Zom-B Mission by Darren Shan Page A

after the zombies attacked. They took on the undead with knives, heavy office equipment and crudely fashioned spears, fighting them for the right to call this place home.
    Once they’ve shown us around, they leave us in the atrium and go to celebrate their final night here and ready themselves for the journey. I gather that a few of them would rather stay, but they votedand the majority were in favour of heading for pastures less confining.
    Ashtat, Carl, Shane and Jakob join Rage and the other Angels. Vinyl and I slip away by ourselves and wind up in the canteen.
    ‘It’s been a long time,’ Vinyl notes softly, taking a chair and opening a bottle of orange juice.
    ‘Looks like it’s been longer for you than me,’ I grunt. I haven’t aged since my heart wasripped from my chest, but Vinyl looks about five years older. Life has taken its toll on him.
    ‘You look pretty much the way I remember you,’ Vinyl says. ‘Except for the obvious differences.’
    ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ I say sweetly, smoothing back the wisps of moss which surround the hole where my heart used to be.
    ‘That’s got to hurt, hasn’t it?’ he asks.
    ‘Notas much as you’d think. We don’t feel pain the same way that we did when we were alive. It stings all the time, but I’m not in agony.’
    Vinyl stares at me sadly.
    ‘Stuff your sympathy where the sun don’t shine,’ I snap. ‘I don’t need it and I sure as hell don’t want it.’
    ‘Death hasn’t mellowed you,’ Vinyl laughs.
    ‘Damn straight,’ I huff. ‘I’m grumpier than ever, and I have fangsnow, so don’t get on the wrong side of me.’
    Vinyl shakes his head happily. ‘I’ve missed you, B.’
    ‘I’ve missed you too,’ I mutter, then lean forward, but not too close, wary as I always am around the living, not wanting to accidentally infect him. ‘Any idea what happened to my mum and dad?’
    Vinyl sighs. ‘No. I haven’t seen them. Sorry.’
    ‘Did your parents get out?’
    ‘No,’ hewhispers and his jaw trembles slightly.
    ‘What about the old gang, Stagger Lee, Trev, Meths. Any of them make it?’
    ‘None that I know of.’ He shrugs. ‘But there are lots of compounds. People got scattered all over the place. How about you? Do you know anyone who survived?’
    ‘Only Mr Burke. And maybe Mrs Reed, kind of.’
    I tell Vinyl about that last day in school, listing our friendswho perished, at least those I can remember—I think I’ve forgotten one or two names, strange as that seems. I also tell him about the teachers who were killed, the students who got away with my dad, and how Mrs Reed became some sort of brain-eating cross between a zombie and a human.
    ‘You’re pulling my leg,’ he snorts.
    ‘I’m not.’
    He scratches his head. ‘But if she wasn’t a properzombie, what was she then?’
    ‘I don’t know. I haven’t thought about her in ages. I remember clocking it at the time, thinking it was weird, but too much has happened since for me to follow it up. Not that I could, even if I wanted to. I don’t know what happened to her, if she got out, where she might be.’
    ‘Maybe she’s still in our old school. She could be teaching zombies these days. B is for Brains ,’ he says, mimicking her voice.
    ‘Don’t be an arse,’ I grin, but my smile fades as I tell him about Tyler Bayor and how I let my dad turn me into something even lower than a slug.
    Vinyl is grim-faced when I finish. He looks at me harshly. ‘Tyler was solid,’ he says gruffly.
    ‘I know,’ I croak.
    ‘He didn’t deserve that.’
    ‘No.’
    ‘I warned you about what would happen,didn’t I? I said you had to stand up to your dad, that you’d turn out as bad as him if you didn’t.’
    ‘I don’t think you ever put it quite like that,’ I growl.
    ‘I came pretty damn close,’ he says. ‘The only thing that stopped me being that blunt was that I knew how angry you got when anyone said anything bad about your father.’
    ‘Yeah,