Flesh and Blood (Before and After Book 2) by Shanahan Andrew

Author:Shanahan, Andrew [Shanahan, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Andrew Shanahan
Published: 2021-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

12 th April 2021

8 months, 8 days after

Superdry is on me as soon as I slip back into the water. He grabs me around my shoulders and crashes his entire body onto me, knocking me down into the biting cold river. My right hand is screaming as I search my pockets for a weapon. There are strips of cooked chicken in one, ammunition in the other and the gun for the ammo is twenty yards away at the top of the slippery bank. I’m not good at this.

The wrath forces me under the surface. His fingers weave into my hair and bang my head against the rocky river floor. I raise my hands instinctively to protect my face and then there’s a rock in my hand I must have grabbed from the river bed. It’s about the size of my palm with a straight, flat edge. I jam it up over my shoulder and it connects with his face. Even underwater I can hear him rage. I push myself to my knees, break the surface and gasp for air. The world is blurred, but I see shapes surrounding me. The wraths are on me. I swipe the point of the rock at Superdry’s face and clip the bridge of his nose. He staggers back, but five more are just behind him. I throw the rock at one and miss by two metres.

On some instinct I wade out and launch myself into the centre of the river where it’s deeper, and swim hard downstream with the current. I kick frantically and windmill my arms, trying to gain speed and avoid the wraths diving after me. One touches my arm but I shake it off and carry on swimming. The freezing water helps with the pain in my hand and the adrenaline pushes me onwards. Before long, I’m out of my depth and feel myself borne downstream. I daren’t look behind me, so I turn towards the opposite bank and splash my way across the river. The strength of the current continues to push me along, and by the time I reach the other bank I’m already back at the pedestrian bridge we passed earlier. Two steps forward, three steps back. I pump my legs through the soft sediment and collapse into the snow and gasp for breath. My heart is racing and I can see my breath pluming from my lungs. I turn to the river and see a tide of wraths streaming down the opposite bank towards me. There are thousands. For a second, I watch in stunned silence as this mass of former humanity comes for me.

As the wraths hit the central current of the Mersey they get swept away at a gratifying rate. But just 500 metres downstream the river becomes shallow again and I can see drenched wraths stumbling onto their feet. They pick themselves up and complete their crossing to my side on foot. I look upstream and see Brown, a dot up ahead on the far side of the river, still sitting obediently waiting for the next command.

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