Blog of the Dead (Book 3): Lost by Lisa Richardson Page A

we ran into some of Ashford’s post-apocalypse population. A group of eight zombies were waiting for us around the corner, in a little courtyard. A few more headed our way from further up the high street, attracted, no doubt, by the sound of Elaine’s heels clip-clopping on the paving stones.
    Misfit drew his hunting knife, while Clay slipped his gloves from around his neck and onto his hands. Only Charlotte approached the zombies barehanded. But I knew what damage that girl could do with those hands of hers, so I didn’t worry. We all got stuck in, Elaine whooping and hollering like Xena the Warrior Princess. I think she was enjoying it. I wondered if she was keeping a mental note of everyone’s tally; we each had a quota, after all.
    Zombies dealt with we carried on further down the high street where the road widened out. To my right, I saw a glass fronted building with a sign advertising that H&M , River Island , New Look as well as other well known high street names could be found inside and to my left, Park Mall , with its sign promising ‘more stores this way’ and I thought, Ah , OK , Ashford town centre is pretty big after all . And it was there – that exact spot – that Elaine decided to get really really noisy.
    There were already a few zombies milling about, but as soon as Elaine announced our arrival by yelling and slamming the blade of her knife against a lamp post (I almost expected her to say, ‘Here zombie zombies, here zombie zombies’ or ‘Roll up, roll up. Get your human meat here. Nice fresh human meat…’) zombies began coming out of the bloody woodwork. I was used to fighting for my life, killing because I had to in order to escape, to survive another day. But I wasn’t used to inviting death to come at me just for the sake of it. I watched the swelling crowd of zombies staggering from both ends of the high street and out of any stores that weren’t sealed up.
    ‘I think you can shut the fuck up now,’ I said to Elaine.
    There were easily enough zombies to fill our thirty a day per person quota, but she didn’t stop. The CLANG CLANG of metal against metal continued as Elaine’s blade struck the lamppost, her brow set in grim determination.
    ‘Enough!’ I said.
    Elaine glanced at me and pushed her glasses further up her nose. She then pursed her lips and she surveyed the area directly around herself as the zombie horde staggered closer. Me and Misfit stood back to back as the zombies approached. I had my knife held out before me as my head snapped left and right, wondering which zombie would be first to lunge. The zombies closed in around us as we each readied ourselves for the fight.
    Movement to my left caught my eye and I turned to see Elaine dive at a lamppost and begin her odd pole dance routine, her spiked heels ramming through the brains of the front runners. I launched myself into the zombies around me, driving my blade through eyes, ears, mouths, anywhere as long as it was en route to the shrivelled brains beneath. 
    Charlotte had her meat cleaver clenched in her right hand. She switched between using its blade to slice zombie brains and using her foot to kick their brains out. Clay powered through the zombies with his gloves, spikes injecting left, right… left, right… while Kay, despite not being up to full health, stormed ever forwards with each swipe of her axe.
    Over the sound of slashing, slicing, jabbing and chopping, I could just about hear Elaine shouting pep talk at us, ‘Come on team, work together… Keep up the speed… tighter team, tighter… almost there now…’ and it was all I could do to prevent myself from turning my blade in her direction and slamming it between her eyes. Deep breath , Sophie , I told myself. You can’t kill people just because they are crazy and annoying . Buuuuuuuuut …
    We had polished off most of the zombies, except for a few that staggered towards us from along the high street and were still far enough away not to be of any