Zom-B Mission by Darren Shan

that for?’ Ashtat cries.
    ‘I don’t like dogs,’ I lie.
    ‘Even so, you didn’t have to scare it off,’ Ashtat pouts. ‘I think we could have persuaded it to come to us. You could have simply stood back.’
    ‘There was blood on its fur,’ I improvise. ‘It might have been zombie blood. It could have infected Emma and Declan.’
    Ashtat frowns and considers that. As she’s thinking it over, the door to the building opens behind us and someone calls out chirpily, ‘I knew that was B Smith even before I heard your voice. I recognised the smell.’
    We whirl round. The others squint at the dark-skinned stranger on the steps, not sure what to make of his unexpected greeting. But he’s no stranger to me, and as he standsthere smirking, I take a trembling step forward and croak his name with disbelief.
    ‘ Vinyl? ’

ELEVEN
    Vinyl was my best friend back when I was a normal girl. We’d been friends since we were toddlers. Being a racist, my dad forbade me from having anything to do with black kids. But in that one instance I disobeyed him. I pretended to blank Vinyl, but I’d see him behind Dad’s back. I knew Dad would beat the crap out of me if he ever found out, but I liked Vinyl too much to drivehim away.
    Vinyl was brighter than the rest of us. He got upgraded to a better school when his mum made him sit a Mensa test and his potential was uncovered. I’m sure he would have stopped hanging out with me after another month or two, and that would have been the end of our friendship. But he was still one of the gang the day before the zombie attacks, when I last spoke to him on thephone.
    ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I ask once we’re safely inside the building and the door has been locked.
    ‘I’m your guide,’ he says as if it’s the most ordinary thing in the world. ‘I’m here to lead you guys to New Kirkham. That’s the name of the compound.’
    ‘But how did you get here? How did you survive and end up doing a job like this?’
    ‘I’ll explain it all shortly,’Vinyl says, cool as ever. ‘Come and meet the rest of the group first. We’re not moving out until morning, so we have all of the afternoon and night to chat.’
    He leads us through to a massive atrium, nothing over our heads except the roof high above. You can see all of the floors from here, the offices set just behind the outer corridors.

    Eight humans wait in the centre of the atrium, three men, two women, a couple of teenagers and a girl about Declan’s age. They look nervous. There are also a pair of Angels, Pearse and Conall, sitting slightly apart from the humans, playing cards. Rage hails the Angels and trots over to join their game.
    ‘Pearse and Conall came with me from New Kirkham,’ Vinyl says. ‘Dr Oysteinlikes us to team up with his Angels for operations like this.’
    ‘You know Dr Oystein?’ I ask, head still spinning.
    ‘Haven’t met him. Heard lots about him from Mr Burke.’
    ‘Burke?’ If the blood could drain from my face, it would.
    Before I can ask any more questions, we’re welcomed by the humans we’ve come to escort. They’re scared of us, that’s clear, but do their best to hide it.They invite us to eat with them, but Ashtat explains that we don’t need food.
    The little girl asks Declan if he wants to play. He shakes his head and clings to his mum. Emma laughs and slots in with the other living people, telling Declan he has nothing to be afraid of, unconsciously turning her back on us and abandoning us for those more like herself, which is understandable.
    Thelittle girl pesters Declan, urging him to play with her. Vinyl smiles and whispers to me, ‘That’s Liz. She’s an orphan and hasn’t had any other children to play with for as long as she’s been with the group. I don’t think she’ll take no for an answer.’
    As Liz keeps plugging away at a scared-looking Declan, some of the survivors take us on a tour of the building and tell us how they holedup here not long