manor. Annaliese led them around the building to the front, hoping that Shawcross and the others had managed to make it out safely.

Behind them, the infected screeched and gave chase.

“They’re coming after us,” Charlotte said.

“Just keep moving. The longer we’re in sight, the more of those things that will come through the window.”

They rounded the corner of Ripley Hall and entered the front lawns. Annaliese could see the park and zoo buildings in the distance. The orange sun was rising up behind them and casting long shadows.

They stuck close to the building and headed for the front entrance. “This way,” she said. “We need to meet up with the others.”

“Oh, shitmack and fries,” Clark shouted. “They’re gaining on us. How are they so fast?”

Annaliese looked back. Three of the four infected that had fallen through the window were gaining ground quickly. The one with the broken ankle was nowhere to be seen, obviously unable to keep up.

Annaliese turned the corner and sprinted across the lawn, ducking between trees and hopping over bushes. She skipped over the body of the man who had attacked and bitten Bradley – the man who had started this whole nightmare for her.

Ripley Hall’s front doors were hanging wide open, light spilling out from the foyer. Annaliese glanced around while still running. “Where are they? Where the hell are they?”

“We should run back inside,” said Charlotte.

“No. The house is full of infected people. We need to find someplace safer. The others should be out here waiting for us. Where are they?”

She looked behind her. The three infected would be on them any second. There was no place to run that offered absolute safety. But standing and fighting would be suicide.

“Anna!”

She spun around to see Shawcross and the others. They were fifty yards away, shouting over from the doorway of one the zoo’s buildings.

“Come on,” Annaliese shouted and pointed. “They’re over there.”

With safety in sight, Charlotte and Clark seemed to find additional strength. They picked up speed and managed to overtake Annaliese, leaving her at the rear. The infected seemed to pick up speed, too. Their screams were incessant and beginning to drive her insane.

“Quickly,” Shawcross shouted as he held the doorway open for them.

Charlie and Clark rounded a concrete statue of a chameleon on a log and sprinted the final thirty yards to the building. Shawcross ushered them inside to safety. He motioned urgently for Annaliese to hurry up and get in after them.

I’m coming, I’m coming.

She was going as fast as she could, but the infected almost had her. She could feel them right behind her. Her thighs were burning and she just could not keep up the pace. There were still ten yards left to run when she felt fingertips at her back.

Up ahead, Shawcross’s eyes suddenly went wide. He slammed the door closed, locking her out.

That bastard.

The fingertips at her back turned into palms and progressed to grabbing hands. The infected had caught her. She was done for.

I’m going to end up as one of them.

Suddenly, the door to the zoo building sprung open again. Somebody emerged from it.

It was Mike.

He ran towards Annaliese with a length of broom handle raised above his head. Just as she was grappled from behind, taken down to her knees, Mike swung for the cheap seats and batted her attacker around the side of the head. The broom handle snapped in two and the infected man went down.

Annaliese staggered back to her feet. Tremors wracked her knees and tried to bring her back down, but she fought.

There were still two more infected people to deal with.

Mike grabbed Annaliese by her lapels and yanked her towards him. Then he took another swing with the broken broom handle, striking the nearest attacker – a dark-skinned man – under the chin. Then he kicked out fiercely, knocking the man to the ground.

“Look out,” Annaliese shouted just as the remaining infected person – an overweight woman in a ripped blouse – launched her attack.

Mike used the broken broom handle as a spear, ramming it upwards into the woman’s nose. He gritted his teeth as he forced the wooden shaft upwards, through the soft nasal canal and into the brain cavity.

The woman’s entire body went into seizure and her hungry screams immediately stopped. Mike let go of the broom handle and she slumped backwards, dead.

“Come on,” Annaliese shouted as the infected man Mike had kicked to the floor began to rise up again.

The two of them galloped the last twenty yards to the zoo building, huffing and panting under the strain of fighting for their lives. Shawcross was back at the door now, a look of worry and aggravation on his face. At least this time he was holding it open instead of leaving her out in the cold.

Annaliese barged past Shawcross angrily and made her way inside the building with Mike right behind her. The door slammed shut and finally she was safe again. But for how long, she did not know.





Chapter Seventeen

“You were just going to leave me out there to die!” Annaliese shouted in Shawcross’s face. The building they were now standing in was the zoo’s reptile house. The atmosphere was humid and the only lighting was from flickering lengths of weak strip-bulbs.