Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel by Kristal Stittle Page A

reach you?”
    Cillian figured this Tobias guy didn’t have a fear of heights, but he probably would after his.
    With a supreme amount of effort, he switched his hands to be hooked through Tobias’s harness the other way, causing his legs to swing down and his head to swing up.
    “Thanks, man,” now being relatively face to face, they didn’t have to shout to hear each other.  They probably didn’t need to shout to hear each other to begin with, but the situation seemed to call for it.
    “Don’t mention it,” Cillian grunted.  “Just hurry the fuck up.”
    Tobias heaved himself up, using Cillian’s pants’ pockets as handholds.  With a lot of effort, and a lot of cursing from Cillian, Tobias managed to get onto the ladder.
    “Now help me up!” Cillian shouted again.  The building was getting uncomfortably closer.
    “Who’s that climbing up?”  Tobias had looked down and noticed the person halfway up the ladder.
    “Probably no one good!  Now help me!”  Cillian tried to swing himself up using all the strength of his ab muscles.
    Tobias grabbed his arms.  Soon they were both crammed upright on the narrow ladder.  Tobias then hurriedly wrapped the wires still attached to him around his waist so that they wouldn’t dangle.
    “Start climbing down.”  Cillian looked at the looming building.  The three that hadn’t jumped after them were standing there, waiting for the ladder to come to them.  “If I tell you to hold tight, do it.”
    “Jesus Christ.”  Tobias started down the ladder.  “This thing is steep.”
    The two men inched their way down the ladder, keeping a hard grip on the metal and stepping carefully.
    “Hold on tight!”  Cillian gripped the ladder to him and Tobias did the same.  The top of the ladder slammed into the side of the building, causing the whole thing to shudder and groan.  The gears continued to try to swing it, but they only succeeded in pressing the ladder tighter against the brick wall.  Cillian had been looking down when they hit.  He watched as the person coming up the ladder was thrown to the side by the impact.  Being lower, the shock wasn’t as bad as where the boys were, but it was still enough to tip him over the side.  The climber grabbed the side of the ladder as he tipped over, desperate to keep holding on, but ultimately, failed and fell.  He must have been badly injured by that fall, but Cillian could see him continue to squirm and then crawl under a car.  Cillian made note of which car.  At least it was one less thing to worry about on the ladder.
    “Shit!”  Tobias was looking up past Cillian.  He then started to scramble down the ladder at a much more dangerous pace.
    Cillian looked up and thought the same thing as Tobias’s expletive.  The three on the roof were climbing onto the ladder after them.  Cillian sped up his own pace.  He knew these ladders better than Tobias and easily caught up.  He was annoyed when he had to slow down to match him.  He glanced back up at their pursuers.
    The first one on the ladder tried absurdly to walk down it.  He immediately fell off to one side.  Cillian decided not to watch that one fall.  The second one was smarter and started climbing down.  The third actually frightened Cillian.  It crawled onto the ladder, head first.  Scurrying quickly over the back of the other climber like a spider, it came after them.  It was coming so fast.
    “Hurry up!” Cillian yelled down at Tobias.  “Slide, damn it!”
    “What?”  Tobias looked up.  He saw the creeper crawling after them.  “Oh hell.”
    “Like this.”  Cillian positioned himself in a way that would allow him to slide down the ladder.  “Less pressure equals a faster slide.”
    Tobias copied him.  He didn’t use very much pressure and slid down far too fast, but, thankfully, they weren’t that far from the bottom.  Still, he hit the platform with the controls hard and fell to one side, almost spilling right off the